greener grass over warrens
Kevin gave me a sliver of hope this morning that maybe I could still get out of "volunteering" shifts at a store next week the couple of days before Thanksgiving, and then Eric effortlessly shot it down! I don't think he's being vindictive or anything, although I still suspect he was thinking something along the lines of, Nice try. And in my defense here, it actually has occurred to me that, in all those past 17 Thanksgivings I managed successfully to avoid this, we had fewer stores. We do have more office staff than we used to but it is far from in proportion to total added store staff, particularly over the past couple of years. And when it comes to how much help office staff can offer those super busy grocery shopping days (especially the day before Thanksgiving, as Thanksgiving Day is one of only two days a year that we close down completely company-wide), the more stores we open, the more spread thin the office gets in terms of help available. In other words, my moderate annoyance with all of this has no bearing on the fact that, really, it actually is the right thing to do.
I do have a lot of tasks on my plate at the moment and not working those shifts next week would sure make that a lot easier, but come on—I can still deal. I would if it were several years ago and I were traveling out of town for most of Thanksgiving Week, right? I still have no good excuse to get out of this.
Anyway! I haven't even told you the excuse I thought I had yet, have I? I was telling Kevin this morning that I'll be "volunteering" (even though it's more like I was "volunteered"—another thing that bugs me; I much prefer it be my own decision, which it will be next year) shifts next week, and he told me all store workers are supposed to have food handler's permits, regardless of position. Even if they're just bagging groceries. He said Jared has told him he never got a food handler's permit just so he could get out of it. Wait, what? I honestly didn't even know this was a thing. If I were, say, working in the Deli, then I'd get it. But, an example Kevin brought up was, if I happened to notice a toilet overflowing, what the proper response is in a food establishment. I guess there are specific guidelines or protocols? Beyond not swimming in it, presumably.
Kevin and I chatted about it for a minute, and he said, "Do with that what you will." I decided in the end that I would email Eric to ask about it. I noted in the email that if we want to ignore that I don't have a food handler's permit and go on as planned, I was willing to. It probably still looked to him like a last-ditch effort to get out of it, which it kind of half-was. I really was still willing to work the shifts. In any case, he came back with, You wouldn’t be the first person without a valid one to work in a store for a day or two. So, there you have it.
He then asked if anyone at Columbia City has confirmed with me what I'll be doing, and I said no. I suppose I could reach out on my own to ask. I was thinking yesterday about how, even though I would still happily get out of this if I could, I'm really not that nervous about doing this. If I were forced to volunteer Thanksgiving shifts ten or fifteen years ago it would have given me significant anxiety. But now? It's two four-hour shifts. I sat through a movie nearly that long just last week. It's hardly going to kill me. And who knows? Maybe what management has been saying for decades, that "it's fun," will actually turn out to be true. Stranger things have happened.
So! Now I shall update you on the past 24 hours of my life: it was basically uneventful.
I walked home. Took shirts to the dry cleaner's. And! I dropped off my pea coat, which I've had five years as of this month, to be cleaned for the first time. That's a long time for it never to be cleaned, but also I spilled salsa on it at Flatstick Pub with Laney and Jessica a week and a half ago. It also has a tear in the inner lining that I wanted to get mended before it got too much worse. I wore my lighter jacket over a hoodie this morning and although that did keep my torso fairly warm, I should have at least worn my coat. It was literally near freezing this morning. Great timing!
I came back home and Shobhit had just arrived as well. I declared that we shall have soup and grilled cheese sandwiches using the Costco baguette for dinner. Also the super delicious cheese we just bought at Costco. This made for a spectacularly delicious dinner. We watched two episodes of season 3 of The Crown and they were both excellent. Then an episode of Will & Grace which was dumb. Then an episode of season 10 of Cheers and half of it was legitimately funny and half of it was dumb.
There was also the Democratic debates last night. The third or fifth of twentieth, I don't know. Shobhit had it on while we were making dinner, and I was beginning to think he'd want to watch that all evening, but then he said I could change it. So I did. The Crown was far more interesting, and actually managed to teach me things I didn't know, which no political debate is going to do at this point. My position right now is that something pretty drastic would have to happen to waver my support of Elizabeth Warren, who will almost certainly be getting my vote in the primary next year. And of course whoever gets the nomination will too, and the dipshits insisting on voting for third-party candidates will continue infuriating me.
Shobhit thinks Pete Buttigieg has a good chance at securing the nomination. Maybe. But, that would genuinely shock me. More than the idea of Obama securing the nomination in 2008 did. On the other hand, fucking Donald Trump made it all the way to the White House, so clearly anything is possible. Granted, he's filthy rich and that makes a difference no matter how repulsive you are. And I don't think Buttigieg is repulsive at all. I just don't think he has the political experience necessary to make him the best candidate. He's a good candidate—they all are, with the possible exceptions of Bernie Sanders and definitely Joe Biden, who needs to fucking give it up and take a nap—but he's far from the best. Right now, in my view, Warren is.
[posted 12:19 pm]