Back and Forth and Back and Forth

 I do have to say that my least favorite thing about work is when I end up feeling like I'm being pulled twelve directions at once. Especially when I know that I have no backup to help me out if things get busy so it stresses me out more as I'm trying to help customers out as quickly as possible so I can go to the next customer and gah. 

I hate it. 

And like.....in a way it's kinda of expected on a Saturday. Like it's the busiest day of the week for us. So of coures I'm going to be helping a ton of customers in a row.

But today was different because of just how much back and forth I ended up having to do today.

So. My store is set up that we have like all the animals in one corner of the store. The fish along the wall. The reptiles, birds, and rodents on endcaps along the center aisle. It's all nearby each other.

With the exception of Cat Adoptions. 

As the adoption center is on the opposite side of the store from the rest of the animals we sell.

Which I suppose, in a way, makes sense to keep the 'adoptable' animals separate from the 'sellable' animals. 

And like normally it's not that big of a deal. Regular days see us going to cat adoptions like two or three times to show cats to people who are interested.

But today...*exhales* today was one of those days. 

Like. It's a well known fact that when it comes to trying to open the department....the customers will decide to be needy right when I'm trying to feed the reptiles and take care of them in the morning tasks. 

There have been days when I literally open one reptile cage, have to go help a customer, open another reptile cage, have to go help a customer, open another reptile cage, have to go help a customer. And the 15 minute process ends up taking like 2 hours because customers keep interrupting me needing things.

The 'adventure' of today started about the point I reached reptiles. Which timewise was a bit after 10ish this morning. 

As I got a call that someone was interested in adopting a cat.

So I go over to adoptions to find a gentleman wanting to adopt another kitty to be a companion to the kitten he and his wife already have.

And he's set on this one grey 6 month old kitten....only the problem is....is that i noticed the tag on the cage, when I was cleaning the cage this morning, mentioned that the other orange kitten in with the grey one is the grey kitty's 'best friend' as they 'grew up together' in the same house. 

So I took that to mean that we should try to adopt them out together.

And the guy was like :S :S :S because having Two cats is fine. But Three??

But he was willing to try it...except when I got both kitties out of the cage, the orange one -a male- was too energetic for his tastes. The orange kitty would barely sit still in the arms and would much prefer to explore and such. While the grey one was more mellow.

In any case. He was video calling his wife at the same time and was like "I don't know." 

Like he was trying to get a kitty the same age. But I told him that so long as they were kittens they should be fine together even if one was slightly younger. And we had received in a bunch of kittens -2-3 months old- from the adoption group the day before. So there were a few as options.

So he was looking at another grey and white kitten and an orange kitten.

And somehow still had it in his head that he should be getting two...but like the dude already had two so he only needed one.

He finally decided that he wanted the grey and white kitten.

But wanted to go grab his wife and bring her in so she could meet the kitten and see if it liked her. 

In the meantime while he was running to grab his wife....I got called over to the fish wall because a customer needed help there.

And that conversation took long enough for the dude to grab his wife and come back. So as I was finishing up with that customer I got called back to the Adoption center for the wife to look at the kitty.

And needless to say....she fell in love with a different kitten. The orange kitten that was in with the grey and white one.

But the dude was still really smitten with the original grey kitten who should be adopted with her orange friend.

And the wife was like "We can't separate them!! But our apartment isn't big enough for the orange one too because he's so rambunctious." 

And they kept dithering over the various kitties. As he liked the grey female and the grey and white male while she liked a little orange male....

I ended up stepping away to call the adoption group to double check and see if the original 6 month old kittens needed to be adopted together...and the adoption partner was like "Oh no, they don't have to be." 

And the dude seemed really happy at that news, but the wife was still like "No!! We can't separate them!!" 

I ended up getting called back to the fish wall while they were dithering....and so I left them to figure out if they wanted the little orange kitten or the grey and white kitten or both....

To go help a family at the fish wall who wanted 8 goldfish and the Father wanted his kids to pick out the goldfish. Which okay. No big deal. Except the youngest child kept pointing to one of the dead fish in the tank and saying that she wanted "the floating one." which obviously I can't sell a dead fish to a child. Like. That's a big NOOOO on so many levels. But the stubborn child was refusing to pick any other fish and the father was being unhelpful and not paying attention at all so I finally ended up just catching a couple fish for the child because GAH.

And by the time I finish that up, I get notified that the couple at adoptions had finally decided on their cat. They wanted the little orange one. So I go back over there to help them fill out their paperwork and such, only they don't have the adoption fee with them (as we need cash or venmo no cards) so they ended up needing to do some shopping first so they could buy things at register and get the cash needed back there. 

Which was 'good' timing in that I finished with that to get called to the fish wall again to help a customer pick out a good dozen fish for her tank.

Finish that in time to help the couple grab their kitty as they were finally ready. And as the kitten is being placed in the carrier the wife is like "Oh! We want a second one!"

And like by this point I hadn't touched reptiles at all and was already sick of this couple so I gently but firmly put my foot down and was like "How about you take the orange kitten home first and see if your other kitty likes him before you bring home a second kitty. As it won't be good if your originally kitty ends up hating 2 cats and introducing one might be better to get a feel for it."

Thankfully they were like "Oh! That's a good idea!!" though they did have me put the kitty they were interested in on hold for a few hours just in case they decided to come back. -they didn't come back before the hold expired.

And I figured. Great! That's the end of adoptions as I head back to the fish wall because I've just been called there again to help a customer with fish.

As a reminder. Adoptions and the Fish wall are on opposite sides of the store. And like my store is either the largest or the second largest store in the state. Like most other sister stores are a half to a quarter of the size of my store. So it takes time to walk from one side of the store to the other.

And I'm just finishing catching fish when what do you know? A different customer wants to adopt a cat. 

*exhales* 

So I go back over to adoptions and thankfully the customers are set on which kitty they want after holding it. So I was able to fill out their paperwork and such quick enough and send them to finish shopping before I give them their cat.

Because I just got called to fish.

And as I'm finishing with yet another fish customer....

i get called back to adoptions to give the kitty to the new pet parent.

head back to fish because I've been called there again.

Only to get called back to adoptions for like what...the 12th time today? Because ANOTHER pet parent is is interested in adopting a cat.

So third cat adoption goes much like the second. The people are quick to decide their kitty and do the paperwork and finish that in time for me to get called to fish AGAIN.

So Off to fish I go.

Only to get called back to adoptions as soon as I'm done so that the 3rd adoptee can pick up their cat as they've finished shopping.

And like....I think somewhere in there I had enough breathing room to finish opening reptiles and to actually take a lunch break.

But it felt like I literally spent a good 3 hours in a row just walking back and forth between the fish wall and cats. 

Like my closing mangaer came in at 2pm and literally 5 minutes after she walks in she's likey "Hey people want to adopt a cat." and that's my FOURTH one of the day. And I do the exact same song and dance of the 2nd and 3rd one where I get them their paperwork filled out and sent them out to gather their kitty supplies before picking up the cat TO GET CALLED BACK TO THE FREAKING FISH WALL.

And literally as I'm at the Fish Wall I GET CALLED BACK TO ADOPTIONS to give the 4th adoptee their cat.

Like it was literally a *tear my hair out* sort of day.

