Great to be home, or not

Practically as soon as we're here, he has to leave again. He's off to Arkansas and Louisiana for the week. I had thought about going with him, but decided against it, especially after there was a slight change in his schedule.

I didn't go with him because a) he'll still be out of town on Saturday, when I have a party to go to, b) I was told that I would still have the silly job when I came back, c) I left the place in a mess and really should try to do something about it, or d) all of the above.

And the answer is d) all of the above.

So he left yesterday morning. In theory, he was probably supposed to stay last night and get up really early this morning, but despite what it says on mapquest that would have meant a five or six hour drive before a full day of work, plus the extra hour or so that he has to work setting up at a new place. Anyway, I'm not as clear on when this company expects the employees to be where, and if you leave a day early or stay a day late they don't pay for the extra motel room. But he's made enough money that he can pay for the occasional room himself and get some rest rather than make long drives exactly on their schedule.

Anyway, he's in Arkansas, and he doesn't like his motel room, but since I didn't go with him he decided not to spend the extra money on a nicer one. It's just for a couple of days, but there's no internet and no microwave. No internet I understand, that's still a new concept for some motel owners, but no microwave or frig? We've gotten so used to that we've stopped even asking about it. It should just always be there, and more than ninety percent of the time, it is. But not today.

Also, I seem to have 7/8ths of a blueberry pie all to myself. I didn't plan that. He was supposed to take half of it with him, but neither of us remembered to put it in the cooler. So it is still here, except for the one piece we each had Sunday night.

That wouldn't be so bad, but we also forgot to pack the Rudy's BBQ that we specifically bought for him to take. BBQ really isn't my thing, but I eat it once in a while to go somewhere with him or when I go out with friends. And now there's a whole bag of it in the frig. I don't know why we forgot about it. He didn't really leave that early in the morning. I just kept worrying about his clothes and I mostly forgot about the food.

Well, it's not like he'll starve or anything. He does have money now, and they do sell food of some sort in middle of nowhere Arkansas.

Anyway, before he left for Arkansas, we checked the answering machine. Now, we've never fixed the time thing on the answering machine, so whatever time or day is on the message has nothing to do with when the message was actually left. One of his managers left two messages, and either they were left on Monday, or the manager is clueless. Why would he be here to answer the phone if he was sent to Kansas? Anyway, one of my managers also called, and again there was no point to that since I'd already said I'd be out of town. Whatever.

So, I worked on the costume a little bit, and then headed to the store to pick up my check and see if I did in fact still have the job. And just in case someone was going to ask me to work, or in case there had been a screw up and I was actually on the schedule on a day I said I couldn't work, I waited until I was okay with actually working some before I went to the store. And, as soon as I walk in, someone is asking me to work. Someone was going to be late and someone else called in sick and couldn't you possibly help out just for a few hours? Of course I can help out just for a few hours, and just as soon as I get back from lunch. Great, thanks so much. But before I leave, I decide to pick up my check and have a look at the schedule and write a note reminding the manager that I can't work past four or really three on Saturday. So the shift manager sees me writing and says I'd be better off just telling her, because she's going to write the schedule herself now that the manager quit.

What???

She doesn't work here anymore. She quit Wednesday. Nobody I could talk to had been there when it happened, so I don't really know what happened, but she's gone.

Wow.

Okay, so now three kids are mostly in charge of the store, except that the district manager comes by all the time to micro-manage everything. And he's driving the nice shift manager nuts.

So anyway, I told her what I could work on Saturday and Sunday, and then I decided to be nice and let her write whatever she wanted on the rest of my schedule. She was really getting desperate, and she seems like a totally decent person who doesn't deserve to have all this stuff dumped on her. If the district manager or the other shift manager doesn't screw it up, I'll stay, even though I really wouldn't have wanted this job without the manager who just quit.

That was so weird, but I'd already promised to help them out, so hurried off to lunch so I could come back and help. I went to "our" Arby's and bought enough extra sandwiches that I won't have to worry about lunch for the rest of the week, and then went back to work.

I kind of liked the district manager before yesterday, but now I don't think I really do. He really is making the poor girl nuts over nothing. When she's got something under control, go away and leave it alone. And then he was messing with the computer because he couldn't get the fax to work. Like, who cares if the fax doesn't work, you can arrange to use someone else's fax. But if you break the thing that connects the registers and the credit card machines and all of that, we might as well close the store and go home. Anyway, I don't think he actually broke anything, but he kept disconnecting stuff, but of course I only stayed a few hours and he might have broken the thing after I left.

Anyway, I ran some errands and went home. I neglected to wash some dishes before I left for Kansas, so now the kitchen smells like dead fish or something. Lovely.