February Recap /// I'm brain-dead for a title, please do me a favor and pretend it's fabulous

Alright, so I'm putting extra effort into this post to help me get over the mess that was the January Recap.

And I totally planned to have this up yesterday, or even Friday night, but an unexpected bout of food poisoning put me out of commision after I got back from work Friday night, and I pretty much slept for 24 hours afterwards.

On that optimistic note;

*cue intro photos*

*photos load unexpectedly fast*

*cue general flabbergastedness and inability to even for several seconds*

stuff that happened:

1. Classes are still going well. From what I gather, Lydia is doing alright with hers. I still like everyone. Everyone else's school is going well.

2. I was driving home after my evening class on a 75 mph highway when I realized that the civic's hood was jiggling around an awful lot. I checked it once I got home and sure enough, it wasn't latched all the way. I sure am glad that God stuck His finger on it until I was able to get home!

(wow, that went from mediocre to the other side of the excitement spectrum in .25 seconds)

3. Last month I was griping about one of the shifts I had at Chickfila. It has gotten much better! There's a new system of stocking things so I don't have to guess anymore, or even go up to the front unless I'm clocking in/out or on break. Everything is much clearer, though we are still working out the kinks. The person on prep before me did have a few "well oops" moments when they didn't stock hardly anything or leave enough meat or carrots and cabbage shredded for me, but they did chop lettuce, so I'm not really sure what was running through their head. It was probably just super busy and they were probably a little frazzled.

4. *comes out of walk in freezer with hands full* *glasses instantly fog up* *stumbles all over the place trying to keep my balance and not drop everything and try to see*

5. *just took apart the lettuce guillotine and started cleaning it right before closing* *modified salad is ordered and I hadn't been chopping any extra lettuce for the last hour and a half* Murphy's law.

6. *someone says something funny up front* *two managers burst into the kitchen so they can laugh*

7. Gabe: *stretches* "I just kicked myself in the head."

8. *had a really good shift not hitting my head as much as usual* *made a mental congratulatory note* *immediately hits head*

9. *school bus comes through at work* Me: "Wait, isn't it after 4?" the person making tea: "Yeah... it's also Saturday." Me: "...oh." *facepalm*

10. That moment when we have guests over for brunch and one of them gets really excited over the blue-green eggshells and you have to remind yourself that 'normal' eggs only come in brown or white.

11. Fun fact: our Chickfila doesn't play the music you hear up front in the kitchen (though it is in the breakroom). So usually someone brings a speaker and plays music off their phone on Pandora or Spotify. Yes, sometimes people sing along. Yes, it's very fun. Mostly it's rap or music I don't recognize. One night they played country music and that made my heart happy. The night I recognized the most songs that came on was the night 80s and 90s music was on. I don't know.

12. *realizes that I have to tilt my head up to look Christian in the eyes now* "How dare you be so tall, this is a disgrace!" (this time last year, I still had about an inch on him, now he was about four on me.)

13. *Car skins past Lydia and I really fast on the way home from Church* License plate: Fast-ish *we both chuckle*

14. Valentines day came and went. It was very nice outside. I know because I was out all afternoon and quite a bit of the evening in it for both of my Wednesday classes (Shop and Horsemanship 1). We messed with a rotary mower (that thing that you hook up to the back of a tractor to mow a pasture) and ended up smelling like oil and grease by the time we finished because we used the cutting torch to heat up and loosen some of the parts and since there was oil all over it it was pretty smokey. The Horsemanship professor brought cupcakes for us. We finally got to trot. The soreness didn't hit until Thursday evening, and Friday was really bad, but it was nice to have that familiar feeling back. I miss my calluses though.

15. Cold Monday shift. Slow to start. Only a few trays of minor things to stock. Was told around 5 that once I got to a stopping place I could go on break (stopping place in my mind: all the trays stocked so the system doesn't implode while I'm gone).
*Murphy's Law explodes through the door*:

*cue 2 hours working at top speed to get every single tray full so I can finally rest*

16. Me: *is making something we don't normally stock a lot of* Coworker: *comes in from up front* "That is exactly what I needed, actually."

17. Impromptu singing of The Greatest Showman when it was just us kids driving home from Church. Yes, we butchered the order of some of the lyrics. Yes, only a few of us managed to sing on key. We ended up sounding not all that bad though for a few of the songs especially since we didn't have the soundtrack playing to guide us. A lot of trying to harmonize. Gabe sounded AWESOME. Lydia was doing most of the harmonizing. Christian didn't sing that much. Ava and Mia sang really high. I just tried to make sure I sounded moderately okay. We were just excited because we were having fun.

