thought it would be...

... a day when I would be working in the floral department, doing prep. work for Valentine's Day. With hundreds of cash and carry roses bunches coming from the warehouse to put out on the sales floor. And dozens of plants: tulips, azaleas, hydrangeas, asiatic lily plants all in pots. But I spent most of the day cutting fruit instead.

I went to work at 6 am and got off at 3 pm. Not sure slogging away at employment qualifies as 'productive', but I think I did a decent job of keeping my head above water. The person who usually thinks she 'is the boss of me', does the majority of the prep work for the produce area has been MIA for several days. A once-a-year women's event she helps with and enjoys attending at her church has taken all her attention for several days.

There was not much of a back-up plan in place, other than thinking all of the stuff Alice does would magically, mysteriously happen in her absence. I've been mumbling and  muttering for months (if not years) the amount of work requires  two people to get everything done. Just more than one person can get accomplished in eight hours. If proof was needed, it was definitely demonstrated today: I felt swamped.

Remember that old joke about the engineers who were tasked with draining the swamp? How they encountered all these unexpected problems? Things they had not prepared for, not warned about, completely out of the realm of possibility: quicksand, cannibals, man-eating snakes, alligators. They did not falter, did some creative thinking and overcame all the myriad crises they encountered. All the while reminding each other, as they rescued team members from the enveloping sand, boiling cook pot, writhing snakes, toothy 'gators: "Drain the swamp."  "Drain the swamp."  "Drain the swamp."   I have days when I walk around saying that under my breath all day long....

I did some things I have never done before, mostly because I was reluctant to say I could not. The fruit salad turned out better than I had expected.. I told a co-worker it was not in my skill set, and the blabbermouth told the boss. He just laughed. And said: " as long as it has all the right stuff in the container, it is ok with me."  Which I took to mean: as long as someone else is doing it, it is all right with me.