Better Day

Yesterday was not good. My assistant manager is gone. She moved to Florida. She was special and I appreciated her more than anyone can know. She carried a lot of my burden at work and now I am left with an inexperienced trainee in her place. Stress.

Corporate is demanding waaaaaaaaaaay too much out of me. Stress.

Planner, which takes 4 days to do accurately, is due tonight. I haven't started it. Stress.

Shipment from last Friday still isn't out. Another shipment due in tomorrow. Stress.

One of the people I wanted to hire, took another job. I am short staffed. Stress.

It's raining and the $1600 I spent making the necessary repairs to waterproof my bedroom was worthless. The water now comes in more than before. I have now spent another $50 on a Shop Vac to extract the water from the room and will need to replace the wall to wall carpeting. So, for $1600, I got more expenses and a wet room. I've been sleeping in the laundry room on my futon mattress. The dryer keeps me warm and the vibration is rather comforting. Its the BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ that scares me half to death when I am sleeping! When I called the guy to demand my money back, he told me that since he has to pay for labor and materials and did in fact do the work, that he would send me back half. So, for $800 I got more expenses and a room. I'm not gonna cash that refund check. I'm talking to a lawyer. Stress. (Like I have money for a lawyer!)

Spent some money on needed car repairs, more money than I wanted to spend. Stress.

I'm almost out of hot chocolate. Stress.

Today, was better. I walked into my store this morning and it was clean. Not spotless clean, but my new assistant had tidied up the backroom and mopped the floor! Even scraped up old price stickers and made it look good! I was pleased! He did a great job! That set the mood for my day! I called him at home on his day off to thank him and tell him how much I appreciated that!

Walking into that backroom this am motivated me to continue the effort and clean up more around the store. My store is so hard to keep alphabetized and organized with the lack of labor hours and the trouble LVS has started and it seems so defeating. Today, I alphabetized the entire VHS section and organized it and priced it accurately! Wooohoooo! I am proud of that effort today! We actually have a new sales planner due today, but I decided that my store needs more organizing right now than all this pricing stuff. How can I accurately price anyway when stuff is not where it is supposed to be! I fixed that today. At least part of that.

My new FT Key came in today. She came in to get her paperwork and part of it requires a form that has been updated. I don't have the updated form, so I called another manager from a store in Memphis. He is going to email that to me. I also called hoping to "vent" and he was obliged to listen. I also asked him what I may be doing wrong and he said that all managers are feeling quite overwhelmed right now. I wasn't doing anything wrong, I simply don't have enough labor hours to get done what is required. It didn't help my situation in anyway except to know that it isn't me. I was affirming that I was doing all I could to stay afloat. So, I felt a little better and then Chris said "and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better". That was reassuring. I'm exhausted!

I'm really excited about my new hire. I think she will be fun and will do a great job! I sure do need her too!

When I came home, my friend had dinner prepared and we all sat down and ate together as a framily. Even the neighbor kid was with us, (as he usually is for spaghetti) he says "Miss Katrina makes it better than my mom!" It's good to share meals.

Tomorrow my DM will be visiting. He is behind too. I know this because he is not catching all I am behind with! LOL He is supposed to help me out some, but it won't be enough. I would need at least 40 extra hours a week to get caught up, and stay caught up. That just won't happen. I guess I will just go in and work like I'm working for the Lord, even though corp. expects me to work like I AM the Lord! LOL

Got an email just now from Mom who was giving me an update on my Grandma who is in the hospital. She will be released soon and is accepting the fact that she will probably not be going back to her apartment, but to assisted living. She is very weak and needs some help. More help than my parents can provide for her around the clock. But, the situation will hopefully be a good one for my Grandma. She just hasn't been the same since Grandpa died almost 4 years ago. Her heart is still broken and she misses him terribly...married almost 65 years!

So, all in all, today was a better day. I prayed on my way to work. My friend prayed for me too. My SaLT group is praying for me. My mom prays for me. Lots of prayer today...hmmmmmmmmmm...my day was good. My attitude was better. Hmmmmmmm? Connection? I think so. SO WHY DON'T I PRAY MORE OFTEN? duh.