So this day starts like any other, i pray the prayer and go about my business but around i think that i got my first surprise. it’s uncertain so i will let you judge.

i have this part-time gig pimpin’ (read vendor marketing rep.) Kodak digital cameras. You make sure the product in the stores plan-o-gram (POG) are setup correctly, priced right, that point-of purchase (POP) marketing materials are up and that the store employees are trained on your product line.

Bryan got me the hook-up over the holidays when they were doing this big push in the stores to demo the cameras, trying to increase sales. It was fun and the extra cash didn’t hurt either. It was suppose to end after the holidays but some hours opened up for a permanent part-time position so i thought “what the hey?”, extra cash doesn’t hurt.

They had to figure out how to break up the region and what stores i would be assigned so i didn’t start repping until a couple weeks ago. That’s when i found out that i know absolutely nothing about how to be a vendor marketing rep. It took forever to figure out my schedule and the hours were all messed up. I was told that it would be 12 hours a week but that the actual work would take about 8 hours. but then i received my schedule and found that those 12 hours were the weekly average of a monthly total of 50 hours and 2/3 of those hours would need to be done in the first 2 1/2 weeks of the month. That adds up to 18-20 hours a week the first two weeks and next to nothing the last week of the month. Not what i signed up for and, man, those 12 hours were taking me 12 hours!

Mix that with not being able to spend as much time with Heather as i would like, not being able to take more on at the church, not having time to visit with my mom and not having any me time and i guess you could say that i am a little frustrated. But, it’s not a good idea to throw in the towel on a new thing just because you’re thrown a few curve balls at the beginning so i decided to give it a month and see if things smoothed out.

In the back of my head i don’t think i was too hopeful because when i received the call today that they would only be able to keep me until the end of March because the account is changing agencies, i felt relieved. The decision has been made for me and a weight has been wifted. Yay!

So, is this a God surprise? Lots of people are going to loose their jobs, i mean their livelihoods, not just their extra cash jobs. That’s not too cool. But, i have been given a way out of this commitment that i am not too terribly excited about without feeling like a quitter.

Here’s the main thing that i have come to grips with, if i can’t manage a parttime job now how am i going to manage school in the fall? And i have to get back to school, for good or ill, i feel compelled to go. If i explained why this post would become a book, so i will refain from explaining why i feel this way. It does give me a an idea to post about this topic in the future though.
This gig has shown me that it ain’t easy managing all the stuff in life, stuff that would have to be managed well if i ever did go back to school, excel at the day job, have a relationship, be there for my mom, be there for my church and maybe, just maybe, have a hobby or three and some time to read and relax. Well, this gig has shown me that i’m not particularly good at the whole time-management thing. Add that to problems with the whole money-management thing and the emotional-investment thing (i won’t go into either at this time) and i have too many issues on too many ‘thing’ fronts to get anything done. Very frustrating.

Maybe the God surprise is in making me confront these things about myself or in the steadily growing realization that i am going need some help with my ‘thing’ fronts… oh joy.