Update

The work holiday party wasn’t actually too bad and I’m happy I went in the end. Much (too much?) karaoke was sung. Much (never too much) wine was consumed. Wine makes everything better.

Work continues to be stupid due for the most part now to the manager. He’s not really new any more given that he’s been managing the store since September. September was a messed up month and his first month so no one really thought much about it. It hasn’t really gotten any better though. If anything, it’s gotten mildly worse. In a lot of ways, I feel like it’s almost degenerated into this boys’ club v. girls’ club atmosphere, with the boys being stupid and adolescent and the girls attempting to maintain some professional level despite the boys’ fart jokes. I’m exaggerating to get the point across but there should be no surprise that I’m the only boy on the girls’ side. I still wonder about what, if anything, I should do. I’m not exactly sure what I would say to my manager that wouldn’t seem like I was too directly criticising his management style and skills. And I still feel like I would be too much of a snitch if I just directly went to his boss and said something. Still, given that there have been complaints about his espresso drinks being undrinkable and that when one of my co-workers mentioned this to him, he just laughed it off, I’m not sure that confronting him directly is going to help anything. In fact, yesterday one of our regular customers who always gets a double espresso decided to get just drip coffee when my manager saw him walk in and went directly to start pulling his shots for him. There was this really awkward moment when the customer looked at me–I was closer to the cash than to the espresso machine–and then looked at my manager and then back at me and said that he’d just have regular coffee.

None of this is rocket science. Sure, there are certain skills involved in using an espresso machine but one would assume that if you’ve been doing this for any length of time–long enough to have managed a few shops along the way–that you’d have picked up those necessary skills at some point. But, maybe not.

In other news, things with the boy continue to go quite well. It’s been a month as of today since our first date. Despite a discussion we had a couple of weeks ago about how we should take it slow as both of us have a bad tendency to rush into things at first, we’ve spent almost every night together since that conversation. At least we tried. It’s the thought that counts.

Speaking of thought, I can’t believe that Christmas is in a week. Ugh. Stupid holidays. I’ve really been trying to enjoy the season for what it’s worth this year, but I just haven’t even been thinking about it. I’ve been rather focused on work and on the boy. I haven’t given any thought to gifts yet although I honestly don’t think that I can really afford to buy much of anything for anyone this year. So I probably won’t. My family will understand. I just graduated from university, of course I don’t have any money. Conversely, I don’t really expect much of anything from them either. I don’t really NEED anything that I can think of. There are things I’d LIKE but nothing that I really NEED.

Except maybe a pair of boots and a new winter hat.