Saturday, November 26, 2016

What To Do About the Holidays

Started out the day with work. It was still sunny when I got in. I spent a lot of the morning doing carts. It wasn't busy at all when I arrived. It picked up later, around 10:30-11, though it never got super-busy. It never does on Thanksgiving weekend. People already have a ton of food at home. That may be why we were training new baggers today. I had to show them where the carts went and all the cleaning supplies are, despite not being entirely sure myself. (No one ever bothered telling me those things when they switched me to bagging.) Spent the last hour or so doing returns. It was cloudy and blah by the time I finished, making me glad I had no other outdoor plans for today.

I was livid with my schedule when I saw it. I only have 12 hours next week. How am I supposed to live? Good thing I did ask for that one week in December off. I'm going to need the money badly  now. I'm not the only one, either. All of the baggers but the head bagger have 12 hours this week; the new recruits (who look like high schoolers) have 8 each. Supposedly, it's just not going to be busy enough this week for even a little help. This happened the last time Thanksgiving was early, too.

I calmed down while doing some grocery shopping. Needed to restock cream of chicken soup, bananas, skim milk, peanut butter, jelly (got apricot preserves), and mushrooms. Eggs are so cheap right now. I got a carton of 18 large eggs for 99 cents! (Beats the heck out of last year, when they were over three dollars in some places.) Bags of oranges and clementines are on sale. I bought the latter. Also got my annual advent calendar with the cheap chocolate. I picked a really cute cover - a Santa bear brings gifts not only to a good bear family, but to their badger and hedgehog friends, too.

When I got home, I put everything away, then went on the computer to write. Rey flees into the woods, frightened by Mother Maz and Luke telling her that the blue sword is her destiny. One of Maz's gingerbread children follows her to bring her back. Before she can go after him, she's captured by Kylo Ren, who appears in the forest with his soldiers. He reads her mind, then finally puts her to sleep.

She awakens in the Pit of Darkness...but she's not alone. Han is imprisoned in the next cell. His wings are still chained, and the combination of iron and no light has severely weakened him, but he's still as ornery and gruff as ever.

Jodie called me twice while I was writing. Evidently, instead of buying gifts for this side of the family, we're having a Secret Santa. Which I can understand. There's a lot of people here. Also, they'd already chosen who everyone gets. Fortunate, my Secret Santa partner wanted something very, very simple that I could get at work.

She did, however, say not to bother making cookies for everyone, and that instead of buying me DVDs, I could get a free Netflix account. Now they're missing several points. I LIKE making cookies, shopping, wrapping, the whole nine yards. I LIKE Christmas. I generally don't find it stressful. Not only that, but I don't really have too many other people I can do things for. I don't have kids, pets, or significant others. I think a lot of people in the family don't quite understand that, or forget it.

I've decided that I'm just going to bring Christmas treat bags and a bucket of whatever cookies I have left by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to Dad and Jodie's parties. Instead of bringing them the cookies, they can take their fill.

Broke for dinner around 6:30. Added roasted broccoli drizzled with olive oil and mashed sweet potatoes to my Italian sausage dinner. Watched Barbie In a Christmas Carol as I ate. The second of three Barbie In/As holiday tales takes us first to Barbie's bedroom on Christmas Eve. Her little sister Kelly is hiding because she'd rather stay home and do what they always do than go to a big charity ball. To make her understand the importance of charity, Barbie tells her the story of Eden Starling, the toast of London in the late 1800's. She's a marvelous singer, but also a selfish diva who won't even allow the members of her troupe to go home for Christmas break. Needless to say, four ghosts come along to show her the error of her ways and teach her kindness to others.

Finished the night with video games. I figured out that you can use most of the extras (except for the ones that give you extra studs) on the individual level bonus challenges. This proved to be a godsend. With the extras turned on, I got through all the levels but one on the first try, most well under the five minute mark. The only one I had to do a couple of times was Bespin, and even that, I only had to redo twice. Next time, I'll return to the Super Stories or do more of the blue pieces challenges.

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