There have been many a great changes occurring. I wanted to do a video about it but I never got around to it. Oh well. Maybe next time. I'll actually be having a lot of time to be doing these updates from here on out. Now only if I had something to write about.
And now I do!
I'm writing this as I sit in a cushy brown chair in a Starbucks here in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago with the Apple logo glowing behind the screen into which I'm staring, just like all of the great writers of the world. This Starbucks is located half a block from a complex which houses an LA Fitness gym on its top floor. I work at this gym now.
Say what?!
Yes, I am working in a gym now. It's not in the position for which I am qualified, no. So here's what happened. I get a random phone call a month or so ago asking me if I am interested in becoming a personal trainer at LA Fitness. I say sure, let's give it a shot. I go in for an interview that day. I meet with a couple guys and discuss my qualifications, and I am very honest.
I say to them, look. I have this certification, sure. However, I would not feel very comfortable working with people in a person training capacity just yet, as I think my W.I.T.S certification course was kind of a load of haberdashery. I explained the course instructor was never prepared, seemed to not know what she was doing, and didn't really have us do a lot of hands on training.
They appreciated this honestly and told me I ought to start out in a different position. This position is called a personal training counselor. They explained the role to me, how I could work to be comfortable at personal training, and I accepted, even though I was a bit confused as to what this position actually entailed.
Later that evening, I received a phone call being offered the position, and I accepted. And that's when things started to get a wee bit confusing. I figured this would be a full time position, and so I could work with it to do this gym position as well as keeping some hours at the current gig, bartending at the Twisted Vine, the lovely wine and whiskey bar that took me under their wing when I was but a baby to the exciting whirlwind of Chicago city life. So to get all of that situated, I came in for my first day of work to LA Fitness in early November.
We discussed my availability, which at the time was a November schedule at the bar that was written in late October, for the entire month of November. At a bar with 3 employees. No time off, no switching shifts, no quitting without notice (I didn't want to be a dick), and thusly, no gym job until my schedule cleared up. He presented to me what the hours would look like. 6 days a week, with 3 of those days being there for about 11 hours, with a 4 hour break in the middle. Meaning no time for two jobs.
So I put it off. I was told when my schedule cleared, I would have a position at LA Fitness waiting for me. I was told that sometime around November 13, and with a birthday weekend coming up, my birthday being November 16, I decided to put off dealing with that work junk, and made the commitment to report my final days at the bar to my boss when I came into work that following Tuesday. Before that, I called LA Fitness to make sure he would keep his word that I had a position there should I decide to quit my current bartending gig. It was confirmed. So Tuesday came (my birthday weekend was great by the way), and it was consistently busy. Never a dull moment. Never a moment to breathe. Never a moment to discuss the end of days with my boss.
Then came Wednesday. It was a day that started with lots of busy work involving some side project my boss had been working on regarding Christmas ornaments and lots and lots packaging popcorn -- the fluffy stuff in packages. My co worker would come in 2 hours after I had arrived, and committed that I would disclose the notice before she came in. And so I did. It went something like, "Hey, gotta tell ya somethin!" And then the blabbering of news came out, and the reaction received was an unexpected one. Few words, mostly silence. In fact, it was nearly 2 weeks of silence thereafter, an appropriately wintery chill, up until I finished my term at the bar, my last couple days there completely void of my boss, my friend who I had made since my walking into the once warming establishment.
It was strange to me, yet not surprising that he decided to be absent that day due to many different factors I won't bore you with here. But so how he decided to end it, and thus it was.
I called LA Fitness about the position, and there were a few concerning hiccups. The guy I was in contact with wasn't there for a few days. When I came back, he told me to come in the next morning. Then he called me back saying instead coming in for an interview with a guy named Al.
Heart racing. Blood pressure rising. What did he mean an interview? I had already done the hiring paperwork. I filled out those forms. I was given his word on the position. I was offered a full time position and I had quit my job to make this transfer, from the less than stellar world of bartending, late nights, no social life, and lots of bitch work, to a field in which I could thrive and put my actual passions into play.
I went in for this so-called "interview" with Al. One of the first things he asked me was a question about whether I'm looking for full time or part time work. I began with, "So I'm a little confused..." I think he was too, be he recovered by telling me to chill out and that he just needs to meet everyone before their officially on board. I think there were some mistakes made in this little process that scared and stressed the ever-living bejeezus out of me, but all was well in the world.
So that's where I am now. And I know now more about the position. Essentially I am selling personal training, in itself involves a bit of personal training from me to the potential clients. So it's a step in the right direction. But it's still sales. That's never been in my best graces, but I will try my best until I make the position what I want for it to be.
And now I have that schedule, the unusual one where I have 4 hour lunch breaks. I'm on one of those lunch breaks. I had my food, and came into Starbucks, and I brought my computer with me. So I can sit here at this Starbucks, like all the great writers of the world, and deliver you a much delayed continuation of my adventures since moving from Seattle.
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