Busy Rainy Days

Hello Everyone: The rain finally stopped. It's like, rain, great, we need it but not all at once. Anyway, the sun finally came out yesterday and now it's sunny and cold. I'll take that for now. I can finally go out for a run and not feel overburdened while waiting for the bus to go to work. Speaking of work, even though the holiday buying crush is over, I'm still dealing with the returns. I seriously wish people would keep their stuff or, at the very least, be more careful about what they pick out. I mean some people just randomly buy stuff and then return it. Such a waste but that's consumer culture for you. Just mindlessly buy stuff you see in the social media that, somehow, your cannot be complete without and then, once you get it, it's not what you expected to be. The feedback loop from hell. Get all giddy with anticipation of purchasing it and the be let down. Or, receive something as present and be let down because it's not exactly what you wanted. What is wrong with some people? Hopefully the return madness will die down soon because I'm getting overrun at work. As usual my department is short staffed, one person is out sick again and the supervisor let go our holiday hires. I had to work on Saturday (boo) but it was only for part of the day but a fulltime coworker had other ideas for me. Apparently, she has issues about being alone at the desk and asked me to stay past my clock out time. She made the same request the day before but I couldn't do it because I had stuff to do at home. Anyway, I decided to do her a favor and stay for a little while longer. Eventually, she asked me if I was planning to take a meal break, I told her not really and she let me leave a half hour early. For the record, she's not a manager. As I was leaving, I thought to myself can she do that? I asked the menswear manager the next day and the manager said no, one associate cannot ask another associate to stay later or come in early. To make matters worse, she projected all of her anxieties about being at the desk by herself onto me. Well, I showed her. As tired as I was, I just got to work and didn't overthink the matter. I spent my Sunday running the return desk myself but, thanks to the men and women's wear managers as well as a couple of my wonderful coworkers, I made through the day with my sanity in tact. I did treat myself on Saturday evening to an incredibly delicious, perfectly greasy vegetarian burger and fries. I was exhausted from work that day, it was raining, and the prospect preparing something for myself for supper was too much. By the time I got home, my food was still warm enough to eat and I absolutely enjoyed every last bite of it. The burger, fries, and the soup I made for myself were so worth it. Anyway, back to the grind tomorrow. Hopefully, soon, the work load will let up. My current supervisor transferred to another department store branch so I donn't have to deal with her "retail is my life" attitude. My other hope is that my department is fully staffed again and my work schedule goes back to something that resembles normal. Actually my biggest wish is a new job.