Do you see what I see?

Written Thursday night (11-15-2012)

I so wish I had had another vacation day to use so I wouldn't have had to work any this week. Work actually wasn't that bad, but it was pretty jarring to come in and see the place in full Peak Mode. Well before I even got there, there were cops at a few intersections directing traffic. Then I found that the parking lot was pretty well congested. There was Christmas music playing in the break area. Ugh. The Christmas music in the break area was a temporary thing, but it plays continuously in the restroom closest to the main entrance/breakroom. If you ask me, no time is a good time for Christmas music. If you want to listen to it all-year-round, more power to you, but I think broadcasting it for a large audience should start no earlier than Black Friday, and should end at 11:59 pm on December 25th. (I can allow some exceptions to these rules, but I don't feel like going into it because fuck you, that's why.) Point blank, it's still too early to be hearing Christmas music. The only joy I've gotten out of it these past couple of nights was hearing the "rooty-toot-toots and rummy-tum-tums" part in "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Why must stores and radio stations try to start Christmas earlier and earlier every year?* If they showed that much enthusiasm for other holidays, then they'd probably sell Valentine's Day stuff around Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Week looks like it's going to be stressful. On Wednesday, we're having some of the extended family over for some kind of pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. Wednesday is a regular work night for me, so I'm not sure if I'll be actively participating in that or not. Since Thursday is my OT night for November, it's looking pretty likely that I'll work on Thanksgiving night. I'd almost bet that they'll have my entire shift crew work on Black Friday instead. All I know is that there WILL be overtime next weekend. (Meanwhile, my girlfriend has Thanksgiving off.)

I've considered leaving this place and applying for similar jobs, especially some places that are supposed to be closer to what Main ex-Employer was like when I first started there, but I don't want to take a chance on getting dumped at the end of the season, and unemployed again. Besides, I really want to get out of this line of work entirely, if possible.

*I actually know the answer, it's just a rhetorical question.

Written Saturday night (11-17-2012)

I didn't think this coming week could get any more stressful. Then I got the news on Saturday morning that one of my uncles died. He had been on his deathbed for a while, so it was a matter of "when" rather than "if". His funeral will be during my work week, and if I go, it will severely affect my routine, mostly in that I'm hellbent on getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep since my work night is so long. The same pretty much goes for if I have to work on Thanksgiving, and that's a night that's not part of my normal work week. I see quite a bit of Lorazepam being consumed in my future. I find it harder to deal with death during the Fall/early Winter holidays.

I know that the routine thing might sound stupid to most people, but that is one of my quirks. It's something that I've brought up with therapists, but for some reason they never seemed to find it as significant as I do.

(Update: Who knew that "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was actually a response to the Cuban Missile Crisis?  Read about it here. To be honest, I've never paid much attention to the lyrics, nor did I know that the song was only written within the past 50 years. I did think when I heard it recently that it would be fun to see someone sing it creepily, like in some serial killer movie.)