PROMOTION!!!!!!!

I got a store!

Okay, not official.. yet. I meet with the big bosses monday to "interview." But, I was pretty much told tonite that I'm getting the Oakville store which is actually right next to my current store. I don't know when I'll start or when it'll be official, but as long as I don't f it up on monday, I am a Store Manager, the head honcho. It took me less than 10 months to go from delivery driver to Store manager. Not too damn bad.

Of course this also means, we'll be moving soon. I'm hoping to get at least a month, so we can find a good place and save a little cash. But, I was already asked tonite what area I lived in and when I'd be moving closer to the store. Right now, it's on the Down low, cuz no one else is supposed to know yet. So, keep it between us.


WOOT!

Pay up anonymous.

Played some Pokers

and made some moneys.

we ended up going to D&B and the casino last nite for my bros 21st. At D&B (for those that dont know it's like a grown up arcade/sports bar type place) we played the horse game where you roll the ball and the horse goes according to what type of hole you make it in. We played it like 15 times. After the first match we were throwing down 5$ a game. I think we all broke even. Then at the casino all of us were riding rollercoasters with our stacks. We were there about 5 hours. At one point I was up to 380$ then down to 75$. I finished with 187$ profit. One of my brother's was up to 4-500 at one point but finished down 40$ and then my youngest, was down a good 200$ only to finish down 20$. We played longer than we should have. The third to last hand I called a raise and a few callers with A4s. Flop came 444. My brother led into the pot, I called and pfr came over for what I thought was the rest of my stack. I had trouble concentrating the last hour or so. My brother folded, I proceeded to push my stack in. About a minute went by and I thought the guy had called or that my stack was enough for his initial raise. Unfortunately, I was wrong and showed over my quads. The guy hadn't called and folded saving himself and costing me 40$ more in profit. I felt like a tool, but whatever my youngest brother got it all the next hand, so at least it stayed in the family.

A few things I did well:

I won a lot of small pots, that allowed me to limp a little more than I should have been.

I stayed patient when I was card dead.

I layed down 1 hand when I knew I was beat.

A few things I f-ed up:

I should've folded another hand where I knew I was beat, instead I called an 80$ river bet. Was bad call. I was only ahead of 25% of his range.

I bluffed my brother, knowing he was probably going to call. But, that was more for fun and a "who cares" type thing.

I should've quit when lost concentration, but face it, we were there for fun and I decided before hand, that I wasn't there to "work." The lack of concentration I figure cost me a good 70$. So, take that 70$ plus, 45$ bluff, plus the 80$ bad call, that's another 195$ in profit that should've been mine.

All in all it was fun. I didn't get to sleep til 4, woke up at 930 this morning and now have to go to work. Ug.

Gonna be Busy this week

Assuming he's there all week, my Store manager is back in the hospital. So, that means a likely 50 hour work week for myself. I'm off today, but it's the only day I'll have off. I'm not looking forward to it, but the check will be nice. Also, it might provide an opportunity for me to look good to the bosses and increase the likelihood of getting that store. I don't want to capitalize on someone else's misery but, I know the bosses are pretty tired of Ken going into the hospital. Maybe it's this job that's causing it for him. I believe it's caused from Ken's drinking anyways, so, again not that he deserves it, but he has caused it, if indeed it is. Hopefully, he's back at least mid week, so I don't have to work so much. We shall see. Last time he was only there for a few days.

I was told last week that I almost got a store in Cahokia Illinois. The manager there is actually a really good manager. They wanted to move him to another store in Illinois, where the manager was dealing drugs and stealing money. But, Steve the Cahokia manager declined it, because he didn't want to have to drive that far. I hope they don't stick me with it. I really dont want to work in Illinois. I didn't want the cahokia store either, but that's at least close enough to St. Louis. The hope is that I can have a store close enough that we can still live with my dad for the first few months and save up a few dollars. We'll be making so much more money then we pay in bills, it'll be a great opportunity to do so. The cahokia store is actually a pretty good store too. It would've been good and bad. Good because it means less work for me right away, as far as getting my staff up to par and the store quality. Bad because it would mean I would have to work harder to reach my sales numbers and everything. I haven't heard anything else yet. Also, I haven't heard from Keith about my paper, so I'm guessing he isn't going to read it. Oh well.