18. One Monday shift where it was just like

"No, no. *nervous laugh* It's just that I got back from my break and then all the trays I had fully stocked beforehand ended up back on the counter all around the same time. I'm doing fine, I got this."

19. There was a really weird Saturday shift where people pretty much stopped coming in around 7-7:15ish, so I had the prep area broken down, cleaned up, and dishes washed by 8, and all the dishes from up front that they could spare done right at about 9 (to put it in perspective, it is not often that I can get done with that same amount of dishes before about 9:15-30). And I was supposed to help close, which meant that I probably wouldn't be out before 11. So I asked what I should be doing, did all they said to do (everyone else was getting things done early too), and was eventually told to go ahead and clock out way early around 9:45. People were really goofy for that shift, and the goofy shifts are always the most fun. I got really excited when I saw a dish waiting to be washed. My voice went up about two octaves and I did a little half-skip to the sink and the shift lead doing line dishes busted out laughing.

20. A coworker had his hand raised to give me a high five and all I did for several seconds was give him a blank stare because I had no idea what he was doing.

21. One of the managers: *stretching to reach an item above the sink* Me: *reaches up to grab it for her* Manager, who has a hilarious personality and is also about 3-4 inches shorter than me: "No! Let me be a tall person!"

22. We had a lovely freezing rain storm, such that two of my classes were cancelled. My first "snow" day.

23. Lydia: "Can you listen to and time my speech for speech class?" Me *taking off headphones*: "My ears are cold now, but ok."

24. *making dinner and listening to music with earbuds* *earbuds get caught and yanked out in the middle of a song*

25. Christian passed his driver's test and bought a car. Lydia is the one black sheep of the family with a grey car instead of a white one.

26. Someone couldn't reach a pitcher up on a shelf above the tea machine. I could reach it, but it was all the way back up against the wall, so I had to spend a minute finagling it to a place where I could reach up a get it down. Right as I was about to reach for it, one of the guys grabbed it.

27. Mia: *singing* "So call me maybe!" *pauses* "Hi Maybe!" *giggles*

28. Mia: *has a few bites of a chocolate espresso cookie* *breaks out the evil laugh* 

Barn Things:

1. One of my hens went broody. She kept waffling around different nesting boxes before finally choosing one, sat on it for about a week and a half, and then a different hen stole it from her. The first chick hatched, but ended up not surviving because the momma didn't know what to do and it got stuck under one of the other eggs.

2. So I went and down to candle the eggs, and pulled 29 out from under her. I'm telling you, it was like a clown car under there. I left her with the 16 eggs I was positive had something inside and were decently close to hatching, and put the rest in the incubator. She was doing a good job, all the eggs were warm, but that was just too many in one box.

3. Three of my ducks have mysteriously disappeared. No piles of feathers. Nothing. I'm hoping they just discovered the ponds our neighbors have. But I'm putting duck eggs in the incubator now too.

4. Leggy the leghorn also went missing. She's so small and fast I'm thinking I just missed her while putting them up one afternoon.

5. George the duck passed on, making the oldest bird in the flock one of Grey's babies from 2016.

6. One of the eggs in the incubator hatched way earlier than I was expecting. I was informed that it's name was 'Gabriella,' even though I kept insisting that it sounded like a parrot name, not a chicken name. Well, poor Gabriella ended up having horribly splayed legs, and it didn't matter how I splinted them, she kept toppling over onto her back. I've never had one so bad before. She actually made it several days before she passed. She was a cutie, and so sweet too!

Music Things:

*actually makes a playlist this time*

Alright so there's not really that much variety, but at least it's all new.

Blog Posts:

The Worth of a King Cover Reveal

Photo Day /// Candles

What is the best way to crack your back? Bc for work not only am I on my feet for 6-8 hours at a time (with a thirty minute break), but I also can't stand up straight at my station or I'll hit my head so I'm slightly slouched over with my head stuck under the shelves, and the sink to wash dishes is built for someone about 5-6 inches shorter than me, and all of that contributes to a very sore back.

So yeah. Lots of work stories this month.

What is one funny thing that happened to you this month?

What song did you play on repeat?

How did you spend Valentines Day?