Today at work ....

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, as this is my first day of vacation, what do I get to do? I get to tell my landlord that the refrigerator has died. It made a really loud noisy rattling whine sound the other day, as I was standing by it, that it literally scared me off the floor, as I was busy cleaning out one of my pantry shelves. Think I jumped about 3 feet, lol.

Anyway, after that for the last couple of days it has been making the same sound occasionally, but not as loudly, and this morning when I got up, it wasn't making any noise at all. So I checked it, turned it off and back on, and nothing. I opened up the freezer, and all the ice from around the top and sides have started to melt, and have detached from the sides and top. Pulled out a huge piece that originally was on the top. So now I have all my freezer stuff going to thaw out. I'm not worried about what's in the fridge part, as I never kept much in it, since it never worked in that area very well from the beginning anyway. Only has some butter, milk and cherries there right now. But I have frozen meat in the freezer, and I can't eat it all at once, so I'm going to have to go to my landlord and let him know, which means he's going to be in my apartment trying to fix it because he doesn't want to buy a new one.

Mark, I'll be bringing some with me because of this, so I'm inviting myself to dinner again if its ok, lol. Got a couple of those steaks still , so fire up the grill!

Of course, right after I posted this, I went into my kitchen, and there my refrigerator has started it whine up noise again. So maybe it was just faking. I don't know, but I know I didn't have it on defrost, and my freezer is defrosted. I'm still going to let my landlord know. Maybe he can get me a new one while I'm away on vacation.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Mark, I'll be bringing some with me because of this, so I'm inviting myself to dinner again if its ok, lol. Got a couple of those steaks still , so fire up the grill!

I tried to respond to this when I read it earlier but Jenny drooled all over my keyboard so I had to clean it up first...

[Rebecca Iavelli]

So I checked my freezer when I got back from your house Mark. I have about an inch of water in it. So yeah, the fridge is dead, even though it is still making noise. Now I'm going to have to clean everything off of it so that my landlord can remove it. Meanwhile, I am going to have to toss everything in the freezer.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Was able to talk to my landlord today regarding the refrigerator, so he said he will be getting me a new one, but not sure when they will deliver it. We'll see what I get, when I get it.

At work today, I got a nice compliment from both my Boss and a fellow worker, where they both were happy I was back, because they said things were just too confusing while I was away, (I tend to be the organizer at work, keeping things where they should be), and another person at work complimented me on my hair (I had it up off of my neck with a hair clip because it was hot and humid out), and they said it looked very feminine and nice on me. Kinda surprised me because I always think that it makes my face look fatter, but it was just too hot to let it stay down.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Surprise of all surprises, I already have a new refrigerator! Have to wait til tomorrow to plug it in due to something about the Freon needing to settle because it had to be brought up side-wards instead of upright, but I'm ok with that. It looks bulkier than the old fridge but its about the same size, and it is actually a new one, compared to just being "new" to me. Nice and bright white in color, so I don't have to worry about it clashing with the dark beige wall color that my landlord favors (which I am hoping to eventually paint a nice pastel yellow, to make it brighter in the kitchen. But since I don't know how much longer I'll be living here, depending on how long it takes him to sell the house, I'm holding off doing anything right now.

I had to work today, even though it was technically my day off, but since I had taken the early part off as part of my vacation, my boss needed to take today off, so I had to work. It was kinda busy, as last days of schools are happening so lots of people in to buy teachers gifts.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Off work today, and heading out to game, but I got a question.

Does the day start off bad, when you have to use a shoehorn to get into a bra? (And no guys, not in anyway you are thinking of how, lol).

Probably shouldn't have posted the question, but I'm in a bratty mood, and just wanted to burn some brains cells (not mine, but it's fun to hear other's go "POP").

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Yesterday at work, we tore down our whole department, as they are "re-designing" it. So this morning I get to go in to re-fix all the display, and see what crappy work they did in the re-design. They took away our slate covered stairs that we used to put our buckets of cut flowers on, to replace it with those concrete blocks you usually find at building work zones, and slats of wood (because it looks more "natural"). They were going to tear up our sink, and replace it with a new one, that will be moved into a corner, so it will be harder to get too, than our old one, especially as there will be less prepping space too. They also are taking away our wrapping station, and were going to totally toss them (which has the only use-able shelves where we can store vases we sell), but my boss talked them into letting us keep that downstairs in our prep area (whew!).

