I can't say I'm looking forward to the next few days of this meme. I really don't feel like describing any length of time in my life in great detail. But whatever...I can humor this meme for one day at least.
From my perspective, my day isn't over yet. I went to bed at about noon which has been normal for me the past few months and got up begrudgingly at eight. Again, I was feeling sluggish upon awakening. This has been the case for the past week. I'm getting enough sleep but I wake up feeling decidedly uncharged. I ate a bowl of Cheerios and a bowl of Trix before making my lunch for work and taking a shower. I got dressed, wearing my pajama pants over my work pants for insulation from the cold and set out walking the two miles I walk to get to work. Even though it was my Friday, I didn't feel it. I felt like I was in the middle of my work week rather than at its end which I suppose will have me feeling good when I get up tonight not having to go to work.
Sunday nights at work are very slow and the remaining second-shift people are unfortunately far too eager to help on nights like this leaving
Twin and me with virtually nothing to do for the night. I count in on Sunday nights for the week. I was 1¢ short...oh no!
:-p I brought in my usual $5 in half dollars but I don't give them out in change on Sunday night because the
Shop Steward likes me to sell them to her when she arrives in the morning. Normally I give them out (
to non-employees) when the change is at least 60¢ and have had no trouble in doing so. The rejection rate is about 2% which, quite frankly, is about the same for all denominations (
like someone wanting two fives instead of the ten I gave them for example). This started over six years ago when another cashier said that customers don't want half dollars so I started giving them out to see. It turns out people either are delighted having seen them, don't care, or don't notice. The remaining 2% ask for two quarters instead and for some reason, feel compelled to tell me why. It's usually a vending machine excuse which doesn't hold water for me considering that they have fifty dollar bills in their wallet and I've yet to see a vending machine take one of those. I don't need a reason: if you don't want one, then just ask for something else. I don't actually care. And the trick for any of you cashiers out there is simply not to ask, but just to give. I also have no problems ridding myself of two dollar bills either. Anyway...
Yes, I did keep an eye out for those two girls again. They didn't show. I also kept an eye out for other regular/semi-regular customers whom I like but saw none of them either. I saw the family that makes me feel old. They have four children now. When I started, they had two. Their little girl is in high school now. Ugh...
Digby was there, but I wasn't able to say hello as she was busy and I had to get ready. She left at ten that night when I started. But I continue to not feel longing when around her now so I'm good. My heart is out of that fight finally. My pride is still convinced that I'm "
right" about her, but without my heart as an ally, my pride can't do anything about it. It's been effectively neutered.
:-)
I didn't have to get paper and plastic bags from the cold back room tonight since someone was kind enough to have gotten them before I had arrived. I took what few customers we were getting and basically stalled until 1 a.m. before clocking out for my lunch of Goober Grape on wheat bread, five oatmeal cookies, and a Ssips fruit punch. I ate these things while reading the Week in Review section of the New York Times. There was a funny joke from Conan O'Brien that I can't remember and an article on the increasing likelihood we will have no champion like
Ferdinand Pecora to punish those who were responsible for this latest financial panic and bully Congress into passing the necessary legislation to prevent this shit from happening again in the future. I still don't get why we bailed these assholes out to begin with. We were sold on the lie that somehow the whole system would collapse if the big banks failed...as if there were no smaller banks that handled themselves legitimately who weren't salivating at the chance to become one of the big boys. They're dinosaurs...let them go extinct so that the current generation of mammal banks can shine. Ugh... Nothing else really held my attention this time around in that section.
I came back from lunch to put up the plastic and paper bags, cut up the leftover newspapers for credit, and change the liners on the debris catchers on all the registers. I keep an eye out for dropped change and the occasional dropped dollar bill. No currency this time, but more change than I consider usual. I got over 80¢ last night when I usually only average 30¢. The change in my opened rolls yielded nothing unlike yesterday. I got a 1945 Mercury dime and in the same roll, my first 2009 dated dime (
2009-P). I hoard coins dated 1978 (
my birth year). I got two dimes and a customer later paid me with a quarter. I have a water cooler jug about one third full of 1978 cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. I've never received a 1978 dollar coin. A customer paid me with a silver Roosevelt dime (
1964) before I left. That's two silver dimes in two days. I consider that a win of sorts.
I spent the last two hours of my shift basically standing around and flipping through Time magazine. It reminded me of the recent airport shutdown over that guy giving his girlfriend a last kiss. I "
like" how that caused an entire airport to shut down and innumerable delays. There are politicians calling for this man's deportation and not once have I heard anyone ask if shutting down an entire airport for something as minor as this was not an overreaction. I don't wanna hear how this "
could have been" another 9/11. A lot of things "
could have been" but it's not. We really need to calm down and stop this de facto police state shit. America is supposed to be about individualism, not paternalism; and yet, we're expected to be babysat now. There are reasonable precautions and there are unreasonable ones. It really fucking annoys me. We need our balls back...seriously. The same thing when a kid calls in a bomb threat to his school. There's no bomb. Just go to class and stop worrying everybody over nothing causing unnecessary panic and overreactions like "
zero tolerance" giving principals and police and any other people who are "
in charge" to have an excuse not to exercise their judgement. Clearly, this kid is just being an ignorant jackass but the rules say...so my hands are tied. Motherfuckers...
I clocked out for my shift and bought pasta and mouthwash before heading home. The wagon wheel pasta I wanted's package was covered in oil so I had to settle for ziti. My walk home was uneventful.
I arrived at the apartment, said hello to
Roommate, got dressed in my bedclothes, made some Totinos, got a Pepsi, and settled in to listen to the
Opie and Anthony Show. I sorted through the change rolls I brought home from work. I got a 1999 Canadian cent...whatever and two 1978 cents. The dime and nickel roll yielded nothing. Ugh... I turned on my computer and was again greeted by
DopeStarAngel saying my name and the wallpaper image of one of
Vegan's nearby pines covered in snow from last winter. My social networking sites are again, virtually devoid of any activity for me. I get so few comments overall. But it's a weekday, so I'll be checking back to Facebook soon to see what
Mystic is up to. She likes to "
play" with me there and we have our back-and-forth banterings which I like a lot. I knew
Mystic ever-so-briefly back in 1987/8 when we shared a babysitter. She graduated from the same high school as me after spending many years in a private school, but I never spoke to her while she was there for her Junior year. We've reconnected via
Facebook. We've exchanged numbers and addresses. She has even offered to take me clothes shopping which I'm sure many, if not all, of you would agree I am in desperate need of "
fashioning". I've had this offer before...they have all failed to pan out, but we'll see. I just have to remember to call her...I keep falling asleep when it would be a good time for her. I have to call
Bronx back too. She called while I was sleeping. We met via
MySpace...or rather, she met me. We've started calling each other. She just wants to be friends. I'm okay with that. It's just nice to have someone who both likes talking to me and actually calls. I'll be eating the leftover turkey breast I baked yesterday later this morning along with the other half of the potato, some stuffing, and corn. It actually came out pretty good for my first attempt.
My day continues...
(
originally posted to That Other Journal on January 11, 2010)
