Customer Interactions

There's nothing that bugs me more with a customer interaction, than when a customer ends up prolonging our interaction longer than expected.

Like if they appear to indicate that they're only getting one fish....I tend to allocate enough energy to deal with catching one fish for said customer.

So it gets on my nerves when I plan for only a 'one fish' interaction....and then the customer proceeds to request more fish. Or to ask a ton of questions. Or need to be shown where something is. 

Because I didn't expect to have to spend 'more time' with the customer. And I was already preparing myself to interact with the next need within the store. 

*exhales*

And I had to deal with multiple customers today that ended up prolonging their interaction with me. By like four times the expected time frame. *exhales*

The main customer that comes to mind was a gentleman who told me that he wanted 10 african dwarf frogs.

Which O_o TEN?!

Like I don't know if I've ever needed to catch ten frogs for a customer. 

Most the time people want between 1-3. It's rare to need more than that.

Mostly because most people who want frogs...have smaller tanks.

Nope. This dude had a 40 gallon tank.

Which is caused for concern because that's a deep tank.

And the frogs need to be able to swim up to the surface to get air. And it's a lot easier for them to do that in shallower tanks rather than deeper tanks.

So if people want frogs in bigger tanks...they need to create a 'step stool' system where you have to have various objects in your tank of different heights to help the frog 'step up' towards the surface.

I'm not quite sure the customer understood the concept though he was quite willing to go buy a decoration to 'help' the frogs out. 

And thankfully he decided to go down to 5 frogs instead of 10.

However. 

Instead of ending our interaction there with the frogs....

The customer proceeded to decide that he wanted fish.

But the dude had like...no idea what kind of fish he wanted.

And he basically started pointing to every tank on the wall saying "I want one fish from this tank. And one fish from this tank, and one fish from this tank." 

I could see he was gearing up to request like thirty fish. All from different tanks.

And I quickly stopped him. Telling him that he didn't want to add too many fish at once. And with already adding in five frogs...he really should only add in 5 fish with them.

Thankfully he listened to me. Though he did insist that I grab one of each fish from various tanks. *exhales* 

So I catch and bag the fish. Thinking the interaction will finally be done.

Nope.

He has his son with him. And he tells me that his son wants a bird.

A parakeet. -_- ugh. 

I don't understand everyone's obsession with the evil little creatures. 

In any case. The boy wanted a parakeet.

But he was having trouble describing which specific parakeet he wanted.

So I ended up playing a game of "Is it in the back or the front?" 

"The front."

"Okay is it on this side or that side?" (since I wasn't sure if the boy knew his left from his right)

He wanted the bird on 'this' side.

Easy peasy to figure out and then to catch.

ONLY it wasn't the only bird the boy wanted. *exhales*

No, he also wanted to buy one of our society finches as well. -he had two separate cages for each bird-

And like...by this point I'm just seeking to get away from the customer as quickly as possible before he decides he needs a hamster or an anole too.

Thankfully three interactions past the original frog interaction...I was finally able to free myself of the customer and move onto my next task and next customer.

But gah.

It was torture.

To think that I would only be spending like five minutes helping a customer and instead ended up having to do like thirty minutes with this customer. *exhales*

It's tiring.

And this sort of thing happened multiple times today. XP 

Not. Fun.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Gift Giving

Can I say I love my sister? 

Because I love my sister.

A few days ago, she asked me what my plans were for Christmas.

As usually tradition is that we meet up at Daddoo's home and exchange gifts.

But now that 2/3rds of us are married. We no longer really do 'sleep overs' at the house.

And like...I hadn't really thought that far ahead, what I would be doing for Christmas. 

As I was still focused on how Thanksgiving was gonna go at that point.

But I wasn't certain what I wanted to do as usually I sleep over at Daddoo's place so I'm already there when the siblings drop by.

But last year I had a bed there.

This year I technically don't.

I mean, sure Daddoo does have 2 beds at the home. One downstairs and one upstairs. 

But it's not....as comfortable to sleep there as it has been in the past. 

So I was thinking about possibly just spending Christmas eve at my place...and then driving up in the morning to meet up with the family....but really it all hinged on what the weather was doing at that point....and what my work schedule will be. 

Since with pandemic and me being a manager now...I'm not certain currently when I will be able to make the drive because I don't yet know my shifts for Christmas Eve and the Day After Christmas. (as the store is closed Christmas day)

And like....it's kinda hard to want to be at Daddoo's home for long even on a holiday because well...

My love language is gift giving right?

Like I love giving things to people and seeing their reactions to it.
While I do try to stay within a budget...money isn't really a concern to me, even before I got the raise by becoming a manager. Mother Dearest worked for a bank, she taught me (and my siblings) well on how to have a budget and save money and such.

So I haven't really had to worry about funds since like...my first year of college because I figured it out and know how to save money now so I can spend money later. 

And like...I don't really care about how much people spend on me. I really just want to be given thoughtful gifts in return. Whether it's a nice gift or a shiny stone they found on a beach. I just want to know that people thought of me. That they got me something because they thought I'd like it or that made them think of me. 

