Sweet Catastrophe

My stomach is in knots and I’m on my second antacid this morning and my esophagus is still pretty much drowning in acid. 10-7 at Lowe’s today.

Wait, what’s that? You want to go to work for me? No? Oh! You want to pay me to stay home; well alright!

Today will not be my friend.

I think I’ve sort of decided to stay at Lowe’s. I’ve bonded with a good number of the people I work with. I’ve been there over a year so I’ve got seniority, I’m really comfortable with how to properly do my job, and all the other perks of having stuck it out this long.

Of course, I still don’t know if I’ve got my Christmas time off. I think next time I see David I’ll ask him about it. According to the time off request form we fill out, they’re supposed to tell us within 6 days whether or not it’s been approved. Anyone know how long ago I put in that request? I think it’s been a month now. So I may change my mind if they don’t approve that request–I’m not sure how else to work around that. Of course, with my luck, I’d quit and then Ryan would take a job during that time and we wouldn’t be going anyway…

Of course, I’m still sick of retail, so I’ve got to work through that. I’m tired of dealing with stupidity. Every few weeks, kids in town bust up mail boxes. Tuesday evening I had a guy trying to buy a post–it was made of treated lumber, already shaped together, ready to shove in the ground. It didn’t have the tag it normally does, so I was trying to look it up in the computer. I always ask people what the price was, it makes it easier to scroll through the list, find that price, and then see if the description matches up to what they’ve got. He’s telling me this post is under $12….I’m sorry dear, but in treated lumber alone you’ve got at least $9 worth….add to that the fact that it’s all be cut and put together, there’s no way this is under $20. Turned out to be a $30 post. The $11 tag was on the complete opposite side of the aisle with the plastic mail boxes….

Oh and guys, why do you all think it’s funny to ask, “Does that include my discount?” Or, “Well aren’t you gonna pay for me?” Next time you get ready to say something idiotic to a cashier, do me a favor. Stop. Ask yourself how many times you think they’ve already heard that today. Just be nice, take your shit, and go. I’ve got some leaning to do.

Note: The situation with my grandfather hasn’t changed. I won’t be talking about it until there’s any update, or I feel the need to release. I just can’t let myself go or it’s all I would think about. Thank you, everyone, for your kind words and concern.

There was apparently some sort of raffle for the Front End and I won two tickets to the race this weekend? I’m guessing it’s the Georgia 500. I was just told it’s this weekend in Atlanta.

I’m so….happy? I’m not really sure who decided the raffle should be for the Front End employees since there’s exactly one racing fan among us.

I passed. They said they’d change my schedule so I could go, I should’ve just asked if I could have the weekend off anyway.

I could’ve been mean and taken the tickets and just not used them >:-D Maybe someone will actually get some use out of the damn things.

“Jade I’ve got some good news for you; actually some great news.”  Heh…ending with calling me Ashlee. How personal.

I think I forgot to jump for joy.

Did I forget to mention my discovery at work last week?

Obviously we have a shredder at Customer Service for, well, shredding ^-^

I walked in to see a rather large…box-type thing for shredding. I’m thinking, “did we get some sort of industrial shredder…the little shredder is still here. Hmmm”

So I check it out, and it’s just a box for documents to go into that need to be shredded. With a  service number on the front….and now our little shredder is gone.

Anything that needs to be shredded goes into this case, and some company picks it all up to be shredded.

I know, I know–there are legal reasons behind it, but still. We can’t afford to schedule enough coverage, but we’ll pay someone to shred documents for us!!

I really want to just throw in a sheet of paper that says, “Your job must be really fucking boring.”

Then again, I think I could sit around and shred documents all day. As long as my iPod could come along.

We were in the breakroom, reading letters from the readers in the newspaper today and we got to talking about the “Letters to Santa” they published last year.

No less than 5 kids asked for dolphins!! Really? Where are you putting this dolphin? What happened to asking for something realistic? Like a pony! There wasn’t a single request for a pony! I thought every kid asked for a pony? Okay, well I don’t think I ever asked for a pony…unless I did after that episode of Full House when Michelle fell off the horse. I still think her equestrian riding apparel was awesome, but I’m weird like that. I was the kid in school who wanted uniforms. Go figure.

I expect iPods and any other outrageously expensive technology, but where the hell did ‘dolphin’ come from. We were all trying to remember if some big dolphin movie had come out, but we came up with nothing.

So what’ll be the hot item this year? Maybe we should all ask for beanstalks!

I have a pretty big decision to make. I talked to Ryan and he finally laid out some dates for the Christmas trip. So tonight I put in my request for those days. Generally speaking, dates around Christmas are blacked out–but for cashiers, well, there are so many of us that doesn’t really apply, BUT only so many can take days off around that time and it’s really first come, first served. Now, as long as nothing happens on Ryan’s end, I’m going to Louisiana for Christmas. I’ve wanted to leave Lowe’s literally since I started. Most probably remember that during the interview, I had decided I didn’t want the job, but I couldn’t turn it down when I was told what I’d be paid.

If they don’t give me the days off for the Christmas trip, that would be the best time to quit.

It’s a hard decision, honestly. I’ve been there for a year, I’ve earned vacation times, etc. It’s a job I’m very familiar with, and comfortable with. It’s incredibly easy.

The pay is really great. That’s a big part of it. I’m really concerned about being able to find another place around here that’ll pay me as well.

I love a lot of the people I work with. A few of them go beyond just work acquaintances. Though most of us rarely hang out outside of work, I definitely would. The situation has just never come up.

I really enjoy hanging out with a lot of those people. They make work enjoyable some nights. I mean, Monday night I made the mistake of bringing up Halo in the breakroom and got sucked into an overly boyish conversation. In just 30 minutes, we covered Halo, WOW, Chrysler 300 accessory sets, annoying things their girlfriends do, and paintball! Oddly enough though, I was still entertained. Those kids crack me up.

*Sigh* On the other hand, there are others who make me want to find a nail gun and go wild. There are a handful of people who, if they left, things could be much better there, but I don’t see that happening. I’m sick of working with these people.

There’s a hidden slogan there. If it makes sense, we’ve gotta change it. It drives me beyond nuts.

Schedules never make sense. Never. And everyone knows this, yet, for over a year, nothing has been done about it. Nothing.

I mean, it’s just not normal to spend almost every work shift thinking about how you can go home. What kind of excuse could I call in with? *deep sigh*

I know another big part of it is that I’m getting burnt out on retail. I’ve been in it for 5 years and I’m just getting tired of it. So I’m not really sure what I could do with my school schedule.

I don’t know what to do, really. I almost feel like it’s illogical to quit, but at the same time, I somehow don’t think it’s healthy to stay in a job I hate this much. It inspires me to do things that just aren’t like me–such as skipping work, and being randomly bitchy to people, ya know?

Alright, I know I’m rambling, but some of these thoughts had to be released into the wild.

Even if they give me the time off, I still need to figure out what I’m doing. Something’s gotta give ’cause I’m miserable, but I’ve got to make an adult decision. I’m not just gonna bail with my fingers crossed, hoping something works out.

So yesterday was my first day of work in two weeks. Of course, I had a full 1-10 shift, which is really not the best way to reintroduce your body to working on concrete. And for those who’ve never had to work on straight concrete, yes, after even as short a time as 3 days straight of not working, your body is basically being reintroduced to concrete. It’s just not something you ever get used to.

So I was already in for a stiff morning for that, but apparently last night both Ryan and Willow loved me a whole damn lot and couldn’t stand to be 3 inches away from me so I spent the whole night tossing and turning, in a spot not even wide enough for me to lie on my back.  It’s sweet ‘n all, but sweet doesn’t trump painful when you’ve got an elbow in your already aching back.

I could’ve picked up the cat and moved her, sure, but you try having that bright idea when you’re still basically asleep! She wasn’t responding to pushing at all so I just kept giving up. I couldn’t stop having crazy ass dreams about planets and galaxies–the tv was on *sigh* Ryan had the remote on his side and I couldn’t find it buried anywhere.

Hiho Hiho….shorter shift today, but 8-3 on a Sunday isn’t exactly a picnic. I promise.

So the weekend is coming, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to work. I’m absolutely not looking forward to that. I’m really pleased I got out of working the rest of this week. I suppose having ridiculous schedules can be advantageous at times! I was scheduled during the end of my vacation time, and then off the rest of the week. The whole time we were in Oklahoma, I was just waiting for a call, informing me of the schedule they threw on me for the rest of the week. I need to go up there this afternoon and check my schedule, and make sure they’ve got my vacation time in my paycheck. You can be sure I won’t be accepting a paycheck without my vacation hours included. I’ve seen them do it to way too many people, and I’m not in the mood to accept it. Rent will have to come out of that check. I’m hoping to be in a different job by Christmas…

Ryan’s gone for the weekend again. He left first thing this morning. I hate when he heads out before I have to get up. I don’t get a proper goodbye, and I don’t get to nag him about taking an overnight bag! He’s so bad about just grabbing some clothes and throwing them into his car. I don’t care about that, the annoyance comes in for me when I finally get caught up with laundry, and suddenly a pile emerges from his car. Dammit! I’ve been threatening to get a big Samsonite set–something he can’t ignore! I’m convinced that if I can get him to actually pack, I might get his smelly clothes back in a timely manner….maybe people could actually sit in the back of his car then, too. What a concept…

*sigh* Dishes are calling.

*Sigh* Ryan dropped a mini-bomb on me last night in the form of *cough* “good news.” What was his great news? He’s already got a job lined up for next summer! Woooo! That’s great; we’ve been talking about work a lot lately since things are really patchy with his current job, so it was definitely good to hear that at least one aspect of job life was covered. If the current job falls out, it’ll only be a few months of relying on pizza delivery to pay his bills. Awesome.

What might this great job be? Well, without getting into the complexities of his actual job, he’d be working on Kenny Chesney’s national tour. Greeeeeat! So for three months, you’ll be gone. “Nah, I’ll have breaks!” *more discussion…settling into the idea* “Rich was pissed when I told him about it.” –Rich is his advisor and one of his superiors in VSU Technical Theatre. This sent my radar up again and I asked why. “Well ’cause he knows if I take that I won’t be back the next semester.”

Alert! Alert! He’s talking about leaving school again! GAAAAH! Every few months, he comes up with a reason he might have to take a semester off. Every few months, I remind him that he’s being an idiot. I know he’s sick of school. I am too. If he takes a semester off, he won’t go back. No matter what, there will always be another job, tempting him away for just a little longer.

This tour would have him gone off and on from May to December-ish. The person who set it up for him thinks of it as a learning experience, but really, it’s a job Ryan’s all too familiar with and it’s a lower title than what he’s had for quite some time now. The thing is, it’s a flat-out professional gig. This is it. The experience would be great for him, to find out if concert touring is something he’d like to pursue, and no matter what aspect he chooses in his field, having this tour on his resume would really put him over the top. College kids just don’t get these jobs.

Obviously there are a lot of details to work out between now and then, and no decision has actually been made, but right now it’s looking like a good choice for him. No doubt, I’d hate it. I’d much rather us go in together to do what we talked about last year. We discussed working on one of those luxury cruises. He’d be working all the technical stuff for their entertainment, and I’d be working the retail area. We actually know a couple who have done this for a summer, and she ended up making more money in the retail aspect than he did in tech. The retailers make a commission on top of the pay they’re already getting.

I really wish he’d put some more consideration into that idea. I know taking a cruise in that manner isn’t totally ideal, but it’d still be a lot of fun for us and it’d be something different. He’s had a lot of great summer experiences, getting jobs that just aren’t ordinary. I’d really like a shot at something new, something to get me out of just the routine summer of working as much as I can, or taking more classes. I just feel like time is starting to run out on the chance to do things like that. We’ll see…

The weather was crazy tonight! The clouds started rolling in really quickly around 7. It didn’t take long for the sky to become pitch black and lightning started going nuts! It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many powerful lightning strikes in such a short amount of time.

I was down in lumber and we lost power to the rollup door, and the lights under the shelter. Right after that, one of the power surges knocked out all of my registers. Of course, the registers were fine in the front of the store, but I have 5 customers waiting. Luckily they were all pretty cool about it; most of them just went back to shopping.

It was so rough, one of the strikes actually set off a car alarm in the parking lot….and then we lost all the lights out there!

Through all of this–no rain! It took forever, but it finally starting raining at 8:30 and we got a good bit of rain. If it keeps up, eventually there’ll be enough water back in the lakes and rivers and my dad can stop complaining that he can’t go boating ’cause everything’s so dry.

1-10 on a Saturday in Lowe’s is just ridiculous. For some reason I’ve been feeling really off all day. I think the best way to describe it would be that I feel like one would normally feel after being sick (puking sick) for a day or two. My whole body feels like it’s in a minor cramp. I’m really hungry, but I have no appetite. I hope it’s just random and not something slowly settling in. I’ve got to work at 8 am tomorrow and I’m certainly not looking forward to doing that in sick-mode.