SLUMBER

I've been sleeping.

A lot.

I have done little else.

Only what was required to keep my home clean

and both of us in clean clothes.

Then I sit for a second and fall asleep.

 

 

I've needed it.

I've been working a lot of hours and days.

My job is physical.

Basically I lift weights all day long.

I don't just hang up clothing...

I hang up groups of clothing at a time.

Ten coats can be pretty heavy for an old silly rabbit.

 

Not that I am complaining.

Its good for the "bat wings" that form under the arms.

And it is exercise.

 

But its the mental part of my  job that exhausts me.

Answering questions like

"Do you have battery operated gloves?"

Or

"Can I speak to your Twinky department?"

Or

"Are you real... I mean a real person?"

 

 

Its the work politics.

Tush is an older woman with ego issues...

she can't stand Mike and Ike...

who are young women...

 telling her what to do.

It does not matter that they have worked there longer.

She imagines Mike and Ike plots against her.

Sigh.

Mike and Ike ignore and avoid her.

 

 

I am so sad that I cannot do the same.

I am locked into working with her and have to hear plots all day long.

Ugh.

Mike and Ike are not plotting.

They are doing their jobs. 

 

 

I try to do what I can to avoid work conflict.

I let my mind wander to other interests.

Let's face it...

my job is not demanding of actual brain power

so mine is free to play.

 

 I watch people.

We have an endless supply and variety.

I find the homeless particularly interesting.

They do some odd things.

 

There are grazers.

These are the folk who come in and graze off the shelves...

then hide their wrappers and opened packages, etc.

in the merchandise.

I found a half eaten chicken breast tucked between two purses.

(We have a hot deli.)

An empty can of Red Bull in a pair of boots.

 

But the ones that amaze me most are the ones who do their laundry

in our store.

No, not the kind where one uses a washing machine.

One pair of boxers is replaced in a package with a used pair.

Oh yuck.

Same with pairs of socks, shirts, pants, shoes, etc.

 

 

Everyone needs food and clothing.

I get that.

But seriously... ick!

 

Or they become angry when they cannot do or have something they want...

and defecate on the floor or benches.

I have never been that mad.

I am afraid it is out of my scope of understanding. 

 

 

I see homeless women in the public bathrooms putting on their make up

in the morning...

or taking  sponge baths in the sinks daily.

It makes me feel both sad

 and 

admire them for not giving up completely.

 

Some walk the store all night...

imitating shoppers.

Filling their carts with all manor of clothing and items...

that they never take to the check stand.

Slowly making the time inside out of the cold last as long as they

can go unnoticed...

abandoning full carts when they attract attention...

to flee back out into the dark.

 

 

I don't mind the lifting of clothing and moving them around all day.

That is a good kind of tired.

That is a day of good honest work.

Its watching work place pettiness...

and watching the sad lives of homeless human beings...

that exhausts my soul.

 

But there are highlights too...

a tale for another day.

Right now,

I'm feeling sleepy again.

Sorry I've been gone so long.

I have missed you all.

 

=:]

            

         

THANKSGIVING COMES FIRST

(http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com)

This one is for Suldog who believes... and I do agree...

that the commercialization of the holidays are ruining them

by jamming them all too close together.

Each year he invites bloggers to put in their two cents worth as well

on the subject... this is my contribution.

=:]

My mom was big on decorating for holidays.
We had lots of the tissue paper things that had hard cardboard attached that you could open like fans and fasten
to make pumpkins, hearts, angels, trees, etc. according to the holiday.
Not to mention 5 children's worth of pine cone turkeys, paper machet or clay creations.
Boxes and boxes of the stuff crowded the mysterious closet under our stairs that changed in size
like the room at a fun house.

That was part of the fun of any holiday for all of us
and my mother's time to shine in her own creative way.
Decorating was the way we were all drawn into the fun and it set us up for anticipation of the event.

All of the holidays, were distinctly different in decoration.
Halloween was silly scary fun stuff.
Thanksgiving was more serious. 
Pilgrims, their big buckle shoes and hats, cornucopias, Indian corn ears and gourds that were not carved.
We never mixed the holidays together. 

Halloween came down on November 1st.
Thanksgiving would show up a few days after, but not immediately.

This year, working in the store... the holidays are all mixed up together.
There are Halloween things on mark down mixed in with a much smaller selection of Thanksgiving items and a big selection of Christmas items.
Thanksgiving seems to be shrinking in size each year.

I have my suspicions about that.
I think its greed.
Or perhaps I should say the absence of greed in the holiday itself.

Thanksgiving is  not about "getting something".
Its about being thankful for what you do have, be it grand or not...
because you've been granted another year and made it thus far...
and for being among the people living and those 

remembered  friends and family who sit at the table with us in spirit.

You can spend a fortune on Thanksgiving foods and the odd trinket.
But you can also manage to fix a great meal without going broke too.
It is a holiday that does not fall apart if you don't have much money.
An every-man's holiday.

It doesn't make the money that more "greed driven" holidays do.
Retail has scaled down the importance of Thanksgiving.
Turning their sights on more money as quickly as they can...
beginning at midnight on Thanksgiving...
not wanting to wait a single minute after the clock strikes twelve 

to start dragging in the dough...
while Tom Turkey still digests in our tummies.
Black Friday!  Black indeed!

My mother had it right.  There needs to be a break between them.
A few days that you don't have to dust around the decorations. 
A few days to mull over the delight of what just passed and
take stock of the normal day around you.
When you run them all together that reflection gets lost.

We have no one to blame but ourselves.
As long as we rush out to take advantage of those deals on Black Friday at 2:00 A.M.
or buy to excess on credit, things that we cannot truly afford...
as long as we set aside the meaning behind the holidays
and engage in the greed...
we deserve what we lose in the process.

I can't refuse to work Black Friday or I would lose my  job, which I need.
But I can refuse to participate with my pocket book...
and by savoring my Thanksgiving blessings until November turns to December...
and keep the true meaning of the holiday at my table.

HITTING THE BRICKS

Since my eyes fly open at 5:00 a.m. every morning, on my day off, its an opportunity to laze around in bed doing suduko with I love Lucy playing in the background. I'm really not much of a Lucy fan.  It bothers me that they joke so much about Ricky hitting Lucy like that is normal and sometimes deserved. However, it is not news or one of the annoying entertainment talk news shows.  I have trained my ears to close when Lucy cries and focus on the puzzle.

I was sipping my fresh ground chocolate almond coffee with white chocolate creamer when Roxy came up and began to tap dance. There is only one thing that makes my dog tap dance. I swung my feet over the side of the bed and into the man's flop feet, since mine were no where in sight.  A dancing dog really needs to get a move on.  With my bed crazed hair and my light weight night shirt, I scuffed off to the sliding door.

I considered the idea of letting her go out without a leash. We have a fenced yard. But someone chewed a giant RAT hole in the side of it and went off for a frisky time in the neighborhood.  The giant RAT hole is not yet repaired and the RAT must be accompanied until the hole is fixed.  So I set down my coffee cup and clipped on her retractable leash.  Picking up my cup as I slid the door open, I caught a slight glimpse of the hair raising on her spine and heard the sound of a fishing rod casting.

There are two wide steps down to patio floored with concrete and aggregate squares.  However I have no recollection of stepping on either of them.  In fact, it seemed as if I flew through two set up sawhorses topped by a board into the center of our rather good sized patio... where I skidded to a stop on two knees and one elbow for landing gear.  I dropped and lay like a lump of oatmeal.

The sound of clicking toenails made me look up from the glued together pebbles.  Roxy had her ears up.  "What are you doing down there mom?" seemed to be the question on her smiling face.  She wiggled happily and proceeded to wiggle about the cat she had chased away.  The world and I were safe now and she was a hero. Happy days!

