We all have those days, ya'know, the ones where you just want to go to sleep at the end of the day and forget everything that happened. Well, today was my turn to have one of those days, and it started from the moment I woke up. I woke up feeling exhausted, which is never a good way to start your day, but I got my daughter ready and off to school without any mishaps and was feeling pretty good because I had time for an hour nap before I had to get my butt in gear and go to work.
Except that I overslept and didn't wake up and was really, really, late for work, so I jumped out of bed to rush to work and make apologies only to realize that I had only been asleep for a mere twenty minutes and the lateness had been a messed up dream. Needless to say, that was not relaxing at all, and I went to work feeling tired and flustered.
At work I found that I was stationed on register one, which is the crap register. Everything is broke and it's in the corner at the back by the wall. This is what we refer to as the 'time-out' register, because when you work it, you feel like a kid that has been put in the corner. But I bolstered my spirits by reminding myself that I was only working a short shift and that all of this would be over soon. With that thought in mind, I started my work day, attempting to be optimistic.
A while later, I gave that optimistic bullshit up. I was getting every problem customer in the store, a small sampling of them being the man who told one of my supervisors that I had (in his words) 'the most violent customer service he had even seen' because I would not let him buy his cigarettes with food stamps, a woman who insisted that I was from Russia, and when I denied this, kept asking "Are you sure?" like I would be wrong about where I was from, a man who insisted that the computer had added up his order wrong, requiring me to go through his items and manually add them up, and the subsequent woman who griped me out for wasting her lunch hour. After these and more, I was sure that my break was coming up soon; I had been working forever. A quick glance at the clock almost had me in tears, however, because I hadn't even been there an hour.
That is when I can to the only conclusion possible in this situation. Customers often complained when a cashier closed down their line to go home, but now someone had gone beyond complaining and had done something. They had actually hired a wizard who controlled time, in order to stop the time in my store and keep us working our registers for eternity. This was the only feasible explanation.
After a long, emotionally draining mental battle with the time wizard, I finally won my freedom from the register. My four hour shift had lasted for a century, but now I was done. I dragged my gnarled, ancient ass to the door, anticipating the moment when I could step into the sunlight. Except this is Washington. Those sparkle fairies from Twilight live here because there is never any sun and they don't want the whole world to realize that they are the primary source of all of the glitter that we use for our art projects. But, on the brighter side, there was no rain, so regardless of the lack of sun, I took this as a good sign.
I had to pick up my daughter from school in less than an hour, and I anticipated coming home, feeding her a quickie meal, and then curling up in bed with my newest book, Frost Burned, the latest installment of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I was ready to immerse myself in this world; a world where stupid, asshole-y people did exist, but where usually eaten by werewolves. The perfect read for a day like this one, with a lot of satisfying imagery.
But when I picked my daughter up, a realization hit me like a sack of bricks; tonight was my daughter's karate class. I would not be done with my day and home to stay until after 9:30 tonight. Now, I don't usually mind karate night, my daughter really enjoys the class and the instructor is pretty cute, and even better, seems to be a nice guy, but I don't want to go today. I have been immersed in stupidity all day, and that stuff rubs off. If I go out in public, I might do something stupid as well, because stupidity is contagious. Not going to karate is not going to go over very well with my daughter though, because they have already had a two week break and she is looking forward to going back. Nor is it far to punish my daughter for a crappy day that wasn't her fault. So Frost Burned is on hold while I mentally prepare myself in the hopes that I will have the strength to resist any dumbass urges that I may feel while I am out and about tonight. Plus side, my sister took pity on me and is making my daughter and I dinner, so I at least don't have to attempt that chore.
Except that I overslept and didn't wake up and was really, really, late for work, so I jumped out of bed to rush to work and make apologies only to realize that I had only been asleep for a mere twenty minutes and the lateness had been a messed up dream. Needless to say, that was not relaxing at all, and I went to work feeling tired and flustered.
At work I found that I was stationed on register one, which is the crap register. Everything is broke and it's in the corner at the back by the wall. This is what we refer to as the 'time-out' register, because when you work it, you feel like a kid that has been put in the corner. But I bolstered my spirits by reminding myself that I was only working a short shift and that all of this would be over soon. With that thought in mind, I started my work day, attempting to be optimistic.
A while later, I gave that optimistic bullshit up. I was getting every problem customer in the store, a small sampling of them being the man who told one of my supervisors that I had (in his words) 'the most violent customer service he had even seen' because I would not let him buy his cigarettes with food stamps, a woman who insisted that I was from Russia, and when I denied this, kept asking "Are you sure?" like I would be wrong about where I was from, a man who insisted that the computer had added up his order wrong, requiring me to go through his items and manually add them up, and the subsequent woman who griped me out for wasting her lunch hour. After these and more, I was sure that my break was coming up soon; I had been working forever. A quick glance at the clock almost had me in tears, however, because I hadn't even been there an hour.
That is when I can to the only conclusion possible in this situation. Customers often complained when a cashier closed down their line to go home, but now someone had gone beyond complaining and had done something. They had actually hired a wizard who controlled time, in order to stop the time in my store and keep us working our registers for eternity. This was the only feasible explanation.
After a long, emotionally draining mental battle with the time wizard, I finally won my freedom from the register. My four hour shift had lasted for a century, but now I was done. I dragged my gnarled, ancient ass to the door, anticipating the moment when I could step into the sunlight. Except this is Washington. Those sparkle fairies from Twilight live here because there is never any sun and they don't want the whole world to realize that they are the primary source of all of the glitter that we use for our art projects. But, on the brighter side, there was no rain, so regardless of the lack of sun, I took this as a good sign.
 |
| I need to read this book!!!! |
But when I picked my daughter up, a realization hit me like a sack of bricks; tonight was my daughter's karate class. I would not be done with my day and home to stay until after 9:30 tonight. Now, I don't usually mind karate night, my daughter really enjoys the class and the instructor is pretty cute, and even better, seems to be a nice guy, but I don't want to go today. I have been immersed in stupidity all day, and that stuff rubs off. If I go out in public, I might do something stupid as well, because stupidity is contagious. Not going to karate is not going to go over very well with my daughter though, because they have already had a two week break and she is looking forward to going back. Nor is it far to punish my daughter for a crappy day that wasn't her fault. So Frost Burned is on hold while I mentally prepare myself in the hopes that I will have the strength to resist any dumbass urges that I may feel while I am out and about tonight. Plus side, my sister took pity on me and is making my daughter and I dinner, so I at least don't have to attempt that chore.
No comments:
Post a Comment