Friday, June 6, 2014

Parting

I've been working for Kroger (store 410) for 4 1/2 years.  This week is my last week there and I have been thinking a lot about how much time one spends at work and how miserable it must be to actively dislike your job or coworkers.  I've been lucky.

Generally speaking, I don't care for retail.  My face shows incredulous instantly no matter how hard I try and there are just too many incredulous moments when dealing with the public.  I have stumbled through though and for the last 2 years have been the store receiver, interacting with vendors and the whole other world that exists behind the front end.

I have gotten to know so many people I wouldn't have known otherwise.  The personalities are huge and funny and sometimes infuriating but I wouldn't have missed it. 

There was the time the milk delivery person arrived so early that he went to bed in his truck cab.  One of my coworkers went to wake him at 6 and he jumped up-buck naked.  To this day I can't look at the guy without laughing.  My coworker was so indignant and grumbled all day about things swingin' in the wind. 

The time I kept seeing something in my peripheral, so many times that I questioned my health only to realize a large bird had made it's way inside.

The all around job guy that sings Kroger radio like a boss, changing the lyrics to make Kroger the bad guy, or the good guy or the discarded lover.  He's also a Redskins fan and we're a rare breed these days.

The time they put a mouse trap in my desk..the countless times they've put something in my reclaim bin deliberately upside down and open. 

All of the crazy makes me sad to leave it tomorrow.  I'm excited for our move but wish I were keeping my work family.  I'll miss them a lot. 

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Coming Together

A few days later and things are starting to come together.  The minpins have a new home together with a family that really wanted them.  It was touching, Jack said.  They have an autistic son and the 'fierce' minpin, Sake jumped into his lap almost instantly and laid down.  Fate.

Lucy the imperial tortie went to live with our friends at the Gayboy Mansion.  She is being spoiled rotten and is finally the Queen she obviously felt entitled to be. 

My two beloved black boys, RuPaul and Fey Wray went to live with the lady who found them originally, running under parked cars at 4 weeks old.  It was a difficult parting but they're together with a new family that will love them like I do.

Someone is coming today for the tarantulas-he has THIRTY (Oh My God) so I have confidence in his ability to care for them.  Anyone with 30 spiders is some kind of special, I guess.  Yikes.

I've gotten more done this week than I could initially see.  The garage is packed full of things for next week's sale and the stacks of boxes in the house have grown.  I've purged a ton of stuff as I went so it's not as bad as I thought it would be.  Still a lot to do however.

19 days till moving day.  5 more days of work till my last day (coincidentally the day of the sale, bwahahahaha).

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Moving to Portland

Oregon, that is.  We have exactly 21 days until the moving van arrives and I am not ready. It seems no matter how much I purge or how much I pack that every surface is covered with things and stuff and such.  Very frustrating.

We have wanted to leave Memphis for nearly as long as we've been here.  It has not been a comfortable place for us to live as a gay couple and the racism here is terrifying.  So is the poverty.  I realize these are things that exist nearly everywhere but in Memphis it is amplified somehow to a pitch somewhere just under the shriek of a 2 year old.

We believe Oregon is more progressive and plan to marry there after our arrival.  It is clearly the fiber mecca and I have information on 5 guilds/groups that meet in the Portland area on a regular basis.  I have my spindles and wheel packed and ready to go into our little pull along trailer.  Such things cannot be handed over to movers.

Everything has come to a halt to prepare for moving.  No knitting, spinning or exercising.  Our entire world revolves around moving and work.  It is starting to wear me down.  Rehoming all our rescues has been emotionally draining and I've cried frequently. 

21 more days.