Intense Mouthwash

 They sent a cleaning crew to 'deep clean' our store today.

Though I suppose "Deep Clean" is hardly the word for it as our registers received a far deeper clean a couple months ago than the cleaning done today.

No, I suppose "Deep Clean" in this case means "Spray with much stronger chemicals than normal."

In any case.

We had a cleaning crew come into the store this morning. 

I think on behalf of corporate?? Idk all the protocols. We were only informed yesterday afternoon that they were coming..

But I'm pretty sure it's some sort of protocol that's in place if COVID cases spike in certain stores.

Honestly, it's probably amazing that we'e gone nearly 3 years without having to have the crew come in.

However.

We had 4 groomers get sick at the same time this past week. 

-Not surprising honestly because they all struggle to wear their masks properly even after being required to wear them for like...THREE YEARS. *exhales*

In any case.

We had 4 groomers out sick. Not sure if they were all for COVID.....but considering that around half the people in the Salon have caught the Virus with most of them being within the last week?

Yah. I can see the need for a 'deep clean'

Which was basically a handful of guys in hazmat gear coming in with fancy sprayers and spray bottles and spraying down all the high traffic areas that the people in the salon would frequent.

Namely the Salon, but also the breakroom, the bathrooms, and the clock in room.

And like. Deep cleans are nice. Makes one feel....idk more secure that what they're touching is clean I guess?

But the SMELL is something else entirely.

Not that the spraying smell was bad...but it was...overpowering. Like having to stand next to a lady wearing way too much perfume.

Only this perfume was more of the minty listerine mouthwashy sort of smell. 

And it was dialed up to like an 11.

Seriously the scent was so strong in the rooms that it made it difficult to breath. 

And even being home for hours now and away from the store....I feel like I still have the burning scent stuck up my nose. Gah.

I'm hoping the smell is less tomorrow when I go in. Because it was rather difficult to go anywhere that the cleaning guys had been knowing I'd be faced with that scent. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Slow

  It's kinda weird.

To have the store be dead.

Like I did notice things going a bit more back to normal customer wise this past summer. Where we'd have slow days.

But after like two years of dealing with pandemic crazy that seemed to bring a constant stream of customers into the store....

It's really really weird that January has felt rather dead.

Like it's a normal feeling. All the Christmas Crazy is done with. All the returns have been returned that were gotten for Christmas.

The store usually dies around this time for a bit before ramping back up for Valentines Day and then other holidays and then Summer and once again the Holiday season.....

But it feels a bit out of left field.

Since it's been a good two years since we've had consistent slow days.

Which is probably helped by people going back to work and back to school and maybe just maybe by the fact that omicron is surging in the area and maybe people are actually smart enough to stay home instead of visiting a pet store for funsies.

But at the same time.

It kinda feels like we're back at the beginning of the pandemic again.

Mostly in the shipping area.

Sure there is product shortages.

But I'm mostly meaning in live pets.

Like I didn't have a rodent/bird shipment in this week. 

Which is....odd. Very odd considering that I only have like 7 hamsters in the store currently. I only have 4 guinea pigs.

I have 18 cages for rodents....and only 6 of them have animals in them. 

I haven't gotten a reptile shipment for two weeks. (Though there's a chance it will come tomorrow) 

Like....it's odd to have this random shortage happening with the animals.

Especially since we were doing so well during the Christmas season in keeping most creatures in stock.

It's just....weird.

Maybe it's a fluke. Maybe it's a random occurrence of "hey none of the animals are ready yet, we have to wait an extra week."

Who knows.

But it is odd. 

As I feel like we should be able to fill up completely on animals now that the demand has lessened significantly.

And yet the cages just get emptier....despite the days being slower.....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Avoiding Chaos

I usually try to not let the fact that my plans don't always go according to plan get to me.

After all, if things don't happen exactly the way I want them to....maybe it's for a reason.

Take for example.

Today.

I had plans to meet up with family today. Do a lunch. Meet up around noon.

The around noon part is the important part because I didn't plan to meet AT noon. Just AROUND noon. which gives me less pressure and less stress to try and get somewhere on time. 

Which is a good thing....as I didn't sleep well last night.

Which meant I ended up sleeping in later than planned.

To the point where I woke up like...ten minutes before my original planned time to leave.

And I can get ready in ten minutes. No pressure there. I can roll out of bed, grab my clothes, and get ready in ten minutes. I do it every day for work. 

So I could have left on time. 

But I didn't.

Because as I was getting ready...I decided that my hair was feeling a bit too...not greasy...but that I would feel more comfortable if I took a quick shower to wash my hair so I would feel a bit more comfortable.

Said shower meant that I didn't end up leaving until like twenty minutes later than I'd planned to.

Which again, not a major stressor as I would still make it up to lunch close to noon if not exactly at noon. 

In any case.

I get on the freeway. Hightailing it up to our lunch destination.

And....I'm not quite sure where I was at the moment....it was still familiar ground, I think just before I take my usual exit to get to work....

When the dump truck in the lane to the right of me decides it wants to merge over into my lane.

With full knowledge that dump trucks don't always have their tops covered and with my windshield already filled with rock chips from construction vehicles kicking up or throwing rocks....there was no way I was going to stay behind said dump truck. (especially because it was driving slower than I wanted to drive)

So I merge over into the fast lane.

Just in time to see a large tire -just the outer rim a dozen feet ahead of the dump truck in the middle of the lane. 

There was a bit of tire debris in my lane as well, but nothing as major as the big round outer rim. 

I'm not even sure I would have had time to see said piece of tire if I'd stayed behind the dump truck before hitting it.

But in the left lane of the truck I did see it and had time to slow down enough to make sure I didn't hit any pieces of anything in my lane either. 

At the same time I'm avoiding tire pieces and wondering if other cars are going to hit that actual tire rim I notice a car off to the left, and then two cars off to the right...one of them down in the ditch next to the road, and then a cement truck also pulled over. 

Which...I'm not sure which vehicle lost it's tire.

But it was obvious that the four vehicles had all been involved in said issue with the tire. 

And I can't help but wonder....if I hadn't taken the time to take a morning shower....would I have been one of those vehicles?? Would I have been hit by the tire flying off? Crashed? 

Who knows.

Like it had to be a mostly recent thing because no police cars had shown up yet and no slow down had happened yet for the giant tire piece still in the middle of the road.

So it's possible I could have been part of the tire crash.

It's possible that if I hadn't moved over to avoid being behind the dump truck I could have hit the fragment and had major issues ahead.

But I didn't..

All because I chose to take a shower. All because I gave myself the leeway of "around noon" instead of "at noon." 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Upgrades

 Sometimes I don't like it when technology upgrades.

Call me a creature of stability. Of habit.

But if I get used to having something work one way.....I really don't like it when it changes to be a different way.

Like. I get it. 

People are always looking for ways to improve things. Make them easier. Better. Faster to use.

But after a while...you kinda get used to how the thing works right? So why change it if it's working perfectly fine?

Honestly.

This is me just rolling my eyes as my phone decided it needed to upgrade and install a new whatever version of whatever program it's running on.

And now things are just slightly different.

Buttons moved around in the texting apps. 

Notifications looking different.

It's not all bad changes....just annoying ones as it means I'll need to adjust again to where everything is.

But hopefully the swiping to text feature has gotten easier to use....I'm still not sure on that one.....haven't used my phone much today. So we'll see how that goes in the coming days.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

So. Dumb.

People....people can be so dumb sometimes....and yet they think they're smart.

I had a customer call the store today. A bit after 7pm. For a curbside pickup.

Now. We don't do curbside after 7pm. That's the cut off time. If customers come after that time for their online orders, they then need to come into the store and grab it from there. 

But before I could inform this customer about that.

They proceeded to tell me. "I'm Covid Positive" 

.
..
...
..
.

You mean to tell me.....that you're Positive for Covid. And instead of QUARANTINING in your FREAKING HOUSE like you're SUPPOSED to. You Chose to Drive out in Public to grab some food you ordered online?! 

*exhales* 

Like....How stupid can you get.

Yes. If you stay in your car that does limit your ability to expose yourself to other people.

But you STILL SHOULDN'T BE OUT AND ABOUT ATTEMPTING TO SHOP.

That's what doordash is for. That's what neighbors and family are for. HAVE THEM COME GET YOUR FREAKING ORDER. And STOP RISKING poor workers lives because you're a freaking idiot who can't bear to stay home.

Like. Seriously. So many people are getting sick from the virus. SO MANY. and I'm certain that a lot of them could have been prevented if people would have just STAYED HOME like this customer should have done.

But nooooooo.

Like we had 40,000 people test positive this weekend. FORTY THOUSAND. 

And here this customer is, expecting us to come up to their car and give them their order??

*exhales*

I mean. I wasn't in the mood to be yelled at if I told them "I'm sorry we can't bring the order to you after 7 you need to send someone to get it tomorrow" because people be like that. So I quickly grabbed their order, went to the back of their car that they'd left open, dropped in their freaking bag of dog food, and left as quickly as I could. Because I didn't want to be anywhere near this person.

Especially because they weren't even wearing a freaking mask.

Like if you're making someone else approach your sick freaking self then you should have at least have had the decency to COVER YOUR FACE so that it minimizes the chances of exposure even further.

Like I was still a good six feet away from them. I barely was there for five seconds. I was outside. I had my mask on.

But there's a tiny part of me worried that THIS is how I'll end up catching the virus.

From an idiot who couldn't stay home. XP 

I mean, I've had closer encounters with people who ended up testing positive and I've still ended up negative. But that doesn't mean I want to press my freaking luck.

Honestly.

People can be soo stupid some times.

Thinking only of themselves and not about the other people they could be affecting. XP 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Left Behind

 It's amazing how....sneaky customers can be.

Though truthfully. It's not like us workers can be in every aisle watching every person that comes through the store.

So the fact that thieves can get away with stealing product without us seeing....isn't that suprising.

What does surprise me though is when the reverse happens.

Where people just.....leave us animals without us realizing. Without us seeing.

It's happened with some cats/dogs over the years. As well as with a Tortoise at one point. And like we've had customers come up to the registers before and just plunk down their pet and say "It's yours now" and leave before we can do anything.

But the oddest ones are the customers who just....leave random fish in our fish tanks. 

Like with how often there's at least one of us over at the fish wall -as that's like 95% of the petcare job is catching fish or bagging crickets (and crickets are by the fish) 

It's amazing that people can come in and just....dump a fish in our tanks and leave without us being any the wiser until we notice that there's a fish that doesn't belong in the tank it's discovered in.

Today was one of those days. 

Where towards opening....i don't even remember if we'd been opened yet or if the store had been open for only half an hour...but like...I go to our Betta Cube -the big glowing endcap with all our bettas on it.

And notice a container with a betta on the shelf below the bettas. 

And I noticed it because the container it was in....was not the right size for our bettas. It was like thrice as big.

Upon closer investigation the container was an old salsa container. And inside....a random betta. 

Just left there. 

I don't know if the fish had been there since yesterday evening or if it appeared this morning....but there it was. 

*shakes head*

And then a few hours later, when I was doing the fish count to ensure that our inventory of animals was accurate....I discovered an angelfish in our tanks. One that wasn't there before. 

As I have been paying attention to our fish. Specifically our angels as I keep wanting to add one into my tank but I've been leery too as the last angelfish that got added in got it's eyeballs eaten out like within the first two hours of being there.

Plus said angelfish was like twice the size of the last angelfish that I saw in said tank. And since I put out the fish shipment when it came in....I knew we hadn't received any angelfish for said tank.

Plus. Inventory stated that we weren't supposed to have ANY angelfish in that tank.

So yah.

Turns out that one of my other managers had discovered said angelfish the night before in one of our CICHLID tanks.

*exhales*

If people feel the need to donate fish to us without us knowing....the least they could do is NOT put them in the AGGRESSIVE fish tanks. As Cichlids have been known to kill other fish. *shakes head* 

Luckily....angelfish are a type of cichlid and maybe it hadn't been in the tank that long, but my other manager fished it out and placed it in the tank that I discovered it in.

In any case.

I ended up taking both fish home. Since we don't know WHERE the fish came from or IF they'd come from our store originally, we figured it would be best to not keep them there.

So I took them home. 

^^;; Currently the angelfish is doing well in the big tank, though I'm not going to get my hopes up too much until it's survived in there a couple of days. 

And the betta too is doing well in it's new home.

So yah.

Yay new free fish!

But Boooo on customers who just....leave there pets like that. So not cool.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

UnBurdened

 There's a comfort really, in voicing your fears, your doubts, your worries to someone.

Like...just holding them in and not speaking them aloud....just seems to make matters worse.

But talking about it. Having others respond to the worries in a way that just....helps....well it helps.

The past week my Head Manager has been gone on a mini vacation.

And yesterday was their first day back.

Which is great because things always feel slightly in more control when the head manager is present. Like things aren't that bad. 

Like I can relax a little bit. 

As I suppose some of my tension of the past week has been from the fact that they weren't there. So it felt like more pressure....more stress....with them gone. 

To have them back.

And just to have somebody to confide in and talk to....

Yah it helps in a way lol.

Like I just kinda vented about my stresses of the week. Some concerns with the department. Worries about all the people around me testing positive. Worries about being sick or not, wondering if it was just stress.

*shakes head*

My Head Manager was like "You gotta stop worrying about the things that don't affect you because they don't help you."

Yah. No duh.

Lol It's like my mind knows that I shouldn't be worrying about things as much as I do.

But the subconscious is a more difficult beast to tame when it comes to what does and doesn't stress me out.

