Where's the Stable Ground?

 I've probably said it before and I'll definitely say it again.

But like.

I'm not a fan of change.

Or I guess...instablity?

I like things to be stable.

Which often means....unchanging.

And if things need to change....I do best when I have a heads up, so I can mentally prepare for said change and learn to accept it as the 'new normal' as it were.

And I have to admit....the past couple years has been....hard in that regards.

In regards to family really.

As I like to keep my family close. I like having them nearby and I enjoy doing things together with them. 

And one of the things that I've missed....is the traditions we used to have when Mother Dearest was around.

Like the tradition of gathering together as a family and going out to eat to celebrate someone's birthday.

I liked that. Liked meeting together to celebrate.

But with her passing....things changed.

Like we still meet together.

But we haven't had a family dinner out to eat in ages it feels like. It's been years since we've celebrated a birthday at a restaurant like we used to do.

And part of it is probably expenses. As we're a bigger family now with my siblings being married and it's only growing bigger with them also expecting newborns in the next little while.

So I get it.

Some traditions end up no longer fitting and needing tweaking.

But I do wish that they weren't just dropped.

I wish that I could get into the 'new normal' mindset of how things are going to be from here on out with our bigger families making it more difficult to all gather together to be together.

And part of the difficulty is probably from constantly being told "Family is important. I want to be with family." only for the actions to not match the words. 

What family is being talked about when birthdays are missed? When the opportunties to gather together and bond are dropped in favor of going to other places.

If family is important....why isn't more of an effort made to show that family is important? 

*exhales*

In many ways I know what is meant. And I can understand where everyone is coming from.

But the part of me that likes stability is just....left flailing. The part of me that doesn't want to change is torn asunder.

It's....depressing really.

And it makes it hard to want to interact with my family when I know I'm going to be hearing more news of change. More news of instability that I will have to adjust to until it becomes stable or shifts to yet another instability before I can find solid ground.

It's just....hard.

I get that things change....but a lot of the times I wish they wouldn't.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

More Tomatoes

So. There I was. Checking out at the grocery store after gathering all my groceries.

I was doing the final payment, when I took the opportunity to glance at my phone and saw I had a message.

A message from my roomie.

Asking if I could grab some tomatoes for her.

Which on the one hand. I had told her to text me if she thought of anything she needed while I was out shopping. Though the timing was rather....bad....in that I'd just finished paying for my groceries....but not unexpected.

No. The odd thing was that....I was so confused as to why she would need tomatoes.

Like I knew perfectly well we had a nice big bowl of tomatoes in the kitchen from the Garden. I had literally been thinking minutes earlier as I was going through all the produce that at least I wouldn't have to buy tomatoes because we had plenty at home.

So why in the world would she want me to grab her a 'big bag' of tomatoes?

Like...there literally weren't any 'big bags' of tomatoes at the store. It was all little cherry tomatoes or like a bushel of 4 tomatoes.

But there certainly wasn't the FIVE POUNDS of tomatoes there that she was wanting.

Wanting because she was making some tomato sauce....but only had half of the tomatoes needed for it. *exhales*

I probably could have said "Sorry they don't have that many" as the 'bulk' section only had small things but then I saw these nice two towers of single tomatoes where you could pick them out one by one and bag them.

And the roomie was liek "Yes! Those! Get my 5 lbs of Romas Please."

*shakes head*

For those curious. 5lbs of Romas was around 25 tomatoes. As I had the fun task of weighing them. So yay for using a device in the grocery store that I basically never use but was aware of lol. 

But yah. It was that nice awkward moment of dragging my cart full of already paid for groceries around the store as I gathered the tomatoes and then had to go back through checkout to pay for them.

At least no one stopped me. Heh. I was halfway expected to be accused of trying to steal. But nope. It didn't happen. I was able to get in and out just fine. So yay for that.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pizza Pizza

 It's always a semi-adventure when it comes to ordering pizza.

Mostly because the local places seem to have a hard time keeping delivery drivers on hand to be able to get pizzas out to people. 

So like half the time, when I go online to try and order a pizza for delivery....the website will day "delivery isn't available at this time."

Which I can get.

Delivery Drivers don't always get the best reactions from customers and it's alot of driving for who knows how much pay.

So can't fault that....even if it means I either have to go to the store to get my pizza...or I go without pizza that day.

In any case.

Monday I ended up having a bit of a hankering for pizza.

Mostly because it was a busy weekend and the roomies and I were all feeling "meh" about making our own food. Low energy and such.

So I was like "Oh! I can order pizza!" 

Because Pizza is good and easy to eat and can last for a few days which is great when I come home from working closing shifts and am starving and need a quick something to eat.

So.

I tried the website. 

And upon discovering that it was a "Yes, we can deliver!" day. Ran the idea past the roomies about ordering pizza.

To which there was a resounding YES!!

And it all went well with ordering on the website.

.....

Until I got to the payment option.

And I was confronted with a rather....large hurdle.

"We aren't accepting credit cards at this time." Or something like that.

But basically Credit Cards, Gift Cards, Pay Pal...all the electronic methods of payment....were down on the website.

Which RUDE.

And also left only one option left if we wanted pizza delivered.

And that was paying with Cash.

Which Ha.

Who really carries cash around anymore?? Most people tend to pay in card or via their phone. 

So Cash?! 

It made me wonder if this was a sly way to decrease the amount of online orders the store was getting so that they could keep up with demand and still have available drivers as again...not everyone has enough cash on hand to pay for their pizza.

Usually I don't either.

But lucky me...I had a bunch of cash on me still because I hadn't spent all the money I withdrew from the bank to go to the gem fair with. 

(As oftentimes people give you better deals if they see you paying with cash instead of cards.) 

But with how crazy I went with the gem fair....I ended up using my card a bit more than I did the cash I had on hand.

So I still had plenty left to cover the cost of a couple pizzas for me and my roomies as well as tip the driver.

SO HA.

Take that pizza place.

You can't deny me my desire to eat pizza while avoiding having to go anywhere to get it! 

And I have to say. The food was well worth it. SOOO TASTY.

So glad I had the cash on hand because that pizza was well needed lol.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fix It.

 So. In our store there's 4 registers.

Only the 4th register we've basically....never used.

Like if we did have four registers working at any point during my tenure at the store....it would have had to have stopped working in the first two or three years of me being there. Because I really don't remember it ever working. 

And like for the past...idk 4 or 5 years maybe 6 or 7 years honestly because I feel like it was three managers ago....that there was talk of taking out Register 4.

I know the head manager before my current head manager was really gunning for it to be taken out so that he could expand out the grooming salon and make that bigger.

But then that head manager left and the current head manager came in and the topic of expanding the grooming salon was dropped....but there was still a plan on the docket to get register 4 taken out.

Only like it's never happened.

And in the meantime... we've kinda used Register 4 as a source for extra parts.

Something breaks? Take it from 4. Something else broke? Take that from 4.

So the end result is that Register 4 has a ton of things that probably don't work well because we've used it to replace so many things over the years.

Which again. No big deal because we're supposed to be getting rid of it.

Only.

That's apparently not the case anymore?

As Head Manager got word down the pipeline that they want us to have ALL our registers up and fully running before the holiday season starts. 

And by ALL the registers....they mean our frankenstein 4th register that hasn't seen customer action in ages.

