All names have been changed...except mine.


Dear Paul,

This is a formal complaint against the current manager of the Highway Crown Inn, Glen Marrow.

Recount of events:

I arranged and confirmed multiple times that I would have the weekend of August 13 and 14th off, in exchange for working two weekends in a row (August 20, 21st and 28th, 29th) with Rachel, the assistant manager, so that I could work at the Great 7 while Julie had jury duty. On Wednesday, August 4th I came to the HCI to get my check. As I was leaving, I remembered that Rachel had wanted everyone to write down their schedules before the 8th. I went to grab a sheet of paper and she said something to the effect of, “You’re every other weekend, we know you’re schedule, you don’t have to write it down.” I replied something like, “Ok, and you don’t have me on for this weekend or the 13th and 14th, right?” To which Rachel said, “Yep, you’re good.” I left. As far as I was concerned, my next days to work at the HCI were the 20th and 21st, which I would have confirmed early that week as I ALWAYS do.

On the 13th I received a call from Michael at 11:04PM asking if I was coming in to work. I said no, I’m at G7 until midnight, it should be Joe. He sounded angry about this, and said he was going to call around and see what happened. Twenty minutes later I get a call from Glen asking what the deal was. He was aggressive right from the beginning of the conversation, interrupting me, yelling, saying it was my responsibility to check the schedule, to which I responded that I did, multiple times, he said the schedule wasn’t out until Monday, I said yes, but I shouldn’t have to call daily, I confirmed with the assistant manager before she made the schedule, so there was no reason for me to check it again, and my responsibilities had been fulfilled, you’ll have to take it up with Rachel. He continued to yell and blame me for the whole situation. I told him I was at the Great 7 and that I didn’t appreciate the way he speaking to me, he continued on saying he was ticked off, I said well, you’re not my boss, Paul is. He said well, maybe that’s how it’s going to have to be from now on. I asked if he was firing me, he talked over me, saying more about how I’d report to Paul. I apologized for saying he wasn’t my boss, that technically, every other weekend he is my manager, but that Paul is my main boss and that he can’t talk to me like this, and said again that it was inappropriate for him to be yelling at me; I have guests in the lobby buying snacks, to which he again said I’d be under Paul and hung up on me in a huff. I immediately called Paul and recounted the conversation.

After I got off the phone with Paul, the guest in the lobby began offering me legal advice, explaining that I didn’t need to tolerate that kind of behavior, that I had done nothing wrong. He said I handled it well. He suggested I talk with Glen’s supervisor, and I told him that’s what I’d just done. The guest said if I needed anything, he was staying in room 110 on the night of the 13th, he could be looked up as a “witness” if need be.

I find this to be a disgusting misuse of authority and irresponsible management. He acted childishly, and threw a fit that could not be calmed down, no matter what I said. I know that he was upset because he was going to have to work the shift, but that is absolutely no excuse. If he had simply called and explained there was no one to work and there had been a misunderstanding, I would have worked it, just like I ALWAYS do. If Glen had taken two minutes to find out anything about me, he would know that I’m the one that gets called when no one can work, and if I’m in town and not working somewhere else, I do it. All he would have had to do was ask. I work 60 hour weeks in order to help out and fill in where I can, I frequently work double shifts (often leaving one hotel for another), I work all shifts, I do my work, I’ve called in sick twice in 6 years many hours before I was due in, I’ve never missed a scheduled shift, but Glen can’t even bother to introduce himself when I met him for the first time to pick up my check on the 4th. He has shown me no respect since the day I started, he can’t even get my address right on my paychecks (I’ve corrected it twice), just tells me they’ll cash it if I go to Bremer, which is not my bank, and is an extra stop for me.

It is my suspicion, that Glen harbors resentment over me being hired at the HCI through Paul, rather than himself, and may now use this instance as retaliation to fire me in the future, specifically because I called into question his authority over me. I understand that I am not being fired, but I am concerned that he may not act professionally in the future. I would prefer that I have zero to limited contact with Doug as I feel his presence and attitude toward his employees creates one of hostility that I would rather not have in my life. I work weekend over nights, so I really don’t see this request being an issue. As I said, the first time I met him in three months was last week. His bullying tactics may work on his younger employees, but I will not tolerate it.

I hope that you take this complaint seriously, as I have never had to write a formal complaint on any of your employees in six years, nor have spoken so harshly about any of them. In fact, I can’t think of a single one I’ve had any real problem with at all. I even got along pretty well with Martha, and she was one of the worst. I do not feel comfortable around Doug, and I do not trust him or his motivations, and I hope you can respect that.



Thank you for time,

Amy Kielmeyer

New Grand Forks

I have approximately 10 days left in Old Grand Forks. On the 23rd, which conveniently is when school starts, I'm entering New Grand Forks. Basically, this will consist of me tricking myself into believing I am actually moving to a new physical space. In order to this, a number of things must happen:

1. Clean out my closet. Why this is number one on the list I can't say, but walking in to a clean closet is sure nice.

2. Force all things which do not have a "place" to take over something else's space, or be thrown in the garbage. I could donate, but let's face it, I'm lazy.

