the old lady who cried "wolf"

I fail miserably at keeping this this updated...
I apologize.

I haven't had a chance to show you pictures of my wonderful birthday, my sister's adorable new puppy, named Tucker, our new couch, or any of the other awesome things we've done this month.... Promise I'll get to it very soon.

I'm at work right now on my friend's computer trying to wish the day away a little faster, look for any good job postings, and trying to find a way to be positive about the situation I'm currently in at work.

I'll give you the run down, and you can give me your input, and guidance (any and all of it will be appreciated, because I'm losing my optomism quickly)

I started this job in January, because my mom knew my manager, Debby needed some part time help. I'm a lab technician for an optical dispensing store. We're not like Clarkson Eyecare, or Pearle Vision, we're really only a retail store with a tiny lab that can do minimal repairs. I took the job knowing that she was hiring "for evenings and weekends". At the time it wasn't a big deal because I was desperate for a job and Debby seemed like a nice person who had fallen on bad times, as far as finding good help. In the beginning it was fine, she always picked up the phone when I called and needed help, she seemed genuinely interested in me and my life, she seemed pretty flexible with the schedule-- normally* allowing me time to be at church and small group and Cornerstone Univ-- normally. But as time went on she became INCREASINGLY more sarcastic, more foul mouthed, and ALL of her doctors appointments just so happened to fall on the only two days that I requested to have off (tuesday and thursday nights). I was also later informed that she hasn't been able to keep an employee for more than 3 months... they all quit.

While working for Debby (I'm her only employee), I also picked up other part time jobs within the BX's "mall" area: the flower shop for valentines day, and with one of the vendors who sells sports stuff/ wooden rose arrangements/ and handmade fused glass jewelry.

The flower shop was short lived (they took a month to pay me, and the manager turned out to be a pretty rotten person who talked about all of her employees poorly, so I decided to distance myself from that situation and concentrate on working for Debby and for the vendors (Jackie and Kim). This is where the problem lies: Debby hates Jackie and Kim. I've come to understand recently that Debby has a general disliking for every human being that walks, besides Mary, the flower shop manager... But the fact that I work for Jackie and Kim seriously bothers Debby. What bothers her even more is that she knows that Kim and Jackie have offered me, and would love for me to work for them full time... and for the last few months that I have been working for both places Debby's mysterious "illnesses" have progressed to the point where nearly every week she has me working on the Tuesdays and Thursdays (which are the only nights I've asked to have off) for 3 hour shifts. Just enough time to waste my gas, my night, and keep me from attending small group and Cornerstone Univ. She's also had me work every friday(8-10 hour shifts), saturday (10 hour shirfts) and sunday (8 hour shifts) EVERY weekend since I've worked for her. She's given me two saturdays and one sunday off in almost 6 months.

I've tried to have patience, and I've done my best to be understanding through all of this, because in the beginning I believed her when she told me that she was ill... I tried to subtley and politely remind her that I had very important things to do on Tuesday and Thursday nights, that I was available ALL DAY, EVERY OTHER DAY OF THE WEEK... Still the crappy shifts, snide remarks and mystery illnesses grew in number and frequency. She's told me that she has everything from MS (which she claims she has been "in remission from for 15 years" and is just now suddenly flaring up again), she's recovering from breast cancer and a double mastectomy, she has skin cancer, rhumetoid arthritis, osteoperosis and macular degeneration.

Convienient, huh?

Unlucky for her, I have a background in science, multiple friends who are nurses or are in medical school, and I personally know some wonderful people who actually HAVE these painful, chronic, dibilitating diseases... Brave people who never say a word, and work through the pain everyday, so they can lead some what normal, happy lives. And she's lying about it... I can't understand why, but she's a bitter old woman who will say anything for attention.... And I actually feel really sorry for her.

Her most recent stunt was self-induced, and the source of my current situation. She's a smoker, and she recently decided to start taking the Commit nicotine lozenges to help her stop smoking (at least that's what it looked like). She's been doing this for about a week and a half, broadcasting to everyone who will listen that she "doesn't smoke anymore" and she'd shake her little canister of lozenges at you.
Even though she claimed she stopped smoking we all noticed that she still walked outside and disappeared around the side of the building for 5 to 10 minutes every couple of hours... Come to find out, she was still smoking, as much, if not more than she had been before-- and on top of that she was eating the Commit lozenges like they were candy (something it says NOT to do-- in giant red letters on the side of the bottle), and drinking 5 huge cups of coffee, everyday without ever eating a proper meal... Can you tell where this is going?

So, Wednesday afternoon while I'm puppy- sitting Tucker, I get a paniced phone call that Debby is being taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital. Apparently she'd been having heart pain and pain down her right arm.... and she was grabbing her chest and making a scene... And since I'm the only other employee they need me to come in and work the rest of her shift, or close the store. I told them that I wasn't available since I was watching a 7 week old puppy that couldn't be left alone. So they ended up closing the store, and asked me to be there the next day-- all day-- and everyday after that, until Debby could come back.

And I've worked a 10 hour day, every day since then... and I will continue to work all day everyday until she comes back... even though she's fine (she has a partially blocked artery, but so doesn't a LARGE percentage of American adults) she was monitored and discharged on Friday morning. She didn't have a heart attack, didn't have a stroke, she was having heart palpitations from an overdose of nicotine and too much caffeine. The only thing she WAS... was dehydrated.

But for one reason or another, dehydration and heart palpitations are severe enough for her to get an entire week off work, no questions asked...

And no one has said "thank you" to me. Not one.




So I'm here. And I'm left wondering how I should handle her return.

I want to call her out on everything she's lied about and quit (or at least put in my two weeks)... but that's childish, and unprofessional.

I want to work exclusively for Kim an Jackie, but I know that Debby will glare at me all day everyday, and talk about me, Jakie and Kim behind our backs and generally try to make life as miserable as possible for us all.

If I took the full time job with Jackie and Kim, I also run the risk of losing my privelage to work on base... depending on how it all pans out (and who Debby lies to about the situation)

I really want to do things the right way... but I'm more than tired of being taken advantage of...

I've had to miss out on too many things that matter to me this year... and even though I'm younger than her and I don't have kids, it doesn't make my life any less important than the things in her life. And it surely does not make me qualified to be her doormat.