Life Grinds Slowly Back Into Gear

I started orientation at Pier One today.

I was scheduled to have an interview there at 2pm on Friday. Yesterday at about 4pm I realized that it WAS FRIDAY.

I should have deduced that it was Friday because I watched CSI the night before, wished a friend happy birthday only to have him tell me "thanks, but it was yesterday", but it took looking at the TV Guide website telling me it was Friday to figure it out.

Fortunately my interviewer was understanding and when I called to assure her that I am NOT a total flake, she told me to come in for the interview right away.

It's nice to be working again, although it makes me very store-sick for the pet store in Key West.

This afternoon Scott and I planned out our Thanksgiving Day meal and then went to the grocery store to stock up, first having dinner at a Thai restaurant next door to Publix.

During dinner we talked about ideas for a poor-economy Christmas and came up with some rather good ones, I think.

I got started tonight on one of the major projects, I would say I'm about one-fifth of the way done with it and haven't spent a dime. I'm hoping that the recipient thinks it's as kickass as I do... if someone made this present for ME I would LOVE it.

The other highlight of the evening was when Scott discovered that it's a bad idea to feed The Stink from the couch. This results in her constantly wanting up to see if there's more and then wanting down to look for it herself.

Hurrication

Kelsie asked about the colored lines on the NOAA maps... if you look at the key in the upper right hand corner it shows that the colors correlate to different levels of storm watch/warnings.

Blue is Tropical Storm Warning - which is what we've been experiencing today.

The delivery truck for the pet store came around noon and between my bosses, two boarding staff, Scott and I and another employee an her husband, we got everything unloaded, unboxed and put away within about 2 hours.

Then the bosses took us to lunch at Jack Flats downtown where we enjoyed some good food and drink and trivia games until the power went out... That only lasted for about a half hour and then it came back on.

We experienced a second power outtage for about 20 minutes about an hour ago, but nothing that has caused us discomfort or danger.

The pet store will re-open tomorrow at 10am and Jen told me I can come in at 2pm instead of noon.

Don't Be Afraid To Try Something Old.

As a kid, I did NOT like pancakes. Perhaps all the pancakes I tried at the time were a bit undercooked, but I always felt that pancakes were doughy and gross, and I much preferred waffles.

In the last year, I have been trying things that I have strongly disliked in the past, and even things that I never had the guts to try, ever.

This morning (okay, afternoon) I decided that I wanted to eat at IHOP. Once we arrived I decided that I was craving pancakes. How can I have a craving for something that I always disliked? Strange.

I ordered an omelet (which I always want to spell omelette) and for once didn't request hashbrowns instead of pancakes, in fact, I asked for both!

When served, my three buttermilk pancakes had a lovely dollop of whipped butter on top, which I spread evenly on all three layers. Then I tested three of the four syrups available (I skipped the strawberry) and found that the perfect combo is Butter Pecan and Old Fashioned.

Scott laughed at me marveling over the goodness that was my breakfast, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.


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In firing employees news: An employee that was supposed to work today called the owner at 8am and said she was on her way to Miami because her grandfather was dying of a heart attack, complete with tears. Turns out she was LYING and has been at home laying on the couch after shopping at Radio Shack (where she ran into the other owner).

Instead of firing her, we are cutting her pay for a month.

What is wrong with these people?

The Fire Rages On...

I'm going to fire another employee this week.

It was not my decision nor did I have any say in hiring him, and when I told the boss my reasoning in wanting to get rid of him, she agreed with me.

This employee has only been here about a week and a half, and in the first TWO days he asked every other employee where he can get marijuana (he just moved to town). The SECOND day he asked an employee where he can get Coke... and not -a Cola.

To me this says that drugs are obviously more important to this individual than
A) what his new coworkers think of him, and
B) his job.

I'm not interested in having this employee anywhere in my work environment.

Ready, Aim,

This is my first time as the official Manager of anything. I've always been good at being bossy leadership and organization, but have never before been paid for these qualities.

Yesterday was one of the drawbacks to being in charge - I had to fire someone.

It went remarkably easier than I expected, although I suspect that she was thinking of quitting anyway.

I think I was fair and honest, without getting personal.

I can only hope the future of firing goes so well! (Not that I plan to make it a regular occurence).

13th Day of Hurricane Season 2008

No hurricanes, but I'm on day five of ten days I'm scheduled to work straight through.

I'm already burned out.

Scott got back from New Mexico last night and we went to a quiet dinner together at Outback Steakhouse to bond a bit before going back home to our animals and house-guest.

Right now I'm exhausted and sore.

Day 11: Now I Get To Use Numerals.

Have I mentioned yet that starting Monday (two days ago) I am scheduled to work every day for 10 days straight? This is due to one employee being on vacation and two others leaving in the next 10 days. I'm not working overtime or anything, it's 40 hours spread out conveniently (HA!) over the week.

Monday and Tuesday I went in at 2pm and today and Friday I go in at noon. Tomorrow (which is usually my day off) I don't have to go in until 4pm, and I'm hoping to get some relaxation in by a pool somewhere.

Once I was done with my eight-hour shift today I came home and transferred laundry from washer to dryer, started another load in the washer, and did a sink full of dishes.

Travis just helped me bring our dining table in from the back patio. It has had a shaky leg for awhile, and as we started to set it down, the final weld gave up. Scott is arriving back in town tomorrow and he LOVES the table and it's chairs. Somehow I don't think I'm going to track down a welder in one day.

Day Four, Hurricane Season blah blah blah

Today was a much better day overall.

There was a bit of chaos at the store, but from customers not from employee relations.

A woman entered the store and asked an employee for help finding a carrier for her cat. She was very rushed and demanding, and berated the employee for pointing out things that are "Way TOO Big, what's wrong with you?!" Sadly, I was in the office at the time, or I would have stopped this behavior before it escalated. As I was not there, she continued to bully said employee and then demanded that the cashier take her before the rest of the line that was already formed.

The cashier is a lovely young lady named Jewel. Jewel is 16 and has been working at the pet store for two years. She is very sweet, agreeable, hardworking, and pretty. No one yells at Jewel (other than her parents, of course) and certainly no one bullies her.

When Rushing Woman demanded that Jewel take her next, Jewel was startled and stopped in the middle of the transaction she was already halfway through to cash out the psycho. I was still in the office, or I would have headed this disaster off at the pass. Rushing Woman turned to Other Lady and said "Sorry I'm being rude, but I have a cab waiting and it's $20 a minute." (I am certain that there are NO taxis in Key West that charge anywhere near that much.)

Other Lady said "Well, you ARE being rude!" to which Rushing Woman replied "Well why don't you just be quiet?!".

Right about this time, the employee that had been dragged into service by Rushing Woman found me in the office and told me what was going on. I asked if everything was ok now and she assured me it was. Five minutes later she came running back in and said "the other lady made Jewel cry!".

I came out and by the time I reached the register both women were gone and Jewel had composed herself. Before I could get a full report, the phone rang and the caller asked for the Manager. That's Me.

I picked up and listened to Other Lady, who is a long-time customer (of course) who spends a lot of money in our store (I'm sure) on a regular basis. She felt that the entire situation was handled horribly and couldn't believe that "that girl at the register" allowed such behavior from Rushing Woman, and maybe I need to give her more training.

I took a deep breath and apologized on behalf of Jewel, explaining that she is not accustomed to being bullied and I agreed that she shouldn't have given in, and furthermore I was sorry I had not been available to handle the situation. In all I said "I'm Sorry" and "I Understand" about three or four times, each. Apparently this was not everything Other Lady was hoping for and said "Well..." and just waited for me to offer more. I sputtered a few more apologies and then she hung up.

The three of us (Jewel, Myself and the other employee) regained our composure and I went to work in the dog food department.

About twenty minutes later I went to the front of the store and there was a woman holding a small pet carrier and demanding to exchange it (we don't return pet carriers at all) and "I'm in a big hurry, I have a cab waiting and this is just too small and I don't like the print on it..."

