Drunken Owls and Other Delights

I'm trying to get into a positive habit of getting off my duff when I'm not working. Most of the time it's me heading out to do some grocery shopping or some such, but I'm thinking I should also add Errand Walking as well. We're only three long blocks from Geary (and we live at the corner of a street that's got an easy incline between here and there), and we're close enough to many places we frequent down that way. So I'm thinking either Monday or Tuesday I'll head down there to buy some ice cream and get an updated passport photo taken. And in the process I'll get my exercise!

Not that I'm not getting a workout at the Day Job, far from it. I must have done at least five miles' worth of steps today (per my Fit app, at least) because I processed FAR too many Home Shopping orders before 11am which had me walking all over the dang store. This is partly why I drive to work now, even though it's only just shy of two miles away now -- while it's an easy gridded-street walk, it's the hills in between that would be too exhausting to handle. And given my schedule of 6am opens, the bus doesn't always run on a frequent schedule that early in the morning. And this has often been why I end up not doing much of anything physical on my days off.

I'd like to change that, however. I don't need to do all the walking all over creation, mind you. Maybe head over to water the garden (now only two blocks away!), or head to the corner store or the coffee shop. Just so I keep from getting too lazy!

The good news is that I've been doing a lot of opens lately at the day job, which means I get out around 2pm and have the rest of the day to do what needs doing. The bad news is that I had to work today (Sunday) and may end up working next Sunday as well as the head bookkeeper is taking that day off. Ah well, it is what it is.

The other good news is that I'm getting this Wednesday and Thursday off! One, I rarely get two days off in a row (I kind of like it, tbh, it breaks up the five-day work week) so I can catch up on rest. Two, apparently the weather here in SF will be warming up considerably on those days, so I'm looking forward to some nice outside time!

I very rarely work on Sundays, and when I do it's usually because our head bookkeeper took the day off and I'm pretty much the only one to take his place. Today was such a case, meaning my weekend will be tomorrow and Tuesday instead. Thankfully the last few post-Valentines shifts have been extremely laid back and uneventful (and fully-staffed!) to the point where I could do what needs doing, take my own time doing it, and not have to worry about doing five other equally important things at the same time.

Unfortunately I haven't quite been on top of my writing schedule these last couple of weeks. Some of it is due to my work schedule, but a lot of it still boils down to distraction. I'm definitely on track for the Trilogy Remaster work, but I feel I could better utilize my time elsewhere as well. I'd rather not keep Theadia sitting there doing nothing. So again -- I need to readjust my time. I'll admit it didn't help that I had that neck pain followed immediately by a week's worth of head cold, but now that I've gotten past both I think I'm more than able to do so.

So what am I doing the next couple of days, aside from the writing? Not much other than laundry and relaxing. After six straight days of the Day Job I need the break!

Yesterday I worked another bookkeeper open shift (5:30-2), something I don't usually do on Sundays. Thankfully I have today and tomorrow off in which I'll be able to catch up on rest and other non-work things. The schedule for this coming week is kind of an odd one, as I believe I'm filling in the gaps for the liquor manager's hours. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll be doing his job those days (at least I don't think so, at any rate), but I'm sure I can fake it if need be. It can't be any different than my other day stocking shifts, yeah? Just that this one has locked doors, heh.

Also yesterday, I went to the theater around the corner to see a documentary called Something in the Air, which focused on the legendary radio station KSAN, which became known as one of the first and most important freeform rock FM stations of its day. While the film was quite enjoyable, it did feel a bit disjointed and leaned just a bit too much on the hippie-minded 'these were the good ol' days of weed and Santana LP sides and it'll never happen again'. [I couldn't help but think that, while true on a terrestrial radio level, there are stations like my beloved KEXP that are pretty much doing the exact same thing just in a newer (and decidedly less drug-addled) way.] As a side note, I'm pretty sure I was the youngest one there, as everyone else seemed to be of the age who were adults when the station was still on the air, heh.

Meanwhile, I am currently counting down the days until our vacation! I brought the car to the dealership last Thursday for its yearly servicing, as Mendocino is a bit of a drive and I'd like to make sure our vehicle is in top shape before then. Which also reminds me: I should invite our cat sitter over sometime this week to visit the kitties so they get used to them again!

Had to work today -- with a fourth open shift in a row -- so my sense of time is all wonky again. Feeling a bit tired and loopy and my back hurts a bit (I slept on it wrong, I think) but thankfully I have the next two days off so I can recover! Then it's another four opens in a row. I can usually handle those just fine, but my sleep patterns have been a bit wonky as of late. I don't think it's stress, but it might just be from staring at my monitor or my phone a bit too long.

So yeah, not sure if I'll be productive today or not, but we shall see.

All these weird hours lately have pretty much made me forget what day it is. And considering that I had yesterday off, did a short shift today, and have tomorrow off as well, I'm still not entirely sure what day it is! So of course they won't have next week's schedule up until tonight so I'm debating whether I should just wait until Saturday morning or if I should go in and check it when I do my shopping tomorrow.

Either way, these hours are also kind of putting a spanner in the works regarding work on Queen Ophelia's War. I'm squeezing some words in here and there, but it's slow going and I really need to fix that or else it won't be going anywhere at all. At the same time, i don't want to force it either because that never works. I'll just find the time one way or another. As long as it's moving.

I do hope this schedule gets back to normal soon...we do have a couple of new hires and I hope that they'll be able to cover some of the weird shifts I've been picking up so they can put me back to mornings or some other time.

On today's writing blog I announced that I'd be taking the next two weeks off from posting because why the hell not. We'll be on a week's vacation starting this coming weekend so I figured I may as well add a week to that while I can. No real pressing reason other than I'm allowed to take a break every now and again. I'll probably still post here as this is where I talk about more personal stuff, and I'll still do my daily 750 Words while I can.

Workwise, not much to report there. I've come to the conclusion that I kind of enjoy the weeks where it's split up a little -- say, a Thursday off in between the five-day week -- as it gives me a bit of a reprieve if a lot has gone on. And our sales have gone up considerably these last few weeks, so there are days when I come home absolutely knackered. Those midweek breaks are a nice reprieve. Gives me time to recover from a busy work day a bit more, plus I get to catch up on writing and other non-Day Job stuff.

Speaking of work and vacation, it occurs to me that I don't think I got around to scheduling that second week that's coming to me...!! I'll have to look it up to confirm that, and maybe look for some pre-holiday time off as well? Heh.

My work schedule has been kind of weird these last few weeks due to one of the floor managers being on vacation, so I am once again working on a Sunday. Bleh! The plus side is that I have Monday and Tuesday off, which is cool by me. I didn't expect to get Memorial Day off, so I'm not going to complain! I mean, other than the fact that today is a 12-8 shift and those always leave me exhausted at the end of the day.

Meanwhile in the writing sphere, I've been stuck on this current chapter and frustrated that it wasn't going anywhere, and decided a complete restart of it was in order. By chance I happened to have one of those "say...what if A and B's backstory were actually...entwined?" moments and LO! Suddenly I had a new subplot I could sink my teeth into! I decided these two characters have a similar background and actually knew each other at the time, but it's something they haven't revealed to anyone else for Important Reasons. Thankfully this has sparked some really interesting ideas going forward, so I'm quite happy about that.

Not too much else going on personally worth mentioning just yet, but all is well here in Spare Oom!

The last couple of work weeks have been odd schedule wise, splitting between opens and midshifts and the occasional almost-close, so my 'weekends' have been shifted around a little. I had yesterday and today off, and chose to utilize them as Getting Stuff Done At Home days. Yesterday was the house stuff, doing laundry and replacing a few things around the apartment, and today has been all about catching up with bills (and taxes) as well as catching up creatively.

I've gotten some personal writing and art done already today, and I'm giving myself a good amount of time to work on MU4 soon. And how is that project going?

Glad you asked. Some days I'll get a few hundred words out, other days I'll get a few dozen. Either way, I'm being patient with this project on purpose: I'm returning to an older writing process that I haven't used in several years, and I don't want to rush it. It's a process that worked, and worked wonderfully, and the aim here is to use it again, not to 'relive' it. The only thing I do want to work on is the frequency of it. There have been days when I haven't written, whether by distraction or avoidance or simply no time, and that's something I can adjust. Not force but adjust, because forcing it will only ruin what I'm trying to do. Adjust, like having a quick writing session before those midshifts, or using the laptop (which I haven't done in a while).

Whatever works, as long as it's going in the right direction, yeah?

 It's been a couple of busy weeks here, juggling the ever-changing day job schedule and digging my way through a rather important but weakly written sequence for Theadia. The blogs kind of fell by the wayside a bit (obviously) as did some of the other creative things I wanted to do, but so it goes.

But it's not all bad, really. As I've said before, I've rediscovered that I actually enjoy IRL contact with the outside world. I meet all sorts of interesting locals at the day job...some of them love to talk, some can't be arsed to say a thing and leave before the receipt prints. Several have told me how much they appreciate the shop being there. I might be old enough to be the parent of half the kids I work with (one was shocked to hear I was her mom's age) but we all get along well. I get to people-watch and learn the similarities (the uptip of the chin when I call out for the next person in line) and differences (the old Russian lady that tries to haggle the prices). Picking up on different things I wouldn't have seen in the bank universe. Things that could make my characters that much more vibrant.

I've also relearned to live day to day, week to week again. Every Thursday night next week's schedule goes up, and we both get to plan out what's going on: when I'm home for lunch or dinner, when I'll have time (morning or evening) to write, when I'll need to do the laundry or do the grocery shopping, and so on. It's definitely different from the remote days for the FDJ or even the unemployed pandemic days when I had a lot more flexibility (and, let's be honest, squandered a considerable amount of it fucking around online). I don't really mind it all that much, because it forces me not to think about long-term deadlines. Each day is a "get at least this much done" compartmentalizing that works so much better on my brain.

I mean, I'd done this back in my old retail days, and weirdly enough I'd completely forgotten how compatible this process is for me. It's not the biggest paycheck, and I don't get to listen to KEXP nearly as much as I used to, but it's a hell of a lot better than my bank days, that's for sure.