— चार हजार सात सौ छियासी —

I rode my bike to the office after finishing work yesterday, as I did my receiver paperwork yesterday and needed to exchange it. Scott happened to be standing at the front desk when I arrived, which was a nice surprise and yet in retrospect not that surprising to see him there, as he took the last two weeks off for vacation and probably had a lot of work to put in these first few days back this week.

I said hi quickly and made a beeline for the men's room to wash my hands, as I always do. After that I go back to the front desk to check in, as they are tracking all staff who have been in the office and when, just in case any infection occurs and tracing needs to happen. By the time I returned to the front desk for that, Scott was gone from there, but he was back at his desk, as I saw when I was at the filing cabinets on top of which are the store files for me to put away my reconciled receiver paperwork.

Scott called out to me, "Oh sure, barely say hi, Matthew!" I told him I had to wash my hands. But, I wound up actually talking to him for a good half an hour just a few minutes later, circumstances around which yielded several interesting things:

First off, Tracy P, the new woman hired back in February who I've gotten to know a lot over email and who sits behind me at the office but I only saw her there the three days I worked between returning from Australia and having to start working from home in mid-March, decided to give me an "anniversary present." I had told her not long ago that August 5 was to be my 18th anniversary at PCC. I had forgotten I had also not long ago surprised her (this always surprises people) by telling her my favorite movie is Batman Returns, and it certainly amused me that the gift she left me on my desk, inside an envelope along with a card, was an awesome Catwoman pin. I immediately thought of Gabriel because it's partly made with glitter—none of which seemed to be rubbing off, but I'm sure it will eventually, over time. I love it either way.

And then, something else left on my desk, which was a little mystifying: a business card . . . for Stephanie S?? That being the Stephanie who hired me when she was the Grocery Merchandiser (Scott's current position) in 2002, who nearly fired me in 2003, who was practically in love with me (platonically) by 2004, and who left PCC in 2011 but we have still kind of sporadically stayed in touch. All I could think was: how the hell did her card get here? Did it mean she had been in the office? And what reason would there be for that to happen?

We'll get back to all that.

I actually said goodbye to Scott twice, the first time before suddenly remembering I still needed to get my weekly paper cup filled about 1/6 to 1/5 deep with vanilla and lavender flavoring syrups, so I can make my requisite Friday London Fog Tea Latte at home, which I used to make every Friday at the office. This means always returning to my desk for a piece of tape to put over the little drink hole to protect it from spilling all over the inside of my shoulder bag—something I learned the hard way back in, I think maybe April? It could have been May. Not important!

So that meant coming back to right by where Scott sits, as his desk is directly to the left of mine. He mentioned he and his wife and driven through Wallace during their extensive travels over the last two weeks, which had them moving through five different states: Idaho, Montana, Utah and Nevada, in addition to Washington.

Now, with the current state of the world being the way that it is, going to national parks like Yellowstone and driving through Utah made total sense. But they also spent two nights on the Las Vegas Strip. I was stunned by this. I mean: why? Admittedly, it makes for a fascinating story to tell, such as the ease with which they got right to the front of the line, and then sat in the very front seat, for the roller coaster at the New York - New York Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, or how that casino's entire floor had all of about 75 people in it. He assured me they all had masks on. Still: it's an indoor space. I don't care how cavernous it might be, and actually, while I would certainly call that casino large, the way any of those places is designed, it would never accurately be called "cavernous." Anyone with a potential infection in there would still be putting everyone else in there at risk, although to be fair being masked that risk is hugely minimized.

I guess they did take day trips out of town to park-like places even from there, but I was still rather struck by it. And now, here he's back at work, after returning from travels through five states just this past Saturday. I suppose in the interest of fairness I should note that Shobhit and I are indeed traveling to a neighboring state this weekend, but I do feel that the death of my mother offers some better justification. (Would we still be going even if Mom were still alive? Almost certainly, yes.) As I have repeated many times though, we have no plans to spend any significant amount of time indoors with anyone—which is too bad because I checked the forecast yesterday and we're looking at highs of 91°, which is going to make me wish I were the one who died. I wonder if there are any outdoor swimming options around there? I should look into that. If nothing else I know they have a creek I could put my feet into.

— चार हजार सात सौ छियासी —

— चार हजार सात सौ छियासी —

Anyway. I said goodbye to Scott a second time, and it really was nice to have a friendly chat with him just like the pre-COVID days, and rode my bike back home, returning half an hour later than expected, right around 6:00. I sautéed some more onion and mushroom to add to the leftover taco filling from the previous night, and had myself a couple of tacos for dinner while I watched this week's episode of I May Destroy You on HBO.

After that I went to the bedroom, and wound up IMing with Stephanie S on Facebook Messenger for probably around forty minutes. And the mystery was solved: Stephanie left the card for me when she was in the office last Thursday, interviewing for an ASD position. I guess she's been unemployed for eight months. It's time to fish where fish are biting, she wrote. That’s retail.

I subsequently learned a lot of new stuff. Such as the fact (confirmed by Scott via text this morning) that Cate, the CEO who just left us after five years, never liked her, and that was a big barrier to her getting hired back at PCC for any reason; she's trying again now that Cate is wrong. For a multitude of reasons, I will still be quite surprised if Stephanie ever gets hired for an office position with us again, even without Cate here. Working at one of the stores seems a little more plausible, but even that strikes me as iffy. My conversation with her gave the impression she feels—strongly—that she knows both what is wrong with PCC currently and how to fix it, and there is no doubt that there are many people still here with their doubts. It kind of feels like she's simply had her time here, but I suppose I could be wrong. And time and turnover make a difference, as she clearly understands—I'm just not convinced even nine years is enough time.

Apparently she once even interviewed for Darrell's position, which is Director of Merchandising—or, I guess now he's VP of Merchandising. That's something I have difficulty imagining, especially in that it would make her Scott's direct boss again, with him in her old position. (Although according to Stephanie, "Scott has my old job title but Justine has my old job," a claim I suspect would be disputed.)

Perhaps most notably in this conversation though, when former CEO, the late Tracy W, came up, Stephanie said, Tracy wanted you gone - he was OCD. You had the audacity to LAUGH. But once Jennifer came around [to] you, you were good. I think she may have mentioned this to me before, now that I think on it again. I still found it amusing, especially considering Tracy has now been dead for five years, and I'm the one still trucking along.

Stephanie had a lot to say last night, actually, and I cut the conversation short when Shobhit got home from work and it was time to catch up on two back episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

— चार हजार सात सौ छियासी —

[posted 12:34 pm]