Do A Little More Please

 I already knew today's plan was going to go a bit off the rails when it came to work because I'd been informed that our morning petcare person had called out sick....and unfortunately no one was available to cover the shift. 

Which meant that our morning manager would need to do a quick open of petcare before the store opened. 

Not the most ideal as we've been planning to get a bunch of resets done today and things have already been thrown off multiple times this week with people getting sick and other factors out of our control.

So to have Petcare also getting sick and causing a delay in tasks....

Yah. Not ideal.

But needed. 

And I wasn't too concerned with this manager opening petcare as they have done it before and did it well enough I figured they'd get most of it done before I came in.....though I did have my misgivings about it because like.... I was wanting to expect the best case scenario. But wasn't putting my hopes on actually getting the best case scenario. 

As I told my closing manager who was contacting my opening manager about the plan for the morning, to let them know that I would take over and do the rest of opening once I came in for my mid shift. 

And that's a bit where my misgivings began...because like....how much would this manager actually DO knowing that I would be in to take over in opening petcare a couple of hours after the store opened?

Would it change their plan knowing I was coming in in comparison to there being no one in until later in the day? 

Who knew.

Best case scenario would be the scenario I came into last time they had to open petcare which was that I just needed to feed the fish and we were golden. 

Expected case would be that they'd only be able to get the back rooms and cat done, leaving me to do the rest of the floor and the fish tasks. 

Since they were the only manager on duty this morning and also needed to complete all their Manager tasks too that need to be done before the store opened....

I was kinda thinking the latter case would the the situation I would walk into. That I would need to feed the fish and the animals on the floor while the 'off floor tasks' of the back rooms and cats would be completed. 

*exhales*

But when I came in a couple of hours after we opened and checked in with my morning manager to see what needed to be done....

They stated that they'd only done the cats. And had pulled some dead fish.

That was it. 

And it left me just.....frustrated and disappointed.

Because like why would you not at least open the back rooms too? It took me like maybe 15 minutes total. Not that long to do so. 

And it was kinda expected because we have animals in our iso rooms who have meds that need to be given both morning and evening currently so they kinda need those meds IN THE MORNING. 

So I had to clarify with them the expectations on ensuring that the backrooms get opened before the store is opened.

But yah....

It was frustrating because while that manager had their own agenda of Manager tasks that they were also working to complete before they left for the day....

I too had my own tasks I needed to do.

And it kinda felt like this manager shoved all of petcare onto me so that they could focus solely on their own tasks.

Which yes, I have way more experience in petcare and can get it all done much quicker than everyone else.

But still. A bit more equality would have been appreciated. 

I had my own scans I could have been doing. My own resets I needed to get done.

All of which ended up delayed by a couple of hours because I had to open far more of petcare than expected and also work with all the petcare customers and such.

So yah.

Not the greatest Saturday I've walked into.

But I managed to get everything that I could get done done. So ha!

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Making It Fit

 There's something satisfying about accomplishing a task that seems near impossible. 

We had a truck come in earlier in the week. 

A little larger than normal pallet wise...but also in our overstock.

And I'm not sure if it's just because we didn't manage to work enough of the back room stock out onto the floor this past week....or if the DC just sent us waaaay too much of certain product with the expectation that that product would have sold enough so that we could fit the new product on the shelves when it came in only for it to not fit...

But well. 

It didn't fit.

We've had a flat cart and a shopping cart of various types of cat food in our receiving area since Truck came in that should have been placed in our overstock shelves....only said overstock shelves were stocked full of product. 

And this morning, it was my goal to get as much food out onto the floor as I could. So that I could actually get all of our overstock to fit into the overstock area without it overflowing elsewhere.

And I managed it!!!

It took a bit of finagling and such because for all the cat stuff we've sold this week....it was all product that we didn't have more of in the back. So while I wasn't able to put out as much stock as I was hoping to put out....I did manage to get enough out to jigsaw in everything else so it all fit onto the proper shelves and such. 

Which is great!

Until you consider that we have another truck coming in in a few days....I'm hoping we can get more product out to the shelves before that so the back room is emptier in preparation for the new stuff flowing in.

But we'll see. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Ripple Effects

 I feel for my coworkers. 

Like. 

With the events that happened on campus yesterday. 

I'm affected...but not that affected.

There's a connection. It's my school. I was on campus recently. I know the area. I work nearby.

But I wasn't there.

My coworkers though?

Not so much.

Interacting with them today it was interesting to see the various takes on it.

From the "Oh I wasn't there but I had friends and family who were there who saw everything."

to "I wasn't there but I live in the apartments nearby so I'm affected because of the helicopters and the blocked roads and the lockdown that happened."

to "I was eating lunch in the courtyard nearby and heard the shot, saw the people running, and so I took off running." 

It's...it's intense. To have to field all those different emotions all my coworkers are going through.

To try and lend an understanding ear and be there for them. And support them.

Especially to my one coworker who had to run. They were literally shaking as they were telling me about it. 

Like that's trauma right there.

And it hurts that so many people were affected because of one person. Because they felt they had to act in such a horrible manner.

And I'm left trying to figure out how to help out my coworkers to try and ease their pain to help bring light back into their lives. To make it better for them so that they can get through another day. Get out of their heads. Move forward. and like...rebuild the trust. Rebuild the security.

I feel for my coworkers.

That is not an event I would want anyone to have to go through. 

Especially since they're still searching for answers. Still searching for the suspect. 

I feel like there's still going to be a sense of unease for a while. Until he's found. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Losing the Safe Feeling

 It's been one of those days that's been ... hard to kinda ... reflect? Reflect on. 

One of those days filled with a lot of Doom scrolling to try and understand why and how and for what purpose. 

There was a political influencer shot and killed at my alma mater today. 

Which I was only vaguely aware of this dude before the events of today. But from what I've seen....I would disagree with a lot of his stances. If not all of them. 

Mostly because he's aligned with the political party that I absolutely despise at the moment. Nothing good is coming from that current administration and I am doing my best to stay far far far far far away from it and anyone who has anything positive to say about what they're doing.

That being said.

I do not believe anyone should have been gunned down like that.

It's horrible. It's despicable. 

Especially because I hear his wife and kids were right there on the front row.

Like. Sure. There's a difference of opinion. 

But no one. No One. Should be a witness to that. No one should have their spouse or parent taken away like that. No one should have to go to bed tonight knowing that their loved one isn't there with them.

I've seen video. And it's awful seeing just how quickly life can be cut short. How events can go from positive 'let's talk it out and debate it' moments to screams and terror and trauma.

I feel for those people who witnessed it and the trauma all the students must be going through now. To have that safety net cut away from them. To now have that moment etched into their minds. Like how can one go back to school after such an event? Walk into that courtyard or even by that courtyard after such a thing?

And it's struck home in multiple ways.

Not just because THAT's MY SCHOOL. 

I've walked those halls. Been in that courtyard.

I was literally there a couple weekends ago with friends Pokemon hunting for fun. I was literally in that courtyard! I had sat at the top of the bowl by the fountains watching a child and their parents play along the stones nearby. 

It hits hard. 

That school has been a safe place for me for years. Like I haven't been to college in over a decade. But I still drop by on occasion. Mostly to just catch Pokemon on community events. But like. That was a safe place. And it hurts to know that violence happened there.

It's nerve wracking knowing that the shooter is still at large. 

Like I work minutes from campus. 

My job is right there.

If the shooter is local there's a huge chance I may have encountered them at some point in the past. Whether at my job or somewhere like grocery shopping. 

There's just that sense of safety that's been shaken.

Like the likelyhood of me specifically being a target is low.

The shooter clearly had a motive and one target. 

So it's unlikely that my safety is actually a concern in this particular case.

But it's worrisome. Knowing how close danger can be to you. Knowing that someone was able to do that right here in College town. 

So it's not surprising that I've been doomscrolling all day. Looking for footage of the shooter. Putting on the amateur detective hat and trying to figure out how they got on the roof from what I know of campus. Figure out where they may have gone. What routes they may have taken to get away. Wondering if they left the area or tried to blend in. If they jumped on the nearby highway or fled into the city. 

Also just find it amazing how the modern age makes it so there's a higher chance of there being footage of the shooter. Of the person being found. Like even now there's been a couple different perspective videos released from people on campus who just happened to film something suspicious or happened to have the right angle during the event to capture the person in the distance. 

There's just so much. 

So much to comprehend. 

And I'm kinda grateful that I was off today and home safe. 

Because I don't know how I would have handled it if I'd found out all this while I was at work. Where I was much closer to the shooter's location. 

Not sure how I'll handle it tomorrow when I go in to work...since the shooter is still at large.....

Hopefully they find the person soon.

Because again. No one deserves to go like that. No matter what their opinion or stance or belief is. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi 

15 Years Later

 I kinda feel bad now, looking back and seeing that I didn't do a 14 Years Later post.

I remember thinking about it. Around this time last year. 

But I was deep deep into a non writing in general streak. 

Kinda just...didn't want to at all.

Didn't have the energy. Didn't really feel like sharing my thoughts.

Which is usually a pretty big indication of how stressed out I am because writing is a great way to vent and get my thoughts and feelings out.

And not that I wasn't venting. But I was venting more through texting friends....rather than writing and putting my thoughts out there for whoever to see them.

Maybe there was a bit of 'what's the point?' going on. A bit of 'burn out.' and 'why does it matter." 

So yah. Neglected the 14th year post. 

Probably would have neglected the 15th year post this year too if I hadn't gotten finally decided enough was enough and it wasn't enough to just be thinking about getting back into blogging again or talking about getting into blogging again but to actually start actively making time to blog again and carve out time to do so. 

And it's mostly thanks to my sister that I've started blogging again.

Because she recommended an app. Called "Finch" that's basically just like a ... daily task app. Where you mark off tasks and the little Birdy avatar you have earns jewels so you can buy stuff and you can have friends where you can send little motivation stuff and such to each other.

And while the finch app comes with preset tasks like "Drink Water" or "Get out of Bed" you can also set yourself your own list of tasks like "Blog!" and how often you want to do said task. Like Blogging would be an every day thing.

But I also have this Bonsai Tree that I got from my brother -during an activity we did together- for my birthday and it needs to be watered like every 4 days. And like....I am a bit of a yellow thumb when it comes to keeping plants alive. But the Finch app lets me set a reminder for every 4 days to water the Bonsai and I'm golden!

And it was thanks to me adding in the Bonsai reminder that I finally decided to set myself a few other reminders as well despite having just humored my sister and used the app for just the general stuff for the last few months.

So I've added in other tasks like Blogging! and Latch Hooking! And Take Pictures of the Sunset!

Just...tasks that I've done pretty consistently in the past....but due to life....have kinda fallen by the wayside because I just....haven't had a bit of a block about them.

So it's actually quite satisfying to be able to write this 15 year post.

And even though the past few years I haven't been as consistent as I've been. It's still kinda amazing to see in the stats that there are still individuals checking this blog out. That there's been engagement pretty consistently throughout the years even when I haven't been as active.

And it's actually rather inspiring.

To know that there are people out there who do read these words.

Who do check in.

Maybe they're just referencing a favored older post and don't even care about the newer ones. But it's just cool that this blog still lives on, even if I have periods of inactivity. 

So Thanks.

Thanks for being around. 

And while it's been a hot minute since I've done a stats thing and blogger has changed a bit how their stats are laid out. 

It is fun to see who just all is visiting. So I'll forgo most of it, but the top countries to have visited me are: 

Singapore - 135k (43%)
United States - 62.3k (20%)
Italy - 44.8k (14%)
Hong Kong - 21.7k (7%)
Russia - 11.4k (4%)
France - 5.28k (2%) 
Germany - 3.92k (1%)
Canada - 3.13k (<1%)
Portugal - 2.4k (<1%)
Ukraine - 1.74k (<1%)
Finland - 1.29k (<1%)
United Kingdom - 898 (<1%)
China - 761 (<1%)
Poland - 729 (<1%)
India - 477 (<1%)
Turkmenistan - 416 (<1%)
South Korea - 414 (<1%)
Czechia - 395 (<1%)
Latvia - 384 (<1%)
Other 20.1k (6%)

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

And Suddenly. Blood

 It was the most random thing.

So there I was.

Helping customers at the register because we didn't have enough hours to schedule a cashier right at opening and the manager who was gonna cover the first hour ended up having a health issue that had them coming into the store late. 

So I ended up being the manager on register for the first hour.

Which wasn't the worst. Since I'd spent the three hours before that organizing and counting and checking inventory of our shelves and such. So a break of just basically standing there was rather nice. 

So I hadn't been doing anything too strenuous for a while.

Mostly was just checking the inventory of our soda fridge and restocking the shelves in it with whatever sodas we still had in stock and such. 

When I had a customer come in to pick up an order.

Which yah no big deal they do that all the time.

Except the order was cold food.

Which we usually keep in our fridges back on the aisle so you know...the cold food stays cold.

And since the store was still pretty dead since it was still first thing in the morning I quickly walked back there to grab it and head back up to the customer since there was like nobody else in the store...and if there were people in the store they were still shopping and no where near the front.

But as I was walking back to the front from my jaunt a few aisles away.

I felt liquid dribbling from my nose.

Which first thought is always. "Oh snot." 

Because you know, I've been pulling items from overstock and reorganizing and basically messing with dusty shelves for the last few hours. I figured it was just a symptom of dust up my nose and the nose trying to get rid of it or whatever.

Brush my nose against my sleeve to get rid of the annoying sensation since I was carrying the stuff back up to the customer...

And my sleeve is red when pull away.

oh.

Oh no.

Like it's happened before. Rarely. At work. Like rare enough that its really only happens once every 2-3 years where I'll suddenly end up with a bloody nose at work. 

And usually it's sometime in the summer...usually earlier in the summer when it first gets hot and the air gets dry.

But it's been a while since I've gotten a bloody nose at work.

And not usually when I'm in the middle of helping a customer.

So it was a matter of quickly tilting my head back. Hoping the blood hadn't started flowing too freely yet. Giving the bag of stuff to the customer and quickly grabbing a paper towel to shove up my nose after they leave and requesting immediate help at the register so I could step off the floor to get the nose bleed under control. 

Luckily my petcare person was able to quickly step in before any more customers came up so I could vanish into the breakroom until I could get my nose to stop bleeding.

But it was so random. 

Like there was literally not much different I'd been doing today compared to other days of work. For me it was a typical Monday work day. 

But in all honestly today has been weird with...health?

I'm blaming it on the full moon yesterday.

But like. I get a bloody nose. A different manager has an allergic reaction and has to leave early, another one has been dealing with an illness and been feeling sick since the weekend, and another manager came in saying they felt like they had food poisioning.

Like....there's currently only 5 of us managers and 4 of us had some sort of health related incident today. Who knows the 5th one may have been feeling off too and not said anything.

But like....what are the odds? It's so crazy that all that happened on the same day.

It did leave me feeling rather cautious about how I was moving around afterwards though. I didn't want to bend down or turn too quickly or whatever and trigger another nose bleed.

Luckily I didn't.

And hopefully like past times it's a one off. Because tomorrow is going to be BUSY. So I can't really afford to have to stop to take care of a bloody nose.

But I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Connection Gone

 It's a bit ... bittersweet to lose a connection. 

Like a connection to a plance. To a person. To a memory.

Yesterday I lost a bit of a connection to my Mother Dearest. 

In that one of my fish died.

How is a fish connected to my mom?

Well. 

She had a glofish tank before she passed. 

And one of those glofish was a blue glo rainbow shark. 

It was in with other fish as well. Tiger barbs and other glofish my Mother Dearest enjoyed as well.

And that fish survived so much.

Like Daddoo at one point ended up moving it into a tiny 1 gallon tank because it was killing all his other fish and it survived.

It survived when multiple tanks got sickness that killed most of the fish.

Including when he eventually gave the shark to me to have in my 125 gallon tank when he finally decided to stop keeping a fish tank for good. 

That fish has lived for like...at least a decade by this point.

Which is a good nice long lifespan for a fish.

Especially the glofish because with the genetic modifications to make them glo...I honestly don't quite know how similar their live spans are to normal fish of the same breed.

So the fact that this fish lived at least a decade?

Impressive.

But the last month or so I've noticed him slowing down.

Becoming less aggressive in the tank.

Less likely to chase around his favorite fish to chase around.

More likely to just sit in a cave that I got for the tank and chill.

And the sitting became more common. The swimming became less common.

So I could tell that his time was coming. 

And it's been bittersweet.

Because like my Daddoo called this fish "bad boy" for a reason and I've had to be careful in what type of fish I put in my tank with him because I'm pretty certain he would kill some of the fish he decided he didn't like. 

So like. I'm glad he's finally out of my tank so I can have a bit more freedom in what fish I do want to put tin my tank.

But also like ... this was one of the last fish my mom had before she passed.

It's a small connection to her ... that I don't have anymore. 

I'll look in the tank when I feed the fish and won't see the gloshark anymore. Won't see that little reminder of my Mother Dearest. 

And while one solution would be to 'get another shark of the same color' to kinda make it like the fish never left....

It does also feel like a chapter that has been closed. A time for a new chapter to be written.

But yah.

It's been kinda bittersweet. 

Goodbye Bad Boy. You'll be missed. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

But It's Cash

 One thing that I've learned going to like the Gem fairs and such is that it's nice to carry cash around. 

Because if you have cash, most of the stalls don't charge you a tax for what you're purchasing. 

If it says $15 you can hand them $15 in cash and be done with it.

Of course there's always those stalls that calculate the tax even if you have cash. But they're more rare. Like one or two in the entire event. 

So for the most part when I go to the Gem Fairs I try to pull out enough cash beforehand for my purchases and unless I go crazy buying rocks (which I have before) avoid using my cards to pay for things.

Today was slightly different. 

In that I actually had a Saturday off. 

And so I decided to go check out a Farmer's Market that my sibling was participating in. You know. Go support and such. 

Ended up being a much larger market than I expected...mostly because it was "Shop Days"? This weekend apparently. So there was thrice as many vendors and a bunch of other activities and programs going on at the same time.

Regardless after visiting my sibling I went to venture about and check out to see what the local vendors were selling. As I had pulled out some cash with the intent to maybe spend some today if I found anything unique. And avoid using my cards once more. 

Mostly to keep myself to a budget as the gem fair itself is coming again in a couple of weeks. Because I'd much rather spend money on my rocks lol. 

In any case.

While wandering about I found a shop that had some cool pictures. Where the artist had layered cut out pieces of paper on top of each other to create designs. And also stated that a portion of their proceeds goes to help the bees.

Which yay helping the bees!

Problem was that I had 3 pictures I wanted to get....but not enough cash to get all of them. I was about $20 short. 

But I was like "Hey, would you be willing to sell me these three frames for $$$?" because it doesn't hurt to ask and oftentimes people will give a slight discount if you're bundling multiple things together. 

Which the artist was like sure!

And I'm like "Cool! Because that's all I have in cash." 

And they were like "Really? What about the sales tax?" 

...

....

.....

???

I'm sorry. What?

Sales tax?

I'm paying in CASH.

That means it's just the flat fee! No tax!

*exhales*

Not to this seller. 

Like seriously I was like "Usually if people pay in cash they don't charge tax." 

And they were like "Well, they shouldn't be doing it that way!" 

Like literally EVERY SINGLE PLACE I BOUGHT OTHER THINGS FROM DID NOT CHARGE ME TAX when I paid WITH CASH there at the farmer's market..

Because how is the government gonna know if you charged tax or not? How are they gonna know if you sold anything or not when it comes to cash? They can't TRACK that. Not when it comes to a tiny farmer's market. Who knows what's exchanged where?

*shakes head*

But this artist insisted that I pay the sales tax. 

*exhales*

LUCKILY I had a little bit of extra change on me. 

Because it ended up being another $8 for the sales tax. *rolls eyes* 

But hey. Still ended up getting all 3 pictures for less than the original price. So I can't complain too much.

But still. 

It was slightly irksome.

I mean I have encountered it a couple of times at the gem fair while paying with cash.

But I do have to wonder if it's was a difference in .... generations? Like the artist was more my grandparent aged. So it may be just a boomer mentality.

I didn't buy from any other shops with older people so I don't have other data to compare it to.

But yah.

Was rather random that the artist insisted on the tax.

But you do you artist.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Finding Confidence

 I suppose no one really enjoys being perceived when it comes to ... being evaluated. Judged. Critiqued. 

But like. I do kinda enjoy just doing my own thing without having to think about how well I'm doing my thing you know?

Especially when I'm already on edge because I know there's the general expectation that I'm going to be the one that's hopefully replacing our manager that just left and stepping up into their position. Which means i'm more aware of all my shortcomings and potential flaws....

Because the brain just loves to focus on the negative and it's much harder to focus on the positives. 

Which I really do have a lot of positives going for me. 

As I had my annual work review today.

Because my 13th work anniversary is tomorrow. 

Which O.o

Huh.

It's so crazy that I've been with Starsmet for 13 years now. 

Like I knew my anniversary was approaching.

But it catches me by surprise every time lol. 

Caught my Head Manager by surprise too.

Because the manager who just left was the one who was supposed to have given my review as they were the one over me.

But because they're gone that left it up to Head Manager to do so.

Which ... I'm kinda grateful for?

I mean PL seemed to say mostly positive things about me on their last day of work and stated that they thought I was the one they thought was the best to replace them when they left.

But it does leave me wondering how they would have rated me if they had given me my review as opposed to my head manager.

Because head manager rated me very well. I got "above" in basically all categories.

And HM had basically all positives to say.

That I'm great at helping customers and coworkers. That I'm the go to person because I know a lot. That I've been quick to catch on and learn my new responsibilities and ask great questions and that the Head Manager is looking forward to seeing how I progress. 

Overall it was basically a "Great job. Keep up the good work! No notes." sort of review.

Though of course there's always room for improvement. And it seemed like head manager was grasping at straws to find something for me to 'work' on that I could do to continue to improve.

And it basically boiled down to like Having more Confidence in myself. 

Which granted. I'm pretty confident in the store. Kinda have to be after 13 years of being there lol.

BUT.

I am always a bit more shy and cautious when it comes to new things. 

And getting thrown into a new position where I have to go from being like an equal to the PL to under the PL meant that I was floundering a bit. 

Because like I'm trying to figure out how the currents are going. Who's in charge. Who answers to who in what situations. Where are we equals and where are we not?

Plus like I'm learning a whole new aspect of the store. Because while I've helped out with stocking tasks. It's been a here and there sort of thing. Where I've learned tidbits over the years but I don't know like the inner workings of like the behind the scenes stuff. I've been more focused on Petcare and then with my first management position with the cashiering aspect as well.

So yah. Stocking side? Still a bit of a learning curve. So I have been a bit less "go get them" than I was before the job change. Because like....still feeling out what I am and am not responsible for. 

Because like. If I'm getting paid less. I'm not going to be doing other people's jobs when they're getting paid more than me. They can do their jobs and earn their money there. 

So I've taken a step back in some areas. Been a bit more "Hey question. Hey is this okay? Hey? Hey? Hey" 

And Head Manager was like "I just want you to get creative. Problem solve a bit more on your own. Take time to look through the apps and the computer stuff and find the answers." 

Which they brought up a good point. We're all new to these positions we're currently holding. None of us have had them before. We're all the first to hold these positions so we're all learning on the job.

So yah. I should be a bit proactive in figuring out things on my own.

But at the same time .... I am really really really tired of feeling like I'm the only one in the store with the brain cell.

Because 9 times out of 10 if there's a problem in Petcare I'm the one who comes up with the solution. 

And probably 7 out of 10 times if there's a problem at the registers. I'm the one who comes up with the solution.

So I didn't really want to be the one who has to 'come up with the solution' with all things Stocking too.

Even though if I'm hoping to jump up into the PL position that's exactly what I'll need to do. Be the 'go to solution finder' when it comes to all things stocking. *exhales* 

But yah.

Basically the main focus point of the review for me to work on was "Confidence. Learn things." 

So I'll have to see if I can fit finagling around and looking up things in amongst all the other things I'm trying to do at work.

Irregardless.

At least I did really well at my review!

With all the doubts that have bee plaguing my mind as the PLs departure approached it's nice to just hear some positive feedback that yes I'm doing well and yes I would be a good fit to jump up into the position.

Now...if only I could get the hiring website to work for me so I could actually get my application in. *exhales*

Gotta love unforseen complications. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Treasure Above?

 Have you ever wondered what history may be hidden around you?

Like. 

There's always the 'found treasure in the attic' or the 'basement' or in the 'old shed' or the 'cellar' sort of mythos that may be in the back of the mind.

Especially when exploring older houses like your grandparents home.

But there's other areas where you just....don't consider what sort of treasure or history may be hidden behind the walls, under the floor, or in the ceiling of an older building.

And like....I don't consider my work building to be that old.

Even though the building is probably just as old or older than I am.

Like I had a coworker who'd been there nearly two decades before I started working there.

So like ... it's been around for a hot minute.

Long enough that I've already had to field calls in the recent past from the Home Office that basically boil down to "Hey, we don't know what this actually looks like. Can you send us pictures of it." 

Like they had some dude come in and do like a .... radar? Lidar? idk some sort of laser test that maps out the dimensions of the entire building so they can figure out how much footage the entire building has but also like how big the rooms within the building is. 

They also had me take pictures of our fish wall .... because the home office couldn't find the actual plano for the fish wall we have in their system and they wanted a visual of it. 

Today .... some dude from higher up the chain and that is probably in the home office was like "Heeeey. We can't find the building plans of your building. So we don't actually know what it looks like." 

Which ... .... HOW do you not know what your building looks like? I mean you've been sending us MAPs of the building with the AISLES and such on it so that we can set product and rearrange things every month. HOW do you not know what it looks like?! 

PLUS you had that one dude come in and MEASURE the entire store! HOW do you not know what it looks like?!

It's just one of those 'lost to time' things apparently where they knew at some point but the knowledge was lost at some point.

Regardless. They were like "Heeey, we don't have building plans here at the home office, BUT you may have the original plans THERE!"

Like. 

What?

Supposedly the original plans were placed in a PVC pipe and then stored in the ceiling above one of the rooms and if we lifted up the ceiling tile we may be able to find said pipe.

Which. Cool concept. 

IF ITS STILL THERE.

But at the same time WHY WOULD IT STILL BE THERE?

Like was that a trend of the time it was built in? That you store the master plans of the building IN the ceiling of the building itself?

Why not place it in like .... idk CITY HALL or like wherever building records are stored in the town? That's city hall right? Right? Who knows. 

But like shouldn't there be copies elsewhere? 

And WHY the ceiling?

Upon hearing this news I immediately doubted that the pipe thingy would still be up in the ceiling.

Because a few years a go we had some sort of ceiling work that got done....I can't remember if it was ceiling tiles being replaced or something above the ceiling tiles in the previous offices. But like.... things were messed around with up there.

Plus it's been DECADES. 

It could have vanished ANYTIME in that time frame if someone didn't know what it was and went "Oh. Old pipe. Toss it." when they were doing some sort of cleaning or maintenance or something. 

It's just mind boggling. 

Like my head Manager did attempt to look for said mystery pipe in a couple of spots in our ceilings.

Didn't find it.

But like we don't actually know which "office" it could be. "It's above the main office!" 

Well cool....but like is the office we're using as the main office the office THEY were using as the main office when the building was built? Who knows! 

Still. It's weird to think....that potentially it could be up there in the ceiling somewhere. These mysterious building plans. That literally no one would ever think to look for in the ceiling..... 

Except this one dude in the whole office who says they might be there.

So weird.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Change is a Coming

 There's a sort of exhaustion that hits where literally the only thing you can do is go to bed. Because like....there's not really any higher brain power going on. There's no energy to think. No energy to type. No energy to read. Barely any energy to watch something.

And it always catches me off guard when I get those 'super exhausted' days. 

Especially when they happen on days where I got enough sleep.

Like you kinda expect the super exhausted crash out after getting like 2-4 hours of sleep the night before.

But the nights where you get a full night's rest?

It's really weird to feel the deep exhaustion set in at like 7pm and the want to just crash in bed fighting with the night owl tendency to stay up late. 

I suppose the crash out yesterday wasn't fully unexpected. 

As it was our Truck Day.

And working product, lifting heavy bags, moving things around the store for hours on end ... it's tiring. It's exhausting.

So I'm always a little more tired Tuesday nights, but even then....last night felt a bit more extreme. 

And I'm sure there were a ton of contributing factors that just...weighed in on the exhaustion levels.

The first being me working a slightly longer shift. 

Like half an hour extra at work shouldn't have made that much of a difference, especially because we had truck basically done half an hour before I was off so I wasn't really doing much in the last half hour. 

But I also think the mental and emotional stressors were a bit higher yesterday as well.

Why?

Because it was one of my other manager's 'last day' at work. 

So I think there was a lot of back burner stress in my mind because like "Do I know everything they know so we can function without them? Am I missing anything? Will I be a good replacement if I get promoted for that position? Have I learned what I need to learn? What happens if I can't find the thing?" And of course all the background "They're never gonna do this and never gonna do that." and "I won't be able to ask them this or that or this or that."

Though they did tell me if I needed help that I could still contact them with questions. Which is sweet though I'm gonna try to not do that. 

Kinda not a great look to ask the person who left the job about the job lol. But at the same time they've kinda been a savant in their position so they literally know 'everything' that it's hard to 'teach' everything. 

It's also hard because it's unknown if this is a permanent goodbye or not. 

As the manager is stepping down as a manager to go back to school. But may come back to be like a part time worker if the school work load isn't too crazy for them.

But we won't know that answer for sure for a couple of weeks. So who knows.

Still. 

Gonna be weird having them gone as they've been in the store nearly as long as I have. 

In any case. There is all that background emotional stress going on while also trying to get the truck worked as quickly as possible because yesterday was the last day for this manager who usually helps to finish the truck today with what we don't get done the day before but wouldn't because yesterday was their last day....

But there's also other stressors that I shouldn't be stressing about but am stressing about because that's who I am as a person apparently.

Like money is always an issue and with me taking the new management position with the stupid management restructuring that corporate did, I also took a slight pay cut as well. Which while not the end of the world...has also left me not liking the state of how my finances are either.

It doesn't help that corporate is being stupidly tight fisted with hours and making it difficult for us to be scheduled a full 40 hours a week because we DON'T HAVE THE HOURS to do that. 

Not when we've been cut at least 80 hours each week compared to the same week last year.

It's nearly impossible.

But HM said that our DM said in their weekly meeting that all managers should be scheduled at a full 40 each week. Which would be great! Because more money! 

But is BAD because corporate isn't GIVING US THE HOURS to schedule the managers full time. NOT without TAKING AWAY those hours from associates. Like in order to get all the managers up to a full 40 hours each week we'd have to take away just under 30 hours a week from the associates. 

Which they're already working shorter shifts and less days as it is. 

If we cut them any further it wouldn't surprise me if they'll start looking for other jobs.

Because it's rather hard to survive if your job is only sceduling 3ish shifts a week and those shifts are like maybe 6 hours. 

People can't live off of that.  And if people can't live off of that they're gonna start looking for work elsewhere. 

Which is stressful. Like even if the managers get up to a full 40 hours that doesn't mean we'll be able to have more time to do our Manager tasks. No. Those hours will be spent doing the tasks that the Cashiers and the Petcare people should be doing but aren't because we don't have enough hours anymore to schedule them the full day. 

It's stressful.

Because it feels like corporate is doing their best to take us down to pandemic staffing again and THAT SUCKED.

Like I don't remember what amount of cashiers we had. But it literally was the six managers, me and one petcare person. And maybe one or two cashiers. Like we had NO ONE. If ONE person got sick we were basically SCREWED because we didn't have anyone else to bring in. 

It sucked. Big time. 

Like cutting 3/4s of your staff is a stupid and horrible thing to do especially in the middle of a pandemic. And I don't like that the trend with hours seems to be forcing us to go in that direction again. Because it. is. not. fun.

It's just more stress. And more upset customers because there's no people to help them. 

*exhales*

So yah.

No wonder I got home from work and basically just wanted to pass out.

It was an exhausting day on multiple levels. 

But the one bright side of the day is that the manager who's left told me that out of everyone in these tore, if we were hiring internally to replace them, that I would be the best person to replace them.

Which is high praise from them. ^^;;

They later went on to say that I caught on quick in the last couple of months learning how to do all the stocking tasks and that I've been doing really well with all my tasks.

Which again is amazing.

Because until that point I had no idea if they thought I was good replacement material or not.

I mean I hoped I would be. 

I went into my current position with the expectation that I would be learning how to do this manager's job so that I could take over for them when and if they decided to step down. As I wasn't as familiar with the stocking aspects of the store so a few months to learn the ropes would be helpful and help me ease into what I need to know for the position.

So to hear that the manager thought I would do well as a replacement was one less stress on my shoulders at least. Now to just pass through the interviewing process when we hold that and hope that I get the position. *fingers crossed* 

But yah.

It was an exhausting day. 

Exhausting enough that it triggered a migraine towards the end of my shift that trying to go to bed early did not help......but at least the Nurtec made it go away so yay!

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Priorities

 So usually on Monday's we have a routine in the mornings. 

That mostly involves me and another manager going through the front half of the store counting holes on the aisles. 

Aka. Looking for empty spots on the shelves and scanning the tags below them to make sure the spots are actually supposed to be empty. And if they're not, double checking that inventory isn't hiding elsewhere before adjusting the numbers. 

Which is semi interesting because like, I'll also scan areas with low numbers too. Places where there's only one or two on a shelf when I know there's usually more of the item. Or I'll scan items that I've found to be higher theft items in the past.

And it's interesting to note the ... idk trends? Trends in like what items are consistently not right on the shelf. 

Which begs the question of.... was it stolen? Or did the DC send us the wrong amount?

Like we were supposed to have 2 large 40 gallon tanks of one particular type on the shelf. I could only find one. 

So does that mean one didn't arrive on the truck when it should have? 

Or does it mean that somehow a customer managed to walk out of the store with a 40 gallon tank without paying for it?

Who knows. 

In any case. 

Every Monday we do these scans first before the store opens so that we can ensure that our truck can be properly replenished in the next week or so. 

....Except the First Monday of the month.

Because then we have AD that we need to set.

Because new sales need to go up and therefore those need to be set first before the store opens and once we're done with those then we can go back to our normal Monday tasks.

Which its pretty easy to figure out priority.

Ad first. Scans second.

And like....I reminded my other manager of this this morning when we were getting ready for the day.

"We need to get ad done first. I'll take petcare, you just need to do the back wall area and then we can do scans after that point." 

Only....other manager....didn't do that?

I think they may have been trying to do both things at once? Scan and set ad? Because I could see the ad in their cart. But I could also hear the beeping of the scanner meaning they were doing their scans as well.

Which didn't make sense to me.....

Like the obvious priority is to get the ad done first. Scans second. Because while the scans for this section should be done today....we can also do them throughout the week. While ad definitely needs to be up on the first day of the sale so that customers can know what deals they can get while shopping in our store.

May main thought is...is that this manager doesn't particularly like doing ad. 

They usually take 3x as long to do ad compared to others.....

Though it's hard to tell if that's just them or if it's on purpose.

As most tasks seem to take longer than they should for this manager.

So who knows for sure.

But it's mind boggling and very irritating when I say "Hey we need to get ad done first." that ....they don't do ad first.

Like why?

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Just Thinking Won't Change Anything

 It's probably because I'm the type of person that doesn't really do change. 

I set things up the way I like it and rarely do I switch things around. Like maybe on occasion I'll rearrange my knickknacks and such. But change in general....it's something that rarely happens. I like where I'm at so why change things about it?

So oftentimes when change comes it's after I've thought about it for a while....or I'm dragged into it kicking and screaming. 

Which is why I have one roommate that consistently just...boggles my mind. 

Because she's constantly changing things. Reorganizing. Rethinking. Redoing.

Like she rearranges her room every 2-3 months. It feels like every time I open her door her bed is in a different spot. 

And I just....don't get it.

The last time I moved furniture about was like twoish years ago and that was because I'd been given a few furniture pieces when Daddoo was getting the childhood home ready to sell and I needed to make room for what I could fit here. 

But that was still little things. 

My bigger furniture pieces?

Have not moved.

Mostly because the way my room is designed it doesn't make sense to place the bigger pieces elsewhere. But also because I like where they're at so why change it?

In any case.

It's not just like rearranging furniture and such. 

It's mind boggling.....because this roommate is also constantly stating that they're "rethinking their life." 

Which makes sense in a way because where I live there's a strong. "Get married. Get a House. Have Kids. Get your Dream Career." culture. 

And like if you're not doing those...you're a failure.

And like...I suppose roomie is feeling that pressure a bit more.

Though with them recently getting a new job....I kinda thought they'd be done with the 'rethinking their life' motif for a while. 

Since the last time they were rethinking their life was when they were trying to find a job that would give them stability and more hours.

Which they did find. They found a job that gives them a nice 9-5, weekends and holidays off, stable pay, and also benefits.

Which in this economy is kinda the dream right now. 

But not for my roomie.

Because the job isn't in the career field that they're wanting. 

Even though the reason why they were looking for a new job in the first place is because the job in the career field they wanted and had wasn't giving them the hours that they promised and therefore wasn't giving them enough money to like...be able to afford rent and groceries and such.

And like I get it.

If you go to school for a certain things....you kinda want to get a job in that field.

But at the same time. I also feel it's important to have stability and sometimes you have to have a job that 'pays the bills' for a while first. 

And roomie has only had the new job for like 3 months.

Which is barely any time at all in the job field.

So I don't quite understand why they're already back at looking for another job in their field.

Like I get wanting to keep an ear to the ground and an eye open for opportunities.

But I think my focus would be to stay long enough to get my funds and savings up to snuff and to feel stable. 

But I'm not my roomie.

And my roomie seems to be very much into the "I'm doing something wrong because I haven't accomplished the checklist of life to be considered an actual adult." 

But also like at the same time.....this is a literal cycle they go through.

"I'm rethinking my life."

Yes you're THINKING. but what are you DOING.

Because thinking doesn't GET YOU ANYWHERE if there's no ACTION. 

And it seems like when my roomie does take action...said actions last only a day...sometimes up to two weeks before they stop.

So like.... what's the point?

Why not just be satisfied with where you are now? Why not take the L on the checklist of life and maybe go seek the checklist of happiness instead. Find things that MAKE YOU happy.

Yes it sucks to not be married.

Yes it sucks to not have your own home.

Yes it sucks to not have the job you wanted.

But at the same time. Life never turns out the way you plan it. So why not try and find ways to make life more enjoyable and enjoy what you have now?

*exhales*

We'll see if anything comes of this round of 'rethinking' that my roomie is doing.

I don't think their job is gonna change at the moment since they've had it so short a time ..... 

But you never know. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Wet

 It's kinda weird how things can work one day and be dead the next without like....any indication that they're dying. 

On Wednesday I took advantage of my roomies both being out of the house to do some laundry I'd been neglecting. 

And everything functioned as normal for me. 

Wash load was normal.

Dryer load was normal.

Thought nothing of it. 

And I had thought that my roomie had done laundry like later that same day or the day after?

It was recent. Because it seems like she's ALWAYS doing laundry....which I still cannot comprehend how and why she manages to do at least 2 loads a week. It's crazy.

In any case.

Today I heard her starting laundry AGAIN.

Which....I'd thought she'd done laundry recently....like maybe last night even? The days blur together. But it was RECENT as in AFTER I did my load of laundry on Wednesday.

And maybe she forgot it yesterday and was finishing it up today.

But she ended up sending a message to the group chat....that the dryer wasn't working.

It doesn't turn on.

Just makes a clicking noise. 

And like ????

But I had just used it? 

It was working fine?

No issues?

I feel like she literally had just been using it and it was working fine? No issues?

So like....what changed so suddenly that the dryer was like "Yah no. I'm done." 

Who knows. 

I certainly don't.

And luckily we have another dryer in the home as our place has two laundry rooms one upstairs and one downstairs so it's no big deal if one dryer isn't working at the moment.

But it is still weird.

Like I feel like there should have been more signs that something was about to break. 

But then again it could just be age. We got the dryers used and we've lived in the house for nearly a decade now. So like....they're old. It wouldn't be surprising if they just....gave out.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

Quick Visit

 I took a parakeet to the vet this morning expecting to drop him off for a recheck.

As we'd taken this parakeet in a little over a month ago to get his nose looked at. As the nair--nostril was looking...well deformed. 

Which the vet confirmed it was deformed and that the bird would be more prone to respiratory infections and would be best if he had access to water to bathe in constantly and to have a weekly misting as well just to help the bird stay cleaner as he'd been looking a bit more oily. 

In any case.

It was any easy enough "here's the solution adopt him out." situation.

Except the vet had also taken a stool sample and while they didn't find anything specifically wrong in it they were concerned about the consistency of it and therefore wanted us to wait a month and bring the parakeet back in for a recheck on the stool just to make sure he was healthy.

Hence my visit today.

So I came in expecting to drop the bird off and leave and then come back a few hours later to drop him off.

That didn't happen.

Instead after about 15 minutes of waiting to be seen. The vet himself came out into the waiting room to look at the parakeet. 

He was like "Oh the nair looks good. The vent looks good. The stool in the cage looks like it's all good. Have you noticed any issues? No? Cool. You're good to go. Bye!" lol. 

I mean I don't mind quick vet visits. 

It's rather nice to have a quick visit where we don't have to plan time out later in the day to go get the bird again after the vet checks on it. 

So it's nice to just show up and get the bird looked at real quick and then be back on my merry way.

Now to get said bird adopted out to a loving home. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's a 10 Year--No 25 Year Storm

 We had quite the storm hit the area last night.

One of those ones where it blows up upon you fast and hard. The winds are roaring. The lightning and thunder is flashing. The rain is pouring hard enough against the windows that you have to check to see if it's hail or not that's hitting them.

...It was hail at one point. But not the entire time.

And then like 20 minutes later the storm is gone. Roaring on. 

I hadn't thought much about it beyond concern for my roomie who was coming back from an event she'd been at. So I'd texted her to warn her about the storm. How heavy the rain was. That there was hail. To be careful driving.

I didn't think much more about it after that though.

We've had heavy rains before. 

... ... ...

But not heavy rains after a recent fire on the mountain above my home. 

I had heard a ton of sirens earlier on. 

More than normal. That lasted longer.

But I kinda chalked it up to bad accident.

Because like... I live in an area where there's an intersection that likes to have accidents.

I also live above a neighborhood that gets a lot of domestic calls.

I also live near an easy access to the highway...where more accidents happen.

So like sirens aren't out of the ordinary.

So yah I didn't realize anything was out of the ordinary....

Until my roomie got home and was like "Hey, did you know that the bottom of our street is closed?" 

Which.

Huh?

She wanted to know if I'd received any alerts about a disaster ... which no. My phone had been silent. 

But she had had to find an alternate route to get home because our normal way was blocked off. No access whatsoever. 

It took a bit of midnight sleuthing on the Internet before we discovered that there had been a mudslide. 

Landslide? It seemed to be mostly made of mud. 

But regardless. 

The draw where the fire had happened a couple of weeks ago?

Yah. The sudden heavy rain fall did not help all that loose ashy soil. 

I saw a report that 1" of rain and fallen in like that 20-30 minute period. 

I later saw news reports that our street had flooded with water up to 6 inches high in some places.

Regardless. Debris, Mud, and Ash had come flowing down from the mounting into a berm and over and into a Construction patch that lead directly into a Church...piling mud up to 5 feet high against it's walls. 

Some other houses experienced slight flooding in their basements I heard.

But the church took the brunt of it from my understanding. 

And two of the main roads in the area got covered in the mudslide....some leading all the way down somewhere on State affecting that road as well...though they cleared up that street a lot faster than they did the other two roads. 

I was told that they moved 960 truck loads of debris today from that muddy area of the Church. Over 13,440 tons of debris. 

They had hundreds of volunteers and a lot of construction equipment over there working to help clear up the mess. 

The poor church building is going to be closed for the foreseeable future. 

There is the obvious landscape damage, but there's also HVAC, Electrical and apparently some Structural Damage as well. 

Which is kinda crazy.

Crazy to see how much can come down from the mountains when you get a heavy storm and there's no vegetation up there anymore to hold the soil in place because it all burned. 

Luckily we're in a bit of a lull here with the storms. 

But there's definitely more of a concern now that this will happen again whenever the next storm hits.

Though hopefully it's not as crazy.

We're told that this storm was a 10 year storm. But with the burn scar on the mountain it exacerbated the problem and turned it into a 25 year storm sort of problem. 

Overall I'm just grateful that it didn't impact our home. And it barely affected us roomies. I mean we did have to detour from our usual routes to get to work as the main road was still closed this morning. It didn't open up again until after dinner time....and is set to close first thing again in the morning so that the construction crews can continue working on clearing more of the mud away.

Hopefully tomorrow they can get the roads fully cleared enough that we don't have to worry about any more road detours. Though I expect the cleanup at the church is going to take a bit longer.

Overall I'm just grateful that no one was hurt and everyone was able to stay safe. 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

So. What Do I Owe You?

 I have to say. 

I'm glad I don't have to deal with billing in my job.

Like the closest I could get is if a grooming customer doesn't pay for their groom. But we just call them and are like "Hey you didn't pay." and if they still don't pay then we put a block on them to prevent them from grooming with us again and call it a day.

But today I decided to drop by the doctor's where I had gotten my CT and MRI scan done when I finally decided to go to the doctor about my migraines a few months ago and they recommended doing a CT and MRI to make sure there wasn't anything going. 

There wasn't.

Which is annoying to get tests that show that there's nothing wrong with you that you then have to pay for. 

Said tests were done in May.

And after like a .... couple of weeksish? I got billed for what I would need to pay for the CT scan that insurance wouldn't cover.

Easy peasy. Paid it right away. Didn't like paying it. But paid it right away. 

And I expected the MRI bill to come pretty quickly after that.

But....it's been radio silence. 

So it's just been hanging over my head.

And I was like....Okay.... maybe the MRI just takes longer to go through insurance? 

I mean I've had an MRI done before where they didn't find anything. But that was done way back when I was in college and I was still on my parent's insurance. So like...no idea how long it took the bill to come through.

I'd kinda put it on the back back back back burner.

Until I'd recently got notified about my dental related claims. 

So I went into my insurance website to check that out. Since I have dental and medical under the same insurer....I was like "Well let me look at the medical stuff too." 

and Medical.....medical showed that the insurance had processed my claim for the MRI....way back at literally the same time the CT scan was processed.

But I hadn't received the bill.

Tried going into the patient portal for my doctors to make sure I hadn't missed an email there....

And nothing. It didn't show I owed anything.

So like.... confusion much?

Like the insurance site gave me the option to pay what it claimed I owed the doctors.....but the doctors had never billed me....and like I didn't want to pay something I didn't owe. 

So I decided to continue waiting....

Until today.

Because I got another notification about when I went to the dentist for my cavities last week....

And still no notification about the MRI. 

So I was like. Well I have the time today and the energy today. So I went by the facility to talk to the billing department just to see what was going on.

Because I had no idea how much I would owe for sure. 

And I didn't want to have the bill suddenly sprung on me if I could help it. 

I also didn't want to have my bill sent to collectors and get hounded for that. Especially if I'd never been notified.

I don't even know how long they wait before they start hounding you for bills.....

In any case.

When I got to the office both receptionists were on the phone with customers who were also trying to figure out their bills....

But from what I overheard both receptionists were dealing with customers who had bills that had actually gone to collectors. 

Which. Oof. 

That sounds like a nightmare. Like apparently the collectors charge interest on the bills.....which is just cruel in my opinion. Like there's a reason why the bills were probably not paid yet. But like one receptionist was saying one customer owed money to them from like 4 years ago. 

But it sounded like the one receptionist was having a better time with the one customer compared to the second receptionist. 

They kinda looked and sounded like they were two seconds away from throwing the computer. They were on the phone with the same customer the entire time I was there. And it kinda sounded like they probably had had to explain the same thing multiple times to the customer. 

Which basically boiled down to "We don't have contact with the collectors. We can't access their information. They can access certain things but don't have power over other things. No you only owe us this amount of money. The interest is owed to the collectors. We don't get the interest money. The collectors do. If we got the interest money WE would be the ones charging you interest and WE would be the ones hounding you for the money the Collectors wouldn't be involved at all."

So yah. I did not envy them that phone call because it just sounds frustrating. On both sides. Because I get not wanting to have to pay more money than you have to....but seriously if the bill has been unpaid long enough to get the collectors on your back.....that's...not great either. 

In any case. 

It does make me wonder how long they wait for a bill to remain unpaid before sending it to collectors. I'm guessing it probably depends on the facility. But who knows. 

Needless to say I was a bit nervous. 

Like I'm pretty sure not paying any bills for like 3 months isn't long enough. 

But it made me all the more eager to make sure that I got my own payments squared away so I would no longer have to worry about potentially owing money for the MRI. 

So when the first receptionist finally got off the phone. I explained my situation. That I hadn't received an MRI bill yet and just wanted to check in and see if I actually owed anything yet or not. 

Turns out. 

I didn't. 

O.o

Why?

Well. 

After insurance I owed a certain amount of money. 

Which surprisingly was only like $80. 

Considering the CT scan I ended up having to pay like nearly $300..... 

It's kinda crazy the difference in how much you owe depending on the procedure with insurance. 

In any case.

I technically owed $80. 

But before the procedure they had had me pay like a $50 fee. 

Which went towards the $80. 

Bringing me down to $30 owed. 

BUT.

I had also paid like a $30 fee for the CT scan? 

(I remember paying a copay before the procedures but don't remember the cost for it. Just was like "Okay makes sense I need to do a copay) 

But then I also paid for what I owed for the CT scan after insurance....without taking into account the $30 I'd paid beforehand. 

Which left me with an extra $30 credit....

Which they had already kinda in their computer system used to cover the rest of what I owed for the MRI scan. 

So the receptionist was like "They kinda already just assumed that $30 was going to the MRI which is why you never received a bill because they already considered you squared away, but here let me make it all official and move that officially over." 

And walla!

So turns out. I didn't owe any money for the MRI. 

YAY.

Like annoying that I had like 3 months of back burner stress that didn't need to be stress.

But yay that I didn't have to spend MORE money at the moment.

Even though $80 is a lot better than like another $200-$300 that I had been expecting. 

Though it does make me wonder like....if I never went back to that doctors place again and I still had that $30 credit....what would have ended up with that $30 credit? 

Would they have just ended up keeping my money? Or would they have eventually sent it back to me with a "oh hey we charged you too much. Oops?" 

Somehow I think it's more the former rather than the latter. *exhales*

In any case.

I'm just grateful that I didn't owe any money. So yay! 

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

What Do You ACTUALLY Want Me Doing?

 There's one thing that I struggle with and that's the "Well, now I don't wanna." 

Most of the time it's when I have this plan to like.... do a particular chore and then someone comes along and goes "Hey can you do that chore?"

Like they didn't know I was already planning to do it." but because they now expect me to do it....I now don't want to do it because it's an expectation. 

Kinda had that today at work....but in the "I don't know what you want from me so why should I even try doing anything." sort of frame of mind.

You see two weeks ago while we were working truck my PL told me that we had enough extra cat food that it wouldn't all fit on the u-boats. And that I would need to wrap the extra bags of food up on the pallet and place them in the steel. 

Which okay.

Makes sense.

Easy enough to do. So I placed what bags of food I could on our u-boats (two layer carts that we can stack with food and the pull around the store) and then placed the rest of the food on a pallet and my other pl then placed it in the steel for me.

Easy enough. 

Fast forward to last week.

I'm once again working the cat food pallet. And I have extra bags of food.

The u-boats are still full.

So I wrap the extra bags up on the pallet and put them up in the steel like I did the week before. Because thats what the PL said I should do. So I continued her directive and did it last week too.

Cut to today.

And I'm once again working the same pallet. 

And PL goes.

"Hey, btw. It's okay to put food up in the steel, but make sure that the uboats are stuffed completely full first as well as checking the midsteel before doing so." 

... 

...

...

...

Like. Okay. Granted.

I did not check the mid steel.

Because in the receiving area the midsteel is this tiny area where you can stuff like maybe two bags onto a shelf. And usually those bags are the smaller 11-15 lb ones. 

Pretty sure ALL the bags I put in the steel were the HEAVIER ONES.

But whatever.

I DID however check the uboats and had considered them full enough that I didn't couldn't place more food on them.

But apparently they were still 'empty' enough according to my PL's standards that I could have fit more bags on there.

Which okay....but like I only had like maybe 10 bags the pallet. I was trying to make it worth it to have the pallet up there in the first place.

Because yah sure maybe I could have fit like 2 or 3 more bags on the uboats...but I would have still needed to put 7 more on the pallet in the steel. 

*exhales*

I think I'm also just annoyed because they waited a full week to tell me this.

Like ... we saw each other on Thursday. Why did my PL not say anything then? Why not take a moment to TEACH ME and be like "Hey I noticed (thing) here's how you could have (explain solution)" 

But nooooooo. 

It reminds me all to much that I'm the one who's had waaaaaay more experience training new people than my PL has because I've been the one in charge of training most of our petcare people. I've also been in charge of the cashiers. 

So yah I've learned how to teach people and show them things.

My PL? Not so much. There's been like no mentoring whatsoever. And if I do go ask a question I kinda feel like I get treated with the "I'm so busy why are you wasting my time asking this question you should know this." or "Why don't  you know this it's obvious." 

So yah. Not great on the training.

Regardless.

I really had to fight the urge to just leave the cat food pallet in the back untouched today. Because like.... there's the thought of "What is my PL going to nitpick this time." going on in the back of my mind.

Like yes. I make mistakes. They pointed out that bags I thought were overstock actually had space on the shelf that was completely empty because I'd thought the bag was a different similar looking bag that had it's home filled on the shelf. 

So yah. I'm still learning and I miss things.

But like..... it was more stressful putting food away after I was done working the pallet because like .... there was a ton more overstock this week than there was last week. Last week it was like maybe 10 bags. This week it was closer to like...thirty? The pallet was nearly waist high. 

And despite the uboats being emptier this week....I only managed to cut the pallet in half by placing bags of food on those and yes in the freaking midsteel too. 

But I seriously debated about leaving the remaining food on the pallet on the floor and just not wrapping it. Because I'm sure despite stuffing the uboats and steel as full as I could, my PL would probably be like "Look you can fit 3 more bags here." 

Which sure. Maybe I could but there's still at least TWENTY OTHER BAGS on this pallet. 

Just *exhales* 

I did end up wrapping the food up and placing it in the steel. 

But I'm now just expecting my PL to nitpick me next week on how it could have been done differently...without actually teaching me how to do it better. 

Like there's only so much I can learn by osmosis and observation and figuring it out on my own.

Sometimes I need to actually be TAUGHT.

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

-Sarnic Dirchi