Showing posts with label Liquor. Show all posts

So it's Sunday night, I missed two of the last seven 'blog every day' posts. FAIL.

But I have a short list of things I couldn't actually fill an entire blog entry with, so I thought I would start the Sunday Week-end round up, and fill it with small stuff.

I had a customer come through the drive thru this past week, a woman driving, with a male passenger. So far, pretty normal. They knew what they wanted, right away, a Four-Pack of Natural Light Beer in cans, and a Fifth of CHEAP-assed vodka. Again, this is very normal. It was about 10:15 am, and I gathered the requested items. It took them a few minutes to decide which Cigarettes they each wanted, the man got a box of KOOL filter kings, and the woman finally decided on Marlboro light 100's. Again, nothing really unusual at this time has occurred.

After I gather all the goods, and give them the total bill, I ask if there is anything else at all I can get for them. They look at each other, and say something I cannot hear, and she says that they are going to get some scratcher tickets. Lottery tickets are pretty popular, and our store has about 40 different choices. She asks what we have for two dollar tickets, and I tell her I have about 10 different ones, she asks to see them, and I gather ten different tickets, and she ends up picking three of them. Then she asks about five dollar tockets, and it is about the same result, but she consults with the man in passenger seat, and they discuss the 'Bingo' Lottery card, versus the 'Crossword' bingo card.

Finally they decide what all they want, and pay up, and as I am handing out the change from their purchase, the woman is turned around completely digging in the back seat for something, so the man in the passenger seat reaches over her to get the change, and smiles up at me, and says thanks.

Which is when I noticed his right hand was wrapped in a very filthy rag, like something out of a car repair shop. And there was blood all over it. And his face was very pale. I inquired as to if he was okay. He said he'll be fine as soon as they get to the hospital, and get the stitches in.

Another thing about where I work, and this has happened in other places I have worked, I replaced someone. So the customers who come in ask about where the girl is that used to work here. I say I am not sure, I just got hired. Truth is, I was never told about the former employees, I don;t know if they died, were fired, quit, or were abducted by aliens. But everyone seems to wonder where they went, and wishes that this store would stop changing employees.

Well that leads me to my deep thought about employees, and I have had this thought for a long time. I thought when I was younger that it was just a small town thing, but it occurred in California in major metropolitan areas as well. People want to visit their favorite businesses, and have the same clerks serve them, for, like, ever. They sincerely try to care about them as well, I feel a sense of sincerity when people ask me about the girl I replaced, “How is she?” “Where is she?” “Tell her I asked about her”

The thing is, why would anyone who truly cared about someone like a clerk in a retail business honestly believe that these people would work in a business for years and years at such a low wage? Don't you think they might have higher aspirations? Don't you think they want more out of life than to serve you day in and day out for years and years at a quarter an hour raise per year? And beyond all that, how does it make me feel when you don't give a rats pancreas about me? I guess it is personal thing, I personally don't care if the clerk behind the counter is the same one every week I show up, or every day for that matter. I do care if the management changes, or the ownership, because I know that that will affect my experience at the business, but the clerks? I hope they do move on! If they have any ambition, they'll get the hell out of the clerking business, because there is no future in it. Maybe it is because I am sick of serving. Maybe it is because the 10 people out of 100 that I serve that are nice to me don't make up for the 90 that treat me like a doormat.

I wrote on a forum I visit daily, where there were a lot of arguments back and forth about the election, and the candidates, that those of us who are decided should just ignore the national politics this week, and spend more time looking hard at the local candidates. I wrote that I believe that the majority of governing should come from the floors of the House and Senate, and we should give more of our time talking about the issues that will really affect us in the next two years, rather than fret and argue about the executive branch. I don't think that either candidate has the where with all to continue the domineering executive branch that Bush has ran over the last 8 years, so there is a good chance that the Congress will have back some of the power it should have after the election.

I also mentioned that our fretting about extreme possibilities is wasted time. Over the last 8 years, there have been many years that the Republicans have held a majority in Congress, the Executive branch, and have put in place very conservative supreme court justices, yet Roe V Wade has still not been overturned, and Automatic weapons are not handed out in wal-mart, and gay marriage is still not banned. If a political party with as much power as the republicans have had have not riveted their planks down while they held the power to do so, chances are neither party will ever be able to swing to the extremes people are fretting about. Obama is not going to turn America into a Socialist state, and McCain is not going to turn it into a Fascist state.

This kind of extreme dialogue does nothing except divide our country, and provides neither side with anything but polarization. And I think that is what a minority of citizens want. I want a re-unified country, who does for their country what it needs us to do. Not just pay our taxes, and take what is available to us. We are the country, we are the government, and we owe it to each other to work hard to make it work, and to make our representatives know how we feel about the issues.

