The Story of L

Saturday was my last day at the department store. I'm looking forward to getting my life back. I'm sure it will finally hit me when I leave work tomorrow and can go home instead of rushing over to the mall. L finally told me the entire story that she had been feeding me in dribs and drabs over the past month. She and the boyfriend had a huge blow-up last week but as of Saturday they had called a truce provided they quit their jobs and go work for different concerns.

I don't know if I mentioned that the boyfriend works security at the store. The whole story concerns L and one of the boyfriend's co-workers in security, K. Apparently L and K had some hot action and the boyfriend is totally in the dark about it. He thinks that K and L are flirting with each other but that is sooo over. For some reason, K walks over to the kids' department when L's working to insult her. The thing is the boyfriend sees them talking on the security camera and assumes it the exact opposite of what's really going on since he has no idea what's ALREADY gone down (pardon my pun). On one hand I'm sorry I'm not going to find out how this all turns out, but on the other I'd rather not be around for the fallout. L really in't a bad kid afterall. She's just young, I don't think she knows the differnce yet between making love and really loving somebody. I hope someday she can figure it all out.

Drive-by Post

I've still got 3 more shifts left at the department store from Hell. (Hey, do I have to credit Richard Lewis for the "form Hell" thing?) Anyway, I probably won't be posting again until early next week. And I'm still waiting to find out how much money was raised at Relay.

In other news, I'll be moving into my new office tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll post photos on my server. My niece turns eight on Monday. Where does the time go? Note to self: return G's birthday gift, the overpriced DVD I bought from amazon then I found the same thing $10 cheaper at the local Borders, and order a Judybats CD. Toodles til next time.

Relay for Life 2006

I had put off posting the results of this past weekend's Relay for Life until I had heard how much money we raised. I couldn't stay all night; I had to put in a full shift on Saturday. I missed closing ceremonies when they announce how much was raised. I hoped someone would have e-mailed me the results by now, but they must all still be snoozing.

Our Relay was held at Onondaga Lake Park. The participants' campsites were located right on the shore. The weather was fantastic, just the opposite of last year's cold rainy evening. I missed helping to set up since I worked until 4pm. My boss let me leave early. I stopped by the supermarket for ice, went home, and changed loaded the car up with my junk then headed to the lake. I did get put to work as soon as I arrived. I worked the Relay store. Pins with blinking lights and baseball caps sold very well. I also helped out putting names on luminaries and filling them up with sand. I escorted a reporter from a local paper to interview on of our team captains who's also a survivor.

Later in the evening I hung out with K and her husband. I found out that both of her parents had died of cancer within two years of each other.

The only negative thing was that 2 local radio personalities had committed to EMCEE some of the festivities. We put their names in the program thanking them and they stiffed us. I'm certainly glad that I didn't include them in the press releases. If my memory is correct, I think Kel warned me not to anyway.

Before I forget, kudos to the Washington Nationals for taking two out of three games in their series against the Yankees. In both games the Senators came from behind to prevail. And a huge congratulations goes out to Ryan Zimmerman for his exciting walk off home run to end Sunday's game!

Adventures in Retail: Game Over

To quote one of my cyber pals, Wombat-Socho, "I'm not dead yet." I only look and feel that way. After sacrificing all my free personal time and what little sanity I have left to the retail gods,
I decided to pack it in. Yesterday's 9 hour shift with the schedule change that no one bothered to tell me about was pretty much the kicker. Some manager I had never heard of called my house to ask me Iwhy I wasn't already at work! Then there were 2 DIFFERENT $10 off discount coupons and a special 20% discount AFTER 4pm ONLY on already marked dowm items that were the last straw. I swear the March Hare from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is the marketing director for this chain. It's not as if anyone explains any of these discounts to the sales staff, oh God, no. Then guess who gets the brunt of the customers' wrath when we try our best to explain these convulted promotions to them. Oh, and did I mention the dozen or so returns from hell I had to issue yesterday and that 2 out of the 4 cash registers in our area are broken, along with the store's elevator which has been out of commisssion for the past week? We've having to send parents with strollers and folks in wheelchairs over to our competititor across the hall to use their elevator. I'll bet their cash registers work, too.

In the 3 weeks since my last post, L broken up and reconciled with her boyfriend twice. Lucky me, I even got to hear all the details of his recent drunken molestation of her. Then there was the fight between the 2 white trash women swearing at the tops of their lungs at each other in the pre-teen girls' section. They continued their heated disageement all the way to the 2 operating cash registers and guess which associate got to cash them out? I was just thrilled to see them leave without coming to blows.

I was supposed to work a 5 hour shift today but woke up with the nastiest sinus infection and a low grade fever. I figured that going to work in the children's department with a fever was definitely not a good idea. I doubt my supervisor would agree with that notion but screw her.

I just submitted my resignation on the company site, which my the way, does work. I'm foolishly planning to serve out the rest of my sentence, I mean finish my scheduled shifts, as long as one one changes them without telling me. This Saturday will be my last day. I can't wait to get my life back. I will NEVER set foot in that store again.