Daddoo though is really....money focused. When it comes to himself. Like he's constantly harping on how 'things are tight' and he 'doesn't have the funds he used to' and "Christmas is gonna be small this year because my budget is small." 

And it...hurts. In a way. Because in a way it feels like I'm being told "You're not worth it to me." 
Especially when he states that 'funds are tight' and 'i can't really afford that' and then turns around and is like "Hey look at the thing I just bought for me!! Look at this trip that I'm going on that costs $$$!" 

*exhales*

In any case. I got off topic. But yah. Gift Giving. 
It's hard when Daddoo doesn't seem to understand the concept of it. That sometimes I just want to get a gift because it was something that made the person think of me or they thought that I'd like. It's not about the thing or how much it costs, it's about the meaning behind it. 
And I get that everyone has their budgets. That they can't go crazy spending money. Like my siblings are dealing with house payments now. Daddoo is dealing with...trying to figure out how to live on a smaller budget....so like...yah I get that presents aren't gonna be crazy. Nor expensive.

And I'm trying to not go overboard myself (I'm failing) because I know I'll probably only get three presents this year. One from Kikay's family, one from Meralto's family, one from Daddoo...

And here I am giving everyone like three things. *exhales* So yah....

It's hard.

Especially when I'm well aware that I'm 'by myself.' 

Like Kikay amd Meralto have their own family dynamics to worry about now. 
And Daddoo isn't really in a 'thinking of others' frame of mind.

So really...somedays it feels like it's me looking out for me.

HOWEVER.

Kikay realized that I don't really have anyone looking out for me.

And while we were together for Thanksgiving offered to have me come over and spend Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning at her house with her family. 

She wanted to make sure I wasn't 'forgotten'

Especially because like....part of Christmas is doing stockings. But again Daddoo is rather reluctant to 'spend' money on others. And so tries to do things 'simply' or 'cheaply' and it ends up....falling kinda flat. 

And like...I fully took over everyone elses stockings this year to give them something to look forward to. 
While Dad agreed (reluctantly) to do a 'stocking exchange' with me where I fill his stocking with stuff and he'll fill my stocking with stuff. 
I'm guessing it's gonna be mostly candy as Daddoo really doesn't have a 'feel' for what I may want or need or think is amazing....despite me telling him a few things. 

In any case. 

Kikay offered to get me a little 'girly' stocking. As part of our stocking gifts when Mother Dearest was around was getting makeup and such in our stocking. 
And it's something Daddoo is more than likely not gonna put in my own stocking lol. I doubt he'd know what to buy in the first place. 

But she's also amazing too because she's aware I don't really have 'anyone' currently like she and Meralto do. 

And so also said that she would get me a 'couple extra things' to open on Christmas morning with her family that would be from her from Mother Dearest.

As Mother Dearest the last few years before her passing was doing four specific gifts for us. "Something we want, something we need, something to wear, something to read" and so Kikay said she'd do this and like....

I'm just touched. 

Like it's super nice to have someone looking out for me and trying to think of my feelings and my place and how I'm doing. 

As it feels like I do that for everyone else....but yah haven't really felt it reciprocated. 

So yah...I'm looking forward to it. To see what Kikay has gotten me so I can feel included and loved.

I haven't yet decided if I'll spend the night at their place or if I'll end up going over to her place in the morning before going over to Daddoo's. Again, it depends on weather and my work schedule. But I'm looking forward to spending time with her and her family. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Significant

So for the past...well 2 years...since Mother Dearest passed away, Daddoo has been focused on 'organizing' the house.

Which basically involves him getting rid of everything that he doesn't want or won't use or isn't his. 

And results in basically every gathering we have at his house involving having to go through said things he no longer wants to see if us kids want any of the stuff he's looking to get out of the house. 

*exhales* 

It gets rather exhausting after a while. After two years of having to deal with it. It's mentally and emotionally just...tiring to have to constantly go through things and decide if we want them or if they should be taken to the DI to find a home elsewhere. 

And like...I get it. I get that Daddoo wants to declutter his life and 'organize' the house so it's closer to his aesthetic. 

But it also....makes the house feel less and less like home every time I come over. Because a lot of the stuff that makes home feel like home was stuff that Mother Dearest would have around. But I can see how it can be rather...painful for Daddoo to have constant reminders of her around...and I can see him seeking to get rid of those painful memories by getting rid of the reminders. 

But he's also set on having 'storage' stuff basically cease to exist.

So it's like if it's not his and he's not planning to use it in the next six months. It's gone. 

Which makes it difficult when I still have a bunch of my stuff at his house because I'm currently the only sibling that doesn't own their own home. And my current place has limited storage place, especially because I am sharing with roommates currently. 

So it's stressful to know that every time I go to Dad's house he'll want me to try and take something home because he no longer wants it there, but like...I don't exactly have the space here to store it. 

And like I would just like to come home one day and have the house 'be in order' and organized so it feels more like a home again instead of just a place. I would love to come home and be able to relax and feel comfortable and not feel on....like edge. Because in Dad's quest to make the home "his style of home" has made it rather...unwelcoming to visitors in a sense.

