Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Things that make you stop and think

Thanks for hanging in there with me during that last update; it means a lot to me and I wanted to say that I am doing a lot better now. It really did feel good to finally spill all that, even if only online. I'll still get that no call/no show slapped on my record, but otherwise I'm not fired or even coached or anything like that, an the front end manager seemed to think it was pretty humorous.

Not much right now in the way of sucky or loony customers, save for a guy in there last week who came in with the back half of a broken kitchen chair and was apparently threatening people. I asked the lady who is the head of Loss Prevention and safety and she said it wasn't the first time he was in there behaving like a psycho, and she was glad to see the back of him. This time he was banned from the store and even got a police escort outside.

I wanna say I straight up lied to a coworker the other night. I'll call him Nathan. He works in maintenance, and while he's an ok employee, he's a little weird. I thought it was just me. When I first started back on remodel, he approached me and said I had nice hair, and that he has a thing for redheads. Oookay. Thanks, but that's a little odd. Saturday night I clocked out and was picking some stuff up for dinner before I left. Pip asked me what I was making and we started talking about tacos. (Mmm, tacos!) I made a comment that I get soft taco shells because "No one likes the hard ones." He had just wrinkled his face up and agreed with me, when Nate walked my and quipped "Yeah, a likely story." regarding my 'no one likes the hard ones' comment. He kept on walking, leaving us both a little creeped out. I felt a little better that it wasn't just me who thought that was . . . odd. Monday night I was outside with a fellow cashier and CSM on break, and we overheard with amusement while Nate was chatting up one of the new cashiers, telling her what a dependable employee he is. They both made the statement that he was "Really weird!" though not to where he could hear it. I felt a little better still.

Went to lunch really late that night and went outside again (I love the smoker's lounge, even if I don't smoke. People who sit inside do nothing but bitch about work) and oh boy . . . here comes Nate. He sat down right across from me, looked me in the eyes, and said "Uh, Shiny, do you think I'm weird? I just notice you look at me kind of strange sometimes." Oh fuck, I wore my thoughts on my face again. I'm good at that. I smoothed it over and told him "no", obviously not wanting to hurt his feelings, and said that "Well, we're all a little weird when you think about it. But no, I just make faces a lot, so people tell me." Ack. I feel bad that he suspected me of thinking exactly what I think, but yeah, as a matter of fact, most of the store thinks you're weird, Nate. Sorry.

Had a cashier's meeting today and went, even though I was off. It was actually kind of fun and we had quite a few laughs. The two guys from loss prevention were there to talk to us about counterfeit money and how to prevent theft, quickchanging, etc. One of them has been there for years and looks like a cross between Bruce Willis and Vin Diesel, he's utterly awesome and I'd be terrified of him if I didn't know him. One cashier brought up the subject of 'till tapping', in which someone will distract a cashier while the drawer is open and have a friend reach into the till and grab out a stack of money. Bruce/Vin gave us a big smile and told us that should anyone besides ourselves, a CSM, or management put their hand in the till, we're to SLAM the drawer on their hand. Break fingers. Repeatedly, if necessary. Is it bad that I hope someone tries this just so one of us can slam their hand in the cash till? I mean really, he was dead serious, even if we were all laughing.

And now for more somewhat non-work related stuff. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that Pip's just one of those people who for whatever reason has been tossed into my life, and he's not likely to go anywhere soon. At least I hope not. He's fairly adamant about the fact that marriage 'won't ever happen again!' so it's slim we'd ever be anything stable. But I do really enjoy having him around as a friend. It's taught me that I can, in fact, move on from the tool I was previously hung up on for so many years, and that I can like other people just as much or more. Said tool is supposed to get married sometime in the next few weeks, and I didn't get a wedding invitation. Said tool has been to the store multiple times (And always through MY checkout line, dammit!) with his fiance and hasn't introduced me to her. I only know her name because of his brother's facebook updates. He is also utterly patronizing, and once even wanted me to babysit his shopping because they forgot something and didn't want to carry it back through the store with them. I had none of it. I don't get paid to watch your personal property, which merchandise IS once you've paid for it. Good riddance, baby! Pip's taught me that I'm not defective, that I don't possess a 'male repellent' as I'd begun to suspect, and he genuinely likes being around me, in a platonic way, of course. He was clocking out for lunch just as I was leaving the meeting today, asked what my plans were, and I said I might go somewhere for something to eat, did he want to come?

^ That alone would be startling to anyone who knows me outside the internet. I don't know what happened to the drastically introverted person who used to reside in this body, but I don't miss her. I would never have asked a guy out to lunch or dinner, whether I was interested in him or not. But again, knowing him has taught me how to be myself, to be comfortable around people, and for thank I can never be thankful enough. Not that he ever needs to know. But I had a good time, we went to Hardee's (Carl's Jr, in some places). Friends are good. And apparently "Heeeey, you keep your truck really nice. Hell it even smells really nice!" LOL.

You know what? Hearts really suck. And I don't mean the 'heart' that makes us do stupid things like fall for people we can never have. I mean the actual, beating human heart. A few weeks ago, one of our overnight guys dropped dead in the middle of an aisle from massive heart failure. Literally. I didn't know him beyond "Hi/Have a good night", but he seemed a nice fellow. Today when I was headed to the back for my meeting, Pip was giving me shit for coming to the store on my day off, but then asked "Did you hear about D?" Oh no, I thought he was going to tell me she got fired. We've had SO many people get fired in the last month, it's ridiculous. But no. D had a heart attack yesterday. 90% blockage in one artery and 50% in another. Serious shit, folks! She smokes, but she's not a heavy drinker and she's not overweight. She's also 37. WTF, heart? Pip said she's in an ICU waiting on surgery. The three of us have been friends since remodel. Later, I saw another cashier who's been on LOA for health problems, and she's getting on a plane tomorrow. Her brother, whom she was very close to, died of massive heart failure yesterday. Granted, he and Steve (our overnight guy) were in their 60's which isn't as startling as D having problems at her age, but it's like geeeez. Enough already. Whew.

Well, that's all for now. Time to go lose myself in Salem's Lot for a while! And I've not read it before, so no spoilers plz.

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear you are feeling better, girly. Keep that chin up :)

    ReplyDelete