I realized today that it was the last day of June. July starts tomorrow. Only a month and a half before school starts again. The summer's gone by a lot faster than I thought it was going by. Well, that is only half true. Sometimes, I feel like it's going by as slow as molasses in January, to borrow a phrase that I never use. But: summer's been going by faster than I thought it was going by. I decided that I'd better use this last full month and to its full potential. I'll probably only have about a month left at Walgreens because I need to work at the uniform shop a lot during the first week in August because my boss is going to be out of town and the other girls are going to be going back to school. Then after the second week of school, I'll probably be wanting to pack and relax before going to school. My dad agrees. So we'll see.
There's something simply perfect and simple about having a small, un-covered bowl of fresh, home-grown blueberries in the fridge. It's heart-warming to have our dog inside the house. It's special to put together a canopy/gazebo on the back deck with Dad. It's beautiful to be in the green room with all of the blinds up and the piano in front of you. And this is minor, but I like the feel of the computer keys under my fingers as I quickly type.
Oh man! The Family Adventure '07 + Michal was amazing! Pure enjoyableness! The rides to and from were nothing like the boring and annoying backseat-bound tortures I thought they would be. I do admit, though, and as we were coming within 20 minutes of home on the way back, the girls were getting a bit on my nerves. But all of that was bearable with The Princess Bride in my hands. (The book is almost exactly like the movie, if you're wondering.) Anyways, the mountains were beautiful! I got to see some of them on our ride up. Also, on our ride up, we saw a doe with her fawn running along, we played the find-a-song-with-this-word-in-it game, and I beat Dad at the alphabet game by the last letter! That was very intense. The day that we got to Unicoi State Park, we got to play in creeks and swim and take pictures and enjoy the breath-takingly beautiful woods. Really very awesome. I felt like I could live there forever. Later on during the trip, I decided that, one day when I'm old enough, I would marry a deciduous forest and love it forever. It would provide me with acorns to eat and berries and roots and it would supply me with fresh, bubbling mountain spring water. It would shelter me with its leafy boughs and it would love me. I would stay within it beauty forever until I had spent my life wandering through it exciting trails. Then it would bury me with it brown, dead leaves and pine straw and my body would be there forever and for always. I would love it and it would love me. Yes that's what I decided. Then... this guy that I like talked me out of it. Oh well. :)
So! That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, we went on a short horseback ride. During this ride I was in ecstasy. The trails went through more gorgeous woods with ferns, huge upturned trees, and steep hills just begging to be explored. I had to be content to stay in my saddle cell because I'm sure that my parents wouldn't be too fond of my running off into unknown woods, especially if I wasn't planning to return. Am I forever weird for being so in love with some trees? It certainly can't be normal to want to spend nearly every waking moment in uncharted territory looking for a creek or some exciting hollow oak. And what's with this obsession of ferns? I'm afraid I can't be changed. Ever.
Anyways, back to the story: After the horseback ride (through the awesome woods!), we went tubing on the Chattahoochee river for about three hours. I don't rely remember how long it was, but it felt like longer than that. I got some sun, but not too much. I got more sun at the water park we went to afterwards. (Still not too much. Just pink.) There were two big slides at this small water park and they were fun. While Mom and Taylor went "tubing" on the lazy river that went around the park, Michal, Dad, and I laid in the sun. I was tired and the sun has that affect on me: just making me want to sleep, no matter how hot it is. After this, we went back to our cabin.
Our cabin was right in the middle of these beautiful woods, and I loved it. When we got back, I played my violin and it was great. Dad rattled of songs for me to play and after a little bit of figuring them out, out they came. Most of the were "toe-tappers." Oh how I wish that I had my fiddling buddy of old to saw off "Blue Fire Fiddler" and "Mountain Chase" with me! Later, we ate (delicious pasta salad and avocados!!!) and finished up our exciting game of Phase 10! Dun dun DUUUN! Really, this was a cut-throat game involving threats, bribes, and blood. Well, not blood... and not bribes... and no real threats... But it was really intense and many of us were, at times, about ready to do something drastic. I was the one who yelled the most. Thankfully, everyone made it out alive, which was surprising. Even more surprising: Mom didn't win. We were all certain that she would, but in fact, I won. This was also surprising, considering my terrible score and low phase when we had to put the game on hold about midnight the night before. But, I came back in triumph!
We also played Clue, but the didn't turn out so well. I accidentally ruined the game when I forgot that I had the Billiard room. Sorry Michal.
Wednesday was good. All of the days were good. Wednesday, we hiked to Ana Ruby Falls and loved it. I tried taking pictures, but there could never be a picture I could take that would do justice to the splendor of it all. Absolutely amazing, it was. This was when I decided I would marry the woods. It was too beautiful to not fall in love with it. I wished that our vacation wasn't over so soon.
But it is over and I'm back to making money at Walgreens and Uniforms Plus. But it's good. As I've mentioned, Riley's been inside a whole lot more often and that's fun. There's fresh fruit and vegetables form the garden. I helped Dad put up that canopy/gazebo thing and life is fine. One of my friends from college will be visiting me in less than two weeks and that's very, very exciting. I'm sure the excitement will build until I won't be able to wait, but for now, I am being patient. Oh! I don't have to work on the night of the Fourth of July! I'm very glad. Very, very glad. I'll be able to have more amazing times with my amazing family. I love them so very much. Now that I've been home, though, there has been new ammunition that my family has been using against me in our routine pickings-on. Taylor will not get off my back about some things. Dad will not get off my back about other things, and Mom is the same as always. She still threatens to tickle me when my stomach peeks out from under my shirt, but I'm only too glad to remind her that, "I'm not ticklish anymore!" I say this only half-hoping that I'm telling the truth. While it is true that I'm certainly not as ticklish as I used to be (my mom would only tough me in my ribs and I would fall to the floor in a fit of giggles.), I still am somewhat ticklish, I think. I never give anyone the time to find out, though, because I tell the that, no, I'm not ticklish, even though a grin is creeping across my face. Who knows. Maybe it's the element of surprise. Perhaps I've so convinced myself that I'm not ticklish and all I need to do to reclaim this fun trait is to re-convince myself that I am ticklish. I can't believe I'm discussing this here. No matter.
Well, it's somewhere around 11, and I'd like to get a good night's sleep before church tomorrow, so I'm stopping here. Good night and sleep well. I'm off.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Of Walgreens, Driving Habits, and More:
I felt like I've posted something sooner than May 31st. Do you think working however many days a week makes time go by faster? When I got home last night, I couldn't even remember what day it was for sure.
Anyways, I thought that I had something to write about and I've been trying to find time to come and type on xanga, but now that I'm here, I can't think of anything that important. Nope. The job at Walgreens, where love songs from the 70's and 80's and a few pop versions of Disney songs play over the speakers, it's going okay. Notice, I don't say "great." How many times do you think the average person can stand listening to "Sharona" in a week? When I get ready to go to work, sometimes I feel intimidated. I know that not every thing will go well just because I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Sometimes, the printer will go crazy, or maybe one lady's prints from last month never got printed, and now she's here to pick them up, or maybe I'll get 10 orders, all in a row, that have to be done in an hour, or maybe there will be a huge internet order printing out, and so the passport photos will not take the short amount of time to come out of the printer like they're supposed to. Things like that are the things that tend to go wrong. And those things will happen somewhat frequently. But these things aren't terrible. I'm able to handle them. Sometimes, something like that will totally throw a monkey wrench into the system, though. My system of doing things. But it's all right. I'm getting better at dealing with these small problems. It's really scary when a big problem happens. Ick.
Yes, it's annoying having to depend on a fickle printing machine for how well the day goes. And it is fickle, let me tell you. It was a survivor of the hurricanes of New Orleans but it may be living its last days. Yesterday, it was getting paper jams every time we tried to print an order. It should be getting fixed today and hopefully it will be up a running much better when I go back.
There are fun things at Walgreens, though. Getting to meet new customers, talking with them about who knows what, getting good grades on the photo lab I cleaned furiously, getting to see beautiful pictures of Grecian vacations, weddings, or wind surfing, hanging out with coworker Andrew (Drew) and listening to him talk about his new band that still needs a drummer and a keyboardist. (I told him that I knew a harpist, but we decided that a harp probably wouldn't work with industrial...) It's very different to be with someone who is so different from me.
When I drive home at night from Walgreens, it's after 11 and it's dark. There aren't many people on the road so I don't feel too crazy rolling down the windows and blasting Scottish fiddle music or whatever else happens to be in the cd player. That's fun. I speed too much. It's not any treacherous speeding, only about 10 or so over in a 45 zone on straight roads and no other cars. There's this one section that's a 35 zone, and no one ever goes the speed limit. I'm relearning how to slow down enough for right turns and how to stop as smoothly as possible at stop signs and red lights. I felt so terrible last week when I accidentally pulled out in front of a big truck on my way to work. That really frazzled me and it took a while after the guy was no longer behind me for me to calm down. And today, I almost got in a wreck before I was even out of my own driveway. I opened up the garage door and was backing out when the UPS truck came screeching to a halt a few feet behind me. I hadn't seen him there, but I'm so glad that I saw him when I did. Of course I gasped and covered my mouth in shock, but we were fine. He went on his mail-delivering way and I went on my five-minutes-late-for-work way. That's where I am right now. Uniform Plus, Embroidery and More.
I had to call some customers to let them know that their order was in, and neither of those six times I called people did I say the name of this shop correctly. My mouth was having difficulty. And, I've just found out how much a mouthful my own name is, now that I've said, "Hello, this call is for Lori Bush. I'm Li-i-indsay Mc...Kissick from Embro-uh, Uniforms, Em, Plus, Embroidery... (then, very quickly:) Your scrubs are ready! Bye!" That's not too much of an exaggeration except for the last part, maybe. :)
Small observations of recent times:
~ My dad's homemade beef jerky is amazing. Too bad I can't share because you are not within sharing distance. :)
~ Well-behaved kids are awesome. A little boy named John played with some toys we have in the store today while his mom looked at lab jackets. He played very nicely and when it was time to go, he cleaned up all of the toys all by himself. I told his mom about how well he had behaved and she took it as quite a compliment.