I deduced correctly that Rushing Woman was back with a vengeance. I spoke calmly to her and explained that all the pet carriers like the one she had were in the same place and we only had the one size.

"I need something bigger! My cat won't fit in this and it has to be airline approved!"

I didn't take the time or effort to question why she had bought it in the first place when it clearly would not hold any cat more than 6 months old. Instead I pointed out the carriers that are airline approved guaranteed, and opened one to show her that a cat will fit happily inside.

"That's much better! I want it! Can you exchange it for me please?" She thrust the original carrier and receipt into my hands and barged towards the counter.

"M'am, you will have to wait in line. You already upset several customers earlier and I can't let you push them around again."

The five people waiting in line at the counter were witnessing all of this and I had no sooner finished my sentence than she turned to the customers and said "Do you mind if I cut in front of you? I have a cab waiting?"

The two women who were next and 'on deck' half smiled and said they supposed they didn't mind while the other three increasingly incredulous customers watched in horror. I assured the two women who had agreed that they didn't need to do that, but they both just said again that it was fine, one of which adding under her breath "whatever it takes to get her out of here!"

Jewel stepped aside and I rang up the return/exchange as quickly as possible. As I was handing Rushing Woman her receipt, she said "I need a comb! Do you have a comb for a cat?" Jewel began to describe where to find the comb, and then stopped and wisely said "I'll show you."

I rang up the next customer as Rushing Woman waited for Jewel to GET her a comb, meanwhile saying "can you charge me for the comb please?" while I tried to explain that I had to scan it first to find out how much it was going to be and still ring out the current customer.

Finally the comb arrived and the customer that was actually next acquiesced to Rushing Woman's demands to be rung out next.

As the troublemaker left the building with her entourage (did I forget to mention she was dragging three other people with her and ordering them around as well?) the remaining customers and employees breathed a sigh of relief.

There was a moment of silence.

The hurricane had passed.

Day Three, Hurricane Season 2008

I was asked if I intend to blog the entire Hurricane Season day by day.

Intend? Sure. Will it happen? Maybe.

Today (ok, it's after midnight so technically yesterday)...

I received my new laptop and cried at work. Not necessarily related occurrences, but looking back probably not totally unrelated, either.

I had an emotional day. Work has been stressful lately and today was no exception. I felt as if I was in trouble for something but had not been notified of what, and even when the information that I have been working a lot of overtime (for free - since I am on salary) by choice was provided to my boss, I didn't even receive a "Thank You" or an acknowledgment of any kind. The addition of my looking online and seeing that apparently DHL delivered my new laptop to a "residence front door" somewhere on Gulfview Drive (as opposed to my work address) YESTERDAY, culminated in my not being able to handle it when my boss told me that they decided not to change our logo after all.

About six months ago the three of us (my two bosses, who are husband and wife, and myself) decided that we were going to change the logo because the current one is outdated, too busy, and not cohesive. I worked on some options for awhile but couldn't devote the necessary time to it amongst all my other duties, and requested that we hire out to a real graphic artist.

Fortunately I know one (ok, several) and my boss agreed to pay him to work on a new logo for us. To date he has given us six or seven new ideas and I really liked them. When I found out today that his work has been in vain (although he WILL be getting paid, I made sure of that), I just couldn't take it.

To throw a little added pressure onto my day, Scott told me that the rumor in his office is that his company will likely not be getting a renewal on their contract that ends in September. This means that we may be moving earlier than we expected to.

In the meantime, party plans are rolling along - my desk also arrived today and I set it up and started getting the front room put away before getting out my new laptop and immediately downloading firefox and setting up my blogosphere bookmarks.

Day Four is already upon me and I must now check my Woot and be off to bed.

The One About Work

Ever since we returned from the west coast and getting married, I've been battling feeling burned-out at work.

Part of it is pretty standard work stuff: feeling like the things that go noticed are the bad things. The screw-ups or times when I've been a little less patient with someone.

