Drunken Owls and Other Delights

My current shortened work schedule is not the best, but I'm making do by taking care of the various errands that need doing and trying to get most of my writing done on my days off. I've been good this week so far by preparing some blog posts ahead of time so I'm not rushing through them the night before they go live. I used to do that during my last few months at the Former Day Job, actually, so I should probably pick that habit up again.

Recently I'd seen something someone posted on Threads that intrigued me. I don't remember the exact wording, but it had something to do with questioning why you might be utterly exhausted at work even despite getting a good night's sleep and not physically overexerting yourself. The problem, it said, might have to do with what I believe they called "open threads" that are left open that drag you down. I immediately understood what they meant by that and why I'd been exhausted myself: having a positive but busy day at work might leave me tired, but never completely drained. On the other hand, if I go into work with that feeling of dread that I have to pick up those 'threads' in order to keep them from hopelessly unraveling, then that would be why I feel so mentally exhausted, and in turn feeling like I'm dead on my feet. There have been days where I have to constantly plan at least two or three steps ahead in order to get multiple things done on time -- which I'm good at when it's needed, mind you -- but the exhaustion comes from that multitasking constantly being interrupted. And I think that's one of the issues I've been having these last couple of months. It's not that I can't do the job, it's that I can and have been doing it, only to be waylaid by outside forces and people should know better than to derail me like that. And that is why I've been feeling tired.

Anyway, I have Thursday off so I'm going to get more work done on Theadia and have some Zen time with my cats to recharge. :)

A has two work-related trips this week and next, which means I'll be flying solo for a few days. No big deal, but of course I'm going to be worried about the two kitties while I'm at work! They'll be fine, though...whenever the both of us are away for a couple of hours, the most they get up to is snacking on kibble and napping in various parts of the house. [The only door we'll close is to the main bathroom, as Cali has occasionallly been known to somehow get herself stuck in the shower stall, heh.]

Thankfully the Day Job has always been flexible so I can drive A to and from the airport when needed!

Our weeklong vacation has been very relaxing and enjoyable so far. We spent the last three days up in Bodega Bay just enjoying the scenery, the wildlife, and the blessed silence, but we are now back in the city and plan to do not much of anything except maybe do a bit of shopping and go to the zoo at some point. Can't complain! I do plan on getting a few other things done on the interim considering I have all the time for it.

Also happy that I'm catching up on sleep. The last several weeks have been kind of wonky, between waking up at 4am some days and working until 8pm other days, partly due to a few people being out on leave, but hopefully that'll change soon upon their return. One of my coworkers gladly watched/fed/played with our cats in our absence, and they've updated me on what's going on at the shop (which, apparently, not much of anything new other than a few grumpy people and another person unsurprisingly calling out AGAIN). I'll be honest, I'm glad I now work at a place where I can return after a vacation and not have to worry about spending the next two weeks cleaning up the fallout of any email inboxes!

Meanwhile, today's vacation excitement is to take the bus downtown to explore the brand new IKEA store. Heh.

This is the second week in a row that I've got Sunday and Monday off followed by working two midshifts on Tuesday and Wednesday, then three opens of varying lengths for the rest of the week. It's a bit exhausting by the end of the week, but it's not that bad because I get Sunday to do stuff with A and catch up on other things on Monday.

So what did we do today? We drove up to the Petaluma to have lunch with A's brother (and drop off a set of our house keys, something we'd been meaning to do for a while) and did a bit of shopping as well. I was hoping to go to Tall Toad Music downtown to buy some guitar strings for my acoustic but by the time we finished at Target it was getting late, it was far too hot and I just wanted to head home. A and I are so used to the constant 50s-60s and fog these last couple of weeks that going outside in the hot sun was not all that fun.

What was fun was that we finally went to the premium outlet center up there and got some super sweet clothing deals. I am now flush in tees and collared shirts for work and also picked up a pair of nice shoes for super cheap. They also have a place there that's a combination used book nook and cat adoption center, so you can chill out and just play with the kitties there for a bit. They'd just let them out onto the floor when we walked by and got to watch a bit of kitty silliness through the front windows, heh.

[Speaking of cats, that's part of the reason we wanted to drop off the keys -- though we have a cat sitter for our upcoming trip, we felt it might be good for our relatives to have a set in case we're away again, or for emergency purposes. But mainly to ensure that Juli and Cali are well looked after, of course!]

And now I get to chill for the rest of the evening...

This past week at work was exhausting and a bit weird due to people calling out and things not going as planned, but yesterday it ended quite nicely with me almost completely avoiding the registers by way of finishing up several small work-related errands I'd been putting off. I got most of them completed with few issues and spent the rest of the day relaxing! Thankfully my schedule is even more back to normal this coming week with only one mid-shift and no closes. Yay!  Oh-- and I may be in the running for becoming the new liquor manager for the store...? Still not sure where I stand with it as the posting schedule got kind of effed up, but the talk around the shop is hinting that I *might* be in the lead? Who knows? More to come as this unfolds...

Today we were originally going to go to Crissy Field but the fog had come in over the mouth of the Bay, so we nixed that as it would probably be a bit cold and unexciting. So we ended up walking up to the farmer's market to buy fruits and have lunch at one of our favorite taquerias. I was still a bit tired during the walk home but managed it without wimping out and catching the bus, heh. 

Anything else to report...? No, not really. Although I need to talk with my coworker this week to plan out their cat-sitting for us. We're letting them stay over while this happens so that's fine, but I'll need to make sure everything is good to go, they get paid, and have some extra keys made for them to use during that time.


Hope everyone has a good week!

 As they often say, weather in San Francisco really depends on which neighborhood you happen to be in. Out here in the Richmond it tends to be a bit cooler than downtown, though downtown can be a bit windy from the crosswinds coming off the Bay. The fog bank always seems to stop somewhere around Presidio Avenue near the JCC before it eventually retreats or burns off by midafternoon. Today my neighborhood had a nice thick fog layer going, but now it's only lingering over the mouth of the Bay, right at the GG Bridge, and the rest of the sky is clear. And it's warmer than yesterday! Not bad for a day off if I say so myself...

Which reminds me: I've been told by our landlady that we'll be getting new rear windows sometime in the next couple of weeks! Which is great because they're both a bit worn out and possibly touched with a bit of water damage on the sills. We of course plan on getting screens for these new windows so we can enjoy the cool air during warm days while the kitties can still perch up there and watch the birds. Looking forward to better working windows!

 Finally made good on my promise to get my haircut today at the finally-reopened Supercuts on Fillmore. It's still long, just past shoulder length, but the dead- and split-ends are finally gone! I'm cursed with having extremely straight and fine hair so I can't really shape it in any way as gravity will eventually take over. On the other hand, I'm blessed with a full head of it even at my age, so I'm fine with that trade-off. Still, I spent a bit of change getting a trim and some spray that will hopefully keep it healthy.

And while I was out, I went to the vet's office across the street from the Supercuts to set up an appointment later this week to get a wellness check done for Jules and Cali. They're not going to be happy about it, but it's gotta be done sooner or later. As I write this they're both here in Spare Oom having their afternoon naps, unaware of their fate a few days from now...heh.

Anything else? I'm still behind on getting work done on MU4, but I'm slowly catching up. Just have to stop screwing around and get to work!

 It's wintertime here in the Bay Area, which means overcast and overly humid days and temps that don't quite break the mid 50s. It's not the bitterly cold and snowy New England winter of my youth, sure, but it's got its own miserableness. The humidity (along with whatever happens to be blooming this time of year) starts kicking off my allergies giving me a migraine, and every room in the house is chilly. And given where I work, I have my coat on all the time as it's always a chilly mid-50s inside as well.

Our two cats seem not to mind, though. They're silly as always, washing-up sessions devolving into playfighting and chasing each other through the apartment. Cali's a terror and has already damaged one of the cat tree posts and at least two of their toys -- she'd make a great mouser. Jules is more laid back and chill and takes her own time to sort things out, which makes her slow to play with but super smart and wily in other areas. She'll bat Cali with a few hilarious cheap-shots just when you think they're done wrestling. At the end of the night however, once they finally chill down, they'll join us on the bed (or go under it) for a nap.

At least I don't have to shovel any snow or drive in it! :)

Having two young cats in the apartment has been a bit of a learning curve for both kitties and owners, but we're all doing okay. Jules and Cali have come to a tentative sisterly agreement that they'll keep each other company, share the food dish, and take turns being the Occasional Annoying Sibling. Nothing is broken, scratched, fallen over or destroyed (yet) so that's a good sign. The fosters did a great job teaching them!

It's also Q4 time again, so the Day Job has seen an uptick of customer flow. From what I hear from the managers, we're doing amazingly well for a small store (we're half the size of most others) and our neighborhood loves us. Sure, we get the occasional Grumpy Gus that finds fault in the smallest things but they're very much in the minority. And our shoplifting issue has lessened considerably since we started hiring security! And as I mentioned at the writing blog, our bosses frown on forced overtime thanks to our union, so it's not as if I'm getting my ass handed to me on a ten-hour shift like I used to at Yankee. Props to the head manager as well for doing a great job with the scheduling as well! We'll still have the occasional short-staffed day, but those are increasingly few and far between as we hire more workers.

I'm trying to get caught up with my writing duties today and doing a pretty good job of it, so I can't complain!

In which I come back from a four-day respite up north (Mendocino) to work four days in a row doing evening shifts. I don't mind them, except for the fact that I walk in experiencing the tail end of the lunch rush, followed by maybe an hour of downtime, then around three hours of the post-work-commute rush, so by the time 8pm rolls around I am wiped. Thankfully next week's schedule is up and it's all mornings, which I prefer!! Those are usually dead quiet from 6-8am and I'm done just about the end of the lunch rush. Then I get to go home and write!

Speaking of the respite, it was quite a relaxing visit up north, even though the drive there itself (around 150 miles) is quite the slog with no really easy way to get there. Most of it is up 101 and that's fine, but I can either turn onto 128 which will take me through narrow-road wine country and redwood forest which is nice but offers few pit stops, or I can turn at 20 further north and take the twisty-turny-up-and-over-the-mountain-road which is also nice but exhausting. Despite all that, we only experienced about 10 minutes of fireworks, had breakfast delivered to us each morning, and even got to visit the bookstore cat (whose name is of course the Great Catsby). The weather was cooler and there was a distinct lack of allergens and pollen in the air, much to our relief. Plenty of pictures were taken!

Up and coming: we will be seeing Motion City Soundtrack again in Berkeley -- the same band we saw just before the pandemic started -- on Sunday, and next Saturday we'll be seeing the Airborne Toxic Event with the SF Symphony! Looking forward to both shows!