Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving has come and gone, folks! And with that came a stressful, albeit great Thanksgiving. Here's the low down.

Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve

Sucked. Absolutely, one hundred percent sucked. I went in to work at 6 am. That's bad enough, but then my closer had left a wonderful mess for me to clean up. Not only that, but today was bedding changes for the New Arrivals Room and the Quiet Room. I know most of you don't know what that is, but PetSmart has a few back rooms with animals, where we house the new arrivals that are in quarantine before we put them out on the floor, and a room where we can separate sick or injured animals (hey, it happens). Anyways, Wednesdays are the bedding changes for all these lovely animals. Problem: every single cage in BOTH rooms was occupied. That makes about 24 cages I had to clean. Not to mention wash ALL of their dishes and houses, and do the same for 5 bird cages. Needless to say, that took me 2 hours: in other words, WAY too long and it put me way behind. Then, when I was changing the water for the birds out on the floor, every time I opened the parakeet cage, one would fly out. Every time. Thank goodness their wings are clipped. It's not really my fault, our cages aren't in a separate atrium, so if they fly out they then have full reign of the store. Anyways, the first one flew out, I chased it along the floor, then caught it, put it back, and another damn bird flew out. And repeat. And repeat. But this time, I'm so stressed out because I'm just so far behind and I'm doing my best that I yell "DAMN IT!" and start crying. And that's the time when my manager walks past. Awkward. He got me to calm down, but then around nine o'clock one of my other managers walks up "Hey Sara, SURPRISE! You have a fish delivery!" WHAT?! I'm not even done with my morning tasks yet and you throw this at me. She fortunately saw my look of panic and brought over another associate to help me.

So all in all, a horrible day. And that night I had to make my apple crumble and the pumkpin cheese cake swirl pie so I wouldn't have to so that in the morning. Both turned out great, by the way. I also had to brine the turkey. Thankfully, cooking (especially baking) puts me in a really good mood so I was able to relax.

Thursday, Thanksgiving

Great day! My turkey turned out fantastically, as well as the popovers and my honey glazed carrots. Our friend Bryan brought over the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cream cheese stuffed mushrooms, and Matt made the gravy. Matt's classmate Mason also joined us. Dinner and conversation was fun! Overall, for being my first Thanksgiving away from family, it was pretty awesome :)

Friday, Black Friday

I had to work in the evening. Thank goodness it wasn't earlier. This was the first year I was not hitting up the sales, but I didn't want to go by myself. I also wanted to avoid being anywhere near the WalMart. I got to work about 5 pm, it was actually quite boring and I didn't do much. At least I got to spend quality time with the customers that did come in.

Saturday

And here I am, sitting on my laptop. I should be at work, but I had to "call in" sick this morning. And by "call in," I mean walk into work and inform my manager that I was going back home because I threw up in the car on the way here. YAY! Not really. The cramps were apparently worse than I thought. But that's always a humbling experience, having to go into work and then into the drugstore with barf on your pants. Oh well. At least I don't have to work.