So, I am tired. More tired than I have been in almost half a decade.

When I was in my mid twenties I always worked two or three jobs. I had my overnight grocery clerk position for the Boston based ‘Stop and Shop’ and then always did something during the day. I owned my own landscaping business, called ‘The Lawnmower Man’. I worked at a Marina as the Assistant Store Manager. When I first started third shift work, I still held my daytime gig sanding and refinishing hardwood floors.

The year leading up to my marriage to my ex-wife, I slept for an hour in the morning and an hour at night and busted my fanny the rest of the time. Seven days a week; I was always working. It helped pay for an elaborate wedding of dreams and funded an amazing seven day honeymoon to the small Tahitian island of Moorea; plus thousands of dollars spent on meals, gifts, clothes, jewelry, activities and tattoos on Moorea. When I left that little island, I was ready to learn French and move!

I am now working a much different pace, but think that it is well worth it since I am convinced that I have found my new workplace ‘home’. I am still at Vons (a division of Safeway - the national supermarket chain that owns Randall’s, Genuardi’s, Domick’s, Carr’s, and Tom Thumb). I work the third shift there as a dairy second man (essentially the back up manager to the department - acting department head when the manager is away for any reason). I work five days a week and have been there for a year. I have gone nowhere with this company and have been over-all treated like shit, regardless of my experience in the business and my over-all desire to excel and work hard.

                          

I am surrounded by ILLEGAL immigrants and jaded bastards that think they are inventing devices and procedures of cataclysmic proportions, as opposed to merely operating a grocery store providing food. False stature is fun until it is offered authority.

This picture emphasizes what they do to their employees; mash, bake and toss:

http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/default.asp?page=corphome

My new found job (of three weeks plus) is at Bristol Farms which is a local California company with fifteen locations which are mostly in Los Angeles county. I work in one of the exclusions to that L.A. county rule. The store I am a clerk at is the Mission Viejo establishment that is found in a galleria-type mall called the ‘Kaleidoscope Center’. Here is where I work in the afternoon (mostly from 1:45 to 10:15 - there is NO third shift position):

                       

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY JOB AT BRISTOL FARMS!

It is what the business used to be. Everyone is upbeat and helpful. Even the ‘disgruntled’ or ‘challenging’ employees give the ol’ college try and strap on a smile for the sake of the game. I really walk away from there feeling blessed for having the opportunity to even just be there, never-mind actually participate. Here is a shot of their store in Hollywood:

                              

I get to help customers with recipes and advice (I cooked in a five star restaurant for three years). I am allowed to offer input and am faced with challenges that I greet with the opportunity to overcome. I am actually thanked, THANKED, for my work - this is an AMAZING reception standard for an employee in the grocery industry.

http://www.bristolfarms.com/home.html

I finally feel like I have a future; an amazing future.

Oh, by the way, the reason I started with schedules is that I just finished a forty hour work week in 54 hours between both stores. I slept poorly on Thursday night and was up at two a.m. watching 'X Files'. I grabbed a poor set of two or three hours on Friday morning before doing a 1to 10 and a 10:30 to 7. Then, off for four hours and starting Saturday at noon when I woke up was the last time that I slept until now. I charged five back to back shifts with no sleep and a hugely surprising level of productivity, especially considering the hectic-ness of this season .

Guess where I smiled the most and was appreciated?

Guess where I will be going places?

Guess who makes me happy?

Mantra One: “Things have a way of working out”.

Thank you Layton Rawlins!

"As long as we live, it's you and me baby, and there ain't nothin' wrong with that."

Be good and smile.

Godspeed …