Tag / Walmart

by admin

My leg injury, or how to really piss me off.

Okay, so I go to the leg doc, nice man, very professional, explains things if very fine detail.

While I was waiting in the exam room, the A/C came on and I got a major chill that caused me to get goose bumps and the tingling sensation that goes along with them. Well, the tingling sensation stopped just below my right knee on my right leg, but went all the way to my toes on my left leg. I tell this strange sensation to the doc and he discusses with me that I am experiencing the symptoms of nerve compression from the contusion. He says that when my leg got essentially crushed, the swelling and bruising caused the nerves to basically overload and quit responding to stimuli. I go take my paperwork to work, they asked how the doc appointment went and I told them what the doc said to me. Unfortunately, the paperwork did not include this information, so I essentially looked like a lying idiot. I called the doc with a MAJOR WTF!!!

The doc just called me back and I reminded him of the discussion we had in the exam room and how when I went to take the paperwork to my employer, the fact that the information we discussed was not on the paperwork made me look like a lying idiot and that is not something I feel comfortable with. As I stated earlier, he is very professional and said that he would contact my employer and let them know that he inadvertently left that information off the paperwork. I thanked him for doing that and said that I would see him on Monday for our next appointment.

Aside from that, The doc feels that I am improving, that I should start putting weight on my right leg as tolerated, and has placed my work restrictions on alternating sitting and standing for the next week. I do not go back to work until Thursday, and I was told I will remain on door duty for the duration.

So that is what is going on with my leg. As far as the title goes, the part about really pissing me off refers to making me look like a lying idiot. I learned from my mother that lying does not help anyone and telling the truth is easier to remember. I live by that and have lost people I had thought were my friends because of it. Apparently some people do not like it when you tell them the truth, no matter the consequences.

I am done ranting about that, I will end with the poem my mom wrote shortly before she passed away that speaks about her position on lying versus telling the truth.

There once was a woman
I considered my friend
but I caught her in some lies
she could not defend.Liars and thieves I cannot stand
as far as I’m concerned
they go hand and hand.A thief will take the possessions you have
and very likely leave you flat broke
A liar can lie to you right to your face|
then laugh to their self, saying, “What a joke.”Soon it will be her judgment day
I’ll say, “Take her devil and make her pay.”
for our friendship she lost
by lying to me today.Saundra Sue McKeown

by admin

Summer is coming (hopefully)

My BFF from high school, Alicia was talking about snow in the forecast for where she lives up in the Minneapolis area. We here in Purdue land (aka West Lafayette, Indiana) have been dealing with about 57 degree (F not C) weather and lots and lots of rain. It is almost May, and while summer doesn’t officially start until mid June (the 21st to be exact), The weather we are having right now is comfy for me here. I also really enjoy the rain, it was something I missed while living in the desert heat of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson.

But enough about weather.

This summer, I will continue to work at Walmart. Last week I was training for a new position but I think I am going to withdraw my name from consideration from that position. Friday night I may have strained a muscle in my back from climbing a ladder and placing boxes of infant diapers on the top of the back room storage shelves. I have no way of knowing if that were the case, as I woke up the next day feeling like I had been in a major car wreck. I could barely walk or even raise my arms to chest level. I still have a little bit of pain once in a while, but it has subsided for the most part.

Also this summer, I will begin taking my prelim examinations from two of my dissertation committee members. (Dr. Almanza will test me on my research and food safety, while Dr. Nelson will test me on food service industry experience). To do that, I had to register for dissertation credit, of which I am registered for four credits. My third prelim exam will not be until December, as I am taking two statistics courses dealing with linear regression and some of that will be on the third prelim which I am getting from Dr. Jang. After I finish my three prelims, I then have to do my oral prelim, which is where I present my official outline for my dissertation and answer any additional questions my committee might have of me. Once the oral prelim is complete, the clock starts ticking and I have to complete two more semesters of work before I am able to graduate. With all this taken into account, I am planning my graduation for May of 2013.

As for this semester, I won’t know my grades for a couple more weeks, unless I can pry the information from my two professors; however, according to my calculations I will be getting a 4.0 this semester.

by admin

Less than a month in the semester left.