Like we've been using it the past 2ish years as a prepping zone for all the curbside orders.

So like....it's just a waste of space.

Not anymore.

My head manager tasked me with the job to figure out what all needed to be fixed on the register to get it up and running again.

Which....can be quite the lengthly list.

Among them being: 
The pin pad doesn't work -it says maintenance required which according to the IT dude means that it's basically gone bad. It got 'wet' or whatever but it's 'maintence mode' is a bad sign and it needs to be replaced.
The handheld scanner doesn't work -IT thinks it's just a dead battery that needs to be replaced but we won't know for sure that's the problem until the battery is replaced because it could be a different issue with the scanner or it could be the cradle itself isn't working or it could be both halves aren't working....but until that battery is replaced who actually knows. 
The receipt printer wasn't working -Which was easily fixed in that I needed to plug it in. But along with the receipt printer....it's unknown if the check reader on the thing is working or not -we'll have to actually get the main computer up and running to test the checks and see if they work.
The keyboard needs to be replaced -the area that requires a manager key to do overrides and such is stuck in an unhelpful position and won't move so the entire thing needs to be replaced.
And lastly
The register itself won't fully load. There's an error where it won't connect to anything. 

So yah.

There's a lot going on with 4.

And my head manager was like "Figure out what's wrong then call the Solutions Center and have them put in a work order to get the broken things fixed."

Easy right? No big deal? 

Ha.

I wish.

Honestly from the other work orders I've had to place in recently I really expected it to be a "Here's the problem. Oh you've opened up a ticket to have someone come look at it? Great. We'll see them when they get here. Bye." 

But nooooo.

Computer things are different apparently in that the dude who answered my call actually was proactively trying to figure out what could be fixed over the phone and what needed a ticket opened up to be fixed in person.

And he was very Not. Happy. with me. 

As I called towards the end of his 12 hour long shift. I was his last phone call of the day. And the fact that he spent basically an hour on the phone with me had him rather miffed. 

As apparently their metrics are screwy in that if a call lasts longer than like 7 minutes it basically equates to one of our "red surveys" that we get in the store.

-Said red surveys mean we have to get like 5 green surveys to overcome the 1 bad survey.

And it's doubly bad for this dude's metrics if the call lasts longer than 7 minutes and he has open ticket orders on top of that.

It can mess up his entire week apparently.

And so me calling towards the end of his work day and telling him I had like 12 different things wrong with a single register.

He kinda just 'went off' on me -in a polite way- to say "Tell your Store Leader that they should NOT leave everything last minute and if something breaks it should be fixed RIGHT AWAY and not left until the problems are compounded on top of each other."

and I was like "Wow, dude, chill. This register was scheduled to be taken out of our store. We've been told for years that we weren't going to have it anymore, but today they dropped the bombshell that we need to get it fixed ASAP for the holiday so we're being proactive and trying to get it fixed, but like because we didn't think we'd need it it's basically been used as spare parts for the other registers hence why so many thigns are broken"

Which calmed him down a little in the "oh...you're using it as spare parts...you thought it was going away....yes I see here that that was a plan and I totally understand you using it as spare parts as I would have done the same thing in your place. Yes I understand. I'm not happy but I understand." 

So yah.

I spent like a good hour on the phone with this guy trying various little fixes because his computer wasn't showing register four pinging the network at all so we were trying to figure out what the issue was.

And it was only at the end of the call that the dude realized what the actual problem probably was.

It's the fact that recently....like a month or two ago....we had all our register systems updated network wise. (and there's apparently a plan on the docket to give us compeletely new registers at some point in the future) 

But when the people came in to update our register systems....they didn't update register 4....because at that point in time 4 was supposed to be taken out. So like....why set up a network connection to something that was going away?

So we have to get register 4 connected back to the network before the dude can figure out what the actual issue with said computer is if there's any further issues beyond no network connection.

But since it was the end of his work day....we basically had to put it all on pause until tomorrow.

So tomorrow, if he gets the timing right, I'll be talking to him again to try and figure out all what's going on with Register 4.

*exhales*

So yah. Fun times. *shakes head* Gotta love it when a 'simple thing' gets complicated. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Oh Look. A Stone.

 So. This past weekend was the gem fair right? Right.

And me being me and my gift giving self....

I asked my roomies and a couple coworkers if they wanted anything from said gem fair.

And surprisingly two of them mentioned that they would like an amethyst.

But like....not the typical amethyst that I think of. The tall pillars or the smooth palm stones, or the circular orbs.

No they both mentioned that they wanted "rough" ameythyst.

Aka. Ameythst in it's natural pointy state. 

Which okay.

To each their own. I usually prefer the cut/shaped stones as opposed to their natural state.

But I can see why they would prefer the beauty of a rough cut stone.

My roomie in particular mentioned that she would like one big enough to be more like a knick knack to place on her book shelf. Something hand sized or so.

Which....the bigger the stone...the more expensive it gets. 

Especially when she wanted the stone in the 'darkest purple'

As the darker the Amethyst...the more expensive it gets.

She did end up changing her mind though like 15 minutes after she told me this. Deciding to go for a necklace instead. Still Amethyst. Still rough. But a necklace.

Which it's a gem fair. 95% of the tables are bead/necklace/jewlery based. So the odds were good I'd find a stone that fit the criteria. 

And I did on Friday.

But I also noticed on Friday that there was a table selling the bigger pieces of rough amethyst for half off. I ended up getting one of those pieces for my brother....but didn't get one for my roomie because in my mind she no longer wanted that. She wanted the necklace and that was my main quest on Friday was to get what she asked for.

But as I was thinking about it after I got back home Friday and Saturday....I realized....that I could go back and get an amethyst for like half the normal price....and just give it to her for Christmas as a Christmas present. 

So that's half the reason why I ended up going back to the Gem Fair on Sunday. Was to get her her Christmas present...and also like...get presents for other people that I'd missed in my first mad dash around the gem fair on Friday. Heh.

In any case.

The table that had the stones for half off....had sold quite a few of them between Friday and Sunday. So most of what was left was too light of a purple shade for my roomie. As she was looking for deep purple and most of the stones at the table were like...lilac colored. Very light. 

BUT.

In my less frenzied wanderings around the various stalls....I found multiple tables also selling Rough Amethyst stones. A lot of ranging from decent to stupid expensive lol. 

And after dithering between like...4 different stalls....comparing prices and looks and color and size....I ended up at a table with the amethysts set in stands with a little tab labeled "Name your price." next to them.

Which. Double edged sword.

Because I did not want to go up to the vendor and be like $20 and be laughed off because the stone was like a $80 stone and I didn't realize it.

But the stone I chose...after some comparisions and such with other ones from other tables that actually marked their prices.... I ended up naming a price I thought was fair for what I was getting.

And the dude accepted. 

So ha!

I got my present for my roomie!

But like....in the middle of all my dithering about which rock to get for my roomie....

I was also considering getting a rough cut amethyst for myself.

Peer pressure am I right? Lol. I mean 2 different people requested the stone.

So there has to be something to it if everyone is requesting it. (not everyone but you get the idea) 

My main hesitancy beyond the price....was the fact that I just...can't really see a way to keep it clean? Like all those little nooks and crannies I could see gathering dust and being difficult to keeping shiny. 

