Post-Thanksgiving Update

Now it has been an entire week since I went home, and I suppose it is time to report on anything significant that occurred. I left around 10:30 AM on Tuesday, right after my Biology class, and made excellent time up until Lexington, Kentucky. When I arrived there, traffic was backed up for miles, since they were doing construction on the Interstate, which included closing two entire lanes of traffic. I then had to wait more than half an hour in what seemed to be maybe a two or three mile stretch of highway, which is very frustrating to someone who is traveling a good distance, like I was. I tried to remain patient, but after a while, my patience was being tried. One of my biggest pet peeves is being stuck in stopped traffic, so this was extremely frustrating to me. But as soon as I got past the construction sites, traffic was moving freely again, and I didn't hit any more traffic on my way home. This allowed me to get home around 2:15 PM, which at a little less than four hours is still very good time.

Since I haven't had a job, or income, for the past several months, and the fact that I haven't secured a job here in Cincinnati, I decided to work part of my break at my "old" place of employment, Ingles. I had thought all along that I was still an employee and that everything would just be "reactivated" once I came back. Boy, was I wrong about that. Understandably though, they can't keep me on the payroll if I don't work for more than three months, so the only way I could work was to be rehired. This required filling out the same paperwork I completed upon hiring, but since it was a holiday week and they knew me well enough, I wasn't really rushed into completing it. So, I filled out parts of it that day and turned everything in on Friday, including driver's license and every other necessary component. I decided ahead of time, before my trip, that I would work five days while I was home. Since Ingles is open on Thanksgiving Day, and since I figured many people would ask for that day off, I decided to volunteer to work Thanksgiving morning, which would allow me to take care of a good amount of customers and still get home for my own Thanksgiving dinner. Here was my work schedule for that week:

Tuesday 4PM-12AM
Wednesday 4PM-12AM
Thursday 9AM-4PM
Friday 4PM-11PM
Saturday 4PM-11PM

My boss had requested that I work until midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday, since those would be the busiest days. (I had originally only requested to work until 11, but I was more than willing to work the extra hour.) I had also expected (silly me) that I would have the same job I had when I left. Alas, this was not the case, since there were two people who were already scheduled to do that job, and since there had been some changes since the last time I did that job. Ingles recently built a Fuel Center, which the bookkeeper had to handle, and I had no idea how to do that. So, my manager scheduled me as a cashier, which I was more than willing to do, just as long as I didn't have to be a bagger!!! Everything went very well that week while I worked, and I was very surprised about how much I actually remembered. Running a register will always be something that I can do, but produce codes and other special functions become a little bit hazy when you don't have practice. I hadn't actually run a register in more than six months, since I had been doing the bookkeeping job before I left, but I found out that I remembered more than I forgot...

Another surprise to me was that the current bookkeepers asked me to help them, and I performed many of the same tasks that I hadn't done in several months, and with great proficiency. I counted money, fixed the tills for later, ran reports, and other various tasks that I used to do every night. Also, on Thanksgiving Day, my Front End manager gave me the bookkeeping keys and made me in charge of giving out change and keeping track of the office while she was doing other management duties. At one point it became so busy that she called me to the office to do some management duties, since she was scheduled to leave (and had already worked overtime) and the other manager on duty was already up to his ears in stuff to do. So, since I had a good amount of experience with office duties, I helped a customer send a bunch of Western Unions (I suppose to pay his bills...), all of which added up to like $600-700! I was very proud of myself and remembered everything to do correctly and in a timely fashion.

After that shift was over, I got to go home and help prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I had already made two pumpkin pies on Wednesday morning, and the turkey and the potatoes were almost finished, so there were only a few things left to make. The cranberry sauce was easiest, of course, and only involved opening the can and putting it on a dish. I then made the green bean casserole, heated up some rolls, and helped set up the table with all our wonderful dishes. My mom then made the stuffing and the gravy, my dad whipped the real mashed potatoes, and my brother carved the turkey, as per his request to do so. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together, and everything was delicious. I actually didn't eat that much, but I was definitely stuffed after dinner. Then I did something I have never done, or at least in recent memory: I took a nap! I was so tired from work, and that Tryptophan was definitely not helping. My family had started a movie, and I barely made it through the first 10 minutes. But it was a wonderful nap, and I woke up just before the end of the movie.

After that nap, we had some of that delicious pumpkin pie, complete with "sploosh," the whipped topping in the can. It was so good, and I had added just the right spices... We then watched some Jay Leno and went to bed, and for the first time since I got home, I slept very well. I didn't have to get up very early, so I slept at least 8-9 hours...ahh that felt good. Then I went back to work Friday night and started over again.

Saturday was a great day for me, since again I could sleep in a bit. I had originally planned to meet up with my friends on Saturday, but that didn't work out, since my friend never called me back... So, my family decided to go see a movie, and my mom and I decided to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It was a great movie, but somewhat depressing at the end. I actually haven't read any of those books in their entirety, but seeing these movies has definitely inspired me to read them. I would probably need to start at the beginning, since there is a lot of background information you can't get out of the movies, and then just move on to each subsequent novel. This would probably take a good amount of time, but as long as I read them all at some point, I should be happy.

Sunday was my last day back home, so obviously I didn't work that day. We got up to go to Mass at 11:30 and decided to meet up with Greg and Janie, some very close friends of ours, for lunch. We went to our favorite meeting place, Burger King, ate lunch, and sat and talked for almost three hours! I hadn't seen them in several months, so it was great to catch up and tell them about my own life up here. We talked about all the major events over the last few months, and also discussed some plans for Christmas vacation. I was so glad to see them, but if I wanted to get back to Cincinnati at a reasonable time, I needed to leave. So, we said goodbye, headed to the store to pick up a few things, and then back home.

I then got everything packed up and had to get my car ready for the trip, which included checking the oil and other fluids. Everything was a go, but I didn't end up leaving until almost 6:30PM. This meant that I wouldn't get in until 10:30-11:00, but this would allow me not to hit as much traffic. Actually, there was hardly any traffic the entire time, and I made pretty good time. I stopped just north of Lexington at a rest stop to eat, since my mom had packed me a turkey sandwich (with our leftover turkey!) with chips and a dessert. I finally got into town around 11:00PM and unloaded everything. By that time I was so tired, but I needed to get some stuff done online before I went to bed. But, when I did finally go to bed, I went to sleep right away and didn't wake up once through the night. Now I'm back to classes, and we are in the busiest time of the semester right before finals. I'll do a separate post later on about school, since this post is already starting to runneth over...

Well, that's all from me for now. As usual, I'll post if anything interesting happens later on, and I hope you all will let me know how your holidays were. I love comments on my blog, so if you are so inclined, I'd love to hear from you. Until then, have a great week, and finish up all those leftovers!