I read about a year ago or so that when a particular issue was up for debate in congress that our local representative got literally' hundreds' of letters and e-mails of citizens she represents sharing their thoughts on the issue. I think she represents many more thousands of people, so I wondered why more didn't just type an e-mail and share what they wanted from their elected representative. It is as if we are hiring lawyers, and then not speaking to them during the pre-trial phase, the hearings, the jury selection, or during the presentation of evidence, then all of a sudden, right before they stand up to give closing arguments, we put demands on them, ask what they have done for us over the last two years, and what are they going to do for us now? I think we need to participate more in the operations of our government, maybe then we wouldn't be so surprised when after eight years of no regulation, the markets take a huge crap, and leave us holding the bag. It is and was our responsibility to know this stuff. We are the government.

Heres some funny videos.

Well, for those of you who don't know, I work as a retail clerk in a liquor/cigarette store, that features a drive-up window. This is a kind of step down for me, career-wise, but right now, I'll take any job that comes along.

I am good at clerking, in a previous life, I was probably a general store owner in the old west, and I probably wore sleeve garters.



Just because one is talented at something, doesn't mean he wants to do it for a living, though. But I cannot choose my job right now, so I'll be satisfied with the idea that doing the job brings me money which allows me to live my life in a way that will bring me the satisfaction I don't get in a career.

As I spend my day selling my wares, I am practicing the habit of writing down notes so that later I can have something to blog about. As I've mention previously, this is not always productive...

My Manager/Owner prefers to listen to pop-country music on the overhead music system, and he chooses to play a popular radio station. I, personally, have not listened to the radio since I was about 12 years old, when I discovered that the 14 other tracks on an album (Or cassette tape, or 8-track) were often much more interesting to listen to than the one hit off the album that got played on every radio station ten or twelve times per day.

But I can usually stomach Pop music, it's the country part of the music that is driving me to throw myself under the next train that passes. The thing about country music is not the twang to it, or the fact that one can usually understand every single word uttered. It is the sentiment of the lyric. In the olden days, country music was of the 'cry-in-your-beer' type, where a man sung about a girl whose left him, or a woman sings about how hard life is without the man she just left. Little has changed in the Country Music theme, although I will admit that it has been modernized somewhat, and the girls who sing the songs these days look just as much like bar sluts as pop music girls do. Not that the Bar Slut look is bad. Seriously, it is hot and sexy, and I would guess that a girl on stage, or in a video wearing her laundry-day sweatpants (The ones with 'Juicy' on the butt, but with some of the letters missing) and the stained t-shirt, the only comfortable, but unflattering, bra she owns, and dirty flip-flops, well, that girl would not be a super-star in the music world. All I'm saying is, that the country girls dress up just as well, whereas in the old days they dressed like the Pennsylvania dutch. Much improvement.

The songs on Pop Country stations get as much over-play as those on regular pop stations, and I swear, during an 8 hour shift, I hear the same song about ten times. That, for you non-mathematical types, is more than once per hour. The current popular song in high-rotation is a Carrie Underwood piece telling us all a terribly sad story about a young 18 year old girl whose man has gone off to war, and is not coming home. It's catchy, in the same way that Measles is, and if you want to torture yourself, here is where you can listen, http://www.last.fm/music/Carrie+Underwood/Carnival+Ride/Just+A+Dream, and here are the lyrics, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/carrieunderwood/justadream.html.

In order to provide you, the generous reader, with this information, I had to listen to this song again, right here at home, and it was torture. I hope you appreciate it.



My point in all of this is this; All day long I have to listen to country music, and I try to hum my own tunes, more often than not, the old familiar ones which are hard to get out of your head. Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a Prayer', Journey's 'Faithfully', Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy'. Songs you know the words to, that have the potential of drowning out the drawl. The thing about country music is that is it all about the emotion, but that can be said about any music, really, just look at the songs I posted. Maybe it is the fact that I associate the songs with people I know, or used to know, and don't want to think about.

Other than listening to country music all day, I do get to deal with a wide assortment of creepy people, which is always fun. People pulling up to the drive-thru window at 9 a.m. To buy a pint of vodka on their way to work, a nice couple with the litter of kidlets in the back seat arguing about which cheap cigarettes they will buy, because if they get the 1.7 liter of generic bourbon, they can only afford one pack. I can't say they are all degenerates, because I don't think they are. I have just never worked in a bar, or even spent much time in bars, and seeing so many drunks in the daylight is just new to me.

When I get to work at night, it is even more fun. Drunks driving up to the window, barely able to focus their attention on me waiting for their order, but buying a thirty pack of cheap beer, and a fifth of crème de menthe, talking on their cell, and texting on it at the same time. Makes me glad I am inside the building, and not out on the roads.

When I worked at Starbucks, my clientèle happened to be a little higher class, simply because we sold a luxury item, where as the stuff I sell now is definitely a necessity, but at my job now, the class is more in the line of the toothless, and poor. Of course mixed in with the hardworking construction guys, the farmers, and the female bank executives buying their Virginia Slims, and $20 lottery scratcher. It is a strange world.

We also sell wine, and in our little town, I think we are one of the best wine store around, both for price and varied selection. Selling the wine is my arena of excellence, and if I can steer enough of the patrons away from the gallon box of White Zinfandel, I feel like I've accomplished something.

