Multiply 365 Day 167 - The red beer of courage

 

So here we are. Once again about to blog. And I was thinking that I should probably get to some of the stuff I would have blogged about yesterday, had I not fallen off into a three hour coma, abetted by a few libations.

Yesterday was one of those days that was bad, then started to possibly turn good, then went bad again. Not bad in the sense that it ruined my birthday week, but bad in the sense that some one decided to poke the hornet's nest, and it probably didn't turn out for them quite as well as they would have liked.

The day started with me late for work, which in and of itself is neither good or bad. I luck out in a way because when I come in usually I am not relieving anyone, there is no one waiting for me to get there so they can go home. And with the store reset late last week and then fixing the store reset this week, hours for me are not a problem. Chances are I will end up with another 15+ hours in overtime. And the boss is cool enough that as long as I am working, I could potentially ring up as many hours as I want and he really wouldn't care. There are some people who are not in that boat, that if they stay late the boss will want to know why, I am not in that category. So me being late is a big thing only in that I did not arrive at my scheduled time, but I probably saved the boss a little time on payroll as well.

But again we had another two people call off, what is becoming more and more a theme at work. Twice in the last two weeks we had people call off because of cramps. I kid you not. I seriously have to laugh at that, not because cramps are fun, but damn I play with one knee swollen to twice the size of the other one and I can't imagine what the expression on my boss's face would be if I called up and said, “Yeah, I am not coming in today, my penis hurts.”

Thankfully my presence was not required on the floor, so I could go about fixing things the resetters screwed up when they were in the store last week. I knew some things that they did would not make Ed happy, he and I had discussed how he wanted some things arranged and let's just say that they did not do what he wanted. So by the time they had finished I was already running through my mind how things would have to be changed so the next time I saw Ed he wasn't all grumbly and realized I had a plan of action of some sort. So I talked to Sammy about what I would like to do and with a big assist from him (I was the more idea guy, he was more of the making things happen guy) we did get things done in my new found vision, and it met with Ed's approval, so I am all kinda cool with that.

But on top of that I had a grocery order to put away, a Pepsi order to do (210 cases), and a Coke order to do (an other 70 cases) on top of my normal work, so all of this took pretty much a full day's worth of work, and honestly one of the bad things about putting in the hours I have been is that by the end of the day you just want to leave. Not out of dislike for the job, but because all of the hassles that come with it, like people not showing up. So as I am sitting in the office, putting the finishing touches on my day by putting together the Coke order and phoning it in, Dee looks at me and asks if I want to get a drink. This is now the second time in two weeks she asked me to grab a drink with her, and I have no problem with a beer or two after the last two weeks I had been having, and she seemed to be of the same mind, because when people start calling off, it is her phone getting rung at 5 in the morning and given the frequency with which that has been happening, she has been getting more and more frustrated.

So we hop over to the 110 and I grab a Coors Light, she is drinking wine, and like the last time we went over, it was just nice conversation with someone I actually enjoy spending time with outside of work. Sure there were work gripes thrown in for good measure by both of us but thankfully that wasn't the entire bent of the conversation. The topic of my birthday did come up, she mentioned that she wanted to do something. Now when Sammy had his birthday earlier this year, we went out and got him a cake and everything at work, but given my current feelings for many of the people I work with, I implored her not to do anything. I just said these aren't people I really want to be breaking bread with. Sure Sammy and I are doing sundae Saturday for my birthday, but really, beyond him, I don't want to hang out with these people. It isn't that I don't appreciate the gesture, it is celebrating with people that I would rather not celebrate with.

But we hung out for a little bit, not getting drunk, but passing the time with some good conversation so that she didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic. And after about an hour or so, I walked her to her car, we did the hug goodbye and she went on her merry way, I went back in and finished my last beer and headed home. All in all, I would almost mark this as so far so pleasant.

Then I got home. And I fire up ye olde laptop. All is good, I check Facebook and Multiply, I may even have left a message or two, can't quite remember the exact details of the evening, but I fire up Yahoo messenger. I see someone there that I have been chatting with, so I drop a quick hi and what's up, just general greeting nonsense. Of course I get the reply back, I ask what she is up to, since she is a teacher and all I don't know if she is on summer break or what is going on there. She mentions some classes she is organizing for the summer, and I jokingly asked if she took a day off, to which she said she likes to stay busy. I said so do I, but I do like my Sundays where I can shut everything down and not be bothered for a day. I think I even mentioned about possibly being on call 24/7 (because we are open 24 hours and I now do have office keys, I know, blech) and I get some smartass comment about my job, how it isn't that important, it isn't brain surgery after all.

Now this is where we pause and I tell you something. I know in the grand scheme of things I am not doing the most important task in the world, and most certainly you have heard me bitch about my job on here on more than one occasion, but that is usually relegated to something that happened or someone who did something. But actually talking down to me? No kids, that doesn't play here, and it certainly doesn't play after I have had a couple of beers, so of course I fire back, saying that I wouldn't be bragging all that much, it isn't like our education system doesn't grind out retards like McDonald's grinds out McNuggets. (Don't start on the whole retard isn't politically correct, if you were looking for PC wholesomeness, you made the wrong turn at Albequerque.) Then I am told that well, if I weren't to be at my job tomorrow, the business would run without me. Strike two. I of course say that is a specious argument, very few people, including the President of the United States, if they were no longer there, would see things come to a stop in their absence. The difference between my job and yours however is that my job, as menial as it may be, is based on performance; at the end of the day if I am not doing my job my boss will let me go, your job the other hand has a union that will kiss your ass regardless of how well or poorly you do it.

Wow, how cool was that, I just finished my diatribe (or came close to it) and “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on . Sorry, but in my book that is too cool, the singer sounds like Chrissie Hynde on this song, which to me is way sexy.

Anyway you can guess with words like that we haven't spoken since. The only bad part about the whole thing was that after the day I had, an argument on top of it just made me sleepy. But the hockey game was coming on, so I turned on the TV and they were in pregame stuff, so I figure I will take my glasses off and lay them on the bed beside me for a minute and just close my eyes and listen to the pregame stuff. I think I lasted all of two minutes before I was sound asleep. The next time I opened my eyes they were awarding the Stanley Cup to Boston. And of course since I took a three hour nap before bed, I wasn't sleepy till almost 4am and I had to be up at 6am. Just all kinds of non fun there.

And none of this nonfun is allowed to ruin my birthday week, though save for the drinks with Dee, it hasn't really amounted to much. I could have went to see Lezz Zeppelin tonight but just didn't feel like it, instead I spoiled myself with a phoned in dinner. I am more interested in the Green Lantern movie tomorrow and ice cream for breakfast on Saturday. I knock those two out, it has been a good birthday week, regardless of what else happens.