A Very Telling Experiance

Yeah, I know, I prolly spelled Experience wrong, but whatever, wanted to relay this story.

So, I wake up feeling like shit, I may have mentioned that my gf and her sister have been sick, both seem fine now, and now I'm sick. I'm not really one to whine and bitch about this, my previous job, in 3 and a half year I missed 2 and 2 half days due to not being able to work, and, the 2 FULL days were due to horrible root canal pain from the previous night.

So, I do what I need to do regardless.

Anyways, I wake up still feeling like shit, take some dayquill. Last 2 I had. So now my options are NOT take any medicine when i need to like 4-6 hours later, or, get off my lazy ass and go get some.

I decided to fiddle about on the net looking for jobs, no luck again today before I went out and got my meds. Hit around 12pm or so, I'm starting to get a little more stuffed, start sucking on the last chloroseptic I had, and, got myself up, put one some clothes, ugh the thought of me, you know, SANS clothes is disgusting to me as well, tell Holly that I'm going around the block to Rite Aid, put my jacket on, start jiggling my keys at Holly, so, she starts barking and doing her little happy holly dog dance deal, we hit the car, put on some R.L. Burnside, head on down the road.

The rite aid near me is only like around the block, so, it's not a long car ride. Anyways, get there, go in, grab a bag of Cinnamon Teddy Bear cookies, u know, they kinda are a knock off of teddy grahams, buck a bag, they make a good little treat for Holly whem shes being a good girl in the room, and head off to grab my medicine, walking down some of the food aisles, wondering if they have what I was looking for to make something for dinner.... they don't, was thinking that after my success with pizza yesterday I'd make pepperoni pinwheels or something to that effect, but no mozzerella and not pepperoni at Rite Aid, head off to the cough and cold aisle, the brand Nyquill and Day Quill were onsale, but out of stock, so, I got me a 20/40 dayquill nyquill split and a box of 20 dayquill. Rite Aid brand, even off sale and the brand onsale, the Rite Aid was a buck cheaper. Start walking out of the aisle and remember that I had finished my last throat losenge before I came out, so, I went and bought the rite aid version of that, hey, 3.15 compared to 5.99.... thats almost a gallon of gas!!!!

Anyways, get to the front, and, whose ringing me up? The store Manager. I found this odd cause when I worked for that heartless drug chain, it WASN'T Rite Aid BTW, the DAY Crew consisted of.... 3 cashiers... 2-3 MANAGERS (combination of store manager an assistants) and/or a head cashier and shift supervisor... a photo tech... a cosmetics person, and most days a Hallmark person......

I look around and realize, this man is here ALL BY HIMSELF. Dudes, the STORE MANAGER was the ONLY one working in the front store part of this Rite Aid....

When would a better oppertunity present itself to ask about a job than RIGHT NOW....

I have asked previous at this location, as 10+ years retail pharmacy experience you would think would get me a job, the people have always been nice and given me what are REAL excuses as to why that particular location WASN'T hiring, I even left my resume and asked if they would call if they DID have an opening...

Anyways, I asked the Store Manager about a job, and, he explained that the company isn't allowing him to hire any new employees at the moment. I kinda chuckled and said that it sure looks like he needed the help as he seemed to be doing everything in the store at the moment... good natured kinda guy he chuckled again, and explained the company won't even give him the hours he needs to put people on where needed at the moment either.

I like that the people out here have good attitudes, if this was a New York store manager, and, I've worked directly with some, they would be bitching up a storm they didn't have a head cashier or shift supervisor to respond to casher needs, and whine and cry and bitch and than not do ANYTHING but sit in the office sending text messages. One girl I used to work with in particular used to do this during the day. When she had no help, she'd just sit in the office and decided that if she had to walk back and forth to anwser employee problems, she wasn't gonna do nothing but sit on her ass in the office the whole shift. I thought she was nice, she was counted as a friend when she worked with me on my shift, but she went to the day and that was that.

Anyways, thats the kind of way people in NY deal with that... in Cali it sure seems people are more willing to do what they need to do, as opposed to throwing a bitchy hissyfit and doing NOTHING.... I felt bad for this guy, but at least he had a smile on his face....

Sadly, that's the situation I seem to be in out here... the guy CLEARLY needs the help, be it hours for current employees OR to hire someone to work DURING the day, but I guess for whatever reason, business being slow? not enough profits? whatever, the company doesn't allow them too do what needs to be done.

Leads me to think that maybe upper management in Rite Aid might have taken some hints from the way the heartless drug chain I used to work for does business, and to how they treat their employees, which is a shame, cause that Rite Aid is FULL of amazingly wonderful and helpful employees. It makes me proud when I get one of those printed recipts with the survey on the bottom, to take 5 or 6 minutes to call in and do it, especially when the SPECIFIC store is amazing and the people there care, even if it sure seems like the companies upper management may have forgotten to.

Back In For Another Round

Som what should I write about... don't really have too much on my mind at the moment. Just been fiddling about on facebook playing Madden Superstars and was about to play CityVille before I got a attack of the shittz.

My parents are awesome. "attack of the shits (now shittz)" was one of the sayings my dad used to say when he was getting stomach cramps.

Another was "a case of the ass" when you were feeling antsy or couldn't sit still. Its funny how things we hear so much growing up stick with us.

