Robbery, Routine and Respect

The word of the week is meme.

Sept 26 - Escapism

Strange how the days go sometimes; some drag and some fly by. Oddly, those that I get the least sleep for and up earliest seem to be the better ones - it might be a karmic thing? Though I was up at 6 and at work today for 9 hours, it flew by thanks in a large part to my wonderful staff, who make Getting Things Done easier than I could hope. They take on tasks with no complaints and WORK, instead of sneaking in breaks whenever I'm not watching... I'm truly lucky to have each one of them and don't think I'd be as sane as I am( relatively )without their support. I make sure they have the best working environment I can provide them( regardless of company stupidities )and let them know how much I appreciate their efforts and hard work - sometimes I wish I could do more, but we all work a lot. This month I am going to try to come up with something to do as a group outside of work - suggestions are welcome! Myself, after work today I spent an evening on NWN, my own form of cathartic character-based relaxation. Nich was in fine form again, playing to her strengths while dungeon-diving, disarming traps and her companions alike with wit and charm. Even the two liches she took on solo while... tactically retreating... who hardly knew what hit them, and she made the nasty plants that were the lynch-pin of the adventure regret their actions. It was very satisfying to make the weeds bleed and still have a ton of fun before sacking out for the night for another early morning.

Sept 27 - Treehouses

One thing I've never had and ALWAYS wanted was a treehouse: a cool place to hang out that you can pull the ladder in once you're up there and just let the world muddle on without you for a while. Usually this meant some crazy discarded-wood deathtrap that you and the neighbourhood kids built in the back end of a ravine somewhere that any good breeze would blow over. Or, you could have a look at these amazing treehouses -I like the one that has an exterior spiral staircase, as it looks the most 'traditional' of the bunch. Still, there is one treehouse that is near and dear to my heart, even if it is fictional:

Sept 28 - Routine

I have a love-hate relationship with routine; I despair of falling into a 9-5 rut, where I do the same thing every day and maybe have a 'special' day on a weekend where I go out to Starbucks or something. This was what I found I was doing in ON, when I would work / go to school, go to the Kilt... and do the same thing next week. And the week after. I sometimes wonder where those years from 2000-2007 went, as I didn't keep a diary, but I DID keep my bank statements - I could probably reconstruct my activities from those alone, but I don't really feel or see the need to bother. It was a period of mental survival and soul-searching that probably lasted too long, but then I do tend to overthink things.

But back to routine: I've found myself falling into a 'comfort zone' here in BC as well, where I arrange my work shifts for similar times( closing ), watch the same show in the AM( Kid Vs. Kat )and surf the same websites for news each day( io9.com and related ). While this isn't a bad thing, it means my creative juices aren't exactly bubbling; instead, I am cocooning myself in some ways - which means I am ignoring some things altogether, like my shelf of dusty videogames, DVD's and novels, most of which I haven't touched in a year or more. That bothers me, as I have to wonder what I'm doing with my 'free time' ... but for the last few years, the answer to that has often been 'keeping my sanity from shredding' most days. Now, as the burdens begin to life one by one, I can start to make some choices and see about taking other paths, be they work or personal or both - that's not scary, as I'm coming to see, but instead very much something I need to do.

Sept 29 - Respect

While I was filling in downtown today, the manager of that branch thanked me a few times, saying how I was the rock that the district depended on. It was good to hear it in words what I've worked hard to get - respect, even if it doesn't pay more. I've always been about the people, not the business, and I'm pleased that I've been able to make my co-worker's lives easier as much as I have over the years. Of late though, it's been a stretch, and it's going to get harder before it gets easier in the next 90 days - we need to hire up to a dozen new people and get them on their feet properly. Only then will I feel right about leaving - I won't abandon the remaining staff to their own ends, as I'm the last experienced manager left now that the only other manager with more than 6 months experience has resigned as of today. Burnout, pure and simple - too much to do with too little pay and too few staff to do it in. Same old and I wish him the very best working somewhere new with about a tenth as much daily stress overall as he's had for a year now.

Sept 30 - My god, it's full of memes...

The internet has been variously described as a wondrous repository of knowledge, a cesspool of opinion, and a place where things go to die but instead live on far, far too long. Until they're cool again. Memes are one of those things: things that spread at a viral speed and then fade, only to come back again sooner than you think. You can actually track down those memes that are half-remembered at KnowYourMeme.com, or better yet get a few of them out of your head. Here's a great video from MAD TV that mashes up the new Thundercats cartoon series with dozens of internet memes, including the NyanCat:

Oct 1 - We were Robbed ???? WTF ?!?!?!?!?

I was at work twice today, once to transfer the managerial paperwork for the store I will be taking over this coming week. And once when our local branch down the hill from me was robbed.

Yep. Robbed. Some brazen jackass ran in, waved a gun, got a tiny bit of cash and ran out again. While a customer and my favourite teller were chatting at the counter. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and the teller called me right after the police even though I'm not the manager - I was closest. I winged down the hill and was there in minutes; this is the only store left in the city which doesn't have bulletproof glass yet installed as it's "open concept". Bah! I then spent two hours assisting the police in getting video of the perp( who wore a hoodie, I hate those, a 'boyz' rapper hat and a bandana )as well as helping the teller close the store. I made sure to keep her mood up; she impressed me with her resilience and ability to keep composed after such a scare - I've never had a gun waved in my face and I don't know if I'd have been as calm as she was. Local police think that this was the same scumbag who has robbed half a dozen local businesses in the last few weeks, one of them a toy store! I'll be sure to keep an eye out for the outfits he was wearing while I'm around town this week, as I'm sure the police will as well. I can't wait to sit in on his trial when he's caught, as I'm coldly furious that the teller I care a lot about had a gun pointed at her. For F*ck's Sake, this is Victoria BC, not New York NY... we're in Canada, we write polite notes and thank-you's!!!

I'm Furious and feel helpless. And I'm relieved that she's all right - that's twice this month that death has passed her by, far too close.

I didn't sleep well tonight.

Oct 2 - NOT Thinking about it...

Argh... I tried NOT to go to work today, but in the end I spent 6 hours of my only day off there, grinding through paperwork that I know I won't have time for this week after I start running both branches. I'm still rattled from last night's robbery, as it's the first incident in 12 years in an area where I've worked in where the teller was directly threatened with bodily harm. I just plugged away at my work today and tried not to think about all the things that MIGHT have gone wrong yesterday, and was thankful that things turned out as well as they did.

That's about all I have for this week; barring a weekend off coming up, I'll be working six days a week until the new year when I hope to have most of our new staff on board. At that point, I'll look at taking more vacation time and using said time to dig into job options. Again.

As for the novel outline I'm writing: so far, it's an outline that I add a little to every day, and take away a little sometimes too. I hope that by the new year I'll be able to devote some more serious time to it, as I'm adding ideas here and there as they appear.