Next Week?

Today wasn't all that eventful. I went to work, where it was initially busy customer-wise, and then near the end of the shift the number of customers dwindled while I still had plenty of things to keep me busy.

Really, it was the best kind of day to have because when I go to work I prefer to be busy. The way I see, I am there to work, and so I want to get paid for doing my job and not for standing around. While it is true that I'm getting paid for being there, it is also true that I am wasting my time if I'm not keeping busy.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself all of next week. I'm not scheduled to work, although they know that I'll be available, so hopefully I'll get a call. It'd be awesome if I could get some more hours in before I have to go back to school. Besides it's nice to be back to work, it feels so normal and I'm not sure that I'm ready to give up that feeling of normalcy.

Oops!

So today was fun. The park I live in was having a community yard sale today and so my parents set up several tables in the yard. I spent much of my morning and early afternoon sitting outside and finishing "Sacred Scars" by Kathleen Duey which was excellent.

When I happened to come back in the house around two-thirty I thought to check my phone and was abruptly alerted that unbeknownst to be I was expected at work. My manager had swapped the schedule around again, and hadn't mentioned it. So I rushed off to work, getting there around four when I was expected to have been there around one. Oops!

It was fine though, it wasn't like I was doing anything anyway. However, it was interesting because in my rush out of the house I hadn't really consulted a mirror... So I was straightening the department and whatnot, when I happened to walk by a mirror that accompanied one of the furniture sets. My face is really quite red. But it's all good.

Tomorrow is my last day and work and it's equal parts exciting and nervous making. Added to that of course, is the fact that it is Nascar weekend. Oh, the customers are so interesting on Nascar weekend...

Styrofoam Mess

Yesterday I forgot that I needed to blog until one in the morning, when I was finally considering sleep. This of course means that I will be blogging twice on either Saturday or Sunday. In my own defense I wasn't really too awake last night, and not having my own computer for the moment is a bit distracting.

Yesterday at work it wasn't really busy, though I kept busy enough. At one point a customer wanted to buy a set of lamps, but the pair she was interested in weren't on display aware so I told her that we could open the box so that she could see what they looked like.

There were three boxes marked to have the set that she was looking for, go figure that everyone of those boxes had the wrong pair of lamps in them. This of course meant that I had to open every box of lamps from that brand to verify that the correct lamps were in them.

Now this wasn't such a horrible task, except for the Styrofoam that they are packed in. The Styrofoam, for whatever reason, refuses to stay in one piece EVER. So of course I was showered in Styrofoam several times over. Egh.

Then of course, prior to work there was the early morning drive up to WCC to work on getting my brother prepared to register for his classes for this semester. Our Mini-Van died the other day, and since dad was golfing my car was the only one available at that moment. It was a long day.

CAKE

At the moment I am baking a Pineapple Upside-Down cake. Darcy was very interested in the process of putting it all together, and since she didn't manage to stick her face into the batter she received a can of food as compensation.

It's been a fairly quiet day, but after yesterday and the day before it I can live with a quiet day. Work was a mad-house this weekend. On the one had this is good, but on the other it's not because we definitely weren't staffed to properly handle the load of customers. I think the end of yesterday explains the situation perfectly.

Yesterday I was to get out of work at 5:30, however I became stranded running one of the registers and could not get away prior to 6:30. Now, mind you, staying late isn't generally a problem since I don't actually have a life... However, I prefer to be asked rather than steamrolled into it.

Thankfully no one had to ride home with me, because I would not have been pleasant company.

Not What I Promised

The big event of the day was assembling a fire pit so that we could put it on display in our department at work. I managed to get half of it put together before I had to leave. Either my coworker finished putting it together tonight, or it will be there waiting for me in the morning.

Really though I don't mind putting things like that together. Some day's I'd rather do that than actually deal with customers... Or maybe I should most days, rather than some days.

My headache has returned. I wish it would disappear, but that doesn't seem all together likely at the moment.

The Bug Incident

So Saturday I was driving to work, as I generally do, and everything was fine. It was a little cloudy, but I had the windows open and my radio going. Everything was running smoothly which is obviously the first sign of trouble. It was then, that all of a sudden my ears were assaulted by a CRASH in the vicinity of my rear window. I mean it sounded as though someone had hurled a stone at it. So of course, I flinched and immediately averted my attention to my rear-view mirror.

Things initially appeared to be fine, until I noticed the large BUG hovering by the rear window. At first glance I thought it was a large bumblebee, and despite being fairly apprehensive I drove on to work. In the next moment upon glancing in the rear view mirror I came to realize that the bug had disappeared. This lead me to assume that it had made its exit through the windows which I had opened further with the hope of enticing it into choosing such a path.

However, you must know what is to be said of making assumptions...

I got to work, and parked, and immediately investigated the backseat... and quickly discovered that what I had believed to be a bumblebee was in fact a BEADLE. A very LARGE beetle.

Ick, gross, eh.

Now bugs are all fine and well and whatever, so long as they do not invade my personal space. They may exist but this does not mean that I want to directly deal with them in any capacity. They are free to exist, I just ask that they leave me be.

So obviously, despite having arrived fifteen minutes early I hightailed it out of my car and into the building. My fervent hope was for the bug to DIE at some point during my shift so that I wouldn't really have to contend with it later, let alone in the present. This may seem mean, but the way I see it the bug brought it upon itself when it invaded my space.

Work was crazy, which was to be expected considering it was/is NASCAR and Relay for Life weekend and we are largely understaffed. Ah, corporations and their lovely ideas of how to properly run a business. The store was packed, customers were cranky, and therefore employees were stressed. My evening consisted largely of furniture re-arrangement. I also spent quite a large amount of time wrestling with a box that refused to relinquish the lamp that was inside. It was an involved process that lead to my discovering that the lamp itself was broken. Lovely! The second struggle arose in my then having to replace the lamp back into the box.

Needless to say the lamp made it back into the box missing some of the Styrofoam that was originally present. By the time I gave breaks to everyone in my departments I had just enough time to close down my department and haul away the broken items that I had accrued throughout the day. All in all it was a busy day.

There was also the bug through all of this, because the bug was always in the back of my mind taunting me with the promise of its company. I got to my car after work and the first thing I did was inspect the backseat. There was no way in hell that I was going to get in that car without knowing exactly where the bug was. As it turned out, it was right where I left it.

Taking a deep breath I climbed in the car and turned my focus to getting home. All I had to do was get home without incident and then I could remove the bug from the vicinity of my car. Thankfully my car is not bug-free. Thank God.

Reoccuring Themes

Thankfully the drive home tonight wasn't the adventure that last night was. Last nights drive home from work was a little tense due largely to some severe weather, but it takes a lot more than a boat load of rain to scare me off the road. There was one point that it was raining so hard i couldn't see anything aside from the yellow line down the middle of the road.

The theme at work tonight seemed to be people wanting things that I did not have at my disposal. In at least two instances, people inquired about a product but were unable to offer me specific names or product numbers. I ask you, how am I supposed to help you if you can offer me no information? I am not psychic, I can't read minds. Sorry to disappoint.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able go to my local used bookstore at some point, because I obviously need more books. It's not that I want them, but that I need them. :p

Forgetful

This is not a habit that I have intentionally fallen into, but I nearly forgot to write and post this. Again. Grey’s Anatomy’s season finale just ended and I am flabbergasted. I’m not going to spoil the ending here, but let’s just say that it was not the ending that I foresaw. It was incredibly sad.

Tomorrow’s the day. Hopefully everything goes smoothly with the gentleman who’s coming into the store to pick up his merchandise. He was irate Wednesday on the phone, but maybe he’s cooled off a bit by now. Either that or he’s spent his time stewing and is even more upset, whatever the case may be I get to deal with him.

We’ll see how that goes.

OMG

Several days ago a customer called and wanted to order thirty-three of this specific drawer pull. We did not have thirty-three immediately available in store, in fact we had a reported four available and I could only locate one of those four. Lovely, and of course there weren’t many available to order because they are being discontinued.

Great.

So I made a list, and on this list I noted which of our fellow stores had some in and how many they had at their disposal. I then set myself to the task of calling around and getting people to send their stash of drawer pulls to me. On Saturday I finally managed to track down enough drawer pulls.

I had four that I had found in our store, and the remainder was set to be shipped to me. But of course, just when you think that you’re on course something has to force everything to fall apart.
Today my customer called back. In fact they called twice, because they were insistent that they talk with me and not the other associate I was working with, so in fact I ended up calling them. Apparently something had come up, or whatever and they had decided that they don’t need thirty-three drawer pulls. In fact they only need two drawer-pulls.

TWO. Not thirty-three after all, but two instead, which was what they had originally ordered and then said they didn’t want before calling back and requesting thirty-three. WHAT. THE. HELL?!

I mean, it’s funny, but OMG. Then when they revealed that they wanted only the two they expressed the concern that the two that were reportedly waiting for them at customer service might not be there. Of course to this concern I said, “Oh, you know I don’t know if they do or not, but I have four so I’m sure I can manage to get two for you.”

Today

Today I will go to work. Thankfully I won’t be downstairs, meaning I won’t have to deal with those customers who will inevitably want to know why we don’t still have more Christmas ornaments. The answer of course is that it is January, and we don’t generally carry them much after Christmas.

A crazy concept to grasp, I know.

No, today I get to sell furniture. Or you know, walk around the department and look busy; because I highly doubt the store itself will be busy on a Wednesday night.

I could always be wrong I suppose, but then again I highly doubt that I am.