Just about made it through the Thanksgiving weekend and NaNo day 24

English: DC USA, Target, Black Friday (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today was another wild and crazy day at work…ya just gotta love retail the weekend after Thanksgiving!!  But we’ve almost made it through the busiest weekend of the year.  Of course, next weekend will be busy too.  And the weekend after that…But I’m starting to get a glimpse of that light at the end of the tunnel…The district manager stopped by for a visit again today.  Thankfully, he said we looked good, everything is full and things are going well.  So, maybe just maybe, this will be a good thing for my future with the company.  Keep your fingers crossed, okay?

I was so tired when I got home last night that I couldn’t write one single word.  But I think I kind of made it up tonight…almost 3000 words…and some decent stuff, I think.  The  stomach-churning kind of good, if you know what I mean.  What I’m writing right now is really one of the biggest, most emotionally draining scenes in the entire book…I’ve thought about this for quite some time so it’s nice to actually get it underway.  It’s not finished, not by a long shot, but I’ve got it sounding the way I’ve imagined it…and that has put a smile on my face.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Started your shopping yet???

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Happy Thanksgiving on this 22nd day of NaNo

Thanksgiving Day Greetings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thanksgiving is here.  I hope everyone is enjoying a peaceful day with family and friends, good food, maybe some football and parades.  As for me, I’ll be going in to work pretty soon…boo!  One good thing about it, the day will be so busy that it goes by quickly and I’ve got just the best crew working with me today, so that makes it much nicer…sure does help to be the one making out the schedule..heehee!!

I went in to work yesterday morning at 5 am, worked until 2:30.  Then I went home to try to get a little rest before going back in at 6 pm to help set the ad, at least I thought I was going to go in to help…kinda worked out a little differently than I’d planned…oh well, after Christmas we’ll be doing some major training of our associates so more people are capable of doing what needs to be done.  Just a little side note there…

Anyhow, after finishing the ad set and getting out the doorbusters for today, I finally made it out of the joint around 11:30ish…a 15 hour work day…wow!  That’s…I…oh my…that’s way too many hours for this old body to be working.  Now, I’ll be going in at 3 this afternoon.  As much as I hate to do it, I have to stop at Kroger to pick up bread and ice for my associates…can’t forget to take in the ham I baked…someone might like a nice juicy ham sandwich on their break tonight.  I know I will!

I wonder if customers will be lined up on the sidewalk when I get to work…there were a few out there last year when I went in…funny what people will do to get a bargain or two…Hey, I did do some shopping today…on Amazon!  Got a lightening deal watch for myself…I think that’ll be my Christmas present to myself.

I am so glad I did all of that extra writing earlier in the month.  My cushion has all but evaporated, but at least I’m still on schedule to finish on time.  I did sit down and write a little over 1000 words today.  I was actually on a roll when Chris called.  He was driving to the store where he’s filling in as manager so we chatted while he drove (I know, I know…distractions aren’t good while driving…).  So, as far as NaNo goes, I’m at 37,600 words now with a little over a week to go.  I’m going to have to force myself to sit down every evening for a while since I’ll only have one more day off work between now and the end of the month.  But I’ll get there…it may not be early, but I will reach 50,000 words by the end of November!

Hey, Happy Thanksgiving!!  Gobble, gobble!

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Two weeks before Thanksgiving and NaNo, day 8

Thanksgiving 2011 (Photo credit: thisreidwrites)

Can you believe it?  It’s only two weeks until Thanksgiving!  I don’t know how in the world that happened…it’s crazy!  Are you ready to get together with family and friends?  Going to have a nice meal with your loved ones?  Going to do some early shopping?

I’ll have the dinner, then I’ll have to go to work, seriously.  I put a sign up sheet in the break room to try to get some volunteers to work that evening.  So far I have a few people who’ve been good enough to sign up, but I need more.  Oh my…I know no one wants to have to work on a holiday, I sure don’t.  But…we know it comes with the territory when we take the job…wish me luck getting enough folks to work so I don’t have to draft them…

Had a good visit from the district manager today.  He scored me higher than I probably would have, but I’ll take it.  He really is a pretty good guy…wants us to succeed and run good stores and is willing to help us in whatever way he can.

