Goodbye 2020

It's been a rather mellow end of 2020 for me.

Due to working so long last night, I was able to sleep in today and only go into work for three hours.

And thankfully work was pretty much dead. 

Not odd for a Thursday, but slightly odd for a Holiday.

Though it's always hard to predict which holidays are gonna get crazy and which ones won't...thankfully I was right in thinking I wouldn't be as needed today when I decided to work a shorter shift.

As it stayed pretty slow and there was plenty of coverage.

But just because it was slow at my store doesn't mean it was slow elsewhere.

As I ventured over to Barnes and Noble to check out the books there on a whim...and wow that place was busy.

It felt like there had to be 30-50 people in the store.

Which when I'm used to there being like maybe a dozen people in a book store....it was rather intimidating to have so many individuals around me. 

Even the workers at the store were surprised at how busy they were. 

I ended up not getting anything.

And spent the evening at home with my roomies watching the new Pixar Soul movie (amazing) and Into the Spiderverse.

And then we rang out the New Year together. lol Shouting Jumanji into the darkness as fireworks rang out among us in hopes that the crazy this year has brought us will end and that 2021 will bring a more mellow year.

Only time will tell.

But i'm grateful it wasn't a crazy day today. That it was relaxed. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The 13 Hour Work Day

 It was one of those days at work that just...unraveled. 

Like it starts out really well. Everything is going great!

And then one thing after the other goes wrong.

Until you're running around with your head cut off attempting to complete at least one task among the chaos.

The unraveling began soon after I had finished opening the floor, but hadn't yet gotten to the task of doing the reptile bedding change.

As you remember that Notice of Violation we got last week?

Yah. I got a response back to the email I sent to a couple of different people, and they wanted to know more information about which product had received the violation. 

I had no idea. As I wasn't the one to directly deal with the dude when he was serving us the notice.

It was my other manager, and they were on vacation this week.

But going out on a limb I sent them a text asking if they knew which specific product of the Hemp stuff we sell that was in violation. 

Thankfully the manager answered back rather quickly.

Telling me that it was "All our Chews" and our "Mary Tail's" product.

-I'd never heard of the second one until that moment. I don't often look at product names unless a customer is looking for it and this particular one looked rather new.

But yah. 

I ended up making a half dozen trips between the aisle where the product is sold and the computer to try and compose an email for the person that was detailed enough to be helpful but not overly detailed. 

It took a bit of time.

And around that same point we were made aware of another issue.

Apparently our online store....was having a major glitch.

Where our more expensive products -like the large dog igloos, the big bags of Blue Buffalo, the Kong Beds, All our Fish Tanks, and like $200 dog clippers....were showing up online at dirt cheap prices.

Like $200 clippers being sold for like $10 dirt cheap.

And corporate was sending out a frantic email to all the stores to not accept any of those orders and to decline those picks as 'out of stock' until the glitch could be fixed online. 

At one point our 'picking system' actually went down. I'm guessing so that customers couldn't order things and we couldn't pick them. 

But when it finally got back online, we had like 20 orders waiting for us.

And I had the fun task of going through all of them and comparing them to the list we'd been sent of items that were part of this glitch...and then go through and decline those picks as out of stock.

It took forever. 

But we finally got caught up and it seemed like things were gonna get back on track now that the system was back up and the website glitch had been fixed. 

And then things fell apart once again with the coming in of our closing crew.

As the midday manager who was supposed to stay until dinner time...ended up leaving like three hours early because they were in pain from a krick in their neck. 

It wouldn't have been that big of a deal because we still would have had a closing manager, a cashier, and a person in petcare.

It's not ideal because I was off at 430 and the closing crew came in at 3. So getting lunches covered? Much harder.

But we were gonna make due.

But then 3pm showed up....and our petcare person did...but our cashier didn't.

And normally this cashier is on time.

But 20 minutes later...they still weren't there.

Giving them a call....it turns out the cashier misread their schedule. And thought they were off today. And couldn't come in. Why? Because they had a second job. And they were currently at their second job. Working the closing shift.

If our other manager had been able to stay longer....this may not have been as big of an issue.

But with the cashier gone...if I had left....it would have just left the closing manager and my petcare person to run the store. 

We tried to call the one other person we could at the time to come in.
As 2 of our workers were out on vacation. And everyone else had worked the morning shift. 
But they were unable to come in and be our cashier for the evening.

And I could sense that if I left...things would go badly. I could sense my other manager was already having a rough time and to leave them alone to handle this with just the petcare as backup?

Yah. Not good.

So I checked tomorrow's schedule to see how much coverage we would have. And noticed that I would basically be considered an extra body. Not necessarily needed.

So I called my head manager to see if it would be okay if I stayed later tonight and worked a shorter shift tomorrow to help out my closing manager.

Head manager gave the okay.

So I ended up staying until closing time to help out. Which meant, yep, I worked 13 hours. *exhales*

Thankfully, I had taken some excedrin earlier in the day, and my roomie was kind enough to bring me some Taco Bell around dinner time to give me an energy boost.

So despite the long day, I was doing rather well keeping my energy up.

My closing manager on the other hand....was having a super difficult time.

It was just one of those 'bad days' for them. Where minor inconveniences became monstrous problems to them.

To the point where they ended up in the breakroom basically in tears because it was that hard of a day. 

Honestly...it felt like my manager was moments away from just quitting on the spot. So I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't stuck around to help with the burden.

Especially since any plans we made seemed to be derailed.

Like our dog trainer was in the store today, and indicated after her last class she could stay a bit longer and help us out. 

And really I just needed her on the register for half an hour so me and my petcare person could focus on closing down the department.

But the dog trainer never ended up jumping on the register.

Because they ended up helping a customer who came into the store with a very sick kitten.

One that died while in the store.

One that the vet thought might have parvo.

And the vet was very concerned about everything the customers had touched also having the parvo germs left on their services. So we had to go pull all the product they touched but did not buy off the shelf and bag it up and deep clean other surfaces and yah....pretty sure if I hadn't been around to be the voice of reason and to calm down my manager, that would have been the straw that broke the camel's back for my other manager. 

Needless to say.

We closed down the store as quickly as possible. And were out of the store within half of an hour of us closing our doors to customers.

Because even my petcare person -who ended up being the cashier all shift- was done with today.

It was a long day for them.

Moreso for me having worked 13 hours.

But overall I felt pretty good. Grateful I was able to help my manager out.

And hopefully they can talk to the Head Manager about some of their frustrations and maybe take a vacation soon -since our vacation time resets with the new year- so that they could get away from work for a bit. As I think most of their frustration is just having no time away from work to properly unwind. 

We'll see how it goes.

But at least tomorrow I only have to work a 3 hour shift instead of an 8 hour shift. So woot! <3 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Right Size and Price

I hate dealing with indecisive customers. Especially when I'm trying to do things in a hurry and the customer decides to take forever to think on something.

So it was the end of my workshift.

I was literally off in like five minutes.

But the cashier needed a backup cashier and everyone else was busy with other things.

So knowing that I definitely was gonna regret it.

I hopped on as the backup cashier to help out.

And the very first customer I help is this guy buying an XL Kong Crate.

Seems like a simple transaction.

I get his membership number, scan the item, and have him pay.

It's like a two minute thing.

But as he's finishing up paying he looks again at the price he's paying and goes. "Wait. I thought this crate was on sale for $28 less."

So I had to quickly cancel the transaction before he could finish paying, so that I could quickly do a price check on the crate.

As I remembered putting up price tags for the crates yesterday...but couldn't recall if those prices had sales or not with them.

Over the radio I asked my other manager to go price check the crate for me.

Which took a couple of minutes to do.

But the manager ended up confirming that the price was less.

So I did the price adjustment. And the customer paid for it.

And like. I handed him the receipt. And expected him to take his crate and leave so I could help the next customer in line.

And the dude had the gall -after he'd paid and everything- to only then question the size of crate he'd just purchased.

"Is this too big of a crate for a border collie." was his question.

Like dude....Yes? Like...border collies are probably fine with the intermediate or the large size. But the XL is more for like Golden Retrievers and Great Danes and Huskies. 

But I didn't want to have to do a return for a product I just got the guy to buy. 

So I was like "You have 60 days to return it if it's too big. But I believe it comes with a divider so you should be fine making the crate smaller if needed" 

And he had to take his time looking all over the box looking for any sign that the Kong brand crate actually came with a divider.

And couldn't find any evidence.

Like Dude. It had a divider at one point as I knew the Kong brand carried dividers. But they changed the packaging so I have no idea if they stopped with the dividers as well.

But he could figure it out AT HOME because he'd been standing at the register for a good 5 minutes longer than necessary and when you're standing in line waiting to buy something that feels like an eternity to other customers.

Finally he took the crate and went on his merry way. But gah.

It was a longer interaction than it should have been. XP Customers really need to learn to ask their questions before they reach the register instead of AFTER they paid for their product. Especially in the middle of a rush.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Stinky Discovery

So we came into a rather unpleasant surprise at work this morning.

One that I'm grateful I didn't fully see, but only heard about.

But for like the last...month? It's probably been a month now, we've had to have our bathrooms closed to the public.

Because some idiot stuffed a cardboard packaging into the tank of the men's toilet and broke a piece off in that tank that prevented the toilet from flushing. And said toilet is old enough that the part has to be specially ordered in. 

-Turns out the company decided to just send us a brand new toilet. So yay! Now we just have to wait for a plumber to come in to install it.

In any case. Because the men's toilet is broken.

We had to find a way to provide access to the bathroom for our male coworkers in the store.

Which the solution ended up being to close down both the boy and girl's bathrooms to the public.

So that we could allow the men to use the girl's restroom without worrying about customers freaking out about finding men in the girl's room.

Of course. 

Customers don't like to read and also don't like to be told no.

So we've had to resort to more extreme measures beyond simple signs to close the bathrooms off from the public.

As I'm sure most people are assuming that the bathrooms are closed because of COVID instead of the actual reason where the toilet is broken and unusable. 

It's not been fun telling people that the toilets aren't available. 

In any case.

We've taken to using large pieces of displays like bins and such filled with product to block access to the bathrooms but still allow workers to access the break rooms beyond.

That doesn't mean that customers don't sneak back there anyways to use it.

They're stubborn like that.

But we do what we can to discourage it.

In any case.

Apparently when one of the guys went to use the women's bathroom this morning before we opened.

They made the unpleasant discovery of a pair of soiled panties, an adult diaper...and a lot of feces spread all over the floor. 

*exhales*

Like...Why? 

WHY.

I honestly don't get why people think it's okay to do this. Like what's their motive? What's the point?

And it's frustrating because it must have happened last night....

And after talking to our closing manager when they came in for their shift today....they confirmed that they had seen an old lady sneak into the bathroom towards closing time and that this lady was one of the last customers to leave the store.

So at this point we assume that the lady was the one to leave her dirty diaper, undies, and feces all over the floor.

The main question is...WHY.

Like with how deliberately it was spread all over (like on the back of the stall door and everything) I hardly doubt that this was an accident. I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose.

But like...why?

Why be so vindictive? Why make more work for us?

Like...is it simply because the customer was upset we had closed the bathrooms or something more?

Who knows.

But a different manager has a theory that this was vindictive. 

Because a few days ago...like either Thursday or Saturday? It was recent.

We had an older lady ask to use the bathroom. 

And we initially denied her access because again, the bathrooms are currently closed to the public until we can get the men's toilet fixed.

And she apparently threw quite the fit? Like was upset that we had denied her access because she 'really had to go'

And like...lady...the store next door still has their bathrooms available you can go use that one it's not that far away.

And apparently my other manager allowed this old lady to use the bathroom after initially denying her.

But the customer was still unhappy about that initial denail.

Unhappy enough that she called the store after she got home and complained for a good thirty minutes on the phone that we denied her access (which my manager was like, no we let you use the toilet) because she had this issue and that issue and wah wah wah. 

So my other manager thinks that this customer decided to come back and enact revenge on us by sneaking into the women's restroom and creating the mess that we discovered this morning.

Which how stupidly petty. 
How childish.

How how immature.

Like seriously? You're that upset at us for denying you access to a bathroom that you came back and destroyed the bathroom? Do you think that would make us open it up quicker or what? 

Like no you stupid person. No.

*exhales*

We don't have any proof that the two old ladies were the same people.

But it seems far too much a coincidence to have 2 old ladies have issues about the bathroom within a few days of each other. 

It's just...stupid. So stupid. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

After Christmas Shopping

 It's never easy to predict how the day after Christmas will go in the retail world.

Like of course you get people returning gifts that either broke or didn't work or they don't want.

But here in the pet store world, you also get the hordes of parents bringing their kids into the store to either buy the pet that they were promised when they opened up the cage/tank on Christmas or to buy supplies for the pet they got for Christmas.

And with animals, there's always shortages with them, no matter the year. 

But this year? 2020. Where everyone has decided to buy a pet to be their quarantine buddy....

Yah, it's a lot harder to keep animals in stock because the breeders have yet to catch up with the demand that has been high on them this entire year.

And since they can't meet the demand...we therefore can't keep all the 'extra' animals in stock that we usually have at this time of year.

Like from Black Friday to Christmas I usually get in 3x as many animals as usual because it's expected a lot of people will want pets.

This year?

Hardly a thing.

I never reached the point of wondering where I was going to place all my extra animals because we had no extra animals to place.

It's been the same thing the entire year. As soon as we have animals available for sale...they're gone.

Very few have stayed in the store longer than a week.

Most are gone within a day or two of being put on the floor.

So yah...add onto that the crazy of Christmas?

And we're the lowest on animals we've been since the beginning of the pandemic.

My reptiles are all but gone. Birds down to a handful. Hamsters? Ha. We have none. Just mice and guinea pigs.

So yah.

It's not easy to know just how to face today....because who knows how many people are coming in to get animals.

And how many people will be disappointed by what they don't find.

In any case.

Overall it wasn't too bad on the animal front.

We did have a lot of people in the store.

But most of them were gathering supplies instead of animals.

With the exception of the fish.

*shakes head*

Towards the end of my shift we had a horde of people descend on the fish wall. 

And by horde I mean that two of my coworkers and I ended up having to be at the fish wall all at the same time frantically trying to catch and bag fish as quickly as possible so we could get to the next customer.

There had to be like thirty people at the fish wall wanting fish.

Which with social distancing guidelines....is not a good thing.

People were slightly too close together.

But it was hard to separate them out as some of them were groups together. Aka families and such.

So while there was some space between groups....it still felt very crowded and I couldn't help but feel uneasy at how many people were there.

Like. Guys. Pandemic.

But noooo they're so focused on getting their fish they don't really care about who else is around them.

*shakes head*

At least the rest of the day hasn't been that crazy compared to that one mob at the fish wall.

But still. 

It's always interesting to deal with after Christmas shoppers.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Christmas

Christmas Morning.

Lol it was kinda fun this year to spend it with my Sister's Family.

As the boys were so energetic and excited to see the presents that they got from Santa. 

Having the kids be so happy and tearing into their presents.

Ah. It's been the most fun I've had in a while. Fun to be in pleasant (if slightly noisy) company and just experience the joy of Christmas again.

It was a wonderful way to spend the morning. XD lol especially since I got more sleep then Kikay did as the boys were up every couple of hours asking if they could open presents yet. Poor them lol.

And we were also able to drive back up north to see the rest of the family again and open presents.

I was finally able to give my family the stockings that I'd spent most of the month stuffing full of things to give to them.

I think they liked them. 
Hopefully they liked them. 

I did what I could to put a little bit of everything in. Candy, nostalgic things, little random gizmos and a couple of nicer items that they wanted all shoved into one stocking.

It was fun. Fun to see the surprise as to what I all I had stuffed into them.

And Daddoo did an excellent job of filling my own stocking with things I could use. lol I know it was a bit of a struggle for him to figure out what to put in it. But he did great and it was fun to see all the things he'd placed into it.

We were also able to go see Grandma as well and exchange gifts and play a couple of games.

Overall it's been one of the better Christmases I've had in recent years and I'm grateful we were all able to come together and spend time as a family.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Family Traditions

I didn't think I was gonna meet up with my family tonight.

As my sister had originally invited me to come spend the night with her and her family for Christmas Eve. 

But then our brother was like "Hey, anyone want to do dinner and watch our traditional Christmas movie."

And I was like "Nooo Brother!!!" 

As I love watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas as our yearly tradition and Meralto and I tend to be more energetic than Kikay about it and I wanted to watch the movie with him and his wife, but I had already made plans with Kikay's family....

But then things ended up getting switched around with Kikay's family as other plans they had had gotten moved up...leaving us both available to head up north to hang with the family.

Which is what we did tonight.

Though with the timing of things...I ended up having to dash straight from work up north to make it to dinner in time with everyone.

But ah.

It was nice to get together for a few hours.

To have Dinner -Takeout from Texas Roadhouse- hang out and chat and then watch our Grinch movie.

It was nice.

And I'm grateful that we were able to work things out to get together again this year considering everything that has happened. 

Plus, I was able to go back to Kikay's place afterwards and spend a couple of hours there with her, her husband and her kids lol.

Me and the kids had a great time playing with the little felt figures of the shepherds, wisemen, various animals, and of course Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus, making up our own little stories while Kikay and her Husband tracked down a bible to read the story from lol. 

It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Gift Exchange

My roomies and I exchanged gifts this evening since we won't all be together again until after Christmas as we're all going to be heading out to see our families for various lengths of time.

So this evening, after the sun had set -and the stupid migraine that decided to plague today me had faded enough to be tolerable- we gathered together by the Christmas Tree my roomie had set up downstairs by my fish tank and exchanged gifts.

It was nice.

Relaxing.

Fun to see what we all got each other.

^^;; Though I do feel bad because Ash got me a couple of necklaces to help 'spoil me' a bit this year (along with some really cool Avatar posters)...and I'd ended up buying the necklaces in a set of 6 because they'd gone on a black friday sale and I couldn't resist.

Bah. Bad me for jumping the gun like that. But ahhh I love that she wanted to spoil me further and honestly the necklaces mean far more when they're given as a gift because I know someone thought of me so yah I love the necklaces she got me far more than the ones that I had bought myself lol.

Still.

It was nice.

Compared to the other Christmas gift exchanges we had with roomies in the past...this one was far more relaxed with no tension between us.

So it was great to just sit there and chat and enjoy each other's presence and presents....until my migraine sent me heading back to bed to try and get rid of it lol.

Grateful for the roomies I've had this year.

Not sure if I could have survived as well as I had without them.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Notice of Violation

 So I had this 'customer' come into the store today.

And like...I did wonder if he was a representative of something. Because he was wearing like a grey polo shirt and formal pants and was carrying a clipboard.

Though I was thinking he was a rep for one of our dog food brands if anything.

But at the same time...maybe he just needed to carry a random clipboard thing around?

Because the guy asked me a ton of questions about birds as he was thinking about getting his kids a couple of parakeets and wanted to know everything about them.

And it ended up with me having to point out pictures of parakeets on the packaging of the bird food in order to show him the difference between the female and male parakeets because he wasn't quite understanding the concept of the 'color' differences there. 

My guess is that the cones in his eyes aren't as prone to being able to tell more minute differences in color...but who knows.

In any case.

Once I finished this like thirty minute interaction with him he then asked if we carried any hemp products.