I think the worst part of it all was that getting up required getting to my knees.  If I had been thinking of anything besides swear words, I might have saved myself some drama by rolling to a smooth concrete square instead of the aggregate one that tortured me. But the swearing in my head was way too loud for thought. Shaking arms pushed me up and I gripped the outdoor kitchen cabinet and hauled myself to my feet.

Roxy stood before me, no longer wiggling.  Mom just did not look like a happy camper. Her tail stopped mid-wag. She cautiously approached me, dragging the retractable leash behind her like a pull toy. She looked at me, then at my grated knees.  I was not fast enough to stop her tongue from shooting out and giving on a good hard lick!  She meant well.

I took ginger steps to the front door.  Outside I watched the man get out of his truck. He walked in the door and stared at my knees.  I handed him the leash and said "Roxy needs to do her business." before I shuffled off to pick the grit and leaf bits out of my wounds.

I still don't know where my coffee cup landed.  I don't really care. Two days later now, my knees are still stiff and swollen, with beautiful colors and various lumps beneath the skin. I will certainly live to take another face plant another day.

But you know, there is always a silver lining under these events.  The man felt very sorry for me. He set me up on the sofa with a footstool and put a bag of corn on one knee and a bag of peas on the other.  He made me new coffee and kept giving me refills. Later he made us a meal of a variety of appetizers and a frosty margarita for medicinal purposes.  I had a day off that began with my usual laze in bed for a few hours into a day of total lazing... with a servant.  Kind of a harsh price, but as an after thought, not bad at all.

TRUE OR FALSE

I thought it would be fun to do a weekly 

"TRUE OR FALSE"

Post.

Look at this photo... ew!

Then read the article below...

and tell me if you think it is true or false.

Simple enough.

Both the photo and the story came from FB.

OH... no fair checking on Snopes!

***

NEW POISONOUS SPIDER IN THE UNITED STATES

A spider bite...please read............ And you thought the brown recluse was bad!

Three women in North Florida, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma.

Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same Restaurant (Olive Garden) within days of their deaths.
The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.

The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom.

That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat.
Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider.

The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.
Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore, before returning home.
He did not visit (Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.
Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India.
The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India, and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes!
It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life!
And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

  
 ***
 
 Now... True or False?
I'll give the answer later in the comments.
 

THE BUZZ

( Credit to utterlycute.com)

Picture a pyramid shaped hive. 

At the top is the store queen bee.  

Just below her are two co-queen bees, below them are a dozen hive division manager bees and below them are hive area manager bees... who have hive co-area manager bees.  

The nectar runs down hill as they say.

When the queen bee warns the hive co-queen bees and they shove whatever threat they think will improve things in the hive on down through the ranks until we little worker bees get steamrolled.  Work is stress.  Expectations are set so high that one can not accomplish what is assigned...

to management satisfaction.

Here's a good example.  Today in one hour, I fielded 52 phone calls. I also had to respond to the walkie-talkie whenever a manager bee wanted something done. They don't page... I page.  I also had to let people into the fitting room... count and search what they were taking in to try on without offending them and recount when they came out again.  Somewhere in the middle of that... management railed at me for not answering the walkie-talkie fast enough.  I explained that I had all 5 lines ringing one after the other and a customer with a question in person. 

(A customer waiting to get into a fitting room was watching and listening to me getting into trouble on the walkie-talkie, which is very loud.)  

I apologized. 

I detest groveling over an unfair expectation.  I feel bad about getting raked over the coals in public and I feel worse about allowing that to happen to me.

Our hive area manager bee got into trouble because not enough stuff was being put back on the racks fast enough for the queen bee... who has been away on vacation.  Hummm... let's see, back to school shopping time, with multiples of returned items, under staffed and badly scheduled.  Of course it must be the bottom of the hive worker bees at fault!  It can't have anything to do with management choices, actions or the lack thereof.  So our area and co-area manager bees have been stinging everyone verbally.

