Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Today was such a stressful day and surprisingly it was my day off!!! Not being at work sometimes just makes things worse because I am not there when the shit hits the fan so then my staff calls me to get my advice or complain about things and I only get half the story. Today was a very crazy day for them and everyone is getting super stressed and mad at each other. I'm really hoping we can work out all the drama so that we can go back to being one big happy family. If not, going to work isn't going to be nearly as enjoyable as it once was. The staff meeting this Wednesday is going to be interesting because my asst. manager and I are going to have to be tough and lay down some serious guidelines. It really sucks sometimes being in charge of 16 other people. Don't get me wrong I do sort of enjoy the power (who wouldn't) and the ocd side of me likes to be in charge and keep order, but with the power comes all the blame. I know in Spiderman Toby says, "With great power comes great responsibility", but I'm pretty sure the truer statement should read..."With great power comes large amounts of blame." What being the manager these last few months has taught me is that you can't be liked by everyone and that you really need to make sure people do their job who work under you otherwise you get blamed for everything that goes wrong. But just to clarify, despite this small rant, I still really love my job and can't believe that I've been there for 6 months in a few days....where did the time go???
I haven't written on here in a long time because I've been so busy with work and other things. Jack's retirement party well fabulously to update from my last entry and he was totally shocked! The only slight issue was that due to a non-working sound system at the hall the 4 mixed cds I created of all his favorite songs were unable to be played...aka like 15 hours worth of my time was wasted, but at least Jack got a nice collection of cds as part of his gift.
Right now on my days off I'm gearing up for the holidays and trying to get shopping done early since I will likely be working crazy hours as the holidays approach and staff calls out more. I have some really great ideas for some people and no clue what to buy others, but it is so nice to not have to sweat over spending a decent amount of money on gifts for the first time ever. I'm really excited to be able to get my loved ones really nice gifts and I am trying hard to get things that they will love, but that are also meaningful. I'm also trying to come up with great ideas for small things I can get each of my 15 residents and possibly small items for my staff...if we don't go through with the pollyana idea. I really do like holiday shopping and giving to others more than I like receiving. I really never would have thought years ago that I would feel that way but as you get older I guess that's just how things go.
The main reason I can't wait for Christmas is because everyone will be home again!!!! I miss my friends so much it's seriously killing me. I was looking at all my old photos on my laptop today and almost cried. I can't believe I haven't seen some of them in 3 months!!!! I hope we all never have to go this long again without seeing each other. I can't wait to all be together and do crazy things at Christmas!!!!
Well I guess that's about it for now. Even though I was off today and had nothing planned my day turned hectic so now I am exhausted. I'm going to read a little bit of my new Wally Lamb book and get to bed. Yes, his third book came out, "The Hour I First Believed" and it is fantastic so far, but I'm only 100 pages in. Wally is definitely one of, if not my favorite, authors. Night all =)