~ My violin misses me and I miss him. We got a little re-acquainted today and I could tell that he was glad to be back in my hands. If I were rich, I would take him back to Williams Gengacki Violins in Atlanta to get him all adjusted and such. But I think that, for now, he's content.
~ Happiness is having a left-over-from-Sunday-School fruit tray all to yourself and not having to worry about double dipping in the cream sauce.
~ Happiness is coming home at a late hour, worn out from Walgreens, and finding the prettiest chocolate lab happy as ever to see you and ready to play.
~ This is getting to be a long list, but here's a few more little happinesses:
~ Getting to put the first "Best Time" on someone's computer for Minesweeper
~ Thinking about the "Happiness Is" song from the Peanuts gang, then thinking about the Peanuts in general, then thinking about our family tradition of watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" every year together, then thinking about Joe playing music form that movie, etc...
~Straightening the candy aisle or the chips aisle PERFECTLY, looking back, and admiring your hard work, seeing that every thing is absolutely straight and beautiful
~My family
~My friends, like you
K, I think that'll do for now.
From Lindsay, keeping it real in GA: Blessings and good night
Anyways, I thought that I had something to write about and I've been trying to find time to come and type on xanga, but now that I'm here, I can't think of anything that important. Nope. The job at Walgreens, where love songs from the 70's and 80's and a few pop versions of Disney songs play over the speakers, it's going okay. Notice, I don't say "great." How many times do you think the average person can stand listening to "Sharona" in a week? When I get ready to go to work, sometimes I feel intimidated. I know that not every thing will go well just because I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Sometimes, the printer will go crazy, or maybe one lady's prints from last month never got printed, and now she's here to pick them up, or maybe I'll get 10 orders, all in a row, that have to be done in an hour, or maybe there will be a huge internet order printing out, and so the passport photos will not take the short amount of time to come out of the printer like they're supposed to. Things like that are the things that tend to go wrong. And those things will happen somewhat frequently. But these things aren't terrible. I'm able to handle them. Sometimes, something like that will totally throw a monkey wrench into the system, though. My system of doing things. But it's all right. I'm getting better at dealing with these small problems. It's really scary when a big problem happens. Ick.
Yes, it's annoying having to depend on a fickle printing machine for how well the day goes. And it is fickle, let me tell you. It was a survivor of the hurricanes of New Orleans but it may be living its last days. Yesterday, it was getting paper jams every time we tried to print an order. It should be getting fixed today and hopefully it will be up a running much better when I go back.
There are fun things at Walgreens, though. Getting to meet new customers, talking with them about who knows what, getting good grades on the photo lab I cleaned furiously, getting to see beautiful pictures of Grecian vacations, weddings, or wind surfing, hanging out with coworker Andrew (Drew) and listening to him talk about his new band that still needs a drummer and a keyboardist. (I told him that I knew a harpist, but we decided that a harp probably wouldn't work with industrial...) It's very different to be with someone who is so different from me.
When I drive home at night from Walgreens, it's after 11 and it's dark. There aren't many people on the road so I don't feel too crazy rolling down the windows and blasting Scottish fiddle music or whatever else happens to be in the cd player. That's fun. I speed too much. It's not any treacherous speeding, only about 10 or so over in a 45 zone on straight roads and no other cars. There's this one section that's a 35 zone, and no one ever goes the speed limit. I'm relearning how to slow down enough for right turns and how to stop as smoothly as possible at stop signs and red lights. I felt so terrible last week when I accidentally pulled out in front of a big truck on my way to work. That really frazzled me and it took a while after the guy was no longer behind me for me to calm down. And today, I almost got in a wreck before I was even out of my own driveway. I opened up the garage door and was backing out when the UPS truck came screeching to a halt a few feet behind me. I hadn't seen him there, but I'm so glad that I saw him when I did. Of course I gasped and covered my mouth in shock, but we were fine. He went on his mail-delivering way and I went on my five-minutes-late-for-work way. That's where I am right now. Uniform Plus, Embroidery and More.
I had to call some customers to let them know that their order was in, and neither of those six times I called people did I say the name of this shop correctly. My mouth was having difficulty. And, I've just found out how much a mouthful my own name is, now that I've said, "Hello, this call is for Lori Bush. I'm Li-i-indsay Mc...Kissick from Embro-uh, Uniforms, Em, Plus, Embroidery... (then, very quickly:) Your scrubs are ready! Bye!" That's not too much of an exaggeration except for the last part, maybe. :)
Small observations of recent times:
~ My dad's homemade beef jerky is amazing. Too bad I can't share because you are not within sharing distance. :)
~ Well-behaved kids are awesome. A little boy named John played with some toys we have in the store today while his mom looked at lab jackets. He played very nicely and when it was time to go, he cleaned up all of the toys all by himself. I told his mom about how well he had behaved and she took it as quite a compliment.
