When I got home this evening, I said triumphantly, "Well, I didn't murder anyone today!"

Joe laughed and said, "Congratulations!"

Yes, I'm feeling rather accomplished at the moment. I spent all day in the office. I learned how to open. I learned how to close. And despite the fact that this was supposed to help me stay off my feet, my feet are killing me. The problem is not that I was up and walking dogs, which is what usually aggravates my feet. Today, I pretty much stayed right there in the office. But whenever I was on my feet today, I was just standing. And standing still in one place really, really hurts!

Barring that, working in the office really wasn't so bad. I'm so grateful that it was tolerable on my first day! I was also encouraged by the fact that when I got there in the morning, there was a note on the desk that said, "Meghan -- Take a deep breath and good luck today!" from OfficeGuy. He is so nice!

I was a dork today. I forgot to bring a lunch. So at lunch time, I walked to the cafe, ordered a sandwich and fruit salad, walked back to work and had only eaten the fruit and half the sandwich when it was time to clock back in. A half hour for lunch. It's an outrage, I tell you! Well, not really... I just wanted to eat my sandwich.

As it was, the phone did not stop ringing all day long. It was insane. It's Wednesday. Wednesdays aren't busy. But today was non-stop. When the phone wasn't ringing, I'd sigh with relief, and then I'd see it... the little red message light, blinking at me menacingly. That bastard. So I'd check messages and it would say, "You have 5 new messages and 2 saved messages..." DAMN! It was crazy. I was on the phone, or talking to customers walking in the door, or both at the same time. ALL day.

But, some good news, sort of... Only one irate caller today! He was so pissy and profane, interrupting everything I said and then, he hung up on me. Basically, he was just a serious asshole. After he hung up, I clenched my fists and went "Auuuggghhh!!!!" and then relaxed. I was immediately thankful he wasn't there in person.

I am extremely happy that Nora is the coolest teacher of stuff in the world. She is so patient, and she's so calm that it makes the people she's guiding calm as well. I've seen it in others, and I felt it myself today. She was explaining kind of complicated stuff to me involving closing up the cash register, and she had me do it all myself, while she told me how. After we finished, she asked me to verbally go through all the steps again, telling her what I'd do on my own. And then she quizzed me! She said, "Okay, but what if that amount differed from what you had over here? What steps would you take next?" She is so great! I love her!!! Because of her, I feel really good about closing up next week.

Also, I cannot tell you how excited I am that one of our sweet boys went home today!!! This dog, Barnaby, has been there far too long. He is such a lovey dovey dog, even though he looks all tough. He's a red Boxer mix, and he's gorgeous. On Saturday, these two guys came in and asked to look at him. The one guy was looking for another dog, as a companion to his female pitt. The other guy was just his friend, coming along for the hell of it. Well the first guy never came back the following day to introduce his dog to Barnaby. And today, the friend shows up, told us the first guy found another dog, but that he really loved Barnaby and would like to take him home. He was so great for Barnaby, too. When I told Jill at work that this guy was shy but very nice, hard to get talking at first, but a caring guy at heart, she said, "Just like Barnaby!" And that is so true! It was such a perfect match, and I swear to god, they were both beaming from ear to ear when they left together. It was beautiful! Ellen even made two announcements over the intercom saying that Barnaby was going home and for folks to say their good-byes. He's got a special place in all our hearts, and I am so happy for him right now. It was so perfect that I didn't even want to cry or anything. I was just hyper on a happiness/adrenaline rush for a while after they went home together. I told every staff person and volunteer who walked through our door, "Barnaby went home!!" I even called Shelly at home and left a message for her, because I know she loves him so much! It was definitely the best news of the day!!!

There were also lots of really pleasant callers and visitors and amazingly enough, it actually was a pretty good day! I can handle this every week, I think... I hope! We'll see, I guess.

If the cat volunteer lady brings oatmeal butterscotch cookies every week, like she did today, I may at least be able to get by on a sugar high...