So what will be me and my trivia team be up to Thanksgiving week?

Trivia, of course!

Big news is we’re getting back into live general knowledge trivia for the first time since October 28.

During the month of November so far, we’ve just been playing Sporcle Events music quiz and virtual trivia games.

While the virtual games do have their appeal – super casual dress code, comfy furniture, private restrooms, getting to see friends and family who live several hundred miles or more away from you?

You just KNOW that other teams are cheating. You also might, if you’re like me, get antsy for real “competitive” trivia with real prizes.

So here we are!

We’re not just doing one live game next week, but TWO! One will be general knowledge, one will be music trivia, both in the My Trivia Live league.

I’m very excited to have a lighter schedule than usual next week.

The general manager of my workplace did something absolutely brilliant this year – she sent her HR person around asking us what shifts we would “prefer” to work for Black Friday (which is an all hands on deck thing at my workplace). Such a thing has never been done in all of the years I’ve worked there.

So I spoke up about NOT wanting to come in too early (the earliest shifts start at 3 a.m.). I even offered to work a closing shift.

So what did I get? A “mid” shift. I don’t have to go in until 11 a.m. I’m happy with that!

I’ve had to work some very horrible shifts Thanksgiving weekend over the years. Overnights, wee hours, 11-hour shifts, you name it. I’m just glad we’re not open “on” Thanksgiving anymore. Even if they paid me double – or time and a half. It was never worth it.

My favorite Black Friday memory is a few years ago, when we were still open on Thanksgiving.  Before we opened, my store manager tried to give us a “pep talk,” and urged us to have fun with the customers. Little did he know what “having fun” would mean for someone mischievous like me  😂😆

Scene – a random male shopper asked me where he could find a shopping cart. I told him that they were all in use, but if he wanted to strong-arm another customer for theirs, please tell me beforehand so that I could be entertained. A short while later, I saw him with a cart, and he grinned at me. I didn’t ask how he got the cart! 😂 🛒

Another fun memory was working with a young Gen Z woman and listening to Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” on her phone while we folded clothes in the kids’ department at 4:30 a.m. waiting for our shifts to end. At the time, the store was selling appliances, and I told her that song was what I always thought of when they had to be moved from point A to point B. Shed never heard the song before.

There are bad memories of holiday weekend shifts, too. But I’d rather not talk about those.