Which yes? We carry them for cats and dogs. They're basically chews that can help for a variety of issues like calming down a dog, allergies, skin and coat, bladder support etc.

The dude asked to be shown them, so I directed him to the dog ones....

And didn't think anything more about it.

Though I did see that he was talking to my other manager on duty a little bit later on...I assumed that he just had more questions and I was grateful that they were talking to him and not me because I was already tired of having pointless conversations.

-pointless meaning I spend a ton of time talking to a person only for them to not buy anything in the end when they gave off the impression they were going to be buying something today. 

It was a little while later, right when my other manager was leaving for the day.

That I happened to walk into our office and see this "Notice of Violation" sitting on the desk.

Apparently...the dude I was talking to was a Representative of our State's Agriculture and Food department.

And we apparently didn't have a 'license' to sell Hemp products. 

Which is...odd because like our store isn't just a 'mom and pop' store. No it's a huge nationwide corporation. And I'm certain the lawyers or whoever needed to be in charge of licensing product to sell would have taken care of any licensing issues at the beginning of the year.

Like nobody wants to be hit with a lawsuit. Or a notice of violation. So I'm certain we would have had all our bases covered to allow the selling of hemp products.

But at the same time like....none of these are used for people. They're all for animal use only. (though you know there's gonna be the stupid person who will try and use it) 

In any case...I flagged down my other manager before they left the store.
And they indicated that it sounded like there was a new program my state is trying to start up where they want all businesses to register that they're selling hemp products so the state can try and keep better track of who all is selling what. 

So if it's a new thing....then it's possible corporate hadn't yet received word that they were no longer in compliance in my state.

Who knows. It's a mess. I don't get it. 

In any case.

My other manager wasn't thinking it was that big of a deal but I was like "hey hang on a second" 

And contacted our Head Manager who contacted our District Manager who then had me call the 'Incident Hotline' so I could fill out an "Incident Report" so that corporate and the lawyers and anyone else needing to be involved would be made aware that we'd received this notice.

-Though I do wonder if our other sister stores have also received this notice as like....we have a good 12 stores in the state and surely our one store can't be the only one in violation.

Like...is it because we didn't have a certificate hanging somewhere interesting?

Or is the guy just taking offense to our store in particular? Were we the first hit? Who knows. 

But yah I had the fun time of trying to fill out an Incident Report over the phone and faxing the papers we received over to the right people and yah....

Fun times.

Especially when it's like two days before Christmas.

And my closing manager with me is running around like crazy trying to back up cashier -cus the line was reaching the back of the store, take out curbside pick up orders, help customers around the store etc. 

I felt bad. Leaving them to it with my poor petcare person stuck with a difficult customer and the cashier trying to ring up customers as fast as they could.

So yah.

Stressful day. Hopefully the higher ups can figure out everything and get us into compliance and whatever else they need to do.

Guess we'll see.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Star Light

I gotta say, I continue to be grateful for the fire that nearly took my current place a couple of years ago...if only for the fact that the burning and subsequent cutting down of the trees on the hill behind our home allowed us to have access to such an amazing view of the valley and the lake nearby.

Before the fire, the trees blocked out the view. Especially during the spring and summer when the branches were covered in leaves and you couldn't see through them at all.

And while it gets burning hot in our house now that we don't have those shade trees during the summer.

The view of the valley and the sunsets is totally worth it.

And tonight was another reason to enjoy having no trees behind our house.

As my roomies and I were able to just walk right onto our deck (newly rebuilt woot!) and look to the south west and see the 'Christmas Star' shining brightly towards the horizon.

It's a definite highlight and I'm grateful we were able to experience it, even if the photos I tried to take with my phone don't quite do it justice lol. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Stockings

 So this evening I opened stockings with my Godparents. XD lol.

Originally I'd been planning to open one stocking on Christmas Eve and the second on Christmas Evening.

But my stockings to them arrived yesterday and I was excited for them to open them with me.

So tonight we did a video chat and opened the stockings together.

It was amazing.

Like it's been a while since I've gotten to see them or hear their voices as we mostly communicate via texting.

So to spend around an hour watching them and listening to them was amazing. lol.

It was also great to see each other's reactions to the gifts we got for each other as we pulled them out of the stockings. <3 

Loved this.

I may have to just do stocking gifts every year because it was fun to watch my Godparents react to all the things I managed to stuff into their stockings. XD lol. It was a relief too as I was worried that they wouldn't like their gifts.

A needless worry.

But ah.

It was fun. So much fun.

I can't wait until I'm actually able to go out and see them again.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Man Baby Lawsuit

You know how the Christmas season can bring out the best in people?

But like....also can bring out the worst in people?

Yah. Had to deal with one of the latter today at work.

I had a couple walk into the store today.

The woman, wearing a mask, the man (it's nearly always the man) not wearing one.

So I approached.

"Do you have a mask?" I ask. "As they are required to be worn in the store." 

"No." He responded. "I have a medical condition." 

-Truthfully. I'm pretty certain that 98% of the customers who claim to have a 'medical condition' that prevents them from wearing a mask are lying through their teeth. 

And like...even if they do have this medical condition that makes it difficult to breathe...why in the world would you willingly be out in public when there's a virus running rampant that makes it hard to breathe? 

I don't get their logic.

In any case.

I told the customer that if he couldn't wear a mask that we do offer curbside service for him, but if he wanted to be in the store he needed to wear a mask.

And the woman was like "Wait, are you telling me that you're kicking him out of the store?" 

Which yes, lady, I am. If he won't wear a mask he has to leave. 

And the dude was like "wow." and you know from that one word that he's gonna be trouble. He pulls out his phone and is like "Let me get your name and number. I need to record this."

Like dude. 

I'm not letting you film me. I'm not letting you try to defame my character merely because I am following Company Policy and I'm following our State Mask Mandate that requires all masks to be worn inside buildings.

So I tried to walk away, put a cart away and the dude wasn't having it.

And I was like "As a privately owned business we have the right to set policies and our policy is that you must wear a mask." -not quite as eloquent but the general consensus.

And the dude was like "This is against my rights! Under HIPPA you can't do this!! Expect a lawsuit!" Before he storms out of the store. 

Dude. You need to read that HIPPA closer because you can only claim that we are infringing on your rights if we don't offer you another service to help you out. BUT. We offer Curbside Service. Therefore. We are still in compliance with the law. We are still helping customers and giving them access to the store, it's just access in a different way because for their health and for their safety they cannot be in the store without a mask. 

But yah, man baby decided that he didn't want to take that lying down and so ended up coming back into the store and demanding to speak to a manager.

