Weekend Getaways are fun!
The Anatomy of a Getaway..
It's been a long winter. Not much snow. Just lots of cold. Work has become very stressful due to the severe and significant changes that happened in a very short time. About a month ago, I posted that things were going well. They were. Within days of posting things unexpectedly changed. Our store is a challenging one due mostly to our location in good times. We're located inside the 2nd largest Mall complex in the United States. It is a challenge to maintain. Our district manager is a moron in my opinion. As a result of his constant criticism of the store - which is for the most part - warranted, our focus is always on fixing things for him to see - rather than fixing and maintaining the store overall - which is how it should be. The issues are never addressed - just dusted off. Long story short, this makes it very difficult for the executives (Target's name for managers) and most don't stay very long once they're in the line of fire. In the past year, we've lost a record number. After discussing my core roles with Jeff (the store manager) and Simone (Human Resources), I was looking forward to move to Price Accuracy as a team lead. Simone told me that they were going to schedule a meeting with Marie to give her a final effective date and if she was leaving past that date, they'd rotate her into a temporary position, but certainly out of hers since I was taking it over. Their feeling was that the only way to insure that this happens is to make an official date. That meeting was to take place at the end of February. In the meantime, I wanted to remain in the 5:00AM slot, so I moved temporarily to the Planogram team. (Planogram team sets up all the displays/merchandise in the store by using Plans or maps sent by corporate) The next week, Jeff announced that he found a “better opportunity” and gave his two weeks notice.
He assured me that he had spoken to all the right people and that Simone would be continuing to make sure this came to pass. He left. It was very sad. Right after his last day, Simone (who has a heart condition and high blood pressure) started to not feel well. She has been out ever since. The end of February passed and I heard from others that Marie said that she is not leaving yet because the store she wants to transfer to in Georgia has no openings. She hasn't told me one way or another, and there's no point in my asking because it doesn't matter at this point. If she doesn't leave, there's no one that's going to make that change. Even if/when Simone comes back, there's no chance that she can make this happen now. For now, I'm temporarily permanently on the planogram team. The problem is that my hourly rate is way above what someone on that team would make. I doubt anyone will pick up on it for a while, but I'm still listed as Pharmacy Technician - so new management would have to wonder why someone that's a Pharmacy Technician is working on the Plano team and if they're being paid as a Technician.. So with that, I felt a lot of stress. Nothing specific and it's not like I'm in danger of becoming unemployed - but just stress from uncertainty. I really do like the 5:00 start time (and the extra $160 a paycheck.)
Healthwise, I'm doing very well. No complaints at all. I look great, I feel great. I still have a bunch of pounds to lose, but I'm in no rush and if I stopped losing now, I'd be fine with that. I need to begin exercising. So I was thinking about starting to walk more and how I could do things like go to museums and hikes or whatever. Then I thought that on the weekends I should really start to do outdoors stuff - not just gardening - but walking and touring. It was the weekend, and I was thinking of exercising, so I laid down and watched television. (Works for me) A commercial for Amtrak came on and I thought about stress and that it would be fun to ride the train someplace. It's way too expensive to drive anywhere - just filling my tank now is almost $50 and all the tolls have gone up. I began to fold my laundry thinking of going someplace and I had a t-shirt that I got in Washington, DC last time I was there (about 3 years ago) and I thought.. AHA, I'll take Amtrak to DC. Next thing I knew I was checking out train schedules. Then I went to Hotwire.com and booked a hotel. And now I'm going to DC for tomorrow (March 7) Today I realized I have nothing to wear. The only pants I have are Target Khaki - all the others are way too big now. I have one pair of jeans that fit.. though are baggy - but they don't fall down so I can wear them. I don't want to pay full price for clothes because I'll just shrink more. There was nothing in clearance, so I ended up buying track pants - which I guess is very casual. The forecast is for possible rain Friday and Saturday and not as warm as its been. - I was hoping it would be HOT. My current itinerary is jammed with stuff I want to do. But it'll depend upon the weather and how tired I am. I start way later than usual tomorrow at 5:30am when I drive up to the train station in Westchester. Catch Amtrak at 6:46am to Penn Station. Park car (before getting on train). Take Amtrak Regional at 8:10am to Union Station in DC. Arrive there about 11:25am. Take Metrorail to stop a few blocks from Capital Hill Hilton. Walk there. Check in. Leave bag. Then I have a list of to do things - when I do it or if, depends on weather.. National Zoo. Be prepared for lots of walking and lots of hills. National Aquarium. Look at fishies. Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. National Building Museum. Koshland Science Museum. Spy Museum. Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Botanical Gardens. US Postal Museum. Old Town Night trolley tour of DC. Bureau of Engraving and Printing tour (where they make dollars) Walter Reed Army Hospital - there's a Medical Science museum. That's about all I can fit into 4 days. - where it's only 2 full days. Monday, I catch a 6:10 pm train from Union Station back to Penn Station. Then catch 10:45pm train back to Croton train station.. drive home.. recuperate. I had to cut out so much that I wanted to do. However, I have 2 more possible weekend visits to DC coming up. So I figured I'd just go back to do whatever else. This time I'm not going to the Holocaust Museum. I've been there twice and find it so disturbing yet amazing. I picked things based upon time and area. I was going to buy a hop on, hop off ticket for during the day, but I don't plan on staying on the bus.. so it's better for me to just take the Metro around. Since I should be okay for a lot of walking this time, I figured I'd do the more exercisey thing. That's not a word. Exercisey. Oh well. So stress, watching amtrak commercials, folding t-shirts... cause unexpected travel. I got a pretty good deal on the hotel and the train fare is pretty cheap also. Because I don't eat much, I save lots there. I'm even bringing tuna to make on the train and 100 calorie snack packs. I'm not bringing all that much.. well I just added my laptop that I wasn't going to bring... and an extra bag... ohhhhhhhhhhh