Nine Hours

Work today was long. Really long.

When I was going out to my car to get my newspaper, a regular stopped my in the parking lot and gave me a few baby books. One is about a kangaroo who may or may not be missing her pocket. Another was the Dr. Spock book, which I am totally excited about. There were some other ones that looked cool.

The night shift was short. The woman who was supposed to be in Cosmetics called off.

We were really busy today.

The Notebook

I found another Harriet The Spy ish notebook. This one is red and has a "durable cover", which is slick and possibly waterproof.

My new manager kind of reminds of the manager from Office Space. He has a very monotone way of speaking and he is pretty rude. The way he speaks to me (and probably everyone else) make me feel like I'm doing something wrong and/or I'm stupid. He is a micro-manager, which is annoying, because I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing.

A woman I've been seeing around for a while came into my aisle and asked about what shift I work. I told her, and she said she did the same when her kid was little. I said that it was kind of creepy driving home.
"It is creepy that time of night, right?" she says.
"Yeah, it is. But kind of nice and peaceful."
"Yeah, but serial killers live in the suburbs."

Good Visits

On my lunch, my husband called and asked where I was. Apparently my co-worker had paged a bunch of times and I didn't hear it at all. When I came out of the training room, I saw my wonderful husband, my beautiful son, and my ex-co-worker! They didn't come in all together. It was so great to see my boys in the harsh florencents of my ridiculous workplace.

I got to catch up with my ex-co-worker. She was super-cute!

I saw another mom; we talked about the size of our children, our pediatricians, other moms...you know, the usual.

It was nice to see folks who made my workday go a little better.

June 13 And Today, Father's Day!

On Thursday June 13 I worked a shift for my coworker. I needed the hours, I need the good workplace karma, and I got a babysitter (thanks Ma!).
When my hubs came to switch cars with me, he brought me his work van. Which is one of those white handyman/rapist vans. Right before we close, these two guys come in looking for C.Ds and/or DVDs. They had taken a few laps around the store and had gotten the attention of my co-worker. My co-worker watches them leave and we close up shop. While we are waiting for my manager to hurry the fuck up so we can get out of there, my co-worker spots my work truck. He starts to panic!
"Whose truck is that?! Do you think it belongs to those guys? Why would someone park there?!"
"Are you talking about the white work truck out there?"
"Yeah, the rapist's van?"
"Uh, that's my husbands. It's my ride home."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes, man!"
Meanwhile, our co-worker has busted out laughing.

Today I was all over the place. My first 50 minutes were spent giving people lunches, racing around helping customers, and trying to get to my mangled Hallmark aisle.
I have decided I really need to pay more attention to the way people look, what they are doing, and what is happening in my store. In the event of a crisis, I need to be able to recall certain details.
Incidentally, I feel like I shouldn't have even been at work because it is my husband's first Father's Day. But obviously my manager doesn't care about my family time.

Harriet The Spy

I was facing the stationary aisle and I noticed that the black and white composition notebook with the taped binding is on clearence. And that made me think of Harriet The Spy, both the book and the movie. The book, of course, was better. I went over to the 19-year-old I was working with, and I asked if she knew Harriet The Spy. She did not. I remember the movie coming out when I was in the 5th grade. And reading the book in 3rd or 4th. And when I realized she had no idea what I was talking about, I felt really old.

I found a Post-it. It said
Kohls
excercize
and some other things.

I was trying to sell some gum to a guy I was ringing up and he said he wanted it to be one of those "freaky, weird flavors". He said,
"The ones that seem like ex-boyfriends. You know, fun and delicious at the the beginning..."
"And then leaving you with a slightly disgusting aftertaste?"
"Yes. Yes! We are well on our way to writing a country song."
Then there was an awkward silence while we waited for him to finish paying.

There is something long with my left eye. It is red/bloodshot, my bottom lid hurts, it hurts to blink and close my eye, and there is greenish pus coming out my tear duct. It started hurting around ten-ish.

There Was Still 10 Pictures Left!

The first call I answered was from the pharmacy.
"Customer service needed in pharmacy."
One of them wanted me to get his fucking keys from his car. Bullshit. I was so astounded, I actually got them. And the call was from the guy who was been working for our company for 25 years. So maybe it's ok. But not really.

Even though there was four people on staff for most of the evening, it was basically just me and the guy at One. Not really sure how that happened, but I was a little annoyed.

This guy drops off a disposable camera. After taking all his info, and then processing his order, I tried to open the camera. Turns out there was at least ten photos left! I thought I had ripped the film, and exposed the whole thing, but I'm not sure I did. I also had this horrible feeling that the camera was from their wedding, or a vacation years ago, or the last pictures they took of their now-dead mother. The photos were actually for the woman's client for court in the near future. Why they didn't finish the roll or use digital is beyond me. I called her to tell her what happened, and I said I would do my best to make sure the photos were o.k. She was much more friendly then I thought she would be, but it is possible didn't fully understand what I had done.

I had two more problems with processing orders. But I can't get into that now. I'm too tired and sad.

Midshift Mayham

I kind of like midshift because I get to see both the day and the night crew.

With the day shift I got stuck at the register and had to yell out to the guy who was supposed to be at One, so I could get him to come back. I hung out in Cosmetics for a little while, and rung up the S.B.A. She spent more on nail polish and nail accessories than I did on groceries at the bulk store.

Later in the evening, I went on a hunt for the A Good Day To Die Hard and Hansel and Gretel for our resident repo man. I finally found them after rifling through all the DVDs, while I was standing on milk crate. (We have the DVDs up high.) When I rung them up, the total was more than he thought it would be. There was a loud argument and joking around between us, wherein I told him the high prices were karma for doing repo jobs on Christmas.

I had been feeling ok, and maybe even pretty good for most of the day, and by the end of the day I was feeling blah and kind of stupid. Bummer.