Which I am a manager.

But I was still shaking for the positively black energy he gave off during that first encounter where he basically threatened us with a lawsuit.

So my Head Manager went up to meet him instead.

And told him the same thing I had. 

-Though she was the one to clarify that HIPPA only applies if we deny him service and by offering curbside service we are providing a way for him to access our store. 

Dude wasn't happy about it. 

Threatened a lawsuit again.

Wanted my manager's name and number.

And at one point was like "What are you gonna call the cops on me?" when my manager asked him to leave the store if he refused to put on a mask.

And they were like "Yes. If you refuse to leave the store we will have to call the cops."

"Okay then call them."

"So you are verbally telling me that you're refusing to leave the store?"

Yah the customer ended up leaving after that point.

But like...Gah.

Both my head manager and I were just *rolling eyes* at the dude. Because seriously. Such a manbaby. 

And my Head Manager was awesome because they offered to buy me lunch which was amazing and a much needed pick me up after having to deal with that dude. 

I just...it's amazing how many people are so inconsiderate of others.

Like yes. At the beginning of the pandemic I was leery of wearing a mask. But that was because I didn't fully understand the virus because our information was "It's just a bad cold"

But like. I learned better. I wear the mask because I want to do my part to keep people safe.

And it boggles my mind that I still encounter people every single day who don't want to wear the mask. Who get upset at being asked to do so. 

Like guys...is it really that bad to wear a piece of fabric over you nose that could keep someone else safe??

*exhales* 

Though I do want to give a shout out to the couple who saw the first altercation occur between me and this guy and came right to me and my head manager to warn us that the customer had returned inside the store still not wearing a mask.

Good for them for trying to look out for us. For trying to keep us safe. 

As that's what's most important. Keeping everyone as safe and as healthy as possible. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Package Arrival

 So for Christmas this year, I decided to do something slightly different and give my family member stocking presents.

Aka...I buy a bunch of little presents and stuff them in a stocking as a larger present. XD lol. 

I ended up doing this because I wanted to make sure my family had stockings this year. 

In any case, my godparents too got on board with the idea of sending stockings to their godchildren (and my dad) for Christmas instead of a random present. 

Which was fun. XD lol because all our stockings arrived from them at our houses on the same day.

and ah. It was fun to have AT so excited for everyone to get their stockings. lol Though I was rather surprised that the rest of my family decided to open their stockings today.

I would have thought that they would have waited until Christmas. 

but nope. Open them they did.

Lol and my Godparents were so excited to have everyone opening their gifts today that they wanted me to open mine as well. 

*shakes head*

I'm more patient than my family.

And after a long difficult day at work that resulted in a headache behind my eyes.

I didn't want my opening of the gift to be tainted by the work and migraine annoyances. 

Plus.

My own stockings to my godparents hadn't yet arrived at their place.

And I loved the idea of us opening our stockings on the same day. Maybe even video calling and opening them together.

So for now.

Despite my godparent's attempts to convince me otherwise....I'm waiting. XD lol. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Late

 It happens to me like...once or twice a year.

Where I end up late to work.

Mostly due to alarms not being set right or me reading my schedule wrong. 

But thankfully it's not a common occurence.

Even though I don't like it when it does happen.

Which it did today.

Though honestly I'm not surprised I was late to work considering everything.

As I had been awake off and on throughout the night due to my migraine. As the stupid thing refused to go away despite the shower and the heatpacks and the listening to music to distract myself so I could fall asleep.

No I would wake up because my muscles were aching, or my mouth was too dry, or my brain decided it needed to tell me a brand new story idea and work it out right then.

So I was tired. 

Very tired.

And I'm guessing that the music I was listening too...blended in with my alarm music.

As I do remember waking up to my 6:25am alarm.

Which should have been a sign because I have an alarm set for 6:20am as well to just like...gradually wake myself up.

But if I didn't hear the first one. And the second one was going off....that probably means the first one wouldn't go off again if I missed it.

However. I was certain that I had hit snooze on my 6:25 alarm and rolled back over expecting to hear my 6:20 alarm go off at 6:30 and I would get up and get ready for work then.

....

It didn't go off.

If my 6:25 alarm went off again ten minutes later....I didn't hear it. I didn't hear anything until 7:34 when my fellow manager called me asking if I was okay because I was supposed to have been into work at 7 this morning.

*exhales*

Yah I was fine---mostly---still had the migraine and I was tired....but I was fine. 

So yah. I ended up being an hour late to work.

Which in the grand scheme of things didn't stress me out too much. I know my job well enough and the fact that I've had to work on 'short hours' during the pandemic before didn't have me too worried about getting my tasks accomplished.

No. I figure that 'things happen for a reason' and there was a reason why I needed to be an hour late to work today. I'm guessing I avoided an accident or maybe going to work later helped my migraine to not be as bad. Who knows. 

In any case. I was late. 

Which seemed to be the trend of the day as our groomer of the morning was late as well because they thought they worked an hour later than they were scheduled. 

But yah.

Overall the day went well (once I got my migraine mostly under control) and I was trying to figure out how to make up the hour of time that I had lost.

Like the easiest way would have been to stay an extra hour...but with a migraine it's not a good idea to stay late.

Then. 1:30pm happened.

Or probably like 1:20pm happened? It was around 1:30 anyways.

Where suddenly everyone needed my help.

I had five different customers need my help at the same time. three of them were at the small pets where one couple wanted to get a guinea pig, and a parent/child duo wanted to have more information on chinchillas and what cages they needed, and a grandmother wanted to get a hamster for her grandchild for christmas.

Then I also had another parent/child duo wanting to get a bearded dragon as well as another couple needing help grabbing fish at the fish wall.

And it was like a constant "I'll help you as soon as I can but there's two customers in front of you" situation and it was like AHHHHH.

because before that point the store had been dead in my department. One customer needing help at a time.

So to suddenly get swarmed with people needing my help at the exact time frame where my relief was supposed to be coming in so I could get a lunch....was super annoying. XP

And like it was nearly 2pm before I finally was freed from all the customers.

And I was off at 3:30 today. 

My managers gave me the option of either going on lunch now....or clocking out half an hour early.

Originally I chose the half hour early because yay early and it was only an hour away.

But then I was like "wait....I was an hour late to work today...."

So I ended up not taking a lunch -though i did duck back into the breakroom so I could eat something real quick before I died of hunger- and managed to shave off half an hour of my hour absence lol.

So now I'm only half an hour short in my hours. Which considering I clocked out fifteen minutes late earlier this week...means that there's really only a 15 minute difference in my time and it's not that much time at all.

