You may have noticed a pattern to my blog.

I was gone for a long while and then there was a brief semi-resurgence in my posting.

Where have I gone again?

Back to the grocery store.

You see, I think I mentioned before, I am doing the HR for the two Toledo stores, which is supposed to be part-time. (I've translated that to two days a week.)

Ultimately, I imagine it will be, but as we get up and running, leaving the stores for three days straight is not a wise choice. Or even an option.

Sharp-eyed readers will recall we opened on the 12th of September. After that, I did not go back until the 16th, a Friday. Then, last Monday I went in at 9 and ended up there until seven.

OK, so, I thought, everything's set 'til Friday. Well, as it turned out, everything wasn't going to be set 'til Friday. For one thing, one of our departments desperately needed more people. So, I thought I'd go in for a few minutes on Thursday and line up interviews for when I was there on Friday. Then I got a call to come help them set up the paycheck system.

Which took most of the day Thursday, and most of the day Friday. Unfortunately, I wasn't done, so that spilled over into Saturday. "No worries," I said cheerfully, "OSU doesn't play till 3:30, so I'll be out of there by then." As it turned out, they played at 1, so I wasn't quite so upset when I ended up staying until 6:15.

The plan is to not go in today, but I suspect that will change. I do have to go in at 10:30 this evening for a few minutes to get the first batch of people to swipe their timecards into the system. (We have done a pilot program the past two days, now we are trying to use the whole store, both stores this time. But they will keep their paper timecards for this week!!)

Hopefully, I'll be back here by 11 so I can go to bed to be up to be in Perrysburg by 8.

So, perhaps tomorrow I could play catch up, you say? No, tomorrow, I will be lucky if I don't find myself falling further behind. I'm to the point where I've had to schedule most every minute of my Monday. Orientation. Interviews. Shirts. More interviews.

Meanwhile, back at Michael's desk, a mound of applications grew. Hungry job-seekers wondered why they hadn't heard from anyone, and why when they called, all they got was a slightly frantic-sounding voice saying, "It's the new zoo review here! I haven't gotten to it yet! You don't need a job till, say, Christmas, right?"

So, ok, Tuesday, perhaps I can get half caught up and Wednesday I can get the other half caught up. Then Thursday, I leave for six days.

No, I don't want to think of what life will be like when I get back. Let's not go there. Oh, and we're also doing our grand opening the week after that. More sales. More volume. More people.

I'm actually not complaining, just letting you know why my updates have been sort of few and far between. I like what I do. I think (and am hearing) that I do a decent job at it. I like the compensation. I like the saving program I'm on, where I'm at work all the time, so I never get to spend it.

It's also cool because it is allowing me to consider pursuing a private practice as a lawyer (assuming I don't -- oh, God! -- not pass the bar), something that would be really scary if I didn't have some source of income or savings racked up.

This HR job will quiet down, I think, but it will be a while, which will be okay, because any law practice I might have will pick up, I think, but it will be a while.

Sign me, slightly confused but pretty satisfied


Michael