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| Well, I just completed two of the NEX inventories. I didn't have to work 16 hours like I did last year for the mainstore, but I did have to work until midnight again. Not such a big deal since I came in at 4pm. The mini-mart was a breeze to do since we were well prepared for it. The mainstore sucked though. I got stuck counting the candy. Man, that took me three HOURS to count 16 feet worth of merchandise. By the time I was done, I told my counting partner, "I never want to look at another piece of candy again". Then me and a friend decided we would go buy our dinner then and go back to work. No biggie. We go into Subway, order our sandwiches and I asked for mine toasted. I should have specified that I didn't want it Cajun-style. She burnt it. I stared at it, looked at my friend, looked at the girl and then at the manager. My friend pipes up with, "This is burnt! Can she get a new one?" The manager asked the girl how long she had mine in the toaster for and when she told him, he said, "No wonder! It only needs to be in for half as long." He looked at me and apologized and set out to start me a new sandwich. I'm telling you, this was not a good way to spend my anniversary. (10 years with the Wes-man  ) Later, at dinner time, a group of us from the mini-mart came back to Subway to eat our dinner (long story) and the manager heard that it was my anniversary, so he gave me a free cookie.  I thought that was nice and as I've always said, I can be bribed with a cookie. LOL. In other news, the Wes-man is back from Hawaii and we have found a nice apartment out in town. It's a bit pricy, but it has a fireplace, a community pool, 3 bedrooms, 2 bahrooms, comes with a washer and dryer, and cable is part of the rent. Nice. The only mandatory utility I have to pay is electric and of course phone. That's where I've been hiding the most lately. I've been trying to find a place to live for when the Wes-man gets out. I've also taken a side job as a romance book reviewer for LBF's monthly magazine Writer's Post Journal. I've only written one review so far, but I like it. Hey, any job that gives me free books and allows me to see my name in print is awesome. Money would be great, but if they can't do that, then that's fine too. I'm easy to please.  My writing: Er, well, I've been submitting again. Does that count? No? I didn't think so. I take that back, I have been working on a parnormal romance. I'm gutting and redoing Grayson Point. I'm ripping that puppy to shreads and redoing it into a true-blue romance. When I'm done it's going to be book one in a five book series. Well, that about covers it. I'm off now to see what else I need to do before the packers come on Tuesday. Yikes!! Catch y'all around. Later, Kiddies.... | | |
| Yesterday, we went through what they consider a "severe" windstorm. I'm sorry, but 74 mph winds and heavy rain is not just a severe windstorm. Where I come from, they call that shit a hurricane. This is what we dealt with last night. Luckily, my power didn't go out, but it sure gave us a scare when I hadn't made dinner yet and the lights were dimming every 5 minutes. So, I reheated some leftover pizza and baked a couple quick batches of cookies before anything could happen. Unfortunately, my internet got knocked out, so when I went to buy my friend's Christmas present (what woman wouldn't love an E-gift card from Victoria's Secret?) I couldn't get on. Today on the other hand is a bright sunshiny day. Go figure. I'm glad too, because if I have to walk home from my doctor's appointment, then I sure as hell don't want to do it in the rain. LOL. I so wish my husband would bring me the car since I can't get down to lower base. *sigh* Oh well. It's okay, this is the last time I'll have to do this. | | |
| Oh my dear God, my back is killing me. Hi, Kiddies. I spent 2 hours in the ER last night in a whole lot of pain. I hurt myself while trying to retrieve a keg for a customer. Correction, while retrieving a keg for 2 MALE customers.  Here's a math equation for you:
1 woman weighing 160lbs + 1 keg of beer weighing 220lbs + 1 slippery handtruck - 1 asshole to help me with it = Me wrenching my back when the keg slipped off the handtruck when I went to pull back on the handle. As soon as I did it, I felt a twinge and I thought, Man, this is going to hurt later. I brought the damn keg up to the counter where the 2 guys were waiting and I set it down. I walked back behind the counter and rolled my shoulders and one of them said, "Oh, she's pumped to go now."  I looked at him and said, "No, I was putting my back into place, because that keg is friggin' heavy and I'm a girl." What do these two men who are defending our country do? They laugh at me! What's worse? They were officers. Talk about an officer and a gentleman, huh? So, about 2 hours later, my back starts spasming and whenever I ask a customer how they're doing, I damn near yelped in pain when I bent down to grab a liquor bag. Finally, I decided enough was enough. I filled out an accident report, called Lee to see if she would take me to the ER after work and off I went. Turns out that all I did was pull a muscle in my back, but I'm on partial disability for the next week. No lifting, can't lift my arms over my head (aka stocking), I can't work more than 6 hours a day, can't stay in one position for more than 30 minutes at a time (that sucks for writing, btw) and I had to miss work today. Laura was not happy. When I called her, she asked, "What in the hell were you doing getting their keg? We're all a bunch of women, they are the ones that are to come back with you to get it themselves."  Well, with the line wrapped around the store, I wasn't quite thinking and since I do know the proper way to transport one of those, it wasn't too big a deal. Except that the keg slipped. When I told Laura this she said, "Oh Monica. Okay. Call me when you get home and from now on, if they want their damn beer they can get it themselves." AMEN! She was more pissed off that they laughed at me and that since there were two of them, neither of them bothered to come with me. Seriously folks, I may be a decent sized woman but come on... Anyway, that's it for now. I'm off to hobble downstairs to make some coffee and take some of those really good pain pills they gave me. Can't wait to tell Wes-man about this on Sunday. Won't he be all sorts of mad. Haha. Take care, darlings! Later, Kiddies... | | |