But the fact that I was told to not stress out about it. That it wasn't worth stressing over.

It helped.

And I'm grateful to it.

Not sure how long it will last though, but at least I had a couple of days where I've been feeling a bit more relaxed.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scratched Up

 It's interesting, how at work I can go months without an injury. No cuts, no scrapes, no scratches. Though I suppose bruises are quite common lol. 

But then, there ends up being a day...sometimes up to a week.

Where I just...get hurt. 

Animals bite me, product paper cuts me, other things scrape me, other animals scratch me.

And it feels like my arms are suddenly covered in wounds.

This week has been that sort of week.

My hands/arms have been relatively mark free beyond the strain of dry hands from too much scrubbing of the tanks and washing of the hands in the winter.

But this week I've been scratched by two different cats on the same arm. One earlier today. I have at least two paper cut like injuries that I don't know where I got them from though I'm assuming it's probably related to certain fish decorations that are sometimes sharper than they appear. And then there's a cut/mark/papercut thing on my left hand on the pointer finger where I don't know where it came from but it's in an irritating spot because I use the side of my finger to open lids of things like buckets and cups and such and the wound is in that exact spot....

*exhales*

In any case.

It's just weird.

My right arm/hand has half a dozen injuries on it, the left hand just one.

When a week ago it was just clear skin.

*shakes head*

Odd how things seem to happen all at once.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's In The Numbers

 I probably get it from my mom/mom's side of the family.

But I have a bit of a fascination with numbers. 

Nothing major enough to convince me to go into the field like Mother Dearest did.

But I do like to...idk....make patterns. Keep track of trends. That sort of thing.

For a while on my drive to work.

There was this billboard that I would pass by every morning.

It was a sign talking about Drug Overdoses. And it had this little electronic sign on it where every week it would update, telling the passing drivers how many people had died in our state from drug overdoses this year.

Probably a bit of a morbid thing to pay attention to.

But it was the numbers that fascinated me. 

Watching every week to see how how much higher it would climb. Noting what times of years and around what holidays that the numbers would jump or stay pretty much the same. 

Mentally calculating as I drove by what the average number of people a day that would be. -It hovered around 3 people a day most of the time-

And hoping as the end of the year drew nearer...to see that number stay under a 1,000 and to not cross that threshold.

The sign was around for a couple of years at least. Maybe 3 or 4? I'm not sure.

I do know that it vanished towards the end of last year. 

Which was sad in the number sense of I was waiting to see if that 1,000 death threshold would be passed or not to see if the year would be worse or better than the year before.

Of course....with a temple being built not far away from this sign. 

I can see that billboards talking about death and drug overdoses and such wouldn't bring the best....spirit to the area.

And probably after multiple years of it being there....it had probably become wallpaper to most people. Driving by without seeing it.

In any case.

The sign changed.

It's now a billboard for some website that sells Scriptures. Ones with different colored bindings. You can buy the Quad in red or blue or yellow or green....all the colors. 

Which, I do admit. I did go check out that website. Mostly because I misread the sign a bit and thought that it was more of a "Color Me" scripture thing. Where ...idk....you could follow specific directions and color in certain passages with certain colors to create images....Honestly I'm not sure.

But I thought it was something more interesting than "Look it's the scriptures but the outside is RED!" And as I've been lowkey looking for something to inspire me to be more proactive in reading my scriptures....I checked it out.

Didn't buy one though.

In any case.

This Colored Scriptures sign kept the electronic billboard. 

And it now shows how many of thier books people have bought this year.

lol As you can imagine. Quite a few were bought during the first week of January as people start their new year goals of wanting to read the scriptures more. 

And compared to the overdose sign that would update once a week....this sign updates everyday. 

So the numbers are climbing faster than I can keep track of it as they don't stay the same for more than a day or two before they jump up.

But yah.

Just one of those random observations....where I'm fascinated by numbers and how things trend. ^^;; Yah....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not a Chair

 It's not surprising that people will choose to sit on things that aren't meant to be sat on. 

I mean. I do it myself.

And I've seen multiple customers over the years sit on the floor, on lower shelves, on piles of doggy beds, on cat towers, on pallets....basically anything that has a flat enough surface to perch on as they wait for something whatever they're waiting for to finish up. 

Today I had a rather enterprising older gentleman.

Who was having difficulties seeing what the fish food on the lower shelf was. And he was old enough that crouching down probably would be a trial and a half on it's own not to mention trying to stand back up.

But instead of asking for assistance.

The dude decided to take matters into his own hands and upon spotting a pile of of our handbaskets nearby --as we have handbaskets located on the ends of most of our aisles for those shoppers who realize they're grabbing a bit too much to carry comfortably in their arms--- grabs the entire stack of baskets.

My cashier watched him rather dumbfounded when he picked up the entire stack and disappeared back down the fish aisle out of sight.

But when I came across him....he'd turned the entire stack upside down and had turned the stack into a makeshift stool that he was sitting on as he was inspecting like...every single can of fish food we had.

-He was looking for bloodworms, but unfortunately the freeze dried version is one of those 'shortage' products at the moment so there were none on the shelf. 

Not really wanting to get on the dude's bad side by telling him "Hey don't sit on those." I ducked behind our fishwall where we keep a little metal folding chair there for the occasional ancient customer who needs a seat while waiting for grooming and brought it over to the dude in the fish aisle and was like "Here sir, How about I switch you out for a better seat."

So I can save my baskets from getting crushed/warped by dealing with weight they're not meant to be dealing with. 

*exhales*

Thankfully the tactic went over well and he willingly switched to sitting on the chair.

But honestly.....while I admire the creativity.... I do wish customers would think of the bigger picture when they do the things they do.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Super Fast Food

I had a fast food experience today.

In that like....the fast food was actually fast.

Not that it's ever slow compared to sit down places.

But usually there's a 3-7 minute waiting process after you pull up to the window to a) pay for the order and b) wait for the order to come to you. 

Today though?

It felt like it was instantaneous even though I recognize that it wasn't.

Like I know that in preparation for the lunch/dinner rushes there will be food and just waiting there to be quickly bagged up.

And considering I dropped by Wendy's just before the actual lunch rush at around 11:30....it's not really a surprise that they were prepared.

But it was crazy.

As I ordered 3 different sandwiches, fries, and a drink (as I was grabbing food for my roommate as well) and they had me pull up to the first window.

Which was rather unusual because even though there are 2 windows at the Wendy's I usually order from....usually you just drive straight to the second window where you pay there and then receive your food afterwards.

But today they had me stop at the first window and pay there.

And then pull up to the second window where like I'd barely been stopped for like maybe 10 seconds before they had opened up the window to hand me my drink and my food.

lol it was definitely a magical feeling.

To have your food ready and waiting for you.

And I get that part of it is good preparation on part of the cooks in the kitchen who probably already had the sandwiches already made and waiting underneath a warming light so it was just a matter of grabbing the right foods and putting them all together in a bag.

But the other part of it is the fact that I stopped at the first window.

Like I only sat there for long enough to give the person my card, have them swipe it, hand it back and usher me to the next window.

So like maybe 30 seconds.

So I can see how the slight delay there of stopping at the first window would help the workers at the second window have slightly more time to prepare for my arrival there and have my drink ready.

Lol.

Totally the weirdest feeling to order food and like less than a minute later already have my food in hand.

It was AWESOME though.

So awesome.

Just the feeling of having near instantaneous food at my finger tips. 

It was great. ^^;;

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay. Away.

 *long suffering sigh*

So.

Yesterday after one of my roommate's got home from work.

She brought up the fact that her sibling had had their roommates test positive for covid, while the sibling tested negative. 

Said sibling is looking to stay away from their roomies while they are sick.

But to my understanding, said sibling was exposed to the sick roomies. After all. They went and got a covid test to see if they were positive as well.

So the sibling asked my roomie if they would be able to crash at our home while their roomies are sick with the virus.

And me and my other roomie were like. :S :S :S NO.

Like I've had a coworker who's had all their roomies test positive for COVID as well and they have constantly been tested negative (have had the test at least 4 times now) but THEY didn't come back to work until tonight. Which is like SIX days after they discovered their roomies were positive and they only came back after confirming yet another negative test and following the CDC guidelines on exposure.

But like just because the sibling tests negative....doesn't mean they're actually negative. Like my sister tested negative at first and then a few days later ended up with similar symptoms to those in her family who did test positive. 

So like. No. I don't want this person to be in our house and potentially exposing us if they just barely discovered their roommates are positive.

There are many other reasons as well like....WHERE would said sibling stay? Yes. We have a guest room.  Yes. They have a bathroom right there. But like....are we going to keep them confined to that room? How are they going to eat? What are they going to do? AND COULD THEY GET US SICK TOO?!?!?!!? How high are the chances of us running into the sibling if they stayed with us????

*exhales*

So me and my other roomie emphatically said. "NO." 

Like yes. I get that the roomie wants to help out their sibling and help them find a place to stay while their roomies are positive. I get that.

BUT when it comes to COVID? To how quickly the omicron variant is spreading? Ha. No. NO way. We had nearly 10,000 positive cases today. The highest on record so far in the pandemic. 

I've been feeling like I've been avoiding getting the virus by the tips of my fingers since basically Christmas and I do not need the added stress of the roomie's sibling potentially giving us the virus if they stayed here.

Plus my other roomie just got her booster shot today and is expecting to be knocked out a bit because of that for the next day or two. Definitely not a reason to have this sibling come over when one of us feels at risk. 

So like....we figured it was settled. We'd said no yesterday. Figured it was all good and taken care of.

BUT THEN.

Same roomie asked us AGAIN today if their sibling could stay as the sibling took ANOTHER test and AGAIN tested Negative.

BUT.

They haven't been away from their roomies long enough. (they should have just considered themselves positive and stayed at the apartment and quarantined there) 

Like to my knowledge said sibling probably discovered Sunday that their roomies were positive as they apparently stayed in a hotel room that night. and THEN stayed with a friend last night (potentially exposing them if they end up testing positive later on which makes me even LESS willing to let them stay here if they're not taking proper precautions)

BUT like I looked up the guidelines and if you're exposed to someone who tests positive then you need to QUARANTINE for FIVE days and then wear a mask for another 5 days after that and that's IF you've been vaccinated. Which I'm assuming this sibling has been but I don't know for sure.

BUT IN ANY CASE.

It's only been like maybe 48 hours since the sibling discovered their roommates were positive and left the environment.

That's hardly enough time to know for sure that they're for sure negative. They could still develop symptoms and such. There's still THREE days where they could still test positive. And then another FIVE days where they would need to be masked. And who knows if they would STAY MASKED. 

And it's just....irritating me.

Like I get it. I would want to help my siblings out too if they were in trouble.

But with COVID? It's a whole different situation.

I would do all I could to help my siblings. But I would do it in a SAFE way that would keep ME SAFE. I would go run errands for them. Grab groceries for them and leave it on the doorstep. Put them up in a hotel room if they needed it (and I could afford it) But I wouldn't invite them to STAY with me if they'd been exposed and there was any RISK to me. 

Like yes I'm vaccinated. But NO i am not taking risks. Nope nope nope. I've fought tooth and nail to avoid this virus and I'm already rather high at risk to get it just because I work RETAIL and I'm around so many customers 8 hours a day 5 days a week. The fact that I haven't gotten it is a miracle in of itself. (though who knows. Maybe I got it and just thought it was a cold? Maybe I didn't have symptoms. I don't know. But I'm not going to play russian roulette and risk myself with getting it)

And it just irks me that we told my roomie NO and then they asked again AFTER we said no and AFTER we told them why and AFTER we said "Hey I'm not comfortable with this." 

*exhales* 

Yah. I'm not happy with said roomie. 

*fingers crossed* that this time roomie will accept that no means NO and won't ask again.

We'll see. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Coming Closer

I need a vacation.

If anything at least 3 days off of work where I can just hermit at home and chill and relax and not have to go from feeling fine to feeling anxious/stressed/paranoid within the course of an 8 hour work shift.

It's getting annoying honestly.

Feeling the wolves drawing in closer.

Feeling the flames growing smaller. 

My state had over 24,000 cases of Covid reported over the weekend. A good 12,000 each day if the weekend includes just Saturday and Sunday....though it probably includes Friday as well. So 3 days....7,000 cases at least....It's....stressful.

Stressful how 2022 really does feel like we've gone full circle and we're back at 2020 part 2. 

Though it seems to be a bit...more ramped up.

Like every day there's more people falling sick. More people I know who have caught the virus. More people affected by everything.

And yet it seems like there's less....care....about this. That people are treating it more like an obnoxious cold and aren't taking the precautions needed to protect themselves and others.

It's hard to remain relaxed when you have customers wandering around you sniffling and sneezing and coughing and not wearing their masks.

And you're just wondering....will I be next?

Will I be catching it? Have I already caught it? Do I have it now?

It's not a fun feeling.

It's hard to keep from stressing.

Especially when every turn seems to be met with "Oh this person has tested positive and this other person has tested positive and this Other other person has tested positive!"

And the circle is quickly going from People you barely know to people you are related to people you know to people you know to friends and family.

The wolves are circling.

They're drawing in close.

And I have to wonder....is it only a matter of time? Or can I avoid it? Maybe I've already had it and not realized....

Who knows.

Who knows indeed.

*exhales*

I just wish I could just....get away from it all. Hermit. Spend a week at home not going anywhere not meeting anyone not having to deal with customers 8 hours a day who may or may not be the trigger that will finally get me sick.

Yah.

Hermiting sounds nice right now.