Plus like....I'd already managed to spend like a paycheck's amount of money getting other stones for myself (blue quartz!! YES!) and for family and friends. 

So in the end....I decided against getting a rough amethyst stone for myself.

Most of my color preferences ended up being blue and yellow stone wise....which is interesting since I usually tend to gravitate towards Browns and Purples when getting stones. lol. 

In any case.

I got the rough amethyst stones for my brother and my roomie and a smaller piece for a friend and put it all behind me.

Ironically though....there's more to this story.

In the fact that for nearly a year I had subscribed to a "monthly box of rocks" where I would receive a package of 5 pocket stones every month. 

Which was fun for a while....but I ended up stopping that subscription as I wasn't as satisifed with the stones I was getting for the price I was getting them at.

But like....I missed receiving a random rock box.

So I ended up signing for a different monthly rock distributor that would send me one larger stone once a month just to check that out.

And today.

Today the first box showed up.

AND GUESS WHAT THE STONE WAS INSIDE OF THE BOX?!

lol

You're right. It's a rough cut amethyst. lol.

Like what are the odds?  

It's not a pure amethyst...the little card that came with it says that it's "Amethyst with Geothite Inclusions in it.

Which is a bunch of little black dots in the stone.

But it's still awesome!

lol. It's a lighter shade of purple more towards those lilac shades.

But I love it. And mostly I'm just amused that I ended up getting one after deciding I didn't actually need one. Ha.

I guess I did need it. 

As the card gives examples of things the stone can help encourage or discourage in your life. 

And one of the things the Amethyst can help discourage is: Headaches 

Which I've been suffering from quite a bit this summer. So any relief would be welcome.

But the Goethite inclusions can also help discourage: Writer's Block.

And guess what I've been suffering from like the entire year?

Yep.

Writer's block.

Soooo I guess I actually did need this stone in my life. XD lol. We'll see if it helps with the headaches or writer's block or if it will be just a pretty stone to admire on my shelf.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Back to the Rocks

 After the events of yesterday. 

I was pretty much in the mindset of "screw you I'm hermiting" as my plan for today.

Because I did NOT want to people.

Especially when I ended up waking up with the same headache I went to bed with. *exhales* 

But....

I had been playing with the thought since I got home from the Gem Faire Friday....that I should go back today.

And I've been dithering over whether or not I should go like the entire time.

Mostly because like....I already spent a lot of money there Friday. So I shouldn't need to go back.

But I also kept thinking about stones there that I'd taken pictures of with the intention to maybe buy them, but then ran out of time Friday as I only had a limited time to shop before the place closed for the day and looking back at the pictures after I got home I was like "Oh....I wanted that." 

And I was also thinking about certain stones and such that I'd seen that...well...that would be cool gifts to give to people. Like it's never too early to start Christmas shopping and there were things there that I was like "That would be cool!!" but in the stress of the moment Friday I didn't think about it and was willing to maybe call it a wash and plan to find something else to give to people for Christmas...but then I kept thinking about the rocks and going "well that would be cool."

So this morning I ended up talking myself into going back, despite the headache lurking behind my right eye for most of the day.

Because like. It's Sunday. And the main benefit to shopping on Sunday (though I try to avoid shopping on Sundays) but the main benefit to going to places on Sundays is that they're usually not as crazy filled with people.

And since I was already peopled out...the knowledge that there should hoepfully be less people in the place as compared to Friday (and probably like a third as busy as Saturday would have been.) 

I was like "Yah. I'll chance it."

Plus like....it was a rather crappy Saturday and I was like "I should do something for myself Sunday!" 

Soooo I went back to the Gem Faire. ^^;;

And I had a ton of fun there too.

Like. It was nice to wander around without the pressure of "see everything and buy things before they close!" on me. 

I could wander back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Like I ended up visiting the same stalls a good 4 or 5 times as I compared prices and figured out what I wanted to buy and decided what gifts to get for people and what to get for myself and it was nice.

There was a much more relaxed atmosphere there as well. Probably influenced by my lack of stress being there.

And like....I totally spent waaaayyy too much money on rocks today. Like an entire paychecks worth....but I'm not like....stressing over it....because half of what I bought was gifts for other people so like it's an investment for future me and saving future me time and money around Christmas because I already have Christmas Presents for people. XD lol. It's great.

And yah.

I'm glad that I went back and was able to be among the rocks and find cool stones and such.

Much better than sitting at home fuming I suppose lol.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Irritating Waiting Game

 It was supposed to be a calm chill evening at home. 

An evening I was looking forward to because it's one of the more rare occasions where the roomies are out of the house and I get the place to myself for a bit.

And to make it even better. I was able to get out of work early as scheduling made it difficult to take my lunch break and still have coverage, so I opted to leave early instead of trying to finagle a break while we were busy with Saturday customers. 

-Which side note. Why do customers keep commenting that "It's rather busy today?" on a Saturday. Like It's a SATURDAY. That has to be the busiest day of the week. That's when all the customers come out. So like....Why are you commenting on it being busy (and it wasn't even that busy at the time) when it's NORMAL for a Saturday? Do you not shop saturdays or what?

In any case. 

I got off work early and was looking forward to some nice quiet alone time at home.

Only.

I wasn't alone when I got home.

No. Apparently -and my roommate neglected to tell me of this- but her mom (this is the roomie who owns the house and her mom often drops by to do various house maintenance things) had decided today was the perfect Saturday to....I don't know....Winter Prep the outside? 

Who knows. I mean it makes sense. If she knew all of us were going to be gone for most of the day, she's less likely to cause issues or noise irritations when there's no one here to experience said noise irritations.

*exhales*

And since I'm sensitive to noise.....seeing her doing all sorts of mowing and trimming and power washing and reseeding and wood chopping and such.....made it quite clear that my quiet thought of "Hey I could take a nice nap" when I got home was a totally null and void idea.

Because a) noise makes it hard to relax and b) since she now knew I was home there was a chance that she might need something from me and therefore I couldn't really just vanish into my room because I didn't want her knocking on my door and waking me up. So I kinda had to hang out in public spaces just in case.

Which granted. I probably could have just hid in my room and called it good. But yah....I really didn't want to try and sleep when I knew she was wandering about.

In any case. I figured I'd just chill and do internet things for a bit.

Only....while she was powerwashing the house (because she was totally powerwashing the house) she accidentally soaked one of the outdoor outlets.

And said outdoor outlet -which wasn't really meant to be an outdoor outlet but whoever designed and put together this place was NOT skilled at all at their job- is connected to the same....idk circuit? breaker? whatever. It's connected to the same electrical outlet as the Internet connection. Said internet box connection also being in a weird spot that makes no sense for internet boxes to be.

In any case.

A soaked outlet outside meant that it kicked off the breaker. And the little red button you have to press on the inside outlet above the internet box....refused to turn back on.

Becaue the outside outlet was wet.

So I ended up being without internet and without a nap for a while while she and I tried to figure out how to get everything working. -It involved a hair dryer and a good 15 minutes of aiming it at the wet socket.

But internet came back eventually!

But I still couldn't really just chill and take a nap. Because the mom was still doing yard stuff and usually when she comes by she's here until after dark but who knows how long she'd actually be there for.

So it was just the stupid wait and see game of hoping that the mom would be done before sunset so I could then go take a nap. 

Which she was!!!

