Shelby's Life and Whatnot

An Update! Finally!

Okay, I'm alive, but just barely. A brief overview. Thanksgiving was great. We started at my parents' and then went to Kevin's grandparents'. Very nice to see everyone. Friday was not as hectic in the store as I thought it would be. Our store has two stories, and the second level is just like the first except smaller and usually less crowded. We use it for parties and for overflow on holidays or really busy days. I was upstairs all day Friday so I think I missed the brunt of the crowd. Friday night we went to La Fondue, a wonderous restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. We actually discovered La Fondue in the Bay Area where it was one of our favorites. "Favorites" being the "I can only eat there once a year because it's so incredibly decadent you'll have to cart me out on a gurney if I ate there more often" type of thing. When we were heading up there one time, Kevin checked out the website to find, much to our surprise, a branch right here in South Orange County! So off we went for our anniversary. As we walked in, the hostess (who turned out to be the owner) asked if we'd been there before. We said we hadn't, but we'd been to the one in Saratoga, and she told us that she and her husband had also lived in the Bay Area and loved La Fondue there, and had contacted the owners there to collaborate and build a branch down here. How lucky for us! As we sat down, I overheard the server ask the couple at the table near us if they'd been there before, and they said, "No, but we've been to the one in Saratoga..."

Saturday it was back to work and whoa Nelly, there were the crowds. I was downstairs on Saturday and let's just say there were a lot of people. A lot. Like...a lot. Some chicken-scratch calcuations estimated that as a stuffer, I saw an average of 4 people for an average of 5 minutes over the course of a full day's shift, that I alone interacted with probably somewhere around 350 people. And I was one of 5 stuffers. I didn't stuff the entire shift, but I would say that was probably an extremely rough estimate of how many people went through the stuffing process (some just came to buy clothes). Did I mention that a holiday weekend is not the best time to come visit me at the store? It was a long, hard shift and I was exhausted when I got home. Sunday I took a long nap after church and due to a schedule change I didn't really know about (I could have looked, but it didn't occur to me to do so, since I already had a schedule, that apparently turned out to be changed after I got it) I showed up 2 hours early. So I went home for another hour. The unfortunate thing about working at any Disney property is that parking and getting to your place of work is a major ordeal. So even though we live a literal 2 miles away, it takes me a full half hour from door to door. Anyway, Sunday night I ended up closing the store, which is unfortunate because we close at 10:00 (sometimes at 11:00 and every once in a while, Midnight) and while we close the doors at 10:00, I don't usually get home until around Midnight or later (once I closed at 11 and didn't get home until 1:30am).

And then here's the thing. Most of the employees are in the 16 to college age range, which as we all know, I am not. So when I had to open Monday morning after closing Sunday night, it was a bit of a challenge for me. The store doesn't open until 10:00 and the shift doesn't start until 9:45 but it's still a big turnaround when you don't hit the sack until 12:30am and you have to get up around 8:00am. Anyway, it was raining on Monday and the store was basically empty. I couldn't believe it. My co-workers said that it tends to be slow on rainy days because you've either got the people who are going into the parks come hell or high water because they paid for it already and it's expensive, and then the people who just say screw it and stay home altogether--neither of which involves people walking through a small shopping district outside of the park. I ended up being sent home early since there were plenty of people to do very little.

Tuesday morning, however, I woke up with my throat on fire and my head feeling like it had been stuffed full of bear stuffing. I continued to worsen throughout the day and by the evening I was full-blown sick. This morning I woke up feeling worse and spent the rest of the day either sleeping or reading in bed. This evening I'm feeling slightly better, but my ears are still plugged and I feel like the top part of my head belongs to someone else. It's weird. Anyway, I do hope to make a full recovery tomorrow since I work again on Friday. And now it's really late (early?) but because I've been sleeping all day I'm all thrown off. Anyway, I'm tired, so off to bed for me.