Today's my youngest brother's 21st birthday. We're not sure whether we are going to the casino or to Dave and Buster's yet, but we are doing something. I'm hoping Casino, I haven't done that in a while. I went to the gym 5 times last week. I'm gonna hit it today and see what my weight is. Hopefully, I'm still on track for 2 pounds a week. So far it's 2 weeks 6 pounds lost.

Weird

It's probably not weird, it's probably natural. But I swear the more I go to the gym the worst I eat. Yesterday, I ate so many calories. More than I've had in a while, I think. Okay, that's not true, I guess. A few weeks ago when I was with my brothers I ate a lot. Anyways, I've been to the gym every day this week. I haven't weighed myself yet. But, my appetite is huge this week. My body is against me. It's not so bad when we have good food in the house, cuz then I'm only eating 100-200 calories at a time. But when all we have is junk that my brother bought it becomes a lot more. I gotta be smarter about grocery shopping. Not so much with selection cuz, we've been great at that lately. But, just making sure I have all bases covered for when I have a craving. I found a really good deal on some chocolate granola Fiber One bars at Target the other day. They're basically 2 for a 1$ and they are only 140 calories a piece. They were quite good and they would fill a craving.

Eating too bad right now doesn't hurt me too much, cuz it's still better than my body wants me to eat. But, soon it will hurt me I think, in my weight loss. Having good metabolism alone is good enough right now for me losing weight. I'm anxious to see what my weight loss is this week. I've worked hard. I can't be discouraged though if it's not as much as I want it to be. I'm okay with whatever it is. I feel good lately and going to the gym is really becoming just a regular thing. John and leo were right about it becoming a habit for me and me wanting to go every day. Sometimes I look at other people and just wonder if I'll ever look like them and how great it would be. I used to think i would always be huge but, now I can see that I determine what size I will be. It sounds silly, but watching the biggest loser is a lot of inspiration as well. I've seen seasons where guys have lost almost 200 pounds. It'll take longer for me, but it is possible. What a great day it will be when I'm trying to figure out what to do with all my extra skin, instead of all my extra fat. I look forward to it.

Back to the gym

I went to the gym today. It had been 4 days since, and I was feeling the itch. I only lasted about an hour on today, I guess from the layoff and the fact that I was tired. But, I'm glad I went. I was also happy to find out that I still lost weight this weekend. 2 more pounds. So, that makes 4 last week and 6 since joining the gym. My metabolism has finally kicked in I guess. I weighed myself at the beginning of my session, expecting to see my weight back up. So it was a pleasant surprise and just gave me further enthusiasm to keep going. I'm off Tomorrow and thursday this week, I expect myself to make those big gym days. I could lose 8 pounds this week I think.

We shall see. Like poker, I just need to keep making great choices and know that in the end it all works out.

Pop Quiz Hotshot

You're on your way to workout and you get a call from your sister in law inviting you to the best fried chicken joint in town for your brother in laws birthday. What do you do?

I'm so weak.

:(

Got some interviewing Experience Yesterday

Yesterday, I was asked to come in early and help with interviewing potential candidates. After two of them I took over. The first one I did was a little rocky. The book they give you to guide you through the interview is a real piece... The questions were just terrible. I tried to use it and ended up feeling like a fool. Also, it didn't help that the girl I was interviewing wasn't very engaging and seemed pretentious. She clearly didn't want the job after being told the responsibilities and wage. I felt like I saw disgust on her face when we mentioned a few things. The second interview I did, the guy was great. He came in very prepared and began to tell me stories about customer service experience he has in his other job without me even asking. I didn't need the book for this guy. We meshed. The interview just flowed and I learned a lot about him and his work ethic. I threw everything on the table as far as duties, even the worst ones and what his starting wage would be-which is minimum wage. He had no problem with any of it and in fact let me know that he was in it for the long haul, because it was just extra money to him and he was perfectly fine with making min wage. The guy kind of looked like Ted Forrest, the poker player.

