So like I haven't written in like weeks, don't ask why, cause I have thought about writing something nearly every night, I just didn't feel like it. So let's see. So, I got shafted out of the Store Manager job, the company brought in some guy from Tillamook, even though everyone said the store was looking much better and was doing better financially since I got there. But oh well, that is the way shit goes.

Rachelle and I talked about it and decided it would be best for our marriage if we did not work together anymore, and we need more money than I was making as a Real Estate Appraiser Assistant/Part Time Safeway Assistant Manager, so we decided I would talk to my Safeway district manager about going back to full time Assistant Manager. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the work, because I did, but it just wasn’t working out, and I always felt inadequate not knowing what I was doing as an appraiser, whereas at Safeway I pretty much was at the top of the heap and am kind of the go to guy for everything. So I told my DM I would like to come back and he was ecstatic, and said he would take me back in a heartbeat. I told him that I would like to go to SMRA (don’t remember the acronym) which is a week long testing/interview/problem solving thing at our corporate headquarters in California that you have to go to before you can become a store manager. But I told him that I didn’t want to move, and that Rachelle had a really good job, and that I liked it here on the coast, and that unless Seaside or Astoria stores opened I wouldn’t take a promotion. He said, “No Problem” that he needed good management on the coast and therefore wouldn’t move me. He told me when 1 of the stores opened the next time I would most likely get it.

So then he asked where I wanted to work, Astoria or Seaside, and damn was I torn. Seaside is like 7 minutes from my house, I can go home for lunch, I can sleep later and get home sooner due to less driving, and the Manager in Seaside is just a great guy who really appreciates having me. Astoria on the other hand, is a brand new store, great people who I have known for many years having started my career at the old Safeway store, plus I enjoyed the change. I was leaning toward Astoria, except for the one unknown, the new manager, and I had heard some things that didn’t make me feel real comfortable. But I ultimately said I would stay in Astoria, because I knew that is where my DM really wanted me to go, and because I think I needed a change.

Within 3 days with the new boss, I was seriously regretting my decision, and was calling my old store manager in Seaside asking what I should do to get the Hell out of Astoria. Not only was the new guy a bit abrasive and overly direct, I was working a lot more hours and later shifts than I would at Seaside, which meant no time with my baby girl and Rachelle. But after talking with my old store manager and getting to know the new guy I decided that it was really too late to change my mind given all the things that my district manager has done for me in the last 2 years and decided to tough it out. It has been 2 weeks now and while my home life is seriously suffering, I haven’t been home for dinner once in the past 2 weeks; I think it will get better. We shall see.