SO yah. 

Fun times.

Glad to get home XD lol

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Short Again

Gonna keep this short because I've had a migraine allllll day.

But you know how I said yesterday that it's not common for people to claim that they got the wrong change?

Well, one of my fellow managers messaged our group chat (as I wasn't at work today) saying that a crazy lady came into work like right at close claiming that she had been shorted $10 tonight. 

She was a lot...more mean...yelling at our cashiers and claiming that they 'started' it and that she 'knew we were closed and wanted to go home' but her $10 was far more important than that. 

*shakes head*

She sounds like a lunatic.

But the manager on duty ended up giving her the $10 she claimed she hadn't gotten.

And thankfully the tills were accurate when they were counted later on. So the lady had actually been shorted $10.

And while she could have gone about it in a nicer fashion. Or you know...waited until the morning to come back and definitely could have not yelled at my employees....

It's crazy that for two nights in a row. Two different people who were helped by two different employees, both ended up being short $10.

Like what are the odds?

Crazy Crazy. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A $10 Difference

So it was the middle of a rush. Where we had three cashiers on the registers and I was over in petcare helping customers get crickets and fish.

When our first cashier came over the radio telling us that there was a customer here who needed to speak to a manager. 

Which I was busy helping customers at the fish wall and my other manager (thankfully I had a second one on duty at the time) was helping to backup cashier at the register along with my petcare person. 

So it was a bit before any of us could break free to help this customer. 

I ended up being the one out of the two managers able to approach the customer first as my other manager was dealing with another customer who was wanting their receipt looked up.

But this customer -who was rather patient to wait a good fifteen minutesish before I could get to them.

Was waiting because they claimed that they'd been shorted around $10 in change. 

As apparently they were one of 'those' customers that cashiers hate that buys like a $5 item and uses a $100 to pay for it. 

And their change back was $93 something.

But when they got to their car and looked at their change....they realized there wasn't enough money there. They had their Twentys and their Ones and their assorted coinage. 

But there was no $10. 

It wasn't a situation I had to deal with before.

And apparently policy is that we would take down the customer's information and after we close down the tills for the night we'd count them out and if there was a discrepancy aka more money in the till than there should have been, then we would call the customer the next day to get their money.

And like I remembered that policy would be to shut down the till and count it out to make sure it's accurate. 

But we were literally in the middle of a rush. We had all three registers going and a never ending line of customers waiting to be helped. It wasn't a good idea to completely shut down one register for like twenty minutes to count a till and make sure the customer was telling us the truth.

And like the cashier wasn't helpful as they were like "yes I remember helping this customer but I thought I gave them their $10 though I think I gave it as two $5 since we were low on tens." 

So after doing a brief conference with my other manager.

I decided to believe the customer. That they had been shorted.

Because like...$10 honestly isn't that much and the fact that they were willing to wait a good twenty minutes or so to get this ten dollars made it seem far more likely that they were telling the truth. 

Like I could see it being more of a lie if the customer was like "I was shorted $20 or $60!!" or something.

but $10. Yah. It's not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but is a lot of money when you've broken a $100 and expect that $93 back. 

And the fact that they had all the bills neatly stacked in their hand along with the change.

Yah like...who would look at a store in the middle of a rush, slip $10 into their pocket and then go back and claim that they were shorted?

I'm sure there are some crazy people who do that.

But overall likelyhood was that the customer was telling the truth.

So when there was a clear moment between customers I opened up the till and gave them their $10 and sent them on their way.

And thankfully. I was right. 

Because when I counted the till after we closed that night. It was accurate.

Well...as accurate as tills can be. I think there was like a 25 cent discrepancy. 

Which it's not a big deal if the tills are over or short a few coins. Mistakes happen when giving out change after all.

But thankfully it wasn't a $10 discrepancy. 

So yay for the customer getting their money and being truthful. lol

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Shipped Off

 I went to the post office today.

Which, because I go so rarely, is always a traumatic experience even if nothing traumatic ever happens there lol.

It's just one of those ethereal places that feels like things within should be more complicated than it really it is.

Like what's complicated about dropping off a package? You take it, give it to the person, pay a fee to ship it and then leave. Tada!

And yet every time I end up going to the post office for that exact reason...it just feels weird. Like I'm missing a step. That I'm about to do something wrong. 

Thankfully, the line was moving pretty quickly today. As at this time of year there's almost always a line and with the social distancing precautions the lines always feel longer they are just from being spaced around six feet apart. 

But the line wasn't out the door so I count that as a plus. And they had like four different people at the counter helping customers so the line was moving far more quickly than I expected it to. So woot! Nothing complicated there.

And this time around I had the package properly wrapped and labeled and didn't make it more complicated on myself unlike last christmas where I overthought a couple of things. XD lol. 

So yah.

Now comes the easy but stressful part.

Waiting to hear that my package has arrived at it's destination. :S Hopefully it all goes well. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Failing the Waiting Game

I can be a patient person. Wait for the right moment. Wait for things to fall in my favor.

But sometimes things don't fall into my favor. Where waiting for something...doesn't end up paying off.

*exhales* and it is definitely frustrating when it happens.

Especially when I recognize in the middle of the waiting process that I could have gone a different route and saved myself some irritation.

The first instance of yesterday where I played the waiting game and failed was when I went on my lunch at work.

When I got into the breakroom another coworker was already there.

One that had only recently returned this week from being sick with the virus. 
And before getting the virus, this coworker wasn't the best at following the protocols of wearing your mask and such.

And hasn't seemed to have learned their lesson as I still find them on occasion with their mask down and such.

Which makes sense in the breakroom where you can't exactly wear a mask when you're eating.

But my coworker had obviously finished eating and was just sitting there maskless.

And perhaps I was being overly paranoid.

But like they had just got back....and I didn't really want to take my mask off and eat lunch when they're sitting right there breathing the same air I am.

*exhales*

But I figured that they were probably already halfway through their break and that they'd be going back to work soon. So I would just eat my lunch during the last half of my break instead of the first half. No big deal.

And it seemed like this was true....except time kept passing....and my coworker kept sitting there.

And I was suddenly aware that said coworker had taken like an hour long lunch the day before...

It was annoying too because the coworker kept shifting like they were about to get up and leave...except they never did. 

And honestly, what I should have done when I saw my coworker sitting there maskless (besides asking them to put on a mask) would have been to just grab my food from my locker and then go into our New Arrivals room and have my lunch in there. As I have done that before when I needed some 'me' time.

But I hadn't because I'd thought they'd been in the breakroom longer than they apparently had.