So it will be an interesting morning, trying to figure out how to re-work our area to be use-able once again, and see what we will have to have them change. I know for one, that the exit they plan for us to get out of our area should be moved, as they have tried to put it where they have planned it before, and every holiday we are unable to get out of our prep area, because we get blocked in by the customers waiting in the cashier lines, because they think that having our opening facing the cashiers makes sense. (In the last two times that they have changed the display on us, and have done that, it has not worked, and they have had to change it to where we always have it, out facing produce, where we can at least get some work done, and can get out of our department to re-stock when we need too).

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, today at work was the fiasco that I thought it would be. The sink was new, but still in the same place, and it was supposed to get moved to a different wall. Think of the number 7 (except with straight lines), and that is our little nook where we work. The sink is on the down wall, and it was supposed to get moved to the top wall. Then take, using cinder blocks and slats of wood, a L shape, a little longer than the 7 shape, so that when you place them together they make a O with an opening on the bottom of the 7, which is where they wanted our enter and exit from our workspace in the center of the O.
They had only gotten one of the slat walls done when I went into work this morning, so it was more of a n shape. They finally found the rest of the wood and cinder blocks just before we opened, and set up the lower part of the O, which when it was done, gave us very little room to work inside our area. They had no table for us to prep or wrap on, so they left one of our old tables, which left room for maybe 2 people to work in the area, if they really liked each other. When our 3rd person showed up for her closing shift, we had to take turns deciding what we were doing, because 3 people could not fit in the area without being uncomfortable, so one would have to be outside our work area, where we had to set up a (too) small wrap station, with a demo table, so that we had somewhere to wrap.

The big boss of the store was not happy at how the "plans" laid out compaired to how they looked on paper. They had not given us any counter space for prep or wrapping, and the area we were in was so small, that like I said, 3 people can not work together happily in it. So, from what I heard today, they are supposed to fix the sink tonight and put it on the correct wall, and they are supposed to get us a 8 foot table that is not as wide as the one we have, but the problem is, that if they put the sink on the other wall, the 8 foot table is not going to work, because the sink has doors underneath it, and they need a good 2 feet of space to be able to open. But, as they have shown, they know what they are doing (major sarcasm here), so we will see what changes we have to work around tomorrow.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, they didn't move the sink yet, though I keep hearing that they are going too. There was a new wall put up opposite of our booth, on the outside wall. They are planning on putting in 2 windows on that wall, so that it will have more light for the new coffee bar that they are going to install there. It should be interesting to see how much more flowers we will sell once they put the bar in.

Meanwhile, they also put up a steel grid outside the store on that wall, so that they can get to the areas they need too, when cutting out the windows. I do not look forward to the noise it is going to be, when they do that, but since they built the barrier wall (a little room actually) that has a door access, and they have put up plastic sheeting to block any of the cracks, so we will not have to worry about dust on our flowers.

Our work area is really hard to work in at the moment. No more than 2 people can stand in it, and if you are prepping any of the product, only one can be there. Of course our phone is on the far inside of the work area, so if people want to use it, they have to get past the person working; which means that the person working has to stop and get out of the area so that the person wanting to use the phone can get to it. Once again I'll state that they really didn't plan this project very well, and they didn't talk to the people they needed too (the ones who work there), to find out exactly what is needed to run a flower booth. I mean, they gave us no counter space what so ever, nor did they plan for a flower wrapping station, two very important items we need to be able to work. We are lucky they gave us a decent sink. Now they just need to decide once and for all, where it is going to stay.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Yesterday I was checking my scheduled for work, and happened to notice that I actually have the 4th of July off, as it is a Friday, and my normal day off. So I haven't decided what I want to do. I know that I'll be up early, because there will be a parade downtown, and with the loud speakers they mount on the stage in the Common, I wouldn't be able to sleep if I wanted too.

I guess I could get up and watch the parade, and maybe even go to the fireworks that night, but to tell you the truth, I'm not big on fireworks and loud noises, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Some of the road ways will be blocked off, so if I decide to go anywhere for the day, I'll have to make sure I leave early so I can get by the road blocks. I haven't been to an ocean beach in years, and not sure if I really want to go to one, since I don't like swimming in salt water (prefer fresh water) and it will probably be crowded, but I do love to beach comb to see what can be found in shells and rocks along a ocean beach.

My luck with beach combing hasn't been very lucky though, as the last time I did it, the beach became covered in horseshoe crabs, which, if you don't know, are actually a sea-going arachnid. That's right, I go to a beach, and it gets covered in "spiders".

