As I write the introduction to this post, I am sitting in a small courtyard behind A&J, on my last break for the day. I’m on the clock until 10pm, meaning that I have three hours left to go in what has been a rather busy day.

Among other things, we have been selling a lot of alcohol in the last few days. There is a large resort/conference center/hotel in town, Skamania Lodge. It used to be Dolce Skamania Lodge, but it was recently sold by Dolce. At any rate, when the sale became final last Wednesday, the liquor license that the lodge had (required to sell any type of alcohol) became invalid, for legal reasons I don’t understand. Depending on who you ask, either they simply dropped the ball, or the new license got lost in the mail, but at any rate, they are unable to sell liquor at all. So they’re sending all their guests down to A&J to buy alcohol. The guests don’t tend to be too happy about it, but then again, the alcohol we sell is probably a bit cheaper than the prices there.

We’ve also been short staffed due to two people that have become ill, one with a back injury, the other with a head cold. And the outrigger canoes were in town this weekend, so I’ve come home from work more or less exhausted, and not done much of anything else. But my break is over now, so until later,

–Nathan

Or should I say work is crazy? Perhaps both are correct.

I had Friday off, but I worked Thursday afternoon, and had plenty to do then. I got there at 3:30, and it wasn’t too busy, but Chris mentioned that it had been all day. I started to count half cases of pop so I knew how many to get from the back room, and then got sidetracked on a courtesy call or three. I went to the back room, and discovered that Dan had just finished counting the pop as well. I’d started first, and we needed quite a bit, so we both worked on it for a while, and then he took off to catch another courtesy call. I took the cart out to the floor, and was filling the second of three displays when I got stuck on another round of courtesy calls, and then Troy, the manager, called over the intercom “Wet cleanup to the end of seven immediately.” It turns out, someone had bumped a display, and four 24-pack longnecks of Budweiser broke all over the floor. Dan did a major part in the cleanup, but I helped quite a bit, too, and helped Bobbie restack the corner of the charcoal display that had also been knocked over. By the time that was cleaned up, I hav been on for over an hour and a half.

I returned to the cart of pop, and finished all three displays, and then went on to the shelf, where the rest of the pop on the cart went. As I rounded the corner to the aisle, I realized that Chris had also decided to do pop, and had filled another cart and was working the pop. So I helped him unload his cart, and pulled a few things off the bottom of my cart that he hadn’t gotten, and then went to the back to unload my cart.

The day got better after that, and I was only on until 8:30, but the first two hours were one of the more tiring I have had in quite a while. At least I wasn’t searching the store for something to do.

And on the topic of work, the way the schedule worked out, I work the last four days of this schedule week, and the first five days of next week, so Saturday is my first of nine days in a row. To be fair, three or four of them are shorter, 5 hour days, but I will still be at work each day. I’ll be glad when I get to the next set of days off.

I didn’t sleep very well last night, so I was tired, and ended up taking a four hour nap this afternoon. Now, I’m not tired, so I’m still up.

I said that I wasn’t going to blog about work, but some things just beg to be written about. Take Saturday, for example.

I was checking, and a couple came thhrough my line and bought $7.62 in groceries. I thought that they were speaking a foreign language, but wasn’t sure until it came time to pay, when the had a rapid-fire exchange in what sounded like German. She began pulling out money (it was US currency) and got the seven okay. She seemed to be having a bit of trouble with the coins, though. There was more discussion, and she began gesturing at a machine on the till that allows you to purchase lotto tickets with your groceries. More discussion, and then she asked me what the prize was. A bit surprised, I told her what the jackpots for the two main lotteries we sell were, and then it was her turn to be confused. She said “No, the price! What’s the price?”

I relized my mistake, and repeated that it was $7.62. She again tried counting out the coins, taking a minute to look on both sides of a nickel to see what it was worth. She had the proper change, but didn’t seem to have the value of the nickel correct, and tried to give me 32¢, but in the end, she let me pick out the appropriate coins and went on her way, studying her receipt the whole way to the door. A bit frustrating, honestly. Now I see why people from some countries get annoyed when Americans make no effort to learn the language/culture. She obviously had made quite an effort, and even that was annoying.

The high school play is coming up next weekend, on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. My sister is in the play, and is starting to panic a bit, but she’s always been the really organized type. They’re performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It should be a good production. I’ll have to change my schedule a bit at work, as the only night that I can see it is the last night, and I only get off in enough time to be there about 25 minutes before the show, and I expect it to be standing room only by that time.

I’m still not tired, but in the interest of getting my sleep schedule back in synch, I’m going to head off to bed now.

–Nathan