At the office. I thought I had the department to myself, but the dropship logistics manager showed up. He's in his office, though, so I still have the floor to myself, basically.

When I was at the sale on Saturday, I ended up checking out these two guys with carts full of expensive stuff who were vying to pay for each other's stuff "I'm Stanley's son-in-law, let me pay" say one (Stanley is our owner, we are all on a first-name basis here) so the other says no, he is, I just hold out the device and let whoever is able to tap something pay and, lo, there actually is Stanley standing in the open space about a foot from my register but not paying attention to these shenanigans. Surreal.

Ope, couple other people have shown up. My brief territorial dominance is over

Dominate, t!

I do not want to be working. But I do actually have some work to be doing. Grump.

My brief territorial dominance is over

You had a good run, though. #neverforget

I had decided to cut back a little on my responsibilities for Thanksgiving this year so I wasn't running around frantically for three days. Had asked Emmett to bring a side dish, EM was coming on Wednesday night to help clean before hand, and only had one guest besides the fam.

Then between last night and this morning, Emmett couldn't do the Mac and Cheese because he's working late shift all this week, EM isn't coming until Thursday morning and Matilda asked if her boyfriend could come for Thanksgiving.

Also, Matilda's not coming home until Thursday morning. I am glad to have her boyfriend here, though.

But my plan to cut back and delegate and recruit help has come to nought. At least I've learned to start two days out and I can brine the turkey, make some stock, do the stuffing, do the cranberry sauce and prep the mushrooms and maybe do the Mac and Cheese.

I am going to be hanging with my downstairs neighbor, Jamille, for a bit today though.

Now I'm hoping the furnace repair guy shows up at 10 because I've got to go pick up my turkey between 10-11.

Update: Furnace guy is coming between 1-2, so I'm off to get my turkey bird.

Is there a courteous, team player way to say "When you talk to me, you order me around, and I'm beginning not to care for it?"(Is that it?) Because I know, by signing up to be on the precinct committee(there were petitions...it's a whole thing) my "yes" is...kind of implied, to the district chair,at least some of the time. And I feel slightly bad that she joins the list of people that I can't "touch base"(argh) at night with because of the whole attendant thing, even though I need another working Zoom like another hole in my head anyway. But my problem is that she has absolutely stopped asking, like,ever--she presents me with some plan she made up, deadlines included, and the people who can talk to me like that, like actually pay things here(and I secretly hate their guts, but we don't need to talk about that again) But she knows I'm juggling a bunch of stuff(and maybe she doesn't get that putting me to work can, at times, give Mom a job, too, which she will help with, but is not as into as I am.) Also, the whole Bossy Cow thing from above, which I know we are collectively re-framing as "female leadership potential" but personally I'm finding a big pain right this minute. I've sucked it up a few times, but if I do it forever, I won't feel good about it.

cereal: There is a whole round of small-p politics I never learned, not being at work. And I'm finding it slightly passive-aggressive that after one day she "brought someone in" on our conversation after not even a day...maybe in case I might be like a mom at a birthday party, all "What do we say when we want someone to do us a favor? Please don't be an idiot, thank you." I know we all got a shitty district with a registration gap(and honestly, not sure how much the scurrying around really helps, but maybe my attitude is bad.)

a courteous, team player way to say "...you order me around, and I'm beginning not to care for it."

Start with "No." "No" is a complete sentence.

Anything softer leaves room for getting mis-heard or mis-understood or just plain ignored.

Then you can talk. "Oh, you would like me to assist you? Then ask nicely."

Sometimes you have to step on their toes until they apologize.

Well, that's a thought. Maybe I've been too available.