Employment Por Favor

Why hello there! Hope all is well for everyone! I'm just doing a quick check in to let y'all know what's going down on this side of the mountains... First off, Spokanistan is COLD! I bet you Westsiders are saying "shush girl, you have no idea..." and I'm sorry that you've probably had it worse but my goodness! Summers ain't what they used to be in the olden days :) I can't believe it's already June... where did it go?!

I don't really have pictures or anything to post (sorry) but I do have one exciting piece of news... a week or two back I was really frustrated with this whole job search thing and gave myself two options: find a job by the end of the month or come home. Part of me really wanted to come home and be with family, but the other part of me knew it would be so much easier to stay here and that I would love the experience of working on my own and growing up and spending time with friends and etc. So I told God that I trusted Him to make the best choice for me because goodness knows I have no flipping clue what that is... that evening I went to tutor for the Magnuson family and they asked me if I had found a job. When I said no, they stated that they might see what they can do down in their company (Magnuson Hotels) call center. The next day, I got a phone call from the Director of Data and Voice Services saying that I didn't need a background check, interview, or resume and that I had been hired soley on recommendation! Granted, the clout of the CEOs and namesakes of the corporation are pretty good, but he said he felt comfortable hiring me right off the bat! Soooo what I'm trying to say is God decided to keep me in Spokane and made me an employed person! Yay!

I had my first day on Wednesday and basically I'll be taking and cancelling hotel reservations, quoting prices, changing hotel rates in databases, answering information emails and faxes, inputing hotel reviews, the works! It's actually pretty dang stressful, but I'm getting the hang of it :) I trained for two days on how to multitask like a madwoman so I should be fine. Today was my first day on phones and a) I had fun, and b) no one died! There were some pretty strange calls and some pretty awesome accents (we get calls from all over the US, UK and Canada), but my favorite by far was a gentleman calling to complain about being charged $5 for his "free" hot breakfast. He went on for a good 20 minutes about how he felt discriminated against... it really was unfair for the hotel to do that, but it was still funny how passionate he was about an egg and hashbrowns...

A little background: Magnuson Hotels is actually the world's largest independent hotel group and we represent independent hotels throughout the US, UK and Canada through reservations and marketing. We advertise and help them with bookings, and they give us a little kick-back. Tada! I think the reason why it is so stressful is because we get around 25,000 calls each month and the call center is only open from 6am-10pm PST and has maybe (if lucky) four people on shift at a time. They're seriously understaffed (which was nice for me I guess!) so they like that I'm so flexible with hours and such. I'll be getting between 25-35 hours a week and I've already picked up a shift for someone tomorrow. It's the night shift, which is much better than the 6am shift, trust me. This summer is going to force me into coffee-drinking, I'm convinced. Anyway, my coworkers are all UBER SUPER nice and my boss is already teasing me like I'm one of the family. I'm very happy :)

In all, this summer has already been phenomenal. Building some fantastic old and new relationships, learning a lot about living on my own, all great stuff! I'm all smiles :) I truly hope from the bottom of my heart that the same is for you. Okay, I'm going to rest because I officially dislike computers (thank you, job) and need a break for my eyes. I've been off work for 2 hours but it still hurts!

With love,
Chels