Only. As I was finishing a thing I was in the middle of -20 minutes later- I look over and realized that the mom had left her purse behind.

So I dutifully texted my roomie to tell her to tell her mom that her purse was still here.

And my roomie was like "Oh! My Dad will come get it!" 

So I was like "Okay. That means he should be here in the next hour or so" Right?

Wrong.

TWO HOURS PASS with me just waiting for the dad to show up so I could hand off the purse and go take a nap or maybe a shower as I also wanted to do that too. 

And like an hourish in I texted the roomie and was like "Soooo where is he? I kinda want to take a shower and I can't really do that if he's going to be dropping by soon." 

And once again. The roomie neglected to add in the FIRST text when she said her dad would come get the purse that he was planning to do so AFTER the football game.

Because apparently there's a game on tonight and he's going to it.

And said games never end until around MIDNIGHT. 

So like *throws hands up in air* I could have spent a good two or three hours TAKING A NAP or TAKING A SHOWER but Noooooooooo. I was just stuck in the stupid limbo of WAITING for the father to show up 'at some point' 

Because again. I was the only one HOME to let him into the house.

LIKE AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

I nearly just stuck the purse inbetween the screen door and the front door and been like "I stuck it Here, roomie. Tell your dad that's where it is I'm going to bed." 

But I was NICE and didn't.

I did go take a shower and such.

But I figured my roomie would be home BEFORE midnight because her thing ended at 9 and I figured with traffic and such she'd be home around like 11. Maybe 1130 at the latest. And then I could pass off the purse to her to give to her dad and call it night.

Is she home yet? 

NO. She texted like 

And at this point her dad is more likely going to arrive before she does by like a good half hour 45 minutes. 

Of course that's IF the dad just doesn't space (like men tend to do) the need to go pick up the purse which with how today has gone it wouldn't surprise me in the latest if he forgets and then I would have stayed up for NOTHING.

Because the irritation of having to wait for the mom to leave and then wait for the dad to show up and the roomie to come has just triggered a general migraine headache that is not putting me in any good moods at all.

Whatever the case. Whoever gets here first. Roomie or The Dad I'm heading to bed right after because I am done. 

So done with today.

My social battery has depleted past empty and my power charger is broken because I haven't been able to RELAX at all today due to the STUPID WAITING GAME.

Next time.

NEXT TIME

I'm leaving the purse in the door and locking myself in my room and not coming out until morning.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

All The Rocks

 It's been a while since I've been to a gem faire. 

Mostly because the last handful of them have occured on weekends when I either a) am out of town or b) have to work hours that make it impossible to visit said gem faire.

Like....I think today was the first one this year I've been to? I'm not even positive I made it to one last year.....I know I've been to the gem fair at least once during the pandemic. Maybe twice. So this might be the third time?

In any case.

For an even that happens at least 3 if not 4 times a year in my area....the fact that I've missed it so much is....not crazy but crazy you know?

And I wasn't quite sure what to expect this time around either.

Like there's a comic-con happening this weekend as well nearby too. So I wasn't sure if there would be crowds of people wanting to look at rocks when they could go be geeking out elsewhere.

Lol needless to say. A lot of people like rocks. As it was pretty crowded by the time I made it up that way after I got off work.

And two hours is definitely not enough time to actually look and enjoy the gem fair before having to rush to buy things before the place closes down for the night.

Plus. So. Many. People.

Yeesh. I know crowds are a thing and it probably wasn't as crowded as tomorrow will probably be. But it was definitely more people milling around than I expected. 

BUT!!

This gem faire was AWESOME.

Because they had sooooooo many rock stalls this time around. Like it felt like twice as many as before since it feels like 95% of the gem faire is usually jewelry/bead stands.

But this time it might have been more like 25% of the place was rocks rocks and more rocks.

And the biggest find of the day was the fact that there was a stall that had BLUEBERRY QUARTZ!!!

Which is like....Blue Quartz similar to the Strawberry/Cherry quartz you see where instead of red swirls in clear quartz you have blue swirls and ITS THE BEST!

I've only seen them in person once before and that was years ago in some store in Arizona. Like maybe up to a decade ago that I saw them.

Though I have seen them online.....

This is the first time in the valley that I actually found blueberry quartz!!!

And it's not like tiny 2-3 inch pieces of quartz.

No these blue pieces were like 6-12 inches long and a good 2-3 inches wide.

They were HUGE!!

And for the size the price of them was actually pretty good. Like still alot of money. But considering I haven't SEEN these Anywhere else. They were well worth it! lol. I ended up buying 2 pieces because I could. and I LOVE THEM!

I'm actually debating about whetehr or not I should go back this weekend to the fair --earlier in the day so that I can spend more time browsing and looking and see what I can see that I missed...and maybe pick up a few pieces that I didn't get a chance to buy in the last minute run around I was doing trying to get things for friends before the place closed today.

Overall. It was a great day and despite the multitude of people I had more fun than I was expecting. ^^;;

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Back in the Chair Again

 One of the dreams I hate to have is the one where there's something wrong with your teeth. Like the dreams where one cracks, or one falls out, or multiple fall out....those sort of dreams. 

And they used to really stress me out.

Key word. Used to. 

I mean. They still kinda stress me out. Those dreams where my teeth fall out.

But at the same time I've kinda reached this point of apathy? Like. Oh no. I've lost some teeth. Guess I'll have to get to the dentist to get that fixed. It's just all....pointless really. (Though I am still relieved to wake up and realize that my teeth are fine and I don't have to go to the dentist)

And I don't know if it's just because I've had the dream often enough for it to no longer be super stressful for me....or if I've had enough 'problems' with my teeth in real life that when something does go wrong with my teeth in the dream I'm like "Whelp. I knew this would happen eventually." Sort of thought process.

Who knows.

In any case.

I've been having actual real life issues with my teeth recently. Nothing crazy. Just like....fillings failing and such. 

But like it's getting annoying because the past...3 months? 4 months? I'm not sure. But it feels like at least once a month I've had to call up the dentist and be like "Heeeeyyyyy. I need to come in." Because I've had a filling break or get loose, or a sudden rough patch show up. 

And it's annoying because like my routine hasn't changed....so like why now? Why the constant teeth problems?

I'm guessing it's just stress is getting to me or something. I mean I hold a lot of tension in my shoulders and neck and that has often radiated to my jaw and sinuses causing some aching in my mouth and such.

So like....stress based issues? Maybe I'm just tense in general and clenching my teeth in my sleep or something?

Who knows.

In any case.

I had to go to the dentist again today.

Because tooth Ten is being a dramatic drama queen and causing me problems.

Like....a tiny piece chipped off (on the side where 9 is) so I went in to get that smoothed out/ built up so my tongue would stop playing with it and the dentist warned me that because it was such a tiny area on a biting surface chances are high that piece wouldn't 'stick' and would 'get lost' at some point. And I was like *salutes* Okay.

Only to have like the other side of that same tooth by 11 ended up with this rough patch where a filling had some sort of issues....and when the dentist went in to fix that discovered that both 10 and 11 had slight cavities underneath the old fillings that needed to be fixed. 

So I was like. Cool fixed that up.

Only to have the tiny piece on 10 that I originally fix vanish a like...two weeksish ago? And I was like "Whelp. Dentist said that would happen. And it's not too rough right now. I won't worry about getting that fixed again, though maybe I'll have him smooth it out when I go in for my cleaning in a couple of months."

Only two nights ago as I was flossing that area as it was a bit rough....the floss caught, not in the gap between 9 and 10 but in a tiny fissure on tooth ten and as I tried to figure out what was going on....noticed that a tiny piece of the tooth -aka a filling-- was wiggling. 

And like. That's not good. And I didn't want to accidentally make it worse as messing a little bit with it I could feel pressure on the tooth which could probably cause problems if I bite into something wrong and it catches wrong on the failed filling and suddenly I don't have a tooth any more. (dramatic I know but remember I have dreams where this has happened so it's plausible to my brain) 

So yah.

I had to go back in to the dentist today to get that looked at and I figured while I was in there I would also have the dentist look at tooth 5 because near the gum line on the cheek side I could see a ...divit of sorts right along that edge. (that appeared like 3 days after the last dentist visit where we fixed teeth 10 & 11) And like it wasn't painful. Just a slight rough patch my tongue (and sometimes cheek) could feel. But if I was already going in to get the more major issue fixed on 10, I figured why not kill 2 birds with one stone and get tooth 5 fixed as well.

And tooth 5 was definitely an easy fix. I mean. It's never fun to get my upper lips numbed up to the point where my nose feels numb. But 5 was an easy fix. 

And 10....10 was also a pretty easy fix, with the slight exception that the dentist was like "Oh there's some decay under this old filling" so you know, had to get that out before properly fixing said filling. 

But overall....it was a quick fix. No issues and my mouth feels a ton better now than it has been.....

With the exception of the points where the needles got stuck into my gums. Because OW those impact points still hurt...and in typical fashion will probably hurt or a couple more days because it's a rare time when the numbing needles don't end up hurting my mouth in some way. *exhales*

But overall. My mouth feels a lot better than it has. Though my tongue is rather confused to not have any rough surfaces to play with so it keeps going over the smooth spots now. 

In any case....

I really hope this is the last 'fix it' dentist appointment I have to deal with this year.

Like. I do have a cleaning scheduled in December at some point.

But I really hope that they don't find anything there and nothing goes wrong in the meantime.

*fingers crossed*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Ghost Town

 So work....work was weirdly like a ghost town today.

Seriously. After like 3 years of near constant chaos due to the pandemic....today was like...deader than dead in the store.

Like I'm pretty sure we never had more than like a dozen people in the store at one time at all while I was working.

Which. Not surprising for the morning.

But the EVENING?! Like no. That's just weird.

But it's true. The entire evening we barely had any customers in the store. Like we did have a few mini rushes where suddenly there were 6 people in line and we needed a back up cashier for 15 minutes or so.

But like.....it was quiet today.

So quiet.

And it may have been partially due to the wind and heavy rain and thunder/lightning storms we had earlier today.

But like....the weather became less doom and gloom like two hours after I got to work.

It was like....Game Day dead without the pre-game rush that usually seems to occur when there's football or something going on.

Which considering it's a Wednesday night....I don't think football is played then....??? Who knows. I don't pay attention to sports like at all.

In any case.

It was soooo quiet today at work and it weirded me out a ton.

I just kept expecting us to get flooded with a mob of people and it just...never happened.

It was truly a blue moon experience as I highly doubt we'll have any more dead days once we hit October and the holiday season gets into full swing.

But we'll see.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hero or Villian?

 You know...it's crazy how you can be the devil and the angel in people's lives.

Like. To one person you're a total angel. Saved the say etc etc. 

And to another, you're like the devil incarnate. The one who ruined it all.

All within the span of a couple of hours. 

*shakes head*

We had a customer come into the store today. Who stated that they'd purchased an automatic litter box from us "months" ago. But it randomly broke today. So they came in to get a replacement and to basically return the broken one and get a new one. 
The bad news? My cashier tried to look up the receipt and couldn't find it on any transactions within the last 60 days. 
As we only keep records for 60 days. And we only have a return policy for 60 days. 

And the customer confirmed that they'd bought the litter box "months" ago. Aka Over the 60 days. 
Who knows how long "months" is anyways. Like....was it 6 months? 1 Year? Who knows.

In any case.

I couldn't return a $200 litter box...without proof that it was purchased from our store. Especially since there was no receipt. No box. Nothing to help pinpoint when this had been bought or where it had come from.

And the dude was not happy with me about that.

Which I get it. Spend $200 you expect it to last for like 10 years. Not "months."

And I told him that he could reach out to the manufacteror and see if they had a longer warranty on the product because again, my store only has a 60 day return policy.

But in the meantime I did offer to give the dude $30 off of his purchase.

As our D.M. has been hounding us on "taking care of the customer" and "doing whatever we can to make the customer happy." 

And like. If I was being a goodie goodie I probably could have just returned the litter box and exchanged it out for a new one.

But like....That's $200. That's a lot of money to switch out with no receipt and we usually don't do that for high dollar items because those can easily be theft items. (not usually with litter boxes but who knows the dude could have pulled it from the trash. People do crazy things to get money.) 

In any case. I figured I could give the dude $30 off the litter box. Taking the price down a little bit to "soften" the blow.

He still didn't seem happy about the whole situation. But he did end up taking my offer and buying the litter box. 

Soooo win win? In a way? Because like. Yes, I was the bad guy in that I didn't just exchange out the old product for a new product....but like I did try and soften the blow by helping him spend less money? *shrugs*

On the other hand.

Like 15 minutes before close we had a customer and their dog come into the store. 
And like I didn't get the entire story but apparently the dog has anxiety?? and basically tore apart the customer's apartment while they were out. Shredding carpet and curtains and such. 

And so they'd hurried and placed an online order for a dog crate for pick up and driven right over to the store to get it. 

Which....is kinda silly because the website tells you that it can take up to 3 hours for an order to be ready. 
And like it can take up to half an hour for an order to show up in our system in the first place.

So like....it's not a good idea to place an order and drive right over when said order may not have even reached us yet. 

*shakes head*

In any case.

The customer found a groomer who found me who wanted to know if their order was ready.

And like. The customer was lucky. Because in the last hour that we're open....we don't always make it a priority to pick orders that come in at that time because odds are the customer won't show up until the next day anyways and in the last hour we're trying to close down the store and get the customers all out as quickly as possible.

But luckily for the customer. I had a long enough down moment that I had managed to pick the order and place it up front before they showed up.

And they were so excited that it was ready.

Because this customer was like...literally in tears and shaking from all the ..... idk stress?? drama? Who knows.

But I got to be their 'rescuerer' in that I had their crate ready for them to just grab.

So yay me for being on top of things lol. 

So yah.

So weird to kinda be both the good guy and the bad guy in various people's lives.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's Clever, But I Don't Like It

It's not uncommon to discover the signs of theft in our store. 

Empty packages shoved into random spots and such. 

And it's always a 'roll your eyes' sort of moment. 

Because like "congrats thief. You stole the thing. What's the point?" 

I get it. Stealing means not paying money and saving said money and maybe selling said stolen item elsewhere and making more money.

It's still annoying for us workers though.

In any case.

I do have to shake my head at the stupidity of some thieves and quietly admire the creativity of other thieves in the "Ha. That's Clever! I hate you." sort of way. 

Today was one of those "Ha. That was Clever. I hate you." moments.

Where I discovered that 2 empty cups of 25 count superworms on the shelf.

Which on the one hand...how in the world would you steal the sawdust and the worms. And WHY would you feel the need to?

On the other hand. I can totally see how they could have stolen said superworms and I may have seen the thief who did it.

Because I walked past a customer on Saturday ....who's a known difficult customer that I actively seek to avoid because they're just trouble and very finicky about their superworms and how many are in them and such.

And said customer walked past me carrying two 50 counts of superworms heading to the register. 

And when I walked past the endcap a minute later I noticed a bunch of sawdust on the shelf below the superworms. 

Which I was like ??? "Did one spill?" 

And then I remembered. No, said difficult worm customer was here. So they probably dug through the cups to make sure there were 50 in each cup and spilt a bit of the sawdust along the way.

No.

I'm guessing what actually happened....was that difficult worm customer saw that no one was around them, decided that they 'deserved' more than 50 superworms in each cup, and so took the lids off of both the 25ct and the 50ct and dumped the 25ct worms into the 50 count cup therefore giving the customer 75 worms in each 50ct cup.

*exhales* 

Like it's clever. It's not like the cashiers look at the cups and go "Huh, this cup has more sawdust and worms in it than normal, you must have stolen it!" No. They just scan and go. They don't usually count them.

So it's clever. 

But I hate it. 

And it makes me wonder if said customer does this every time they come into the store....or if this was the first time???

Or I could be totally placing blame on the wrong customer since I've already had negative experiences with this one difficult customer it's easy to place more negativity on them. 

It could have been some other enterprising person who potentially dumped the 25 into the 50 and got away with it. *shrugs* 

Or they could have had a bag or pocket or something and just dumped the containers in there. (Ew Messy)

But still...it's suspicious.

But yah. It was a clever theft. I have to admire that. Even if I hate discovering it.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Short Staffed

 "You're rather short staffed today aren't you." 

Is what a customer commented to me yesterday at work after I'd finished bagging them some crickets.

A comment which I'm sure was inspired by the fact that said customer had to wait for me to finish helping another customer with fish before I could help them get their bugs.

But it was kinda ironic in a way.

Because yes, we're typically short staffed at work. It's not a surprise because corporate is very stingy about giving us hours to hire more people so most of the time we're lucky if we have a manager, a cashier, and someone for Petcare along with maybe a 4th body.

Which is rather depressing to consider that back when I first started at Starsmet, we had 2 morning petcare, 2 closing petcare, a team of like 4 stockers, at least one cashier if not two the entire day. Like we had a literal whole crew.

And now....it's bare bones.

Because corporate wants us to do more with less so more money goes to whatever gold gilded pockets of whoever owns the company or whatever.

And it's frustrating on multiple levels especially considering my store has been seeing an increase in business because our competitor has temporarily closed as they move from their old building into a new buildng.

But does corporate give us more hours to make up for the increase in traffic? *rolls eyes* Of course not.

But the customer's statement yesterday was kinda ironic.

Because we actually were a bit....overstaffed compared to normal.

Like. We had THREE cashiers, me in petcare, and then three other managers in the store -2 attempting to work on getting product on the shelf from our truck and the 3rd acting as the midday manager.

So like tehre were a good 7 of us in the store which was alot. 

And really only happened, i'm sure, because we have a newbie being trained on register, so we had double coverage there.

But also because it's Saturday. And Saturday's are typically our most busiest day of the week. Which means we try to have more associates working that day --if hours allow--

So coverage wise. We were doing really great.

*shakes head* But customers don't always see it that way. Especially if they need to wait more than 30 seconds to recceive help.

It's like they think there's a whole crew of us waiting in the back to be called out to help.

But like...we're not Best Buy. There's not 20 of us wandering around the store.

No, usually there's like 4 of us max. Which when one is stuck at register and the other is stuck at the fish wall...doesn't mean that we have much coverage with 2 others to help other customers especially when one customer decides to be a chatty Kathy and just waste our time talking while other customers are also waiting for help. 

*exhales*

It's stressful for sure.

Saturday's aren't fun at all.

But like....we had the coverage yesterday to make things go pretty smoothly, for which I'm grateful.

lol and if customers don't like waiting....they really shouldn't shop on a Saturday. Like that's always the busiest day for us. You want to have less crowds and quicker help? Come on a Tuesday or a Wednesday when it's more dead. *shakes head*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Influence

 I got to see and hold my best friend's baby yesterday.

Which babies are sooo cute, especially this one, but they're soo small and floppy and it's...it's just weird to think my friend is a parent now. *shakes head* lol.

It's not quite as weird as realizing that my siblings are going to be parents soon because like....it never quite hits that your younger siblings are adults. In some part of my mind it's just like "No, they're still teenagers." Even though we've all been graduated from high school for ages now lol. 

In any case.

Friend's baby. 

Such the cutest little thing!! 

And surprisingly....the baby was pretty calm in my arms. Like...much calmer than expected apparently for being under a month old.

lol as my friend mentioned that beyond one grandparent, the baby usually fusses when being held by anyone else who isn't mom and dad. All the siblings and the other grandparents the baby just fusses.

But with me? Practically calmed down and fell right back to sleep in my arms. 

Soooo CUTE!

lol and my friend was theorizing that the reason the baby is so calm around me...is because they possibly heard my voice a lot when in the womb, because my friend and I would chat all the time at work and such. So for the past 9 months the baby has been hearing my voice when I've worked together with my friend, and so it's more recognizable and maybe the baby recognizes me as something familiar and so stays calmer.

It's kinda crazy to think about actually.

How my voice could be heard by the baby in the womb. How I was around enough for it to be recognized as something calming. Just how influential it could possibly be is crazy!

So yah....that's been something that's been on my mind. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Double It.

I'm going to be an Aunt!

Twice over!!

Both of my siblings have announced that they're expecting and I'm Soooo excited for them!!! As I know both of them have been wanting to have children for a while.

And when my first sibling announced that they were pregnant.

I thought it would be really cool if my other sibling would end up expecting as well. So that the two of them could grow up as close cousins. That they could have a friend of a smiliar age to them that they would see often.

As I've always liked the concept of having cousins close to my age.

And I did....like it's hard with how big both my parent's extended families are....to not have cousins who are close to age to us. 

It's just....all the ones really close to me in age live out of state. So we've never really....been close.

So it's amazing news to me to hear that my two new niblings will have a playmate their same age, as they'll only be months apart at this point.

And it's just so cool. I'm so excited for both of my siblings and their spouses to be starting this new chapter in their lives! :D 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Shopping

 You know....it's rather easy...and quite fun to get carried away with holiday stuff. 

Like. The hit to the bank account isn't pleasent for sure if one isn't careful in how they go crazy.

But it's....it's fun to actually get into the holiday spirit. To see a decoration and go "OH I WANT!" lol.

Which is nice since I've been in a kind of... ... slump? When it comes to holiday stuff?

Like...it's hard to get excited for most holidays during the year when the only ones I'm for sure guaranteed to have off are Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

And like.... I often have the bad luck of working like every other holiday of the year unless said holiday happens to fall on my normal day off.

So it's hard to want to celebrate something...when you know you're going to be most likely working on it.

And like. Halloween is a definite guarantee that I will be working since it doesn't fall on my current day off. 

But... my roomie has always been into Halloween. 

And I'm pretty sure my jump start to being excited for halloween is based on her love of halloween and her excitement for the holiday to be approaching.

And for sure, when I dropped by the halloween section in the grocery store today my mind was definitely on the "Is there anything here my roomie would like?" sort of thoughts that slowly devolved into "Oh! I want that! And that and that!" when I saw things that I thought were cool.

But yah.

It was fun buying Halloween stuff today. ^^;; lol May end up buying more as the month progresses....if I ever end up at another store selling halloween things before the holiday is over lol.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

What's in a Name?

 It's interesting...how hearing the name of a person can semi influence your opinion on them...just because of past experiences you've had with another individual with the same name as this new person.

We've hired a couple new people at work recently. Ones that have names of coworkers who used to work here, but no longer do.

And it's interesting how names can follow....trends? In what type of personalities that person has.

Like when I heard about the first hire "S" my first thoughts were "Huh. We had a coworker with that name before....they were amazing!! But they also ended up quitting right before Christmas. Flat out just said "I'm not coming back." no two weeks notice or anything. Leaving us in a bit of a lurch. 

And on paper. The New "S" also seemed amazing. Basically everything we needed. They could work in multiple departments. Had an open availablilty. It was like a dream come true!

Until they actually started working at the store. And then it was "Oh btw I can only work like 2 days a week for like 4 hours..."

And like the first official week. Like after the first shift working in the store "S" was like "Oh yah, I'm not going to be here much longer." and like put in their two weeks notice.

Which is Soooooo frustrating. 

Like they are doing school and work at the same time but apparently it's too much stress? So they just....quit work. 

Which I get it. Working and going to school at the same time isn't for everyone. (I never did it myself so I do get it.) 

But it's sooooo frustrating that "S" wasn't upfront with that. Like we knew they'd moved here for school. But like.....wouldn't you want to make more than a 1 shift effort before calling it quits??

*shakes head* So yah. "S" lived up to their name as seeming reliable and then being super unrealiable and leaving us in a lurch. Joy.

On the other hand.

We also have the new hire "E" who is also a repeat name with us. And like...it's weird because "E" also looks and has a similar personality to the previous "E." to the point where they could be siblings lol. 

And while I've only worked one shift with the new "E." I'm hoping that they'll continue the trend of the old "E" as "E" has been pretty calm, mellow, easygoing. Like it's easy to work around them. Easy to teach them. And they don't really let the crazy of starting a new job ruffle their feathers.

So I'm hopeful this E will stick around for a while. *fingers crossed*

But yah.

It's interesting how people with the same name...despite being from different families. Different generations. Different cultures....can often have the same quirks/personalities.

Small world I guess.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where Do You Put This Money?

 *exhales* Why do people... ... Make things complicated???

So.

Yesterday afternoon we had a customer come bring a Conure back to the store that they'd purchased from us because they discovered that they were allergic to the bird.

Which yikes. :S Not fun to find out. But at least the customer realized it within our return policy (they'd only had the bird a couple days)

And like...it should have been a simple enough return. 

However. Conures have gotten super pricy during the pandemic. Basically doubling in price to be just under $700.

Again. Easy enough to return....if the customer had paid with a card.

They had not paid with a card.

Somehow this customer had like $700 in CASH that they paid with for the bird.

... Who brings that much cash with them to a pet store??!?!?!!? *shakes head*

This became a bigger deal because our registers do not usually have that much cash on hand in their drawers. And unfortunately, this return wasn't done on the first register where we get a lot of traffic and could have possibly covered that cash return there....

No. This return was done on the less often used register 2.

Which meant we definitely didn't have enough cash in the drawer to do the return.

Which meant that the manager had to go borrow the remaining money from our safe in order to give the customer their money back. 

Which meant that Register 2 was now very short changed AND owed the safe. 
(As we need the registers to be balanced at a certain amount and we were definitely under that amount and now had the added issue of making enough money to pay back the safe....) 

In any case. 
It's the sort of situation where common sense would dictate that we move our cashier to the second register for a while in order to try and get more cash transactions going through it so that we could have enough money in the register to cover all the bases.

I even informed our mid manager that this would be the case and that they'd need to put our closing cashier on 2 when they came in so that we could get that taken care of.

AND my Head Manager also informed our VP manager -who was closing manager last night- as well that the closing cashier needed to be on register 2 for the evening.

The cashier did not stay on register 2 for the evening. -_-

According to the managers apparently the cashier kept 'jumping over to 1" 

Which is... odd... because this particular cashier has stated multiple times that they prefer cashering on register 2 and not on 1. 

So why would they not stay on 2 unless there was a miscommunication somewhere?? *shakes head* 

In any case.

End of the night comes and Register 2 is still too short to pay back the safe or even out with the amount it's supposed to balanced to.

 Which annoying. But no big deal. We can just imput a code in Register 1 to transfer the extra money we know is there (since 1 is the most popular register to use) over to Register 2 and get it all sorted.

It was not all sorted.

I'm not sure what all happened, but VP manager ended up locking their keys in a locked room while trying to figure out what codes to use to do those money transfers so had to have the mid manager come back to the store to unlock the room the keys were locked in but also to help figure out what was going on with the money in the registers.

*exhales* 

Like I'm not surprised something went wrong last night as VP manager isn't the....best with computer stuff. They're very forgetful when it comes to computer related tasks and chores and such. 

But like Mid Manager has a lot of experience with everything and SHOULD have been able to do all the transfers and money movement without issue.

Key word. Should. 

It didn't go like that. Mid manager ended up messing things up further by accidentally using the wrong code on register 2 that ended up taking MORE MONEY OUT of the register instead of transfering said money from 1 to 2. And because it was getting late the registers were throwing fits and causing more problems.....

My poor Head Manager ended up being stuck on the phone with both of those managers FOR AN HOUR trying to figure out how to fix everything.

My two managers last night didn't end up leaving until ELEVEN last night.

Which is crazy because they should have been off at least an hour earlier. *shakes head*

I honestly don't understand what went wrong. 

Like. It should have been easy. Transfer the missing amount of money needed from 1 to 2. Then take the money out of 2 to pay back the safe. 

There shouldn't have been complications.

Yet there were complications.

And I know they didn't properly figure it all out.

Because when I closed down register 1 tonight.....there was an extra TWO HUNDRED dollars in the till that wasn't supposed to be there.

Which mean more than likely that the till started out in the day in the computer system with having $200 extra dollars in it that shouldn't have been in it. So even if the tills were balanced physically to the proper amount...with all the chaos of yesterday the computer system thought that there was more money in there than there should have been....

Who knows.

My Head Manager just had me add the extra money to the deposit anyways since it probably should have been placed there last night in last nights deposit. *shrugs* I don't know. 

In any case.

It's just....crazy. That so much went wrong yesterday....when it easily could have been fixed through very simple and minor things. *shakes head*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

3rd Time

 I had another customer comment today that they were happy to see my face as I've chosen to continue not wearing a mask for now.

And it's a still very weird halfway compliment to hear? Like I don't know if I should take it as a genuine compliment of "Oh your face is so pretty I'm happy I can see it again!" or if it's more of a "ah, you finally stopped wearing your mask. Good." sort of compliment. 

Who knows.

In any case. It's just kinda a weird comment to get...mostly because I think....I think it kinda feels like the sort of comment you'd get after overcoming some sort of illness of some sort. A "glad to see you up and about." sort of thing.

Where it's a "Oh, good, you stopped wearing your mask, you finally came to your senses." sort of thing?

It's hard to know.

Because like the people who have complimented me have been pretty genuine in that they are happy to see my 'pretty face.'

But at the same time it's kinda weird. 

*shakes head* People are weird. 

But I do have to admit it's does give me a kinda...boost to my confidence levels...my self-esteem...that people seem to want to see my face, my smile...like "Oh good, I'm not that bad looking" sort of boost? Who knows....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Step Back

 It's one of those Anxious days for me. 

Which... I suppose has been a bit more prevelant since the pandemic started .... 

Or It's just my natural Introvertedness taking further control thanks to the necessary social distancing stuff we needed to do for the pandemic.

In either case.

It was a day where it just felt like.... too much... to go out and deal with people today.

Which is rather sad in a sense that going to church shouldn't be stress inducing.....but yah. It's one of those things now where I find it difficult to make it to church just because my trust in the general populace....including my ward....has significantly decreased.

And it's hard to build that back up.

Like baby steps really.

I did go to Church last Sunday and actually socialized afterwards for the Break the Fast.

But today?

Today I couldn't do it.

I didn't want to get up. Didn't want to get all dressed up and put myself out there (what's the point if none of the guys talk to you?) Because that's it's own sort of stress to be 'visible' outside of my Customer Service Mask that I've donned for the past ten years. (I had my 10 year work anniversary the other day. That's rather crazy to think about. Ten years. TEN years. It's mind boggling) 

But yah.

Going to church with a bunch of near strangers....is hard. 

I'm hoping to make that better.

I want to make more of an effort as the year winds down to make it to church more often.

But today....today wasn't one of those days.

It was one of those days where I really needed to recharge and not talk to anyone or have expectations placed on me or leave the house.

So yah.

I spent the day chilling with only needing to socialize with the roomies around dinner time.

*shakes head*

We'll see if I can break through the wall of anxiety next Sunday.......

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

There's the Smile

So. At work I've been basically the last hold out on no longer wearing a mask. 

I mean there was a point when the vaccine first came out and after I'd been vaccinated and a lot of mask mandates dropped...that I didn't wear a mask at work. For like a month...before there was a resurrgence in the virus and we were told to wear masks again.

But overall...with the exception of a few days where and there where migraines have made it impossible for me to tolerate wearing a mask because the slight pressure on my ears can trigger it worse....I've stuck to wearing a mask at work.

Other aspects of my life? Not so much. Like I still wear a mask when I go grocery shopping. But like I've gone on vacations and such where I've barely pulled on a mask and been fine.

But with work....it's always felt like a much larger risk to stop wearing a mask there.

Especially when, whenever I do truly consider this being the 'week to take the mask off' a coworker ends up coming down with COVID and my paranoia jumps back up because I. Do. Not. Want. To. Get. It. 

I've seen the effects the virus has had on my roomie and my family (as I'm the last of us to catch it --to my knowledge) and it's not something I personally want to experience.

Hence my caution. 

Because working in retail. Working in a pet store. 

It's literally germ central. I interact with soooo many people in a day that I just haven't felt...safe....in removing my mask. 

And it definitely wasn't helped last month with all the college students coming back for their fall semester in College Town and with the local Petco closing down at the end of July (temporarily they should be opening their new location in another month or two), my store has seen a bit of an uptick (total chaos) in customers coming to us with very little corporate help (aka No extra hours whatsoever) to help support the increase in customer demand.....that I really didn't feel like being exposed to so many new people over the course of an 8 hour shift. 

So yah. I've been the last hold out at work. The only time I see other workers wearing masks here (since it hasn't been required in ages) is when they're feeling poorly and so wear a mask. 

But this week....that changed. Not purposely. But on Monday...Labor Day.... I ended up with one of my nuclear migraines.

One that kept me up all night and refused to go away when I finally made it to work. *exhales* So I chose not to wear a mask. Because the thought of having pressure on my ears when my skull was already pounding to pieces just....didn't appeal to me.

And with how badly I was functioning at work. I knew that I wouldn't be staying for long. We had extra coverage due to the holiday. So I ended up leaving as soon as my replacement Petcare person showed up (at 11am) to go home and die in bed and listen to movies in the dark until my brain decided to stop with the stupid migraine. 

In any case.

I meant for it to be a one day thing. 

As I wasn't really inclined to be maskless for Tuesday or Wednesday when I was working closing shifts because that's guaranteed more people.

But Tuesday came....and while the migraine was gone....I could feel the rebound headache that almost always happens after a major migraine ediging in....

I didn't want to risk triggering it back. 

So I went without a mask again on Tuesday. And again on Wednesday....and then again yesterday and Again today.

And it's been a week now of me not wearing my mask at work.

Which on one hand has my paranoia slightly on the higher side because I'm worried about me basically tripping at the finish line and catching COVID now because I spent all week not wearing the mask.

On the other hand...I have to wonder if a bunch of my headaches that I've been getting at work...were mask caused because while I did have the major one Monday and the slight rebound on Tuesday....it feels like it's been less prevalant the rest of the week for me to have a headache? 

Which is kinda surprising because stress is a huge contribuitor to migraines and work is anything but peaceful currently. 

And like....I've had a bit of chest/throat/sinus irritation. But it's hard to know if it's from catching something from a customer/coworker....or if it's just because we've had Fire Smoke descend upon the valley the past couple days. (First time this year it feels like compared to last year when it felt like every day of summer was a fire smoke day).

So yah...it's hard to know for sure in regards to that.

But in any case.

The reason why I bring up the mask thing....is because I've had two people comment this week about how "nice" it is that they can see my "beautiful face" and they're really happy I'm not wearing a mask anymore so they can see my face/smile more.

And it's just weird. 

Like. I'm well aware that I have a bit of a low self-esteem. Because like...if I really was pretty and beautiful as people occasionally tell me I am....then why do I not get dates? Why am I not married yet? *shakes head* 

Yah. It's a self-esteem issue that comes and goes.

In any case.

It's just thrown me a bit...off guard. To have the fact that people like seeing my face brought up twice this week.

Like. Maybe its the fact that I've kept my face basically covered since the summer of 2020. So I'm not used to it anymore. People aren't used to seeing me without a mask anymore. So it's more unique to them as they haven't seen it. 

But it's still weird to have people comment about my face.

I get comments about my hair all the time lol. it's unique in it's silver grey streaking after all.

But my face? *shakes head*

I don't get it. Like it was flattering for sure. And I'm pretty sure the positive serotonin they gave me is supposed to convince me that I should keep my face bare and no longer wear a mask in the hopes of getting 'more compliments.'

So yah...I'm a bit...undecided on the mask front.

On the one hand. Not having something tugging at my ears (beyond the radio ear piece I have to wear) has been nice. 

But it's stressful too. Especially when you get a stupid customer at work who spends a good 30 minutes or so wandering around the store hacking up a lung and making no effort to cover their mouth while doing so....like...I don't want to get sick. Wearing a mask as definitely helped on some level in keeping me healthy overall. So being maskless around people is....stressful. Especially when customers have no concept of 'personal space' and try to stick right next to your side.

*exhales*

But yah. It's just weird....to think that people actually like seeing my face. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi