Drunken Owls and Other Delights

As I'd said to one of my coworkers today (and also on Discord), I still appreciate the fact that I can have a super busy shift like I did today and feel exhausted by the end of it...but NOT stressed out. Every now and again I'm still reminded of how toxic the bank job was, and surprised that I lasted as long as I did.

But yeah, it was a super busy day today as expected, and I'm expecting tomorrow to be the same though probably not as chaotic. Then I'm doing two bookkeeper opens on Friday and Saturday. Those can be a toss-up sometimes, especially when we have our drive-up orders to process, and those have expanded significantly over the last couple of months. Some days I'm fine and I get all the bookkeeping done and perhaps a bit of ringing up to balance it out, but there have been days when I've done five to seven of these orders, sometimes one right after the other, and those are definitely exhausting. [Especially since upper management for some reason has decided to hyperfocus on how quickly we turn those around.]

Do we have anything planned for the holiday season? Not too much, really...on the 8th we're doing our annual visit to the opera house to see the Nutcracker ballet, and on the following Sunday we'll be meeting up with A's parents for lunch, but other than that we're once again just chilling out and relaxing. No complaints!

It's been a bit of an odd week workwise, as I'm working Wednesday through Saturday and all 5:30 starts at that. I'm not exactly tired though because surprisingly I've been sleeping pretty well lately. Head bookkeeper will return next week, which means I'm back to a somewhat normal schedule again. It was put up this morning, and it looks like I'm doing multiple dairy department shifts. Can't complain there, as it keeps me busy and reasonably unstressed. I'll be working on Thanksgiving, but if I recall from last year it shouldn't be overly busy.

Meanwhile, I am maintaining a good bit of forward motion with the Theadia revision, and I am quite happy about that! All told I think I have maybe three or four 'fill this part in later' scenes to add once I finish everything off, but I think I'm back on track and on schedule again. I haven't decided on a drop date just yet, though I have been thinking about cover commissions for this novel! I'll probably follow through on that in the new year and base the drop date around that.

What else...? I'm doing pretty good physically, partly because I rack up at least 3-4 miles of walking at work (just in the store alone!), but I've been meaning to get more flexibility going on as well. I might want to have a doctor check out my knee joints in the new year, what with age and all, but aside from that I always feel like I'm not nearly as bendy as I should be. Too many years sitting on my duff in front of a PC, I suppose...

Doing better today, despite being no less disappointed that most of us would rather have a fucking moldy cheese way past its sell-by date than a woman president. As I've said numerous times before, it's not so much him that bothers me about it, as it's what he inspires, and THAT is where we'll have most of the problems.

But I digress. I've gotten the sorrow and anger out of my system for the moment and back to the level I should be at: be my true self, because amusingly enough that's what they hate the most. Conformity is a hell of a drug and they hate when you don't fall in line.

Anyway. Time to adjust and soldier on.

WOO! Finished my sixth and final day in a row at the day job by powering through two u-boats full of dairy product (noted: the yogurt section is both easy and a pain in the ass to stock as it's similar to the kids' section of a book store: it has its own little area that's easy to navigate but gets pulled all out of order almost immediately). Am now home awaiting my turn to use the laundry downstairs!

So! Are we doing anything this week? Well not too much is set in stone other than sleeping in a bit and going on a few day trips around the area. We'll see what we're in the mood for and where we want to go. A has told me that there is a relatively good chance that money will be spent at book stores, heh! Given that there are many indies around town that we like to stop at, not to mention the B&Ns outside of the city, chances are that my TBR pile will grow once more.

Other non-travel plans will most likely be a Goodwill donation dropoff as the donation pile here in Spare Oom is getting a bit unwieldy; there will also be a lot of writing catch-up! And I will most likely be repeat-listening to the new Cure album as well, as I only got to listen to it that once on Friday. 

Hope everyone has a lovely week ahead!

Today was garden clean-up party day, so A and I headed over and spent a couple of hours weeding, cleaning, replanting, laying down woodchips, and exhausting ourselves. We were also able to get a new board nailed to the side of our shared bed, as one of them was quite rotten and already broken into many pieces. We are now back home and chilling and not doing much of anything else. At this point I have just enough energy to do the laundry and give the kitties occasional attention!