The things that go UN-noticed are when I spend two and a half extra hours at work to finish getting an entire section of dog food priced and labeled, or that I pick up after employees that don't finish their jobs before they finish their shift, or that I keep the website updated and the computers running.

Maybe it's just that I'm a details person and my bosses are not. They don't notice this stuff unless I point it out to them and maybe I'm just getting tired of pointing it out.

Or I'm just a whiner - anyone that has known me for long knows that I am quite capable of getting into my whining from time to time.

I'm sure that I have it better than many people in this country. I have a job, first of all. Secondly, my job is what makes our life comfortable - my job is not necessary in our household income. Thirdly, I get to do something I really enjoy for the most part and many people NEVER get to experience that.

I think that is was just a lot harder to leave Portland this time. Scott and I both really felt at home when we were there for the wedding and it was emotionally VERY difficult to come back to Key West.

We have a few close friends in Key West, and good jobs, and a GREAT house, but we have family and a very close and large circle of friends in the Northwest.

My dream would be to live in the Northwest in the summer and in Key West in the winter. People that have the flexibility to do that really have it made.

Ho Ho

I'm sitting on the couch with Buster, watching Unwrapped. Right now they're talking about HoHo's... the carmel variety in particular.

In the almost two weeks since we returned from our wedding and honeymoon so much has happened! I've worked almost every day, as a result this week of our main cash-register computer obtaining a ton of viruses and going totally kaput. Either the owner or myself (sometimes both) were at the store nonstop for the last two and a half days. She spent the day today sleeping, which I fully intend to do on Sunday (my next scheduled day off).

Our houseguest moved out today, to move back in with her boyfriend since they have decided to move to Orlando together in two weeks anyway. We are looking forward to being able to move back into our guest room, but we will miss her and hope she is making a good decision.

I've discovered that I always get the best ideas for a blog post while I'm in the shower. I don't know what about the process inspires my mind to creativity anymore than I can figure out why I always think of CSI: Miami, Borders Books and Murder Mysteries every day while I'm counting out the cash drawer.

The skunk has been thrilled to have us back, she has been up more frequently during our waking hours, so we have had lots of snuggle time.

I managed to write about 3/4 of the Thank You notes last Sunday and mailed them in the last two days. I still have about 15 to go - but will be able to do them this weekend I'm pretty sure. We have been SO blessed by the generosity of those that love us so much! Our backyard near the gate is starting to look like the city dump because we've stacked up so many of the delivery/shipping boxes.

Buster is dreaming. I should be.

Goodnight!

Expensive Time

I don't think that there is ever an increment of time in my day that could actually be termed "free".

There are merely moments in which I am choosing to do one thing (or two or three or six) instead of something else.

I have worked at the pet store the last 6 days straight. The ensuing exhaustion probably contributed to the fact that I gave a baby hamster mouth-to-mouth on Thursday and ate nothing but a Snickers bar and a LOT of iced tea today.

I have addressed about a quarter of the outer and inner envelopes for the wedding invitations, but still don't actually have any invitations made because I: A) don't have the paper I want to print them on and B) don't have ink for my printer. I can solve B by going to Office Max. But A is proving to be more difficult as Key West is not a booming metropolis of paper craft (or much else besides bars) variety.

I have this evening and the next two days off and am starting off by taking a good long nap until I wake up. Then I will likely eat something.

Tomorrow I will clean and organize and hopefully address some more envelopes, although I am already bored of that, and maybe even spend a little time at the pool. Tuesday I am being completely self-indulgent and getting my nails done.

Somewhere in the next 60 hours I hope to build a jewelry frame to hang on my bathroom wall and finish my dad's christmas gift.

Free Time? Hardly.

Red Agent Dodo saw his chance. It wasn't often that he left his cell for exercise, so he knew he had to act quickly. All his practice runs had gone smoothly, and this was his moment.

Black Agent Fuzzbutt had been placed in the new apartment this afternoon. He was immediately comfortable with the "big boys" and was making his rounds and checking out his new surroundings.

