Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Orientation: DONE!

And we're home again!

No matter where I may roam and no matter what our adventures may be, there is nothing like coming home. Even if the cat has left several little deposits of 'barf' for me and the house is cold and there is all this unpacking to do.... even still, it's just good to be HOME.

It was another long day, but at least I slept better last night so that when the alarm went off at 5 it didn't make me cringe. Actually I woke up about 5 minutes BEFORE the alarm went off and laid there appreciatively until I needed to disarm it. As the day before I needed to be at Orientation by 7 and as the day before my sweet chauffeur drove me. (He was feeling better this morning, thank you Jesus for healing touches!!)

I was struggling to keep my eyes focused by lunch break and again, there was no coffee to be found. Someone mentioned a cafeteria that had vending machines so I set off in search of this oasis. Alas, the vending machine that dispensed coffee was out of order! And I was feeling too chilly to choose a coke. I decided to walk the perimeter of the inside of the processing plant.

the large photo shows a man riding one of those tricycles with a large basket on it. I want one of those!

I don't know how to convey how large this place is but it took me 20 minutes to walk the perimeter of JUST ONE ROOM. We are talking HUGE!

As I finished my round I spied another 'break room' and dashed in to see if this one had a coffee vendor. It did and the selections looked fantastic! I gently fed it my crinkled dollar and pushed the selection for French Vanilla Latte. I heard the gurgle and then watched in heartbreaking dismay as the hot golden liquid was dispensed...... right down the drain!! Yes, the COFFEE was working but there were NO CUPS!!! Can you believe it?? I nearly wept.

But not to be undone by this misfortune I trudged back upstairs to the conference room where our orientation was being held. I could do this. I sent an S.O.S. text to Bruce who was going to be checking out of the motel soon and had plans to hole up at the nearby Starbucks until it was time to pick me up. I wanted him to be sure and bring me a coffee! About an hour later I received a reply from him that he had been at Starbucks, until it lost Power and everyone was asked to leave. So now he was sitting in the car in the parking lot outside the Postal Processing and Distribution Center. What could I do but laugh at this news?

You know, it really is a choice we can make about how we handle frustrations or challenges. As I sat with my table group this afternoon we were given several different scenarios to discuss and problem solve.One of those scenarios had to do with waiting in a long line at the post office. Another was about mail being delivered to the wrong address. We were to look at this from both a customers point of view and a postal employees point of view.  I was amazed with the sense of entitlement that many of my classmates had. There was a real sense of anger and hostility from several of them over having to wait in line for more than 5 minutes for service. There was even more anger conveyed over being a resident who didn't get her mail on time. I listened for a long time before I spoke up and said (in response to the wait time) "I think a lot of life is about waiting." One of the women at my table gave me the stink-eye over my comment but another woman sort of nodded in a contemplative way as if to say "you are right, and maybe we shouldn't get so uptight about it." I thought but did not say, in response to the lost mail complaint, that we could all learn a lesson in offering grace to ourselves and to others. After all, we are humans and humans make mistakes. I intend to do my best to not make mistakes in my new job but I know how easy it will be to transpose some numbers in an address and put a letter in the wrong box. I won't be doing it on purpose and I hope if someones mail is delayed a day because of that mistake, they will offer me a little extra grace.

I hope I will do the same for those who might step on my toes from time to time...

I am grateful to be done with orientation and looking forward to actually starting training and work at my little post office next week.

And grateful for my sweet hubby who took me to a different Starbucks after he picked me and bought me a yummy Cinnamon Dolce to celebrate my completion. And again, I am grateful to be.... HOME.

1 comment:

  1. your employee badge looks great! and you were worried about your hair :)

    too funny that you couldn't quite get that cup of coffee but finally did!

    I'm sure you'll do great with this job!

    betty

    ReplyDelete

thank you so much for taking time to read and comment! have a great day!