*exhales*

In any case....Daddoo also doesn't seem to have a good sense of timing either with getting rid of all this stuff.

Because he's solely focused on 'getting it out of the house' and not really on the 'emotional significance' of the items he's getting rid of.

Like on Thanksgiving. Daddoo had a bunch of Christmas ornaments and blankets he wanted us to go through and see if we wanted anything.

Among those blankets were two quilts that belonged to my Mother Dearest. These quilts, Daddoo tells me and Kikay are quilts that Mother Dearest wanted us to receive on our wedding days.

Keyword there. WEDDING DAY.

Not on Thanksgiving. 

These two quilts were of significance to her because one was one that her Dad bought her when she was young from a fair because she really wanted it. 
The other was a quilt that was made for her and daddoo's wedding day.

So really....knowing that these quilts were supposed to be given to us on our wedding days....

It lessens the significance of getting them now.

Like getting a special quit of your mother's on a wedding day would be seen as a more meaningful thing because it would be like 'the passing of the torch' the "I got this for my wedding now I give it to you for your wedding." sort of significance.

But Kikay got married right before the pandemic started. (Daddoo had no idea where the quilts were at that point) 

And I....ha....I am the furthest thing from getting married since I haven't even gone on a date this year let alone have a boyfriend. I'm as single as they come currently.

So this significant moment. Of receiving my mother's quilt. Of having this piece of history handed to me...

Has been taken away.

Dulled.

All because Daddoo didn't want to store something that 'wasn't his' for an unknown period of time.

And it has left me mostly with the feeling of "Great. Another thing I can't use in my current home/living situation and now have to try and find space for it in a home that has limited storage space."

Like where am I supposed to keep this? This significant quilt that I shouldn't have received until I got married?

Where can I keep it safe?

Is it gonna just stay in the garbage bag I shoved it in so I could safely get it home from Dad's place?

It's just...*exhales*

I'm so tired.

So tired of this. 

I get that Daddoo is seeking to make the house his. But it's causing such an emotional, mental, and physical drain on me and possibly my siblings as well.

Eventually I hope he'll snap out of his "me me me" stage of "my needs and my wants and my things." and consider how this is effecting his children. 

So yah....kinda a bittersweet moment. And I'm still struggling to deal with the feelings that this latest visit has elicited about the entire thing. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Black Friday

Black Friday is always a semi stressful day. Mostly because of the influx of customers we get in looking for deals.

Though I would have to say it was slightly more stressful today because we weren't sure what to expect. Like...with the pandemic we didn't know if the people would come in or if most of them would take advantage of shopping online and doing curbside pick up instead. 

But also because this was my first black friday as a Manager. And also the first Black Friday in a while where I was working a midday shift instead of the morning shift.

Plus. My head manager wanted me to be the "Covid Captain" in that I would be in charge of making sure people were wearing masks, socially distancing, and that high traffic areas were being cleaned. 

Thankfully....I didn't really have to worry much about being the Covid Captain as people overall were doing good with everything. So mostly I was focused on picking orders and taking them out to customers as well as helping in my PetCare department to grab animals for people. 

Not quite surprisingly....because I have dealt with a few Black Fridays before. It wasn't as busy in the morning as my new managers were expecting it to be. 

Like we only had 2-4 people at the door when we opened them at 7am. On busier years there can be up to 50 people waiting to come inside. 

Surprisingly we had plenty of coverage, which considering we only had 9 people working earier this year, it was nice that we have been able to hire enough new people to have three cashiers and three stockers and a couple of petcare plus the managers all out and about and ready to help people.

But like it was slow enough customer wise we ended up sending a couple of people home early.

And honestly it felt more like a busy Saturday than anything else with most of the crowds coming in for the 'lunch' and 'dinner' rushes.

Still we sold quite a bit of product and animals today. Enough that we were number one in the district with sales so ha! 

Still grateful that it wasn't as crazy busy as we were expecting it to be as it's stressful enough having to deal with a ton of people, let alone having to deal with them in the middle of a pandemic. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Thanksgiving

 Ah. Thanksgiving. The much controversial holiday....especially this year with the pandemic. Especially because we were in the middle of a spike in cases. Especially because my state was doing the whole "Stay at home! Only have Thanksgiving with people in your household!" sort of statements.

Which makes sense. As Thanksgiving tends to be the day where all the extended families get together. Where you see your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. 

So it's easy to see how this could be considered a 'super spreader' event because of all these people coming together from various areas and doing various amounts of safety precautions. 

So there was a little bit of nerves going to dinner today.

Mostly because I was thinking my Grandma would be joining us.

And since she's in the 'at risk' age....and both my brother and I tend to work with the public in our respective work locations....and Kikay's kids go to school...I was worried about 'exposing' her to something. 

But otherwise I wasn't too worried about meeting up with my family. My Daddoo, siblings and their spouses and kids...because all together there would only be eight of us. Nine with grandma.

Under the typical "ten people can gather" limit that we had at one point. 

However, Grandma was rather concerned as well about the rise in cases. So she chose to stay home this year and have a different child of hers bring her dinner -as my Aunt's family were doing a 'Thanksgiving Dinner" where all her kids would make 'their part' of dinner and then my Uncle would go to everyone's homes to get their food, bring it back to my Aunt's house where they would divide the food out and then send a meal with everyones contributions back to everyone. So grandma go included in that circle.

Which is great she was able to have Thanksgiving dinner even if she had it by herself at home. 

It can't have been as fun having dinner by yourself for the holidays. :(

In any case...since my family is small enough and we tend to stay home when we're not going to work, school, or grocery shopping....we figured it would be safe enough to gather together at Daddoo's place. 

And it was great to see family, even if it did have it's stressful moments in namely that the Turkey took an hour longer to be done. lol. 

But still. It was nice to be around family again. I'm grateful that we were able to see each other and that we take precautions to still be able to see each other. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

My Personality and Position

 So we had a manager from our Southern Sister Store drop by today to pick up a couple of grooming cabinets from our salon.

As our salon had finally gotten installed new grooming cabinets that our Salon Manager had apparently ordered like...three years ago. *shakes head*

In any case, the southern store requested that we save our old cabinets so that they could come and take them to use in their own salon...as I'm guessing they either didn't have any or the ones they have are older than the ones we just got rid of.

But I was talking to the manager and they were like "Are you a manager?"

To which I responded yes.

And then they were like "Are you 'this' specific manager?"

To which I was like "Yes?"

And the manager was like "Yep. I thought so. You have the personality of one." 

O_o

Um. Thanks??

It's a weird thing to think of. That how I interact with people in the store can indicate what manager position I hold. *shakes head*

And the fact that by my interaction with people this manager can pinpoint the type of manager I am? Like...how much experience has this guy had to be able to guess correctly what positions people hold in the store?

It's crazy.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

PodFic

So yesterday I got an email asking about how I felt about people creating podfics of my works.

Which, I haven't really had much experience with podfics. But it seemed like a cool idea and if a person loved my story so much they wanted to create a podfic of it then I was totally game for them to go ahead and do it so long as they properly credited me in their work.

A little bit later last night I got a notification that one of my stories had had a podfic created of it. Where the reader read my story out loud and recorded their reading to post it online.

And like...I know how my stories go. Since I wrote them. 

And for a while I've been semi-confused as to why some of my stories are so much more popular with readers than others. 

It's probably because I've seen my story like a thousand times so I have a hard time 'seeing it' as a reader would see it. 

But hearing my story read back to me?

Wow.

Like...yes I had a couple of moments where 'editor' me was like "oooh I could have written that line differently" 

But listener me?

Was amazed. Like the reader put so much emotion into telling my story to the point where I was on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next....even though I already knew the ending of the story lol. 

It was just...it was great. To hear my work. To get a glimpse into how the reader must feel when they read my stories for the first time.

It was a cool experience.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Ticking

 My watch died today. 

At like 3 am this morning.

Though I didn't realize it until I got to work. 

Which is one of the worst things to have to deal with.

As, even though I know I have my phone and my phone has a clock on it, I do like being able to just glance at my wrist in order to know what time it is and see how much time has passed or how much longer I have. 

So to be without my watch alllll shift?

Yah, it wasn't fun at all. *exhales*

I wore the watch out of habit because my wrist felt too bare without it.

lol and I ended up manually changing the time every hour or so just so I had a general idea of what time it was.

In any case, I was happy to get off work so I could head down to Walmart and grab another $8 watch to wear. 

Surprisingly, even though they didn't have any of the oval watch faces I prefer, the circular watch I ended up grabbing is actually pretty quiet when it comes to it's ticking sound.

For which I'm grateful. Because there are some watches there that tick so loudly you can hear them from a good two feet away.

Sooo yah. It's nice to have a quiet ticking watch back on my wrist again. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Holiday Season

 *eye twitch*

They started playing Christmas music in my store today.

Which yah...I am luckier than other retail places who have been playing Christmas music since November 1st.

But still. My work has usually been pretty good about not playing Christmas music until closer to Thanksgiving if not After Thanksgiving.

But for whatever reason. Today. The Saturday before Thanksgiving.

They decided to start incorporating Christmas music into our song rotation.

Thankfully it's not 'full' Christmas music. They're still playing other songs along with the holiday ones. 

Though I can't quite figure out the rhyme and reason for the sequence of songs. Like usually you can predict it like every fifth song will be a christmas song.

But not this year. It seems to be randomized. *exhales*

So yah. Christmas season is officially here with the onset of Christmas music in the store.

Still...despite not wanting to hear the holiday songs until after Thanksgiving...it is nice to hear some of my old favorites already. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Rough Start

It was one of those...stressful mornings at work. Mostly because things seemed to spiral quickly out of control from the get go.

Why? Because upon entering our clock in room, I discovered that the Pre-Black Friday Ad that was supposed to have gone up last night...hadn't been touched. Despite the nice big "PUT ME UP TONIGHT" sign that had been left on top of the stack of sales....and the fact that we had FOUR people closing last night.

It didn't get done. 

*exhales* Apparently the closing manager totally spaced doing the ads and didn't realize until they'd been in work today for a couple of hours that they should have gone up last night. *shakes head*

In any case.

Because those sales were due to start today, me and my fellow opening manager had to quickly put up all the tags. Which took us a good couple of hours to do between the two of us.

Which meant that we couldn't do our planned opening tasks right away...so we got behind on those things. 

It also was a day where we had like half a dozen people come into the store right at opening -when we're trying to finish up the last of the tags and pick the online orders we neglected to pick because we were putting up tags and yah....those customers decided to be semi finicky/needy...so it took away from finishing those tasks....

And yah... basically it was almost 11am before I actually could start my own tasks with opening up the department. 

*exhales* Definitely a rough start to the day.

But the bright part was that my head manager offered to buy me lunch. So I got to eat chinese food on my break, which was a nice energy boost to get me through the remainder of my shift. :D Yay. ^^;; 

Hopefully tomorrow's work day isn't as crazy...but considering it's the Saturday before Thanksgiving...I'm not hopeful. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Back At It

It never fails that when I go on vacation something happens while I'm gone. Whether something breaks or there's a policy change or something new comes into the store. There's always something I have to 'catch up on' or 'fix' when I get back.

Surprisingly, this time around, nothing actually 'broke' while I was gone. No, we actually were able to fix something aka our goldfish system. As something had happened while I was gone....I think it was during my October vacation time, where the feeder goldfish system went kaput. :S and they were able to get it limping along running wise, but the water flow was drastically reduced. But they finally were able to put in a work order while I was gone this time around and the guy was able to come out and fix it. :D So woot!! Yay for a working feeder fish system again. XD lol.

Though I'm still trying to find time to 'fix' the main fish system as well, not that anything is broken, but I've noticed a few locklines have clogged up and I haven't yet had time to go unclog them as I'm always like "I'll do it when I feed the fish!" ....only I never end up having time to feed the fish and have to leave it to my fellow associates to do.

In any case.

We also ended up receiving new carts into the store. O.o 

Like we got in some brighter...darker? new blue carts, a good dozen of themish though I haven't yet seem them all together. But besides the typical cart carts, they also sent us like 10 short carts. The ones where the baskets are like barely two feet long type of short carts. Which is handy for the customers who aren't grabbing giant bags of dog food. But it's weird having them in the store. Also they don't stack well with our regular carts so it's like you have to grab the short carts first and then the regular carts. *shake shead*

Not sure why they decided we needed those. But they are cool.

But one of the 'best' things I've been told since getting back, is that since our state is now under a state-wide mask mandate...a mandate where if people are caught without masks they can get fined...and apparently businesses can be fined up to $10,000 if people are caught not wearing masks inside the stores....is that we can now officially kick people out of the store for not wearing masks.

They have to wear a mask now. If they don't they have to leave. They can go take advantage of our curbside pick up instead. 

Which is nice. Like the amount of people coming into the store without masks has drastically decreased. Which helps to decrease stress levels of having to approach people to inform them of the mandate. It's kinda freeing in a way to tell customers that they need to wear a mask or leave. 

Hopefully it gets the point across. We'll see. The holidays bring out the crazy in customers and with an already crazy year...I can only expect things to get crazier. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Counting Ever Counting

Somehow I managed to gain the ability to make money multiply tonight.

Which...when you're trying to count the tills in the register and make sure all the right amount of money is where it's supposed to be so you can clock out on time....constantly finding extra money is not a good thing. 

*exhales* Seriously. 

Like. It happened three times in a row to me. Where there was more money in my tills than I was supposed to have. And like...it's not a big deal if it's a few cents. Maybe even a dollar over.

People tell us to keep the change all the time. So it makes sense that there would be slight variances.

But like I ended up being $3, $5, and $10 over our expected amounts. 

And like okay maybe the $3 or the $5 I could make sense of.

but $10? Somewhere the wrong change must have been given out. *exhales* Because that's just...not right.

And when the numbers aren't right that means I have to go back and recount things. Just double check and make sure that I didn't miscount anything.

And having to do that like three times in a row...is super annoying. Especially when I couldn't figure out how we ended up being over. 

XP We ended up clocking out like twenty minutes late because of it.

Gah. I just want a night where the money cooperates with me.

Though with the holiday season fast approaching.... I highly doubt that counting the money at the end of the day is gonna get any easier until after the new year.

so weeee for that.

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

On the News

Gotta love it when things actually 'happen' when I decide to take a soft break. XD lol. 

I have to say I'm grateful that the Democrats were able to pull through and give Biden the win for President. It was like a huge wave of relief washed through me knowing that soon we'll have a President that we can actually be proud off and look up to and doesn't make me want to cringe whenever I hear their name. 

It was excitement and relief yesterday.

Though because I live in a very red state...it's kinda been tempered knowing that there's probably a ton of unhappy people in my state. And I definitely don't want to do too much to broadcast my happiness that Biden won. 

Still. I'm excited. So excited. Even listening to Biden speak last night was just so....soothing. There was such a message of hope and of unity and understanding. It was wonderful to hear. 

In any case.

