No Promotion...

"When you're down is when you find yourself"
David Gilmour, "Take a Breath", 2006.

As you can tell from the title of this post, I didn't get either promotion. Two people with more experience than I got the stores, and I personally called them to congratulate them. I have a new boss - she is female, and she is African-American. So far, it has been a wonderful working relationship - she expects input from me on so many things, and she even demands input from me. She is definitely one of those people who gives me the green light to make decisions on what is best for the store. I worried about it at first, but so many of my fears evaporated after the first day I worked with her. There was one incident that occured not too long ago that proved to me that she would take my side.

I got chewed out on Valentine's Day from one of the corporate bigwigs because I made, in their eyes, a very serious mistake.

I hired a felon.

I immediately had to terminate his employment. Fifteen years ago, this person did time in jail for burgulary. This person and I spoke about it, and I told him as long as I got no calls from the corporate office, everything was OK. I never got the call. I don't know if my former boss got the call; he never told me. I got the impression from working with this felon that he wanted to put the past behind him. He was slow at stocking shelves, but he was always giving 100%. And he always showed up for work, even on off-nights to see if he was needed.

I was concerned for my job. I seriously thought that I would be fired. My new boss told me that she did the same thing at a previous store she worked at, and she just got chewed out for about 2 minutes, and then it was forgotten. She and I talked quite a bit that day, and she helped to calm my nerves.

Needless to say, I have been working very hard to try to impress my new boss. She will be the one who decides whether I am ready for the next step.

Anyway, I finally got a weekend off! I have done much of nothing - I have gotten a lot of rest the last two days. Good thing - we have inventory on March 21, and then Easter on April 8. On the week after Easter, I will take my first vacation of 2007. Lord knows that I will be ready.

Right now, I am typing this up and listening to David Gilmour's 2006 masterpiece, "On an Island". Excellent CD from start to finish. "A Pocketful of Stones" is one of my most favorite songs, as well as the aforementioned "Take a Breath".

JLo and I have seen two new movies as of late: we saw "Music and Lyrics" on Valentine's Day, and we saw "Because I Said So" earlier today at the afternoon matinee show. "Music and Lyrics" is great, although I still can't picture Hugh Grant as an '80s sensation. "Because I Said So" was hilarious - I am such a huge fan of Diane Keaton. I swear, she just gets better with each passing year. The Tenacious D movie "The Pick of Destiny" comes out Tuesday. I can't wait.

As far as the Kroger situation, I will put my name in the hat for future store openings, no matter where they may be...