Mugged

Sam phoned me last night shortly before 11:00 pm. I was expecting this call, assuming that it was now time to pick him up from his friend's house, but what I heard was something quite unexpected. Sam's friend T had been robbed while they were walking to meet another friend. The full scope of what could have been wasn't revealed until I had picked Sam up.

Sam and T were walking to meet a friend. They entered a playground/park area nestled within a subdivision and were surrounded by a group of 6 or 7 young people. This group told the boys that this was their park and made other comments before letting Sam and T walk on. They didn't get too far though before two of the young people got back into Sam and T's faces. Sam started to back up, while one guy, holding a knife, told T to give him his shoes or get stabbed. T took off his shoes, and everyone left. T called the police on his cell phone. The police came. Sam and T were driven back to T's house in the police car and questioned. T did recognize one of the group (not one of the two though) and provided that name to the police.

Both Sam and T were scared and shaken up when this happened and for a little bit after, but they both appeared steady and okay by the time I picked Sam up. I handled it well, although I am still somewhat shocked that this even happened in the first place...and over a pair of shoes! T had on a pair of new and expensive shoes. Sam also had on a new pair of shoes, but I don't spend a hundred dollars on a pair of shoes! I guess the thieves weren't interested in a $30 pair of shoes from Wal-Mart, and I'm okay with that. What does bother me is the fact that a group of teenage boys acted in such a hostile and threatening way towards two teenage boys just minding their own business, and then threatening them with a knife! Even if a knife had never come into play, a gang of 6 or 7 teenage boys could still inflict a lot of damage if they wanted to. I am thankful that all that was taken was a pair of shoes and a bit of innocence!

T phoned Sam this morning to say that the police had caught the guy with the shoes. T will have to pick him out of a line up.

Start Your Engines

Sam passed his knowledge test yesterday and officially has his "learner's license"! Now the real fun begins...

TGIF

Tomorrow is Friday! It is not just another day on the calender. It is also the 'Friday' of my work week, and it has been a very long week, indeed. Tomorrow will be my fourth shift this week, and each day has felt impossibly long and heavy and not just because of the forest fires and hazy skies.

It began nearly two weeks ago, when I went to work on a Monday morning and wound up somehow in the middle of one of the worst work days ever. I've not yet recovered.

I've been told by my boss that the matter has been talked about and dealt with, that there was miscommunication and hurt feelings, but my problem is that her definition of the matter being 'dealt with' is vastly different than mine. The co-worker that made that shift miserable for myself and others has not apologized for her behaviour or her words, and she never will. She never apologizes! And therein lies part of my lingering problem...I know that she won't apologize, and so I feel perpetually slighted and trod on. There is no genuine joy in the act of going to work each morning. Instead I feel empty and leaden. A fake smile gets pasted on for customers as I go through the motions of doing my job with heavy heart and hands. Sadly, I don't think I am the only one feeling such tension and weariness at work.

Most days I truly do enjoy doing what I do. It isn't glamorous, and it won't make me rich, but it is usually fun and busy work, with just enough routine to balance out the constant changes. I am good at what I do and, while I have become pretty good at rolling with the punches, I still get caught by a sucker-punch every once in a while. I recover well, most of the time. As much as I like my job I know that it is just a job. But it is never enjoyable working with tension as thick as pea soup or egos that have been allowed to grow to gargantuan proportions. This co-worker can be a good person to work with. Unfortunately, she is also often the source of toxicity in the workplace environment.

The heaviness I feel comes from the knowledge that nothing will change. This co-worker is a good friend of the boss and has far too much "power" to ever give it up. She won't change. The situation won't change. She and the boss talked, so everything is supposed to be fixed, except that their little chat doesn't repair the damage inflicted on others. This incident has basically been swept away, and we're all supposed to return to being a big happy family.

Someday I'll look forward to going to work again but not just yet.

Ring of Fire

We've been down this road once before, nearly six years ago, but familiarity does not necessarily bring comfort. Fires are raging in our area, although this time across the lake and directly affecting a neighbouring community. We once lived within that community, worked and played and attended church there. Friends live there and acquaintances, co-workers. Thousands have been evacuated, while many more are filled with the uncertainty of being on evacuation alert. My family is safe from evacuation and flame, but we breathe, smell and taste smoke even within our home. Rain would be most lovely right about now. Instead we have more wind and sun.

I had a killer headache yesterday. It started while I was at work, slowly until my shift was over and I was home, then it exploded! I hate that type of headache. It builds at the base of the skull and pulses with every laugh, cough, or rapid movement of the head. At times I felt almost nauseous, though not from my stomach but my head. The strongest pain reliever I had was an extra-strength muscle relaxant, which still took at least a couple of hours to dull the pain to manageable levels.