Soo...I ended up not being able to eat my lunch. Because my coworker NEVER LEFT before my break was over. 

Which either meant they were taking an hour long lunch again, or they had started their break right before I came in and were slow off the draw to go back on the clock.

So yah.... I was irritated at them and myself. Because I could have just gone elsewhere and had my break and my food there.

Instead I waited for nothing and ended up having to just shove some food in my mouth as I left the room to go clock back in. *exhales* So frustrating.

In any case. 

The other instance today was that I wanted to go take a shower, but my roommate ended up bringing a friend home to hang out and I didn't really want to take said shower while they were there. And I figured that they would be here for a couple of hours at least, but it wouldn't be that long of a visit so I could totally wait to take a shower until after they left.

...but time passed...and the friend stayed there visiting and visiting and visiting.....and didn't end up leaving our place until nearly 1am. 

ONE A.M.

Gah.

Honestly, I probably could have just gone and taken the shower and not worried about the fact that my roomie had a friend over. 

It just feels kinda awkward to do it....hence why I waited.

but yah no. Again the waiting gamble didn't play off as 1am was rather late to take a shower as I wasn't quite in the mood to sleep with wet hair.

So I ended up having to take one this morning.

Which no big deal.

but yah....sometimes I really should take more decisive action and not just wait for things to take their course in time....because it doesn't always benefit me if I do that. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's COLD outside

 Ah the 'joys' of living in a college town. *exhales*

So. Apparently last night someone(s) had the brilliant (aka extremely stupid) idea to buy a bunch of goldfish and leave them on the doorsteps of everyone who lived in a particular apartment complex.

Which even in the best of circumstances is a stupid idea if you're just leaving something there for people to eventually find as if the goldfish were in bags...those bags do eventually run out of air and like...if it takes a long time for people to find them...they may find a dead fish instead of a live one.

And like...people are already stressed out as it is with fiances because of the pandemic. Why would you be cruel and force upon them the obligation of taking care of another live creature when they may not have the financial means to do so? It's just...*exhales* it's stupid.

HOWEVER.

This particular 'gift giving' perpetrator made it worse.

How?

Because yesterday it was flurrying (aka snowing but none of it was sticking to the ground) off and on throughout the day constantly.

Which means that if it's cold enough for snow to form it's cold enough for water to freeze in general.

Which means that any water left outside will freeze.

So these goldfish were left outside of people's doorsteps in freezing temperatures.

Add onto that that the actual storm hit during the night and enough snow fell to give us a good two or three inches of the white stuff on the ground....

Yah. I'm assuming that alot of people opened their apartment doors to find a frozen bag/bowl of water with a goldfish inside. 

It's horrible. It's cruel. Like did this stupid person even think at all? 

No. No probably not.

Thankfully...some of the goldfish did manage to survive the freezing process. Where they were able to 'come out' of it and revive themselves as the water thawed out. 

But still I only know of like 9 goldfish out of who knows how many that did make it.

And it's just...Gah.

Some days I really hate living in a college town. Especially when this sort of thing happens.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

That's My Name!

So we had a fun little unintentional mix-up at the store today involving our curbside pickup. 

Which I only discovered when a customer came into the store wanting to pick up their online order. Because my other manager was buy on the phone by the online orders and my cashier was helping a customer at the register I jumped on over to help the customer grab their online order. 

So I was like "Okay what's the name."

And she was like "Oh, it's Samantha Jenkins" (not actual name) 

And I try to grab our Ipad when I'm doing orders so I can double check that I'm grabbing the right items and all the items.

But at that point in time the ipads weren't visible to me. So I just went to our staging area and found her name and grabbed this big bag of dog food and was like "Okay! Here you go!"

Only....that wasn't her order. 

Her name was on the order, yes, but it wasn't her order. 

:S That wasn't good. I glanced at the order on her phone and went and found the Ipad to see what should have been in her order.

And at the same time caught my other manager on the phone saying something like "Yes, I have the bag of food here. I don't know why that order has your name on it when you didn't order that stuff--" 

I put the pieces together and was like "Are you talking to a Samantha Jenkins?" 

And my manager responded with a "Yes? Why?" 

I point to the other customer and was like "Her name is Samantha Jenkins too." 

Turns out...we had two customers with the exact same name place orders on the same day for pick up.

I'm not sure how the first Sam got her order....it was unclear if it was a doordash order or if she realize we put the wrong bags in her trunk until she got home....

But in any case...first Sam was accidentally given second Sam's order. 

So she had to drive back to the store (which luckily was only like 10-15 minutes away) to give back the stuff she got by mistake and pick up her order.

And I was like....well we shouldn't have the second sam have to wait for the first sam to come back to the store, lets just repick the order and send her on her way.

 A brilliant idea if I do say so myself.

Except apparently one of the items the customer ordered....was the last one on the shelf *exhales* So we couldn't repick the order because we had no more product to pick for it.

So she ended up having to wait for the first Sam to come back in order to get her stuff.

Thankfully both ladies were understanding of the mixup and weren't too mad about it. 

But honestly.

What are the odds of people with similar names deciding to do online orders on the same day? *shakes head* At least we were able to fix the situation. So yay.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Exchanging Money

 So I have a friend that lives across the country from me. 

Which is unfortunate because like....I want to hang out with them sooooo badly.

But being like an airplane ride away in the middle of a pandemic...makes it rather difficult to just 'drop by.'

*exhales*

In any case.

We usually exchange Christmas Gifts every year.

But this year I was concerned as my friend is traveling to see the in-laws for Christmas and I wasn't sure if my gift to them would arrive in time when I ordered it.

So I suggested that maybe this year I would send them like an amazon giftcard instead. That way they could get something they needed, and I wouldn't have to worry about the gift not showing up on time.

Lol and my friend was like "well, if you send me a gift card then I'm gonna send you a gift card too!" 

Which evensies I suppose. 

I was fine with that. Though I had no idea what I would want to get myself off of Amazon.

Mostly because I don't know yet which gifts from there my family got me lol.

However.

Early this morning my friend texted me and was like "Hey...if we're just basically sending each other money....why don't we just set a price range and then just go buy something for ourselves." 

Lol which yah...the logic there makes sense. If I'm sending them $$ and they're sending me $$ we might as well just 'pretend' we sent each other the money and then go spend our own cash on gifts since we would have used that cash to send to each other anyways.

....I'm talking myself into confusion but it makes sense i promise.

However I was like.....Huh. What should I buy myself then?

Because again, I don't know what all my family got me.

BUT! With just sending 'money' to each other instead of an amazon gift card that opened up my horizons to more than just the amazon store.

