Author: Keiran

The rumor's true, I got the news, they're closing up the doors

It’s finally happening. We are officially closing up shop. It was announced today at 4:45pm that the company has been purchased by Gordon Brothers, who will liquidate the corporation.

I have no idea how much longer I will have a job — I assume I will find all that out on Monday morning. (My guess, I could be out of work as soon as Monday, or as long as 2 months from now.) The company & stores will stay open through the holiday season, but there is the possibility of immediate layoffs, since some departments won’t be needed any longer (for example, I would assume that we would not need buyers any longer, since we won’t be buying new products).

I’ve been with Comp for over 9 years now. I’m hoping the severance package is halfway decent… if we even get severance packages at all. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do once I’m officially out of work. Thanks to recurring tendonitis in my arm, I cannot type as fast as I used to be able to, so I can’t really get another data-entry based job. I have no clue what I want to do, since I can’t do that. And since I don’t know what I want to do — that makes it a little difficult to start looking for a new job. haha. 😉

I do have a wonderful friend who is going to help me update my resume, once I find it. I can’t say I’m sure I know where it is — after all, I haven’t needed a resume in 9+ years. haha. I am more than likely going to go on unemployment for a little bit while I look for work. I’m also going to look into Vocational Rehabiliation to see if I qualify for that. If I do, they can hopefully retrain me/find me new areas of work I’d be qualified for, since I can no longer 10-key. That would at least help me figure out what lines of work to look into.

I’m in a fairly mellow mood at the moment. Since I got confirmation that the rumors were true, I’ve gone through a few cycles of emotions — surprise, relief, disappointment, shock, depression, etc. Even though I’ve known for quite a while now that this was on the horizon — it still stings now that it’s actually going to happen.

Ugh. I am SO not looking forward to the whole process of applying and interviewing and crap.

I never seem to do it like anybody else

Today I feel this strange need to finish my “about me” section of the blog (well, attempt to finish) and create lists of everywhere else I can be found, (in case anyone wants to stalk me?) as well as about a zillion other wild and random ideas. The likelihood that any of that will get accomplished? Nil. Zilch. Nada. None.

The open MRI last week went well. The room I was in was all decorated like it was under the sea. Hah. At least it gave me something fun to stare at while I was immobile for about an hour & half. I get the results from the MRI today. I have a hunch the results are going to be good. I’m actually mostly able to walk today, no more constant intense searing pain. I know I messed it up pretty good though, and that’s one reason it’s taken so long to heal.

The heart ultrasound on Friday also went okay. I do have one valve that is a little “leaky”, but it’s minor and the doc wasn’t worried about it. Other than that, my heart looks healthy and structurely sound. But, when they did another EKG, I had 4 extra beats in the six seconds they monitor. So, obviously too many beats there, and that was with me on more meds than before. He wants me to up them again, and go back next week for another check on the EKG. I’m also working on cutting caffeine out again. I had my last soda on Saturday, and none since. I know I can do it, since I’ve done it several times in the past; it’s just difficult to actually stay away from caffeinated sodas. I think I went for a year or two once, we’ll see how long I last this time around.

I had a lot more I wanted to ramble about, but now that I have a few minutes, my mind is blank. Figures.

No fire brigade, just pyromania

Okay, first and foremost — it was a great big no go on the MRI. When I had an MRI on my knees 2 years ago, the tech only put me in the machine up to my chest. It was no big deal at all, I could handle that. The guy today? Wanted to put me practically all the way into the MRI machine. Um. No. Not just no, but HELL NO! I really truly do not see the need to put me into the MRI machine up to my nose, just to get scans of my knees. I’m not claustrophobic per se, but when you put me into a teeny tiny tube? Yeah. Not going to happen. I had a hard enough time getting through the one they had to do on my brain last year, and there’s no way I could do that again.

If it was going to be maybe a 5 minute test, I might’ve been able to stick it out. But I was going to be in there for about 40 minutes per knee. Almost 2 hours. Oh god no, there’s no way. I started to have a panic attack when the guy put me all the way into the machine. I’m still having little mini-attacks now, heart going insane, but I’m slowly calming down. So, the front clerk gave me the phone number for the Plano facility, since they have an open MRI machine. I have to call them tomorrow and get an appointment scheduled there to get the MRI done. Thank god for open MRI’s! hah.

But. Yes. Now to finish the Halloween Hell Adventure. After I left on Wednesday, Deb & Barney & IT moved our PCs down to the first floor, as well as all my cash office equipment. We’ve been down there since, and likely will be until the end of this week, or beginning of next week. They’ve got our part of the 4th floor mostly dry, but it still REEKS up there. My work phone was ruined, but they got me a brand new one. Yay! Outside in the hall, directly under the flow of water, was a metal rack holding a couple of printers as well as a fax machine, tons of paperwork, etc. All of that was completely ruined.

Now, for the theories. The Fire Marshal claims that the sprinkler was set off by someone standing directly beneath it, and holding a lighter right up against the cover. Ummm. Sorry, but no way in hell. The big boss in my dept is over 6’3″ tall. He cannot reach the sprinkler without standing on something. Even the (rather tall) fireman who plugged up the sprinkler so I could escape had to have a chair to stand on to reach it. Now, if some one managed to stand on a chair directly in front of the open door of my office and hold a lighter to the sprinkler without me seeing it, wouldn’t they have also ended up pretty damn wet when the sprinkler finally activated? And yet, I was the only person who got doused. And if the Fire Marshal wants to imply that it was me who did it? HA! I invite their investigators to come meet me. I’m only a mere 5’3″ and overweight with bad arthritis in my knees. Not only that, but on Halloween I had that holter monitor which could not get wet, and I could barely walk (much less climb on anything) due to worse-than-normal problem with my knees.

The more plausible situation was provided by the building maintenance guy. He mentioned that apparently there have been people in the building for about 2 weeks leading up to (and including) Halloween who have been working on the sprinkler system on the upper floors. He wasn’t sure what they’ve been doing, he just knows they’ve been doing work. So, it’s a little too coincidental that there have been people working on the sprinkler system for a couple of weeks, right before it breaks. I have a hunch we might not find out what really happened, but I’m more inclined to believe our own building guy, than the Fire Marshal. Especially since I know there was no one standing outside my office with a lighter. Hah.