3. Change routines. I'll be taking a new way to work. Maybe not the most efficient way, but a new way. Incorporate 30 minute nap up to 3 days/wk as needed.

4. Maintain schedule. This will be the most difficult, and I probably should have been doing so all summer, but live and learn. I LOVE being able to do things when they come up, and I think if I monitor my decisions closely, I will be successful. If someone calls at 10:00PM for a drink, I can go so long as I'm back by 11:00. If I don't think I'll be back by then, I don't get to go. I must be firm enough to give myself real structure, but flexible enough so I don't become rebellious.

5. Pay Attention. I'm going to start looking around more. I'm not, nor have I ever been, very detail oriented. My job demands it, and yet, I find myself ignoring important spelling errors, simple arithmetic errors, etc.

6. Blog as if I actually am in a new place. This'll be pretty difficult too, but we'll see what happens. Expect a change.

My New Plan

I must work for SETI.

Or somewhere that researches similar kinds of things, namely extra-terrestrial communications and questions of time/space, etc.

I am starting from the beginning - Algebra. Unfortunately, I have always been a little too adept at finding my way around rules and doing things I don't want to do. Some would call this cheating, I would probably call it cheating now, but at the time, I considered it ingenuity. I never actually cheated, I never had someone else do my homework, I just ordered teacher edition books, or memorized everything. The teacher editions might be cheating...I'm not sure. Memorizing, though, was just veering around the actual work. I still worked hard making note cards, and doing the actual memorizing, it was just a type of work I was familiar with and so it seemed easier than sitting there doing math problems I didn't understand immediately.

I like work that I know how to do. I like that work to be dynamic, and complex, but I want to already have the tools and knowledge of the tools at my "immediate" disposal. By immediate, I just mean that I don't want to have to practice for months before I get the hang of it.

I MUST get over this. Few things are learned in a day, and I think I'm running out all the possibilities there. Reading books, watching movies/TV, making art projects, etc. Plus, all these things cost money (presumably, though I've found ways around this, too).

Ultimately, it comes down to commitment, and I have very little. I attribute this to my 8th grade teacher giving me a -27% on an English assignment. How is this possible, you ask? I don't know. I did more wrong than was actually required to be right, I suppose. Up until that point, I pretty much had straight A's. To be honest, I laughed at the -27% (which the more I think about it may have actually been -43% and I'm in denial), but the laughter was out of disbelief, and at that moment I felt my care for grades float away. My brain had to protect me from the desire to try to reconcile a grade so poor it was below zero with my desire to do well in school - the only thing I had really committed to.

Small price to pay, I say. While I attribute my noncommittal attitude to this moment, I am also VERY grateful I'm not one of those freaks who cry and lash out over a bad grade. Every time I've gotten a bad grade, I know exactly why: Very Little Effort (VLE). When I've gotten good grades, the pride comes from a feeling of successful deception, as I most likely put forth VLE. Boy, does that make things easy.

My days of little effort must end. I think. It's going to be difficult, as I'm pretty sure it's now hard-wired, but I find I may be just competitive enough to duke it out with my very lazy alter-ego, AKizzle.

I will miss the fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, carefree, schedule-free, why not?, go for it, let's do it self, that balances out my very boring no-I-have-to-go-to-bed self, but I'm confident the adjustment will not be too painful, and that my good logic will figure out a way to make what I MUST do into that which I WANT to do, and will therefore transform the MUST into the fun part, returning to me the carefree self.

If I can suffer through the homework of Algebra, and then Calculus, I will be on my way to Mechanics, Astrophysics, and Electricity. I will soon be on my way to sound waves and sitting in a room with headphones listening to space static. I'm actually not that interested in the sitting in the room part. I'm a brainstormer. I want to be able to help think of ways the technology we have can be reformulated to work for other things. For instance, wind energy. It's essentially a reverse fan. One would think that on days when it's particularly windy, the turbine would not move at a constant speed, but at a speed proportional to the amount of wind with a limit dependent on the torque of the blades. Thereby making more energy that we could store up for future use, or immediately transport to the grid. I don't actually know what that last part entails, but it sounds right, right?

Someone's probably going to steal my logic now and make millions. Then again, perhaps it already exists. That's what I have to find out, and that is why I am going to take as many physics classes as I have to in order to get into the MS program at UND. I'm going to be here any way, and I get 9 free credits a year.

I went to the library yesterday and got 4 books on mathematical history and theory, one being Intro to Mathematics by Alfred North Whitehead, which is shockingly interesting (once you get through the series of 40 consecutive yawns that come from reading a math book). This book was written in 1911, but from what I gather is one of the premiere math theory books for those claiming mathematical retardation, such as I.

We'll see how this goes. My last jaunt into concrete decision making combined with action lead to the Iowa Debacle of 2009, so I'm a little skittish, but I can't really do much worse than that, and it's not costing me any money (at the moment), and hopefully the desire to not fail will be motivation enough to push me through the tedious part.

To infinity, and beyond!

Speaking of Buzz, I saw Toy Story 3 and pretty much cried my eyes out through the whole thing, but it was really good.

Ken to Barbie: I love your leggings.

Barbie to Ken: I love your ascot.

Get it? Haha