This had the makings of an incredibly bad day. There were lots of reasons to dread it going in, I had plenty of stuff I needed to do, work was just piling up on my desk, it was going to be my first shift with Sammy since we fired his son. All signs pointed to it being a good day if I could just keep my head above water.
Then of course I started the day by making it worse. I completely overslept and was way late for work, so the pile of work on my desk was even larger because I was getting a late start on everything When I got there I had another stack of invoices on my desk that needed to be dealt with, on top of the folder of them that I currently have. I checked the company email only to find that I was sent another price change sheet from Sledd, 11 pages of items that needed their prices changed on the floor. Oh goody. I still had a Pricemaster order in the basement that I needed to tag, Ed had ordered from one of his outside vendors again and rather than just buy what we need, he realized that he can save on his freight charges if he buys 500 lbs or more, so we are now buying crap based on weight and not whether we actually need it. So I have like, 80 boxes of lighters, all of different types, that all need to be priced, literally hundreds of those little packs of medicine that have one or two tablets in them, and they all need to be hit with a pricing gun. All in all he spent over $3000 on items that I am going to have to price by hand. Just another in a long line of time consuming tasks I have to get to. I know already that I am going to be there an incredibly long time on Saturday, perhaps all day if not longer.
Yeah, it was starting out that bad. And it was getting worse, our Sledd order arrived and I was upstairs sorting out cigarettes because we had orders for three different locations, so I had to paw through over 200 cartons and send them to their appropriate location. Usually I will call in those orders myself, but Ed and Brian decided to help me and call them in yesterday. The problem is they almost always mess up one or two of the types of cigarettes on the order, so then I have to turn around and call Sledd, tell them the mistake so they can pick them up on our next delivery, and then reorder the cigarettes we were supposed to get the first time. So it really doesn't help me all that much. And today was no different, they ordered regular Parliaments instead of Parliament Lights that were needed. Luckily I had a couple of extra cartons to cover for the mistake, though I still have to call in the screw up and hope Sledd picks up the cartons I don't need.
It was at this time that Fred showed up. Fred is our 7 Up representative, and while I didn't think we would be getting that big of a 7 Up order (usually they run about 20-25 cases max), it was still going to pull me from getting the Sledd order checked in and put away. So we head downstairs to start putting the order together for Monday when the entire day changed considerably for the better. The much, much better.
Last year 7 Up got the beverage contract for the Consol Energy Center. The CEC is the new building in Pittsburgh where the Pittsburgh Penguins play, so if you are there to watch a game, you can't get a Pepsi or Coke, instead you get an RC Cola, no sprte, instead it is 7 Up, Canada Dry is the ginger ale, etc. In conjunction with that, some of you long time readers of the blog may remember that I had signed the store up for a contest last year, one where we received entries in a raffle based on the number of cases of 20 oz bottles we purchased and each week they would draw a winner who would receive Penguins related merchandise. Ed had no interest in the contest but because it costs us nothing I went ahead and threw our hat into the ring and sure enough we ended up winning once last year, two tickets to a Penguins game from the 7 Up luxury box at the CEC. While Ed didn't do anything with the contest, he found out that we had won and ended up giving the tickets to his doctor. I was disappointed at the time, since I had done much of the legwork to get the tickets, but his doctor did recently perform heart surgery on Ed, so there were far worse people who could have benefited. Plus Ed promised me he would take care of me later in the year, which he did, getting me into a game and in seats almost as good as the one's 7 Up has (the 7 Up seats retail for about $200 a piece, the one's Ed gave me were like $150 each).
But that was last year. Well it turns out that 7 Up is running the same program this year so again I signed us up. Again it is simply a matter of throwing our proverbial hat in the ring. And guess what? We won again. Two tickets to the October 13th matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals. Actually I had a choice, I could have one or two tickets. I said I would go with two, with a couple of weeks lead time I am sure I could scurry up someone who would like to go to a hockey game.
That would be cool enough, knowing that I am going to a hockey game. But what would make that even cooler? Well, I do seem to have an extra ticket, or as the Ferengi might refer to it, an opportunity. And I most definitely seized it. See, earlier in the day, John had went upstairs and bought a $20 scratchoff ticket out of our lottery machine and ended up winning $400. Not a bad trade to be sure. Dee had even commented that she is never that lucky, then again who is? But as I am coming down the stairs to go drop something off on my desk, Dee is walking in front of me and I say, guess who else may have gotten something today? When she had no idea just what I was talking about I said, what's your social calendar look like for October 13th? She said she didn't have any plans, so I said I could change that, since I now have an extra ticket to the Pens game that night, in the 7 Up box, which seats 8 people and comes complete with actual waitress service. And she is in. Sorry, but my day just couldn't get better than that. Again I am not going to get all crazy about this, or at least try not to. After all, lots of things could still go wrong, Fred could fail on getting me the tickets, Dee could change her mind, I could be fired before then. Anything is technically possible, but for now I am content in the way things are going, and it has been a couple of weeks since I could say that.
Nice score on the tickets.
ReplyDeleteHow was Sammy holding up?
The thing with Sammy is I don't question his loyalty to the job, but I was afraid we would get a phone call this morning saying he was in jail for kicking his son's ass. Thankfully that didn't occur. He was quiet for a while, he gets that way when he is upset, but eventually he was almost his normal self.
ReplyDeleteDamn nice, a Pens/Caps game. Those are always hard games for me. I worked for both the Capitals and Penguin organizations at one time. Still I would have to root for the Pens
ReplyDeleteI originally only knew the date, then I checked the schedule and saw what game it was, which is just a phenomenal rivalry to boot. Don't get me wrong, I will sit through any game, but that is about as good an opponent as you can get for a free game. And having a waitress to boot? I might leave the game a little spoiled.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing is that the boxes are usually up high. I hate to admit this but give me front row in the corner where I have the best view of guys getting checked into the boards. Yes, I lose view of the puck in that corner but when there's a player shoved against the plexi glass and they are rocking the boards it's awesome. Of course you also have to worry about deflected pucks coming over the boards or a slap shot coming through the glass but once again it's part of the excitement of the game.
ReplyDeleteBefore the Caps moved their home ice I had season tickets row B in the corner. I was one of the ones yelling to deek the puck and hit him. I once cracked up the ref Mick McGeough. He gave a Cap a 2 minute roughing and I yelled at Mick - about 4 feet away from me "That wasn't roughing. I had worse getting off the Metro tonight. For Scott Gomez (of the Devils) that was just cheap sex." Mick turned and looked at me and cracked up.
ReplyDeleteI should note Mick and I went back a couple years. Before he made it to the NFL he was an AHL linesman and then ref. He was on a line with Mike Condon and Matt Dunn. Fans use to call them Dumb, blind and the condom. At the Baltimore Arena there was a bar in the basement that was open to season ticket holders, players and ref's after the game. Pretty much the players use to go there to unwind for a few minutes before heading home for the night. They always encouraged the cheerleaders and players to hang out in the bar for a little while after the game. They even gave us reduced price beer and supplied munchies. I used to head from the locker room to the bar and get dinner of either potato skins or gravy fries for the price of a $2 beer. Not a bad deal. My feeling was I had survived cheering another game and hadn't been carried off into the stand again by the drunken fans. I really think that's why cheerleaders at hockey games didn't catch on. There were a few problems. First we had to cheer on the concourse so the fans who were mostly male had been drinking and wanted to reach out and touch something. And it was cold. We wore cut away skirts - you know barely cover your ass and open slits almost to the waist band. With a halter top. A thin white halter top. We had nipples that looked like they were carved for a bust on the bow of a ship. Which didn't help with the drunken male fans. So lets say even in street clothes we were popular down in the bar.
The Loge boxes (I had nothing to do with the naming) are behind the first level of seat, not really far up, pretty much on the same level as the concourse above those seats. I really don't know a whole lot more about them other than each box seats 8 people and that anything you may want they bring to you. Admittedly that usually isn't much of a problem for me, I don't eat or drink that at a game, if I have those urges I deal with them ahead of time where it is much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI was at two games in the new building last year and I am not sure there really is a bad seat in the place, which couldn't always be said for the old Igloo. It had a certain charm to be sure, but it had quite a few flaws as well, including the fact that it had a retractable roof that couldn't be retracted.
I used to cover the Penguins back when the radio station I worked for was all sports, but I never got really close to any of the players. I just tried to keep a distance so I didn't censor myself when asking questions after the game. The worst thing I did was take a girl that I was interested in to a game, I got her a game day credential while I used my season press pass. Advice to any guy out there who may be thinking of doing the same thing, your chances of hooking up are greatly diminished after she see guys who make millions of dollars with their penises hanging out. At that point, her desire to see your $8 an hour Johnson is greatly diminished.