YummY! Down on This

Its like this….

I’m grateful to have a full time job, and I’m not taking it for granted.  I’m even more grateful for my job since my hubby lost his 5 months ago.

However, you can be grateful for something, and not like it very much.

I mean, I used to like my job.  As recently as 2 years ago I liked my job, and I saw myself staying there for years to come.  I planned on getting a department manager position and everything.

Then, not once but TWICE when a department manager position opened up I was passed up, not for someone else in the store, but for people they brought in from outside.

And now since we’ve dropped from an a grade to a b grade store, and we have no cashiers I never get to do MY job.  I get to stay on a register pretty much all day while every day I get asked, “Did you finish so-and-such that I gave you yesterday” to which the answer is always no.  No, I didn’t finish setting that 25 foot planogram because I was on the register all day.  No, I don’t think I’ll finish it today either, I’ll probably be on the register all day.

He tells me I’ll never get moved up to department manager if my department is always getting low grades when the DM visits, but I can’t keep it nice and neat and well stocked because I’m on the register all day.

I LOATHE being on the register because you never get a break from the greed.

I kid you not, I had a lady give me a hard time because her 40% coupon wouldn’t come off the 10 cent item she was buying because it was clearance.  IT WAS 10 FREAKING CENT and she wanted a 40% discount off of it badly enough to ARGUE with me.

I can no longer see myself working there long term, and want very badly to get out of there ASAP.  I want to open my own store.  A thrift/resale/consignment shop.

I know that running my own business will be even harder work than what I’m doing right now, because not only will I be the boss, but I’ll probably be the only employee for a long time too.  But the difference will be that I will be working for MYSELF.  All the blood, sweat and tears will be for my own goals, and not to help CEOs who make more in one day than I make in a year get ever richer and richer and richer.

Plus, maybe at a resale shop I won’t be faced with so many housewives who have never worked a day in their life but have socks that cost more than my entire outfit argueing over 4 cents off a dime.  And if it someone who seems like maybe they COULD use a break, I could be the one to help them cause it sucks to be broke.

I want to create.  I want to sit down, have an idea in my head, and have it come out of my hands.

Sadly, it seems that I can’t even put words together in a creative sentence anymore, most less sit down and make something crafty.  And art seems to be utterly beyond me.  I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even try anymore.  I think of something and then I think….it wont be good enough.  I think, its not going to be “art” so why bother.

There was an artist, an art journaler, whose videos I used to watch on youtube, and I found them to be very encouraging, until in one video she started really dissing on how “bad” a journalers art was.  She was angry because said journaler had used one of her images in her art, but still, it burst my creative bubble.  I had been watching her “anyone can create art” videos, and was inspired, then she called someones art crap, and I realized, yeah, mine is pretty much crap too.

Just call me the goddess of low self esteem.

My art isn’t good enough, my photography isn’t good enough, my writing isn’t good enough.

What am I good enough for.

I know, I’m good for the menial labor I do every day.  I’m good for climbing ladders and lifting boxes.  I’m good for stocking shelves, for ringing up purchases, and for telling people which glue is best to use on metal, and where in the store to find the letter stickers and foam visors.  I’m thinking I’m an exellent employee, only for my yearly review to tell me that despite the 8 “customer service” stars I put on my shirt every day I’m not even a special employee.  What I am is average.

I’m good enough to be a drone.

Gah……that is full of suck.

I’m in a rut I need to get out of.

I want to create.  I need to be inspired.  Someone wanna come inspire me?
   

Dearest friends, family and random interent strangers….

I gather you all here today to share with you a deep dark secret.

I have….and addiction.

Yes, I’m addicted to blogging.

This addiction was brought into the spotlight by the lovely and tallented Rachel when she said to me that I have so many blogs she didn’t know which one to follow.

After giving it much thought I have decided this….

I will be keeping YummY! Down on This as my main blog because it is full of awesome.

Over the next week or so I’ll be pulling all my good writing out of Noner’s Notebook and reposting it here at which point Noner’s Notebook will be deleted.

All further fiction and bad poetry will be published right here.

As much as I love my dogs, they really are not interesting enough o have their own blog anymore.  Any further posts about my dogs will either be shared here too.

Likewise, Pawesome will be deleted.

Social Hermits and Parker 365 have hardly been updated since creation.  Ditto, talking about crabs adn babies will be done here.

I will keep in operation 4 blogs other than this one.

Rattitude (my rat blog)
I Want….Wednesday (daly question meme)
Random Animals (the title pretty much sums it up)
and
Second Helpings (a blog for my soon to be born online thrift store)

For more completely unedited, unaltered pictures visit Murrieta 365 for SOOC

“We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.” Mark Twain

Dear Customer,

I’m sure you’ve noticed the new register set up.  See the wall?  See the sign that says “Please Wait Here for the Next Available Cashier.”  Know what that means, it means the wall is driving you like a cattle chute, and you should wait at the sign for the next cashier to call you forth.

If I’m still with a person, I’m not an available cashier.  If you come down the chute to my register before I call you, then you are not waiting for the next available cashier.  At that point you are waiting for ME and ONLY ME. 

Know what I’m going to do?  I’m going to take my precious time.  I’m not going to rush my current customer to help you.  I’m going to chat with them if they feel chatty, and our customers often feel chatty.  I’m going to slowly clip out the cupon they gave me, luckly still attached to this week’s sales flyer so that I can take my time cutting it out.  I’m going to sort my stack of credit and debit slips and put them in their correct sleeves.  I’m going to re-stock my plastic bags, all while you stand there waiting on ME.

After at least 2 of my fellow cashiers have called someone forward who was BEHIND you and waited at the correct spot to wait, after at least one person behind you has been checked out and ushered out of the cattle chute, THEN I will begin ringing your purchases. 

I bet next time you might wait for the next available cashier instead of crowding up to my register without being called, and trying to rush my current customer.

Thank you, have a nice day, please come again.

–

Dear Customer(s),

If you shop here often I bet you know we print out coupons with every receipt that will be good for the following week.

I bet you DIDN’T know that I have a pocket full of the ones we gave out last week that are valid CURRENTLY.  I bet you didn’t know that I will pass them out to the right kind of people.

If I smile at you and you smile back I will ask you if you have a coupon and give you one if you do not.  If I speak to you and you speak to me like a human being I will offer you a coupon.  If you tell me up front that you don’t have a coupon and ask nicely if I might can give you one, I’ll give you one.

If you feed me a line about how you “left mine at home” I probably will not offer you a coupon.  If you are on the cell phone I will DEFINITELY not give you a coupon.  If you act in any way rude, demanding or condecending I will not give you a coupon.  If you say, “Well they give suchandsuch discounts at ‘insert competing stores name here’ so you should too” you will not get a coupon from me.

I started last week with not quite 20 coupons.  I have 15 left.  Thats a sad amount of people nice enough for me to have given a coupon too.

Remember, treat others as you wish to be treated.  Treat me nice, I’ll give you a treat.  Treat me badly, I’ll withhold the coveted coupons.

–

And speaking of coupons..

Dear Customer,

We have a policy that says, right on our coupon “One coupon PER CUSTOMER per day.”  Recently a manager talked with each of us individually to reinforce the one per customer per day rule.

One of our register coupons along with one of our sales flier coupons is 2 coupons, not one.  One of our coupons and one of our competitors is 2 coupons.  Yes, one plus one equals 2.

I told you I could only take one.  Arguing with me wont make me take two.  Telling me, “Well the girl took two yesterday” won’t make me take two either.  See, maybe the girl yesterday let you use 2 because she doesn’t need a job as badly as I do.  Will they fire me for taking 2 coupons instead of one?  Knowing my company like I do, if my DM sees me take two coupons then the answer could very well be yes.  Its not that uncommon for places of business to fire people for giving unauthorized discounts.

I do like to please my customers, but risking losing my job so that you can save 40% off of 2 different packs of stickers is not something I’m willing to risk for anyone’s happiness.

If you want to leave my line and check out again in someone elses lane that is your perogative.

Thank you, have a nice day, please come again….with ONE coupon.

We had a special 4 hour sale at work today, which means we were open until 8 instead of 7.  Of course, it was slow which would have been good except a lady came in at 8 with a return/repurchase of something she had bought earlier that day so she could get the 15% off that she coudln’t get earlier because the sale was only from 4 to 8.

Well, she came in RIGHT AT 8 and did not leave until 8:25!!!!

I hate people like that.  She had 4 hours to do that return/repurchase but she’s gonna come in right time for us to close like we don’t have lives we want to go home to.

We couldn’t shut down registers until she was gone so we didn’t get out of there until 9.  When I got home the power was out at our house but not at Sheryls.  Parker was over at her house because it was too hot here.

When I went over to see him he was already asleep.  So I ate a sandwich and watched Design Star with Sheryl then came hiome.

Its after 11 now and the power is still out.  I’m sitting in my bedroom writing by candlelight while Robert rants and raves.

I got a new, smaller, sketchbook to use as m next journal.  One I can take to work without it weighing a ton.

Of course now I have it I want to start it only July 1st, but over half of this one is still empty and no way I’m going to fill it in 3 days so I’m torn on whether to finish this one or stop with it half empty and use the new one.

I thought I might write in taht one but keep doing my calenders in this one, but I want my calanders in my CURRENT journal and I did just do an awesome calender for July in this one.

My theme for my new one is going to be either PIECES or SHATTERED.  I have a cover idea involving altered pussle pieces.

Meet the new Babies.  Two hermit crabs, known in some circles as Purple Pinchers.  The dark one on the right is named Zoidberg, or Zoid for short.  Zoid is too big for that shell he is in for this picture.  Poor Zoid.  The lighter crab has no name.  Poor nameless crab.

This is where they live.  Its the 10 Gal tank I used to put my rats in when I cleaned them.  Now I gotta find something else to put my rat in, but the crabs seem to enjoy it.  I plan on figuring out a second level for them and more climby stuff.

Remember I said the shell Zoid was in was too small.  Well, no more than 10 mintues after I put them in their new home, he was checking out new shells!

However, the silly crab moved into a shell not much bigger than the one he had currently be in.  Sounds like something the actual Zoidberg (from Futurama) would do.

The crab with no name hardly came out of its shell at all, until I put it in its new home. It seems happy now.

In fact it didn’t take that one long at all to climb up to the highest point in the whole tank.

My brave little explorer crab.

I have a dilemma.  Its sort of amoral dilemma, but not a life or death moral dilemma.  Or it might be a life or death moral dilemma if you think about it.

(Do I win any kind of award for the blog entry with the most uses of the term moral dilemma?)

See, my nephew Jonathan was visiting today, and he brought along his pet hermit crab (which he named Stevie).  I’ve always been a little fond of hermies and thought it would be neat to have one as a pet, but have never gotten one.  I have my dogs and my rats and usually a betta fish and that seemed like enough to care for.

Well, since the horrific and sudden death of my most recent betta fish I was thinking about taking a break from bettas, and then Jon showed up with Stevie.

Stevie was the most active happy little hermie I’ve ever seen.  He just scooted around all over the place, even climbed up my shirt a couple of times and tried to climb DOWN it once.  I thought I’d like to have a happy little scootie hermit crab like that.

This is where the dilemma comes in.

The only place in town that sells hermit crabs has them in painted shells.  Due to the crazy popularity of painted crab shells it seems to be all you can find in most places.

Stevie had a painted shell too….black with a pirate skull on it.  And even though Stevie was a happy and energetic little crab I KNOW that its BAD to buy crabs with painted shells.  The paint is not good for them, and the process of being forced into the shell can be super stressful.

Of course, the FIRST thing I did was check petfinder, but it showed no hermit crabs for adoption in my area.

So, if I decide to bring home a pair of painted hermit crabs then does that make me a bad person for having purchased a pair of painted hermit crabs?  I mean, I do plan to offer them only natural shells to go INTO and ditch the painted ones as soon as they move.  But I’d still be supporting the trade of painted hermits by bringing them home.

Then again, I’m supporting the trade of live rats as snake food every time I buy a pair of “feeder” rats to bring home as pets, but I think it is very much worth to to save the lives of those two rats.  Part of me feels it will be offering the same “better” life to the hermits I bring home, even though their situation isn’t as immediately life or death as the rats.

Last night/this morning when I codln’t sleep (which might have something to do with the 3 cups of coffee I chugged between 8 and 10 pm) I went to the kitchen cabinet which doubles as a medicine cabinet to take my birth control pill.

I don’t know WHY it doubles as a medicine cabinet since we have a perfectly servicable medicine cabinet in the bathroom.  Unless it might be because we open the one in the kitchen more often so it might remind us to take our medicine.

Anyway as I took my pill I thought “Wow, this is a mess” and so in the hours between 12:30 and 1am I cleaned out our medicine cabinet while hubby transferred iCarly episodes from VHS to DVD because at some point he’s become a bigger iCarly fan than me.

While I was cleaning (his stuff and the dogs stuff to the right, my stuff and Parker’s stuff to the left, toothpicks in the midddle though I don’t know why we even have toothpicks.  Neither of us use them) my mind wandered to the internet.

If I could be perminately jacked in I probably would be.  Thats probably not a good thing but at least I’m honest about it.

I was thinking about my blog, and about Gather and Sidetick and Mylot and how I’m almost at payouts but spend too much time on facebook (darn you farmville, frontierville and cafeworld) and not enough time devoted to my money making sites or my blog.

I think its because I[‘m not sure what to blog about.

I have a 7 month old baby boy.  He is my first child and all I can think about.  I could easily post a dozen baby related things a day but the general consensus is that most blog type readers, unless they are other mommy bloggers, don’t like mommy blogs.  I don’t want to alienate my non-chld rearing readers.

I could spout off a few thousand customer rants a week too, but that only appeals to people who now or once has worked retail.

I’m sick of talking about my diet attepmts when I can’t make myself follow thorugh.

I have no strong opinions on polits.  I respect everyones right to their own religion.  I barely keep up with current events.

I’m a dull person.  I don’t hav emuch to say.

So, as 1am slides towards 1:30am and I sat on my bed using my lap desk for only the second time (affter tip-toeing into the babys room to get it from where it has been sitting behind his bedsite table for the past 7 months) I’ve decided I better start having some opnions on things.