~ My violin misses me and I miss him. We got a little re-acquainted today and I could tell that he was glad to be back in my hands. If I were rich, I would take him back to Williams Gengacki Violins in Atlanta to get him all adjusted and such. But I think that, for now, he's content.
~ Happiness is having a left-over-from-Sunday-School fruit tray all to yourself and not having to worry about double dipping in the cream sauce.
~ Happiness is coming home at a late hour, worn out from Walgreens, and finding the prettiest chocolate lab happy as ever to see you and ready to play.
~ This is getting to be a long list, but here's a few more little happinesses:
~ Getting to put the first "Best Time" on someone's computer for Minesweeper
~ Thinking about the "Happiness Is" song from the Peanuts gang, then thinking about the Peanuts in general, then thinking about our family tradition of watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" every year together, then thinking about Joe playing music form that movie, etc...
~Straightening the candy aisle or the chips aisle PERFECTLY, looking back, and admiring your hard work, seeing that every thing is absolutely straight and beautiful
~My family
~My friends, like you
K, I think that'll do for now.
From Lindsay, keeping it real in GA: Blessings and good night
Ramblings about stuff pertaining to my relationship with God:
I have so much growing room in my relationship with God. I know that every body should know that they always could be closer to God and that sanctification is a life-long process, but I know that I'm nowhere near where I should be. I've been blessed with a Christian family, a Christian school, a good church, and a Christian college, and I haven't drawn from those resources like I should have. I know all of the answers, and I'm a "good person," but I do need to work on applying these things to my life. And. And, I just wish that I could be as close to Him as I know I should be. I want what I see other people have with God. And I've wanted that for the longest time. But I don't know how to get it, or at least that's what I say. I wish that there was some formula like, pray for this amount of time a day, study the Bible for this amount, interact with believers, and be a witness to non-believers. One would do all that and then, POOF!, you'd feel God's presence and you'd know His will for everything. I don't really know what I'm trying to say. I'm doing my best to live for God and to live with Him. Is it then God's job to bring us closer to Him? Do we put too much pressure on ourselves? But the Bible says to seek. Do we seek and then trust God to help us to find? Isn't that all we can do? Do our best to live to Him and with Him and then God will take care of the rest, right? And how can we have more of this desire to know Him? Surely that comes from ourselves, but then, doesn't God put the desire to know Himself in us? I think I sound confused. I think I am confused. But, I will continue to try to live in God's will and have faith that He will use that.
Friday, June 1, 2007
So much to write about
I will start with Saturday and hope that I don't leave anything important out.
Saturday was my first time working in the photo lab by myself. This is not usual practice, giving a new employee only two days of training and then having them work by themselves. Later, Mr. Schenk, the head manager, apologized for "throwing [me] to the wolves." Well, every thing was somewhat ok until around 8 where I got a lot of orders. So many of those orders ended up being late. This was bad. And I got 3 picture CDs mixed up. That was very bad. I had 30 minutes overtime, too, to make sure that I had all of my other chores done: getting the trash (outside trash included), straightening aisles 7-10, cleaning, photo machine maintenance, etc. Mrs. Satterwhite, my manager who was closing with me, was very understanding and helpful. She got those picture CDs straightened out. The front cashier lady was also very kind and helpful and she told me that my manager said that I did well for my first day alone and that I had handled myself with confidence.
There was this one man who came to me and he spoke Spanish. I've only taken two years (which equals two semesters) of high school Spanish, and I've been to Mexico three times, and I was able to understand him a bit. He asked me if I understood Spanish, I said I did a little. Then he asked me, "Como estas," as if that were the secret question to see if I really understood Spanish. He also asked if I was Mexican... But he was wondering where the next Walgreens was and he was also wondering about a coupon. My manager and I were able ot get the message across, thankfully, and then he went on his way. That was a reminder of how much more Spanish I want/need to learn.
Saturday night, it took me forever to go to sleep. You know the feeling that you haven't been sleeping at all? That's what was happening. I was very awake at 3:15 with all of the film processing procedures racing through my head and my mind was trying to make sure that I had everything right. I was a weird feeling. I don't really want my job to be infiltrating my brain that much and affecting my sleep. I had to tell myself to relax and rest. Only then did the images of the machines went away. My breathing slowed, and eventually I went to sleep.
Sunday, I went to work at 3. It was my second night of working by myself. At the beginning of my shift, things were ok, but they started to get a little crazy around the same time as it did the last day. The worst part was a passport photo. There was order that was printing already when this lady came in to have her son's passport picture taken and it was taking a long time for the picture to print. There's a sign at Walgreens that says, "Passport photos: 5 minutes." This took around 30 minute. At least. The lady was getting mad and I was feeling terrible. Mrs. Satterwhite was helping me with all of this and she was not appreciating the lady's attitude. But eventually the photo came out and the lady said sorry for... I guess for being somewhat rude, and then she left. I was so relieved when she left because I just hated having her there like a dragon breathing down my neck. I don't like people mad at me for something like this.
