On Luck

California Sunset, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

Luck is such a fickle thing.

I went from winning jackpot on a slot machine and getting a big raise to utterly failing at being able to make a credit card payment.

It's been a weird day

Survivor

Survivor, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

It seems that Dennis and Teresa had already planned to give me a raise and get me promoted. When I mentioned to Dennis that I wanted to stay under those conditions, he let me know that it was already in the works.

They were going to surprise me.

:)

Complications

I have been working the front desk at a hotel now for over a year. In general, it's one of the best jobs I have had. The atmosphere here is pleasant and the clientele is pretty friendly. I feel like I get to combine an office setting with customer service. But, as time has gone on, I have seen the flaws. Most of which are in the front desk staff.

This is not something that is very debatable. Everyone knows that the front desk is run poorly, including the people who are usually causing problems. The lack of leadership and the poisonous gossip are the main causes of concern for me. This is why a last week I left my manager a notice for my 2 week resignation.

My managers were a little upset, but not mad. They wanted me to stay and even though they knew and understood why I was leaving, they hoped I would change my mind. They offered me a pay raise and mentioned that a promotion could be worked out. Tired of all the problems and looking forward to a new future in another county, I still opted for the resignation.

Until I talked to more people, that is.

Several of the people here have to face things that they shouldn't need to. Including my managers. But, they are good people and they are here to try and make this work. I do value working under them and I have never come across a problem with our General Manager, Dennis. I know that there will be personal quarrels or hardships in any job I end up getting. I can't continue to run from the positions, I should stick around and also work at making things better.

I spoke to Thomas and it was agreed that I would ask them for a pay raise and promotion to supervisor. If they said no, nothing major would change. I am just out of debt and should have some spare money...so I could afford spending the time finding a new job. If they said yes, well, all the better, right?

Of course, you know once I got into work with this in mind, something had to happen to make me doubt myself. It seems that word got around about some things. Namely, my resignation and the fact that they offered me more money to stay. Most people were surprised but it wasn't a huge deal to them. Michelle, however, took this to heart. She is our current supervisor and the person whose job I was offered back in August. Michelle was highly upset that I was offered more money and the rest of the front desk weren't. Now, I know that is going to cause problems for Dennis and Teresa because supposedly, Michelle will be going to them and asking for a raise.

She doesn't know they would like to fire her, if they could. All they are waiting on is to get another person in here and trained so we can cover all the shifts.

It upsets me to see this. Michelle does the bare minimum of work in the front desk. She doesn't even handle her own position that well. As a supervisor, she is one of the poorest I have seen. Not only does she lack the ability to form any kind of leadership or respect, she doesn't know how to do half of things that are required of her. The reservations often go unchecked before they are stored in the system, the pages for accounting the themepark tickets sales are in shambles, the employees here get away with everything under the sun and she will just pass on responsibility to someone else (or blame.)It's ridiculous. And she wants a raise.

I'm going to talk to Teresa and Dennis this morning and ask that they consider replacing Michelle. I will let them know I would be more than happy to take her job (I'm trained for it anyway) and ask for a raise in pay. I'll be asking for 12.50 an hour and I will go down to 12.00, if need be. After all, our night auditor is making 11.50 and I can do more around here than he can. I have been trained for all the shifts and all the positions except management. Night Auditor, Front Desk, and Front Desk Supervisor. I am the only one who is, right now, able to work a graveyard shift and then come in the next day and handle the billing for our corporate accounts (Besides Teresa.)

I'm crossing my fingers.

Work in Progress

WIP, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

I have been working on this for quite some time now.

I wanted a high quality original image in digital art for a portfolio.

I really hate hair though. I have mostly given up on this one. Sometimes I try and look at it with my vision blurred. That way, it looks complete.

Of Dogs

Bear Stare, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

Our family has always been one to take in rescue dogs. Since my parents were married and I was but a mere thought in their mind, we have been taking them. I came into the world to a house with rescue animals. I grew up raising adult dogs that wandered to our neck of the woods.

That is why after all those unwanted dogs and cats we took, we went out and picked out some of our own.

We own 3 American Eskimos. The first and oldest, Casper, was the last rescue dog we have taken in. We became so enamored with him that we needed to go and get another.

We found a breeder at a dog show. Her dog had one second place in it's breed and as we talked to her, we got to meet him. He was a loving dog and all that we were looking for. It was decided that we would keep a female offspring of his.

The puppies came and when we entered that pen and 6 round fluffy puffballs surrounded us, we knew we were not leaving with only one.

By the end of the whole thing, we came home with two. One female, Yasha and a male, Bear.

These dogs have meant a lot to us, and everything to my mom. She has taken them on as her second set of children.

I think she knows that pretty soon I will be getting married and moving out...and Bob is going to college during the first part of next year.

Ghost of a boyfriend

Ghost of a boyfriend, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

Thomas, my boyfriend, has an amazing amount of patience with me. He also seems not to mind my strange requests.

"Alright, when I tell you to, jump off the couch as quickly as you possibly can"

Perhaps he just likes the involvement, maybe he saw it as a challenge. Probably, though, he just loves me.

Bonsai Stock

Bonsai Stock, originally uploaded by Lostfiniel.

I have an account on Deviant Art. It is an eccentric mix of things I have done over the past several years. Multimedia, traditional media, photography, and digital works. Now and then someone besides one of my friends will add a work into their favorites. Sometimes a random comment here or there.

Usually my stuff goes unnoticed to the general public on there. The fact that I don't try hard at communicating or getting myself out there doesn't help any.

Yet today I logged in to find that I had 322 messages. Once checked, I found that they were mostly people adding my work to their favorites. And, for the most part, they were adding my bonsai stock image.

I was amazed.....

And then I noticed that I was featured on the site. I had a daily deviation.

""Bonsai Stock by ~Lostfiniel has managed to capture both the simplicity and beauty of nature in one fantastic, clear and high-resolution stock image. The soft neutral tones, the crisp clean lines and the way the light hits the plant could call it artistic in its own right.""