I am home sick again tonight (Friday), after coming home sick from work last night (Thursday). I hate being sick, but this does not feel like a flu, but more like something else. I have gone back through what I have eaten over the last week, and have found some sketchy items, but nothings that I can narrow down as being a cause of the symptoms. I am lucky that I know the symptoms that are related to certain food-borne illnesses, I can pretty much narrow down where a possible contamination might have occurred. So far, the only thing I can find is a possible issue with a place that Andrew and I went to eat at on Tuesday night. Of course, if could have been from Tuesday Lunch, as I had something that I had not had in years and it may not have set well with me and ultimately, it could have had something to do with my diabetes. Unfortunately, most illnesses can take anywhere from 8 to 72 hours to even up to and including 7 days for an illness to incubate in a persons digestive tract before symptoms are noticeable. Just for that reason alone, I recommend everyone keep an eating diary so that you can go back at least a week or two of food that has been eaten, in case there is an issue.

It is required that two, non related people be diagnosed by a medical professional in you feel that you have been infected with a food-borne illness. The reason they say two, non-related people, is because almost all home cooking is not done properly and the odds of getting a food borne illness from food cooked at home is greater than getting one from a professional establishment. Remember, it is not impossible to get a food-borne illness from a professional establishment, they just have more regulations to deal with that home cooking does not have to deal with.

Enough with that, time for what I really wanted to talk about, the end of the semester.

After today, we have two more weeks of classes, then dead week, followed by final exams the week of May 2nd.

On Tuesday April 26th, I have a meeting with my committee (Dr. Almanza, Chair; Dr. Nelson, and Dr. Jang; Members) to go over how we will be proceeding with my Prelims, which are defined as “…the determination of the: 1- student’s general understanding of the field, including appropriate theoretical constructs, and how this field fits into concerns of the overall industry; 2- student’s depth of understanding of his/her particular segment of focus within the field; and 3- degree of mastery of the methodological approaches and statistical tools appropriate for the student’s field of concentration.”

1. is Food Service (Dr. Nelson)
2. is Food Service Sanitation and handwashing (Dr. Almanza)
3. is Statistics and Methodology (Dr. Jang)

Each professor gets one of those topic areas and asks a series of several questions in which I must answer within a certain time frame, lets say two weeks.

I will be doing parts one and two over the summer with Dr. Almanza and Dr. Nelson; However, since I am registered for two more statistics courses for Fall 2011, the third part which involves statistical tools will be done during that semester. Finally, in last Fall 2011, I will have my Oral examination. It is kind of like the pre-conference I had with my masters committee, where they agreed to my choice and methods of research. It helps when it comes down to final examination and defense when a committee member asks “what about this” and the advisor says “why didn’t you ask that during the oral exam?”

I have received financial aid for the summer, but am only taking one, 1 credit class as I am still considered out of state. My request for in-state tuition is still being processed and I should have an answer shortly. If I am denied, I will appeal the decision. That class is 1 credit dissertation. It feels so strange to type and read. I am getting down to the wire. After I complete the oral exam, I have a two semester minimum wait until I am able to graduate. So that will include Spring 2012 & Summer 2012. The earliest I can graduate is December 2012; however I am giving myself an extra semester to ensure I have a perfect dissertation, so I am shooting for May of 2013.I hope that I can get extra tickets for those that really want to come visit me during this prestigious time in my life. Since both my parents are deceased, I would like my sister to be able to attend with a few of her children, but I also have friends from around the country that I was to invite as well. Even if someone doesn’t get to see me walk across the stage and get hooded by my committee advisor, I would still like to have friends here in town for the part afterwards. If you are reading this, and would like to be included in any extra tickets I may have or just for the party afterwards, please let me know.

I am currently working on about 5 research projects at the moment. putting finishing touches on the gaming chip study, making calls on the festival food competition study, waiting for a custom computer program to be written especially for me by my boyfriend Andrew, to help determine handwashing effectiveness with glo-germ, black-light, and a computer, I will them be Creating a survey of health inspectors inside and outside areas that have festival food competitions to determine their responses to the findings of the other 2 studies (not gaming chips), and a marketing strategy internal branding for the new “School of HTM” within the NEW Department of Health & Human Sciences. It is a class project, for a 600 level class which is like a UNLV 700 level class, where our results will actually be published, so I have been very busy.

