Happy New Year!

Yes, I was working on New Year's Eve. I feel like it is good luck to bring in the new year at work.

I noticed that people are unprepared. For parties, for storms, and for dying phones. People get all kinds of stressed out when we don't have what they need. But their poor planning does not constitute an emergency on our part.

Lot's of people wanted us to sell liquor. Which we don't.
Some guy in a white suit, accompenied by a guy in a burnt orange suit asked for 'hard alcohol' in an accent that sounded like he might have been asking for a hot dog. He was surprised that I could only sort of understand him and alarmed that we didn't have hard alcohol.

We punched out at 12:22am. Happy New Year!

Cashews and Coca-Cola

Cashews and Coca-Cola was my lunch. And it was a poor decision. I felt sick and tired for the rest of my shift. And obviously my stomach hurt. But my stomach before that, so who knows.

A former manager came to the store. We had some funny banter, and we reminiced about the day it was just the two of us working because of a massive snow storm. I may or may not have met his boyfriend. I don't know if thats' true, so nobody quote me on that.

I was in Cosmetics tonight because my male co-worker came in and wanted to be in Photo. I agreed. I like a change a pace.

The Final Push

I was chatting way to much this shift, and before I knew it, it was late. So I rushed to get everything done. And I succeeded! We got out ten minutes early. I was really proud of myself.

I rung up this kid who was eating a griller item from the store down the street. His nose was running, and he seemed younger than he is. His friend was hanging around behind him. When the transaction was complete he asked his friend to put his stuff in his backpack. His friend refused, so he asked me.
"Really?"
I put his stuff in his outside pocket.

Christmas Clearance

Today I got my Christmas clearance shopping on! I was able to use coupons for the candy. I spent more than I wanted to, but I saved 59%.

While watching Honey Boo Boo, I noticed that the mom, June, uses the word "ideal" when she means "idea". I thought maybe it was because she often uses the wrong word, or can't pronounce certain words. Then I thought it was a regional thing. But when I was facing my aisle today (aisle 8), I saw a journal called the 'Super Ideal Book'. Its thick and lined and has a band around it to keep it closed. But I  would never get it because of the word 'ideal'.

My manager was on the phone (his cell), briefly, in aisle 7. And the new girl was wearing a hat, leaning on counter, reading a magazine.

A woman came in who swears more than I do. She needed condensed milk to make a coconut alcoholic drink. She said she would bring me a shot. Which I don't want.

At The Register

Today was a little weird. I was thrown off by the fact that I was at the Register. And I was thrown off by the new girl working the midshift.

I rung up a family that made me kind of sad. The fam consisted of a mom, an older daughter and a younger son. The mom's teeth were really stained and kind of smooshed together. But the stains were alarming. The stains on the mom and daughter's sweatshirts were alarming too. It looks like they haven't washed them in maybe a month. The boy brought up two toys to the register. The mom said 'no' a bunch of times, and then relented. And she told him he had to be good because she bought him the toys. And at the beginning, when she said 'no' he freaked out and started to cry. I'm pretty sure he is to old to act like that. The daughter had some awful acne on her forehead,

More stuff happened, but I'm too exhausted to write anything else.

Trouble

I had two customers that got me all kinds of frazzled. This guy wanted to return four photos, and get a few new ones made. He also wanted to be compensated for the bad attitude of one of my co-workers. There was a price-quoting issue, and I had to get my manager several times.
Then there was a guy who wanted to exchange an item at the sale price, which we don't do. I had to get my manager again.

We have a ton of photo card orders coming through. Some of them are adorable.

My pants were way too big. Again. I felt unprofessional and disheveled. Obviously I need to go shopping.

Holiday Party

I brought in Red Velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting. And a 'fortune' band around the base. They are fortune cupcakes! I hope people notice the fortunes.
There were very few dishes that I could eat, on account of me being a vegetarian. It is what it is.

We were super-busy tonight! We all took our lunches about 45 minutes late. There is a newish rule that the Photo person must give the Register person their lunch. This rule was over-ruled this evening on account of the fact that I kept getting delayed in giving a lunch, and I had a lot of photo stuff to do.

I did a canvas print for a mother-daughter team that had been waiting for too long. When I finally got it printed, I was disappointed at it's quality. But when I showed it to the ladies, they loved it! I was kind of alarmed at their lack of eye. But I didn't say anything because there was nothing I could do to fix it. It is what it is.

The Wrap

While I was covering the Register, the guy on lunch called to ask if I wanted his mother to make me a wrap. He asked if I ate meat (I do not) and he said it probably wouldn't be as good, but he'd bring me one anyway. And he did! I didn't know we were on that level.

My first job today was wrapping a gift from my boss to another manager at another store. Good thing I went to art school. He gave me the rest of the roll too.

I helped a foreigner find mineral oil and an eyedropper. He wanted to put the mineral oil in his ear (the back of the bottle said that it was constipation remedy). When I asked the pharmacist if the mineral oil we found was the kind a person could put in one's ear, he told me that it was an old remedy, which he does not recommend, but people do it anyway. The guy who was purchasing the oil clarified what the pharmacist said.

I rung up this woman who had two transactions. With both transactions, she was purchasing 30 99 cent cards (and 30 99 cent New Year's cards, respectively) and a package of Butterball bacon (which was also 99 cents). She had two buy-$30-save-$5-(or$10)-coupons. Then she had several Hallmark Facebook coupons. She paid about $6 total. It was pretty impressive. I was happy to scan her coupons, but I wasn't happy when she tried to tell me how to scan them. Repeatedly.