| There is something to be said about following protocol. Yanno, the whole going up the proper channels and contacting the appropriate chain of command. It can and in theory is a well oiled machine, meant to keep order in an otherwise chaotic world. But, (and you knew this was coming) there is this little thing called communication. Say it with me folks, "Com°mu°ni°ca°tion." It's this nifty little thing where you pick up the phone and tell the person on the other end what the f**k is going on, so my fat ass doesn't get woken up at 6:30 in the friggin' morning by a frantic cashier telling me that the store hasn't been opened yet and she's been standing outside in--and I kid you not--15° weather for the last hour! What do I do? I tell her to give me five minutes to put clothes on and I'll open the damn store so Laura won't have a coronary. So, braving what is literally roads that are nothing but sheets of ice, the cashier drives to my house to get me and I attempt to get the keys. Note that I said attempt. Why? Because the woman at the front desk at the Navy Lodge refuses to give me the $&%*% keys to the store! She told me that she'd called Laura and said that she was on her way because the original opener called in to say she couldn't make it. I tell her that I was pretty aware of this and she got an attitude. Oh hell no. Not only am I freezing my butt off, but this is my day off. I could be in my nice comfy nightshirt, cuddled in my warm bed, but I'm doing the store a favor since I closed the night before. I did everything to explain to this woman that I made arrangements with Linda the night before that if Lee called in, to open the store and call me immediately and I would be there. Still the woman refused stating, "That's not following the right chain of command. I will not go over Laura's head and get in trouble for giving...you the keys."  Let's do the math shall we? 1 pissed off Monica - 1 healthy dose of caffeine - 1 morning cigarette + 1 front desk clerk with an attitude. Hmm. If I didn't love my job so much, I was about to hop that counter and take her out. Finally, I gave up and told the cashier that we're screwed and the store just won't open until Laura gets there. Why all this hassle? Lack of communication. No one thought to tell the cashier that 1) Lee wasn't coming in. 2) No one told me that Linda was notified about the situation. (Laura's boss) 3) Didn't call Laura to tell her that she wasn't coming. What does Laura say when she gets there? "I just got done telling her to give you the keys the other day."  You know, not even a week ago I had to go home because of my blood pressure and anger. My blood pressure shot up after being so angry at a particular person and because I hadn't eaten, my blood sugar went down. The cashier looked at me and said, "Monica, you take a deep breath right now before you make yourself sick again. My car won't make it to the Naval hospital if you need to go to the ER." So, protocol has its place and keeps things running, but when it means turning away 50+ customers, making me go out in freezing weather for no other reason than to waste time and potentially get a trip to the ER, you damn well better have the communication to back up that protocol. Otherwise, you just might find me coming across your counter to knock your lights out. | | |
| All day yesterday, my daughter was saying, "Mom, when is it going to snow? You said it's supposed to snow. Why isn't it snowing?" Well, guess what? It's friggin' snowing and my happy ass has to walk in it. Damn. Not Wes's fault. He can't help that he had duty last night, nor could he help that I had to be to work an hour before he did yesterday so there was no way I could have the car today even if he wanted me to have it. It's just plain old dumb rotten luck...and it's mine. Anyway, I had a nice Thanksgiving. I cooked a bird that could have fed a small nation and all the trimmings. Wes was supposed to have 4 of his friends show up for dinner, but only 1 came over. Hmmph. That mildly irritates me. I mean, if you're going to tell someone that you're going to be there for something big like that, the least you can do is call to say that you're not coming. I asked Wes if he was going to see any of the guys that bailed on us during his duty and he said that he would. I told him good and that I wanted him to make them feel guilty for not showing. Haha. Did anyone go shopping the day after Thanksgiving? I didn't. Not really anyway. I went with Wes to pick up things he needed for his upcoming underway and then we went to the *gasp* mall so I could get my nails filled but that was it. Oddly enough, we were able to get a primo parking spot at the mall. Right up front by the doors. All I could think was, What are the odds of that happening again. Slim to none, I'm sure. Tomorrow I get to play in traffic. I'm not looking forward to it. I know how to get home from where I'm going, but the weather is going to be bad and it's going to be dark, so I'm nervous. Plus, there's talk about the base closing down so it had best wait to do that until AFTER I get my fat ass home from taking Wes to the boat. Man, I hate this crap. I'll tell you, I won't miss this part when he gets out of the Navy. LOL. Well, I best get going. I need to get some writing done along with some laundry. Ugh. A woman's work is never done! | | |
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