today, probably...

...starts the beginning of the run-up to next Saturday. Which is Feb. 14, for those of you who do not look ahead on the calendar. I start thinking about it on Feb. 15, after I have had time to think about how thankful I am to have survived the previous Valentine's Day without loosing my marbles or hurting someone.

I've been doing non-floral work in recent months. And reminding the produce manager that Feb. 14 is looming. With the thought/hope he would take the time to put me on the work schedule for floral department instead of leaving me at the mercy of the Customer Service Manager. But I will be doing the cooking demo. for the next two days. And then start  with floral on Monday. Happy to get back on the other side of the store, and out of the cooking arena for a week.

Though it's been so long since I have done the floral freight, of which there will be much, I will likely struggle with that. I'm guessing pallets and pallets of shrink-wrapped cartons of plants and lots and lots of boxes filled with buckets of dozens of roses. Like an avalanche of cut flowers. You would normally think: 'oh, how pretty', but in the same way an accident on a snowy mountain can be overwhelming, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. By being swamped with cut flowers.

The first year I worked in a flower shop during a holiday, I was astounded by the event. The number of people who were willing to pay forty five or fifty dollars for a dozen roses. Back in the era when minimum wage was probably less than five dollars an hour, and I was thankful to have a job. I have the clearest memory of standing in one place, along one side of the table where several other people were working, putting cut flowers in vases. My assignment was to put dozens of red roses in white milk-glass containers. Then tuck in some fern and fluffy gypsophilia/white lacy babies breath. I am not kidding - I did that for twenty-four hours. Went home, and took a shower, went back to work.

That will not happen next week, as the company is fanatic about the idea of anyone getting to the point of receiving a penny in overtime pay. But I am pretty much assured of working very close to a full week. Which is a mixed blessing in a number of ways. Including reminding me of how convinced I am that my knees are older than the rest of my body.