Blogger 365 Day 218 - Squeezed

     "Summer is over I can count the cost, footprints on the beaches are now footprints in the frost."  That thought, or song lyric as the case may be, has been replaying in mind mind recently.  The beginning of August means that the college students start moving back into my neighborhood.  Most apartment leases take effect on Aug. 1st, so if you are going to pay for a place anyway, you might as well use it.  Actual classes will not begin again for a couple of weeks, so not everyone is back, but they are trickling in.

     As for me, I am just in need of some quiet, me time.  I wish I had the mental discipline to meditate, to just sit some place and let all if the stress of life just wash over me, but I am not wired that way.  Instead I am more the hyper, perfectionist type.  Anything I do I want to do to the best of my ability.  That is great when it comes to things such as work, not so great when it comes to things such as arguing.

     Right now I am sitting at the Squirrel Cage, waiting on my dinner and just trying to relax for a minute.  There was a purpose to my trip, besides getting food of course.  I had to stop at Giant Eagle down the street and get an Amazon gift card.  My plan was just to use the Coinstar machine, but the bill acceptor on it wasn't working, instead I had to go over to the gift card display and buy a card and have the cashier load it.  It is all part of my plan I mentioned a couple of blogs ago and will get into more detail when the time is right, but for now suffice it to say there was a reason I ended up in Squirrel Hill after work.

     While at Giant Eagle I did something I always do, I visited the blood pressure testing machine.  Once again I rocked hypertension on both numbers.  Go me!!!!

     My food is here and I am trying to remind myself to not rush through it, the world will still be there whenever I finish.  Yet I still find myself cramming French fries into my face as if somebody is going to come along and take them.  Mind you the food is good, otherwise I wouldn't keep coming back, but I actually have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy it.

      Work is still work.  Recently Ed has been a little preoccupied, he had one friend pass away over the weekend, another of his friends is laid up in a nursing home and by the looks of things, probably will not get out and Ed has also had a number of doctors appointments in the last few weeks.  Between that and Brian's limited time he spends at the store, which is less when his dad is around, there are times where it feels like I am on an island and the success or failure of the business rests solely on my shoulders.  It can be a bit much.   I find myself pouring over sales numbers, hoping they are good enough, rethinking how the entire store is laid out, wondering what we can add that will sell and what needs to go, and relaying to Ed what I see as far as the people that want to work versus those that seem to just be taking advantage of him.  Admittedly I still do not have the authority to do much in that department, but now when I approach him about certain things, I do it from a place where he knows I am supervising everything, I can go to reports if I need to to prove my point, or the cameras or what have you, I am not just relying in what I hear about.

     Well I finished dinner, just a little iced tea left then it is time to get back at it, I still have to stop by the store formerly known as Gus Millers, then go home and do some invoices, then work on the little thing I bought the gift card for and then maybe I will take a nap or something.  Not that napping has benefited me much recently, nowadays I find I wake up at 4am and am up for a half hour or so before falling back to sleep.  Not the most restful pattern, but it has become the rule rather than the exception these days.