Another update
Figured it was time for an update, given it’s been nearly two months.
Due to it either being super-hot or raining, I haven’t battled the weeds in my flower garden in probably about two months. Since it’s supposed to rain all week and my flower bed was all but engulfed and the weather was very nice this evening, I attacked it with no small amount of determination. My fingers hurt from dragging the weeds out by the roots, but fortunately the ground was soft from the storms we had this weekend and most came out entirely with steady pull pressure. As I got the weeds in the front of the bed pulled, I had to climb into it to get those toward the back. Pulling them turned up the soil, which was still cool and damp, and getting my bare feet in that just…does something to me. Wiggled my toes in it, sighed, and felt some of the stress from the last three weeks at work slide off. By the time I was done, my fingers were rather dirty and I’d done plenty of squats (which were also held for long durations, until my legs were burning, but there was always one more weed in reach). Got cleaned up, and am debating to do with the rest of my evening.
Work has been insanely busy with all of the Back to School graphics sets, mannequin changes, and other seasonal sets. I’ve been burned out because I’m still at the bare minimum hours for a full-time associates, which prevents me from getting the little extra constantly-changing graphics done (i.e. branding on the fixtures); I just have time to get the new graphics in the Corporate-dictated directives done. Even those are often delayed in being set since they don’t arrive on time. My Corporate Visual boss also suddenly and unexpectedly quit last week (probably due to the lack of communication, the constant graphics mishaps-wrong printings so they have to redo them, directives posted super late, directives changing three or four times in the span of a couple days causing us to have to redo all of our work…), leaving a huge void. The gentleman trained me up in Wisconsin when I was hired, and gave very good constructive criticism-meaning I didn’t feel like I’d just been subjected to the firing squad; I understood why things were wrong and why they were supposed to be done a different way.
I told the assistant manager today I was frustrated and burned out from above issues, along with the fact that it’s hard to care about my job when nobody else seems to care about theirs, and gripe all the time. I hate the constant mess where people won’t put things away (the spot for their supplies can be a step away and they won’t take the effort to take that step) and just dump things where they feel like it thinking someone else will take care of it, or even hiding things they don’t want to put away thinking no one will find it. She sympathized and talked to me for a little bit.
My boss was surprisingly careful around me today. I think the assistant manager talked to him a bit about how I was feeling, and he knows now if Visual is unhappy, there’re big problems and real reason. He came over and chatted with me a little about my Corporate boss and mentor leaving unexpectedly, and gave me his theory about it, and his sympathy. He really doesn’t want to risk my getting so unhappy with my job I leave-I more than earn my keep and do a ton around the store beyond my job; I’m supposedly one of the best Visuals in the district.
A lot has also happened in my personal life, not just work-wise since I last posted.
Robert and I are now…courting is the most appropriate word. That happened the July 12th, following several weekend visits, a lot of late night talking, and prayer. We’ve been discussing everything from favorite colors to politics, moral views to hobbies, struggles to finding little things that make us think of each other. He came to me and formally apologized for five years ago, and asked me to be “his Lady.” Knowing my worry about the sincerity of his intentions-that he didn’t mean what he was saying-and that I worried it was temporary like the flowers he brought me on an earlier visit, he gave me something more permanent to prove he meant what he was saying: an acrylic-preserved rose edged in gold. It had a little tag on it with the name he’d given me five years ago: Scheherazade. His storyteller, named after the girl who tells all the tales in Arabian Nights. He chose it back then because I always had a story for him when we talked, whether personal or one of those I’d written. He feels it still fits now.
He asked me to come up this past weekend for Swiss Days, which is a bit of a tradition for his family. All of his Dad’s side meet at Grandma’s house for socialization and can walk from there to the festivities. It was a scary thing for me, given it meant I was meeting a large number of new people he was related to all at once, as well as going to church the following day and meeting even more new people. But it was a wonderful weekend. I got along very well and very easily with his family. It was comfortable conversation. They were looking at me for what I liked to do, not my career or where I went to school or who I was related to. Been a long time since people saw me for those things rather than my status in the professional world. There were no ambushes, no set-up questions, no attacks, just honest interest. Think I’ve been adopted.
I FINALLY got Mom’s cross stitch done and in to the framer’s. Due to it being the Frame Shoppe’s 25th anniversary, Mom and I both got coins for 25% off for one year on our framing. Which means I need to complete two projects in the next year. That’s a little intimidating, but maybe I can get the enthusiasm up to finish the dragonfly picture done at least. Not sure what the other would be yet.
This past week has also seen the switching of my library and bedroom. If my downstairs neighbor decides it’s too cold or too dark or too wet out, she smokes in her bedroom, which was right below mine. She’s not supposed to smoke in the house. It comes up through the floor so bad I couldn’t breathe or sleep, and, given it gets so cold and drafty in there in the winter anyway, I figured I’d attempt to see how changing the rooms would work. Got the bedroom stuff moved into the library and settled, but I still need to finish tidying the new library. Also need to do dishes…
Maybe once things are a little more settled, I can start trying to write again.
Cassie was hugely relieved when I got home last night. She’s having a harder and harder time when I’m away overnight. If I got out of sight while getting ready for bed, she’d start wailing until I went to get her and gave her a hug. I won a basket of kitty things from the Frame Shoppe during their anniversary celebration, so at least I had some apology gifts for her-a new mouse and two balls, a new food bowl, and an engraved tag for a collar. Kitty treats, too. I’m going to get her a collar tomorrow, and maybe the little scratching post I saw the other day that has the scratching material she likes. She’s had to deal with a lot of upheaval with me moving rooms around and the subsequent mess, and me being gone this weekend. She’s currently about halfway up the bed from where I’m sitting, and keeps getting up to check on me.
I got a gift certificate from Artbeads for my birthday (from the site), so I got some neat green banded agate, and brown banded agate to make another cord-wrapped bracelet (or necklace or anklet, depending how I feel). I’d like to make something with either color for Robert, but he’s not big on guy jewelry.
Think I’d better call the update done for now. Got things I should probably do.