This day, I was closing with a different manager, Mr. Small. He's in his, oh, late 20's? And my co-worker, Andrew was closing for the front cash register, too. He's 18. We stayed overtime again to get everything done. (Things will start taking less and less time as I get used to them, of course.) When Mr. Small and I were straightening up the shelves along the back wall, he randomly asked me, "Are you Italian?" I thought that strange, but I told him no and that I was Scottish, Austrian, German, English, Irish, and 1/16 or 1/32 Cherokee. :) Mr. Small is black, by the way, and he told me that he didn't think I was white. Odd indeed. At least compared to him, I think I'm white. Some have told me that I look a little Asian... and others, Italian. And still others (many others) have said that I could be Puerto Rican. One time, a woman was convinced that my mom was Greek. So after pondering all of this, I asked Andrew what ethnicity he thought I was. He told me that he was actually wondering about that. He first guessed Native American (not too bad) and then Italian. I don't think that I have a drop of Italian in me, but maybe everything else put together makes me look Italian? What do you think?
Monday! This day was crazy/sad/the worst. Once again, everything started out fine. Then the printer got a paper jam that I didn't know how to fix, Mr. Small didn't know how to fix, and my other manager, Mr. Kopek, 26, didn't know how to fix. We all looked the machine over so many times but we couldn't find the paper jam. So we had to turn it off then on again to see if the problem would still persist. It did. Orders were piling up and many were already late. Mr. Small called the Fix-it people and put in what is called a ticket to tell them about our problem. This ticket was also supposed to stop internet orders from coming in because we weren't able to print them, but it didn't. All of that was stressful because it was all going to fall on me that these orders were late. Well, to make them not appear as late on the computer, one is able to "submit the order" and that order falls off the screen. I knew that this was what I should do, so I did that, but I forgot to click on the little box next to each order that sends the images to the printing machine. So here I had all of these internet orders already off the computer, and the images were gone. Forever. I was stressed, major. Andrew assured me that everything would be alright. He said that the worst that would happen would be that we'd have to call the customers and tell them that they'd have to resend that order. He was right, but that didn't really help me.
Mr. Kopek has a different way of closing than the other managers, well, I guess they all have their own system, but Kopek also seems more of a cold-cultured person. He's nice enough and all, but I was used to the I'll-help-you-out-because-you're-still-learning attitude and it was diminished with Kopek. But Andrew still helped me with all of my chores. Andrew's a nice guy. He's not the kind of person you'd typically see me hanging out with. Really, my mom would not want me to hang out with him. Andrew has many a piercing and a tattoo. He's in a shock metal band in which he plays guitar and sings. Yet he is still a Yugio nerd and plays the card game whenever he has the chance. He also said that he was the president of the chess club in high school. He calls himself a nerd but this kid is definitely not the picture of "nerd." At the beginning of his breaks, he come over to my register to buy cigarettes. And his nose ring (it goes through the bottom of his nose, like a bull's) doesn't help the nerd picture either. Haha. But he's nice and helpful.
On my way home, I had the internet order issue on my mind the whole time. I was also thinking about how I was working seven days this week with many of them overtime. I was exhausted and sad and I just wanted to cry. (I thought that a good cry would help.) When I came home from work, I poured out my frustrations on my mom who always waits up for me. She just listened and was Mom. I went to bed a distraught little girl who did not want to go to work the next day.
When I did go to work the next day, I was very quiet because I knew that I was going to burst into tears at any moment. Jodi, the head photo gal, told me that the internet orders were fine and that the images did go through. That was a relief but I was still upset. Mr. Schenk came to me and apologized for "throwing [me] to the wolves" after only two days of training. It was good to know that it wasn't on purpose that I had so little training and then had to do every thing by myself. That was a little comforting, I guess.
This was the day when I put "Lindsay is not ok. Send hugs." as my facebook status. Well, the hugs and prayers worked, you guys, because Tuesday's work went SO smoothly! I'm still amazed. Nothing went wrong. I had no late orders (!), I learned how to do passport photos perfectly, and I also got all of my chores done! Even though we'd been staying overtime, we never got every thing done, but this time we did! I guess I'm getting a feel for what this job is supposed to be like. It certainly helps when Andrew pitches in, though. And he did today and the next day. The next day went just as fine as this one. Can you believe it? After three days of Walgreens torture, I get two perfect days. As I've told some of you already, God totally knew that if I'd had another bad day, I would have dissolved into a puddle of tears never to rise again. He's got me covered. It's just awesome. He's awesome. Tuesday, we got all of our chores done, again! Andrew and I were closing with Ms. Satterwhite and another manager-in-training. They had to take a while for the other lady's training, and Andrew and I were finished way before them. We just talked by the photo booth for a long time as he rolled a cigarette and got his lighter ready. He was surprised when I told that I've never had even a sip of alcohol and he proceeded to tell me that he's pretty proud of how he could out drink half of the guys on LaGrange College's football team, even though he weighs only 130 lbs. I tried to think of something that I was proud of and all that came to mind was that I was the concert mistress if my high school’s orchestra. Talk about contrast.
