Today started off rather inauspiciously, as days go, with a huge surprise that changed the trajectory of the day, and that was just at work. For those new to my journal, I work as the perishables assistant at Target, which means I deal with all the highly perishable food like fresh produce, meat, and bakery items. Saturdays are one of our truck days, when we get items from the warehouse so that we can stock our shelves. Well, today we received 9 pallets of frozen turkeys. Yeah! Or not.
I mean, honestly, getting two pallets of frozen turkeys would have completely filled the promotional space in our double-sided bunker, and we have a ridiculously small freezer in the back for storage, so it quickly became a logistical nightmare. I felt like a turkey with its head cut off, no pun intended, trying to get those birds in some kind of frozen space before they unthawed and became a liability. Yikes, it was a fiasco, but we banded together, and I’m totally exhausted now, but we got every single one of those poor birds accounted for. And still frozen. Whew!
Then of course all the turkey jokes from my co-workers. “I think we’re going to run out of birds!” “We’re ready for that 2 for 1 turkey deal, Sam!” Yeah, very funny folks. I’ve lifted enough turkeys to last a lifetime. Anyway, with that out of the way, and finally back home to enjoy my evening, it’s time to get going with my Six For Saturday…
- I’m going to Philadelphia next weekend, and I honestly can’t wait. My sister suggested a sibling weekend, and it’s been a while since we’ve done that (early spring, from what I recall), so I somehow finagled a whole weekend off, including Thursday and Friday so we can get an early start. It will be good to be once again on my hometown turf, and since Joy moved recently it will be cool to check out her new neighborhood too.
- School is going well for the girls. Lexi went on her first field trip of the year a couple of weeks ago, and while it wasn’t a sparkling success (anxiety can be a real pain sometimes), I think she learned some coping mechanisms for next time. On Thursday, though, she left her planner and homework at school, so we had to get on our swift horse (i.e. scramble into the SUV) and catch her teacher before she locked up the classroom. We made it just in time, but we need to fix those bad habits too.
This week the new U2 album, Songs of Innocence, was released in physical form, and I totally love the album cover, although it has stirred up a bit of controversy. It features the band’s drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr., embracing his son, who is shirtless. I can see how it’s the impossible task of trying to keep our children young forever, and the pain in Larry’s eyes is pretty evident in the black-and-white photograph as well. Very well done, controversy and all.- I’ve really gotten into this new show, Gracepoint, which follows a small town as it deals with the murder of one of its young people under seriously mysterious circumstances. Maybe it’s because I live in a small town now that I sympathize with the locals who have and want to keep their secrets, even if they have nothing to do with the young boy’s death. I identify, and maybe that’s enough to keep me watching and hoping that certain people didn’t do the dirty deed.
- Gearing up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) coming soon in November is taking up a lot of my thought processes. I’ve been working on trying out certain characters and styles on for size. It’s the first year that I’m doing some pre-writing for the month, and I’m wondering how it’s going to play out when it’s really time to write, if I’ll ditch my characters in favor of others, or if they’ll grow and coalesce together in harmony. I am also dedicated to keeping my character list small and therefore more easily managed.
For the first time in a long time I’m reading non-fiction. It all started when my wife’s cousin’s wife gave me a copy of Michael Jackson’s autobiography Moonwalk for my birthday last year, and I just never found the time to read it until now, but it’s so interesting to read Michael’s own history, in his own words. He truly was a fascinating man and artist. In addition I’m reading Have a Nice Guilt Trip, by one of my favorite fiction authors, Lisa Scottoline, and her daughter. I love the double meaning in the title. And the chapters are remarkably short, and therefore more readable for non-fiction.
Yeah, those turkeys were pretty heavy too. I don’t think I’m going to do that every day.
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 