Scheduling Woes

When I interviewed for my job at Starbucks i specifically requested that i have a regular schedule, meaning the same hours on the same days every week. unless of course i ask for a day off. i spent this past labor day weekend visiting my sister Laura in North Carolina, so naturally i requested sunday off. Melissa, my manager, gave me the day off without a sigh but then proceeded to schedule me for last thursday, even though i had told her that i now work at my internship on thursdays. Melissa claims she forgot about the internship (probably true) and scheduled me for a third day so that i could get my 20 hours a week (definitely not true since the schedule had me leaving early every day and not getting even close to 20 hours). by the time i saw this schedule, it was too late for anyone else to take my shift, so i had to email molly, my curator-boss at the Gallery, my second week on the job, to tell her i couldn't come in thursday and, oh yeah, i was leaving early on friday (to catch my flight to Durham), but i'll come in friday morning. molly writes back "no problem, have a great weekend, see you next thursday, remember we have labor day off." so, i asked my mother, does that mean i don't have to come in at all on friday? we decided that it did.

so i waltz up to Starbucks at 5am this morning, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from my wonderful three (or four) day weekend (when i apparently became a squirrel), and lo and behold, there are already three people there. we all look at each other blankly. they never schedule four people to open. usually they can barely coerce three people to haul themselves out of bed. sure enough, i am not scheduled to come in until 7:30, which means i woke up two hours too early for no reason, except of course, the reason that my manager sucks at scheduling. keep in mind that i haven't started work at 7:30 since my first week on the job, after which i told Melissa that i actually preferred opening (because it goes faster and you get to go home earlier). to make matters worse the supervisor on duty refused to let me work the extra two hours because he might get in trouble (apparently he had just mistakenly let someone else go home early a few days before and had got in trouble for that). so i walked my ass home and lied on my bed for two hours, unable to sleep, working myself into a mental frenzy. and what really gets me is that Melissa only made this schedule last thursday, while i was at work (because she had mistakenly scheduled me). she could of easily said "hey Katharine, you don't mind coming in tuesday at 7:30, right?" even though she knew i was going out of town, she made no effort to let me know that my first day back would be abnormal. we had it out at work today, and of course i wound up murmuring sedately what i had fantasized about yelling at her a few hours before. she assures me that my schedule will stay regular from now on. time will tell.

as mentioned earlier, my weekend away was lovely. Laura is living in this super charming town right next to chapel hill called Carrborro. its full of little bungalows and organic food stores, and a big green in the town center, bordered by a cafe on one side, is constantly full of cute little babies with their parents, hippies with their guitars, various amateur acrobatic troupes, and assorted dogs. Laura actually lives in an apartment complex with her old high school friend Tracy. the apartments are townhouse style, with separate entrances for each, and Laura's backs up on to the pool, v. nice. two bedrooms and a bath upstairs; kitchen, powder room, and combined living/dining room downstairs. and just to remind my friends paying an arm and a leg (and a kidney) in new york, their entire rent is just $750 per month, meaning $325 each, including utilities. they just moved in a few weeks ago, and i got to play decorator, advising them on how to rearrange their furniture and put up art. it had potential, but now it is absolutely delightful, if i do say so myself.

this post has wound up not being even remotely funny. i suppose it falls under the category of an update. obviously my life needs to get more amusing. i'll try to have something funny happen to me before next time.