Job Hates

Things I Will Not Miss About My Dumb Ass Job, A List

• Inconvenient hours.  -- I almost always work 2:00pm - 10:30pm and always some days of the weekends.  I could do this if I cared about the job but when I'm missing social happenings and gatherings and more importantly, vegan activism, I get down and annoyed.  This brings me the next item.
• I don't give a shit.  -- I could care less.  I don't care that chips went up in price or the bread isn't ringing up or that there's a hole in cookie packaging.  I don't care that the count room is a mess or we're out of newspapers again.  I can't be bothered with pointless jobs which is why I need to find something that means something to me and/or a job that allows me the financial freedom to do something meaningful when I'm not working.  This leads me to...

• Terrible Pay. -- Can you imagine living off of $300 a week for 45 hours of work?  I don't have to imagine!  Let me tell you, it sucks.  Especially when monthly student loans are $300.  And there's a lot more I have to pay for and little else that I actually can.
• Having to wear a smock.  -- There are a lot of reasons why I have recently become much less excited about Natalie Portman but one of these reasons is in a group interview where she said on her days off she was always excited to wear what she wants all day long.  Shut the hell up!  I wear an ugly, polyester blue smock two-sizes too big and you don't hear me complaining.*  Also, see the bullet above.  You get paid millions, jerk-face!  I get paid $9 an hour before taxes!
• Having to ask to use the bathroom.  -- It's degrading and weird and I don't like it.
• Standing for at least 8 hours.  -- Not much fun.  
• Working with people like me. -- Who, like me, only work here because they really need to.  It makes me sad because everyone I work with is really nice and they all work really hard.  They tie groceries on to little old ladies' carts, they push PIN numbers in the credit card machine for disabled customers, they help people find things, all at the drop of the hat.  It makes me sad to see them all working with me knowing that they hate this job just as much, possibly more than I do, but also knowing that they are seemingly stuck.  I wish I could help them.  
• How Little "The Man" cares. -- If he wanted to, he could help but he doesn't want to so he doesn't.  Lame. 
• The Rules. -- A cashier's job consists of ringing up groceries, bagging the groceries, and being kind and friendly to the customer in the process.  So what if there are no customers?  What is a cashier suppose to do?  I'll tell you what they're not suppose to do.  They are not suppose to read, write, or draw.  Making double bags is the preferred way to occupy one's time.  Once your station is full of made bags, make yourself useful and just stand there.  Just make sure you stand up straight because if you slouch someone may violently shove a shopping basket in your general direction.  Seriously, this has happened.  
• Lack of Excitement. -- So boring!   
• Musical Playlist. -- The company sends us a new CD to upload to the hard drive and this music plays for about a month until we get a new CD.  Some of the songs I like.  Others I don't and I swear, these songs play the most. 
• Profiting from the exploitation of others. -- A grocery store is no place for a vegan. 

* You're reading my complaints.  Totally different.

Real Job

It happened.  I finally got a real job.  It doesn't start for at least another month but it is for certain.  I wanted to cry when I found out. 

I graduated from Temple University in January 2010.  That means it's taken me almost two years to find a job that pays me over $10/hour for my many thousand-dollar burden in student loans.  I am not alone in my struggles.  A fact I keep hearing is how for the first time in history, student loan debt is surpassing credit card debt.  I hope we'll all be ok.

But I don't mean to darken a happy moment with sad facts.  I at last have a "real" job to call my own, and at least for a little while, I will be happy about it.   

Lost Phone

This Fourth of July I got stinking drunk and I lost my phone. No, I didn't get stinking drunk, I was just stupid. Drunk sounds like a cooler, more excusable excuse.

It's funny how fast cell phones demanded their way into our pockets and purses becoming seemingly necessities to our lives. Humankind has lasted thousands of years without constant connectivity but within the past ten years or so, cellphones have completely altered our personal and professional lives. How did people find one another before the days of the mobile phone?

For roughly a week, I was phoneless. I used a website for an alarm clock, Facebook to message people, and complicated many-a-plan. But I survived. Hopefully I don't lose anything else for at least a few months.

Where's My Mind?

Old Friends

Today marks the 24th birthday of an old friend of mine.  We were about 10-years-old when we first became friends.  We did tons of fun stuff together.  We bonded.  There were sleepovers and slumber parties.  Truth and Dare. Water fights and trips to the pool.  Snow days.  We played the game "Girl Talk".  We stayed up until 2am when it was a big deal.  I told her when I got my period.  Once, I accidentally got Silly Putty in her long, beautiful hair and we had to cut it out (not too many strands were sacrificed).  I was at her house when her family received the phone call that her grandfather had passed away.  I worried that she would never be happy again.

Then, when we were twelve, she and her family moved to Washington State.  We keep in contact, through phone and sometimes mail, and later the interwebs.  We saw each other once.  In 2003, I think.  It was on this trip my dad and my now, stepmom met.  In a blink, this will be ten years ago.

2003's Best Picture Winner.  Was that really that long ago?

Looking at her Facebook pictures, I get the feeling I always get from looking at pictures of old, distant friends.  We are all living such separate lives.  Sad, inevitable, but at a glance, Facebook leads us all to believe we are at least having fun.  We are all older.  I can't get over that fact no matter how much I ponder it.

A 2009 trip to Six Flags

A 2011 trip to Six Flags

We will never be able to be fully caught up with everyone.  I hope that my classmates are all as happy as I am and that someday, we'll meet again.*

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" ~ Stand By Me

*I don't mean death.  I mean bumping into each other on a train or something.