So, we'll be hiring this guy and the first girl that was interviewed on the day, whom I didn't actually get to meet. She has previous experience with Domino's and is actually going to be my replacement at the store. They are actually being smart in finding my replacement already. That bodes well for me. I think it'll help me get my store quicker. It's kind of weird how some things are working out. They had no one else to become an MIT (manager in Training) but this girl showed up this week wanting that exactly, and she was a good candidate for it. One of the things I'm worried most about is not having the money to move right away. The plan was always to move wherever my store is. But, obviously, our credit sucks and we'll need a down payment, maybe even a bigger down payment than most to move. Fortunately, with our bills I can drop a whole check onto doing it. But, a whole check might not be enough. If it's two months from now, we'll be okay, I think. But, if it's 2 weeks... I dont know. We'll have to do some digging for an apartment that will take us. We'll have to get kind of lucky and might have to settle for a not so desirable one. It would actually be better monetarily to take a store that is closer to my house. But, from a safety standpoint and from the standpoint of not being stuck with it longterm it would suck ass. Saving the money isn't worth it.

I still haven't heard back from Keith about my project I sent him. I have an MIT meeting tomorrow, so I'll check in with him there. I'll make sure I have his right email address too. There is absolutely no talk of me getting mehlville by any of my bosses right now, so I'm beginning to think it's not possible at all. Unless Keith is keeping it a secret, in which case he's keeping it from me as well.

I guess I gave a good impression to my boss yesterday with my interviewing. She asked me to make up a new interview book that they can use for the store. The other day I just took it upon myself to make a few pages of responsibilities for job titles and I guess she decided that it would suit me to do that. So, I began working on that last nite.

I gotta go, need to hit the gym. I haven't been able to since thursday.

My meeting with a Personal Trainer

Today I had my free hour from the gym to meet with a personal trainer. I had to be there at 8 am (UGH!). It went well. He showed me some ways to kind of kick start the session on the treadmill and then showed me a few pieces of equipment and how to properly use them. The part I really struggled with was when he took me over to the personal training area. They have this program called Dynamic Fitness Management. Basically, its a series of squats, push ups, jumping jacks, all packed within a 5-10 minute span. I almost threw up. The guy was cool and seemed to know what he was talking about. I was a little disappointed that they didn't go into more detail, especially about nutrition or a detailed workout plan built for me. But, it's only an hour and obviously they want to leave you hanging a little bit so that they can bring you on board as a paying customer for their personal training. I was afraid it was just gonna be an hour long pitch on buying personal training sessions, but the guy didn't push too hard with that, so I was happy.

Anyways, it kicked my ass. Also, I found out (because he wrote down all my measurements and weight) that I've lost another 2 pounds. I didn't want to weigh myself yet... I'm trying to only do it once a week, but since Sunday I've lost another 2 pounds. I'm at 366. That makes 50 pounds lost since Jan 08, just 13 months. Pretty damn good.

I hit the gym hard yesterday. I was off, so me and my brother went for 3 hours. I did 3 different sessions on the elliptical machine. I did 40 mins, 30 mins, and another 40 mins. I also did a little weight training between. On the elliptical I went 9 miles, and burned over 1700 calories, total. I'm really focusing on visualization to push me through the tougher stretches and to keep me going. I just keep thinking about when I'm under 200 pounds. It's a long ways, but I'll get there.

"Be Ready"

Yesterday was an exciting day. First my wife and I got a call from the Disability lawyer. We hired them over a year ago now, and filed for disability 16 months ago. Well, they finally called and said that our case is ready to be given a court date. We've had a judge assigned for about 6-8 months, but this is the first we've heard that they are ready to move forward with it. I called the lawyers last week and they made it sound like it could still be another year, so to hear we have a court date is good. unless of course the date turns out to be a year from now. But, at least we've heard something.

Also, yesterday, I had to go into work early, because Ken had a meeting. Well, after his meeting he called me at the store.

"Jason, when you get your promotion, is there any area that you don't want to be in?"

I told him I didn't want to be in the area I currently live in. I've been living here for 6 years and I'm trying to get out.

"Ok. well today's meeting with Keith was about you. He asked me where we were at and what I thought about you. I told him how quickly you're progressing and that there are a few kinks to work out, but that you are great and doing excellent picking up everything."

Ok, cool.

"Keith said he's gonna take you away from me and give you the next store that becomes available. So, be ready, it could happen any day now."

sweet. thanx

Ah to be a fly on the wall in that meeting. I had a mix of nervousness and excitement. I don't like the idea of having to go somewhere new and learn a new store and staff, but I think I can handle it. I intend on finishing my project today about if I were to run my current store. I figure if there's still a chance that they'll just give me that store, then I should get that to Keith to hopefully persuade him more. I think if he sees that I have a plan set for a particular store they may be more inclined to let me do it. Even if I have to start from scratch though, I'm excited and ready. All this planning and thinking throughout the last few months is really going to help me. I feel prepared.

Of course, this means I'll probably be moving soon. I planned on moving to whatever area my store was located, so that there are no traveling issues. I've already had one of the the best workers at Mehlville tell me that if I need him to work at my store, he's there for me. I told him I might just steal him from the store if he's interested, when it happens. He's a good worker and he's been a store manager of Taco Bell and Ryans steakhouse, so he has experience in management as well as being put into a store to turn it around. He's only a driver right now, because he doesn't want the added responsibility, but I assume eventually he'll want to move up and I've already offered a position to him as my Senior Asst Manager when and if he desires.

These are exciting times for me and my wife.

Another idea

The other day I was thinking about doorhanging with work. Door hanging is where we go and put coupons/menus on doors in our residential area to promote dominos. Well, it's pretty important stuff and 1 of the major ways Domino's markets. So, I was thinking, well it would be easier if we could just throw them in driveways like newspaper delivery drivers do. There are 2 issues, 1 is it legal? I don't know. I'm not sure if you are supposed to have a special license to do it, or the resident has to be a subscriber of some sort. There are papers around here like the suburban journal, which doesn't require a subscription yet everyone who lives in each area gets them delivered to them each month. Also, if we can hang things on doors, why can't we throw them in driveways? SO, i need to find the answer to that question.

The second problem is that 1 or 2 coupons isn't going to weigh enough to throw, even in a newspaper plastic bag (trust me, I know this from lots of experience). So, I was trying to think of ways to make the bag weigh more. Then today, I got a great Idea! I even instantly came up with a name for it. The Mehlville Savings Club. (mehlville is the area the store is in) Basically I could get half a dozen to a dozen businesses coupons and menus, put them all in the bag and then we'd have enough weight. I figure I can charge each business 15-20 bucks per week for about 700-1000 deliveries for my time, since I'd be delivering them. Hitting that many houses would only take me about 3 hours. So, if I got 8 interested businesses (8 X 15 = 120) I would make an extra 120$ a week. I would also save Domino's money because instead of them paying 4-5 workers for several hours of work each, it would be just me doing it for 3 hours. Let's say employees were able to get out 50 Doorhangings an hour, then 700 door hangings would take 14 man hours. 14 X 6.75 = $94.50. Not to mention no one likes doorhanging anyways, so getting people to agree to do it is like pulling teeth. If I'm store manager I wouldn't actually get paid for my time from Domino's since, I'm salary and even if I did it now, I'd only make 27$. So, I'm saving the store 70$ - 95$ a week as well as getting out a lot of marketing material. I'd also be making myself an extra good chunk of change a week if it's able to be done.

Of course another way I could do it is just start the business and bring along domino's if they are interested as a customer. If things really work out with it, I could start a website that people could visit to get even more coupons or to subscribe/unsubscribe. I would definitely have to make sure that I don't get coupons from competitors. That could even be a driving force behind negotiations. Say there are two chinese food places that want to do it. Well, I could offer it to the higher bidder. It makes sense not to put in places that would prevent business to other places. Like people who want to eat at a china buffet aren't really the people that we are looking for anyways... so I don't think it would hurt us to have that in there. Everyone has there own place in it. If I had to though I could just go with other types of businesses anyways. Say a Income tax place, a payday loan place, Domino's, and Kmart.. There are a ton of businesses around that area anyways.

Of course, if it's not legal or the license to do it is very hard to get then this is all moot. But, hey I think it's a great idea and it combines past experience I have with my new job.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy. My brother got his income tax return and was in the market for a new used car. He's been researching for weeks and obsessing every minute of it. Yet, come the day we were out to get it done, he was very ill prepared. We ended up going to a few places and found a really promising one. After all the paperwork was done however, they decided that he didn't make enough money for the monthly payments and would need a co signer. So, today his roommate is heading there with him and he's hoping to get a car today. It was rather disappointing but it was fun spending the day with my brothers. It's pretty safe to say that my diet went out the window for the day. We had this place with the best fried chicken in town called Hodak's for lunch and then one of the best china buffet's in town for dinner. We finished the night trying to play trivial pursuit but ended up having a better time laughing about how hard even the easy questions were. In the end nothing was done, but twas a good time.

Last week I did real well in counting calories and working out. Every day but saturday I had 2000 calories or less and I worked out 4 times last week. Each time was about an hour or more and I burned an average of 700 calories per trip. I weighed myself after my session yesterday (I still have trouble believing the number it gives me) and I had lost 2 pounds last week. So, now I'm at 368. With the new membership they give u an hour for free with a personal trainer, so I scheduled mine for this thursday. I hope to get out of it a plan that I can have everytime I walk into the gym. I still spend a few minutes each time trying to find out what does what and what I should work on. I mainly focus on the eliptical machine for calorie burning and raising my heart rate. I do a little toning with the benchpress, squat machine, and various other regional working machines. I tried the stationary bike the other day and my pelvis was hurting from it, so I don't think I'm ready to be sitting in that position. I've also began to do some crunches. I have issues with crunches sometimes, because I get severe cramps in my stomach like a charlie horse when I do too many. It really hurts.

I haven't been too sore which is nice. I think mainly for me it's just a matter of sticking to it, exercise and diet. My mindset is changing though, I find myself telling, well, myself that I shouldn't drink that or eat that. Especially if I know it isn't going to taste great anyways, I'm just like, what's the point of eating that. I'm doing pretty well mentally. Seeing that 22 pound weight loss has really inspired me. I just feel so good that I'm so far away from 400 pounds now. Before when I had lost weight but was still hovering around there, it didn't really feel that great, but now that I'm over 30 pounds away from it, it's just so uplifting for me. I keep thinking about if I were to get small (compared to what I'm used to) and how things would be for me. I know on shows like the biggest loser they talk about visualizing yourself at the end of your weight loss and it drives me to do better and harder during my workout. The day I'm able to walk into a store and buy normal clothes will be very emotional for me I think. 1 step at a time, baby.. 1 calorie at a time... 1 workout at a time.

Another Pat on the back

This time from the President of Operations, Keith. Yesterday he came in during my shift and I had just finished cleaning up the mess I made from a 24 pizza order. We were pretty busy and of course, when he asked about how things were today I was sure to self-promote. Most people when Keith comes in get worried cuz the store isn't in order or things aren't being done right. I knew everything was good, so I was completely comfortable. Anyways, after he was there for a few minutes he says,

"So, when are you gonna be ready to run your own store?"

I was like whoa!

"Well, as far as I know I'm ready now. I've finished all the training, I've learned the paper work. I'm sure there are a few more things that I need to learn as well as some nuances. But, I think I'm ready."

"Good, I'm gonna steal you from Ken and he's gonna be sad."

Then it popped in my head to let him know about the project I'm working on. I wanted to mention to him that I would like the opportunity to run my current store, but in sort of a subtle way. I told him I was writing a paper on the changes I would make to the store if I were in charge and promoted myself a little more by letting him know that I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve the store and myself. He told me that was great and to be sure and email that to him when I'm done. He seemed pretty pleased with me and the store that day, so hopefully another good impression that further etches me into their minds when a new store Manager is needed.

I told my former store manager, Syndi, about it and she later admitted that they are quite impressed with me. She said Gary (the head honcho) was super impressed after the meeting a few weeks ago and they are excited about what I'm doing.

I had never heard anything like that from those two... so that means word has spread all the way to the top about me. Good things are coming soon.

1 Mental hurdle down

I actually opened at work today. I usually close. But, with my new membership and my new gym only minutes from my work I made sure to take some workout clothes with me to work so that i could go immediately after work. Unfortunately, though I got off work an hour and a half later than I thought I would. I kept battling myself to find reasons not to go the gym. Plus, add to it that my foot is killing me. I bought some new shoes because I have already destroyed the cushioning in my last pair, so I'm hoping it's just because they are new. Anyways the side of one of my feet is just so sensitive and sore. But, with all those excuses I kept telling myself to just go and get in some kind of workout. I did. And I'm proud of myself for doing it. I worked out for about 30 minutes, burned (according to the eliptical machine) 200 calories. Which I know might not be 100% accurate, but thats okay. The point is I had a million excuses not to go, but I still went. I consider that a small battle won. Eventually I wont be making those excuses and it'll just become nature for me to go the gym.

If I can walk after work tomorrow, I'm gonna go again.

"Is this thing accurate?"

So, today my brother and I decided to check out Club Fitness. It's a pretty great deal, it's 15$ a month for unlimited access, free classes, and there are a lot of close locations to both my house and work. We took a tour, liked the place and signed up. As we were about to leave I asked the guy if I could weigh myself. I hadn't seen my weight since September and I was curious.

I figured with the holidays (not to mention yesterday's superbowl I hadn't lost any weight I was just hoping that I didn't gain any.

SO, I get on the scale, it's stops and I look down in amazement. I ask the trainer,

"Is this thing accurate?"

"Should be"

my brother gets on and it gives him his correct weight.

In September I weighed in at 392.

Today I weighed in at (drum roll please) 370.

THat means that since september I've lost 22 pounds and that also means I've lost 46 pounds in a year.

How awesome is that? I had a smile of joy the entire way home and every time i think about it, I smile some more. Maybe I can do this after all, eh?

Great Game

I was highly disappointed with the result and like most, I'm wondering what happened with the Review? But, ultimately the better more disciplined team won and the Cardinals showed why they are a franchise who has been in the cellar for a long time. They had the game in hand and found a way to F it up. Bad teams do that. The Magic of Kurt Warner just wasnt enough.

Still, it was a great game which is really all I wanted. We ate lots of barbecue, my brother and I wrestled (I made him tap out) at half time, and we got to watch an exciting football game. Just another great day in life. Baseball season is 2 months away and I'm looking forward to that, even though the Cardinals are gonna do the same thing they did last year. suck balls, but in a way that makes you think they could be good and pull off a good season.

Football is forever away again. The draft is a while a way. That makes me sad. It's a good thing though. I think divorce rates would be even worse if football was year round. Women just dont understand.