Just like, I remember this one time, my parents always made it a point not to swear in front of me, its one of the things my mother can't seem to grasp these days, why I swear as much as I do since they NEVER sweared in front of me, nar on a random occasion they would lose their cool with someone or something. Anyways, this one time, we were coming back from upstate NY where we used to spend every weekend when I was growing up, halfway between the towns of Calicoon and Hancock. I miss that, but anyways, we were coming back from upstate, and, I'm pretty sure it was memorial day weekend, simply because, and I don't know if they still do this, but, on one of the bridges we had to cross, they had a GIANT ass American flag hanging from the entrance from the Jersey side to the NY side. I believe it was the George Washington Bridge. But, it always seemed like there were lessoffs driving whenever we were driving home, not much has changed, out here in California, these people don't seem to realize that their vehicles come equipted with fucking DIRECTIONALS... anyways, same kinda thing....

This one time, my dad got cut off, and, I believe it was fairly close and he yelled "Cunt Lapper" at the top of his vocal range at this lessoff that cut him off. 20 years or so later, I'm still finding that more funny than offensive. I don't know, maybe I'm fucked up.

Man, the things we remember huh? Just like, I'm sure that not EVERYTIME we passed under or could see that huge American flag, but it just seems like it NOW, but, I just remember everytime we were passing it, or could see it, Bruce Springsteen's song "Glory Days" was on the radio while we were near it.

Courtney Cocks was in that video was she not? Man, if so, she is fucking OLD.

I really miss going upstate. My parents own a piece of property, 13 acres or so, that they always wanted to build a vacation home on. They never got the chance. I had hoped one day I would be able to build a vacation home on it, but, with me leaving my pot of gold job, and, living 3000 miles away now, doesn't seem like it would be practical to do it now. It's a shame. It was in the middle of nowhere, and, definetely a great way to spend a relaxing weekend away from the hustle and bustle of society. Maybe one day i'll get to look into something like that out here. California is so large, I'm sure there is places like that here.

Maybe one day.

First Entry: A Girl Named Rita...

So, IDK why this popped into my head while watching Jeoporady before with my gf and her sister, but back when I worked overnight retail for a major drug store chain, one whose heart is BLACK and cold when it comes to their employees, This girl Rita used to come into everyonce in a while.

She was nice, but kinda disturbed. But, one thing I learned about while working overnight is that alot of what "normal" people would consider strange, is alot of the customers we had to deal with. Over the years i became desensitized to this, and became kinda "strange" in my own right.

I guess working overnight can do that to you.

Anyways, I have quite a few stories about Rita, but, here is the one i was thinking about just now.

I was working one night, a 10pm-4am shift, which was kinda a "Half" shift, not that we EVER got to take lunch or a break as we were always "Encouraged" by our management NOT to by their reactions to if we DID take a 15 minute break on our 10 hour shift, and some work didn't get done, lest they not sit in the office for 4 hours of their shift... which we witnessed on a regular occaison if we watched the DVR back...

anyways, Rita comes in. Rita was a nice girl, just seemed a little spacy. She comes in, and by this time I had become friendly with her, as I did alot of the customers that had come in during our shift. I was about to get off work, so she had mentioned how exciting that was and asked me if she waited around, if i wanted to come with her.

I was confused and interested, and asked her where she was going.

rita tells me to come out to her car.

On going outside, there was her Station wagon packed full. She had decided 4 or 5 hours earlier that she was going to go out to california to try and make it out there. So she proceeded to pack her station wagon, and, came in to ask me if I wanted to accompany her. why, she didnt really say, but I always assumed that because we had tried to start a band previous, and she knew I was a writer and played some guitar, that I would be an asset.

I honestly never found out why she wanted to go anyways.

I asked her which way she was going, she told me she was looking forward to driving thru NYC and thru chicago and going that way.

So, I was like fuck it, I told her, I'd go for the ride with her till she hit NYC, and, if she'd drop me off at Penn Station, which is under Madison Square Garden, and I'd catch a train home.

she was all for that.

I don't remember much about the ride, just that she seemed like something happened she didn't really want to discuss, and that she figured she could find something to do in LA.

Rita wasn't a bad looking girl, but, Rita wasn't what you would call a "looker" so I don't think that she was really what the movies or TV were looking for. Who knows what she expected to achieve when she got out there.

She obviously made an impression on me, cause here I am, writing about her on my blog. She got in Manhattan, she dropped me off at Penn Station, said goodbye, I said good luck, and i watched her drive off down 5th Ave? whatever the street is out front of MSG, u know, across from Hotel Pennsylvania, said to myself, Hm... better go catch a train home.

Got back to Long Island, walked from the train station to my house, not very far, as I had no vehicle at this point, which is another story for another day, and went to bed, taking some solace is thinking maybe someday I would be "man" enough to make my dreams come true, and, chase my goals or dreams like Rita did. I was envious of her, wished I had the drive to do what she did.

2 or 3 nights later tho, who came into my store? Rita. she hit Philidelphia I believe? I'm not really sure where she had gotten to, but she turned around and went back home. After that, Rita kinda became just another customer to me. It's one thing to SAY your going to do something, and not do it, but to START and not finish is another. I didn't have anything but negative thoughts about her again. Everytime she came into my store aafter that, I tried to avoid her. Even back then subconsciously, I was trying to cut the negatives from my life, and, I just saw her as a failure.

Whatever became of Rita, I don't know. The last time i saw her, she came into the store to sit down and read magazines for a few hours like she usually did, which, didn't bother me in the slightest, at 2am, someone looking for a place to waste some time, for whatever reason, at 2am, they must have a good reason, and since she never stole, never caused a problem, but the last time i saw her she looked about 6 months pregnant.

I never saw Rita again. I hope for her babies sake that she "normalzied". But, like alot of people i've had contact with in my life, I'm glad that Rita was a part of it. Just one of the many people in my past I'll think about everyonce in a while and wonder to myself, what happened to her.