Brace yourself, the (End of) Eras blogs are coming as are the five year reflection blogs.
2019 was, to say the least, one heck of a year. It was a year of achievement, new traditions, and a time to say goodbye. Five years ago, I worked some crazy nights at my job as well. If you’ve known me since late 2021, you know I work overnights at Giant Eagle. If you knew me before then, I worked at WIS and traveled long distance to count other stores’ merchandise.
In my 13 years of doing inventory, it was very rare that I worked evenings, much less overnight. Only a few times I pulled off this feat before it became regular to me. Most of these occurred in 2018 and 2019. Either it was a JCPenney or Target (the bigger of these stores would be scheduled at night while the smaller ones ran in the morning). One of my most memorable overnight events occurred on this day five years ago. It was the Target in East Liberty. Mom and I passed this store many times when we would go to Children’s Hospital to visit Benny.
We started a few hours earlier than we usually do. Most Target stockrooms began at 6pm with the sales floor starting a few hours later. This one was a 4pm start. I didn’t have the luxury of a five minute drive as I do now and I wasn’t finishing after eight and a half hours. I could leave when the store was done. It was supposed to be an easy night, but no night at WIS was ever easy. It became the longest night and I almost walked out that night because of how shitty it was. The sales floor was a mess and the stockroom was packed. I didn’t expect it to be THIS bad. Eight hours in and we were nowhere near being done. Can you say train wreck?
I wondered if I was even going to make it to my Fall Symposium the next morning? This is the Toastmasters event that replaced our Fall conference and this was the year that I retired my SRU Homecoming tradition (for now, at least). As bad as it was, there was eventually light at the end of the tunnel. The event came to an end around 7:30 AM. I was allowed to leave since I drove separate and I rejoiced with Wheeling as their van and my car were finally headed home. Yes, I did get to attend my Toastmasters event the next day, in case you were curious.
The Marathon Target that night ranks up there with many other Targets than ran long in 2019. We finally set it right the next year and they all ran in the morning (the ones that did go that weren’t wiped out by COVID). My last Target with WIS was October 8, 2021, in the North Hills. Let me not forget the 14 hour JCPenney at Century III where we had no A/C and I ran back and forth to the water fountain to stay hydrated. That store and the iconic mall no longer exist. I had back to back 11 hour nights in May of 2019 with a Target and JCPenney dragging on. While I’m no stranger to overnight now, back then this was a culture shock.
I’m all ready for Sunday and I will be bringing boxed coffee and boxed hot chocolate to the picnic. The forecast calls for rain but we will have a great time regardless. What I’m not going to bring is self-doubt about my journey, or a chip on my shoulder as I did in 2021. I’m going to enjoy myself and look forward to seeing everyone.
Stylish 🍒 