There's also more 'excitement' in my state in that tonight our Governor finally issued a statewide mask mandate. Requiring people to wear masks in public and to social distance. 

I've already seen a few people upset in my facebook feed about it. *exhales* But with cases constantly rising over the past month to the point where this past week we had nearly 3,000 people confirmed to have the Virus. To where the odds of those who get tested of testing positive had increased to 1 in 5 individuals.

It's about freaking time that we have a mandatory mask mandate that has no 'end date' in mind. 

Though considering a lot of retail stores -including mine- have had a mask mandate in place since July...I don't know if much is gonna change when it comes to dealing with the anti-maskers.

I am grateful that for at least the next week I won't have to worry about dealing with said anti-maskers at work. 

I am curious to see what I'm gonna encounter when I head on vacation. 

Hopefully more responsible people.

But I guess we'll see.

Definitely a crazy week for sure.

Hopefully with the mask mandate and actual fines in place for those who don't follow social distancing guidelines....we'll be able to decrease our cases again.

Time will tell.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Soft Break

I mentioned a little bit ago that I thought I needed a break from blogging. Just because there have been days when I haven't known what to write and so have delayed in making blog posts because well...I didn't want to process the events of the day as I often take to writing to process things.

And with the emotional toll of everything happening...I do think a break away from 'responsibilities' may be in order.

Especially considering I'm on vacation for the next weekish...I'm thinking now will be a perfect time to take a soft break from blogging. To take a bit of pressure of myself and be able to relax for a bit and not have to worry about what I'm going to write next.

I say soft break, because if something noteworthy happens during the next week, I'll probably end up making a blog post about it. XD lol. So I may end up posting every day anyways because who knows what's gonna happen tomorrow let alone in the next week. 

But yah. Since I'm actually going to be traveling a bit this next week...I may not end up blogging at all.

Can I say that's gonna be weird. 

Traveling?

Like....it's been a year since I've 'gone anywhere' outside like a 50 mile radius of my home. 

It's gonna be weird to see different scenery after practically a year of having the same old view. 

I'm looking forward to it.

Looking forward to getting out of the valley, away from work, away from my roommates, and just like...being able to chill among my favorite red rocks. 

So yah. It's gonna be nice. :D

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Give Me Peace

It's one of those days where I realized I've reached the end of my figurative rope when it comes to dealing with people.

Which I could sense was coming on...because I've been dealing with a new cashier for the past couple of weeks...who has been...rather needy when it comes to cashiers.

This particular newbie has constantly been on the radio asking questions or asking for help. 

Things like "I need a back up cashier, a manager override, where is this, where is that, do we carry this, can I do this?"

Like....when it happens every five minutes....and I'm noise sensitive.

It gets on my nerves really really quickly.

And like I get it. Being new means you don't know everything.
But like...after two weeks...maybe three weeks now? An associate should have a general layout of the store. Where certain products are and such.

At least enough knowledge to not need to ask someone else everytime a customer asks them. 

And like...overall it was a lot better today. Dealing with this cashier.
But with how much exposure I've had with them over the past couple of weeks...just hearing their voice sets me on edge. 

That's not a good thing. And not something I can easily escape when this cashier seems to be the only available cashier for the morning shifts. Like...when you work 4/5 days with an individual....their quirks can get on your nerves real quick.

So having to work another shift with this cashier already had me not in a good mood even though they were asking a lot less questions today because we were finally able to get them to go explore the store and figure out where things are. 

However.

I also had one of my newer managers in to open with me. And while they mean well and have a lot of retail experience in other stores....they're still less experienced. So it's the sort of thing where I also had to answer a bunch of their questions too...

However they also like....forgot their listening ears today? Because it felt like everytime I would say something to them either in person or over the radio the other manager would be like "What?" "Huh?" "Did you need me?"

Add having to repeat myself multiple times along with having my cashier who is constantly asking questions....

I was ready to go home an hour after we opened for customers because they'd already gotten on my nerves.

*exhales*

But besides having to deal with that until lunch time....it was mostly a relief that the customers were behaving themselves overall so I could get my tasks done with minimal interruptions from them....if not from my coworkers....

Until lunch time.

It was the sort of situation where I was trying to go on lunch.

And of course that's exactly when everyone and their mom decides that they need my help.

*exhales*

It started with a customer who had already been dithering over at the fishwall for a good twenty minutes.

And of course they decide that they need my help only when I want to go eat food. *shakes head*

So I head over to help them out and discover not one but two customers over there.

The original customer and another new customer looking to get more algae eaters for their tank because they have a lot of algae.

So I catch the fish that the first customer wanted and send them on their way before tackling the second customer.

Who decided that they needed to be super indecisive because through talking with them I figured that they needed a snail to help with their algae problem.

Only the customer couldn't decide on which snail they wanted.

Like honestly it's a simple 'look at the tank pick one you like and I grab it" sort of situation. It shouldn't take longer than ten seconds. Maybe up to 30 seconds.

But no this customer. This customer wanted to know the differences between the snails, see all the different colors, ask about their live spans, ask about how well they eat algae, and ask a bunch of other questions that I honestly don't have a good answer for because most people don't care to ask.

And the customer was like "I'm going to look at these, but I think I saw another customer needing help" 

So like. I leave the customer and go see if I can find this other customer that needed help.

And find a lady needing help grabbing a parakeet.

-___- ugh. 

Of course she wants a freaking parakeet. Evil creatures. 

It's typical that whenever I try to go on lunch someone decides that they need a parakeet right then. XP Gah.

But noooo it's not just one parakeet.

No when I grabbed the paperwork and returned to begin filling out the info for the customer as they were deciding on their bird.

Another customer with their family came up to the cage and obviously not realizing I was in the middle of helping another customer tried to ask me questions about the parakeets.

Wanting to know if a bird they liked was a boy or a girl.

*exhales* I am so super tired of people being obsessed with their birds being boys or girls. Honestly. Unless you're planning to breed the birds it doesn't matter if you get two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl. 

People are so obsessed with boy/girl pairings for their birds. So obsessed.

And it honestly doesn't help that our birds are often too young to tell their gender. So I can't always give the customer a satisfactory answer on the gender of their birds.

I was able to confirm that the one bird this second customer wanted was a girl. But when they were wanting a boy too...I couldn't confirm that I had any. 

And all the while I'm trying to help the first bird customer who is now curious on if they have a boy or girl. -_- bleh. 

Thankfully I was able to catch their bird....only the first customer heard the 2nd customer talking about getting a second bird and was like "maybe I want a second bird." No. You. Don't. Just let me catch you one bird. Geez. 

They did decide on only one bird on the end so I was able to move them to the register and return to the second customers for their single bird.

But they pulled the same move as the first customer and were like "Maybe we want two birds instead of one."
and just like the first customer by the time I caught the original parakeet they wanted...they decided they only wanted the one. 

So I was able to finish with the parakeets after like 20 minutes...only to have to return to the snail customer.

Who still hadn't freaking decided which snail they wanted.

Like gurl. SERIOUSLY? GAH. 

It probably took another 10 minutes to get the customer to pick a snail and catch the goldfish she wanted before sending her on her way and finally enable me to go on lunch....a good 45 minutes later than I'd thought I'd be going on lunch for. XP 

So yah. I was irritated and so done with people. Especially since the needy customers continued to be indecisive and dither and waste my time for the rest of my shift. XP 

I was all to happy to clock out and go home.

It's bee a long. Long. Day. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Return Me?

So at work we have a 60 day return policy on most products brought in the store. (animals have a shorter time frame) 

Where in most situations we will return a product if the customer brings it back in with the receipt.

However, 

Due to the pandemic, there was a period of like...three months where we weren't allowing any returns at all. From like March to May. 

So if you bought the item. You couldn't return it. Not yet. Because the virus was still unknown at that point. There was still too much we didn't know about how it spreads and such.

So no returns were allowed. 

But at the end of May we reversed that. 

And gave customers a 2 months grace period where they could return any products purchased before the end of May without any issue.

It was still work for us as we had to quarantine the returns instead of returning them straight to the floor, but the customers could finally return their product they didn't want. 

But I'm guessing that people didn't get the memo?

Which isn't surprising. Customers often don't 'get the memo' just like they 'can't read' and 'can't do math' 

Because over the past few days we've hand a handful of people come in to do returns that are over 60 days.

Returns where the customers had bought them months and months ago, some during the time we weren't allowing returns, others from after we started allowing returns.

But needless to say. Our 2 month grace period is long past as it ended in July. 

It's now November.

And I get the confusion with customers because like...the pandemic is still going on. It's not over. It's not gone. We're still in the middle of it. Or even heading into another turn for the worse since my state is currently experiencing a spike of higher cases than at any other time. 

So I can see that people might think that we don't allow returns still.

But yah....our grace period is over....

And like...who waits six months to try and return something. *shakes head* I don't get it. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pre Election Jitters

It's rather annoying when you 'know' something won't happen...and yet you can feel yourself stressing about it anyways.

Take the election tonight.

There's usually a bit of trepidation around an election. Wondering if the individual you voted for would win or not.

But this time around I felt a bit more trepidation. 

Because this time around there's more of a threat of civic unrest as my work called it.

Like...my state isn't a state where you'd think of it as a 'high risk' place for politically motivated violence. 

Yet when you hear news of store fronts boarding up their windows 'just in case' something happens back down....

It doesn't do much for the confidence levels at all.

Especially because I was the closing manager tonight. 

And my creative mind could easily imagine just how things could go wrong.

Even though there was no viable cause for things to go wrong.

Like yes...other stores in the company across the country could be more at risk due to their locations.

But my store?

No. It's in a section where the only way you can end up there is if you purposely go there.

It's out of the way. Far from any government buildings, or stores that sell more 'tempting' options for looting.

Like who would want to loot a pet store?? *shakes head* 

Even more so, the polls in my state closed at 8.

My store closed at 9.

It was highly unlikely we would know the 'winner' of our state for at least a couple of hours.

So all things considered. My store was safe from any chaos.

But that doesn't stop that little worm of paranoia from wiggling in the back of mind.

Wondering if we'd have any fanatics come in. Wondering if we'll have a crazy rush.

Thankfully, beyond one temper tantrum throwing customer who claimed they were on the phone for 10 minutes waiting to get a curb side pick up (it was like maybe 5 minutes dude chill out) there wasn't really anything crazy that happened.

The store pretty much died after 8.

So it was easy to quickly close down and get everything situated.

But I have to say I was relieved to come home.

But I probably won't be able to fully relax...considering I have to be back into work first thing in the morning. *exhales* 

However, seeing how quickly my state went red...*sighs* I don't think we have much to worry about here.....

We'll see though when the winner is decided how people in my state react. 

Hopefully it all goes well. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

All the Aches Need to Go Away

 It would be nice if my body would respond to...idk stress? Probably stress in consistent ways.

Like 2020 has been a stressful year for very obvious reasons. 

And it's hard to ever fully relax when it feels like every couple of weeks 'something' happens and I have to worry and wonder if this is a 'symptom' of the virus....or just stress.

I've come to the conclusion that it's all just stress caused.

As I haven't experienced the 'major' symptoms of the virus. Only the 'minor' ones which among them are muscle achiness and headaches. 

But like....I get headaches all the time. And my muscles get sore from the migraines. 

so like *shrugs*

Plus I've noticed that every time my schedule changes...I end up feeling 'ill' a week or so after the shift in schedule. 

Which just proves that my body hates change and will rebel in various ways. 

Considering that a couple of weeks ago I had my schedule change once again because I'm no a manager and need a slightly different schedule.

It's not surprising I'm not feeling completely 100 right now. 

Add into that we're currently going through the typical "hot/cold/hot/cold" that occurs between Summer and Winter...the bipolar temperature changes throughout the week often trigger colds. Sore throats, achiness, etc. 

But there's always something else going on it feels like. Tenderness. Tightness in the chest. Sore throat....it seems like every month my body has a 'symptom' and I spend a week wondering if it's something serious....or if it's just a physical manifestation of my stress. 

Overall I've chalked it all up to stress.

And once again...I'm having to play the 'is it stress caused?' to something odd I'm experiencing.

As for the past 24 hoursish the teeth/gums on the right side of my lower jaw have been aching. Hurting like a toothache. And being rather sensitive to cold things being placed on teeth, though hot things and room temperature things don't affect it. 

To have like four teeth aching in a row...is rather concerning. Especially because the pain doesn't seem to go away much with advil or tylenol or excedrin. And it ached bad enough last night that I had a hard time falling asleep.

I want to believe it's just a reaction to tense muscles.

As I suffered from a major migraine off and on from Friday to Sunday. And considering the last bit of the headacche was on the right side of my face...and that I have had gums ache before from the tension of the muscles there from my shoulder to my neck up to behind my eye...

Having a tense jaw could possibly affect the gums and teeth....possibly. I suppose. *exhales* Like...I've experienced some achiness in my teeth and gums in relation to sinus irritation and stress etc. Just never this intense. 

Add onto that that my migraine friday night was bad enough to have me throwing up...I'm sure the acid against my teeth didn't help much either. XP 

Plus drinking a coke throughout the day on Saturday in an effort to get rid of my headache.....

There's a lot of factors that could influence my teeth aching as much as they are.

I can only hope it's a temporary thing. Since it seems to come and go I do tend to think it's just a symptom of tense muscles relaxing. 

But if it lasts another day or two I may have to see if I can get into a dentist and have my teeth looked at.

I really hope that the symptom vanishes. As I'm not keen to go see a dentist in the middle of a pandemic.

Sooo *fingers crossed* that this is just another 'annoying symptom' of stress that will go away soon. 

In any case...note to self. Decrease soda and candy and cold thing consumption for a few days to try and keep it from getting irritated more. 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Who?

The other day my manager mentioned a previous manager that we'd had in the store. 

And it wasn't a name that I immediately recognized as belonging to a manager. It was a name that we'd had in relation to other coworkers though. 

And those coworkers were apparently far more memorable than the manager by the same name because I couldn't think of anyone. Like I had a vague concept of who this person was...but the person I was thinking of wasn't fitting the timeline as the manager had been a manager in the last couple of years, and the one I was thinking of had been back when I was still living in an apartment instead of a house. 

Yet from how my manager was describing this other manager....I knew I should know them. 

But after 8 years...I've had a ton of managers. Like...I'm pretty sure I've had at least 5 new managers each year...so like around 40 managers in an 8 year period. 

It's a lot of people to try and remember, and I'm pretty sure I only remember like half of them. Maybe.

And this manager...nope. No recollection.

Until said old manager came into the store yesterday or the day before yesterday. 

It was then I connected the dots. 

And finally remembered who this person was.

*shakes head*

Which it's kinda amazing that I managed to forget who this particular manager was. Because they had quite the unique personality.

At the same time...they were only a manager with us for a few months....so yah....not long enough to make a lasting impression I suppose.

Glad I finally was able to remember who this old manager was though. Because it was bugging me. 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves. 
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi