Wow, it has been rainy and super windy all day. I just about flew to work this evening! I was going to have that wind and water in my face on the walk home, so I gratefully accepted a lift even though it felt really silly to do so.

Work was rather damp since, being damp upon arrival, I volunteered to go do the exterior jobs. When I came in, I pointedly commented that I much prefer to do the outside jobs than to vacuum or mop the floors and my comment did not fall on deaf ears. 🙂

I was soaked and frozen solid by the time I came in. It was definitely time for a hot drink, but I don’t drink coffee in the evenings and I’m not a fan of hot chocolate, which we also get free. Noticing a rack filled with a nice assortment of teas, I asked if those were free, too, and they are! So, I can have my hot evening beverage of choice, peppermint tea, at work. If I get bored, there are a ton of other flavours to savour, like lemon ginger and apple cinnamon. I remember having lemon ginger for the first time at Happy Camp and really enjoying it, so I might try that on my next evening shift.

The shift wasn’t bad, even though I had to clean the bathrooms. I don’t mind cleaning bathrooms per se; it’s just that I believe that I’ve cleaned enough toilets in my life to feel that I shouldn’t have to clean any more of them. Oh, I guess it’s one of the many small prices I pay for living the life of my dreams. 🙂

Well, I’m off to bed since I start at 10 tomorrow. I’d prefer to have more than twelve hours between shifts, but at least I’m not going in at six!

Today, I did a four hour shift by myself.

Okay, the owner was sitting in his office in the back, but he pretty much knows squat about where anything is or how the till works, so I didn’t go to him for any questions of that sort. I told him this when he complimented me on having only two questions in four hours, which just made him praise how quickly I figured out the computer system. I think that he’s happy with my performance thus far.

There were a few hairy moments and dealings with regulars who weren’t happy to see a new person who isn’t a mind reader, but it was otherwise fine and the shift went by fairly quickly. Training isn’t intensive enough for lottery and tobacco products, so I’ve been studying the regulations in my time off. It’s not fun, but I did something the other day that would have resulted in my getting fired and being fined had the tobacco inspector being in the store. It was just a tiny little thing, reaching for cigarettes before asking for ID, but that showed me that I have to be proactive in my training.

My schedule for the next week is excellent, even if it is for only twenty hours. I have all four hour, later in the day shifts, never starting before 10AM. This suits me just fine. I’m off tomorrow and don’t work till six on Sunday night, so I’m about to enter my first weekend since last April!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Payday is this coming Friday, so I feel comfortable enough to go do something touristy. My rainy day option is in Campbell River and my nice day option is outside of town.

Tomorrow, I will miss my two regular cups of coffee and third mixed with hazelnut creamer. 😀

I had another eight hour shift today and it was so much more pleasant than yesterday’s as the colleague I worked with created a much more relaxed work environment. It’s still not a job that I’ll ever be enamored with, but a lot of my red flags were taken down today. What I dislike the most is that the work is much more about cleaning and making coffee than it is about cashiering. Having spent the summer cleaning in Dawson, I’d really rather not do that all winter, too. But now that I know that every shift won’t be like yesterday’s I feel I can breathe a little and just go with the flow until something else shows up.

One thing I am very worried about is getting a caffeine overdose. We serve organic fair trade Kicking Horse coffee and grind the beans freshly before every pot. The shiny beans are so fresh they are dripping with coffee oil. This coffee is good, better than Starbucks, maybe even the best drip coffee I’ve ever had. And it’s free for staff. As long as I bring my own travel mug, I can have as much of this amazing brew as I can stomach. It was hard not to partake tonight since I worked from 2PM to 10PM and try to avoid caffeine after noon! Tomorrow, though, I work 10AM to 2PM, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to soak up a couple of cups. 🙂 Kicking Horse’s dark roast has a great name, Kick Ass (LOL!), and a cup of it sure is going to make early mornings go by more smoothly.

Tomorrow, I will be working three hours with a colleague I haven’t met yet, and then one hour with the owner. That should be interesting. I’m looking forward to getting my schedule for the next few weeks so that I can start to get into a routine of sorts. There’s apparently a lot of Campbell River for me to explore! 🙂

I haven’t had to use an alarm clock since early July nor have I worked a full nine hour day with no breaks in recent memory. When I got home tonight, I thought ‘Today was brutal’ and then I remember my first day at the nursery, which put things into perspective. 🙂

Issues cropped up within two minutes of arrival that got my red flag going, but I’m not sure yet if they are employee or management related. So, I’m grateful to have a job, but day one made me eager to keep exploring my options.