I hope I'm just tired.

I have been pretty cranky for the past few days, sorry about that. I'm hoping it's just work and not sleeping well that is making me that way. This year I didn't upend my schedule like I did the last two years, which I think is helping a lot, but it's not making the crank unavoidable. I don't think anything can do that, save for quitting my job and devoting myself to a life of leisure. That probably isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Being the manager now is part of it, because I hate being in charge, and I don't see any way out of it at this point. I'm not a born leader, as leaders are, I like to go with the flow I guess. I think being the manager is more stressful than the actual work volume in November and December. I wonder if that's why I'm not sleeping well. I've been having a lot of work-related dreams lately, but they all center around baking and not managing. Who knows.

This Saturday Sarah and I and my sister and her husband are going to Christmas in Odessa. Odessa is a very small town in DE to the north of us. For the past 40-odd years, they get a lot of people in town to decorate their homes (most of which are very old), and they open them to the public. We saw the sign the first time we came to DE in 1997 to scout out living locations, but we didn't make it until last year. It was everything I had built it up to be in those 10 years, and I had a really good time. We stayed overnight on Christmas Eve at Sarah's parents' house last year, and we made donations in all the adults' names instead of giving gifts (her parents did not strictly adhere to this). Aside from my stupid schedule at work, it was one of the best Christmases I've ever had. It came very close to the vibe of Christmas when I was a kid, which I really enjoyed and missed, because most of my family from then has passed away and the rest of us are all over the states. We are doing all these same things this year, so I think it will be even better. I don't really get into the religious side of Christmas; I like the togetherness and the giving part of it, and I try to stay away from the commercial aspect. These days it's hard to avoid.

Slow.

Today was one of the slowest Saturdays we've had in awhile. I can't really judge it though, since I left 3 hours after we opened, and there were 8 hours left to go. It's usually very busy for the first hour on Saturday, and then it gets extremely busy around 10.30-11. Neither of those things happened. I was hoping to get out after 8 hours, but that didn't happen either. It rarely does.

I have had a nap already, but I still feel pretty crappy. I'm going to sit my ample butt down on the couch and do nothing. This is basically how I feel:

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Is it over yet?

Boy, I'm glad this month is almost over. I don't know if it's because I've been busy at work, but I have grown to hate writing my blog. I never feel I have anything to say. When I do have something to say, it never comes out the way it is in my head. It's like work now, and I dread it and either push it off for awhile, or get it over with fast.

It's weird, because when I was a kid I wanted to be a writer. I think this is because of Richie Cunningham. "Happy Days" is where I learned the word journalist, and Richie was my favorite, so naturally I wanted to be like him. I never really pursued it though. In school when I would have to write papers, I would always do it at the last minute, and I almost always got a good grade. Now it's voluntary and I feel like I suck at it. I know I just need practice, but I just don't want to do that.

After my grandfather passed away, I was talking with Sarah about writing something about him. That same day, I looked at my horoscope in the newspaper, which said something to the effect that I had a great idea for a book and should get to work. It's almost 20 years later and all I have to show for that is a melodramatic first chapter that I wrote here in my blog. I loved my grandfather very much, and I'm the kind of person that feels like I would be disappointing him if I didn't finish the book. But I just don't know if I can do it.

I like to read a lot, and this time of year I don't normally get to do too much of it, but this year I have. Maybe I'll just stick to that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have finished cooking Thanksgiving dinner for Sarah and myself, and we are done eating it. It came out pretty good. I was supposed to get a 16 pound turkey, but they brought out a 12 pounder by mistake, and I thought that might be enough. We have a LOT of meat leftover, but that's okay. I'm going to make some stock from the leftover bones and stuff. I hope everyone else had a great meal today!

Things I am thankful for: Sarah, the rest of my family, our house, our jobs, and yes, even our pets. Everyone enjoy the rest of the day. :)

My busiest day of the year.

Well, it's finally over. I made it through another Thanksgiving. Everyone of my co-workers (and Sarah) did a great job, and we had a lot of stuff to put out for sale today. I made 125 dozen dinner rolls today, among other stuff (if I haven't mentioned before, a big day for dinner rolls is 9 dozen). I got an e-mail from my supervisor after work, saying that all the rolls were gone and that there were not too many pies left. That was nice of him to do that, becuase it was going to drive me crazy waiting till Friday to find out how much we sold. I am actually off on Friday this year, but my co-worker was going to call me and let me know (I did the same for her last year, it bugs her too, not knowing). It's going to make her job harder on Friday, but she'll be there early and I didn't want to have too many leftovers (one year we had around 35 dozen rolls left, that was a nightmare).

Yesterday I had trouble sleeping, I guess I was anxious about the work, because I was having dreams about multiple pans of burnt dinner rolls. I got up an hour early and went into work a half hour early. At around 11 pm I started getting really tired, I was floundering and having trouble focusing, and it took a few hours to snap out of it. At least this year I didn't forget the yeast in anything. It's almost a tradition that I forget the yeast in something on Thanksgiving; one year it was a mix of 42 dozen rolls. That was not a fun time. Hopefully I have broken that tradition.

So now I have two days to relax. Tomorrow I am making Thanksgiving dinner for Sarah and I; this will be my third time making everything by myself. The turkey is currently swimming in brine, and I'm going to make mashed potatoes, apple sausage stuffing, green bean casserole, and a few pies. I brought rolls from work. :) There will be napping, since we'll be alone and we don't have to feel bad about napping, and Sarah is going to watch the parade because she always misses it. We have to take care of our cats- and bunnies-in-law, but other than that and maybe some Beatles Rock Band, we are doing nothing. Hooray!

Oy.

The last month or so did not prepare me for yesterday. I made less than I did last year, and they cleaned me out. And they didn't start getting orders in until late last week, and I have a lot more orders for tomorrow than I did last year. Today I made 99 dozen dinner rolls altogether. I forgot to mention yesterday that the dinner rolls are all rolled by hand, two at a time. So it takes awhile (it's just me doing them). I had help today, Sarah came in and set everything up for me (thanks sweetie!) and my co-worker picked up the fruit danish and quick breads. That turned a 14 hour day into a 12 hour day. Every little bit helps!

I am all showered already and I'm going to make my breakfast and set up the coffee maker. Good night!

A Quick Blog (While He's Awake)

This week at work, the top selling item I make is dinner rolls. I make four kinds, white, wheat, pumpkin, and sweet potato. Today I made 28 dozen altogether, but there were no orders. I have a few tomorrow, and many more on Wednesday. Both Tuesday and Wednesday we get a LOT of walk-in sales for dinner rolls. I will most likely make over 100 dozen on Wednesday. I will be going to sleep soon, and I'm getting up at 8.15 to eat, and I should be back at work by 10 (I got home about 90 minutes ago).

I picked up my co-worker last night and I needed to stop at the gas station before work. It's one of those big ones with the huge parking lots, and it was swarming with Amish ruffians when we got there (with their buggies). One of them leaned over and tried to touch the car while I drove past, which is an idiotic thing to do. Unfortunately, the Amish stop going to school after 8th grade, and I didn't learn common sense till 9th grade, so maybe that's it. I like the word ruffians, don't you?