This morning I awoke with the remnants of that headache echoing in my skull. By 10:00 in the morning, the headache was once again a raging monster hell-bent on my destruction. By the time I was finished running errands it was about noon, and the headache had settled into a simmer. It is now nearly 11:00 pm, and the headache is still simmering away at the base of my skull.

The weekend begins tomorrow, but it will be a long, hot and busy three days of baseball and trying to survive the heat. Casey will be umpiring six games over the weekend, and Sam has been roped into umpiring two games. Somewhere in there I need to do some laundry and housework and such. I still haven't managed to write a card of sympathy for a friend who just lost her mother, and another friend's husband has a birthday this weekend and I've been meaning to send a letter, or at least an email, for a couple of weeks now.

And while I only had two work shifts this week, those eleven hours of work were the longest hours I've worked for a very long time! Yesterday was four hours of pain (head and back) mixed in with apathy and heaviness, which I know is fall-out from the drama of Monday's shift.

My job isn't glamorous or significant, but I enjoy it. What I do not enjoy about my job is the drama that seems to swirl around certain employees. A little drama I can handle, but too much attitude and drama leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I'm a hard worker, a good employee, and I'm adept and competent, even a quick learner, so I really do not appreciate another employee basically insulting myself and our co-workers just because a manager hurt her feelings. I am certainly not keen on working with this diva anytime soon. There has been no apology offered. Management has heard complaints about this behaviour and has "talked it through" with this person, but it is all double-speak for soothing diva's ruffled feathers, while down-playing the damage she left in her wake. I guess that's what happens when the owner and the diva are friends.

I am not looking forward to work on Monday...

Dream a Little Dream

I don't often dream about people that I actually know. Most of the people in my dreams are nameless and faceless with the odd celebrity thrown in for good measure. So, when a familiar person does make a dream appearance, I find myself kind of thrown for a loop. Sometimes the dream is nothing special, and I think nothing of it at all. But, sometimes the dream feels incredibly real and relevant to real-life situations, and I woke up questioning whether I had a dream or whether I actually had that experience!

Last night's dream revolved around my former friend, the one who pushed me out of her life. She hasn't been in one of my dreams for a very long time, maybe even a couple of years! To be honest, up until about a month ago, I hadn't even seen even a glimpse of her for at least a year! I did unexpectedly "see" her at the ballpark in June and then again while driving last week. It had been so long since I last saw her, that both of these glimpses took me by surprise. I think I actually reacted physically as if an invisible rope around my neck had been yanked. It has been significantly more than a year since I last spoke with my former friend, but I think about her frequently.

In my dream last night, I was sitting somewhere, doing something. The 'what' is hazy, but watching baseball is a probable scenario and more likely to result in the two of us bumping into each other. C. saw me and walked over to where I was sitting and stood right beside me, expectantly. I believe she even said hello. I wasn't sure how to respond or even if I wanted to respond, but I said hello in return, though warily and less than warmly. The rest of that dream escapes my memory.

And so the dream resembles real life. Although I haven't physically bumped into C. for more than a year, I do believe that I am just a little scared of what would happen if it did happen! How would I feel? How should I feel? What would I say? What would she say? Do I even want such a meeting to take place? I do not know what I would say. I'm sure I could manage a hello and maybe even some additional generic 'how are you' queries, but I don't know that I want that. So much effort in the past has been thrown in my face or left hung out to dry...do I really want to exchange pleasantries with someone who ripped out my heart and walked all over it? Part of me would wonder what she was up to in talking to me. After all, she's been so efficient at shutting me out and ignoring me in the past! What would be her motivation for talking to me now?

It's all moot for now, of course, because this was only a dream and she has not even stepped within 50 feet of me anyway. Still, for a dream, it was interesting and thought-provoking, if nothing else.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

Some days it just doesn't pay to go to work! Seriously.

Monday is the start of the work week, even for someone like me who doesn't work a standard work week. I'm not a big fan of Mondays and the start of a new week of work isn't always very exciting, but I usually head off to work looking forward to the day. Today was no different. My alarm went off at 6:15 am, and I was out the door by 6:35. At 7:00 I was ready to start my work day, went out to take my place, and was immediately stomped on. Not literally, of course, but I would not have been surprised if a co-worker's shoes had actually mashed me into the tiled floor.

This co-worker made life miserable for most everyone today, but especially for myself and another co-worker who were working in the drive-thru with Ms. Temper Tantrum. More than once K. and I exchanged eye rolls, grimaces, and glares as we listened to Ms. Tantrum rant and rave for most of the morning. We listened as Ms. Tantrum loudly complained and ranted to customers about how she was 'being put out to pasture', 'being phased out', and how she obviously wasn't good enough or fast enough! We listened as she slapped our faces by saying that she is the only one who has won a customer service award, as if the rest of us are incompetent or incapable of giving equally good, or even better, service! We listened as she loudly asked customers if they were hiring or knew of job openings, because she was being pushed out of her job and wanted a new one. When Ms. Tantrum had had enough of ranting, she decided that she had nothing else to do, so she proceeded to do everyone else's chores. Instead of doing her job in the drive-thru, she shouldered all the responsibilities that are supposed to be divided up between all the employees working during that shift. She did so at the expense of getting every one's breaks done in a timely fashion, but she had no qualms about making sure that she took her break when she wanted it, irregardless of where she fell in the pecking order.

This co-worker has always been a source of consternation and intimidation, but I've worked with her long enough to understand her nature and roll with it. But I have my limitations. She may claim to be the only one who does the job "right". She may claim to be the only one who gives great service. Heck, she can claim whatever she wants, but truth is a lot more discerning. She is not perfect, and she is often wrong, even if she doesn't think so! She has far too much power and is not held accountable for all her actions and bad attitude. Of course, she is good friends with the bosses.

I can get along with her most of the time, because:
a) I don't work with her all the time,
b) I'm a good and competent worker, thus I'm not typically one of her targets, and
c) I try not to let my job take over my life

But, sometimes it gets to be a little too much! Ms. Tantrum had a tantrum last Friday. She had another today. I can put up with a lot of her crap, but today went too far. Quite honestly, she was acting like a two year old, and I would not have been surprised had she thrown herself on the floor. This is a mature woman who should know that part of being a good employee is to NOT bad mouth the boss and co-workers for everyone to hear. It doesn't look good to the customer. It doesn't look good to the boss. And it doesn't look exactly build teamwork and a positive environment amongst co-workers.

I am so glad that I do not work tomorrow!

16 Candles

This isn't the order that I uploaded the photos in, but I guess it doesn't matter!

Sixteen years ago today, Samuel was born. He's a lot bigger now and in many ways.

Happy birthday!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5 Canada License.

Game, Set, Match

A couple of months ago, we put Sam into a session of tennis lessons through the city's Recreation Centre. He thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and wowed the instructor enough to be moved up to the adult class after a few weeks. The lessons are now over, but the instructor invited him to try out for a Summer League that the instructor runs over the summer. Sam earned one of the six spots in the league, which will run Tuesdays and Thursdays all summer. Last Saturday, we had a potluck and informational meeting time for the league participants and parents. The league games will be held at a private tennis court belonging to a retired couple living on lakefront property next to one of the city's beaches. We were at the house on Saturday for the potluck, and Kane and I fell in love with the property. We were welcomed into the house to watch a promotional video for a tennis fundraiser put on by the couple in support of the hospital. Stepping into their home was like taking a step back in time. I have no words to describe their house and property, but it was simply gorgeous, and I coveted the entire time we were there! ;o)


Sam plays his first league game tomorrow night, if the weather holds. His first opponent is one of the top two players, so it will be a challenging game for Sam; however, he played this same player last night for fun and lost 6-7! Maybe he will beat Jayden by the end of the summer...


Since Sam's 16th birthday is on Saturday, we bought Sam a new tennis racket today for his gift. It's a good racket and popular racket, according to two separate sports stores and Sam's tennis instructor, and it was nearly half the regular price. Sam loves it already. Photos to come...

I survived the work week, and the Beauti-Control party turned out alright, I think. After working 34.5 long and crazy hours this week, I was ready for some pampering and spa treatment. Normally, I strongly dislike hosting these types of things, because it is always a chore to get people to come, especially at this time of year, but I was content with the turn out. By the end of the night I was relaxed and refreshed!

I slept in this morning until 9am, but I didn't get to bed until around midnight. I think I slept fairly well last night. My work schedule next week is a far cry from what it was this week...only 11 hours between two days, Monday and Friday! Routine is calling my name, and I'm glad that I will have the time, and thus the energy, to get into it.

In about an hour, we have a potluck for Sam's summer tennis league. This is all new to us, the summer tennis league, that is. The purpose of the potluck today is to explain how things work. Sam is looking forward to it.

Routine

The NaBloPoMo theme for July is ROUTINE, which is a theme that I can dig my teeth into! The only problem is that my normal routine has been thrown for a loop with a suddenly crazy work week. Next week looks to be a little less hectic though, so routine will once again take over.

In the meantime, there is a lot that needs to be done today and tomorrow, before the Beauti-Control party that I am hosting Friday night. Since I am working until 2pm tomorrow, I have a ton of stuff to do today. The problem is that I am so tired, wiped out and drained, that I really don't feel like doing anything, but I have no choice but to carry on.