But with how badly covid is sweeping through the state at this point.....it feels wrong to step away while I'm healthy. To leave others to flounder when I could help keep us going.

It's a tough choice.....between trying to help yourself....and help others.

*exhales*

I hope the surge of cases stops soon....

But really...only time will tell.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Paranoia

 This past week it's felt like there's been a noose around my neck that's slowly growing tighter. 

I've always had a slight....paranoia when it comes to the COVID pandemic. Wondering just how long I can 'hold out' before I end up testing positive with it myself. 

Part of me just....wishes it will happen already so I can just take 10 days off work and not have to stress.

The rest of me is perfectly happy being not sick lol. 

But like....for the past couple of weeks---I've been wondering if I did catch this Omicron variant and just didn't realize it was COVID. 

It's hard when the symptoms are so close to a common cold. 

Like the week of Christmas I had a sore throat and runny nose and a bit of muscle achiness. And of course I've had headaches. But those are pretty typical for me. 
And the past week I've had a tight chest and muscle aches and headaches (again normal for me) and slightly achy ears.

But like....it's not enough symptoms to be concerned. And with the extra long lines to go get Covid tested....I've been reluctant to venture out.

I mean. If my brain isn't thinking about it I feel perfectly fine. Or it's just the normal aches and pains relating to working a retail job.

In any case.

This week has been particularly stressful because it feels like I keep barely missing getting hit by the bullet.

Like last Sunday there was a girl coughing behind me in church and I was within the 6 foot distance even though we were both wearing masks.

Then I go into work the next day and discover that 2 of my coworkers (who I haven't interacted with recently) have tested positive. 

Then I give a ride home to another coworker tuesday night....and they discover Thursday that they've been exposed to family/roommates who have tested positive.

But this coworker continues to test negative. 

And other coworkers have been complaining about sore throats or have been sniffling.

Plus there's all the freaking customers (where most of them aren't wearing masks) who are sniffling and coughing and doing nothing to not stop the spread of their germs everywhere.

And with the knowledge that we've had our highest spike ever in cases this past week with Wed being over 7,000 cases and Thurs being over 8,000 cases and then Friday with 9,000 more new cases.....

It's left me desperately wishing I could just up and take 2 weeks off work and hermit at home for a while.

Because every time I hear someone near me has been exposed or has caught it then my paranoid brain goes "Oh you must have it too!" and then my body starts feeling 'sick' because it's all worried about the 'what ifs' even though I felt fine before I heard the news.

*exhales*

It's exhausting.

So. Today. I took a mental health day. 

I didn't go anywhere. I stayed home. I just....chilled. Let myself veg.

Hopefully its enough to keep me feeling 'better' this upcoming week.

But I suppose we'll see what chaos monday brings.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Phone Call

Got a phone call from the alarm people this evening.

For our store. 

Which I only answered the phone call because I'd actually saved their number into my phone this time (as I neglected to answer it last time as I didn't recognize the number) 

So This time I made sure to pick up.

And yah.

It's rather stressful to be told that the 'an alarm has gone off and the police are on their way to check it out.' 

Like...okay...do I need to go? Should I wait? What happened?!?! 

The alarm person wasn't much help either saying "You can go if you want or you can wait for us to call you back with what the police say" 

I ended up saying I would wait and see....

But I ended up calling the closing manager and was like "Hey when did you leave?"

And they were like "...like 10 minutes ago?"

And I was like "Oh. Okay. Well...the alarm people just called me.---"

Yah. 

The closing manager went back to check it out and make sure everything was fine, though they were already pretty certain they knew what the issue had been as we only have a limited timeframe to get out of the building after setting the alarm and there was an issue with one of the doors that delayed them soooo that probably was what triggered the alarm. 

But yah. Rather a tense waiting period waiting to hear back from either the alarm people (never did) or my manager to see if I needed to come to the store as well to provide back up -as I'm willing to go check it out if needed.

It was all good though. Got everything figured out. 

Still. Kinda a semi stressful way to end the night. *shakes head*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Seeing the Positive Through The Negative

 It's far too easy to focus on the negative that happens in a day and totally forget the happy/good/positive moments that also occur.

Probably because the negative stories tend to be a bit more...sensational in the telling and tend to get more of a reaction than the feel good things.

And today....today was one of those negative days at work.

Like overall the shift was fine. Not too crazy busy. But there were three difficult customers we had to deal with today that just...set the tone for the entire day and has left me silently fuming at them for like...the entire day. And the best way to work through my...irritation about the situations is to vent about it. Whether it's regalling my coworkers/family/friends with the story or venting about it on Facebook or this blog....it helps to just...settle my feelings about the whole thing.

Situation 1: Was that we have a couple of groomers out sick this week and we had to call all their appointments and either reschedule them, cancel them, or transfer them to a different groomer. We had a customer come in today bright and early to find no groomers there --as this customer had been called but apparently hadn't gotten the message that they needed to come in a couple of hours later than originally scheduled-- and didn't like the manager's explanation about the situation at all. She disliked it so much that she called the Home Office TWICE while standing in the store -once with the manager standing right there in front of her- demanding that they do something to get her dog groomed despite the manager trying to explain that there was nothing we could do at that point because no groomers were currently in the store. 

This happened all before we opened. XP 

Situation 2: Was that we have this concrete barrier -the kinds that are used to mark parking spots for cars-that's been slowly deteriorating over the past year. Crumbling. To the point where the rusted rebar within the concrete has become visible and such.
It's an issue we're aware of. We have a work order out to get it fixed. And while it is crumbling...it wasn't really in the way of anything or causing problems to customers. 
Until today. XP when one of our regular customers. An older couple who comes in constantly to buy dog crates and food from us. Came in to complain to the manager that they had nearly been injured on said concrete barrier. I think they said tripping over it? And like...I have no idea how they managed to trip over the thing as it's not in a spot where it's easy to trip over and surely SURELY the customers should have EYES that can SEE the danger and not go blindly charging across the parking lot. (apparently not) but in any case they came into the store to complain about the danger and when we went to investigate it turns out the the concrete barrier had been twisted and moved. Whether from these customers or someone else who knows. But it definitely hadn't been like that earlier in the day when we came in. So something had happened to move it. 
But it's just irritating. Like these people are regulars. They know how busy we are. They know everything goes on. So WHY did they feel the need to come and complain about it? 
Like I get that it's a hazard and they were probably looking out for other people who could potentially be blind enough to not notice the crumbling barrier.....
Just irritating. 

and then Situation 3 is that I had to deal with a lady at the fishwall who was setting up a tank for the first time and was completely ignoring every suggestion and recommendation I gave her when it came to setting up her tank. No she was totally confident in her ability to have her fish do well. So confident that she ignored my advice to only buy like 7 fish as she lives TWO HOURS away from the store and only wanted to come get fish ONCE and didn't want to make multiple trips to get fish. So chose instead to sentence her tank into a death spiral by having me catch her TWENTY-SEVEN fish to put in a 36 gallon tank all at once. Didn't matter what I said. She wouldn't let herself be told no. Wouldn't consider waiting to be a good thing. And like a 36 gallon tank should really only have between 12-18 fish in it (depending on the size of the fish) and she's doubled that amount. 
So I'm overly irritated at her and I surely hope that her fish all die tonight or within the next three days so she can realize how stupidly foolish she was in ignoring my advice. She literally spent $100 on fish today. And I'm pretty sure a good $80 of that is going to die. *shakes head* It's just....so frustrating. 

In any case.

Those were the negative things of the day. 

But there were positive moments as well.

1. Some really cool looking fish came in on our fish shipment today! 
2. I got to hear some fun stories from the truck driver who delivered our fish about the 'horrible' docks he's had to dock at at various stores and random situations he's found himself in because of that. 
3. An old friend dropped by work randomly on a whim to give me a soda as she felt that I needed one and boy did I need one as I'd just finished dealing with all 3 situations mentioned above. 
4. A breakfast bakery randomly dropped by leftover baked goods that they had by our store after they had closed for the day so we got to try their food and it was delicious! 
5. Got to see a second old friend later in the day and catch up. 
6. The 'check engine light' in my car that randomly turns on when there's an issue with how tightly my gas cap is screwed on finally turned off this morning after being on since Tuesday. 

So yah.

Good things can more than balance out the bad if you just pay attention to them.

And while the bad things can be seen as these....big events.

It's important to note that the good things can often come in little doses. Easily missed if you're not looking for them. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Pizza Delivery!

 I know there's been a struggle practically well...everywhere to hire enough workers to be able to fully staff buildings/stores every day.

The reasons are varied and many I'm sure.

And I kinda figured that there are some industries being hit harder than others. In being able to hire and keep on staff.

One of those being the Pizza Industry.

Mostly in the "Delivery Driver" part.

As off and on for the past couple of months I've tried to order pizza online for delivery only to be told 'this option isn't available currently.' 

Which I'm sure means that they don't have any drivers or enough drivers to go out and deliver pizzas.

--I do wonder how that went down over Thanksgiving and Christmas....if they had people for the holidays or not. I admittedly didn't try looking at those times. 

But during the slower points of the week....definitely haven't had drivers available. Though store pick up is always available. 

*shakes head* 

In any case.

I was feeling rather stressed out today -as everyone around me seems to be catching covid and I'm worried that I'm going to end up sick with it if I haven't already had it---but that's a post for another day.

But yah. I was feeling stressed out and wanted to cheer myself up.

And usually my method of cheering myself up is grabbing food.

So I for funsies got online to see if I could have pizza delivered to the house.

And surprisingly. It was available. 

So, jumping on the chance to have pizza for the first time in a while. I ordered the food as quickly as I could expecting it to arrive at my home around the same time I got home from work.

No such thing.

The pizza tracker told me that they'd been quality checking my order for 10 minutes...20 minutes....40 minutes....

And then finally, an hour after I ordered the pizza....I received a phone call from the store.

Telling me that there had been a bit of a mixup/issue thing and they got it resolved and got the order fixed and were sending it on it's way now. 

I had no idea what sort of issue it would be though I'm guessing they either made the food wrong or accidentally took my order to the wrong house.

In any case.

An hour after they first started to 'quality check' my pizza order (so an hour and a half after i ordered the thing) my pizza finally arrived!!

And the poor delivery driver was rather sweet and apologetic about the entire thing.

Apparently they'd just had a different delivery driver quit. :S :S :S

So I'm guessing that either a) put them behind on their orders or b) the dude took off with my order when he quit....no idea.

Maybe a combination of both.

In any case.

I could understand the problem. And I reassured them that it was fine that the order was late. I just wanted to have my food and here my food was and it was still nice and hot!! So woot!!! :D

But yah.

I feel bad for the pizza industry. I don't know what all is going down right now, but hopefully they can figure things out and get back up to being fully staffed sooner rather than later.

As it sucks to be short staffed.

I know that feeling all too well. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Another Crown

 So. It was nearly two months ago.

Literally the day after my Mother's 3rd Angelversary....

That I started experiencing some rather intense pain in my mouth.

Pain far stronger than any I'd experienced in my mouth before.

To the point where the irritated tooth area was so painful that I literally considered grabbing a pair of pliers and pulling the tooth out to relieve myself of the agony.

Thankfully. I managed to get into the dentist rather quickly.

Which resulted in me needing to get a Root Canal and a Crown because the root of the tooth that was aching had some sort of abscess. 

It also didn't help that I had like a....sinus infection as well. *exhales*

And because the sinus infection was present...the dentist basically started the root canal and did enough of it to get me out of pain before putting me on antibiotics for a couple of weeks to get rid of the infection and to allow the swelling/irritation in the area to go down. 

Ah. It was a relief to finally be out of pain. But annoying to have to take those pills 3 times a day because yeesh. They were nasty tasting on the tongue.

In any case.

The beginning of december I was able to go back in and finish the root canal and get a temporary crown put on....as well as another dose of antibiotics because my mouth was still rather tender in that area when the dentist gave me some numbing shots in the area.

And usually it takes like 2 weeks or so to get the permanent crown made and ready.

Which would have led me to getting the crown placed right before Christmas.

But until that point I needed to be careful with what I chewed because I didn't want to break the temporary crown.

No. I learned that lesson before with other crowns. So I was very careful to only chew on the left side of my mouth and leave my right side basically alone.

However.

My plan to get the permanent crown placed before Christmas...got foiled because I got sick with a cold (or covid? Who knows) but basically I had a sore throat and had the sniffles.

And knowing it was so close to Christmas and knowing that I for sure had the sore throat which was definitely closely connected to where my teeth were located....I chose to reschedule my appointment so that I wouldn't risk getting the dental crew sick right before Christmas.

Unfortunately they were going to be out of the office until after the near year.

So I had to wait until today to get my permanent crown put on. 

Which meant another 2 weeks of only left side chewing.

So. Tired of left side chewing.

So I was beyond excited to finally make it to the dentist to get it put on.

Though now it's weird.

Because I still feel like I shouldn't be chewing on my right side. 

And like I really just need to avoid sticky foods for a couple more days on that side to ensure that the crown firmly sticks in place.

But chewing other foods? Totally able to do it on my right side once again.

And it feels so weird to do it after a month and a half of not doing so. *shakes head* lol.

Like I'm halfway worried that I'll break the crown even though I haven't yet *knock on wood* broken the other crowns I've received. *shakes head*

Probably going to take a couple of days to get used full mouth chewing again. lol. ^^;;

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Same Day Shipping

I'm not sure why I'm continually surprised at people's lack of patience. 

Like. I've been dealing with customers in retail for nearly ten years now. I've seen time and time again how impatient people can be. How much they have to satisfy their urge to 'buy it now' or 'get it now' instead of just....waiting for the best results or for better options.

Especially when it comes to Ordering Stuff online either to be shipped to their home or picked up at the store.

Like. I can't tell you how many times people get upset that the item they ordered for in store pick up like 'ten minutes ago' isn't ready to be picked up yet....when our website clearly states that it can take up to three hours for orders to be picked.

And oftentimes it takes at least half an hour or so for the order to show up in our system in the first place--though I'm sure that time is getting faster. 

I mean. Before 2020 we didn't even have the option of curbside pick up. Before the pandemic you had to come into the store and shop yourself.

But now you can shop online and pick it up in the store. And unlike other places...unless you're shopping through doordash....we don't do 'time slots' like other stores do. Of course...I haven't used curbside pick up for other retail stores. But I'm pretty confident that our turn around time is rather quick compared to say...trying to order all your groceries online and having to wait to pick them up for a couple of days. 

 In any case.

People can be surprisingly impatient about their orders.

Which makes sense since most of those people are impatient because they procrastinating getting the food and such that they needed for their pet until they were out of food. Especially the vet prescription food because it takes multiple days to confirm those particular orders because they have to validate the prescription and such.

But tonight I experienced a new....kind of impatient with a customer.

They called the store right before 7pm. 

-We close at 9. And curbside pick up where we take the orders out to the car stops at 7pm.

But the customer calls our store wanting to cancel their order.

Why?

Because they ordered it "Fifteen minutes ago for Same Day Shipping." but when they finished the whole transaction and such online they noticed that the estimated date of arrival was the 6th of January. 

So they wanted to cancel the order. 

Because basically the website lied to them.

And I just had to roll my eyes at them for multiple reasons.

The main reason being that just because the website says that it will SHIP the same day you order it doesn't mean it will ARRIVE the same day you order it. The two words mean totally different things. And like Lady. You ordered it at like 630pm. If you'd ordered it in the morning at like 6 am I could see the potential of you getting a package the same day. But that late at night? No. Sure amazon can deliver until like 8pm but I'm pretty sure FedEx, UPS and the Post Office all stop their routes much earlier in the day.

Even doordash stops delivering after a certain time frame. 

So it's rather....egotistical to expect same day delivery when you order so late in the day.

Though...judging by the fact that the customer called our store directly to complain that their order wasn't going to arrive 'the same day' that they ordered online to be SHIPPED TO THEIR HOME instead of Picked Up at the store...that they more than likely thought that their stuff would be sent from our store to their home.

And that's not how it works.

Sure. Doordashers can shop for you or pick up orders at the store and bring it to your home. But us workers in the store? Nope. We only deal with the orders that come through our system to be picked up in the store.

If the order is shipped to your home it doesn't come from our store at all. It comes from our supplier and we have No. Control. What. So. Ever. Over that aspect of online ordering. I can't cancel those orders. I can't fix those orders. They're sent to a different system. 

Honestly.

Sure Amazon is getting faster with their shipping to the point where it's possible to receive a product the same day you order it. But hardly anywhere else is unless you get the right time slot and such.

I just...have to wonder what the customer was thinking....

And if they needed that item tonight...why did they not just come into the store and grab it themselves? Like I would think that people would realize you can't deliver within hours of ordering....

*exhales*

Like I said. I don't understand people. Not at all.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Page A Day

 It's rather nice when you can derive a bit of joy/happiness from simple small things.

More often than not. During Christmas. Mother Dearest would gift us kids with a calendar for the new year. When we were younger the calendar would be just your typical wall one with the 12 months and a theme for each month that usually matched our likes/preferences/aesthetic in some way.

As we got older and page a day calendars got more popular, we would get a page a day calender.

Sometimes it was just one for the entire family that would live in the bathroom, but when we got old enough to move out of the house, the page a day calendar followed us out. Again, usually one that fit with what we liked and such.

This past year, my Godmother was the one to instigate getting a calendar and gave me a rather cute one with pictures of kitties for each day of the year.

Though...with my mental health kinda taking a sharp decline...I stopped paying attention to it back in like..April?? Idk. It's still downstairs. Untouched from whatever last date I had looked at.

But today when asking my Godmother how she was doing, she showed me the page from the page a day calendar I got her for today. It was one of those affirmation sort of calendars. Ones with feel good thoughts.

And I was just like "Hey. I want one of those. That would be fun to have."

Only...when I went on Amazon to order the same one for myself....it was no longer available.

It makes sense in a way lol. Why would you want a page a day calendar for 2022 when you're already 3 days into the year? It's the sort of calendar that you want to get BEFORE the year starts. Not after.

My first thought was "Oh well. Good thought but no dice." 

And I tried to move on from it.

But then I remembered. Barnes and Noble usually sells page a day calendars. In a variety of themes and topics. 

So like...why not go there after work today and check out what ones are leftover? Especially considering that I was pretty confident that they would be on a rather steep discount. After all. The year has already started. The sooner they sell those calendars the better because again...who wants a calendar for 2022 when the year has already started?

Still. It was a matter of convincing myself that I wanted to go out.

As usually after work I'm exhausted enough with social interaction that the thought of having to talk or interact with one more person after a day of dealing with customers....usually has me heading straight home to hermit.

The thing that worked in my favor today was the fact that I was starving by the time I got off work.

Starving enough to venture up to the nearby Arctic Circle to grab myself food.

And wouldn't you know? Barnes and Noble is in that same area. Right along the route to the food.

So I stopped by the store long enough to check out what calendars they had left.

And I was right.

They were on a sale. 50% off. 

Lol though I'm sure if I had waited another week or two they'd be closer to 75% off.

In any case.

There was still quite a good selection of calendars for me to choose from. Not a huge table by any means compared to what was probably there before the New Year hit. 

But there were still a good thirty or so different types of calendars to look at. (probably more honestly, I wasn't counting) 

And I managed to find like...4 calendars I liked. 

lol I probably could have stopped at 3 as I ended up deciding it would be fun to get a page a day calendar for me and my roomies.

But for some reason I got it stuck in my head that it was a buy one get one half off sale instead of it being like...them all half off...even though I knew all of them were half off. *shakes head* lol I guess I figured they could only be half off if I had them in even numbers?

Regardless.

I ended up with 4 page a day calendars. 

1. Is a Disney Animation calendar that I got for my roomie who's into Disney and is wanting to go into a career into animation.

2. Is a History: Unsolved Mysteries Calendar that honestly....I loved, but delegated it to my other roomie who likes the mystical/horror/unsolved things. 

3. Is a Harry Potter calendar as I've been in quite the obsession with the fandom for the past couple of months so I thought it would be fun to get (and it was such a wonderful surprise to find as I'd been hoping to find one but not expecting to a Harry Potter one so the fact I found one was GREAT) 

and lastly. 4. Is a word a day calendar.

Just one of those "here's a random word you may not have heard of and its meaning" calendars.

And the reason why I got that one...was because I remembered the last time...forever ago...like pretty sure I was still in the middle of college long ago when I was trying to do a 'writing blog' when I got this calendar....

And I remembered...that I tried to write little story snippets/scenes where I would use the word on the calendar somewhere within the story. 

It didn't last that long. I got a bit...overwhelmed.

But since I've been...well struggling to write since...well probably the summer if not the entire year of 2022....I thought that this might be a fun little thing to try. To get me back into writing. To boost my confidence a little bit.

Of course, I've already overthought the first three days worth of words so we'll see if I actually end up writing anything.

But I'm hoping that this 4th calendar I got will be helpful in the long run.

We'll see. 

^^;; If anything I'll be learning new words, discovering unsolved mysteries (as I convinced my roomie to leave her calendar in the kitchen where I too could see what has remained unsolved in the world) and lastly...enjoy a bit of Harry Potter in my life. ^^;; 

lol gotta love it when the simple things bring a smile to your face. :) 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Trust is Hard

 There have been many things I've struggled with this past year. Writing consistently being one of them.

But another aspect of my life I've struggled in has been going to church.

Though I suppose it's not the 'going' part that's been the issue.

No. With the pandemic...with having to deal with customers and seeing how....untrustworthy and selfish people can be in regards to the virus. 

I've lost my ability to really trust people.

Being in a crowd puts me on edge. I mean...I've always been more of an introvert so I've never been one for crowds. But the pandemic. Not knowing just who could be carrying the virus or have it, or knowing who has been vaccinated or not....it makes it difficult to want to be around people.

Especially when my family has had so many close calls. Especially when my Sister and her family have been exposed/gotten covid TWICE within the space of a month because the people around them hadn't gotten the vaccine. Hadn't taken precautions to ensure that everyone would be safe.

It's hard to trust people.

Especially when my state dropped the mask mandate and like....everyone in my ward stopped wearing masks that same weak.

Like the vaccine had only been available for like...maybe a month or two at that point? For those in my age group even less so. And I found it so hard to believe that everyone in my ward but me and like one other person had received the vaccine. 

No. I'm pretty sure they were just tired of the mask mandate. Tired of wearing the masks. And the moment they could take them off without repercussions...they did. 

It's hard. To want to be at church...when you're left wondering just who has been vaccinated and who was taking advantage of the 'don't ask don't tell' aspect of everything where we just had to 'believe' that if you weren't wearing a mask that meant you'd been vaccinated.

No. I've dealt with too many anti-masker anti-vaccine customers to trust that 'honor' system.

So yah.

My ability to comfortably go to church and trust the individuals there....has been badly broken. It stresses me out to go.

I want to go. I want to take the sacrament. Receive words of wisdom. Gain inspiration. 

But then I have someone sit nearby not wearing a mask.

I have someone come by who's coughing constantly throughout the meeting.

And I find myself wondering.

Why am I doing this? Why am I risking myself?

I've been trying to do what I can to mitigate my exposure to people. And it....hurts....to see people not taking the same considerations. To have them trying to pretend that 'everything is normal' when it's obviously not normal and with how the various variants of COVID are surging and rushing through the states and the world....I highly doubt things will be back to normal for years at this point. I mean. We're starting the THIRD year of the pandemic. 

And it seems like as time passes people are taking more and more measures to make it impossible to prevent the spreading of the virus. To keep it multiplying.

I honestly can't help but wonder what would have happened if we had just...stayed shut down. Stayed social distanced. Stayed wearing masks. Made sure everyone could get the vaccine before opening up everything.

*exhales*

In any case.

I want to be at church.

I mean it's my faith. It's my religion. I should be making more of an effort to stand up for my beliefs. To be more...public? Forthcoming with how I worship.

Aka. Be more consistent in showing up at church and doing all the things I've done basically my entire life but have faltered in doing because of the pandemic.

And I admit.

It was nice to be in church ---when I wasn't tensed and worrying about the person coughing it up behind me wondering if they had COVID or just a cold-- because it was good to feel the spirit. It was good to hear people's testimonies today. And I even managed to go to the second hour and just get a taste of nostalgia in just...having a sunday school lesson where we read from the scriptures. 

It's not going to be an easy process for sure....getting back into trusting being at church. To feel comfortable being in a place surrounded by people who may or may not be following the counsel to get vaccinated. 

To get back into the mode of wanting to hear the Spirit and gain Revelation and Inspiration and the like.....

We'll see.

It's a new year. A time for new beginnings. And even though this attempt at a new beginning had a rough start...hopefully it will get better...if I am persistent...and if I can find more of the positives to out weight the potential negatives I may encounter there. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Going Out

So. Lunch. 

I have a manager who more often than not, chooses to go out and find something to eat for their lunchbreak. 

It's not something I've often done myself. Honestly it's only like...maybe once or twice a year that I actively choose to leave work in search of food. Mostly because I have food with me...and I hate the tight timeframe that half an hour places upon me. I don't want to be late to things and chances are higher than not that I will be late if I try to go places....even though there are multiple food places within like five minutes of work.

In any case.

Today, VP Manager came over the radio asking if I wanted food from a specific food place.

It's not often that they want to grab food for me. Occasionally they like to buy sodas for everyone. But when it comes to food, usually VP manager just grabs it for Head Manager.

And the place they wanted to go....was one that I haven't eaten from in a good...well ten years. Not since college. They serve these super long hotdogs. Hot dogs that I can eat...but I'm not overly fond of the taste of. 

Still. VP was offering to buy lunch for me. So like...why refuse a hot meal?

I agreed....only it turned into "Hey why don't we both go grab lunch!" 

....Normally we try to avoid having people take lunch at the same time in order to give the store as much coverage as possible. So I expressed my doubts on doing so today.

But VP was like "We have another manager here, three cashiers, and a petcare person. That's five people Plus Us. And the store is basically dead right now. We're extra bodies. Lets go." 

Lol after double checking with our third manager if that would be okay, we took off to go find food.

Surprisingly...my VP went to my car....

I hadn't been expecting to drive...but I suppose if they were buying me lunch, it would be only fair to be the one driving to the food place. *shakes head* At least I was prepared enough that I had my keys with me, else...that would have been semi awkward. :S 

In any case.

We ended up at Noodles & Co instead because when we dropped by the other place it looked like it was still closed.

And Noodles was right across the parking lot. So we ventured there instead.

I gotta say. It was rather nice to get out and away from work for a bit to eat a hot meal. ^^;; lol and I got to try some food at Noodles that I've never had before and surprisingly (because I'm a picky eater) I really enjoyed it. ^^;;

I don't know if this is going to become a trend for 2022, but it was a good day to start off the first day of the year and the first shift of the year at work. ^^;;

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

-Sarnic Dirchi