Time Warp

My outfit was kind of dated and not flattering. The pants I recently bought (with the tags still on) at Salvation Army were way to big, and my sweater was too long. But I really like that sweater. My 'business casual' black shoes are kind of hipster. Anyway, I felt like I was drowning in my clothes. And, for some reason, I wore my xtra-large workshirt. Which is a t-shirt.

Previously, a regular and I identified a local woman as a person who was from a time loop, or some kind of warp. She dresses in only 1940's gear. And today I got to ring her up! She's really nice.

I got about four 1/2 hours of sleep last night, so I was a little weird and loopy. And I felt sluggish and out of it.

I told a few people I shop at the bulk store. They seemed surprised.

The Bus

I had a mom and son team come in with a phone that was hardly compatible with our system. They couldn't upload the icon they needed. Apparently they just moved from Florida and the boy (a sophomore in high school) had been walking to school because he didn't have a bus icon on his ID. Without the bus icon he couldn't ride the bus. And the bus service costs $400 a school year. Which is insane. When I was in high school, we took the city bus. The boy's walk is classified as a mission, and the weather today didn't get past the 20's. Poor kid.
So when they couldn't upload the image, they left. The mom came back with a flash drive, which our system couldn't read. I told her to go online and upload the image. I also told her to leave her number, so I could call her to let her know how the images came out. She seemed to appreciate the effort. So I left her a crazy message.
Her and her husband re sized this stupid bus icon several times. I was on the phone with them while it was printing out. And we finally got it! When the mom came in, I comped her photos because we went through so much nonsense. And she said that she would call corporate to let them know how great I was.

We got out late because we supposedly have a visit tomorrow.

I saved 97% on my purchase today.

Despite My Best Efforts

My manager said that to me at least twice today. First in reference to me possibly messing up the drawers and second because we actually got out on time.

I forgot to give several people their dollar change after conversating. And luckily they were all pretty cool about it. Except for one of my regulars, who snatched the change away from me and mumbled something crazy. And then she stopped by the front door and said something crazy again. I only feel sort of bad. I don't know what was up with me; forgetting to give people their change. Ridiculous.

The Last Day

The coworker that I complained about a few weeks ago, will soon not be my coworker. She put in her two weeks, and apparently today was her last day. She didn't work her full shift because she may or may not have been sick. Fyi, she is a lovely woman, but a terrible coworker. I wish her all the best.

My pants were flooding, and I was wearing mismatched Christmas socks. Not exactly what I was going for.

I saw three women wearing sweats and nice shoes. I hate that look almost as much as the jeans-under-a-dress look. The greatness of the wedge boot is drastically counteracted by dumb-looking grey sweats.

I saw a girl I used to hang out with in elementary school. We had a short but sweet conversation.

I'm looking forward to my three days off.

Newish Manager

I worked with a manager that has been there for a while, but this is only our second shift working together. We got out early, made jokes, and generally did good things.


A lot of gossip happened.

My feet were hurting again, so I walked differently and awkwardly, and now my hips hurt.

I bought some Snickers Nutcrackers because I had a coupon. I like them way better then regular Snickers because the nougat and chocolate ratio is different. And better.

Mexico

I helped a guy print photos of him and his fiance's family. The almost-wife and kids live in Mexico. The guy has a 3-month old with his woman. He wants to bring his daughter over here because he doesn't like the culture's view of women. Apparently he is printing out the photos for immigration because they want to make sure the marriage is for real. He doesn't like going to Mexico (so often). And he wants everyone to move here, because this is his home.

Whenever I asked my manager a question he would look at me like I was insane. Then he would lean his head in, rub his eyes, squint, then he would rub his temples.

I found 4 pieces of ABC gum on the floor. Ridiculous.

On The Phone

A customer came to the register while on the phone. She didn't swipe her store card, she forgot her change, and she barely acknowledged me. The customer behind her said that she couldn't do what I do, because people are ridiculous. True. Retail is not for everyone.

We got out late because the safe was short and I had to finish the tags.

There was green plastic cup of what looked like pop, possibly, in front of the chairs at Pharmacy. I pointed to so the tech could see what I thought was funny. He said it reminded him of the Tea Cup from Duck Dynasty.

Midshift

Yup, another midshift.

A deaf guy yelled at me. I realized he was deaf early in the transaction, so I made sure to speak clearly with my face towards his face. He pointed to the ad paper to make sure I was getting his coupons. But at the end of the transaction we realized I didn't ring up one of his mints. He freaked out! I told him I didn't mean to...and he said that I was making all these people wait. I told him I had to return his mint, and then charge him for the second one. I did the return really fast and by the end of the transaction he was telling me to have a good day. Obviously he had calmed down. I did feel bad, but he didn't have to yell like that.

A young teen came to register and she wanted to use a previous receipt as a coupon. It took me a minute to even understand that was what she wanted to do because it doesn't make any sense. She saw the savings on the last receipt and thought she could use that for this purchase. Which obviously doesn't work. There were a couple of other transactions that made no sense because people don't speak English and don't understand coupons or our coupon policy. But there were other transactions that were very well planned out.

I helped a guy find his Coricidin. While I was ringing him up, I told him we used to lock up the boxes because people had been using them to get high a few years ago. He said he remembers that because he used to get high with it.

I saw an anorexic and my co-worker told me she wanted to be a body builder. How different the perfect female form can be perceived.