It has been an interesting week, last week I discovered that my former boss, and the current Store Manager of the new Safeway store in Astoria, was transferred to a smaller location. This made me very happy because she made my life a living hell for almost 2 years and she is probably part of the reason I decided to step down to a part time position at Safeway and pursue a career in Real Estate Appraisal last year. Then Monday I'm working at Safeway in Seaside and get a phone call from my District Manager (big boss), and he tells me he needs my help. He asks me if I would consider becoming the acting Store Manager of the Astoria store and the current Assistant manager would be my assistant. He said he needed me to go in and fix all of its problems. I kind of figured they would ask me to go help at the Astoria store when this all went down, but I had no idea that I would be asked to run the store. Then he says, "Derek, you know if you wanted to, you could be a Store Manager tomorrow if you so desired." Now this has thrown my hole career choice for a loop. The plan was to go to part time at Safeway while I learned to be an appraiser, and once I got certified with the State of Oregon, I would leave Safeway completely. It will probably take more than a year to get enough experience to apply to take my state test to be certified, and the pay currently as an assistant appraiser is significantly less than I make at Safeway, but the future potential is high. But now, there is a chance that I could be offered the Astoria store permanently if I can turn the store around. It is definitely a slim chance considering that this Store is a flagship store for all of Safeway's Portland Division (120 Stores), and it is also a new design 1 of about 10 new concept stores for the company, and they tend not to give such high profile stores to brand new managers. But there is still a chance, and now I would have an opportunity to make a lot more money, and do things the way I want rather than having to follow someone else's style and direction. But at the same time working for Corporate America definitely has its down sides, and working as an appraiser has a lot of advantages for me and my family. So I am completely torn. But Rachelle and I talked and decided that I would say yes to running the store temporarily, and if it is offered to me, I will most likely say yes to becoming the permanent Store Manager. Hopefully it all works out in my favor, it would be nice to have something go my way for a change.