annoyed for no good reason once again
I'm a little annoyed right now, although it could be argued I don't really have good reason to be. I had intended to see the movie The Eyes of Tammy Faye starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield last weekend, and when Ivan expressed interest in it, we made plans to see it tonight, his one night off of work this week. I messaged him this morning to remind him, and he wrote back that, yet again, he picked up an extra shift, "so sorry." He asked if we could see it this weekend instead, which I had resisted doing when he suggested it last weekend—I prefer to get my reviews written in at least the first week of release. But, now we're planning to see it Sunday, since I have plans with Tracy on Saturday. If he bails again I'm just going to see the movie without him.
Now, here's the thing: it's not really that big a deal. I mean, obviously. But also, the movie is getting mixed reviews at best. And, I know Ivan has been spending the last couple of months replenishing his account after an unexpected dental work expense in California. Not only that, but like many places, the post-acute rehab place he works at has struggles with staffing, which is why it seems that, more often than not, his extra shifts he picks up are because they ask him first rather than him volunteering. Those old folks need people to care for them, and that's more important than my personal entertainment. I mean, I guess.
In other news, the office is quiet as always, since most people continue to work from home—but it's even more so than usual as of today: Tracy has been on vacation in Hawaii since last Wednesday; both Scott and Noah are over in Philadelphia for their first Expo East in two or three years. Usually Expo West is the huge conference they go to most years, and Expo East every two or three, I think; in either case COVID cancellations have extended their breaks from it. This leaves me as the only Grocery person in Merchandising until the middle of next week. Scott was here yesterday but Noah wasn't; I think he flew out earlier. Steven and Mackenzie are also out there, as is Justine I think; Cathryn never returned to the office so, although she's still working, I never see her anyway.
The Merchandising Department is spliced off a bit by a line of phone rooms and small conference rooms, and only a couple of Merchandising people are even here on the other side of it. The four-desk block of Scott, Noah, Tracy and myself is the only section of Merchandising on this side, next to Accounting. There's only three of them here either.
It's leaving me pretty busy today, actually, as I'm working backup for several people. Plus I have a deadline a day earlier than usual because I am out of the office tomorrow for the Washington State Fair.
I have to admit, it's a little bit lonely. Still far preferable to working from home, honestly. My work day isn't particularly less lonely there, and at least here I have a separate, dedicated space for my day job. I tolerated it surprisingly well for over a year, but ultimately grew very tired of it, and far prefer the separation. It's just, now I look forward to a point at which more people will be at the office regularly again.
Speaking of people being at the office, Kwanteria is starting preliminary planning for a hopeful return to our traditional Thanksgiving Feast in November and smaller office holiday party in December. I guess Adrienne told her how much I have historically, openly loved these events, and so she emailed me for some feedback, and we exchanged about four quite lengthy emails (that being two each). How these events look this year depends on a huge number of factors: where COVID transmission rates are, how comfortable people who continue to work from home will be with coming in, etc. Kwanteria suggested we may have a virtual option for people to patch in, just like we already often do with regular meetings when several people are here but several people are still at home. It's not the most ideal but I love it as a viable compromise that allows as many people as possible to participate in some way.
Having to do all of these types of things exclusively over Zoom last fall, with no Thanksgiving Feast at all, was a huge bummer. I really don't want them to be outright canceled again this year.
So what about last night, then? I rode my bike direct from work to AMC Cinemas at Pacific Place to watch a movie I found a pleasant surprise, more fun than I realized it would be: Copshop. Solid B movie. Not something I'll tell others to see in theaters, but I'm still glad I did. I had fun.
I rode the rest of the way home and Shobhit had a very tasty sort of potato-cheese sandwich prepared for me to eat for dinner. I ate that and then wrote my review. Then we watched two episodes of season three of Sex Education on Netflix. The episode list on the TV made it look like there were only 7 episodes and so I let Shobhit convince me to go for a second one so we would finish the season—only to find out there actually is an 8th season after all. So, we'll gave to get that last episode watched later this week.
[posted 12:26 pm]