My two classes I am taking right now have been very fun. I especially like learning how to use AutoCAD in designing a restaurant concept for facility design, and the use of focus groups and interviews along with surveys for the marketing class. I think I have started to annoy Dr. Nelson with my constant finding of errors or omissions in homework or assignments. But he did ask two special favors of me recently, one was to proctor an exam for him, and the other was to attend a presentation being arranged by the dean of the college. The first one was easy, the second may be a little harder as I generally work on Thursday Night, so the time of the event is during my normal sleep cycle, so I would need permission from Dr. Sydnor-Bousso to skip her class so that I can sleep later into the afternoon and then go to the presentation before work. Or I could contact work and tell them that I am needed at school for an emergency. Not sure how that will work, but we shall see what my options are.

When I had my meeting with my advisor (Dr. Almanza), we were talking about my schedule and stuff, then she told me that my name was being considered for an assistantship next semester. The fact that she brought up the subject was extremely surprising. She even gave me details about what the job would entail, which leads me to believe it is all but a done deal, which makes me really happy. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE working for Walmart. Just having a BS I have more degrees than almost everyone else in the entire building. You have to have at least a BS to move into management. So my MS is overkill, and the fact that I am working on my PhD I think actually scares them a little. They have difficulty talking to me. Like one day, the manager was trying to explain something to me, when she said ‘hold on, I almost forgot who I was talking to” She then proceeded to use bigger polysyllabic words to help me understand what she was saying. Then she said, “you are the only one that I have ever had to reverse the process of dumbing down things that I tell employees. Apparently if she tries to explain something two simply to me I get confused. She has to try and bring it up to a higher level than for other people. At first I thought she was being rude, but then she said “we have never had anyone as smart as you working here as just an associate.” She also told me that right now I have more college experience than the store or market manager. I are proud.

If I get the assistantship, it will start in Fall and I will have to put notice in for Wal-Mart, which I will miss. But I may still work one day a week, if they want me. Of course that also depends on how Andrew feels about this. we barely get to spend any time together now due to my schedule at ‘Walmart. We are hoping that the summer will be much easier to be together.

Finally, as a side not, check this out, I made a web-presence on Purdue, kinda like the site I had a UNLV, but Purdue colors and stuff. Take a look: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~emckeown/index.html

by admin

Why is there always room for jello?

I went back to work at Walmart this past evening, after having about almost 3 months off from work. I was actually due to start back a while ago, but the person in human resources forgot to change my status from Inactive to Active, so that I could be placed on the schedule.

But all is well. Had a good time, working aisle 8 for most of the night. For those that don’t know, aisle 8 is the general location for all baking ingredients, spices, marshmallows, Jello, etc.

During the course of the evening, I like to watch people as they shop and offer my help if needed. One of the best things to watch is the college students as they come into Walmart to purchase Alcohol. So then I spend time judging them for the types and amounts of alcohol they purchase in addition to any mixers they purchase. It is a fun game that I like to play while working.

The best part about working in aisle 8, includes the area including all the jello. There is always room for jello. We all should know this. But most of the people that purchase jello at 1am or 2am in the morning, are college students looking for ways to make jello shots. Such amateurs. My boss thinks it is fairly funny that I have spent time talking college students into the proper method for making jello shots, what flavors go well as jello shots, and what flavors do not go well as jello shots.

I don’t just teach people about things like that, I also spent about 10 minutes teaching two really cute guys, I think they were brothers because they were arguing about how each remembers how their mom made biscuits and gravy. So I took the time to make sure they understood the different methods and ways of making gravy for biscuits. Now, I did not give them all my secrets, but I did give them some pointers on how to make sure it cooks properly.

I think it is one of my favorite parts about the job. In addition to putting stock away, I offer people advice on different products and answer questions they might have. I don’t think anyone else in the group of people I work with know the differences between Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Olive Oil, and regular olive oil.

I am thinking about making a proposal to the general manager that employees should be trained and specialized in different areas of the grocery department, to help people make informed decisions. My recent title as Certified BBQ Judge, should allow me to discuss with customers the different types of BBQ and proper cooking techniques for an excellent BBQ experience.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good day, I am about to head to bed, so I will chat with you all later in the day.

Cheers,

Edward