I made wine from the lilac tree, put my heart in it's recipe

Almost every day at work now is a struggle. Gio went on one pick up this morning and then went home with a bad back. That left me to do the rest of the deliveries and pick ups. I didn't mind doing them; I had already been to two of the places, and the sole pick up was in Stoneham, which was easy enough to find. As I was about to leave on my last delivery of the day, Kim took a call from the company I was on my way to, and was asked if we could up their order. So, instead of three tables, I'd now be delivering ten. Instead of thirteen chairs, I'd be giving them thirty five. That was fine. What wasn't fine was Karen calling and getting heated about how we handled the extra linens the company ordered.

When Kim took the order, she told the guy we didn't have enough of the linens he was looking for. The ones we had were stained and wrinkled. After Kim told me the guy would take any size as long as they were white, I went and loaded the extra table and chairs in the pick up and Kim got the linens ready. Karen called while this was happening and eked out of Kim the particulars of the order. From there, chaos ensued. Karen got me on the phone and expressed her displeasure with the way events unfolded. She wasn't happy that Kim, even though she was being honest, told the guy that we might not be able to give him the linens he wanted. Considering that was one of Karen's reasons for "firing" me a couple of months ago---telling customers we couldn't fulfill their requests when we couldn't---I wished Kim had never said anything to her, because now she was probably under the impression I told Kim how to deal with the customer.

A mad rush trying to get linens ready and around four thirty, an hour later than I planned on heading out, I went and made the delivery. The whole way there, I stewed in my juices over the way things unfolded. In one broad stroke, Karen had messed up the delivery schedule and came as close as you could get to branding us incompetents. I had busted my ass all day and wasn't happy at all with the vote of no confidence.

I got back to the shop around five thirty. I have no idea if Karen is about ready to fire me again or if she was just a little upset. I don't know, but I can't go on like this for much longer. My original intention was to stick it out through the summer, at least, but now I'm looking at spring and plotting my escape. That is, if I don't get canned first.

It wasn't all a bummer today. I took my car to the garage this morning and I didn't have high hopes concerning the prognosis. But the small miracle I wrote about yesterday manifested itself when I got a call from the mechanic saying they fixed the problem. All they had to do was tighten up some bolts in the undercarriage, or something like that. No more thumping sound! And no charge to me. I was relieved and damn near shocked. Keep the miracles coming, I say.

To treat myself after a grueling, shitty work day, I bought myself some sushi at Shaws and stopped at the bookstore a few doors over and bought Lonesome Dove, my Uncle Gene be damned So, after a nice, hot soak, I'll finish the last few chapters of The Blade Itself, a book I don't want to end, and will attack Lonesome Dove. That should tide me over until Abercrombie's next one, Before They Are Hanged, comes out in March.
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Watched Eastern Promises last night and really enjoyed it. Good stuff, especially the fight scene in the sauna.

I am tired and have probably typed an incoherent post, or at the very least an error-filled, boring one, but I don't care too much right now. I will publish it as written, warts and all. Maybe tomorrow you'll get a better one out of me.