Multiply 365 Day 8 - Counting sheep (and cigarettes, and candy bars, and newpapers, etc.)

I suppose there are some of you who may feel a bit cheated by my last blog entry, that it was a half hearted effort.  And you would be absolutely correct, but given the condition I was in, also perfectly understandable.  I had to make a choice, try my damnedest to crank out a long drawn out entry while focusing on the screen through beer goggles, with the knowledge that I would need to get up and be at work at 6:30am, or I could just make light of my self inflicted predicament and move on.  I obviously chose the latter, and am glad I did.

Friday was the first after work employee outing of the new year, a trip across the street to the 110 for drinks and revelry.  I had no idea how it would turn out either, many of the people that I previously went to the bar with after work have since left, so there was no saying anyone would show up.  I say that because I have invited people to my weekend breakfasts, yet only Sammy would actually go so while through the course of the week people said they would go, until I actually saw them I was still unconvinced.  And as the week wore on, I started hearing excuses for why some people might not go.  That isn't to say their excuses weren't valid reasons, but just that I was keeping my expectations to a minimum.  Worst case scenario I figure maybe three or four people actually show up, but at least I get a chance to break out my Marlboro toys that I got last year, the new darts and the new mini camcorder and see how they worked.  

Turns out things went better than I expected, we had almost all of our crew show up which surprised me to be honest and even someone from middle shift who was off came in.  Thing about these employee ventures is that usually I am the one who gets most drunk and makes a spectacle of themself, so imagine my surprise, when after we finished drinking and went back across the street to get our belongings from the store, Curtis looks at me and says "Oh my God, Matt is the sober one."  Not that I was sober, but I was the most sober of the group.  It was that kind of night.  We were all drunk and stupid and just having one of those blow off steam nights that any good crew needs from time to time.  I behaved myself, if 3 Long Island Iced Teas, three beers and a shot is considered behaving.  Though I wasn't nearly as bad as Frankie, who got so drunk she apparently got sick in the women's bathroom at work and eventually ended up passing out on the bathroom floor.  Never let it be said that partying with the likes of me doesn't leave some carnage in its wake.  

I finished my night with a "scour Rite Aid for drunken munchie" binge, followed by my brief posting to this page while eating a Dinty Moore microwaveable meal and passing out in my recliner.  No long drawn out evening on Facebook for me (for a change), because I had to try to make myself functional for work today.

Usually my Saturdays are pretty easy, and relatively brief, just run in, place an order and get out.  No so this week.  Not that work was significantly harder, I did plenty of standing around with my thumb up my ass as it were, but today was inventory day in our three stores for tax purposes.  So I had to be there bright and early (6:30am) while people went around the store and counted things, then when they finished with our store they would head to Oakland to do our second store.  While they were doing that, I had to go to our other downtown store, open it and turn off the alarm and wait for them to show up to count that store as well.  Finally, when all three stores were done, then I could go back and place my order, so what is usually a 2 hour day at most for me ended up being an 8 hour day instead.  The worst part was knowing I couldn't do anything until they got done, As long as they were counting product, I couldn't bring stuff up from the stockroom because it would mess up the count, I was literally getting paid to do nothing.  Usually that would be a good thing, but after the previous night of drinking I think I would have rather stayed in bed instead.  I did learn that right now we have over $100,000 in merchandise on the floor, for whatever that useless factoid is actually worth but I don't think it was worthy of me being awake.

So now I am sober, but very tired,  Rather than fall asleep in front of the keyboard I think I will call it a night.  There are some other things I could get into here, but they would seem to be out of place in this particular entry, so rather than venture down that road I will hold off a bit, something I wish a lot more bloggers did to be honest, and come back tomorrow a little more rested, with a DeLuca's breakfast warming my tummy and a fresh perspective on things.