Thanks for the invite!

Two days ago, I got the following email in my mailbox.

Dear Andrea,

The department of Art and Design would like to offer you a space in our program. Please find attached, a letter of acceptance to the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. I will forward this to the Faculty of Arts and the Registrar's Office to request admittance on your behalf.

Please send me an email immediately to indicate whether or not you would like to accept our invitation.

Thank-you.

Now I was confused, since I don't remember applying for the Fine Arts program at the U of A. Also, my name wasn't Andrea and I wasn't from Calgary.

I sent a letter back to the registrar, saying that it went to the wrong place, and that she should try again. I figured out Andrea's last name was Kowalchuk, and if her email address happened to be something like akow@telus.net, then one letter accidentally dropped off would go directly into the Kow mailbox. Which leads to my computer.

As it was, the email address was similar, but only if you leave off the full first name of her father. So, there you go.

Now you people can stop congratulating me.

* * *

At our last Kow meeting, we had the Wombats join us, since they've also got an outdoor stage this Fringe. We're trying to figure out ways to cross promote each other and occasionally join each other's shows.

Obviously, for Kow to be useful during an improv show, we can sing background music for a particular sketch, or make noises, or so forth. But how do we get them in our show? Dev and I were trying to mull it over. We decided maybe we can let them do one of our many rants (such as mine in Spider-Man, Canton's in Sukiyaki, Astro's in Faith, etc.). It'd be an easy thing for us to vamp while they promote their show or something.

At the end of the meeting, I asked Paul how many shows they had. "Sixteen," Paul said.

"Yeah, we would have had sixteen too, but we can't make three of them. So I guess we'll drop them."

"Whoa!" Paul said. "Don't drop a show! Why would you do that?"

I explained that Astro and Barber will still be doing their day jobs during Fringe, so it'll be impossible for them to make the very early afternoon shows, like 12:45 pm and 2:00 pm. And it would be super-hard for Canton, Dev and I to trio these slots.

But what we decided to do is to share the slots with the Wombats. Canton, Dev and I are all pretty decent improvisers, and it could be a pretty fun show with Paul and Randy. Hell, with five of us, we can even make it a special Pavlov Improv Fringe show. Now that would be cool.

* * *

On Wednesday evening, Roland and I were closing the store. At about 8:30, this man comes in, wanting to upgrade his cell phone. I'm handling him, but I need to see what can be done, since he's off a monthly plan, and I'd need to switch him to a whole new plan. While I was calling Rogers, he went for something to eat.

"Man," I told Roland. "Looks like I'm not getting out of here until 10 pm at least!"

"Why?" he asked me.

The clock was currently 8:50. It would be hard for me to renew his plan, do the upgrade, and help this guy out before I could properly leave.

As it was, his old plan was something like 1600 minutes monthly, free long distance anywhere in North America, and included "By the Second Billing," something Rogers hasn't offered in three years.

So I had to change his plan, which would kill the second billing, and the price has gone up by $30 a month.

This guy was pretty pushy, too. But all I could think was "It's a sale, he'll be out of here. It's a sale, he'll be out of here." So I kept my cool.

At about 9:30, he told me he was impressed with my handling of him, and asked me if I wanted a job at his company, which would pay me more than what I'm making here. As I always do when I'm headhunted, I thanked him, but said I'm doing fine where I am.

Besides, if the guy frustrated me for an hour when I'm doing a cell phone, think of how often I'd get pissed off when dealing with him day in, day out.

As it was, I was done with him at 10 pm. And still had to close the store. I left the store one tired Jago at 10:30, ruing the fact that tomorrow I'd be doing a 12 hour shift right after this one.

So I get in and start my twelve hours, selling and putting away stock, thinking to myself, "Look towards Saturday. Look towards Saturday."

At 12:00 pm, Roland calls in sick. Swell. He was the only other person scheduled. So now I'm doing a 12 hour shift alone. I'm tired after a twelve regardless, but when I'm stressed out, can't get anything to eat, can't leave the store, can't hit the washroom? My day just hit rock bottom.

I called up Mark and told him the news. He told me he'd come in a bit. For a little while. Which was better than the alternative, mind you.

He came about 2 or 2:30. And was distracted with Ron, another manager, who was giving the store a visit. So I ran for some food.

He happened to pick the busy time to come, because when I came back with my oh-so-deserved sub, I had to spend another fifteen minutes helping customers. And then told him I was going to eat.

In the back room, I unwrap the sub, and am about to take a huge bite, when another rush comes. Sigh. He left again at 4. So I was alone until 9.

The reason I appreciate people with me during my twelve hour shifts, is that my mind tends to shut down about the ten hour mark or so. I end up making mistakes, losing my focus, just not caring.

Which is why, during another busy period at 7 pm, where I was selling a guy an Expressvu system and there was a lineup, some older kids managed to walk out of the store with a $120 toy. When I noticed it missing two hours later (my brain had shut off), I was livid.

So today I start to work at Kingsway for a few days. It's nice that Jeff thought of me as someone to run his store while he's gone. But I wasn't so happy to do it when my store's got a guy who's being investigated by Loss Prevention, and our girl's not comfortable enough to be left on her own.

Good thing Mark's getting a new employee today. No, wait. He has to train as well as do everything else? Yipes.

Well, good thing I'm at a store where there's two or three new hires. No, wait. I have to train as well as keep the store in shape? Double yipes.