Agent Dodo made his way around the square. The timing was perfect: a big crowd, the teenagers chattering endlessly, and the Black Agents all unaware of the impending doom.

He stepped carefully onto the glass walkway. Closer and closer he inched until he had the clip in his claw. He aimed the bottle and dropped.

We did our best to resuscitate Agent Fuzzbutt, I even performed mouth to mouth, but it was too late. Agent Dodo was swiftly whisked back to his cell to gloat.

Rest In Peace, little one, you were the cutest of the bunch.

'Tis The Season...

To Piss. Me. Off.

Why would someone steal in the first place. Especially when they are GIVEN things to begin with? I do not understand this.

Perhaps the guilty party is a kleptomaniac. Whatever the reason, it puts a dent in my Christmas Spirit.

I wish that people that feel the need to steal would just admit it and avoid the situation that they steal from entirely.

Grr. And a tiny bit of Bah Humbug.

Craaaaaaaaaap.

One of those days.

Dumb customers.

The skunk won't stay out of the dog food and the siamese keeps getting on the counter.

Blah.

Time Flies and Cockroaches Don't

It's almost been two months since I arrived in Key West.

I've enjoyed a major festival (Fantasy Fest), visited the local Starbucks (which is privately owned and does not take Starbucks cards), gone to the beach once, to Miami twice, almost quit my job, been locked out of the house three times, gone to the pool three times, been late to work a few times and early a few times too.

Life is pretty normal, except for discovering a cockroach on it's back in the bathtub as I was turning on the shower. He's now working with the cast of the new movie "Flushed Away."

The drive from Key West to the mainland is beautiful. The speed limit is 45 for about half the trip, so while it's only about 130 miles, it takes a good 3 hours. There's never a time where you can only see ocean, the longest stretch over the water is the Seven Mile Bridge.

The most authentic Mexican restaurant in the area is Salsa Loca. Considering how far we are geographically from Mexico, it's nice to find good Mexican food! The servers are all older white ladies, but whoever is doing the cooking definately knows what they are doing.

On Halloween evening Scott and I enjoyed dinner at Monty's, which is an outdoor bar and restaurant right on the boardwalk. We enjoyed a taco salad and watched the sunset, then walked on the dock out to a boat that was moored but had it's underwater lights on. There were 6-8 Tarpin fish swimming and dining on minnows in the light. It was an incredible view. We sat on the dock and watched them for a good half hour and then got 50 cents worth of fish food out of a dispenser and tried to feed them. They weren't interested.

One Month

As of tomorrow morning, I will have been a resident of Florida for one month.

I've been working at a new job for about 3 weeks, and recently had some issues there that have inspired me to continue to keep my eyes open for another position elsewhere.

The dog and cats are getting comfortable with each other, even being willing to share space on the bed together. Chou has come down off the refrigerator, but it looks like he has taken to eating Buster's canned dog food and regurgitating it back up.

Our condo is shaping up nicely, we're adding furniture as we can and enjoying the four decks attached to our unit. I've also been enjoying the small pool located in the middle of our complex.

I do miss having certain things nearby; Old Spaghetti Factory's closest location is in Georgia, and Costco, Old Navy, WalMart and Target are all in Miami, but there are new fun local places too.

The New Frontier

Frida, the office Pomeranian is asleep on the floor. She belongs to Donna, who hired and is training me. Donna is negotiating an add in the Yellow Pages with the Bell South guy.

Today is my second day at SeaTech Electric, Inc. located on Rockland Key. They are an electrical company that does government contracts. They have business all over the Keys, the U.S, and even embassies outside the country.

I am the Assistant to the Director of Finance (Donna). She has been overwhelmed with work over the last few months and got authorization to hire an Assistant.

It's good to have an intellectual outlet finally, I've been basically on vacation for almost a month. While it's nice to have a break, I've been a little stir-crazy the last week or so.

We'll make our first venture back to the mainland this weekend to pick up the BMW and make a Costco run.