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Once again, I am petless. Got home from work yesterday to find Blue had passed away. Time for a petless life for a while, now, as it's just going to be too hot weather wise to get one, I've got other places I need to be later, so best if I just wait again.

[salamanca]

Well, that is a sad thing. Sorry to hear you are without Blue.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Oh My God! It was a delayed reaction to your returning from Origins! Ok that is IT young lady! No more Origins for you!

(Seriously, sorry to hear that. )

[Sister Sonya]

My sympathies. The death of a pet is always traumatic.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Thanks guys. I was expecting it soon anyway, as he was "old" for a rat.

Ok, now for todays stuff at work.

I got in this morning to see two Firemen sitting at one of the cafe tables. Where we are renovating, I figured they were there checking on things so I just ignored them and did my morning chores. So later my boss, Laura comes over to me and ask me if I had noticed that there were Firemen in the store. I said yes, and asked why she wanted to know. She said she had found out that the electricians who had moved one of our fire alarms, had screwed up the alarm system some how, so that it didn't work, so for the last couple of days, the store has had to have two actual Firemen in the store at all times, 24-7, to be there in case there is a fire. They have to each be on a seperate floor (we have a full usable basement, with a kitchen, break room, produce prep room, and offices), and walk around it every hour to check. Thing is, I don't know if the store is paying for the Firemen's time or if the electric company that screwed up the system is paying for their time time. They did get the fire alarm fixed today, as we had to listen to it for a full minute while they tested it. My ears are still ringing from the noise.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Firemen were still there this morning. Guess the alarm is still not up to snuff. From what I was reading, they will be around at least a couple of more days.

One of the first jobs I do in the summer, is water the outside plants, so after punching in, I headed out to do just that. The electricians were hanging around one of the isles, and as I get out to water, I see 3 more of the guys, two were sitting down on a couple of the fruit tables they put out to sell some outdoor fruit, and one was standing facing them. As I come out, I give them a nod, and look around the corner for the hose. So one of the guys nods back and saids while pointing to the guy sitting beside him, "Hi! This here is Watermellon, I'm Cantalope and the one standing is Mango." Cracked me up, lol.

Day went fairly smooth, as we didn't get much product in, and it was a slow day, because people were either at work, or away for vacations. I expect it might have gotten a bit busy after I left, since we have Hurricane Arthur coming up the coast, so they decided to do the fireworks in Boston tonight, instead of tomorrow on the 4th, since we are supposed to have some heavy rain.

But finally, as I was getting ready to leave today, my boss hands me a envelope, and said it is from the crew.
They gave me a card of sympathy for the death of Blue. That was so awesome of them!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Today at work started off with a couple of Bangs, literally!

What happened was, that not to long after we opened, one of the front end guys comes over to my department with 5 bottles of some drink a customer had returned, and since we are not allowed to re-sell, or give it to food pantry (in case they were messed with), he wanted to dump them down the sink and re-cycle the bottles. I told him no problem, and left while he was going to do that, as I had something I had to get downstairs.
I no sooner get downstairs and I hear him page for a maintenance person to come to flowers with a mop. I was like "??", so I went back upstairs. Turns out one of the bottles had exploded. It was all over the place, up the wall, on the ceiling, all over my arrangement table. It was a green colored drink, so you could see where it had landed.
Well, he goes to get a ladder, so he can help clean the upper wall off, and I was cleaning the lower part. His boss took the other 4 bottles and put them into one of our buckets, so that he could take them and dump them into the dumpster, instead of opening any of the others, incase they exploded. So he gets up the ladder, and steps off of it onto the top of our half wall, where we usually have some plants, but had pulled them down, because they had also gotten sprayed with the drink, and was washing down the green gunk, when suddenly, from under the ladder a spray of pink gunk gushes up all the way to the ceiling, and it has to be a 15 foot ceiling at that area! Another bottle had exploded! So now we had both green and pink gunk to clean up all over the place.
His boss then decided to take the rest of the bottles outside to the dumpster right away.

Turns out the name of the drink that exploded is called Kombucha. Personally, I don't know why people drink it as it smells and tastes (yes I have taken a sip, but only a sip), just like vinegar. Its extremely horrible and lots of people return it after opening it, even before they try it. I guess these 5 bottles had been left in a car, and had gotten hot, which is not good for the drink, as being a fermented drink, it gets even "touchier" when hot. Sort of a all natural Molotov cocktail. But they put chia seeds in the drink, so it thickens up, which caused the "gunk" chunks when it exploded.

