Good riddance, 2011!

I've been hella busy between working and spending time with people. I was extremely unhappy about having to work these past two Fridays, but glad that I didn't have to work 11-hour days this week. On the upside, I found out that I'll be getting hired on Full Time in January!

I had the best Christmas ever this year. It's a shame that I don't feel at liberty to talk about most of it here. :D

I'll probably be gone most of the day on Saturday, so this will likely be my last post of the year. 2011 was a terrible fucking year, and I'm glad to see it end. 2012 is already looking pretty okay, as long as I can survive the freaking campaign season.

Whoa, not so fast!

Today was supposed to be the last of the 11-hour days, but at the start-up meeting they announced that we will have 11-hour days through the end of the year! FML What wasn't really announced, but I heard through the grapevine, was that we'll be working our overtime days too, meaning I'll probably have to work this Friday. It should be noted that not a lot happens on the two days before Christmas Day. I guess I should be happy that I get to work at least through the end of the year, but I'm fucking pissed. Any good feeling I might have had left over from this past weekend has gone out the window. I really hope I don't have to work on the 30th. My brother will only be in town from the 26th through the 31st, and it would be nice to get two whole days with him instead of just one.

I was really looking forward to getting up after 5:00 a.m., rather than before.

I don't see how anyone who has worked in retail around Christmastime, whether it's a big box store or an online retailer, can not be jaded when it comes to Christmas. I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll be glad when it's over.

(Edited to add that a video for the Fear song "Fuck Christmas" used to be here. The video has been pulled from YouTube.)

A light at the end of the tunnel?

Wednesday didn't exactly start off good. My brain was fried from already working three 11-hour days in a row. I could barely read the numbers on my RF gun right. It's like, my RF gun would say to go to location 333 in a certain aisle, but I would end up going to 033 instead, look for the product, not find it, and then I'd look at my gun again and realize I was at the wrong spot the entire time. Ugh. However, I did get two bits of good news towards the end of the day which made it all worthwhile. The first was that I didn't have to work on Friday, but I still had to work 11 hours on Sunday. The second was that my assignment was being extended! I feel really bad for the people who weren't so lucky.

This was my first real weekend since my birthday weekend, not counting the weekend between jobs since I didn't do anything. My car got worked on, so I spent the first half of my weekend waiting to get it back. But later on on Friday, I hung out with a friend for a good while. I had to do some shopping on my way home, and since I'm boycotting Walmart, I decided to try Meijer. It was a pretty nice visit, and I kind of wonder now why I even bothered shopping at Walmart in recent years.

I've got lots going on today, but I shouldn't be out too terribly late since I have to go in to work at 6:00am.

I was talking to someone recently about how odd the past three years have been for me, and how it would be nice to get back to some sense of normality. She then asked, "What's normal?". I told her that I didn't really know, but that things just have really really not been right in my life since I got laid off and my sister died. Other than the car situation, this weekend has made me feel like I could possibly get back to some sense of normalcy.

Got no time for livin'...

Let's get this out of the way first, especially if you're one of those company stooges who goes looking for dirt:

I like my new-old job!

But geez Louise, I feel like I spend way too much time there! My typical work day is ten hours, 10.5 if you include lunch. There are so damn many people there that I have to get there way early for a decent parking spot, and it takes so long to get out on a normal day due to the amount of people that I've given up trying to get out ASAP, and just hang out for 30 to 45 minutes. In all, there are about twelve and a half hours between the time I leave for work and the time I get home. I get out of bed about 45 minutes before I leave for work, so that adds up to 13 hours 15 minutes. Subtract that from 24 hours, and that leaves you with 10 hours 45 minutes. I try to get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep, so that leaves me with just under two to three hours open. That's not a whole lot of time. I especially haven't had time for blogging.

On those days where I have to work 11 hours, I feel like there's hardly any point in leaving. I'm really not happy that the 11th through the 18th of this month are all supposed to be 11-hour days, but I felt a little less bad after realizing that the week of the 18th is the last week before Christmas. I find it funny that they're making us work 11-hour days since the guy who has been the overall Fulfillment manager since late 2005 got rid of the 12-hour weekend shifts years ago, claiming that people lose productivity after ten hours.

I haven't gotten out much since my birthday weekend because I've been too busy working. While it sucks that I'll have no life due to the holidays, I'm actually way less miserable than I was at Mega Lo Mart!