Lunch

The fun has begun regarding folks on the other side of the register telling me how I should look. One of my regulars came up to let me know that I was 'skinny girl pregnant', meaning that I look pregnant not fat. Because to this woman, being fat is the worst thing possiable. I'm fairly certain that she has body dysmorphic disorder and/or a regular eating disorder (like anorexia or bulimia). I know that she has gotten a boob job and liposcution. She said with her first kid, she thought her and her husband would be together forever so she 'let herself go'. She blew up to 200 pounds. She kept emphasizing that it is important to keep one's weight down so as not to allow one's man to get away. Whenever she comes in she tells me how hot I am. Obviously she doesn't hold me to her own impossiably high standards. Which I appreciate.
A woman who was listening in to our conversation said that she wondered why women today didn't bounce back to their orginal weight after having kids. In 'her day' 'all the women' just went about their business and dropped all the weight very quickly. She said she left the hospital in the clothes she wore before she got pregnant...which I doubt. Her comments irritated me greatly. I suggested that people are eating a lot of processed foods these days, which can make it hard to lose weight.

There is tension between me and my co-worker regarding lunches. I want my lunch at a certain time, which happens to be the same time she wants hers. She is so passive-aggressive, and she is tricky. But I am aggressive, so we'll see.

I told my co-worker that I went to the pool today, but I couldn't really swim because I was trying to prevent my 1 year old from dunking. He said that he wants kids really bad, and he wanted me to know how lucky I am. I know.

Party Cake Peeps

That is the new flavor of Peeps I saw in the seasonal aisle.

A few minutes before we left, my co-worker made me really mad. I had put a bag of Epson salt in a spot with no mylar, where it didn't seem to go. But it seemed like a good spot. She asked if I had done that, why, and told me that she went to put it in the stockroom. I didn't apologize. And she said she didn't want out boss to say she couldn't face well. First of all, he does say that occasionally. And I take care off all kinds of stuff for her. I put up her stock, I answer her calls, I do her tags...She has no right to come at me like that. When she wants her lunch at 8:30, I'll be taking my lunch at 8:20. So there.

I spent too much looking at nothing...eyeliner, crackers, mylars which didn't mean anything...and I barely got my ad tags done. My boss asked if I was going to get them done, and I said 'no'. Which was true.

I overheard part of a phone conversation between the Head Pharmacy guy and presumably some old person. The Head called someone to tell them that a Tech had been to that person's house, that the Tech waited for ten minutes, and then they left. Our guy had to repeat several times what pharmacy he was from. When I poked my head in (to the pharmacy) to tell him that was an awesome overheard phone call, I startled him.

I spent most of my non-working day being sick. So I really didn't want to go in.

Short Staffed

My co-worker called off an hour and 45 minutes before her shift. She may or may not have a foot injury. There was wild speculation as to what could be going on with her. Because this is not the first time she has done this, I hope that she gets some kind of warning or write-up or something.

I still feel that the new guy is questionable.

What Day Is It?

The first thing my co-worker told me was that the Asian woman I helped yesterday came back in today. She wanted a full refund for her passports because I accidentally charged her for four sets instead of three she actually got. I told my co-worker that I hope she doesn't come back in looking for me. He said that she speaks very broken English. I told him that a person can still punch someone in the side of the neck even if they can't speak English. He laughed.

I helped two girls with their photo order, which I had to redo because there was gunk on the scanner which printed out on their photos. The image was a studio shot of mom and baby, and on the bottom of image were two hearts with baby faces in them. The baby was not as cute as they thought. Or as cute as mine. I'm just sayin'. I obviously did not say that to them.

During lunch, I read the paper. And I brought yesterday's paper with me, which I didn't notice until halfway through. It really threw me off.

I finished my closing duties early, so I was able to spend a half hour putting up ad tags. Not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of myself. I was moving really slow for most of my shift, and doing warehouse was hard because my back was spasming. But I don't feel as if I'm as lazy as I think my co-workers think I am.

Plan B

There is a note in the office that said we got a customer complaint because someone in Cosmetics laughed at a female customer because (or while) she was buying Plan B. I wonder if that is true. If it is, my co-workers need to work on compassion and commen sense. But it is possiable the customer misinterpreted the emotions during the transaction.
A younger woman, late teens or early 20's, asked me if I worked there. I admitted I do, and she asked me to help her find ' the morning'.
"The morning after pill? Plan B?"
"Yeah."
I showed her where it should have been on the shelf, and then had to ask the pharmacy. The pharmacy had it, and offered an only slightly less expensive store brand.
When I handed her the pill and started stocking other things, she stood there awkardly for a second. And then said
"Uhhh..."
I asked her if she needed anything else, and she wanted me to ring her up. Because the worker at One was a male. While I was ringing her up, I thought about making small talk, or asking if she had taken it before...but I decided against it. I was really casual and non-judgemental about her purchase, as I should be. She came back later in the evening to get hand soap.
After the pharmacy closed, I realized I should not have left the rest of the Bs behind the register. What if someone had needed it? Tomorrow I'll try to remember to grab those.

Passports

I must have taken four or five passports today. Someone asked if we take pictures for Indian passports. We do not. We are in the States, so we take photos for U.S passports. I wonder where everyone is going? I used to be super-awkward at taking passports, and now I am a little less so. But I noticed that people need more direction than what I give them. I just give them a count-down and hope for the best. This reluctance to pose people, and instruct them on how to stand, is why I do not work in a studio.
Our new camera works better with no flash, at least color-wise. Which I found very surprising. Because we are in a store with florescent lights, I assumed that we needed the flash to cut down on the green. But we do not. How pleasant!

I had a hard time catching my breath for almost my entire shift.

One of my former regulars found me in aisle 8. He was really happy to see me, and asked me to smell both his wrists. He had been spritzing cologne on him, and wanted me to help him choose one. I did, although when he spritzed what he had ultimately chosen, it smelled mostly of alcohol. He said he hoped what he had chosen would go well with his man-scent. Then he told me that he was in a currency exchange the other, sniffed the air, and looked around to see a women he had dated 15 years ago. He recognized her scent! I chose not to make a joke about him being a dog.
Luckily, I got a call to the photo counter. I pretty much followed him down aisle 8, and mentioned that I was going to awkwardly follow him. He said that given all the things hes' done and seen, that wasn't awkward at all.

I really hope this thing on my finger isn't the beginning of a wart. Yuck!

20 + 3

I took in an order for 20 rolls of film from an elderly regular. She had an ad paper coupon for 'buy one set of film prints get one free'. Both of us read it as 'buy one roll processing, get one free.' So I placed the order, and mentioned that the coupon might not work. She looked really stressed out, so I told her that she wouldn't have to pay full price. She said that she doesn't own a computer, so she doesn't do all 'that photo on the computer stuff'. Her camera is the store-brand one; customers can bring in the used film for processing and get another roll free.
My customer also told me that her now-deceased father-in-law had a darkroom, was a professional photographer (sort of) and had 4x5 or and 8x10 view camera with a hood.
She thought that I haven't been working there that long. But its' been almost five years. And I told her I remember waiting on her before. She said she thought she would have remembered a cute girl like me. She should have, obviously.

I made three purchases today.
1) I got my free-after-coupon purchase
2) 'Food'. And a gallon of milk
3) Clearance Valentine stuff

We got out on time. And I'm still going to be too late.