Sunday, July 01, 2007

July 1, 2007

A lot has changed since I moved back to Colorado on May 11. I still don't have a car. I have a decent paying warehouse/assembly job that is about 15-20 minutes by foot from my residence. Before that, I had a very disastrous stint with Goodwill Staffing that resulted in me getting fired, my supervisor attempting to blacklist me from ever using any Goodwill services (or stores), a few calls to Goodwill NY's Member For Life program (because the blacklisting threat violated Goodwill policy far more than anything I did while I was employed by Goodwill Staffing of Colorado Springs), and a renewed claim for NY's Unemployment program. Normally, an unemployment claim in NY takes 6-8 weeks to process, but I got the unemployment money last Friday. I faxed them a report about my experiences with Goodwill Staffing, the name of the [bleep] who fired and threatened to blacklist me, and my complaints to Goodwill of NY about their Springs office's practices (along with the number and extension of the NY Goodwill lady who handled my complaint against their Springs office). Within 5 days of sending that fax, I got my money. Now July's rent, groceries, and the first student loan payment I've been able to make in years (excluding those income tax repossessions of the last 2 years) are taken care of. I don't expect any more unemployment money now that I am employed, but with my new salary, I can handle rent, groceries (even at Colorado Springs prices), student loan payments, and (hopefully by August), a car. I started the Woodford job 10 days ago, and in that time, I have made more money and had far fewer work issues or problems with management than I did in my brief tenure with Goodwill Staffing. I just wish I qualified for Holiday Pay on Labor Day instead of the following week.

Going to Mass on Sundays is a bit of a hassle out here without a car. There are no Catholic churches within 2 miles of my residence, and the neighborhood parish system that is used in the Brooklyn diocese is not used in Colorado Springs. Because of the Sunday bus schedule, the easiest parish to get to from my neighborhood is St. Mary's Cathedral in Downtown. I was welcomed warmly by the parishioners there. St. Mary's has been in a bit of transition as of late, too. Their longtime pastor, Father Donald Dunn, retired last week. Their new pastor, Father Frank Quezada, has his formal installation as pastor next week. I was informed today by Bonnie of the parish Welcoming Committee that they are in desperate need of ushers for the 11:45 AM bilingual Mass. If they take my previous ushering experience from St. Pancras into consideration, I could end up being one of those new ushers at that Mass. And it would be nice knowing some Spanish words that are appropriate to use in a church, as opposed to the 10 years of "temp agency Spanish" I learned at various jobs in New York. And maybe I could find out more about that Pope John Paul II novena that some of the parishioners were talking about after mass this morning.