Hello, Black Friday Shoppers…


This is what my messy desk looks like, right now. It’s 4:04 AM, and I’m technically “working” right now. Liz has stopped throwing up, and is finally asleep after a solid 2+ hours in the bathroom, crouched over the toilet.

I guess this requires more explanation.

So. We got back from Thanksgiving in Frankfort a bit ago, circa 9PM. On arriving home, Liz took some Ibuprofen for a headache. Maybe 45 minutes after that… she started feeling nauseous.

She felt terrible and nauseous for a long while. So then she decided to try to force herself to throw up. Which she did, and that seemed to help for a bit. But then the nausea came back. And she threw up again. And after a while, she was no longer needing to force herself to do it… she just started throwing up because that was the thing she needed to do.

It was tough seeing her like this. She was in the bathroom, and when she was done she’d call me… and I’d come in, run a rag under some hot water, and help comfort her a little.

She tried to go down to bed once or twice, but invariably had to go back upstairs to throw up again. She ended up just camping out in the bathroom.

We found some generic Pepto tablets that she tried (I had high hopes that would help). But she threw those up too. I lost track of how many times she threw up tonight – I don’t think she hit double digits, but it was close.

Eventually, she decided to lay down in the bathroom to see if she could sleep. I grabbed a pillow for her, along with some towels and things for a blanket. She was awake for a good while, but finally fell asleep for a bit around 12:30 AM I want to say.

Around 1:30 AM she got up, and made her way down to bed. I’m happy to report she’s been down there ever since, sleeping, and… so far so good. No more throwing up.

So. If that happened at 1:30 AM, what am I still doing up some 3 hours later?

Well… we were aiming to get back early tonight because I technically have to “work.” With Black Friday being a pretty big deal for us (Sears/Kmart), this week we have a lot of tech folks on rotation.

Various groups of people, each with their areas of expertise, are “on call” a lot this week. What that means is that during those windows, we need to be within about 5 minutes of a computer and Internet connection, should someone call us on the phone.

Not too big a deal. We just need to be available, should we get a text or call.

But now that Black Friday is here, it’s switched from “on call” to “on duty.” Which means some folks need to physically be sitting in front of a computer and online. In some cases, folks need to actually be at the office (either downtown or at SHC HQ in the suburbs).

For me – I’m working a 2AM – 7AM shift. Mostly this means I’m logged in to Skype, sitting at my desk, and ready to help field any issues should they arise.

I’m one of the lucky ones, in that I get to do this while sitting in my comfy pants in my house. Other folks I know are, right this very minute, out at our corporate HQ in the suburbs.

One guy I work with, John, he had to be out there from 4PM to midnight on Wednesday and Thursday. When I asked him when he expected to have Thanksgiving, he said: “2016.”

So again – I feel rather fortunate. I’m among several other folks who are also online, and just being around in case some troubleshooting needs to happen. Since I mostly do work for the mobile team, I’m definitely in more of a “support” role right now… but extra eyes are good, particularly on days like today.

I’ve seen real-time graphs of what happens on our websites during Black Fridays past. It’s a phenomenal amount of transactions happening per minute. It’s called “Black Friday” for a reason.

So for the next few hours, my job is to stay awake and alert – ready to assist, should my assistance be needed.

When 7AM rolls around, I guess we’ll see what happens then. My goal earlier tonight was to get a few hours’ sleep and wake right before my 2AM shift. But with Liz getting sick, it made more sense for me to just stay awake until 2AM.

When morning comes, I’ll likely plop into bed. Liz is meant to go out shopping with Julie and Katie tomorrow, but I honestly don’t know if she’ll be in any shape to do so.

Perhaps she’ll be super fine and rested, and it’ll be like nothing ever happened. Or perhaps, like me, she’ll spend the day in bed and just recover from the night before.

Back to work.

Related:
Looking Back
Late Night: Continued
5:00 AM Breakfast at Work: Emmis Interactive Deployment Team
Technically, It’s Now Saturday AM
Sleep Deprivation, Jim Beam, and a $1,000 Chair

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