Blogger 365 Day 173 - Out of the pool

Maybe mine in a singular experience, but I don't think it is.  Remember when we were kids.  For those of us who didn't have swimming pools, maybe for those who did as well, there was the moment when summer would come around and with it thoughts of going swimming.  The experience was almost always a fun one, I know for me once I got in the water and started splashing around the last thing I wanted to do was get out.  I could swim for hours on end.  Once it was time to go there was always that moment, with the towel wrapped around me, where I could still feel the sensation of the water all around me and there was the urge to just jump right back in.  I just didn't want to leave.

I say this because I had a similar experience today.  When last I left this very fine page I had mentioned hat as of that writing I still had not heard whether or not I would be going to breakfast with my aunt this morning.  Well after finishing my entry and posting it I got word that she still wanted to go to breakfast so we went ahead and set a time for 9:30 this morning.  Given how long I worked last night I just decided it would be better to stay up all night, get an early start this morning and make my way over to the Strip District since we had decide once again on having breakfast at Kelly O's.  Worst case scenario I figured I could always come home after our breakfast sojourn and grab an afternoon nap.

So I pop into the shower here around 6:30am, hoping the hot water would help startle my somewhat dreary senses and after taking my good old time in there I proceeded to find clothes to wear today (the masses frown upon public nudity in general and mu public nudity in specific) and grabbed all of the stuff I would need and hopped out the door. 

I did not study the bus schedule, so I wasn't sure when the 54C would arrive but I knew it generally runs every half hour or so and I left my apartment with plenty of time to catch one.  I left early enough that I stopped for coffee at the corner gas station.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't being all sleepy and stuff while we were together and few things work better in that regard than coffee, so I grabbed a large one and headed off to the bus stop, where I ended up waiting long enough that I had all but finished the coffee by the time my bus had arrived. 

I boarded the bus, replete with my ear buds locked in, listening to "Prehistoric X" on the local alternative station.  I forgot how much I liked that show, it has been so long now that I have listened to anything outside of Pandora for music and Fox Sports Radio when music wasn't my choice that actually tuning into a local FM station and staying tuned in for more than 5 minutes is all but a novelty for me at this point. 

I could feel myself starting to nod off on the bus, the eyes would close for a minute or two and then snap back awake, trying to take in the new surroundings, hoping that I did not miss my stop completely.  My lack of sleep was overcoming my caffeine induced alertness.  Thankfully I did not miss my stop, and after checking my cell phone I realized that I was almost a good hour early so I took the opportunity to take a long looping walk through the Strip District, up one street, down another.  The walk did what the caffeine was supposed to do, it got me up and moving and alert so that by the time I made my way back to Kelly O's to meet my aunt I was not fighting sleepiness at all, my second wind was in full effect.

My aunt Amy arrived and with her was my cousin Sarah and we made our way into he restaurant and much to our surprise there wasn't a line this morning, which is very odd for a Sunday at that hour, usually there is a bit of a wait but we were able to grab a table immediately.  We all ordered breakfast, and got about the business of catching up which is probably the best part of our breakfasts together, just spending time with family in a relaxed atmosphere and finding out what has been going on in each others lives.

Apparently I was the only one that was prepared for the breakfast experience, because both Amy and Sarah were having trouble finishing their breakfasts while I more than conquered the breakfast burrito that was in front of me.  If breakfast was an Olympic sport then this morning I easily took home gold.

We finished up and decided to walk around the Strip for a bit, poking our heads into different stores to see what all might be worth purchasing.  We had just entered our first store, which was a shop that specialized in handmade clothing when I heard a weird sound go off.  It was my cell phone and I am still not used to it yet.  I really am coming to loathe that thing already.  There are only a handful of people that have my cell phone number and most of them are work related, so if it is going off chances are it isn't good.  This was no exception as I looked on the caller ID and Brett's name popped up.  Now Brett normally orders cigarettes through our store since we have a wholesale license, but I already work six days a week, I can't imagine why he would be calling me on a Sunday morning.  Well I could imagine it, I am was sure he wanted to place an order and there was no way I was going into work on my day off, not after being there until almost 10pm the day before doing the ordering for Monday.  As far as I was concerned, that ship had sailed.  My guess was 100% correct and I just said sorry, Sunday is my day off, I am at breakfast and have no intention of going into work today.

After ending that phone call it was back to going in and out of stores, Amy found a purse she liked, Sarah got a couple of floral wreath like things for her hair and a hoodie, and we were checking out a bookstore when the phone rang again.  This time it was work.  "Matt, one of the registers quit working."  Yes kids, that would be a "Fuck Me" moment, something I would have to address in the near future.  So we went to a few other stores, an Italian grocery store and I drug everyone into Mancini's bakery just because I wanted to buy another loaf of cracked pepper and tomato basil bread (which is awesome by the way) before deciding to call it a morning.  Sarah had to work today and now apparently so did I, so we ended our little shopping foray.  Amy gave me a ride into work, which is actually closer to the Strip District than my apartment is.  She dropped me off and I went inside where all I had to do was literally hit the power button on the register and it started working again.  It took all of like one minute for me to fix (or so I thought, more on that later) so I grabbed my things and headed out to the bus stop to go back to Oakland.

As I got outside the store though and looked down Smithfield Street in the direction of the Strip District I had that swimming pool moment again, thinking about how much fun this morning was and wanting to just dive right back in.   Instead I was being drug from the fun of the pool and was going home.  The only plus to going home was that at least I would be able to get some sleep.

I got into my apartment about 12:30pm or so and was probably asleep within a half hour.  It was a nice peaceful sleep too.  Until 3pm, when the cell phone rang again.  Once again it was work and the register wasn't working again.  So I got up, called the register technician people and said we may be having a problem and I will probably need them to look at it.  Then I got dressed and stumbled my way back to the bus stop, or tried to.  I got about halfway there before realizing my wallet (with my money and bus pass) were still in my apartment, so back home I came to grab that before heading back out. 

I got back into work around 6pm, tried a few different things but couldn't get the register up and running, so I went down to my desk to get the register keys so we could at least open the drawer and take the money out of it.  After emptying the drawer I tried calling the register people again, since they did not call back after my first attempt.  Still no answer, just voice mail. I tried the power button one more time just before I was leaving and all of a sudden the register started working again, so I am not sure if we have a problem or not.  It could be the register is overheating and shutting down (though both the attached printer and the credit card keypad were working) or it could be an issue with the drawer not closing properly which will cause the register to not function.  At least those are my two best guesses at this point, I am still having them look at it before we use it again.  I don't want to continue to revisit the same problem two and three times a day ad infinitum.  I called Ed and clued him into what was happening and how I handled things and then came home, where I made a sandwich on my fresh bakery bread and now I am here.  I think I would still rather be in the pool though.