In case your interested in it, you can look it up here:
https://www.google.com/search?output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=kombuchu&btnK=

[Rebecca Iavelli]

So work today was kinda busy, considering that some of the stuff we were supposed to get yesterday missed the truck, so it came today, along with our regular Wednesday delivery, and an order from a local farm that we get. Along with that, they were taking apart the Whole Body department, so there were 4 tier carts with all kinds of body care and vitamin stuff in the way. Working in the building is getting more and more like that puzzle that has the one square missing and you have to move one square to be able to move the next. But the big thing today was watching all the girls from the front end try to casually follow this woman that was in the store. I heard my fellow worker talking to one of them about the woman, so I asked what was up. Turns out she was an actress of some sort, and all the girls were hoping to talk to her. I don't know who she is, but I guess she plays on Desperate Housewives. She was a red-headed woman, if that tells you who she was. Don't know, didn't care, don't watch it.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Today I am not at work. Today is my second day off, and unlike yesterday, where I stayed home and cleaned house and was bored out of my mind, I took the car in to have an oil change, did a little needed shopping, and then had the car inspected. Happily she passed, so I have another year to not worry about it.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Today at work, I had the early shift, so it was pretty busy. But the fun thing about today, was that Andira, the other "good" worker had the second early shift, so while we worked together, we decided to go see a movie after work. Since she doesn't have a car, I hung around and waited til her shift was over, then we came to my home, checked out what was out there to watch, and ended up going to see the new Transformers movie, the 3D one, which I really didn't want to see as I don't like the 3D style, some things blur when they get too far "out" in the spectrum, and I hate wearing the glasses. But we both enjoyed the movie, and boy was it long! Even though I was enjoying it, I was like "wow", when will this end? It started at 6:30pm and we walked out of the theater around 9:15pm. I will definitely be getting the DVD, but the regular version, not the 3D version.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Nothing much has been happening in my work life right now.

Things are still a mess at the store, as they continue to change the interior in their re-vamp. Customers are all in a tizzy, because, while we have two store entrances, one on the East side and one on the West side (where the majority of the parking is), they now have to walk all the way down to our flower department (on the East side)to get into the store proper, as they blocked off the areas were they could cut through the cashiers lanes, because they want the customers to hit the new coffee/juice bar, which is right by the East side door. So if you come into the East side door, take a right, the coffee/juice bar is on the right, and flowers is on the left. The bar is not opened yet, it officially opens on the 6th, and we are hearing lots of complaints from customers who are just coming in for staples like bread and milk (Bakery is on the West side, Dairy is on the back wall, in the Western corner. Meanwhile, they still haven't figured out exactly what our flower department will get set up like. They have discovered that the exit they made for us, facing the express line, is not as workable as they thought, as it gets too crowded and we can't get out to work, without plowing through the customers.
"begin sarcasm"Gee, I told them that before they even changed us, but then I have just worked there for the last 14 years, and have already seen that exit created before, and changed because it just doesn't work. Not that they don't like it to be on that side, and just make it inconvenient for us workers, but they realized it is not good for the customers, who would be upset, having to shuffle out line to get out of the way of the workers. "end sarcasm"
Anyway, just waiting to go to work today, to see what has changed since Saturday.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, as I expected, nothing major had been done, actually nothing that I could tell had been done. But they were there last night as I was leaving, so it will be different today. They still can't move the sink, but they said they had planned on extending out our display a bit, to give us more room on the inside work floor, so we will see how that is this morning. I actually have to go in earlier to see what has been done, and to straighten up the area to make it useful for us again.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking about my friend Andira, one of our workers, who with her boyfriend, son, and her mother and her mother's husband (her step-father) have gone on their first cruise, and of course we have tropical storm/hurrican Bertha in their way. I have no idea if she can handle being on the ocean, never mind being on one that is rough from a storm. Either way, she's not going to be back til next week, and I'll be gone to Gen Con, so will not see her til I get back.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Work did not disappoint me today, it was a disaster! They still haven't moved the sink, but they 'Tucked' us in making our area less wide, and then adding length. So I had gone in early (6:30am) because I knew that it would need a lot of work to make it usable, and I wasn't wrong. The men had tried to put things back where they thought they went, but there were a lot of mis-matched buckets and signage. The prep table had been removed from its area, since it was now too narrow for it, so I had to create a spot for it, so we could work, along with finding space for our wrapping station. I spent about 4 hours refixing the buckets on the display, while trying to create a decent display, and more or less trying to create one that was workable. They had moved our entrance back to the front, which was a lot better, but it still ended up that during the prep we had to move either the trash can or the compost barrel around, depending on what we were working on, so it is like that slot puzzle, where one piece is missing, and you have to move one piece to move the next piece, etc...

Haven't heard from Andira yet, so I am hoping she is ok. More worried about her getting seasick than shipwrecked, but I'll not find out til I get back from Gen Con.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, I don't even know where to start about today. Maybe the fact that I didn't get enough sleep, and had to be up earlier than normal, because I had to go to another store to return something to a friend. Then I get to work, and from the night before, it looks like the evening worker had done no prep at all, everything I had left there to be done, was still there. Then she calls and whines about not being able to water the plants last night because the hose broke. I had already made that discovery, and had watered the plants, just had to keep one hand on the broken open part, and the other on the nozzle. A little leaky, but they got watered. I informed her that I had already watered the plants, and if there was anything else she needed, (because I had two projects I had to get done before the store opened, so didn't have time to listen to her whine), thankfully no, so I hung up.

Then one of the projects, was making sure of an order that was to be picked up just after we open, so I did that first, to find out that some of the flowers were missing. The note that had been on the bucket had fallen off, and all I could guess was that the night person had used some to make arrangements with, or had sold them to a customer, without checking (as the note was right down on the floor by the bucket). So I had to call a couple of stores to see if they had flowers to replace them with, since I didn't have what she had requested. Neither store had what I needed, so I called my boss and left a message on her cell. Meanwhile I also had to check what had come in to be prepped, and the second project, which I found out later was not so much of a rush, since that order wasn't to be picked up til after 1pm.
So a bit panicky because I can't get the replacement flowers, and the customer from what I had heard was a real "b...h", I called and left a message with her informing her of what I was doing to get replacement flowers. Meanwhile my boss called back, and said she would call a couple of other stores, and bring them in herself. Thankfully she was able to get them, and get into work, just before the woman came in to claim them. Yes she was a "b...h". No thank you's or such, just complaining about other flowers that were not available.

Later the second woman came in for her order. It was 20 plants for a wedding, and each one had to be prepped for the wedding, by cutting off the top of the pot cover (since it came in the wrong color), take two sheets of tissue and cello and wrap that around it then put a special ribbon she had bought for them on each one. Even with 4 of us working on it, one cutting, one wrapping, one putting the ribbon on, and one putting them in protective sleeves for the trip, it still took almost an hour to do, since we have limited space to work in at the moment, and we had to stop and do some flower wraps for customers.

So no matter how "good" you can feel, some days just suck the energy right out of you, and today sure did that to me. The ride home wasn't much better either, as the person in front of me must have kept thinking that they were in England or were from England, because they kept trying to drive on the wrong side of the road. Sure, the road was newly paved, and had not had the lines painted on it yet, but that's no reason to drive on the left on a two way street.

Oh, forgot to mention that during all the prep I was doing, I was downstairs looking for something just after 7am when they open the new coffee bar (an hour earlier than they open the rest of the store), when I suddenly heard what sounded like a lot of water splashing near me. I went over to where I heard it at, and the emergency exit, right beside my flower walk in, was getting flooded by water coming out of the ceiling, which just happened to be right under where the new coffee bar is. I grabbed a couple of large buckets from my stack, placed them and then had another person call the shift manager about it, while I kept an eye on where the water was coming from (there were a lot of wiring in the area too), and the water as it built up, looked to be the color of coffee, so it was definitely from the coffee bar. So I had to make sure that it was checked on occasionally, so the buckets would not overflow, and the spatter that missed the buckets could get mopped up. All and all, a very energy draining day. Thankfully I have tomorrow off.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Today was pretty quite at work, other than one incident with a customer. This one customer came in and was looking at our Orchid plants, which had been on sale last week at $10 each, but were now back to their regular price of $15 each. So after whining and complaining about each one (we only had about 6 left), she left and I thought that was it, that she had changed her mine. About half an hour later, she is back looking them over again with another woman, and humming and hawing about them again. Meanwhile another woman came up grabbed a arrangement and asked me if I could put ribbon on it for her. I went to take it from her to do it, when the other lady interrupted and said she had been there first, and wanted the orchid she had picked out wrapped. I said that it would only take a moment to do the ribbon, and that I had not been sure if she was ready, because she had not said anything to me (as she had still been doing nothing but complaining to the other woman about the orchids). So I did the second woman first, since all she wanted was ribbon. So I think I pissed off the other customer, but then she kinda pissed me off first with the attitude she had.

Meanwhile I am officially on Vacation!