Multiply 365 Day 194 - My desk is cursed

 

Greetings and salutations all. I hope that the day has treated you well, mine has been about average, not bad by any stretch, but long and tiring nonetheless, which can be blamed on no one but myself.

I blogged pretty late last night even for me (sorry Pam), but I was due in part to my behavior beforehand. And that behavior led to some other things happening and what not. So lets start at the ending of my yesterday and see what happens.

I seem to have a good enough handle on my new found paperwork at work. Of course I still feel like I am doing nothing, sitting at a desk when I should be stocking coolers and shelves and what not. But regardless, most of the work that I am at least responsible for either doing or delegating was done by my checkout time of 3pm. So I gather up my things, John and Brian were already done for the day and Dee seemed to be pretty close to being done so it seemed that most of the management stuff was done. I am thinking, you know, I am goi ng to have a drink after work. Not that I announced it or anything, but if she should happen to see me on the way to her car and decide to stop in, great, if not that is fine too. So I proceed to down to Long Island Iced Teas and fight with my laptop for about 40 minutes, for some reason I can't get it to recognize the WIFI signal in the 110 to save my life which may bode poorly for future raod trip blogs from that particular location. Anyway it is getting close to 4pm, I still haven't seen here or seen her drive by, so I am assuming that I missed her, which is fine and all. I run back across the street just to lay out some newspaper sheets fro Wednesday that have to be delivered to Universal News, and when I get in the store she is on her way out, but if there is one thing I know it is that two Long islands from the 110 are enough to impair my judgment, so I don't do anything but set my stuff up in the office for Wednesday and then come upstairs to catch my bus to go home.

On my way out the door I spend $20 on scratchoff tickets, which actually turns into $35. So I am thinking the day hasn't been a total wash, I just paid for my two Iced Teas right there. Yay me! It is at this point where the “Curse of My Desk” kicks in. See, since I have been there, two other people have sat in that desk, and it is the only desk in the office that has seen any employee turnover. First to sit there was Kathy, who I really like and miss and it so happens she is also the wife of Rick, who runs our newly established deli section. The deal with Kathy was that her mother had a seizure awhile back and now needs constant supervision, which means Kathy now is at home all of the time with her mom rather than working for us. The second person to occupy that chair is Amy, who I have mentioned in the past as someone I would not miss and that assessment has been proven correct. I really don't miss her and her nosiness into what others are talking about combined with her broadcasting her problems to everyone at work like it is something we should or do care about. It isn't and I don't. I would rather sit through a “Fat Camp” marathon on TV than have a 5 minute conversation with Amy. Plus her leaving and my doing part of her job also gets me more money (a raise plus more hours), so cha ching to that.

But as I am waiting at the bus stop for the 65 Squirrel Hill to arrive I see Dee drive by on her way home, I wave and continue waiting for my bus and my mind starts saying, you know, you had planned on spending money on some drinks and you have as much as what you started with (thank you Pennsylvania lottery) so you have money to spend, why not see if anyone (including any dancing lesbians) are in you local watering hole.

So of course I go there and no, there were no dancing lesbians, but unlike last time I was there, the Cherry Master machines were all open, so I sit down and play one while having a few Miller Lites to wash down the other alcohol I had been drinking. And after maybe 4 or so I can say I was feeling no pain, not completely nonfunctional drunk, but I had a nice buzz going on. And to make matters better, I had parlayed the $20 I spent on the Cherry Master into $80, so again I am making more money outside of work than I normally do at work. So I had the drunken celebratory dinner of microwave bbq rib sandwiches and passing out afterward. Thankfully I did not pass out face first into them, or this blog might have required photos of myself that I can assure you I would never take.

And by 10:30 pm I had woke up and was up for the duration. I couldn't get back to sleep and I had extra motivation, my blog entry was due in about an hour and I hadn't even started yet. So I throw together a little something for the page, much of which I have rehashed here, and sit down to realize I have been to the bar like 4 times in the last 7 days, that maybe my “Curse of the Desk” will be becoming an alcoholic. I needed something to break up my bar frequenting routine. Then I remember that I have sometimes looked for a new volleyball league to play in around here, since the last time I played was a few years back in a YMCA league in Homewood (not the safest neighborhood to be in after dark) which eventually shut down. But every time I look, I end up running into links of other leagues that are teams only or touring type leagues and what not, not just a rec league where people meet once or twice a week to smack a ball around with a modicum of sense as to how and why they are doing it. The closest I came to finding anything was a league that was basically for gay people to meet, and while I have no problem playing with gay men (that sentence fragment alone should get at least a chuckle, I'm just sayin') I wasn't sure if they would let non gay people play in their reindeer games and what not.

As luck would have it though, while trying to find something to do to keep my eyes open last night I did come across a league, very near my apartment too, that plays every Thursday night. The cost is just $5 a week, so I signed up and figure I will see what it is like. Worst case scenario is that I don't like it and I lose two hours of my life.

Anyway, besides signing up for volleyball I didn't get much else done last night, including sleeping, so I ended up staying up all night and just going into work this morning.

Work, well it is what it is and all that jazz. Nothing too good or bad, pretty much the same thing, which I guess is a good sign. But I was thinking that maybe after work I wouldn't go drinking for a change, just a quiet evening at home before volleyball Thursday night, but who should be here when I get back from work but Rich. Usually he wouldn't be in my neck of the woods, but when they brought his wife in for her normal dialysis they noticed something that was off, so they were keeping her for a bit yet, meaning Rich was in my neighborhood and usually when Rich and I hang out it is to drink and shoot pool, so the “Curse of the Desk” strikes again as I am once more in a bar drinking .

I am not looking forward to what my desk has planned for me tomorrow. Is it too much to ask for a day away from alcohol? Knowing my luck it will be a day Dee wants to get an after work drink. Nothing against her but I really hope not. I need to get this curse thing under control, lest I have an alcohol induced, Mel Gibson like tirade on some of the morons I have to deal with at work. In which case, the “Curse of the Desk” will indeed claim another victim, me.