You know what happens when manager bees go bad?  All the worker bees go into a frenzy.  Frenzy actually causes mistakes to happen but worse than that, they begin to sting each other.  There is so much back stinging going on right now that I don't want to talk to any of my co-worker bees. All the little bees blame each other when the other is not around.  They whisper it in conspirator conversations to each other and to the manager bees.  

Our little hive has become a hornet's nest.

Ugh.  I dread the next two days at work.  I can't wait for my day off.  Meanwhile... I will continue to come home every day and search for a different job.  My last retail job was a piece of cake compared to this insanity.  Its exhausting and drains me of my will to do anything more than 

sit in a stupor when I get home.  

Hence the failure to post. 

Thanks for checking in on me and thanks for hanging in there.  

I can't promise a lot.  

But I will do at least a post a week.  

Christmas is coming and if "back to school" was bad... 

well... 

I don't even want to think about it. 

 

IT SHRUNK

A barn in the middle of nowhere.

The man drove me to pick up my first check today.

Yay!

That I was finally getting paid...

Yay!

That I was not the one driving down the beltline.
Yay! Yay!

I trotted inside.

I'd done my homework on getting paid.

The first check is always paper.

Then its auto deposit.

I could pick it up "anytime"

between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

We arrived at 10:15 a.m.

I passed the manager in her office

on my way to the HR office.

No one was there.

Quick as a bunny I was off

to the manager's office.

Only she had managed to leave and lock up.

Eventually I found a manager

(this place has more titles than Carters has little pills!)

and he agreed to get the keys to unlock

the safe that held my check.

He hands it to me with a big smile.

"Enjoy!"

he says.

I look at my check.

It is sad, sickly and pale.

One quarter of the checks that I am used to bringing home.

Heavy sigh.

I knew this would be the case.

I knew what my wage is.

Not a surprise,

but still a wisp of a black cloud.

But it is my day off!

I had money in hand... 

that I handed over to the man for deposit into our account.

The sun was shining

and birds might have been singing if it wasn't so

humid and hot.

Still,

my hand rode the air waves out the tuck window

and my grin was tickled by

stray crazy hair.

The man chuckled and asked me not to grow up.

No danger there.

=:]

I have been absent of late.

Mostly exhausted by heat and getting used

to standing for 8 hours on concrete floors...

and the stress of that damned phone ringing.

Constantly!

I come home from work.

The house is hot.

I grab Roxy and head for my bedroom.

We barricade ourselves inside.

The air conditioner hums.

An additional fan whirs.

I pick up my book

(Odd Hours)

and before I know it...

zzzzzzzz.

 

HI HO

What's that do?

Take a guess...

I am busy being a worker bee these days,

learning my new job.

Well, actually learning all the propaganda...

I mean...

philosophy of the company I now work

for.

Let me say that Herman Hesse would never work there...

or if  he did,

there's a good book in it.

Seriously,

I have had over 20 years of retail experience...almost

all the experience I have under my belt before

working at the school was retail.

I have never had to do workbooks

and  classes on computer

plus watch many short videos

and signed so many documents saying

that I have been given information and understand it.

They would simplify things if they

asked us to sign a form that says we promise not to sue

if we are harmed at work

and that our actions are our actions alone...

and not a reflection of the company policies

if we piss someone off.

So today I look forward to 

6 hours of online classes.

6 hours!

Good lord almighty!

What have I got to learn that I can't get through

without 6 hours more of classes ?

This is NOT brain surgery.

Want to know what my job will be?

"Good morning, thank you for calling BlahBlahBlah.

How may I direct your call?" 

I push a lit up button on a normal looking phone

to put them on hold

while I look on a chart to see what extension they need

and then push two more buttons.

Sometimes I let people into the dressing room.

I count how many things go in...

and how many come out.

You only need to be able to count up to six!

I put things on a rack to be put away later.

If I see something damaged...

I put it into a box.

And of course...
I am nice and helpful to all customers.




Hi ho!