You Kind of Had to Be There

It's Friday! Never have I been so glad of the fact that, tomorrow is Saturday and I don't have to work! This has been a long, hard week. Don't judge.

I worked on Sunday, it was just five hours of work. I did something I have wanted to try but never been given the opportunity to try before. It took me a couple of minutes to find my own groove but by the time I got through my stack of tickets? I was pretty pleased with myself.

Monday was a rough day, I don't know. It just was. I had a headache (too much puppy chow during the Super Bowl and dehydration is what I am crediting it to). My sister told me that one of my friends who is also my coworker told her that when I got home from work she should hand me a bucket of ice cream and walk away slowly. There was no ice cream waiting for me when I got home from work but I had a headache so I didn't want any anyway.

I don't mind working with people whose efforts aren't the best, most perfect, top-notch efforts. All I ask is that the people I work with do the best they possibly can, they be the best they can possibly be and push themselves to new heights of excellence every day. Some of the people I work with? Not so much. It's kind of frustrating. One of my leads has told me numerous times not to help so much because I am not teaching them any sort of good lesson by helping them put themselves back together constantly. But I can't help it. Because of the extra weight I feel I have to carry in order to pick up the slack and because I was apparently unanimously voted as Head Floater the following played out on Wednesday.

I was floating on Charlie Wednesday morning because, well, Head Floater! and one of my supervisors came to me. She showed me the rate sheet from the past week. Now, the department average is 150-something and my average is 190-something. She showed me the sheet, Sunday I did 215, Monday 220-something, "And this," she said, "Is Tuesday." She pointed to the number on the page, a staggering 300-something! "That's good," she said, "That's really, really good." And then she proceeded to tell me that I am moving to a new location because, well, she wants someone else to have the opportunity to have a pick rate like mine.

I was kind of upset at first. I really liked my first ever home, it was a really easy zone (I thought). I had great neighbors. I had basically nothing that needed to be opened or bagged. Obviously a really great home. I enjoyed the fact that I was in a high traffic area, sometimes I'd get caught in the middle of a traffic jam of people but I enjoyed seeing everybody and exchanging words. I don't get anywhere near as many walk throughs in my new home.

But then, I discovered that there are several positive elements to my new home, too. I have to turn a lot of boxes which is very frustrating for me but this zone seems to be more challenging then my last one was. I have often wished for a busier zone. I think I may have got my wish. The first day in my new home was perfect. It was challenging but the Alpha floaters were perfect. They did not help me once. They left me to my boxes and my boxes to me.

Thursday was another rough day but not rough like Monday, Thursday was easier to bear. The system crashed so many times, when ever it went down the boxes would keep coming and we'd get behind until we were up and running again. Once up we would catch up as best we could until the system would go down again. We were spiralling towards our own doom! We must have crashed at least six times--it sucked, frankly. When the first shift left and my side went from four people to three I told myself we would never be able to keep up with just three people. But then! To my surprise we were rocking it like old champs. We would have soared past the finish line and onto glory. We fell apart so badly that M. had to come rescue us and when he did he insulted me to no end by saying, "What have you been doing? Get to work."

Um? What have I been doing? In the words of another, I've been "busting my butt," thank you very much.

This whole week has been so hard. I ain't no Energizer bunny, that's for sure. Today I visited my old home because the girl it had been given to called in. So, I had my old neighbors back and we fell into our old groove. But, wow, I had such a hard time keeping up the pace. My legs were like jelly. I was so glad it was Friday and we didn't have overtime. When the second shift of people left and my side went down to two people, I worked and probably could have kept the mess a bit more under control if I had just been able to make my legs move a little faster. I really wanted someone to come by so I could tell them that I give up. It would have made me feel better if I could have told somebody, "I can't do it!" Towards the last twenty minutes all I wanted to do was vomit and collapse in a dead faint of some sort. But, I survived.

And, when I got off work, I had a voicemail. I listened to it while punching out and I couldn't help but smile when I heard it. It started, "Hey Kristie, this is Grandpa Bill." It made me feel much better, I just love my Grandpa Bill! :)

No work tomorrow! YES. I put in for a vacation day next week. I have some hours I have to use or lose by the end of the month and after this week? A vacation day is extremely necessary.

P.S. This is my five hundredth post. :)