Maternity Leave

My maternity leave is coming to an end. Next week I am technically supposed to be going back to work. There is so much unknown surrounding me going back and it makes my stomach in knots.

Lets start with my feelings. I have left Connor with a babysitter less than a handful of times. I know it isn't necessarily a healthy thing to do. I need to let go a bit. On Sunday he went to the nursery. The whole service my stomach was in knots. I couldn't wait for service to end so I could run down and grab my boy. Pathetic, I know. But because of these feelings, the thought of going back to work and leaving Connor with someone other than myself or Ian overwhelms me. I'm his mother. I am meant to be with him. On a little side note, I never knew I would have these kinds of feelings. But then there is a flip side...it may be healthy for me to do some stuff away from Connor a few hours a week. Plus we could have some extra cash.

But then there is the unknown with work. I still don't know what store I am going to (I work at Starbucks). And I don't know what my schedule will be. Because of not knowing my schedule, I don't know what I will do with Connor when I do go to work. And having to deal with all of this at a new store where I know no one makes me even more stressed. What if I go back to work and hate it? If I quit, I feel like I am letting people down. If I don't even go back, I feel like I was a poser even taking maternity leave.

UGH...I just need to let this stress go. I don't like that feeling I get in my stomach when I think about all of this. It is just a job. And it is just for some extra money. Is it all worth it?

For now, I get to look at this little face as much as I want and he calms me down.

Hard Rock Cafe

When I was younger, I used to think that the Hard Rock Cafe was really cool. I remember me and my brothers wanting to go there whenever we traveled. Eventually, I grew out of it. I realized it was nothing more than a tourist attraction located in about a million different cities. Ian, on the other hand, has a fascination with it. He thinks it is so funny to take pictures of tourists walking out of there with their huge bags of merchandise and makes me pose in front of the stores when we travel. Of course, he does this to make fun of the place, but deep down inside, I think he is really suffering because he didn't get to go there enough as a child. Ha, ha! All that being said, I also thought Hard Rock was an American fascination. Once I moved to Edinburgh, I realized it wasn't. People like going there for the American food. Ian had a work night out there a few weeks ago, and I had a work night out there a couple days ago. The food really is mediocre at best and it is all overpriced, but seriously my coworkers went crazy. Especially the guys...they all got their drinks in souvenir glasses...and they live there! But, it was still a good time had by all. Some of the guys had an eating contest (no joke) and it was fun to hang out with everyone outside of work, even if it was at Hard Rock Cafe!

Note to all: I am sorry to offend anyone out there that is truly a huge fan of Hard Rock Cafe, but come on, you have to agree that that food just isn't good!

I Did It! I Finally Did It!

I applied for the "best job in the world"! After turning in my application video, I received a note letting me know my video will be looked at and approved over the next few weeks. Few weeks?!? I don't know if I can bare to wait that long. But, once my video is up, you all will know, so you can start voting for me...despite how dorky I am in the video! You know you all want to read my blogs from the Great Barrier Reef!

Indoor Snowboarding

You know when you are growing up how you always dream of hitting the slopes...indoors! Yeah, me either! But, I think little children in Scotland thought that, judging by my co-workers. Today all the employees from my store went on an adventure; we went indoor snowboarding. To be honest, even though I was excited, I was nervous too. I haven't been snowboarding in a year and was afraid that I had somehow forgot how to. Thankfully I discovered I hadn't and never fell once...not that this was a challenge! Having never been to an indoor ski slope, I didn't know what to expect. The hill was quite small. It had a tow rope of sorts to get you to the top. This tow rope proved to be my nemesis. I fell off it. At this point you may be asking yourself, "how do you fall off a tow rope?" I don't know, but I managed to do it! So the girl that has mad snowboarding skills how horrible tow rope skills! And in case you wanted to know about the snowboarding conditions, the room is kept quite cold, but there isn't a breeze. The snow is good snow (not too icy or powdery). Now, putting my feet in rented boots, that was gross! The laces were wet when I got the boots and by the time I got them on, my hands stunk...think of all the germs that were on my hands! GROSS!

Now about hanging out with co-workers. I'm not going to lie, at times it can be hard to hang out with co-workers outside of work. All the sudden you aren't in the safety of your workplace, wearing your work stuff and talking about work. What do you talk about? How much of your life do you divulge? There's only so much small talk that can be done before you start acting like yourself and becoming all buddy-buddy with your co-worker. On a side note, pick and choose who you will become buddy-buddy with, as all co-workers are not friend-type of material! The funny part was that on the way home from the trip, all the girls ended up in the back of the mini-bus (these "mini-buses" are quite popular in Scotland; makes me laugh) being girls...talking about our men, babies (other people's, since non of us have our own) and celebrities. I guess wherever you go, girls will always be girls!

For Your Enjoyment...Or Displeasure

So, I'm at work today when I am approached by a customer. "Your toilet is clogged." I think to myself..."Greatness. This person couldn't have waited until they got home to drop a big one, but had to do it here and now it is my problem." I say back, "Thanks for letting me know. I will go check it out." And check it out I do. I found a toilet filled to the brim with nastiness. After one very quick look, I locked the door behind me and hung up an out of order sign. But, being the supervisor that I am, I know I have to deal with it. So, what do I do? I phone maintenance! And, here's how that went...