And writing?  Well, that went fairly well tonight.  I thought I was done for the night then, when I checked my word count, I decided I could probably manage another 200 or so words to break the 20,000 word mark.  Unfortunately, no giggles or tears with my story tonight.  But it did come fairly quickly…not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

I hear my bed calling me tonight.  At least I have the day off work tomorrow, don’t have to hear that alarm in the morning (or middle of the night, if you will).  I’ve got a few errands to run.  Need to get the oil changed in the car tomorrow and get it ready for winter (had frozen fog on the windows this morning…that was nuts).  And maybe I’ll manage to get a nap in…ahh…

 

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On the downhill side…

Okay, before some of you young whippersnappers get the wrong idea, I’m not talking about the downhill side of life…I’m talking about the downhill side of the Christmas season as it pertains to the world of retail.  Once we make it through the Thanksgiving weekend it’s all about customer service and keeping the merchandise downstocked (you know, so people can buy it?). 

Finally the Thanksgiving weekend is over.  I know a lot of you were able to spend the weekend with family and friends.  There wasn’t much of that for me this year, just a lot of working…long hours…long, exhausting hours.  But we’re getting there, the end is in sight, the six day work weeks will end (eventually…not as soon as I thought they would, but still…), and I’m looking forward to a long winter’s nap…or at least an afternoon’s nap.

And I think there’s snow in the forecast for Tuesday…seems about right, it is almost December, isn’t it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 157

Image via Wikipedia

I hope you’re having a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  Mine has been crazy so far.  When I went in to work yesterday afternoon there were already people out on the sidewalk waiting to get in…seriously…I was kidding around with them as I was unloading the turkey, ham and cauliflower salad.  They were all interested in the Cricut machine and cartridges…I’m happy to report that the people who waited for all that time got what they wanted.

We didn’t get out of there last night until 11:30 or so.  That meant I didn’t get to bed until after 1 and I had the alarm set for 4 so I could be at work at 5 for the wild and crazy black Friday shopping day.  I’ve only gone shopping on black Friday one time…working it is enough for me to realize I don’t want anything bad enough to warrant fighting those crowds.  It was busy, busy, busy all day.  Maybe, if I didn’t work in retail, I might decide to shop on black Friday…or maybe not…I end up doing most of my shopping online these days…in my jammies…

I guess I don’t need to tell you that I didn’t do any structured exercise today…just a lot of running around the store.  My eating was less than stellar altho I did have a few fruits and veggies to go along with some turkey and some ham, some whole wheat bread, a few Doritos…and a little Debbie snack cake.  Calorie wise probably okay, nutritionally?  Not as good as it could have been.  But nowhere near as bad as it could have been either.

I took a 2 hour nap when I got home this afternoon.  We’re going in at 4 in the morning to try to get some major downstocking done before we open.  So I know tomorrow will be a morning of ladder and stair climbing, lots of lifting and walking…guess I’ll skip the exercise bike again…The good thing is, once we make it through this weekend, it’s all downhill…the end is in sight…I’m catching a glimpse of vacation time on the horizon…ahh…gotta love that comp time!

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Giving thanks

Image via Wikipedia

That’s really what Thanksgiving is all about.  And I spent a little time this morning (before I head out to work) thinking about just what I’m thankful for in my life.  And what came to mind is my family.  My family is spread out all over the country…from Maryland to California, Florida to St Louis, and of course, southern Indiana.  I wasn’t able to spend time with any of them this Thanksgiving because of my job, but I am still thankful that they are all healthy and safe.  Even though we are all apart this Thanksgiving, they are all near and dear to my heart.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 155

Oh my gosh, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven…slept in until 7 this morning…stop laughing…when you get used to that blasted alarm going off at 3:30 every morning, 7 seems like sleeping in.  It was so nice to be able to get up and prepare a leisurely breakfast, sit in front of the computer reading emails…ahh…

Then I decided I’d better get ready and go finish up the shopping for our buffet at work.  I was really dreading facing the crowds today, but I think I made it early enough to avoid the worst of it.  I’ve purchased 16 12-packs of soft drinks, 4 cases of bottled water, 1 12-pack of bottled tea, 6 giant bags of chips, 3 or 4 bags of candy, mixed nuts, cashews, trail mix, a barrel of cheese balls (the people I work with love those things), a couple of boxes of Ritz crackers, a box of Cheez Its, an assortment of snack cakes and snack crackers, a couple of big boxes of PopTarts, a huge jar of giant dill pickles (kind of a Thanksgiving tradition at our store), a jar of hamburger sliced dill pickles, cheese sauce, dip for chips, lots and lots of disposable plates and silverware as well as a big package of napkins, hot cocoa mix, some Christmas cookies…oh yeah, and a ham and a turkey.  I’ve got the ham baked, sliced and in the fridge ready to go.  The turkey is in the oven for another hour or so.  Then I still need to prepare my world-famous cauliflower salad (hmm…could be a blog in that one…)  and maybe some pumpkin fluff…need to find the recipe for that one though.  I think we’ll be okay with the food and I still have money left over…that’s why they send me shopping, well…that and the fact that no one else wants to do it.

Image by acnatta via Flickr

After reading that list, it kind of reminded me to be thankful for all that we have.  There are so many people who struggle to put food on the table and I’m trying to figure out how to spend all of the money they gave us.  We’re very fortunate.  I guess it’s time for me to pull myself up out of my anger and sadness about having to work on what I consider to be a holiday to spend with family and friends…time to focus on all of the blessings in my life and put that negativity behind me.  I genuinely like the people I work with, so spending a holiday with them isn’t all bad.  Would I rather be with my family and friends?  You bet.  But being with the people I work with is good too.  And, since there isn’t a lot I can do about it short of quitting my job (and I’ve gotten kind of dependent on that pay check), just go with the flow, make the best of the situation and know that I will get Christmas Eve and Christmas off because I’m working on Thanksgiving.  Not a bad deal…

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The Christmas season is upon us…kind of…

Image by Chiot's Run via Flickr

I noticed they played Christmas music all day at work today (we don’t control the music in the stores), thought that was a little odd.  I don’t have anything against Christmas music, I actually like it, but I like it interspersed among other songs.  If they start playing only Christmas music this early, I’ll be sick of it by Christmas.  Oh well…that’s retail for you.

We went in at 5 this morning to try to get  a little done before we opened.  I think we accomplished a lot, but once we opened, things went crazy.  Of course customers were outside the doors waiting to get in.  Then the guy running the front end ran into the office and told me that the registers were frozen.  I tried to work my magic, but I must have used up all of my magical powers with that audit yesterday.  So (as much as I hated to), I had to call the help desk in India…good times there.  So I spent an hour on the phone…the work phone, my cell phone, just about any phone you could think of…trying to get the system up and running.  The registers would run for a little while, then freeze up again.  Meanwhile, I’m following instructions from a guy I could hardly understand.  He was telling me to unplug this, plug this in, move this, go here, go there…I really, really liked this aspect of my job a lot more when the help desk was in Texas.

Anyhow, finally got the registers running.  While I was doing all of that, the district manager came in.  He’s a pretty good guy, so I don’t really get all that stressed when he visits. We talked for a while, then he had a conference call he had to take part in.  I figured that was the perfect time to make my exit and start doing the deposit. 

I finally went to the bank and then over to Kroger to get some of that soda they have on sale.  We have a certain amount of money that our corporate offices gave us to spend for our store’s Thanksgiving buffet.  We stretch that money by also having a pitch-in where people bring a dish or two from home to share with everyone else.  I think I’ll do the bulk of the shopping for the buffet on Monday.  Then I’ll bake the ham and turkey on my day off (Wednesday) and take that in with me when I go in on Thursday (yes, I have to work on Thanksgiving, thank you very much).

We were busy all day at the store.  I hear about how terrible the economy is, but that doesn’t seem to prevent people from spending a lot of money.  We’re already out of some of the big outdoor decor items. It seems like people are going all out with the decorating this season.  Fine by me, the more we sell, the less we have left over to deal with at the end of the season.  Makes my job easier (and my bonus bigger).

Now to get my chores done here at home so I can go to bed and get up and do it all again…without the register malfunction, I hope.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 136

Image by **tWo pInK pOSsuMs** via Flickr

A pretty good day today.  I guess getting a decent night’s sleep helps.  I managed to get in about 7 hours last night and am hoping to do the same tonight.  It was crazy busy with people stocking up on all of the discounted Halloween and fall merchandise.  And yes, people have already started their Christmas shopping.  Back in my pre-retail days, I always set the goal of finishing all of my shopping by Thanksgiving.  Now I’m lucky to finish it at all.  Gotta love those gift cards.  And really, I like getting gift cards myself.  Then I can just go out and buy whatever the heck I want…oh wait, I pretty much do that anyhow…well, within reason…no trips to Paris or fancy shmancy cars…but you know what I’m saying, right?  There really are advantages to living by yourself.

I stopped at Kroger this morning before work to stock up on healthy dinners for the freezer at work.  I didn’t even realize they were having one of their mega sale things where you get $5 off your purchase if you buy ten items.  So, yes, I bought 10 Healthy Choice meals for work.  The one I ate for lunch today was really quite tasty…lemon pepper fish with rice and broccoli…only 350 calories and decent as far as sodium goes.  And, you know, that’s something I would be unlikely to prepare for myself so it’s a real treat to be able to throw it in the microwave and have a hot meal ready in 5 minutes or so.

I ended the day under on calories again.  Wow!  Two days in a row.  What’s going on? I also did some walking and strength training this morning.  And lots of walking at work, lots of walking, lots of talking…it’ll be nice to have tomorrow off and be able to enjoy a little peace and quiet.  I can be quite the talker, but I also like some time to myself.  I NEED time to myself in order to function.  I’ve been that way my entire life…never minded alone time.  I know there are a lot of people who want to be surrounded by people every minute of every day, but not me.  Being able to get away from people gives me time to recharge and go out and do it all again.

I’ve got to run some errands in the morning.  Then I’ll come home and clean house and do some cooking.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find a few minutes to do a little extra writing.  How about you?  What’s in store for your weekend?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 135

Image by jpstanley via Flickr

Thank goodness I made it through this day at work.  Crazy, hectic, busy, late truck, lots to do, in a bad mood…yes, me.  I finally realized it was because it was going on noon, I’d been up since around 2 am (couldn’t sleep), and I hadn’t eaten anything.  That always affects my mood.  You’d think I’d be adult enough to realize that and do something to avoid it (oh, like eat breakfast?), but no…I’m trying to get a lot done…quickly…so I don’t want to stop and take the time to eat.  And because of that, my mood gets worse and worse.  Until I finally give in and eat something.  That reminds me, I need to leave a little early in the morning to buy a few things to keep in the freezer at work.  I had planned to go out to Subway for lunch today, just to get out of the store for a while.  But I changed my mind since it was pouring down rain…blah!  So I settled for the only thing I still had in the freezer, a breakfast Lean Pocket…Subway would have been better…

And, to make my already bad mood worse, I found out that our six-day work weeks actually start this coming week instead of the following week like I thought.  So I don’t get the weekend off, I get Saturday off, then have to work Sunday and every weekend until Christmas…yippee!!

Anyhow, did some range of motion exercises this morning and that’s all I did for exercise other than all of the walking and lifting I did at work.  I don’t feel too bad, other than being awfully sleepy.  Seems like my bed time is coming earlier and earlier…but what can I do?  Gotta get me some sleep, please let me sleep tonight…please…

My eating was pretty good, not enough fruits and veggies today, only three servings.  But I’m definitely going to buy produce for some salads for work.  Easy way to up the veggie intake.  But I was under on calories today, so that’s a plus. (Or maybe a minus, at least on the scale)

Do you realize that Thanksgiving is fast approaching?  I actually have to work on Thanksgiving…boo!!  What are you going to do?

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