Anyways, that was my last day of work before I had two days off. I go back on Saturday and Sunday, then I get Monday and Tuesday off then back to work again. Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly. I've learned most of what I need to learn, I just don't know how fix anything when it goes wrong. But I'm learning that it's not the end of the world if something does go wrong.
Yesterday, Thursday, I slept in and had toaster strudel with ice cream for breakfast for the third day in a row . I got to see Michal Holby for a while because her mom came over to work on her garden in our side yard. I didn't get to swim with Michal and Taylor like I'd hoped I would get to, but that's fine because I had a fun time with Mom running errands and grocery shopping. Mom and I also went to the house of a lady of our church because I'm going to be house sitting, cat sitting, and dog sitting for her while she goes to Jacksonville, Florida for a week. That'll be fun. When we got back home, my whole family got to have dinner together! This hasn't happened since a week ago and it is not something to be missed. I enjoyed it so much and Dad had me laughing the whole time. It was good. I love my family. After that, Taylor and I went swimming. We found a frog, and I ran and got my camera to take pictures of it. Tay asked me what we should name it. I recommended Francis but she said that was the name of that last one. "It was?" "Yes. It was." After a little bit longer, she asked what we should name it again. "Franky?" "No, it's too close to Francis." But apparently, Franky stuck because that's what she called it for the rest of the night. We swam around taking pictures until my mom came outside with my cell phone. One of my good friends was on the line and we talked, with Taylor for a while and it was good. hee hee
And now it's Friday! Commence: subject change to music I've been listening to lately... Relient K's CD, "Mmhmm" had been in the player of the truck I drive for the whole week except for my last day of work. I wanted to shake things up a bit and I wanted to see if a change of music would help me feel any better. So I put in a compilation that Peter made me including "Celestial Soda Pop," Cry of the Celts," "Time to Say Good Bye," "We're in Heaven," "Crazy Frog," and "Dragostea Din Tei." When "Time to Say Good Bye" came on, Peter, I thought of our music video and laughed out loud. :) Man, I'll tell ya, it' had been WAY TOO LONG since I'd heard "Dragostea Din Tei." I missed it. Thursday, I went onto my Imeem playlist and added all of the O-Zone songs I like and then I found a lot of other fun techno songs and added them, too. So that's what I've been listening to for two days straight. It's so good. Ahhh, Sandstorm just came on. Another good song from the good days. I should be hanging out with Peter and Wendy soon. Real soon. Hopefully.
Well, that's about it. It sure took me long enough to write this out... And if I've forgotten anything, I'll come back and write it in. I'll probably have more to write about soon, so you're certainly getting your fill of the life of Lindsay if you're a subscriber. Oh, and I wanted to say, I hope that this post doesn't sound like I'm complaining. Well, I guess I was complaining just a little. For a while, I thought that I almost deserved a few complaining sentences. But that's not the kind of attitude I had. (Like when the passport lady came. She did have an attitude, but I wasn't thinking about that, I was only thinking about how it was my fault and that she was upset with me.) Does that make sense? Hm, that reminds me of another thing. My words sometimes take a long time for them to come out correctly, especially during closing. I'll attribute it to late nights and lack of sleep, though. (Another good song just came on: http://misterlovalova.imeem.com/music/WFYA3r4U/popcorn_techno_mix/ Check it. It reminds me of our roller skating rink.) And now that reminds me of how I like roller skating. I've only ever used the old school skates, not any inlines or fancy things like that. Our rink, Skate Palace closed down last year and this song just makes me want to skate. The closest rink now (Peahtree Skate) is, eh, about 40+ minutes away through bad traffic in Peachtree City.
K, I'm going to get some pictures of Franky on here... let me get my camera.
Meet Franky, the latest addition to my family.
So there you go. :)
Saturday was my first time working in the photo lab by myself. This is not usual practice, giving a new employee only two days of training and then having them work by themselves. Later, Mr. Schenk, the head manager, apologized for "throwing [me] to the wolves." Well, every thing was somewhat ok until around 8 where I got a lot of orders. So many of those orders ended up being late. This was bad. And I got 3 picture CDs mixed up. That was very bad. I had 30 minutes overtime, too, to make sure that I had all of my other chores done: getting the trash (outside trash included), straightening aisles 7-10, cleaning, photo machine maintenance, etc. Mrs. Satterwhite, my manager who was closing with me, was very understanding and helpful. She got those picture CDs straightened out. The front cashier lady was also very kind and helpful and she told me that my manager said that I did well for my first day alone and that I had handled myself with confidence.
There was this one man who came to me and he spoke Spanish. I've only taken two years (which equals two semesters) of high school Spanish, and I've been to Mexico three times, and I was able to understand him a bit. He asked me if I understood Spanish, I said I did a little. Then he asked me, "Como estas," as if that were the secret question to see if I really understood Spanish. He also asked if I was Mexican... But he was wondering where the next Walgreens was and he was also wondering about a coupon. My manager and I were able ot get the message across, thankfully, and then he went on his way. That was a reminder of how much more Spanish I want/need to learn.
Saturday night, it took me forever to go to sleep. You know the feeling that you haven't been sleeping at all? That's what was happening. I was very awake at 3:15 with all of the film processing procedures racing through my head and my mind was trying to make sure that I had everything right. I was a weird feeling. I don't really want my job to be infiltrating my brain that much and affecting my sleep. I had to tell myself to relax and rest. Only then did the images of the machines went away. My breathing slowed, and eventually I went to sleep.
Sunday, I went to work at 3. It was my second night of working by myself. At the beginning of my shift, things were ok, but they started to get a little crazy around the same time as it did the last day. The worst part was a passport photo. There was order that was printing already when this lady came in to have her son's passport picture taken and it was taking a long time for the picture to print. There's a sign at Walgreens that says, "Passport photos: 5 minutes." This took around 30 minute. At least. The lady was getting mad and I was feeling terrible. Mrs. Satterwhite was helping me with all of this and she was not appreciating the lady's attitude. But eventually the photo came out and the lady said sorry for... I guess for being somewhat rude, and then she left. I was so relieved when she left because I just hated having her there like a dragon breathing down my neck. I don't like people mad at me for something like this.
This day, I was closing with a different manager, Mr. Small. He's in his, oh, late 20's? And my co-worker, Andrew was closing for the front cash register, too. He's 18. We stayed overtime again to get everything done. (Things will start taking less and less time as I get used to them, of course.) When Mr. Small and I were straightening up the shelves along the back wall, he randomly asked me, "Are you Italian?" I thought that strange, but I told him no and that I was Scottish, Austrian, German, English, Irish, and 1/16 or 1/32 Cherokee. :) Mr. Small is black, by the way, and he told me that he didn't think I was white. Odd indeed. At least compared to him, I think I'm white. Some have told me that I look a little Asian... and others, Italian. And still others (many others) have said that I could be Puerto Rican. One time, a woman was convinced that my mom was Greek. So after pondering all of this, I asked Andrew what ethnicity he thought I was. He told me that he was actually wondering about that. He first guessed Native American (not too bad) and then Italian. I don't think that I have a drop of Italian in me, but maybe everything else put together makes me look Italian? What do you think?
Monday! This day was crazy/sad/the worst. Once again, everything started out fine. Then the printer got a paper jam that I didn't know how to fix, Mr. Small didn't know how to fix, and my other manager, Mr. Kopek, 26, didn't know how to fix. We all looked the machine over so many times but we couldn't find the paper jam. So we had to turn it off then on again to see if the problem would still persist. It did. Orders were piling up and many were already late. Mr. Small called the Fix-it people and put in what is called a ticket to tell them about our problem. This ticket was also supposed to stop internet orders from coming in because we weren't able to print them, but it didn't. All of that was stressful because it was all going to fall on me that these orders were late. Well, to make them not appear as late on the computer, one is able to "submit the order" and that order falls off the screen. I knew that this was what I should do, so I did that, but I forgot to click on the little box next to each order that sends the images to the printing machine. So here I had all of these internet orders already off the computer, and the images were gone. Forever. I was stressed, major. Andrew assured me that everything would be alright. He said that the worst that would happen would be that we'd have to call the customers and tell them that they'd have to resend that order. He was right, but that didn't really help me.
Mr. Kopek has a different way of closing than the other managers, well, I guess they all have their own system, but Kopek also seems more of a cold-cultured person. He's nice enough and all, but I was used to the I'll-help-you-out-because-you're-still-learning attitude and it was diminished with Kopek. But Andrew still helped me with all of my chores. Andrew's a nice guy. He's not the kind of person you'd typically see me hanging out with. Really, my mom would not want me to hang out with him. Andrew has many a piercing and a tattoo. He's in a shock metal band in which he plays guitar and sings. Yet he is still a Yugio nerd and plays the card game whenever he has the chance. He also said that he was the president of the chess club in high school. He calls himself a nerd but this kid is definitely not the picture of "nerd." At the beginning of his breaks, he come over to my register to buy cigarettes. And his nose ring (it goes through the bottom of his nose, like a bull's) doesn't help the nerd picture either. Haha. But he's nice and helpful.
On my way home, I had the internet order issue on my mind the whole time. I was also thinking about how I was working seven days this week with many of them overtime. I was exhausted and sad and I just wanted to cry. (I thought that a good cry would help.) When I came home from work, I poured out my frustrations on my mom who always waits up for me. She just listened and was Mom. I went to bed a distraught little girl who did not want to go to work the next day.
When I did go to work the next day, I was very quiet because I knew that I was going to burst into tears at any moment. Jodi, the head photo gal, told me that the internet orders were fine and that the images did go through. That was a relief but I was still upset. Mr. Schenk came to me and apologized for "throwing [me] to the wolves" after only two days of training. It was good to know that it wasn't on purpose that I had so little training and then had to do every thing by myself. That was a little comforting, I guess.
