In my hotel room in OKC, earlier in the month. ~Stef~

This has been a shitty month, it really has! I haven’t had a chance to relax all month. Basically Stefani has been put on hiatus for the duration of the month. I’m not at all happy about it. I’m glad this month is almost over.

It almost all revolves around my job. At the beginning of the month, I had a trip to Oklahoma City to make a presentation for a class. Basically, it’s a workshop for department supervisors who at least show the potential to be assistant managers. It’s a way to get ourselves seen by the district team.

That was on the 8th of this month. The following week, on the 17th, we had inventory. Now, all retailers go through the inventory process once a year. It’s to account for what we have in inventory, and to see how much we shrank. It determines a stores and company’s profits for the year. Needless to say, it’s a stressful time, and we worked long hours to prepare for it, up to the day before. We left at 1:30 in the morning, only to return at five, three and a half hours later, so work another full shift. We were allowed to leave at three that afternoon, when our part of the process was completed. I fell asleep until after six, then drove home, and slept until eight the next morning.

The following week, which would have been this past week, was all about getting ready for Black Friday. Fuck my life, lol. Two of the worst weeks in retail, back to back. There was no time to rest and recover. We went from one process to the next. Another round of long hours and fatigue, all for one day of shopping madness. The only good thing was that we did have Thanksgiving day off, so we all had a chance to recuperate slightly before the mayhem of the biggest shopping day of the year. Our sales reflected it, too. I’m glad for it. I would have hated to have suffered all that for nothing!

This coming week, I’ll end the month as I started, by going to Oklahoma City, this time to walk a store and evaluate how it’s doing. It’s part of our training, and we’ll have to do another presentation on our findings in our class. That means it’s another four hour drive to OKC, walk the store, and then the drive back. At least I get paid for the drive. I’m going to rent a car this time, the company pays for it, so why not?

Next month will be hectic, but maybe not as much. We have our Regional Vice President coming in for a walk, which will make our management team a waking nightmare for the next few weeks, then the week before Christmas, our TOM (Territory Operational Manager) will be in the store for three days. The last thing a store wants is to have a TOM digging in to the store’s operations. They only visit if somethings not right. Not good!

I’m hoping to have a chance for some Stefani time soon. I might carve out some time on Monday. I’ll still have to finish up NaNoWriMo. I’m on track to get my 50K words by the end of the month. On top of everything else, I committed myself to this madness, and I’m stubborn enough to muscle may way through. I’m almost done, the month is almost over, then I’ll collapse in a heap on the floor, and sleep until 2017.