Still alive, still kicking, still busy (and generally covered in sugar).

[khasael]

As for the question of my sanity...well, we could argue I've never been particularly sane, anyway, so maybe that's a bit moot.

Things are, of course, utterly crazy over here. Every time things seem to be working out and smoothing out and such, something sudden will happen to throw a wrench into it. Some of that'll be listed below, but this is gonna be kind of a fragmented post, possibly in bullet-points (let's see what happens), basically to give a general update of what's been going on over in khas-ville in the last few months.

WORK:
[Some random work-stuff you may or may not want to read, so here, have a space-saving spoiler-cut!]

• We did hire a cake decorator. We transferred her, actually, from another location, because she's been trying to get into ours for a while. She's actually one of the company founder's grandchildren. She's 2 years younger than I am, and it's funny, because there are people who were worried she may not work out, or be easy to work with, but I fucking love this girl. She's like me, in that she's often quiet, but if she's comfortable, she's completely personable and happy to chat. We have a lot of fun, she's talented (and quick, oh, thank god) with the cake-making, she does theatre stuff (mostly stage managing, at present), so we have a lot to chat about there, she's funny, and she is soooo on top of ways to make the back easier to work in, more organized/streamlined, and she's the one employee I've never had to get on re: sanitation and health code and such (it's not really been a big problem, with others, but I've had to do more reminding to change out sanitizers, or keep raw eggs on bottom shelves, or making sure things are expedited for freshness, or quickly chilled, or whatever, than I feel I should, especially for those who've actually worked in kitchens before).
• My department manager (we'll call him "Kid") left. He stepped down, then transferred to another store (the one where he'd worked before), but also switched from working bakery (or grocery, which is what he used to manage there before he managed bakery stuff here) to working the meat counter. We got a new manager (we'll call him "Metal" from this point on), who used to manage the bistro kitchen (he's been a chef pretty much his entire career). No, they didn't offer me the bakery manager position (I'm Assistant Manager for the bakery, and the Bakery Production (kitchen) Manager), but I would have absolutely declined, if they'd offered it, since it would have taken me out of the back. Metal's light-years of difference from Kid, which is both a plus and a minus, depending on the aspect of the job we're looking at. For instance, he's trained me on a lot of management and financial stuff, and with that info, we've seriously (and noticeably, even to corporate) improved our numbers since he/we took over in Oct.... But he, by his own admission, "knows shit about actual baking and cake stuff". So, it's interesting sometimes.
• I have (er...had) three employees under me, which is a full staff: one full-time cake decorator (who can also do basic production, and is learning on that front, when she's NOT doing cakes/custom orders, which isn't often), and two general production people (one w/ FT hours, one w/ PT). The PT person (we'll call him "Train"; I swear, these nicknames aren't just picked by stabbing at a random page in the dictionary) is...um...rough. Like, we've had to write off probably close to $1000 of product within 2 weeks, due to his errors. He's slowly improving, but I can't babysit him that much. It's a long story, as to how we ended up with him, anyway. My FT person was mostly competent, and had been noticeably improving, after the sit-down we had with her about a month ago.... Until she quit. Via a 2:04am text message. Four hours before her shift. THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. Ironically, it was also a few days after we'd sat her down and said how we'd noticed her stepping up her game, and telling her how much we appreciated her making the effort, and other general praise. She cited "unresolved personal issues" and, trust me, I understand people can have issues. But even if she'd opened like planned, worked a couple of hours, and quit, it wouldn't have been such a big thing. Or if she'd given hints before. She was supposed to leave early that day to fly home for Thanksgiving, anyway. But whatever. We're interviewing someone tomorrow (used to work for the company, in the bistro, under Metal), and, really, all I really need right now is a body who can read a recipe and execute it, so the other girl and I can focus on things that require finesse (cakes, decorated cookies, "funcakes", etc.).
• Because of the quitting thing, and having to babysit Train to correct errors and provide constant reminders (he was told to write stuff down by Metal, but doesn't, and that might be a Talk we have soon), I've been working on my days off. I'm salaried, so I don't get compensated in any official/guaranteed way. Metal's taken to popping up with lunch he's bought me, or my preferred energy drink, but it's not like I count on that, and he insists he's just "showing appreciation for [me] kicking ass and supporting how [he] can". It's more than other managers would do/have done, and I do appreciate it. He's a good guy. This is part of the reason I've been so scarce here (and even on twitter, lately), though--just a complete lack of time.


• Still need to do another pic-heavy post of "here, look at some stuff I've made!"-type things.

NOT-WORK:

• Yeah, work is insane, but I'm still squeezing writing in. Often on my phone (and I swear, autocorrect is the bane of my existence during these times), just purely due to logistics. My poor, put-upon beta (the always amazing groolover) is quite good about just noting these errors, adjusting or highlighting as needed, and not commenting with "what the hell are you ON, substance-wise?" or the like. It's almost kind of fun to write, send to beta, do edits, and even post via phone, because until it hits AO3, I often have no idea how the hell many words a fic IS.
• I've been failing at posting here, but there are newer fics up on my AO3. Suits and Teen Wolf. Plus, I have over a dozen other things that are not actually too far from being done (Suits, TW, Avengers, and I'm working on an Inception thing--the sequel to last year's Inception Big Bang).
• Yeah, I've been sucked into Teen Wolf fandom. Violently. AND I REGRET NOTHING (though I still blame maja_li, who can be blamed for so much of what I do/write in fandom, you have no idea. Really, it's of note if she's NOT to blame for something or behind it in SOME fashion. But she seems quite happy to take this blame, so).
• Have been able to hang out with the fantabulous Esby (byaghro) (alone, and occasionally with our spouses) lately, and thank god, no, really. It's such a life-saver and awesome thing to have a fellow fangirl so close by, who is totally okay with sitting in three different coffee shops/bakeries in a day, doing general squeeing, flailing, plotting, and reading of random internet things for like 7 hours before we meet up with aforementioned spouses for dinner and a movie (a thing we did Saturday, after I worked, since it was supposed to be my day off). GLORIOUS. Also, she and maja_li started plotting out possibilities for one of MY fics (that I'd been somewhat stuck on), via IM, while I was sitting there and glaring at my fic!doc, despite Esby not having actually seen any of the show/fandom in question (besides the "we're on a ship!" Sterek video/promo). Which was sort of an odd thing, but worked out, because they were able to toss enough around in the way of possible things that fit what I was looking to do to get me settled in a new direction, totally un-stuck (and we even managed to keep spoiler-free)! And Esby got to laugh at how often I tried to tuck my phone into a pocket that wasn't there, because it seems like I am never NOT wearing a chef's coat; basically, it looked like I was feeling myself up a lot, because that pocket's right over my left boob. Almost dropped the phone as a result, each time. Yay for people who put up with me XD
• I actually have a handful of recs collected (again, TW, Suits, and Avengers), though I'm sure a number of you have read some of these things already, but I'll eventually post them here. They're from a number of genres--crack, smut, ovary-exploding UST, angsty H/C, etc, because I like all manner of things :)
• Saw Skyfall. Twice (once w/ DH, once w/ DH, Esby, and her hubby). Accidentally not!fic'd some Bond/Q stuff with maja_li. No surprise there. Also some stuff with Harvey Specter, involving Bond. And some Harvey/Mike, Bond/Q crossover stuff. Again, no real surprise. PAR FOR THE COURSE, IS WHAT I AM SAYING.

And that's really it, as far as I can recall at the moment. I'm kind of sick (which happens sooooo very rarely, so when this cold popped up, I was basically like "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"; I haven't had a cold in, like, 4+ years), and more than a bit overworked, so I'll probably remember a bunch of stuff after I hit post.

HOW IS EVERYONE, BTW? I MISSSSSSSS YOU GUYSSSSSSSS. *glomps everyone before ducking back into the kitchen to make cakes*