This was the day when I put "Lindsay is not ok. Send hugs." as my facebook status. Well, the hugs and prayers worked, you guys, because Tuesday's work went SO smoothly! I'm still amazed. Nothing went wrong. I had no late orders (!), I learned how to do passport photos perfectly, and I also got all of my chores done! Even though we'd been staying overtime, we never got every thing done, but this time we did! I guess I'm getting a feel for what this job is supposed to be like. It certainly helps when Andrew pitches in, though. And he did today and the next day. The next day went just as fine as this one. Can you believe it? After three days of Walgreens torture, I get two perfect days. As I've told some of you already, God totally knew that if I'd had another bad day, I would have dissolved into a puddle of tears never to rise again. He's got me covered. It's just awesome. He's awesome. Tuesday, we got all of our chores done, again! Andrew and I were closing with Ms. Satterwhite and another manager-in-training. They had to take a while for the other lady's training, and Andrew and I were finished way before them. We just talked by the photo booth for a long time as he rolled a cigarette and got his lighter ready. He was surprised when I told that I've never had even a sip of alcohol and he proceeded to tell me that he's pretty proud of how he could out drink half of the guys on LaGrange College's football team, even though he weighs only 130 lbs. I tried to think of something that I was proud of and all that came to mind was that I was the concert mistress if my high school’s orchestra. Talk about contrast.
Anyways, that was my last day of work before I had two days off. I go back on Saturday and Sunday, then I get Monday and Tuesday off then back to work again. Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly. I've learned most of what I need to learn, I just don't know how fix anything when it goes wrong. But I'm learning that it's not the end of the world if something does go wrong.
Yesterday, Thursday, I slept in and had toaster strudel with ice cream for breakfast for the third day in a row . I got to see Michal Holby for a while because her mom came over to work on her garden in our side yard. I didn't get to swim with Michal and Taylor like I'd hoped I would get to, but that's fine because I had a fun time with Mom running errands and grocery shopping. Mom and I also went to the house of a lady of our church because I'm going to be house sitting, cat sitting, and dog sitting for her while she goes to Jacksonville, Florida for a week. That'll be fun. When we got back home, my whole family got to have dinner together! This hasn't happened since a week ago and it is not something to be missed. I enjoyed it so much and Dad had me laughing the whole time. It was good. I love my family. After that, Taylor and I went swimming. We found a frog, and I ran and got my camera to take pictures of it. Tay asked me what we should name it. I recommended Francis but she said that was the name of that last one. "It was?" "Yes. It was." After a little bit longer, she asked what we should name it again. "Franky?" "No, it's too close to Francis." But apparently, Franky stuck because that's what she called it for the rest of the night. We swam around taking pictures until my mom came outside with my cell phone. One of my good friends was on the line and we talked, with Taylor for a while and it was good. hee hee
And now it's Friday! Commence: subject change to music I've been listening to lately... Relient K's CD, "Mmhmm" had been in the player of the truck I drive for the whole week except for my last day of work. I wanted to shake things up a bit and I wanted to see if a change of music would help me feel any better. So I put in a compilation that Peter made me including "Celestial Soda Pop," Cry of the Celts," "Time to Say Good Bye," "We're in Heaven," "Crazy Frog," and "Dragostea Din Tei." When "Time to Say Good Bye" came on, Peter, I thought of our music video and laughed out loud. :) Man, I'll tell ya, it' had been WAY TOO LONG since I'd heard "Dragostea Din Tei." I missed it. Thursday, I went onto my Imeem playlist and added all of the O-Zone songs I like and then I found a lot of other fun techno songs and added them, too. So that's what I've been listening to for two days straight. It's so good. Ahhh, Sandstorm just came on. Another good song from the good days. I should be hanging out with Peter and Wendy soon. Real soon. Hopefully.
Well, that's about it. It sure took me long enough to write this out... And if I've forgotten anything, I'll come back and write it in. I'll probably have more to write about soon, so you're certainly getting your fill of the life of Lindsay if you're a subscriber. Oh, and I wanted to say, I hope that this post doesn't sound like I'm complaining. Well, I guess I was complaining just a little. For a while, I thought that I almost deserved a few complaining sentences. But that's not the kind of attitude I had. (Like when the passport lady came. She did have an attitude, but I wasn't thinking about that, I was only thinking about how it was my fault and that she was upset with me.) Does that make sense? Hm, that reminds me of another thing. My words sometimes take a long time for them to come out correctly, especially during closing. I'll attribute it to late nights and lack of sleep, though. (Another good song just came on: http://misterlovalova.imeem.com/music/WFYA3r4U/popcorn_techno_mix/ Check it. It reminds me of our roller skating rink.) And now that reminds me of how I like roller skating. I've only ever used the old school skates, not any inlines or fancy things like that. Our rink, Skate Palace closed down last year and this song just makes me want to skate. The closest rink now (Peahtree Skate) is, eh, about 40+ minutes away through bad traffic in Peachtree City.
K, I'm going to get some pictures of Franky on here... let me get my camera.
Meet Franky, the latest addition to my family.
So there you go. :)
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