Plum No More

Jean told me yesterday that I nee to post more on here, which was nice to hear because I was beginning to fear that the blog might be dying. Which is also the subject of a panel-discussion on which I'm taking part in a few months @ Purdue... that should be fun. After my talk w/ my brother, I decided to add a tracker to the side-bar to see who is reading & a couple links on bigger blog sites to see if the traffic increases. Time will tell. We don't have to wait for time to tell about the end of my time @ Plum Market though... just read on.I've worked my last shift @ Plum Market. The hours just weren't working out for us so I had to call it a day @ that place. I was almost laid off a few weeks ago, but I talked the assistant manager out of it by thinking quickly & talking even more quickly. As it turns out though, the only thing I could come up w/ was always-already doomed to fail. My plan was that I would work closing shifts on Saturdays, but Saturdays are my only day off. I need some time w/ the wife & kids. I spoke w/ Nicola about it @ the bookstore & she said she could bump me up a little before the holidays, & it looks like I'll be running some sort of writing lab @ EMU-Detroit in the winter. That's still in the planning stages, but it sounds pretty good. If it doesn't pan out, I'll just keep the extra hours @ Nicola's I guess.

When I started @ Plum, I hated it, bu over time, I realized it was a fine, mindless job. The little discount on groceries almost made it affordable, & the food quality is always top-notch. I actually kind of wish it'd worked out for me to stay on, but this will be fine too. Plus, I get to have a story about talking someone out of firing me. That doesn't happen very often. Then again, I thought I was going to be let-go a few times over the course of my 2 year tenure there, so even if I hadn't quit now, the writing was definitely on the wall. And... I got to leave on good terms which was a nice bonus. I wanted to do the storming out thing, but there was really no one on whom to storm out. Aside from the possible mafia ties w/ the owners, they're actually pretty decent people to work for, & it's locally owned. Even though I'm not there any more, y'all should still support the local grocery stores. If not Plum, then Hiller's, Bushe's or Von's.

I've been shopping @ Von's lately. It's a shady-ass place, they have no high-end stuff, but the prices are fantastic. I highly recommend it. Plus, rather than some fancy new-fangled sale/membership card, they have the old-school stamp cards. You literally get stamps to place on a card & when the card is full, you can use it to get extra discounts like this week w/ the 10cents Faygo 2 liter or the 95cents apple juice. Pretty sweet!