Month: May 2011

I know. I’m sorry.

Posted on by kmarrs

Children of those with Borderline Personality DisorderThe thing is, what there is to talk about, I can’t talk about. Unless I want to get fired. And I’m not currently in a position where I could recover from that easily. And well, you all know I still sometimes talk about work a bit here and there against better judgment. So trust me when I say, this is a bit beyond that.

All things considered, my mental health is as stable as it can be. I’m miserable but I’m not suicidal. I’m moody and cranky, but I’m in my third trimester (what the hell do you expect in other words). I’m surviving.

The pregnancy has been miserable, but it’s better now than it was. I’m to the point of uncomfortable but at least I’m no longer cramping as much and bleeding. So it’s back to the realms of normal. I’m 26 weeks, so it’s going to get more miserable from here. But at least it isn’t stuff that’s sending me to the hospital (I hope).

It’s bloody hot here. That’s one thing I will mention, lightly, work related. The AC in the store is broken and has been for weeks. They are working on fixing it but so far, nada. It’s usually about 10 degree warmer in the store than it is outside. Today, for example, it hit the mid to high 90’s. You do the math. Add in pregnancy hormones making it IMPOSSIBLE for me to regulate my body temp, and yeah. I’ll leave it at that though.

We’ve all taken turns with various sicknesses the past couple of months. Mostly chest stuff. Seasonal allergies. Though Luke did have an excellent case of pink eye about a week ago. The entire left side of his face was swollen and he had puss constantly oozing out of his eye. You’re welcome for THAT mental picture. It was bad enough that Pat actually called my boss and told him he needed me home asap so I could get Luke to the doctor (I had the van, car seat, etc.) And I’ll give said boss credit where credit it due. I was out the door within 5 (ok 10, I had to pee) minutes with no issue. He may not always be quick to send sick employees home, but he knew better than to mess with a sick kid. So, there is that. Within 12 hours of drops, his eye was fine.

Actually, since I’m here, I might as well tell the full story because well, it’s one part pathetic and one part adorable. Some of this is repeat because I’m copy/pasting it from facebook.

So… at about 5:00 while at work, I notice the dreaded text message. It’s inevitable when you have kids. These calls/messages happen. It wasn’t a cracked skull at least. No stitches. But… “Luke has pink eye.” Fun. First reaction, not having ever experienced it or seeing it on Luke first hand: Ok I’ll call ped first thing. About 45 minutes later my manager comes down with the news Pat had called him, it couldn’t wait, I needed to go NOW. (Amazingly, he didn’t argue.) So off I went. I came home to half Luke’s face swollen and I’ll spare the details of what was exiting his eye. So I took him to Children’s Close to Home. Which was the BEST DECISION EVER. It’s basically an urgent care run by children’s hospital. They are all over the area. We have a basic urgent care like right next door, but it didn’t feel right for my 3yo. The hospital just seemed… over kill. But THIS WAS PERFECT. To set the scene: I carried him into the urgent care with him literally cradled in my arms. He cried most of the way there. Once inside I got him settled while I checked us in. He whined a bit but the crying had stopped. We sat in 2 different waiting rooms, but no more than like 3 min each. Then triage. There they gave him something for pain right off the bat. They weren’t messing around. It was a bit of a fight to get him to drink it. He didn’t throw a fit, he just didn’t cooperate. But dude, I’m not sure I blame him. Once he did, the cute nurse handed him a Popsicle and suddenly he was a whole new kid. Perky. They took us back to our room. He ate his Popsicle while we waited for the doctor. That wait wasn’t long. Doc came him, checked him out. Pink eye for sure really bad in his left eye, and starting in his right as well. He also mentioned to keep an eye on his left ear. It was starting to show signs of something being up, but could also just be a response to his fever and the swelling. It doesn’t seem to bother him, so we are fine for now. He left the room to wrote a script, Luke and I read books. The nurse came back shortly to hand us the script and instructions. I then informed Luke it was time to go. “No!” Um, wait, what? He didn’t want to leave. The exam room. At the doctor’s. Then again, pain meds, Popsicles, cute nurses, books… Yeah, didn’t blame him. I finally managed to convince him we should leave. On a related note, I may or may not owe him his own private island in the Caribbean. That place was apparently pure magic. But he did walk out on his own accord.

Now the fun part: 2 drops per eye 4 times a day for 7 days. That’s 112 drops. For the 3 year old. In an open eye. And while the first drop might actually go off as planned, I’m thinking that somewhere in the remaining 111 drops, he’s going to catch on. Should be fun.

I’ll tell you what though. The first few doses didn’t go so smooth, but daddy took over and he must be magic because while Luke didn’t enjoy it by any means, he cooperated. Also from facebook/twitter:

Watching my husband give the 3yo his eye drops has really confirmed in my mind that the right parent is home with our kids.

Yep, magic. To the 3yo’s credit, those eye drops aren’t just not fun, they BURN. So really, I understand his protest and tears.

There are actually all kinds of tidbits I could pull over from facebook. While I’m not currently so active here, I’m very active there. So really, if you want to, by all means friend request me there.

For now, I’m going to close this.

I do have a semi-mental health post formulating in my brain. When I get the energy and motivation, I’ll get it up here. It just, unlike this one, requires thought and well, I’m tired.

Though I’m dropping down to 4 days a week at work, so hopefully that will help with the tired and ability to think straight. So look for it sometime in the next… I dunno… 3 months? (Look, I’d say week but I don’t want to set up expectations.)

So, bye?

Today Was A Day

Posted on by kmarrs

Really, there is no other single word or phrase that could accurately sum up today. It was, indeed, a day.

Today, since you are probably reading this tomorrow, was Sunday. Which means two things. One, it was the fourth day I worked in a row. So it’s really not the best of or for me. Second, it also happens to be our busiest day of the week. Well, some argue Saturday is just as busy. A few even argue that Saturday is indeed busier. And some weeks are indeed like that. But no, Sunday is our busiest day of the week.

Today was no exception. My first story will illustrate this point.

I was working fastlane (self-scan) 1 at the time. I notice the assistant store director walking towards me making eye contact. I momentarily freeze and run through this mental checklist:

  • Name tag on
  • In proper uniform
  • Exactly where I’m supposed to be
  • Doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing
  • Crap! Water in plain sight!
  • No, wait, doctor’s note… we’re cool

The possibility that he was on his way over to take over my spot so I could take my break, never entered my mind. Apparently, that was a fail on my part. Mind you, it isn’t unusual to find him helping out on fast lane. When he isn’t busy doing his own workload, and the store is slammed, he can sometimes be found acting as a third pair of hands down on fastlane 1/2, even though 2 people is usually all that is needed. But the words” I’m here to hop your break” are a sure sign that “holy crap we really must be busy.” When I left at 6:30 he was solo running fastlane 3, had been for well over an hour, and there were no signs of that changing anytime soon.

Another thing of note was that I was all over the place today. I’ve been working A LOT of fastlane because, well, the AC that controls the air in the front of the store is broken, it’s been documented to be 80 degrees at 8AM and it only gets worse, and I’m just not capable of running a lane for too long in that heat. I can’t keep currently regulate my body temp very well. So it’s fastlane, or leaving on a stretcher. But today, was, well, one of those days. I started on fastlane 1. Got sent to cover M’s 15 min break, then to cover A’s 30 min lunch, then to cover T’s 30 min lunch, then to my own lunch, then back to fastlane 1, then to open lane 22 because they needed another lane and the assistant store director could run fastlane 3, and the person from 3 got moved to cover me on 1, then I got sent back to fastlane 1, then my own break, then back to 1, then to cover D’s 30 minute lunch, then back to 1. Which honestly, was all kinda awesome. I was never really on lane long enough to get too overheated, and it made a good break from fastlane. (Note: self-scan (fastlane) has a bad habit of attracting stupid people. Which is far from saying all people who use self-scan are stupid. So it can get a bit frustrating. So 4 days in a row of nothing BUT self-scan… yeah.) So really, I was all over the place today. Never knew where I was going to be from one moment to the next and was actually quite ok with it.

Now for the funnies. Because while today was crazy busy and overwhelming for even the veterans, there were moments of comedy gold.

At around 11AM, I was running fastlane 1. Scanner 1 had a red light go up, meaning they had run into a problem of some sort. I walked over, greeted the customer, and moved in to fix the problem. “Oh! Do you work here?” she says, looking me in the eye. No, lady, I wear the uniform, name tag, greeted you, and moved in on the system purely for the fun of it. Really.

Later, I was on an actual lane and a customer came through with a live, pet fish. NORMALLY, the fish have a PLU (that 4 digit number you find on produce and bulk things) written on the bag. Only apparently the tag that this info can be found on had been destroyed so the coworker who got them the fish had nothing to offer in terms of ringing the fish out, aside from the price. So I had to key dump. Key dumping, for those who don’t know, is when you have no upc or anything so you basically turn it into random grocery (or whatever) item at a given price. It isn’t ideal, but it gets it on the order. It is also the last resort. But sometimes, it’s all you have. When we key dump, it brings up a list of possible departments. But not ALL departments are on that list. So sometimes you have to kind of fudge it. The pet department, not being one of the main departments, doesn’t happen to be on that given list. However, “seafood” was. I’m sure you can see where this is going… The customer found it HYSTERICAL that I listed the pet fish on her order as seafood @ 3.49. Made her freakin’ day. MY favorite part is that when she and the couple behind her, agreed that no one had to tell the poor fish. I laughed until I cried. Literally.

Then there was the 7yo girl, while I was hoping a random lunch, who when I asked her if I could go home with her and share her homemade lasagna, she informed me “only if her momma didn’t have to pay for their groceries”. Which I guess, if you weren’t there, sounds bad. But prior to that, she was stressing because they came in for like 4 things and were leaving with a cartload. It helped that her mother was openly mortified at her daughter’s response. I just laughed. It was cute. I have a kid that age. I know they are just starting to have a concept of money, and therefore she knew what the running total she could plainly see meant, but still had no concept of why stores can’t simply give 200$ worth of groceries away. So I called her adorable, explained if I could I would but couldn’t, and claimed any leftovers.

Anyway, those were the best moments of the day. There was a handful of not so great moments, but I’m choosing to focus on the ones that had me laughing until I cried.