Ring, Ring, Ring
Maintenance Woman (MW): Hello
Me: Hi. My toilet is clogged and I was wondering if you could send someone to fix it.
MW: Have you tried plunging it? (Now a side note for you...plungers here have handles that are about 12 inches long...I don't get why they aren't longer.)
Me: Well...the toilet is filled with nastiness (yes, I really did say "nastiness") and I am not putting my hands near that!
MW: Ummmm...okay....(seriously, the longest pause in the world. I think she was trying to figure out if I was joking or not.) I will send someone out to unclog it.
Me: Thanks!

Oh the joys of being able to phone maintenance!

Kind of Cool, Yet Random

Today I was on my break at work, flipping thru The Times, when I came across a picture that stopped me in my tracks. The guy on the left (with the glasses) comes into my store every day...I serve coffee to the man that is on the front of The Times! Ian Rankin, best known for his crime novels...or for getting a grande americano for himself and a triple venti latte for his wife...wrote an article about meeting the First Minister of Scotland after one year in office (here is the link, if you are interested). Funny thing is, even though I have served coffee to him every day for the past 8 months, it wasn't until 2 months ago that I found out who he is. And I must say, I was impressed. I like the fact that someone that is a household name, at least over here in the UK, can be so down to earth. And, I also like the fact that someone so down to earth can be on the front of The Times. So, I would like to say to Ian Rankin, Keep up the good work!

One of THOSE Days...

You know, the days that everything seems to go wrong! First a note about myself...I am a rather responsible person. I am always early to work, just to be safe. Well, this morning I managed to turn off two, yes TWO, alarms and sleep in. The only thing that saved me was that I called a taxi last night to pick me up. So, at 5:40am, my door rang. I sprang out of bed quickly, threw the toothbrush in my mouth, threw my clothes on and ran out the door. I ran out the door without even brushing my hair...not one of my finest hours!

Then at work...we are training this new girl who doesn't speak English very well (and it is nice to even say this). She doesn't seem to understand anything of what I say to her, but always says "yes" to me no matter what. So, we are at work, weighing the coffee when she makes a mistake and I correct her. Nothing big, but I wanted to make sure she got everything right. All the sudden she says, I am so f***ing stupid! Now, I am standing there stunned. All she did was over weigh the coffee; not a big deal. She can barely speak English, but can obviously say f*** easily. AND, she just said it in the middle of the store; not allowed people! Needless to say, it was an interesting morning.

This afternoon I had my shift supervisor sign off with my district manager...now remember back to the fact that I ran out of the house this morning without even brushing my hair! I was feeling a little self conscious about my appearance, but regardless of the appearance, I passed with flying colors...go me!

Well, here's to hoping I get up tomorrow morning because there ain't a taxi coming for me...I gotta catch the bus at 5:25am along with the rest of them...or lack of "them". No one is out that early!

Random

So, I am working away at work today, working away...like a good worker bee...when I have this conversation with a coworker:

AC (anonymous coworker): Jessica, you are quite the efficient worker.
Jessica: Ahhh, thanks.
AC: Seriously. If you were a hoover (for some reason they call them hoovers over here rather than vacuums), you would be a Dyson.
Jessica: Laughing. Really...thanks, I guess.
AC: Yeah, you would be the kind with three hoovers in one, you are so efficient.
Jessica: Okay then...

I can't recall being compared to a vacuum before. It was quite funny. I will take it as a compliment, even if it was the weirdest one I have received in a while!

Some Things in Life...

...are just worth questioning. So folks, this is the case of the cup in the bathroom. I walked into the employee toilet (or as Americans would call it, bathroom) the other day only to find a cup sitting on top of the toilet roll. This intrigued me. Why would there be a cup in the toilet? On close examination, I could tell that at one time there was a liquid of some sort in this cup. The nature of the liquid though, that is in question. Honestly, I didn't want to get that personal with the cup to find out! But, back to the issue at hand, why would there be a cup in the toilet? Did someone bring it in to finish their drink while peeing? Did someone think they were going to do so much business in there that they would need to be re-hydrated? Was this person going to use it to retrieve something they "dropped" in the toilet? Why would you ever take a cup with you into the toilet?!? AND, if you are going to take it in there with you, why not take it with you when you leave?

Now, there is another intriguing side to this story...last week, we found a banana in the employee toilet (once again, I mean bathroom). Why would someone take a banana with them into the toilet? And not only that, why would they leave it in there? At the time, I tried to question all my coworkers. None of them would admit to taking the banana with them into the toilet or speculate on why it was there. BUT, after talking about the banana with all my coworkers, one of them decided he (and "he" will remain nameless) wanted the banana. So, he retrieved it and ate it. I told him I felt it might not be sanitary to ingest the banana, but he felt since it had such thick skin, that germs would not have manifested in the banana itself and would thus be safe for him to enjoy.

My question is, why would someone ever take any sort of item they are planning on ingesting into the toilet with them? This is not a sanitary place people! Especially the employee toilet! We are lazy workers and never clean it! I even squat rather than sit on the nasty thing! And, bring food into it, I would not!

An Award for Jessica

So, yesterday I walk into work only to discover a note hanging on the wall about little 'ole me! It said I was District Partner (employee) of the Week and I was chosen for this award for always being welcoming, supportive and innovative. I know you are asking yourselves, is this the same Jessica that we know? People, come on! You had to know I had it in me somewhere!

I must admit, I am quite happy to receive this award. It has brought me back to my childhood when everyone receives awards; though they (they being parents, teachers) tell you that you are special for getting it. I still remember my mom creating a book with all my awards in it. It was great. I used to love looking at that book. I wonder what ever happened to that book.

People, remember to keep trudging along and maybe one day you can get an award too!