And I was like....well I did buy this one thing for myself that falls in this price range. I already got it but I can pretend I got them from my friend.

But it just didn't feel right because I'd bought them before we agreed to spend money on ourselves. lol. 

Soooo it's taken me most of the day to consider it.

But I'm gonna go buy myself some fish tomorrow at work.

Because I know that's something people won't get me. XD lol. I mean they could get me a giftcard to the pet store, but they wouldn't get me the live fish itself. So yah. I'm gonna see what fish come in in our shipment and then buy five or six fish within the budget range we set each other. ^^;;

I'm looking forward to it. :D I can't wait to see the fish my friend got me!! XD lol

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's So Crowded

Hobby Lobby is such a weird place.

Like it doesn't seem to matter what time of day you go there...but like...it's always busy. And it always throws me off. 

Of course....it's been probably a year since I've stepped foot inside of the place. So my experiences are probably skewed considering I tend to venture in around the holiday season in search of gifts. 

And like...due to the pandemic I haven't been inside the store at all this year before today.

But I was kinda expecting the place to be like other stores I've visited in the morning.

Namely. Nearly dead.

And either Hobby Lobby is always busy. Or else it's always busy during the holiday season. 

As there were people everywhere. Like...I expected with the pandemic that it would be a little more dead.

But nope.

Like by the time I got in line there were 4 active registers going that had at least 4 people in every line. And they ended up opening like two more registers while I was standing in line to deal with the people. :S 

It's crazy.

And like it was barely noon.

I can't even imagine it being so busy that you need like 6 people to run the registers.

Of course...considering that like every lady (as yes 98% of the people in the store were women) who stepped up to the register decided to be 'difficult' probably is the reason why they have to have so many cashiers on hand. Because honestly I probably stood there for a good 10 minutes in line with just 4 people because the people in front of me (and I could see other people around me at other registers) were constantly going "Hey is this on sale?" "Oh hey we need a price check here." "I have a coupon for this!" "No i swear the price was this!" 

Like I get it. You want to save money.

But when it's every customer. It has to get a bit old. *exhales* I feel for the people who work there. 

The other annoying thing...besides standing in line and realizing that there are a ton of people who apparently like to shop in craft stores on a Wednesday morning....is the fact that practically all the customers in the store had no concept of social distancing.

Like yes we're all wearing masks.

But that doesn't mean that you can come up and stand right beside me. Social Distancing is also key to keeping everyone safe along with wearing the mask.

*exhales*

And like it felt like every time I stopped to try and look at something, there was another person who decided they needed to look at something right next to me or right behind me and GAH.

Like people SOCIAL DISTANCING.

I would have to constantly move away in order to keep proper spacing because people apparently like the herd together even in a pandemic. XP It was annoying. So annoying.

I mean I do tend to encounter it in other places I happen to end up at on occasion.

But like...Hobby Lobby definitely had me on edge the entire time because of how many people were trying to step into my bubble so they could look at a thing near me. *shakes head*

I was glad to get out of there. Hopefully I don't have to go back in there anytime soon. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Toe Pain

It's weird....how the human body works.

Like just how it reacts to things. 

Like one day everything is fine. And then in the next moment something is 'WRONG' and you're in PAIN and you don't know WHY.

Yah.

I've been dealing with that for the past week or so.

With my Big Toe.

Like I think I noticed it when I took a long shower the other day. Because I had a migraine (again) and was trying to beat my muscles into relaxing via hot water.

When I realized my toe was aching more than normal.

But I didn't think much of it. Thought I might have just cramped it from sitting in the tub for so long in a balled position. 

But it happened again with the next shower.

And like...I couldn't see anything wrong with my toe though it did feel a bit tender.

And I was like...maybe I just need to cut my nails? As like sometimes I realize that I've let my toe nails grow a bit longer than they probably should be and so I cut them back so they don't, I don't know...rub wrong against my shoes and my socks and such.

But the other day I ended up taking a closer look at this big toe. As it was feeling more tender.

And decided that maybe I should cut the nail back a bit more than I usually do.

Because maybe I'd somehow gotten a splinter or something and it was irritating me? It was hard to know. 

But I just...messed with my toe and nail to try and figure out where the source of this pain was coming from as it was mostly focused on the inside tip of my toe. And while there seemed to be a slight callus there or maybe just a bump of dried skin...it didn't seem like much.

But I could tell that it was tender by the nail as in just cutting away and filing and such...the inside edge of the nail was suuuppeeeerr tender. Like eye watering pain tender.

Which probably indicates some sort of infection or irritation affecting the nail...under the nail. 

As there was also a bit of like...white pus that came out from under my toe....and over the past week it's gotten more painful to like walk around on it.

And tonight...ah yah.

It was bad.

Like my toe was a bit sore already because yesterday? Sunday? I ended up making myself bleed in trying to figure out where the pain was coming from and in the process I created like a sort of blood blister or something? Or just clipped a little bit too much dead skin away who knows....but like...yah my toe hurt.

And I had decided that there was the possibility that I was dealing with an ingrown toenail.

Which I'm honestly at a loss as to how that happened....as I usually have my shoes roomier because my pinky toes aren't quite normal...but I'm guessing it might be the socks I was wearing...maybe they were too tight and squishing my toes together weird or something. Who knows.

But tonight. My toe was in agony. Like it was difficult to stay on my feet sort of agony.

Which is not good when you're working a closing shift and you're the only manager on duty. *exhales*

So I kinda just had to deal with the pain, deal with the heat I could feel radiating from the inside edge of my big toe. 

But as soon as I got home? Nope. No more.

I gritted my teeth and got to work doing a bit of a more thorough investigation of the nail, trying to see and pull away the very tender skin in the process, if there was like a piece of nail I had missed that was jabbing into the skin and causing me all this pain.

Apparently there was.

It took a bit of time...as I kept having to stop because OUCH PAIN. 

But I think I managed to get the annoyance out. 

As the pain has been a lot less since then.

I mean there's still a bit of tenderness to the area...considering all the manipulating and pulling and tugging and digging I was doing to try and find the source of my agony.

But hopefully I fixed the toenail. Hopefully it won't grow back into the skin...but I'll definitely have to keep a closer eye on it for the next little while to make sure. 

In the meantime...it's kinda like....I just gotta let the toe recover. Let the areas that were jabbed and prodded and stabbed heal from the trauma. As until I have those more on the mend...it's hard to know if its just healing pain or agony pain. 

Guess we'll find out. 

*exhales* Silly toe. Why do you have to be so high maintenance all of a sudden? 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi