Who's next?

     Just sitting here on a Tuesday night, I know it has been a few days since I last put cursor to wordpad and generated anything, but there is reason for that.  However I have my Pandora station working in the background here, so just maybe I will be able to relax a little bit and get some words to come forth.



     When we last left off I believe we were at the point in our story where Ed had fired Brittany last Thursday.  Of course that left us some holes in the schedule for the remainder of the week.  In some instances we opted to do nothing, just do more with less, shuffling already scheduled people around and asking them to do a little bit more then they are used to.  However on the weekend it was going to create a couple of problems, seeing as how Brittany was scheduled on days where she was one of just two people on the schedule.  Like last Sunday, when it was just her and Chavez were scheduled to work.  Silly me, I forgot to leave something out about those Sunday shifts, not only did Brittany and Chavez work together most Sundays, but they are also boyfriend/girlfriend, so they also live together as well.  This will indirectly come into play as to why I haven't blogged recently.

     Last Wednesday Sammy and I had decided that on Saturday morning we would go to breakfast, something we used to do with a little more regularity but because of my promotion and the fact we work the same shift but not together as much any more, we don't go out together as much anymore either.  Sammy has his hands fulls trying to do some of what I used to do, and I have my hands full trying to do the other half of that plus do the job I was promoted to do.  Suffice it to say often we do not have the time or the energy to be getting up early on a Saturday just to go hang out at breakfast and then wander in and pull a shift where we do some extra cleaning.   I was definitely looking forward to this Saturday, he suggested we go to a place, Kellie O's, which moved into the spot formerly known as Jo Jo's Diner, before Jo Jo's caught fire and burnt down.

     Then Thursday happened and Brittany was let go, creating holes on the schedule for Saturday and Sunday morning.  Ed moved one of the 3-11 people over to 7-3 on both days, but that only meant that the holes in the schedule moved, we now had to find people to work 3-11 on both days.  Since I was part of the braintrust that said Brittany should be let go, I said that I would work Saturday, thereby filling one of the two slots.  Of course I also do a grocery order on Saturdays, as well as my paperwork for the week and any price changes that need taken care of, so now I have signed up to meet Sammy at 7am to go to breakfast and then be back at Smithfield for 3pm. 

     After agreeing to work on Saturday, I continued to try to get some things done on Thursday and as I am going back and forth between the office and the floor doing multiple things, on one of my trips upstairs I see that both Chavez and Brittany are in the store and while I was not there for the whole conversation I did manage to hear Chavez be rather upset, saying "Fuck this place" amongst other complaints.  Because I didn't hear everything that was said, I didn't make an issue of it, I just filed it under "things I may need to know" in my head and continued to get my work done. 

     Saturday comes and Sammy, his girlfriend Lisa and myself go to Kellie O's and have a really good breakfast, one of the best I have had in a while.  I got a breakfast burrito that was so big I could not finish it all, so I went all wimpy and got the doggie bag, or doggie box as the case may be, and took about a quarter of it home with me.  After breakfast we walked around the Strip District, checking out some of the shops over there.  I picked up a few things at the Scratch and Dent grocery store, Sammy got some stuff from the produce stand and we walked back into town, where Sammy and Lisa caught their bus.  I went over to Smithfield and loaded reloaded our instant ticket machine and grabbed two books of tickets that I knew we needed at Gus Miller, then hopped a bus back to Oakland, stopped by Gus and reloaded their machine and then came home.  I got in about 10am and by 11am I was already taking a two hour nap before I went back into work. 

     1pm and I am up again, I eat the rest of my burrito, grab a shower and head off to work around 2pm, get downtown and stopped in the subway lobby at Steel Tower Plaza to reload my Connectcard with next week's bus pass, then go into work.  Since I was working with Brian and he knows how to run the store, I decided to just be the lackey, run register, do cleaning, make sure we had coffee, the cappuccino machine was filled for the next shift, loaded some of the coolers in front of the store, kept the hot dog roller loaded.  It might have been my easiest 8 hour shift in a long time.  Except it wasn't an 8 hour shift, I still had my grocery order, among other things, that still needed done. 

     Ed comes into the store around 7pm, he often stops by Saturday nights for an hour or so, usually he walks over to the snack cakes, rearranges some things and just basically is checking up on the store.  Well, when he came in Saturday there were no complaints whatsoever, because as I am sometimes prone to say, "All we do is dominate."  I did however convey a concern that I had with Ed, that being the conversation I heard Chavez having, and I said I am not going to be the least bit surprised if he doesn't show up Sunday morning.   Ed thinks I am overthinking things, he is even willing to wager on it.  I didn't take hm up on the offer because I was just unsure, after all Chavez's mother, Belinda, has worked for us for years now (longer than I have been there actually) so he may show up if for no other reason than to avoid problems with his family.  For me it was a coin flip if he would be there or not.  Still, since I had work to do anyway I told Ed I would stay overnight, it would give me a chance to see the next shift work (I do try to talk to all of the shift leaders as much as possible, one of my character flaws I know) and I had plenty of my own work to do overnight as well. 

     11pm, shift change and I am off the register.  I go down to the office and do my invoices, then I proceed to reorganize the freezers in the basement, which where all kinds of discombobulated, and start my grocery order.  Ed comes back around 2:30 am, he went to the casino and played some Texas Hold Em, he is surprised I am still there and even offers me a ride home, but I refuse because my order still isn't done, and I have a GFS order for Tuesday that I realize I have to do as well, plus I still want to see what happens at 7am.

     I pace myself, I do not rush through my work but I get it done anyway and I am back on the floor around 6:30am, where I double check the coffee and hot dog roller, adding some french toast roller bites for anyone foolish enough to come in and have breakfast in the store.  7am comes and a new shift change, and guess what?  No Chavez.  Perhaps he is running late, I ask Dan, the overnight shift leader, if he will stick around for about 20 minutes, long enough for me to double check all of the banks and give time for Chavez to show up if he was going to.  Of course he doesn't, so I call Ed and tell him what is happening, that I am running the store but he needs to find out where Chavez is.  Given Ed just left the store at 2:30am, I am sure getting a call from me at 7:30 am is not on his scheduled things to do.  Dan tries calling Chavez, the number the store has either isn't the right one or he isn't answering.  Ed tries texting Chavez, also no answer.  8 more hours for me baby.

     What made Sunday worse was it was so incredibly slow.  I am exhausted, trying whatever I can to stay awake, which means I am living off of a diet of coffee and cigarettes.  I worked with a new employee, Summer, and she seemed cool enough, it was the first time I had any extended interaction with her , but it was just so slow that time seemed to drag on forever.

      Finally 3pm comes and my day ends, all of my banks balance, the cigarette count is good, so I can leave the store and I am home by 4pm and asleep by 5pm.  All told on Saturday/Sunday I worked 25 hours.  Monday wasn't any better because our grocery order was 3 hours late in arriving so I ended up helping Sammy put that away, as well as helping to get the recycling out.  Of course I still had to go to Gus Miller at the end of my shift Monday as well, so I ended up with another 10 hour day Monday.  Though I did find out Monday morning that Chavez did finally call Ed back some time Sunday afternoon, long enough to say that he was tired of the  store and quitting ad then hanging up.  For all of the stuff that Ed does for some of these people, honestly, there are some really ungrateful fucking pricks.

     Today was relatively easy, I only worked 8 hours, but so far during this pay period I am already at 86.5 hours and I still have four full days left.  So, yes, that is why I haven't been here.  And I am going to the Penguins-Blue Jackets game Friday night, so I can't say for certain when I will be back.  Hopefully soon, but we will see.