Sarah O'Connor

I don’t know what to write again, which happens from time to time, but I’m not ready to skip a week of blog posts yet. So that means the only thing to do is to have another “A Week in the Life of Sarah” posts, or more simply a new “What’s Going On?” update.

Last week is already kind of a blur, there was a lot I did and didn’t do which doesn’t make sense but will by the time this post ends, so I might as well get on with it!

Monday was a strange day at work on the apple farm because it started with a staff meeting, which never happens. People from all the different working areas of the farm were gathered into the store area and told of a road closure on the street of the farm which would almost certainly affect us. There would probably be layoffs, hours cut, but there was still so little information about the road closure that it probably wouldn’t be until the next week when construction began that we would actually know about who would be laid off and hour cuts. It was a pretty hard way to start the work day and definitely worried a lot of workers, myself included, but we all did our jobs and worked as needed.

Tuesday brought some optimism to the farm: the construction (apparently) wouldn’t be as bad as we thought. Still learning more info, but it seemed like only one side of the road would be closed for construction and the other side would be open. So maybe now there was no need for layoffs? Still unsure, but a meeting Wednesday with the construction crew would clear some of it up. Since it’s finally warmed up and customers are more interested in berries and flowers than apples, I was able to take Wednesday off, a rare day off I was happy about. Tuesday was also my year anniversary of restarting work at the farm but as a full-time staff member.

That night I did double duty by working at the sandwich shop, which is always hard with only a one hour break between shifts but still fun nonetheless. I had Wednesday off so I was happy about getting to sleep in after a busy day for a change.

And now the rest of the week kind of blurs together because on my day off on Wednesday I was told that I could take Thursday and Friday off as well because still not a lot of apples had sold. Another surprise, one I couldn’t have imagined, but at least it gave me time to finish errands I usually had to save for the weekend. On Wednesday or Thursday evening I also visited some friends and learned they’d adopted a cat (my sister and I seem to be getting a lot of our dog lover friends into cats) named Rick who is super chill and cute. Also during these evenings I stay up late to watch Secrets of NIMH for the first time (IT’S SO GOOD!!!), catch-up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and start watching The Handmaid’s Tale and Jane the Virgin. As you can see, I was behind on a lot of my shows.

Friday was similar to Wednesday and Thursday, I slept in and did chores, errands, and exercise I usually didn’t have time for. But when I got home from my errands I received a call from one of the owners of the farm that they wanted to talk to me, so when I went to pick-up my sister from work I ended up talking to them. I was told of a new set up for grading apples during the construction, and that because of this setup I’d probably only be working an hour a day, probably less because I’d be called in on which days I was needed, and told that unemployment may be a better option than working only an hour every so often each work versus my usual thirty. I went home and talked to my dad, and we agreed that going on unemployment for four months was better than a random shift here and there we couldn’t predict.

I cried a bit, which I’m embarrassed at now. I was shocked that I was being laid off, or rather that being laid off was the better option over not knowing what my work schedule would be like. I like to plan things, and this wasn’t in my plans. But I’m over the shock now and ready. It sucks, a lot, but I’m trying to look at the positives. I still have money in the bank and my job is promised for me in the fall, I still have a job at the sub place, I can get my winter tires off without taking a day off, I have time to write more.

It’s important to look at the positives.

Saturday I went to a food truck festival with some friends which was a lot of fun. I ate some amazing pizza and rice balls, and my friends bought me some ice cream from Chimney’s (they literally held me back from paying!), a place that serves soft-serve ice cream in a churro cone which was amazing! After the festival we went back to their apartment and just chilled and talked, one of my favourite things to do with friends.

On Sunday I went to tie-dye my shirts with some friends and teammates on an Ultimate Frisbee Team I joined for the summer. I’ve never tie-dyed before and it was a lot of fun and easy to do, I’m excited to see what my shirt looks like. Our team colours are tie-dye so this way we all had a “uniform” to wear to each game. After the tie-dye, we walked to a nearby park to learn the game and scrimmage a bit. I’m still very rusty, I have no idea what I’m doing except for a vague memory from gym class in high school. The only sport I ever played was soccer so I need to learn my positions better for Frisbee (and get out of the defensive/goalie mode I’m used too) but I’m excited to play. Then one of my friends came over and we had lunch at Mucho Burrito with my sister, went shopping at Sports Chek, bought donuts at Donut Monster, bought dinner and snacks at Farm Boy, and binged some more episodes of A Series of Unfortunate Events before calling it a night. Somehow I got sunburned despite the fact that it was pretty cloudy, the owes of having pale skin, and took a twenty-minute nap before writing this so it actually is Monday when I’m writing!

And that was all for this week. It was shocking in more ways than I wanted it to be, but a lot of fun in ways I didn’t expect either. Who knows what this week will hold!