The Only Way is Up

Wednesday was “one of those days.” You know the days where everything just seems to be going wrong?  

It wasn’t that kind of day for me but I was involved in the misfortunes of others. When I got to work, my manager was getting ready to leave. She’s on vacation for two weeks! With my boss who is her sister. To Alaska! It’s a graduation gift to my boss’ son who just graduated 8th grade. He’s the kindest, most respectful young boy. I knew him since he was a little boy. I used to help him cross the street! Now he’s going into high school! How bittersweet! He has very good manners and is very kindhearted. He chose to go to Alaska for his celebration. Yep, I’m jealous! Alaska!  

 So I am basically the manager for these two weeks! Along with doing all of my own work! I have two weeks straight (this is day number 5!) of work days with no days off! Hectic, stress, and busy, busy, busy are probably words to describe my next few days! It tends to get very busy here in the Summer. 

Lol! This about sums it up! (it’s a screen capture of an example in Kindle dictionary because I’m like a little kid and think it’s hilarious to see curse words!). 

And here’s another one just for shitz & giggles:

Lmao!

And the air conditioner broke in here again and it’s in the middle of a heatwave of 90 degrees and up everyday feeling like 105 degree!

so:

Lol! I may be having a little bit too much fun(if there is such a thing…) with these things!

But I’m not complaining. I love working at the store. Being overworked, though, isn’t fun but it does have its good aspects. More money to pay bills, more interactions with people, which I love, more experience, more moments at work reading and drinking tea during breaks where there’s no customers, more ice cream…so yes! Definitely positive. 

Anyway, the order was supposed to come in for the store with all the products we need but the company who delivers the products to us was really backed up and so our order arrived very late. It should have been there in the morning or afternoon but wasn’t there til almost 6:00pm.

 When the delivery man got to the store, he was clearly stressed. And he had to block traffic with the big delivery truck. That can be infuriating to people in cars in the back. I have witnessed countless arguments outside the store, through the years, with people stuck in traffic in back of the trucks delivering our products. It’s not pleasant. People can be vicious and uncivilized. Yes it’s so annoying to be stuck in traffic especially when we really have somewhere to be and can’t be late. It can be nervewracking for sure. But yelling, cursing someone out, threatening (seriously one day the argument led to someone threatening to take a baseball bat to someone’s head! And other physical threats other days with people just walking by getting involved…), and getting physically violent over something like this (it’s kind of trivial, imo) gets us absolutely nowhere. 

The man was anxious having to hold up traffic. There was nowhere else to park near the store and he had these big heavy crates, containers, and things to carry so it wasn’t like he can park blocks away and carry all that. He wasn’t thrilled about blocking the streets. 

He just told us that someone will probably have a problem soon. Then sure as shit there was a lady at the window screaming hysterically that she has to get to work, screaming all kinds of vulgarities, every curse word she could think of. The delivery man is a very friendly man but even he can get stressed, pissed, and be fed up. So he yelled back. And this further provoked the lady which further provoked him.

It was awkward! I was stocking all of the stuff and just tried to act like I wasn’t hearing any of it while my manager was probably doing the same. Lol

After that, he apologized to everyone and mentioned that he was just having “one of those days.” He said everything was going wrong since the morning. Then he accidentally hit the cart with wheels against one of our containers filled with water to soak the utensils for the ice cream and water ice. 

The thing tipped over spilling water everywhere across the entire floor. The poor man, I could see, felt absolutely terrible. He was visibly embarrassed and feeling guilty. Just one more unfortunate event in a series of many for him that day. And to top it off, he just got back off his own vacation. Coming back after a vacation isn’t really fun for many people but coming back to a hectic environment makes it all the more distressing. 

My manager kept reassuring him it was no problem and can easily be taken care of. My manager and me cleaned it all up. And she laughed, provoking me to laugh, because it really was kind of funny.

And sometimes we just have to laugh to brighten things up a bit. Laughter really can be the best medicine!

When the man was leaving he told us that this day can’t get any worse. Then he thought about it and said “you know, that just means it can only get better, let’s look at it that way.”

He was still clearly in a low mood but was still able to see a spark of hope and keep a positive attitude. 

And again I was reminded that it’s really all about our attitude. Instead of viewing our “bad days” in a negative light that they can’t get worse, we can instead view them in a positive light that if they can’t get worse they can only get better! Or stay the same. Lol But even then we can focus on the gems of beauty and hope scattered throughout. And if they really can get worse then we can remind ourselves that our day isn’t so bad after all if there’s still room for it to be worse. It doesn’t mean it will get worse. And if it does, no matter what happens there’s something good to be thankful for. Let’s focus on that. 

Also, the fact that he took responsibility and apologized after the little conniption, is inspiring and a reminder that we cannot and should not control others, generally, even when they are wrong. But we can control our own reactions and say sorry if we overreact. Whether or not we were/are wrong, we can still make amends and be the one to take responsibility. Offer them the victory and accept defeat upon our self. Not out of a sense of guilt or low self esteem but out of true compassion and desire to make things better for everyone. 

So here’s my little life lessons/reminders for the day! 😀 ❤

I hope your day is going well and if not, remember, the only way is up! ❤ 😀

Xoxo Kim ❤

p.s.

lol

;-D