There is definitely not as much flirting from the female customers as there was at Starbucks. I don't know if it is the Clients who don't see me there as someone to flirt with, or if it is that they are too in need of feeding their addiction to think of anything else.

Whatever the situation is there, it is not hard work, even if it is not rewarding. It brings me in touch with a lot of strange people, which is interesting. And it pays fairly well, which is a good kind of reward. I'll hold off on judgment of the place until my first robbery, now that the economy is crashing, that likelihood is rising fast.

So I'm having a hard time at work. My new job is retail, still stuck in retail. I yearn for another office job. I would rather deal with the idiots in cubes, than the ones across the counter. I know both jobs entail sacrificing your soul, and everything you believe in to someone with the I.Q. Of a mango, but somehow I feel that being taken advantage of by someone you don't know, and never have to see again is just dis-heartening.

Also, the people I work for, well, it is an old story, but a good one. I am the lowest on the totem pole here, and the three co-owners, and manager are always around, giving me different directions, and lists of things to do. It's like being married to triplets. In addition, they all take smoke breaks, lunch breaks, any kind of break they want, and I work 9 hours straight, with not even a potty break.

It's better than being unemployed, but not by much.

The real problem is that I have some moments during my day when I think of things to blog about, and forget them quickly.

The store I work in has a drive-thru, and I honestly wonder sometimes if I am not inconveniencing the people who pull up tot he window in their car. Somehow they make me feel like I am in some way interrupting their phone-call-while-eating-and-having-a-conversation-with-the-person-in-the-backseat time.

In addition, since I work at a liquor store, I get to see people buying half-pints of terrible vodka at 9 am, breathing their alcohol breath at me. And since I work and live in a very backwards part of the world on the fringe of the Ozark mountains and the great plains of Kansas, I get to see some of the worst dental hygiene on the planet, outside of England.

Also, I get to hear complaints of the increase in a twelve pack of Keystone Light by $.10, and how if Obama gets elected, we'll all be living in a socialist country, and won't even be able to buy beer anymore.

It is soul wrenching.

Night before last, I had a very very drunk customer come on and purchase five Power-ball lottery tickets. After I punched the right keys, five random computer generated tickets popped out, and he looked at them, complained that I was 'Fucked', and could 'stick the tickets up my ass'. He threw the tickets at me, and walked out. I observed that out of the five individual tickets, there were three power-balls numbered 10, and two numbered 11. He wanted to get five different power balls, and was pissed off that the computer didn't randomly give him what he wanted. Of course this was my fault.

So far these are random observations ranting about work. Pretty boring stuff.

I came home the other day, and found my landlord and her husband emptying the apartment below me. Turns out the previous occupants had not paid their rent for three months, and when she came by to check on them found they had turned off the utilities a month ago, and were no where to be found. The two guys had lived there for years, and suddenly disappeared, leaving everything behind. The landlord said the apartment was pretty clean, except for the fridge, which had two weeks of spoiled food, and a dirty carpet, but no stains. They left everything behind, bed, TV, furniture, computer. The landlord was incredibly nice to me.

I say that only because out of the over 18 months I've lived here I have paid my rent on-time, or early exactly three times. Right now, I am two months behind. My apartment is pretty messy, I am not a good housekeeper, and I know that sometimes they come by and knock, and if I am not here, they open the door and come in, so I know they've seen the dirty apartment I live in. Yet they are incredibly nice to me, joking around, and commenting, and asking about my family.

It baffles my mind.

One comment that I didn't understand at all was when the landlord asked me how old I was. Her husband then replied that my age is 'when the women really start to chase you,' and I had no idea how to reply. Was he saying it generally? Or was he chased a lot when he was my age? How uncomfortable.

I think what gets me is that people that really don't know anything about me tend to like me. It is hard to understand because I guess I don't like myself too awfully much. But I know myself pretty well. Maybe I fear that I will just disappoint them when they really get to know me. Like I have disappointed myself so often.

I wonder sometimes if I behave the way I wish I was, and when I am who I actually am, I turn out to be nothing like the person I 'pretend' to be. Is it dishonest? Does everyone do it? I am not trying to put on airs, or intentionally deceive people. In the workplace, one has to behave a certain way, right? Behave professionally? Do people behave professionally at home? In bed? While Jogging?

Maybe it is the fact that my entire social life comes from work. And therefore, everyone I know 'socially' only sees me as I behave at work. If I had more of a social life outside of work or home, I could behave more like myself. But this would require me finding people to socialize with that don't work with me, or patronize my workplace. And to find these people, I would have to know people who would introduce me to these new potential friends. But I know no one. At least here, I know no one.

My friends are all people I have worked with in the past, or served as customers in the past. I guess that is pretty normal. The whole thing about you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family comes into play here, since I have little way of picking friends here. There is no way to meet people int his small town, nor any way to socialize. There are probably people here who I would get along with, and have fun with, but there is not way to find them.

I guess I'll have to find a way. At least until I can get back home to Cali, and get back with my real friends.