Meanwhile, I have jury duty stand-by all week this week, so I'll need to call in at the end of the day to see if I need to go in. If I were going to the civil court near City Hall I wouldn't mind as much, but this is the criminal court over in SoMa that's a pain in the butt to get to and not easy to find parking for. [Not to mention the building and the neighborhood is kind of dumpy.] We shall see...

Writing: am I actually doing some? Yes! I'm forcing myself back into a daily session again: no major word count to beat or a specific length of time, I just need to get SOMETHING done on a daily basis again. Once I'm back into that groove again, everything else should go back to normal. On Friday morning I somehow managed to FINALLY figure out how to end Theadia in a way I'd be satisfied with, so that should give me a much clearer idea of where to go once I'm caught up with this particular revision. Now if I can maintain this excitement for when I start MU4...

OH! I forgot to add the neat recent thing about the day job! I'd mentioned in my previous entry that I'd spent the entire Wednesday shift cleaning and rearranging the dairy walk-in cooler...so on Saturday, one of the managers walked up to me and thanked me again for doing such a great job as it made the inventory session that much easier...and then followed up by saying "...I've been talking with (Head Boss) about assigning you dairy more often because whenever you do it, things get done." I'm quite tickled about that, to be honest! I really appreciate that this was an honest "thanks for a great job, let's follow up on this" and not a scripted "thank you for all you do, EnterEmployeeNameHere!" Definitely a difference from the Former Day Job in a lot of ways!

As it happens I had to work today due to Head Bookkeeper taking the day off, which was fine, the only issue being that it was three days in a row where I should have been doing said bookkeeping but ended up spending most of that time doing drive-up orders instead. I don't mind doing those per se, it's just that new ones were constantly popping up JUST as I finally finish doing two in a row and want to take a breather, not to mention that upper management has decided to hyperfocus on completion times, substitutions and other fun pointless algorithm numbers. You know how it is. Just one more thing I'm supposed to stress out over. I'd I certainly have been stressing out lately, because it's not just those orders but feeling like I have to be in charge of five other things at the same time: babysitting the front end, answering the phone, working the register because we're short-staffed, making sure the teens from the local high school aren't stealing, fixing the always-malfunctioning self check-outs, unlocking the liquor and pharmaceutical cabinets, and whatever else is going on. As I've told my coworkers and bosses: I get stressed out and snippy with my words, but I very rarely get angry or pissed off. You'll know I'm getting there when I start swearing.

The good thing is that I have tomorrow off and have zero plans other than laundry. I need a wind-down and a refocus as I haven't been able to deal with Theadia work lately and that's bothering me. And speaking of creativity, I've pretty much given up on Inktober (again), though mainly out of disinterest. I didn't hate it and it didn't feel like I was trying too hard, just that it didn't resonate with me at all. I'd still like to do some more art, but I'm thinking that if I'm going to do it, I should find an outlet that interests me. Doing month-long memes isn't cutting it anymore, I guess?

But yeah, I'm hoping that next week isn't nearly as dramatic because I really could use the break. I've got jury duty the week after, though I'm not sure if I'll actually need to go in until next Sunday anyway. [I was joking with A today that jury duty would actually work as a perfect break from all the bs I'd been dealing with, heh.] We shall see, I suppose...

Mind you, I'm sure I'll be waking up at 6am like I usually do, heh.

Okay, so it's only thirteen days into the new month, am I starting the 'fresh month, fresh start' thing this early?? No, not really. Merely that I've finally finished off a few long-term creative things I'd been doing and given myself a few days' rest before starting up with something else. Nothing out of the norm here, really. Even though I'd had a crazy week at the Day Job, it didn't really put me off schedule at all.

So! After a walk around the neighborhood (and to our garden plot to water) and a much-overdue vacuuming of the house (sorry, cats, I know you're terrified of that Noisy Evil Machine Wot Lurks In the Hall Closet), I am ready to do a bit of PC cleaning, houseplant watering, and working on stuff I'd been putting aside. No time like the present! [It does help that I also have tomorrow off, which gives me an extra day to get more writing work done!]

And speaking of restarting fresh, I've been meaning to take the bus and/or walk to and from work lately but the odd schedules and needing the car for shopping purposes have kept me from doing so. I really must do better there. Not just for the exercise but also because I'm just wasting gas at this point. And I keep meaning to restart the stretches/exercises again but I keep getting distracted and forgetting! Not going to beat myself up over it, just going to try to do better is all. Semi-related, I have a word search in my satchel that has not been touched at all that I really should break into during my breaks. All it takes is that next step, yeah? What's keeping me other than passive distraction?

Anyhoo. All this cleaning and moving around has tuckered me out, so time to sit and relax for a bit, and listen to the Blue Angels VOOOOOOOSH over our apartment. 

Hope everyone has a good week!

WHOOF. It's Bay Area Summertime, which means it's our turn for a few weeks of extremely high temperatures. Our summers are usually much cooler, with the heatwave coming rather late in the season, and this year is no different. It's been in the 80s and 90s over the last couple of days, which is NOT fun, considering us San Franciscans really don't need AC or fans 90% of the year. I'm just glad that my store is a bit on the cool side! (Speaking of which, I'm scheduled to do dairy upstock the next couple of days, which means I get to hang out in the cooler parts of the store, yay!) The only downside to this is that several customers will also grok to the fact that my store is a perfect place to cool off. It's a double-edged sword: we'll make our budget and then some, but it'll be super busy and I'll be exhausted by the end of it.

My writing sessions have been kind of wonky the last couple of days as well, partly due to the weather making it a bit too warm and stuffy in the apartment, but it is what it is. I'll catch up eventually. I'm also getting close to ready to try out a few things in the Mendaihu Universe on the 750, probably in the next week or so, so I'm looking forward to that.

Oh! And I did the smart thing and scheduled my latest Covid shot the day BEFORE my day off. I always do that, just in case the vaccine kicks my ass. The first one laid me out back then, but all the shots since then have only left me achey for a day or so. A few of my coworkers made the mistake of not scheduling it like that and ended up calling out the next day, which for me was NOT fun at all. [I don't blame them for feeling ill at all, only that those days where I'm doing twice the work because of their being out end up laying me out eventually.]

Hope everyone has a good (and much cooler) week!

Wait, is that blue sky I see outside the window...? It's been a weird wave of good and bleh weather over the last several weeks -- and it's been quite nice when I'm stuck inside at work for hours on end -- so it's a pleasant surprise when the fog and the clouds have dissipated for the moment.

A and I walked to the other end of Clement for the farmer's market, and I think I can safely say that with all the walking I do at work, a simple just-over-a-mile walk up to Arguello and Clement has become a pleasant one rather than an exhausting one. We picked up various tasty fruits and veggies (A wanted some squash for pickling purposes, I wanted some Concord grapes which are finally in season again), and had a very filling lunch of chilaquiles at Taqueria Los Mayas. [We of course took the bus home because we were now carrying many things.]

It's been a very busy month both here in Spare Oom and at the Day Job, but I think I've managed to maintain that balance and get most things done that I'd been wanting to do. I feel that the writing work could use a bit more focus, but I'm not too worried about it considering most of it is revision right now. Still, I'd like to be a bit more serious and consistent about it. Maybe come October...?

Which reminds me, I am going against my better judgement and doing Inktober this year. Whether it'll be on paper or elsewhere, I'm not sure, but we shall see.

My work schedule changes a bit from week to week. Fridays and Saturdays are always the same since those are my bookkeeping days, but between our vacation and Other Bookkeeper's vacation these last couple of weeks, it's taken a bit of an odd shakeup. I've been working one day off and one day on since last Tuesday. It hasn't necessarily thrown my inner clock off, but it is a bit odd considering I've never had a run of work days like that before. Things should be back to normal by Wednesday.

On the plus side, I've been using these days to work on Theadia as well as giving Walk in Silence (the book) yet another go. I'm purposely not focusing too much on any other project right now, though I am sort of playing around with ideas in my head in that respect. They're more at the 'we shall see' level at the moment.

Other than that...? Not much else to report!