Becuase from like 1030-230 all I did was walk back and forth between adoptions and fish to help customers with brief, very brief, breaks to finish opening the department and finish feeding the animals and get a break in myself.

Like even my head manager noticed how much back and forthing I was doing today. 

THERE WAS SO MUCH OF IT.

It was ridiculus!! So ridiculus!! 

My head manager told my closing manager 'Yah, Sarnic hasn't been able to get much done today as all she's done has been going between the fish wall and cats." 

Like you know it's stupid crazy when the head manager notices how much freaking back and forthing you're doing.

*shakes head*

So I was quite estatic to get off soon after that point because I was literally done with helping people. I didn't want to have to deal with the back and forthing anymore. I just wanted a break to breathe and relax and chat with my work friends.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tired

 I'm so tired.

Like. I don't mind working a closing shift every now and then.

But doing three closingesque shifts in a row? 

It's exhausting.

I'm not used to it.

Sure I kinda got used to working 2 closing shifts in a row while my friend was out on maternity leave.

But 3 shifts?

With like all 3 of them attempting to be stocking focused?

I'm so tired. And sore. And achy...and ready to crash in bed for a good twelve hours or more because ouch I'm tired.

And today was just....weird in general. 

Because like, if I do work Thursdays....it's usually been a morning shift.

But today it was a closing shift.

Mostly because the usual Thursday closer is off on vaca.

And with my remaining managers doing what they can to use their vacation time before the end of the year....

It's unlikely that my schedule will stabalize with a normal day off any time soon. *exhales* 

We'll see though...

In any case.

Today was one of those busy Thursdays that we get like once a month.

Where it was constant running around backing up the cashiers and putting out various 'fires' around the store, while also trying to get stocking tasks done and...well....yah....

I'm ready to crash. Hardcore crash. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Achy Again

Migraines are the worst.

Especially when I try to work through them.

Because I'm stubborn like that.

Like...I had plenty of time before work -since i had a closing shift- to work on getting said migraine gone.

Mostly succeeded. But it proceeded to hang and hover around me throughout most of my shift.

Luckily it didn't get bad enough for me to have to go home or anything. As I was able to take breaks when my migraines would spike and just rest with my eyes closed for 15-30 minutes with a heatpack over them and such.

But still.

I think it has to be one of my least favorite things. It's hard to function normally when your head is pounding like someone is nailing a stake into your skull. Especially when you have to contend with talking to customers and dealing with barking dogs, screaming kids, and squeaky dog toys.

Still. 

I have once again survived. 

Hopefully tomorrow offers me a respite. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Jumpstart

It feels like this has become a more common occurence over the last couple of years....though in reality I've probably only done it like...maybe 6 times in 2 years? So like thrice a yearish? So it's not that often it happens.

But it feels like it happens a lot.

In that we have customers who end up having their cars die in the parking lot and need someone to jumpstart their car.

Like....do other stores get this problem?? Or is it just our parking lot?

In any case.

Most of the time when someone comes into the store asking if anyone here can jump their car.

I'm the one to volunteer.

Mostly because I'm probably the only one who has jumper cables in their car. Heh. (Thanks Daddoo. A Christmas Present that's come more in handy than expected.) 

So today.

I had one of our Bathers come up to me asking if I knew anyone with jumper cables who would be able to jumpstart a car. As one of our grooming customers. An older woman. Had just finished getting her dog groomed, but couldn't get her car to start.

So I volunteered.

Since I had the cables in my car. And I was free at that moment to go help out.

So I went out to her car, to check it out, and then moved my car over to her car.

-Which ha. Old car helping to jumpstart a new car. Funny.

In any case.

Grabbed the jumper cables. Figured out how to get her hood open and used Google to refresh myself on the procedure on how to safely attach the cables and what order to place the cables in. 

And after a few false starts with the battery. We managed to get her car running again! Woot!

Though she was still a bit worried about the car as the dashboard dials were acting a bit wonky and a flashing 'wrench' symbol was showing up on her dashboard. So I ended up giving her directions to a nearby Jiffy Lube as she was reluctant to drive home on the freeway when her car was acting off and the Jiffy was like a mile and a half up the road from us. So should be safe enough to get her there to make sure everything was fine with it and such.

But yah.

I helped the lady jump her car.

Which again. No big deal.

But she thought it was a big deal.

Big enough to give me a bit of a tip for helping her out.

And like. Sure. Tips come every now and then from customers. But usually it's like...maybe $5? And before today I'd never been tipped for helping to jumpstart a car.

But this lady was so grateful she gave me $40. 

Like. O.o

I tried to decline it. Because seriously. That's ALOT of money to give me. Especially when I didn't....well....like I did things? But like....it didn't seem like that major of a thing? 

But she insisted. Said she wanted to.

So yah.

It still boggles my mind a bit that she was so grateful for my assistance to just give that large of a tip.

It's crazy. But it definitely made my day better because it has been a day. *shakes head*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where's The Leash?

Sometimes I just have to shake my head at customers.

Like, anyone who's worked retail has experienced the customers who have sense of anyone beyond themselves. The ones who leave trash everywhere, who don't pick up after themselves, who leave messes in their wake and don't care that they made no effort to fix/clean it up. 

But there's other customers who just don't....think?? Like for some it's definite stupidity. But others it's probably a general naivety of "what could go wrong?!" where they just think what they're doing is fine.

Today....today it was with dogs. Specifically dogs not being on a leash.

Like. 

I don't understand the customers who think it's okay to have their dog unleashed in public. Especially when it's inside a store. 

And granted there's a minimal few dogs who are well behaved and will stay right by their owners and obey everything.

But for the most part? The customers suck at keeping their dogs next to them. They just set said dog on their ground tell it to 'stay' and then promptly turn their back on the dog letting it 'wander' because it 'won't go far'

Which we don't allow dogs unleashed in our store. For a variety of reasons. And it's amazing how some people just don't understand why that's the case.

Like yes, there's the 'trained dogs' who will obey their owners and stick nearby. But 99.9% of the dogs who come into the store have owners who have no clue what they're doing and have no real control over their dogs.

In any case.

Like....I don't see why they think it's okay to let their dog just wander around willy nilly.

LIke off the top of my head I can think of at least 3 issues.

1. There are customers who do not like dogs, are afraid of dogs and/or are allergic to dogs who are trying to do their shopping for their other pets in peace and will not appreciate your 'precious little baby' coming running up to them to say 'hi.' Because they don't know if this dog is friendly or if it's coming to attack them.

2. Other dogs may not like your dog. Your dog might not like them. Having both dogs on a leash will allow the owner to control them (unless it's those stupid retractable leashes) enough to pull the dogs away from each other if there's an issue. It's to keep all the dogs safe so that if there's a dog doing socialization training or just wanting to walk around without getting involved in the weather outside....they can do so without fear. 

3. We have automatic doors. If you don't have your dog on a leash there's a risk that they'll run straight for the doors leading outside. And said doors will automatically open. Your dog is not 'safe' and 'secure' in our building. Hence the leash. If the dog is on a leash it can't usually escape. And that decreaes the risk of said puppy dog running straight out the doors and getting hit by a car in either the parking lot or in the busy road that's literally right next to the store.

So yah.

I don't like customers who just....don't think. They don't consider the consequences. They just go "Oh let me put fido on the ground he'll be safe!" and think nothing more of it until one of us workers have to approach them and ask them to either a) pick up their dog and keep said dog in their arms or placed in a cart/carrier or b) offer them a temporary leash to use while they're in the store.

Like. 

It shouldn't be that hard.

And yet it is.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tedious

 The 11-7pm shift is such a twilight zone sort of shift.

It's probably because I haven't worked that shift in a long while as I'm usually needed in the mornings or as like the closing manager.

And this past week I was scheduled the 11-7 shift twice. 

And both days of it were....disorienting in a way.

Because like it's too late to do morning tasks but too early to do closing tasks....and it kinda just leaves you in a limbo if there's not much to do.

Today....today was weird.

Like overall the day felt weird because we got in like the first autumn/winter storm of the season.

It's raining in the valley and snowing in the mountains.

And because of the cloud cover the lighting has just....been off all day. Making time pass strangely.

And work itself was just....it was off.

Because like....I kinda went in expecting to be more petcare focused even though I was scheduled as the mid manager.

Like. My friend was scheduled morning petcare which she hasn't done in nearly a year or so as she couldn't work much in petcare due to being pregnant....so I was going in expecting to be her back up after a fashion since it's her first petcare shift since having her baby.

Because like....it's a lot like riding a bike where you can just get back on. But I wanted to help her out as needed.

That wasn't quite what happened.

Like yes I would help out if she needed it.

But I spent most of my shift doing stocking tasks.

As we had a larger truck come in -which with the oncoming holidays the trucks are probably going to be bigger from here until mid december-

And my head manager wanted me to help finish the last little bit of truck.

Which was like 4 shopping carts filled with product.

Not really a big deal there.

Except TWO of those carts were filled to the brim with leashes,collars,harnesses etc.

And it took AGES to get all that stuff put away.

I mean part of it was due to being pulled away to help out the cashiers and assist customers.

But the carts took aaagggeeeesss to do. Like my entire shift ages.

Which is pathetic in a way.

But at the same time understandable because there had to be a good 100-200 items in each cart that we had to sort and put away. 

It was just....annoying.

And tedious.

Like I haven't minded doing petcare totes and such before.

But the leashes and collars are totally a different beast that I hope I never have to conquer again because Gah. It was tedious. So very tedious. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Softly Stressed

 It was a softly stressful day today.

Soft stressful because like.... .... nothing majorly went wrong today? It was just....just....it was softly stressful because there was so much potential I guess for something to go wrong. So I was stressing over the potential of having a bad time when we didn't really have a bad time?

In any case.

It started as I arrived at work today because I only remembered basically as I was pulling up that my morning cashier would be leaving right as I was coming in. 

And like.... when I'm the closing manager, I'm totally used to having the last two hours of the store being opened having me be the only manager in charge.

And like it's fine to be the only manager in charge when my other manager goes on lunch because it's like 30 minutes of just me in charge.

But being the only one in charge for multiple hours during the middle of the day? 

That's a tad more stressful mostly because the middle of the day customers are a totally different beast compared to the dinner time night time customers. 

And it doesn't help that I'm not used to working the mid shift at all. Like being scheduled 11-7 hasn't happened to me for at least 2 or three months now. And if I do get scheduled the dreaded 11-7 shift....it's usually on like a Friday or a Saturday.

And today is Thursday.

And for the past like....8 weeks?? I've had Thursdays off.

So not only am I'm working on a day I've had off for like 2 months....I'm working a shift that I haven't worked in the same amount of time....

And to top it off....because my morning manager needed to leave early today. It meant that I would be the only manager in the store until the closing manager came in at 2.

So from 11-2 I would be the one in charge. 

Which is like prime lunch time rush chaos to unfold. 

And like....it was busy. Granted that. But we had enough coverage that it wasn't too chaotic though I was doing my best to be six places at once.

No what upped the chaos/stress level was that a little bit after 1pm my head manager sent me a text telling me that our District Manager was currently at our sister store. 

Or at least they'd been at our sister store around an hour ago.

Which meant that they could be showing up at our store any second now. Or if they were stopping to grab lunch first...would be showing up any minute now within the next half hour or so. 

Because our sister store is really only like a 15-20 minute drive away.

So it's totally feasible they could come to us and visit. 

So I spent the next hourish worrying that the DM would be coming with other Corporate people to come visit us.

WHEN I WAS THE ONLY MANAGER IN THE STORE.

AHHHHHH.

Like my closing manager was in at 2. So there was the chance that they would show up before the DM showed up.....

But until then I was trying to softly not panic about having to hold the DM's attention...while also desperately hoping that the DM would choose not to come to our store because they usually try to come to the store when the Head Manager is there and the Head Manager was off today. So like....they shouldn't come to the store....but there is the rare occasion they come to the store anyways even when they know the Head Manager isn't there.....

And at the same time I had to warn like everyone in the store to be ready just in case and since the DM was with Salon BigWigs I had to ensure that Salon was aware they could be visited and it was just a big stressful hour....

Until I got another text from the Head Manager a little bit after my closing manager showed up saying that they'd ended up at a different store in the next valley over.

Which since that valley is to the North of my store and in the opposite direction of my store.

Meant that we were in the clear.

Because if they wanted to visit us they would have come down to us first as it would be silly to drive to the sister store then drive back up to a different valley then drive back down to us.

So after an hour of stress....we were in the clear.

YAY!!

But ugh.

I hate that the DM has stressed me out TWICE this week and they weren't even ever in the store themselves!! Like How. Dare.

*exhales* 

I really hope this means they won't be coming by anytime soon....like I would love it if we could avoid seeing the DM until next year.

But odds are the DM will drop by when we least want them too....

In any case.

It was a stressful few hours for me at work today being the only manager with a potential DM visit hanging over my head.

*exhales*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Favorite Food

 I made pepperoni crescent rolls today.

Which normally isn't really a notable thing to blog about.

Except.....

So. My sister has been working on creating a family cookbook.

It's been a 4 year task -one that she started right after Mother Dearest passed away- with a lot of stopping and starting and stopping again.

But she's finally gathered enough reciepes and organized them and got everything formatted enough to have our Family cookbook be sent to print so that each family member can have one.

And for the past....couple weeks or so? She's been giving us little check ins.

Letting us know the progress and such.

And like all last minute things....there were a few last minute recipes that other family members realized that they wanted to be placed in the cookbook. 

Mostly it's Daddoo's recipes that he's recently found and such.

But the most recent 'is this all the recipes you want' check ins.

Daddoo mentioned to Kikay that he'd found a list Mother Dearest had made at some point of some of her favorite family meals. And he wanted to make sure all the meals listed on her list had made it into the family cookbook.

And one of those meals was my Pepperoni Crescent Rolls.

Which it's just a simple meal of Pillsbury crescent roll dough with pepperoni and cheese and some parmesean cheese rolled up together and cooked. 

Nothing too crazy meal wise.

But it was one of the first recipes that I created on my own after I'd moved to college.

Which means Mother Dearest made this list probably in the first year or so of me being at college as other later creations of mine that I knew she liked weren't on my list. 

In any case.

It just....it was just...heart warming in a bittersweet way to know that she loved my little crescent roll creation enough to put it on a list of her 'favorite meals' as I hadn't realized she'd loved them that much.

I mean....it didn't even have any pizza sauce lol since I can't stand red sauce on pizza.

Just cheese bread and pepperoni. Like....it's such a simple meal.

And yet she singled it out as one of her favorites.

And I never realized she liked it so much. 

So yah. It was a bit...nostaligic making the crescent rolls today for lunch as I haven't made them in a while....but they've been on my mind since Kikay brought up that they were on the list.

....yah. Kinda has me missing mother dearest a bit more today.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pointless Stress

 I hate when I have to deal with pointless stress.

Like I can already stress myself out easily enough without an unnecessary burden being placed upon my already too tense shoulders.

Today at work we were supposed to have our District Manager drop by.

As there was this PetCare Walk that we -the Head Manager, VP Manager, and I- needed to complete. One of thsoe 'once a year' sort of walks.

-Which joy another walk we have to do. Whatever Corporate is on this year, their fascination with making us 'walk' the store in a variety of different ways multiple times a day with each walk taking anywhere from 10 minutes to multiple hours depending on the walk-- just shows that the corporate people have no idea just how busy we are in the store trying to help customers and do all the other tasks they want us to accomplish in a day. *exhales*

In any case.

This particular PetCare walk, we were told that the DM wanted to walk it with us in the store.

Which it's never fun to have the DM come into the store. Specifically because this particular DM enjoys nitpicking tiny details that in the grand scheme of things don't really matter. It's just nitpicking. 

In any case.

The DM was supposed to come in this afternoon to 'walk' the petcare walk with us.

Only the expected time of their arrival came and went....with no sign of the DM.

And like I said. Having the DM in the store is stressful. My fellow managers are worrying about making sure everything is up to standards. And like I try not to stress, but today our cashiers were...well the 'newbies' and the 'lazy' cashiers. Basically the ones who are too shy to really talk to customers, or the ones who kinda just don't talk to customers unless they absolutely have to.

So it was already stressful in preparing for the DM to come in and be disappointed again by the Cashiers not doing their jobs while on the registers. -aka greeting customers as they walk in-

But with out knowing what to expect with the DM on this walk....this too was stressful.

And all the stress kinda just builds up for me until I get a headache triggered.

Which I did end up getting a headache triggered.....

And it's so annoying because the DM never came in!!!

All this stress. All this worrying. All this plotting and planning.

For nothing.

It was pointless stress. 

And like....it's not like the stress can even go away.

Because there's a chance the DM might come in tomorrow or Thursday instead. 

Which would suck because today was the only day that the HM, VPM, and myself were all in the store together. 

*exhales*

So yah.

Fun times.

I hate it when things 'don't work out' when they're stressful things that trigger migraines.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Achy Achy Achy Achy Achy

 I've said it a million times before and I'll probably say it a million times more in the future.

But.

Headaches.

Are. 

The. 

Worst.

My brain is dead. Gonna go crash once more in the darkness.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Over Socialized

 Social interactions, especially since the pandemic began, have been a bit of a double edged sword for me.

Because like. In small groups, I do enjoy talking to people and hanging out and just you know, catching up on what's going on with everyone's lives.

I mean for a long while there was (though it's fading more and more as time passes) that slight paranoia lingering in the back of my head, wondering if interacting with this person is a good idea. Wondering if they're carrying covid. Wondering if I meet up with someone or go somewhere I'll catch the virus.

Again. The fear has faded a bit there.

But I have noticed that it's still....difficult for me to be social.

And like. I'm social all the time at work. I kinda have to be since it's a retail job and I have to help customers.

But like, that's a known social that I do. I know mostly what to expect at work. And I'm comfortable enough at work that while it can be stressful at times....it's not always a bad stressful.

Not like regular social human interaction is. 

Like I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't end up with a headache after any time I hang out with someone somewhere that isn't work or my home.

And it's even more annoying when I try to do prevanative measures to stop me from getting a headache. *exhales* And I still get one.

Like I get there's various factors that do and don't contribute to my headaches.

And social interactions can be one of them...especially ones where my body probably subconsciously decides to be tense when it doesn't need to be tense.

But it could just be....overdoing it.

Today for example...was probably a case of overdoing it. Just a tad.

Like I've often said that I only have interaction for one social interaction in like a week. One social interaction out of work that is. 

And on good weeks I can go out multiple times in a week -though just once a day- and be alright.

Today though.... I suppose you could say I had 4 different social interactions??? 

Like. I met up with Kikay halfway between her home and my home -aka dropping my car off in a random parking lot- so that we could carpool together up to one of our cousin's for her baby shower. 

So that's one social interaction. 

Then there was the baby shower itself. Which while still small aka less than 30 people there....held only a handful of individuals that I knew personally. But like there was 2 hours of socializing and chatting with the various people I did know.

Then Kikay, Skye, and I decided to go grab lunch afterwards at a local fast food place we like in Hometown. Which again is a different environment with different social interactions and complete strangers all around us.

And finally, the parental's, knowing that we were in town for the shower, wanted to know if we would be dropping by today to visit as well.

Which in of itself is familar so it shouldn't be stressful but was stressful this time around because I've already seen the Parentals TWICE this week. Making today the THIRD time I saw them and like....my life is not that crazy and there's not much to catch on in a WEEK especially when it's the third time I've seen them so it's left me floundering on just what we'd be talking about.

*exhales* and I suppose, thinking on it, the final stressor can tie in to the first social stressor in that Kikay and I carpooled back to my car and I hopped onto the freeway....only to get stuck in a major traffic jam for a good 20 minutes where we just inched along the freeway for 2 miles because an accident had closed 3 of the lanes leaving only 2 main lanes and 1 carpool lane open. *exhales* So like....that in of itself was stressful.

And....I guess with all that added socialness I should mention I've also socialized with my roomies today as well.

So basically.....

For trying to only stick to like one social interaction outside of work in a day or a week....I totally knocked it out of the park today.

So getting a headache shouldn't be surprising because like....the cards are all there. 3 different events. Shower. Lunch, Parental Visit. Stressful Driving cus Freeway driving is always stressful....and just like socializing in general. All give good reason why my muscles will be tense enough to cause a headache.

I just wish it wouldn't.

No idea how to fix it though.

Like does exposure help? Do I try and be social more to kinda of numb myself to being social so my body no longer recognizes it as a threat? Because like if even going to Church for an hour can trigger a headache....part of it has to just be social anxiety of a sorts....

But it's also quite discouraging and makes me reluctant to go do anything with people. Because triggering a headache is so bothersome and I want to avoid that particular pain especially when I experience it quite often already....

*shakes head*

No idea honestly.

I'll figure something out....maybe.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pain Flare

 Gotta love it when your body decideds to be weird.

*exhales*

I was woken up unexpectedly this morning at like 530 in the morning by a burning pain in my right big toe.

Like right at the joint to bend the toe.

Honestly, having been startled awake by it, I was halfway thinking I had somehow broken it in my sleep.

Which would be amazing considering that like....there were only blankets at the bottom of my bed, so unless I'd somehow tangled my toes in it and yanked hard....there would be no explaination for my my toe suddenly felt on fire.

Like it was excruciating even attempting to bend it. 

And I couldn't even see anything wrong with it. Like...maybe there was a slight discoloration on the joint area? 

But after carefully massasing the area a bit....the pain began to subside and by the time I rewoke up later in the morning....it wasn't in pain at all. And the toe looked normal enough.

Though the toe and my foot have felt a bit....achy for most of the day....I can't quite tell if it's an actual achiness or if it's just paranoia achiness because I've been focusing on my foot it makes me more aware of it than I usually am.

But yah.

It was just the weirdest and painful thing to wake up to.

Especially because I can't think of anything I could have done yesterday to cause the flare up hours later into the next day. *shakes head*

The body is weird. So weird.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Staying Staffed

 So I met up with my Dad and StepMom for lunch today at our favorite Mexican Restaurant over in HomeTown. 

And while we were there the...boss? Owner? Manager? Combination of the three? came over to chat when my Dad noticed her as he used to work there with her when he was younger. Like highschool-college age. (before she ran the place)

And it was interesting....because I'm pretty sure Daddoo instigated a conversation with her because I'd just told him that the Sister restaurant to our Hometown one had closed down suddenly last month.

Like I'm not sure how much warning everyone got, but I only saw the news when it was like "Last day open!!" on a newspage. 

And we were all curious as to why the place closed down.

Because like....both restaurants -each run by two brothers who both have passed on now- are quite popular in the area.

Though I've never been to the sister place. It's in a locaiton that I believe makes it popular.

I mean both places have been open since before I was born so there's decades and decades of history there.

So to have the place close down....was rather surprising.

And while the two families of the brothers don't really....interact anymore due to....differences in how they wanted to run the place.

The boss did know enough to know that basically the place shutting down was due to the children of the Brother squabbling over what to do with /how to run the place.

And apparently they decided to accept an offer to just shut down and sell the place so that the people buying the land could build condos on it.

*exhales*

Which is a bit depressing on multiple fronts.

Like it seems like everything is getting torn down to build more high density housing and while housing is definitely important....it's really only useful if people can afford it.

But the second front it's depressing on is the fact that the siblings just like....tossed decades of history to the wayside in favor of money.

Like I can get it....if the family business wasn't doing well. If there were issues with upkeep. But like....I feel like the place overall would be in the black and not in the red. 

Like I can also understand family contention. If no one can agree on things don't keep it around. 

Still....it's crazy that they just sold the sister place off to be developed. *shakes head*

In any case.

The conversation turned a bit to how the Hometown Restuarant was doing.

And it's.....it's crazy how much this manager/boss/owner is doing to keep the place up and running and running smoothly at that.

Because like a lot of food places....finding good reliable staff is difficult. The pandemic made it really difficult but from all the 'help wanted' signs I see in various food related places....I know it's probably going to be a long recovery rate to try and get everything 'full staffed' again. Especially when people are expecting sooo much from their jobs now. 

And this boss recognizes it. And is doing everything in her power to keep her staff fully staffed. Like she's personally working longer hours, helping out everywhere in the restuarant to make sure her workers feel supported and not overwhelmed.

But she's also offering them free lunches. And to help give them a motive to work the weekends or nights or holidays she also does other things as well. Like allowing them to bring a friend in to eat free so that they can still 'be with their friends.' but she's also doing her best to hand out bonuses to everyone as often as she can as well. 

Like it's crazy the amount of work she's putting in to make sure her workers are happy and willing to stay.

And my heart goes out to her for doing so much. Because even with all that....I know it's not always enough. There's still nights she struggles to have everything running smoothly.

And I wish there were more places like that. More places trying to go above and beyond to care about the WORKER and not the customer.

Because I'm pretty sure the food business in general is suffering because no one wants to work a minimum wage job and get yelled at all the time for 'food being wrong' for long.

People get mean when it comes to their food and it being made correctly.

I don't work food, but I do work retail and I can tell you, customers became really monstorous during the pandemic, and a lot of them have kept the 'my way or i scream and yell at you and make scene until you cry way' since then because they realize if they make a scene chances are they'll get what they want anyways. 

And with the pandemic.....essential workers are tired. Sooo tired of the sassy rude obnoxious customers they have to deal with.

It's probably a lot worse with food. So much worse with the food industry. 

So I'm not surprised that people don't want to tolerate it anymore. That they'd prefer to find jobs where they're unlikely to get yelled at.

My heart goes out to the good managers out there though. The ones like this lady in the hometown restaurant who are going beyond the extra mile to try and look out for her people and keep them happy. I hope she's able to get her own rest soon. Because she seemed so tired while talking about trying to keep her place staffed up. They're doing okay...for now. But I hope she and other good manager/bosses can find the relief and the good staff that they need to take the stress off their backs.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

 

Outside

 There's something different about picking food to eat from the garden.

Like I did it all the time growing up as my daddoo is an avid gardener. 

But it hasn't really been anything I thought about recently beyond those reminiscing moments of "Oh yah I used to go out into Dad's garden and eat peas and strawberries and tomatoes and raspberries, etc" 

Today though.

I actually went outside and grabbed a tomato from the garden.

Not my dad's garden.

But my roomie's little mini garden as the past couple of years she's been growing tomatoes and peppers to be eaten and used in cooking and such.

Normally I wait for her to bring in the harvest of whatever is ripe.

But today we were out of tomatoes in the kitchen and I really wanted some for my sandwich.

Sooo outside I went! 

And I have to say. It was a tasty tomato. :D

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Expired

 Sometimes I feel like food shouldn't go bad.

Like if you stick it on your shelf it should stay good to eat until you're ready to eat it. No expiration.

Of course...that's because I have this bad habit of sticking things towards the back of the shelf...and loosing track of it....or else getting far too many take out meals in a row with leftovers and I can't eat all the leftovers in time so they just go bad....

But in any case....

I did a bit of 'spring---' Okay a bit of "Fall" cleaning today in the kitchen.

As it's been a hot minute since I've gone through my share of our various shelves.

Yah.

I won't say it was bad....but it wasn't good....considering I threw away a good 3 garbage bags of food that had expired.

Most of it was shelf food, so lucky me I found ony like...one rotting thing in the fridge. Whew. Still stinky though.

But yah.

It's impressive how much food I just had shoved in the dark corners of my shelves that just.....sat there. Untouched....because I bought them with good intentions to eat them...eventually.

Truthfully....a lot of the food I tossed away was things I'd probably bought at the beginning of the pandemic when everyone was panicking and looking to 'stock up' on food. 

As a lot of the 'best buy' dates were dated in 2020. So yah. It's been a while since I've done a DEEP clean of my shelves. *shakes head* 

But yah. A lot of the food was just things that I'd bought and never ate because they were for when 'things got bad' with the pandemic.

Which truthfully...with the way I eat....I never really was low on things I liked to eat so therefore the things I 'sometimes am in the mood to eat' never got eaten.

Part of me feels bad for wasting the food. Never touching it.

But the rest of me....the rest of me is just relieved to finally throw it away and get it off my shelves and out of my sight. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

To Count Again

Yesterday was that semi-annual time of year at work where I have to go in after we close and count all the animals in the store.

You know....like an official animal count or whatever.

Despite the fact that we're supposed to be counting the animals weekly anyways.....

Like I get it. Not every store is on top of keeping track of their inventory, especially with the animals.

But it is a bit frustrating to have to come in and spend a couple of hours counting moving creatures. Especially the ones in the fish tanks since like, with the feeder goldfish, there could be up to 300 or so fish in a tank. *shakes head*

I've done it often enough over the years that it doesn't really phase me to have to come in to do it. I mean, I get to avoid talking to customers and I don't have to wear a uniform since I came in after we closed.

But still. I don't like when the live pet inventory comes around because that usually means that I end up going into work 6 days a week instead of 5 which makes it feel like I don't have a normal day off.

Like...it is only for a couple of hours. So like I have the entire day to myself until closing. 

It's just the anticipation of having to go do a task makes it difficult to focus on other tasks you'd like to do when you're more relaxed.

In any case.

The counting went well enough, though my coworker was more off than usual on their counting of the fish.

As we have two people count the fish in each tank and write down the numbers there and then take the average of the two numbers and mark that as our inventory number.

And it's usually pretty handy....it's a check just to make sure the numbers aren't too off.

But it doesn't work that well when the other person barely tries counting in tanks with a ton of fish.

Like the feeder goldfish tanks.

My coworker was putting numbers like "60, 75, 83, 30, 40, 42" 

And when I got to those same tanks it was like 120, 130, 110, 60, 75, 60

So like twice as many fish were counted when I counted as opposed to when my coworker counted them.

Granted I do have the experience of having to count a ton of moving creatures quickly. Been doing it for 10 years after all.

But normally this coworker isn't that badly off in the counting. So I'm guessing they were dealing with a headache or something as they did comment at one point about too many fish in the tank.

But yah....at least we finished earlier than planned. So yay for that!

And I don't have to worry about doing it again until next year. Like in April probably *shakes head*

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wait...What's Going On Here?

 I've been thinking off and on about communication this past week.

Just...it's been one of those weeks where I've said something I've thought clearly stated what I needed help with only to realize later on that I only gave partial information in the heat of the moment. 

Most of this realization has happened in regards to work things....since I don't actually interact much with people outside work (yay introvert).

But it's the sort of situation where I've realized that I need to give a bit more detail to situations at work. 

Like one where I requested a back up cashier as I was stuck trying to get a customer on register 2 to comprehend why the dog muzzle they were trying to buy for their dog would not fit and that we did not have any other smaller sizes of the style that they wanted in stock nor did we carry a smaller size.

And I'd requested twice to have someone come back me up....only no one ever came to be the third cashier and I was feeling the pressure from the next customer standing at register 2 paitently waiting for me to finish with the other customer. 

But my coworkers had just seen 2 cashiers at the registers with only one other person in line for each register. So despite the couple of calls I made, no one came up to back up cashier because i hadn't explained that "Hey, I'm dealing with a customer on 2 that's taking a bit, can someone please third cashier?" 

And like I had a similar thing the other day where the curbside pick up was going off but I was busy helping a customer and trying to have a coworker show me what the issues some of the cats were having and I called my VP Manager over the radio to go do the curbside as I figured he was the free-est out of everyone to go grab that.

And he just sounded really miffed over the radio that HE had to do it. Because i basically had just said "Hey VP can you get that curbside" without explaining I was busy.

So like. I'm trying to keep that in mind to give a bit more detail when requesting aid. Though it's a bit of a two edge sword because a lot of my coworkers have issues listening to what's being said over the radio so I often have to repeat myself. But yah....been trying to do a bit more explaining when I request help somewhere.

Along that same "Clarification" vein.

I got a text from my step-mom the other day. Asking me if I would like to join her, my dad, and my grandma for lunch next week.

Which. I would be down for lunch.

EXCEPT. The place they wanted to have lunch at is in a DIFFERENT STATE. It's like an hour long drive to and from this place that they want to go eat at.

And considering it takes like an hour for me to drive up to my dad's house.

The concept of at least 4 hours of driving (if they didn't detour elsewhere) to grab food from one specific restaurant....was NOT appealing at all. 

It just seemed stressful. And I know from experience that I have a way higher chance of triggering a migraine if I drive anywhere for longer periods of time. Like I can get a migraine triggered just driving between my house and my dad's house.

So like the chances were pretty high for me to get a migraine and I didn't see it being worth it to drive to a food place that honestly....I wasn't very impressed with in the first place.

Like yes. Family time is great. But with how burned out I've been and such....it seemed like it would just drain me further and cause me more problems than less.

Especially because I would have no idea HOW LONG this drive up to the restaurant and back home would take. Cus like I'm aware that the leaves in the canyon are changing colors and such and what if Dad and everyone wanted to meander their way back. 

The fact that I didn't have an actual timeline....and the fact that I definitely didn't have the spoons to spend ALL day having to be social.....

I ended up declining my step-mom's invitation. Though I did offer to meet up a different day in Hometown to have dinner at one of the restaurant places there. 

BUT.

Yesterday, I ended up briefly seeing my Daddoo at the church because my sister had her baby shower yesterday and he'd gone over to help Step-Mom set up and such.

And as he was leaving he was like "I was really sad to hear you weren't going to join us to see the leaves in the canyon. I would have had you sit up front with me. We could have grabbed lunch at [restuarant])

And....

I just kinda felt like screaming?

Because I had wondered if seeing the canyon leaves was part of this 'go grab lunch' deal.

But StepMom had mentioned NOTHING about seeing the leaves.

And honestly if I'd been asked "Hey, we're going to go see the leaves in the canyons this week and maybe grab lunch in 'this city' too." that sounds so much more appealing than "Hey! We're having lunch at this place that's TWO HOURS away from you. You want to come!?" 

So like.

A bit more clarification on just what we would have been doing would have helped so much. And like rephrasing rhe request could also have helped as well.

Overall...I'm not sure I would have done it anyways.

Because like I said. I'm burned out. I don't want to do anything. I don't want to be around people. I just want to hermit in my room and pretend no one else is around. 

Because I'm tired of people needing me.

But yah....

Communication. Sometimes rephrasing something or clarifying something helps clear up a lot of misplaced emotions and such....

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Gift Giving

 One of my favorite things to do when giving people gifts is to give them something that they didn't realize they needed. 

Today, my sister had her baby shower.

And, having had slight experience through my friend from work when she had her own baby shower, I was well aware that my friend had lamented the fact that she hadn't gotten things that would be useful for motherhood. Like cute clothes and blankets are great. Toys and books are awesome too.

But like....things that help make motherhood easier?? Those were things she was desperately looking for.

And with my friend I went through her registry and got her a variety of things that would help my friend as a mom and not just help the baby.

I went into shopping for my sister's baby shower with the same mindset. Looking through her items for things she would need that others may not get for her. 

One of those things was a little mini fridge. A tiny thing that probably could only hold two or three baby bottles realistically.

But my sister had decided that she would need because she was thinking about late night feedings with the babies and how echoey her house is in general. And she didn't want to accidentally wake up the household going into the kitchen in the middle of the night to get a bottle for the baby. 

But with a mini fridge in the baby's room and such, she'd be able to easily get a bottle from there without disturbing anyone else. 

So along those lines I also got her a set of baby bottles that she wanted as well that were on her list. lol Kinda pointless to have a fridge to hold bottles if there's no bottles to place in them. 

In any case.

One of the items on my friend's baby registry that she'd wanted that I got for her was a "Bottle Warmer" which was a device that would help warm the baby bottles up faster. 

And that item wasn't on my sister's list.

But it seemed like it was a really helpful thing to have on hand also near the baby so you could grab a bottle of milk from the mini fridge and then warm it up in the bottle warmer.

Because it's kinda pointless to try and not wake up the household to grab a bottle from the kitchen fridge/freezer if you have to go into the kitchen anyways to warm up said bottle.

So I figured that would be a complete set. Bottles. A fridge to keep them cold. A warmer to warm them back up!

Lol and it was so great when she opened my gifts to her.

Because she was super excited about the fridge. As I figured she would be. And she was glad to have the bottles.

But she was so shocked to see the bottle warmer.

Why?

Because she literally had placed one on her registry list this morning lol. 

She was like "HOW DID YOU GET THIS SO QUICK?! I PUT THIS ON MY LIST TODAY!"

And I had to be like: "I got it before you put it on your list." lol. Because again, I had slight experience with my friend and was trying to think of something my sister would need that wasn't on her list.

Funnily enough the bottle warmer I chose to get for my sister -the same one I got for my friend- was also the exact same one that she'd placed on her list. XD lol. 

Best feeling ever. 

Lol as my sister had had a similar insight today or maybe last night in that she would need something to warm up the bottles and that something should probably not be the stove or microwave in the kitchen if she was trying to keep things quiet at night.

So yah.

I love giving surprise gifts that people didn't realize they needed. XD lol. 

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

Sarnic Dirchi

On the Fritz

 I mentioned to my Head Manager earlier today that I'd been wondering what we would have done if the power hadn't turned on before we closed for the night yesterday.

-Which again, luckily they got it fixed a couple of hours after the power went out. So there was no concerns there.

But like. It was a question in the back of my mind of what we'd do if we couldn't properly close down the tills and such for the night. Like would we have to do all the 'closing' stuff in the morning? Would we just pretend that the day of the power outage and the day after were the same day and just combine both of the totals together for one deposit? Would the computers reset things in such a way that we'd have no idea how much money belonged where? 

It was a ton of questions without a lot of answers.

After all, with power outages we usually only have to deal with a brief flicker period. Maybe half an hour at the most. It's rare to have longer outages. And like if they occur they occur well before we close.

So it wasn't really a concern for us, though it was a thought probably in the back of my Head Manager's mind what to do if that did become an issue.

...

...

...

I halfway wonder if I jinxed us by speaking my concerns outloud. 

Because tonight.

An hour and a half before we closed for the night.

The Group Work Chat lights up with a message from the Closing Manager.

"The Lights are Flickering and Registers are Down." 

Once again.

The city was experiencing a power outage.

But it was the weirdest power outage as this time it didn't send everything dark.

I mean, I wasn't there to see it in person. I was safe at home, far away from the chaos." 

But it was like....only half the power wasn't working? I don't know what that meant for traffic lights and such.

But like in the store a list of issues were:

Half the overhead lights were on. 
None of the Offices had lights. 
Some of the Fish Tank lights were flickering.
The second set of automatic doors kept opening and shutting even though no one was by them. 
1 Fridge out of 4 Fridge/Freezers in the same aisle wasn't working while the other 3 were working just fine.
Our printer wasn't working.
But the Computers were.
The charging station for our work phones wasn't working.
But the Ipads were charging just fine. 
The lights for the other animal enclosures were off. 
Registers were off. 

So like....half the store wasn't working properly.

I can only imagine what the customers were thinking at the time as we apparently had 10-15 people in the store at the time of the outage.

Which wasn't a lot thankfully. I can't imagine the crazy that would have occured if we'd been in the middle of a rush or something with a good 30-40 people in the store.

But it sounds like we ended up ushering the customers out, taking notes and numbers and holding their purchases off to the side for us to contact them tomorrow to come get (and probably give them a discount for the inconvience.) 

And I can only imagine how my manager and my closing people were feeling hanging out in a half working building for the remaining hour or so before we officially closed for the night. Hoping that the issue would be fixed before they had to leave.

-It wasn't. Not fully. 

But it basically brought my earlier questions up to the front.

How do we close the tills? How do we do the counting of the money?

Like. Good news is the computers were still working so we could count the money.

Badish news was that....it was a bit of a trial getting the tills out of the registers.

As they were completely off so we couldn't really use our regular manager keys and codes to shut it down and get the tills out.

No. Apparently. Somewhere. There's a Register Key. One that will manually open up the registers without having to input data into the computer to do so.

Only we couldn't find it. 

Honestly. I have no idea where it would be or when it would have vanished.

As to my knowledge....we haven't needed to ever use this 'register key' to close down a till. 

Admittedly I wasn't as aware of things in the beginning years here. So those managers at the time may have had to deal with late night power outages.

But nothing comes to mind in the last decade of a situation where we would have needed the key.

And the places we thought said key would be....it wasn't.

So like...my poor closing manager was probably wondering if they'd have to stay in the store until the power came fully back on or if we'd just have to leave the money in the registers for the night or what.

BUT.

I had the brilliant idea to have the closing manager call our Sister Store.

As they would more than likely have a Register Key that we could borrow to see if it would work for our registers or not.

Which they did have the key! Woot! So my Head Manager drove over to the sister store to grab it then came to our store to give it to the closing manager to test on the registers.

And it worked!!! 

Which was really lucky for us because I don't know what we would have done if we couldn't track down a key to get the registers open or if the power didn't turn on....because estimates for getting the power fixed went from midnight to 5am. So like...not a good sign. Though it does appeared to have been resolved now nearly 5 hours after it first went wonky.

*fingers crossed* That we don't have another power issue tomorrow.

Because like once isn't fun. Twice is annoying. Three times? It would be rather ridiculous. *shakes heads*

Here's hoping.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Power Outage

 The power went out at work today.

Which is mostly notable because the power went out for like half the city due to an issue with the substation. So there was apparently chaos everywhere on the streets as drivers tried to figure out how to use the streetlights that weren't working.

Lucky me...I live nowhere near there and with it being my day off....I got to avoid all the chaos! HA!

At the same time.....I'm kinda miffed that I missed the chaos? Like of course the ONE day I have off is the day the power goes out at work.

And like. I think I just like the idea of having a bonding experience with my coworkers. The "Oh remember when the power went out and we had to do this for customers and did this while we waited for the power to come back on?" 

It was actually surprising to hear that we actually put up a sign to say we were closed due to the power outage. Though I think that was only because original estimates were that the power wouldn't get fixed until NINE PM at night. 

The power actually got turned back on a couple of hours after it went out. So at least it wasn't an all day outage. Just a couple of hours where my coworkers and managers spent doing some deeper cleaning tasks outside that we usually can't get done when the store is open. 

Though I was wondering what we'd end up doing if the power had stayed off all day.

Like with the threat of power coming back on any minute....how long would we have kept my coworkers there before calling it quits for the day? Like there's only so much you can do in a dark building and only so much you can do outside. 

And like how would we have officially closed down the store for the night if the power remained off? Like counting the tills and doing the deposits and the closing paperwork. How would that have all worked out?? I honestly don't know. And I hope to never find out.

But yah. Kinda sad to miss the excitement of being at work when the power wasn't working, but also very very glad that I could miss all the stress involved in dealing with the power outage as well because for management that has to be a total nightmare to get that all figured out and sorted. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Flake Again

 "I have good news and bad news," was how my first manager greeted me when I came into work today.

"Good news." They said. "Is that SoandSo can come in to work from 4-7pm!" 

Having just checked the schedule I could piece together the pieces pretty easily. And so I was like "Oh, does that mean the cashier from 2-7pm called out?" 

"Yep." 

Which honestly.

I wasn't very surprised, but I was kind of irritated. 

As this particular cashier has been....a Thorn in our sides pretty consistently since they were hired.

Mostly in the fact that a) They call out a lot. Like at least once a week call out." To the point where we're pretty sure they just are lying about why they're calling out. and b) When they do come into work....they don't work. Like they're not proactive in doing tasks. We constantly catch them on their phone. We constantly have to remind them to be saying and asking certain things to customers while at register.....it's a mess. Like when they're at work they're basically only doing the bare minimum and will only do the stuff we ask them to do...if there's a manager nearby to call them out on it. But like if there's no manager nearby they stop. *exhales* It's frustrating.

Like the kid is a friendly person. But they're a bad worker. And I just have to wonder why they're even still with us if they're constantly making up reasons to get out of work.

Like the kid literally calls out at least once a week. 

Which considering they've barely been with us like 6 months....is crazy. 

And like... some of the excuses could be believable. Like "My grandma passed away." Sure I can believe that. 
But the kid has used the excuse "I have kidney stones" a couple of times....yet is always fine the next day or the next shift....and I'm pretty sure if the kidney stones were soo bad that you couldn't come into work...you'd be taking the rest of the week off. So it's....a bit more skeptical....like it could be plausible...but at the same time....doesn't seem likely.

But the kid has also used the excuse of "I have a really bad sunburn, my arms and back hurt I can't come in." 

And then on the next shift we saw them at....there is no sign of red skin whatsoever. Kid doesn't even look like they went outside with how pale their skin was. 

So yah....we're all a bit skeptical of just how truthful all these call outs are. 

And again I worked with this cashier last night. Had literally had them say to me "See you tomorrow!" And yet ten hours later they're calling out for a kidney stone?? Not sure how quickly those onset...but it just seems fishy.

Especially when I noticed the trend with this particular cashier....that they seem to call out after receiving criticism at work.

As yesterday I had brought up to this cashier that they needed to be more proactive in signing up customers for our membership program as this cashier had the MOST transactions out of all the cashiers...and yet had the LOWEST sign up rate out of everyone. Like the next cashier had nearly a thousand LESS transactions but at least 6 times the sign up success. 

Like I'm barely on register and I have a higher percentage of success than this Cashier who's ONLY EVER on register for a good EIGHT HOURS a day. The fact that they only have a 3% success rate is....sad.

And like it feels like this is a trend.

Where if I say anything like "Hey, remember to greet customers." or "Remember, you can't be on your phone at register as that gives a bad impression to customers." or "Remember to ask people to donate."

It seems like the next shift they are suddenly unavailable to work.

*exhales*

And it's frustrating. Soooo frustrating.

As I'm not quite sure how to help this cashier out short of having to babysit them and watch them every single moment. 

Maybe next shift we work together I'll have to stick around and just...coach them. "Remember to try and sign up customers. Remember to greet customers as they walk in. Remember to offer them the chance to buy a toy to donate to kids."

Like I hate all the asking we have to do of customers too. But I hate having the DM on our back more. 

I don't know.

In any case. I wasn't too surprised to hear that the cashier had called out today. As again, they end up doing it at least once a week it feels like. And honestly it was nice to have capable cashiers at the register who would do what they needed to do and didn't need to be babysat.

But still. It's annoying to deal with a flakly coworker. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A New Goal....Ish.

One of the thoughts I had while watching General Conference this past weekend is that I should probably get back into reading the scriptures. 

Like...it's been...well years since I've actually studied them. Read them. As I've been more focused on reading all the available conference talks on the app instead.

Like...it's been since before the pandemic that I actively read through the books. I think even before the Come Follow Me program started. Like I remember starting the Come Follow Me books that first year when we were supposed to read...the Book of Mormon I think? But it ended up falling by the wayside like a lot of things did during the pandemic. 

But it's been a thought for a bit....that maybe I should try and read the scriptures again. Do the whole highlighting and note taking and thought jotting thing.

Only like...the idea of opening the scriptures I already had at home was rather....unappealing. As I've already marked those up. And I really liked the idea of, well, a fresh start.

So I figured on Saturday between sessions I would drop by the Deseret Book and buy myself at least a new Book of Mormon to mark up and read since the regular book shouldn't cost that much there. 

However. Turns out that Deseret Book, at least the one I went too....had closed Saturday. For Conference. lol In retrospect...it made a lot of sense for the Church owned store to be closed during the Church's General Conference. 

Go figure.

In any case. Monday, after a bit of dithering/arguing with myself because I was TIRED after the little sleep I got from stressing too much Sunday night....I ventured over to nearby D.B. after work to try my luck again.

Good news. They were open lol.

And I found the little blue book Book of Mormon that I'd been thinking of Saturday easily enough.

And I was RIGHT! They weren't expensive. Only like $4ish which is amazing for a book! lol. 

However, I also noticed that there were other styles of the scriptures available, so for funsies I decided to take a closer look at those to see what was up.

And I discovered something amazing. Something that's probably been around for a good long while, but since I haven't actively searched for new scriptures in like....a decade....I would have remained well unaware of.

They had JOURNAL versions of the scriptures!!!

Which they're just the scriptures. Your good old Old Testament and New Testament and Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants. 

BUT.

The margins were like two to three times as wide along the sides. Giving you much more room to write down your thoughts on the sides of the scriptures. 

ITS AMAZING.

Like my handwriting isn't the greatest. But it's even harder to read when I'm trying to smush a ton of words in a itty bitty space. So to have MORE space to write in?! Genius!!!

Lol I ended up buying all 4 books (OT, NT, BoM, PoGP/D&C) then and there -after more dithering on what colors I wanted the covers to be lol.

But yah! Went from wanting to buy a simple blue cover book of mormon to like getting an entire new set to write in!!

I'm so excited!

But I'm also in a bit of a dilemma as to where to start as I don't want to overwhelm myself first thing.

And like in the Come Follow Me....we're apparently studying the Old Testament this year. But since I have not been following that at all during the pandemic....

I'm not sure if I should just jump into the end of Isasiah where the Come Follow Me indicates we're studying this week, or if I should just start at the beginning of the Old Testament, or since the new year is literally only like...3 months away maybe I should start on the New Testament and get a head start on that. Or maybe I should just stick with the original plan to read the Book of Mormon and do that instead. Or since I am trying to get to church more often....maybe I should just jump into the middle of Isaiah and start there instead.....

So yah. I haven't decided what to do yet now that I have the books with me. But I'll figure it out soon enough.....as soon as I also decide what type of pen/marking tools to use lol. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi