Drunken Owls and Other Delights

WHOOF. I knew it was going to be a busy day at work just like Thanksgiving Eve was, but it still managed to melt my brain. It was rather quiet until about 8:30am when everyone in the neighborhood started coming in...and it did not let up at all. Thankfully we had a mostly full team by 10:30 so I wasn't completely laid out by the time I clocked out. And everyone seemed to be in a reasonably good mood, so I can't complain. To be honest I think I'm more tired because I kept waking up last night due to my right ear being blocked up. 

Meanwhile, Friday and Saturday mornings will be my usual opening shifts, although I'll probably need to go in earlier than usual on Friday considering all the registers and self-checkouts will be closed down and empty. I'm hoping they'll behave this time so the numbers won't be all wonky like last time, though. It all balanced out after a day or so, but I'd rather not go through that nonsense again!

Alas, I will be working both New Years' Eve and Day, but I'm hoping they'll be laid back like last year. It's all at the end of the week as well, so I can spend Sunday through Tuesday chilling, making my end of year mixtape and doing other stuff. Not sure if I'll be back to more hours soon, but we shall see.

It seems calling out on Monday was a good idea, because I was extremely burned out. I stayed at home and didn't do much of anything other than a bit of writing and reading, and by the afternoon I felt a lot better. I also had a good rethink about why I was feeling so exhausted, and I'm pretty sure it was day job related. There's been a few things happening that I was letting get to me in a rather unhealthy way and it just kind of all came to a head over the weekend. Long story short, I've decided I'm going to just stop getting angry about the consistent lack of assistance and the frequent assumption of managerial status from a certain coworker. I'm still annoyed that they've fucked with my pay and I'm hoping it will be rectified very soon, but I'm not going to ragequit or let it eat at me as much.

More to the point, I've decided that I need to reapproach the day job the same way I did during my years at Yankee Candle. The day job is the day job and I should only put in what I feel I want to put into it. My main focus should always be with the writing -- the day job is the day job, the writing is the career, after all. It's time to dial it back a little and rebalance my priorities here.

In other news, I've resurrected the longhand journal and the 750 Words sessions again, and the poetry/song writing might make a reappearance in the near future as well. Why? Well, because I want to, which is a fine enough reason. I'm sort of giving myself a trial run during these last few days of the month with the aim to be more consistent about them in October. We'll see how that pans out...

I have been SO exhausted lately, and I'm not sure if it's allergies and the change in the weather (SF is suddenly experiencing warmth and sun for the first time in ages) or that I've just been spreading myself far too thin lately at work. A bit of both, perhaps. I won't bother you with the details, just that I left early today as I was pretty much running on fumes. Thankfully I have tomorrow off so I will spend the day chilling. [I have my two bookkeeper opens Friday and Saturday, but those don't tire me out even though I wake up early...I'm too busy sitting at a computer processing things!] I have no other plans except heading over to PetSmart to pick up some litter and check out a replacement cat tree for the older one that's falling apart. Oh, that and continue doing a bit of writing work!

Meanwhile, Outside Lands is this weekend, so I've a feeling there will be all sorts of nonsense going on. The volume at the Day Job wasn't too bad last year, as it was mostly people buying stuff for home partying or pre-show get togethers, but we shall see. I'm more concerned about some idiot parking in front of my garage door (which we will gladly have towed at the owner's expense) blocking me in or out. The sound might be a bit louder I think, considering the performers that will be there, but we shall see. Thankfully they still stick to the 10pm shutdown, and that's right about the time we finally turn out the lights.

For those playing along, I've been in Massachusetts for the last five days and just came back home to SF late last night. I am physically and emotionally exhausted and I called out from the Day Job today to recharge.

My father's calling hours were very well attended by at least 50-60 people -- relatives, friends, neighbors, coffee buddies, even an Elvis impersonator he knew -- and it was great to see so many of them. Quite a few I had to ask their name as I'd known of them but had never met them in person. It was also great to see a bunch of the old neighborhood gang paying respects. Most of the trip itself was just visiting my family, who are holding up well. And when I was back at my hotel, I mainly spent most of the time getting caught up on novel revision.

How do I feel? Well, as said, I'm exhausted. Not in a bad way, just drained from having to go through that as well as having to deal with several hours of crappy New England winter weather that I haven't dealt with for almost two decades. It took a lot of will power to get through it all. There's also the fact that I've been surrounded by several people in a short amount of time so I really should take a Covid test at some point today.

I should be better today if I take it slowly today. I have nothing planned other than laundry.