Well, I'm finally getting the raise I was promised when I was offered the job. Probably not as much as I'd been told, but still, enough to matter. Unfortunately, the only way they'd do it is by making me a Pacer, meaning my sales quota will be higher. Theoretically this ought not be a problem, based on my sales thus far.

What bothers me is that there were no strings attached to the raise when I was promised it in July. The money I was offered wasn't near enough, but the HR person told me they were trying to get me X number of dollars, but if they couldn't, I'd get $Y, but with a guaranteed 15% raise after 90 days. We worked it out and $Y + 15% = $X. Fine, I said. I can live with Y for three months.

Amazing how, once the 90 days were up, that conversation turned into an apparent figment of my imagination!

According to the HR person, she never said anything about 90 days, or a 15% raise, or anything except after a while I could talk to my manager about becoming a Pacer.

What do you do?

This is dumb. I'd never have taken the job under the terms she is now claiming were offered.

There is no chance I dreamt that conversation . . . I asked my husband and he recalls this - the raise after 90 days - is what I told him when I called him (RIGHT AFTER HANGING UP FROM THE HR PERSON, BTW) about having accepted the position.

It's bizarre. There's nothing one can do, however, if the other person in a conversation insists she made statements she most assuredly did not make, and denies saying that which she absolutely did say.

Think I'd be used to it by now, though. Mercy knows customers do it all the time!

I really don't care what Foley's does, I just wish they'd make up their minds.

Sales with coupons.

Sales without coupons.

15% discount.

20% discount.

10% discount (in the home area, which is where I work).

Extra discounts if one uses one's Foley's card.

This was a new wrinkle . . . today and tomorrow are Customer Appreciation Days, with customers getting 15% off when they use their Foley's card and 10% if they use another form of payment.

Except . . . !

It's only 10% in the home area, no matter HOW a customer pays for their purchase.

[sigh] At least today and tomorrow I needn't bother with those pernicious coupons. Everyone gets the same additional discount.

But Friday starts Red Apple, and I've heard rumors that the coupon then will be 15%, including the home area!

My head aches.

May I make a suggestion?

Write down the info from your insurance card somewhere, so if you should somehow lose it, you aren't as stuck as I was at my doctor's office this morning.

What was particularly bad was that I hadn't used that card yet, as it's new insurance for me. So there I was, frantically searching for the dumb thing, used just once a week or so ago at Tom Thumb, when getting my prescriptions filled. Tried to call Foley's HR office . . . got an answering machine. Called Tom Thumb and was given their help desk, who cheerfully provided the appropriate phone number.

What a pity it either didn't pick up, or did, only to chirp "Goodbye!" when I was put on hold, and hang up on me.

Finally . . .FINALLY it worked! Actually got to talk to a Real Live Person, who spoke to the doctor's office personnel and got me all squared away.

Then I had to go to work.

All's well that ends well, I suppose. ;->

Have your gustatorial tastes changed? Evolved? Morphed?

It's amazing how many more things I enjoy now than I used to.

The newest on the list: bleu cheese.

Used to hate, hate, hate, and loathe, loathe, loathe it, but now I find I love, love love it.

Still waiting to be able to stomach shrimp, however.

If that change ever comes, it'll probably be followed by the closing statement, "And then she died."

Ah! A day off!

Gotta love it. ;->

Went to church and enjoyed the annual Christmas cantata, then just kicked around doing nothing particular this afternoon.

Am needing to gear myself up to go to the grocery store. Man, I hate doing that. The older I get the more of a homebody I become. If I leave the house, it'd better be to go out to dinner or on a trip or something. Going to work or the grocery store or the drycleaners is just a nuisance, to be doggedly ignored for as along as possible.

Charles pointed out that it's now two and a half weeks till Christmas.

Eek! Mayhap I'd best start shopping. :-(

Boy, what a dead day on the net.

Came home to find precious few posts at the various sites which enjoy my patronage. ;->

Is everyone out Christmas shopping, then?

[making face] What a day at the store! There were a couple of bright spots, but there was also the Rude Woman who got all bent out of shape because I wanted to pull up a bridal registry for someone else (the registry kiosk was on the fritz) when I Was Supposed To Be Paying Attention ONLY To Her.

[exasperated] For Pete's sake, we were sitting at the bridal desk, and she was wanting me to get out the calculator and calculate how much it'd be for so many place settings of china, at the coupon price, plus adding on the delivery fee and tax, plus some calculations for stemware, to boot. This was going to take a while. No way around it. So she can't spare 45 seconds - literally! - for me to pop a bride's name into the computer at which I was sitting in order to print out the corresponding registry?

Began yelling at me and stomped off in a huff, declaring loudly that I'd just cost Foley's a thousand dollar sale. Embarrassed the heck out of the poor woman who had asked for the registry.

I asked Tony later if I'd done something wrong, and bless him, he assured me I hadn't. I wasn't going to get up and start showing the other woman the bride's patterns or anything . . . just act like the kiosk for her.

You know what I think, and what I told the woman who felt bad for causing the Evil Person to storm off? I think she didn't really want to spend several hundred dollars (no, it wasn't going to be a thousand) for a bunch of fancy china, just for a Christmas dinner. She'd already said she was casual in her taste, and she was just doing this because it was her turn to have Christmas dinner.

So my taking a moment to help someone else (okay, 45 seconds . . . picky, picky!) provided the excuse she needed to Forget The Whole Thing.

She didn't Forget The Whole Thing because she doesn't want to spend the bucks; heavens, no . . . she Forgot The Whole Thing because she wasn't going to Put Up With Being Ignored At Foley's.

Sounds much better, doesn't it?