Well, where the heck have YOU been?

I know, I know.

I haven't written in months. A lot has happened to me since last I wrote, so I'll attempt to get you caught up.

 * * * * *

I guess I'll backtrack. First off, the end of July was very interesting in my life. The hubby's band was paying two gigs out on the East Coast; PEI and New Brunswick. I dropped him off at the airport, waited until they left and went home. At about 11:45 am, I sat down to have some lunch and suddenly got a chill. I thought it odd as it was bleeding hot outside.

I'd had my ankles crossed, so I moved my legs, and upon doing so noticed my ankle was extremely painful. I put on a sweater coat and wrapped a blanket around me and still the teeth were chattering.

I decided to go upstairs for a while. Upon reaching the second level I went to the bedroom where I sort of laid down/fell onto the bed. I tried to push myself up by the arms and just didn't have the strength. Later, I got up and went up to the loft, still not suspecting anything was too wrong. I noticed I was very dizzy and unsteady on my feet. I sat down to watch tv and noticed that it was about 4 or 5 hours later than it should have been??????

Couldn't really register that as a problem other than it did stick in my mind. The phone rang and thinking it was my husband I got up to answer it. As I picked up the receiver I felt like someone had pulled the chair out from under me and over I go. Hit my head and several other places but still had the phone in my hand. I say hello. Now bear in mind that the person on the other end had to have heard the commotion as I went down. She says, "Hi, how are you?"

I say not too good. I just fell.

"Oh. Well, would you like to buy .........." at which point I sighed and said 'no'.

I managed to get up and thought that for this I better go to the hospital. Off to the music room where the computer and a phone are. Get on the computer and write to my girlfriend to ask her if she could drive me to the hospital. It is now about eight at night and don't expect to hear from her right away as like me, she is an early riser which means an early to bed person as well. (As it later turned out she had been so tired that night she'd gone to bed early. She was very upset the next morning about missing the message.)

As I am sitting at the computer feeling more and more befuddled, the phone rings again. Its my husband and when I tell him that I am going to take a cab to the hospital because of what's going on, he says he'll come home. I asked him to stay there and finish the trip and explained that I was pretty sure I'd be in the hospital where he couldn't do anything anyway.

I called a cab and waited on the front porch for him. He was here in a few minutes and I was so glad to see him. He was kind enough to stop part way along to allow me to throw up. (THAT'S a nice cab driver.)

I get to the hospital and take a number to wait. They get to me within five minutes and she takes my temp and asks come questions. I go back out to wait for some one to come get me, figuring it will be a while as there were three stretcher cases there. Well, I no sooner sat down than they called my name. I staggered over to the orderly and followed him to a room. I remember I had to hold the wall to feel secure in walking.

He gets me in the room and then everything happened pretty fast. They actually helped me get my clothes off. I wrap myself in blankets as I am freezing again. They took my temp again and within moments this lady doctor comes in, says "there's part of the problem!" and proceeds to uncover me. "When you're that hot you only make it worse by covering up. You keep the heat in which we don't want."

Maybe you don't, but I want to keep the cold out ! ! ! ! !  I'm freakin' freezing here!

And THAT was when I found out I had a temp of 103.8F ! ! ! ! ! !
Your brain doesn't function very well over 102 and at 104 you are only one degree away from heat stroke level ! ! ! ! ! 

That's a long enough story for 3AM.

More later.

PS. Merry Belated Christmas :-)

"I thought you'd be home by 6:45 ? ? ? "

Usually, I hear about the times we have problems with customers AFTER THE FACT. For some strange reason I have wanted to be there when one of these things go down.

Well, I GOT my wish ! ! ! ! !

Sunday afternoon, yet another new teen age employee, didn't show up for work so they called me in. I was just sitting down to watch a movie but when this chance came up, well . . . .

When you are called in they have to guarantee you a minimum of 4 hours. The shift I was covering was 2:30 - 6:30 and I was going to make it to the store for about 3:30. As it was a call in and unexpected at that, I said I would just cover to the end of the original shift. Only three hours, but I'm okay with that. It is much easier on the knees.

The day was fairly uneventful, and the pace was a little better than I have during the week as I was once again working with people who know how to work. Makes the job better. Plus when I get the 'over rush hour' slot it is very intense for about an hour an a half and there are seldom enough cashiers.

* * * * *

Okay, to the good (?) stuff:

I have about 20 minutes left of my shift and a customer I know from a previous job is checking out at my register. He says to me 'you night want to call for help." I didn't know what he meant at first, except maybe that we needed more cashiers. Turns out he shows me this guy, that I never even noticed before, and he is kind of loud and talking to someone at the end of my line. My impression was that he was a little, okay a lot, inebriated. He then heads off over by bakery and the 'security' code comes over the speaker. I start to 'see' these people now, (too busy concentrating on my customer I guess) and there is our head cashier and a couple of the stock boys (men) asking this guy to leave. He wanted them to give him something for free 'for his girlfriend'. "Come on, just help me out here."

Finally he takes the hint and goes. He stays by the front door for a while before they can get him out but he left peaceably enough.

When the young man at the end of my line gets to me I asked him if the guy was hassling him, because my thought was to apologize for the incident. He says: 'no. . . . . . . . .he's my friend.'

Okay, so I process the order, all is fine, he leaves and I move to the next customer. I also notice that the employees and security people are watching out the front door to see that he leaves and doesn't 'do' anything 'wrong' on the lot.

A couple minutes later the noise outside changed a bit and we have the 'friend' outside our other door getting louder by the minute. He's trying to re-enter the store! By now, I have to punch out as I'm done, but they also need support on the front door. I saw two of our new employees, who just happened to be males of a decent size. Both over six feet tall and imposing looking. I asked them to go stand behind the head cashier to give her more weight in the situation. To make it a little more imposing. I go and punch out and then for some reason went back over to give moral support or to be of assistance or just to be nosy. I don't know, I just thought I could help.

Well, the guy is inside the doors and just keeps asking, loudly, "What did I do?"

It was explained to him several times that he needed to leave the store. They did not want him in there, he had paid for his items and he was upsetting the other customers. He at one point wanted to know why there were 'hassling' his friend and was again told that the 'friend' wasn't even here anymore. He kept up with the "What DID I do?" and then started to move towards the one employee. NOT the one you really want to mess with. Employee puts his hand on the guys shoulder to try to move him towards the door and the kid swings at him. Missed of course, but now he's got his back up. I suggested to head cashier that she get our guy to back off a little, which he did, just to give this guy his space.

He was told numerous times that the police had been called and that now was the time to leave before they got here. Finally, the policeman comes in the store, takes him by the arm and walks him to the edge of the property. He promptly sits down with his feet in the parking lot as his way of protesting, I guess.

Then the policeman walks back to his car. We wondered if that was it, but no. Another police car shows up and they meet between their cars and start getting gloves and hats on. Over to the kid they go (I say kid because my impression of him had been that he was a young college student). They each take an arm and head across the road with him but he immediately turned it into a dragging situation. They try to get him to stand, but he goes limp and falls down. They leave him there and start to walk back to the store when he gets up, grabs his shoes etc and goes back over and sits down in the same spot.  This was where we thought something was going to happen.

Well it sure did. The police come over and say something to him, he gets belligerent with them and they pick him up and start to walk him towards their cars.

HE ACTUALLY TURNED AND SPAT ON THE COP ! ! ! ! ! !

Well, down to the ground he goes, two cops on top, he's fighting them, they have to subdue him, he's cursing, and grabbing, and they have to get a little physical. They get the cuffs on him, pick him up and at first we thought they had a glove over his face. Turned out it was his turtle neck sweater that they pulled up to prevent further spitting. They get him to the car, he's somehow getting this sweater off his face, they keep putting it back, he's bent over the rear of the car and still bitching. The cops are pretty calm and another car with two more cops show up. The kid is taken to the back of the other car, searched and then they try to put him in the back seat of the police car.

I never saw anyone goes so straight and rigid before ! ! ! ! There are three policemen trying to get him in the car and they can't do it. I mean he might as well have been a concrete post. Took them probably 30 seconds to get him bent enough to get in the car.

We thought he'd be the kind to bang his head on the glass etc., but he settled right down as soon as he was in the car. not another peep out of him. Hopefully that was when it hit him what he had just done. It went from a mere trespass sort of thing to a full on  ASSAULT OF A POLICE OFFICER.

Only a couple of us actually saw the spitting incident so we were asked to give eye witness statements. I shouldn't have punched out. I could have been paid for all that time.

* * * * * 

And, that's why I'm home late, dear.

NOT an April Fool's Day joke ! ! ! ! !

What, they don't think we'd know anything?

Well, not only have they decided that we can't use our old order dividers, but they actually took them away from us ! ! ! !

So they are forcing us to use these stupid things with the open bottoms. We've tried. They are useless. Sure they're pretty or what ever and I can honestly say I have had two (2) people comment on them. Most people are annoyed because they are too light, hard to stand up, even harder to slide back along the little lip we had, and they nestle. Which means that when you slide them along and then flip one down onto the belt to stop the evil eye that makes the belt move, they all fall down. That means they move along the belt with the groceries, they get caught on items much easier, and they are harder to see then the other ones. They blend in with the groceries. What could they have been thinking to make one that looks like a package of spaghetti? And how about one that looks like a honking great butchers knife. I've had more people think it was a real knife than have commented on the 'prettiness' of the other ones.

Oh yeah, when they DO get caught on groceries, they can only slide so far because some brilliant scientist put a stop at the cashier end to stop the divider sliding out the end and stabbing the cashier in the ribs. Problem is, that when it can't move anymore the pressure now goes to the other end where what ever kind of grocery is hung up. If its bread you may get a ripped open bag.

Also the belt obviously has to have a little space on both sides so that it can move freely along the track. Well guess what? The new dividers, having an open bottom on them, fit perfectly into that space. They get stuck and are not that easier to dislodge, especially if the belt has carried them along a little bit.

Well, we had all figured out our own ways to deal with this latest dumb idea when someone comes along and starts screwing in all these upside down 'T's for these things to slide on. The principle is that the bottom portion of the T will allow them to just sit on top and not have a problem with us trying to get them into the previous track which was shaped like an upside down 'U'. But, you know what? I think you should have done a little measuring first! We have these little cases, about a 10" x 10" square, that hang right about the divider trough. They hold lottery tickets. There wasn't much clearance before but you could still get the dividers in because they were either square shaped or triangle shaped, all closed sides.

There is not enough room to place these open bottomed ones they way we used to. Sort of as a task you could perform with out having to look at what you were doing. NOW, you have to physically stop what you're doing and look at it so that you can line it up. Not much of an effort you say?? No, its not. What it is, is friggin' annoying. You get into a flow running orders through and having to actually stop to place these stupid things is a royal pain in the sit upon.  Its akin to having to stop when you want to blink your eyes and then telling your lids to go down and up. We do that so automatically, what would it be like if you had to stop and consciously do that every so many seconds?

This is really a trivial thing to be writing about but it is just another one of the tiny little things that shouldn't be an issue for your job. We like to get things done. They are always after us to be faster and to watch that things aren't stolen. But now you want us to take those few seconds with darn near every order to line up a stupid advertisement? That happens at the same time I am checking the bottom of the buggy, or thanking a customer, or packing their groceries, or answering a question, or greeting the next customer.

I just wish I worked somewhere that the employees were thought enough of to be asked their opinions on what would make the job easier.  I think it would have given us the respect we deserve as we are the ones doing the actual job. WE know what our issues are with putting an order through.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my job.

And guess what??? It still doesn't stop those dividers from falling off the other side of the track and getting stuck behind the gum racks.

So there ! ! ! !

SOME People I Work With

Just what it says in the title, some people I work with.

I have worked with several young ladies that when they have left I have really missed them. They were good workers, nice to customers, had respect for my age and experience and found me easy to talk to.

I don't exactly have a daughter. I have a son who I guess must be doing all right as he doesn't  call anymore. I guess that's a good thing.

SO, anyway, as much as I don't want kids around me 24/7 I do like dealing with the babies in the store and chatting with them. I also really enjoy the students, both high school and university level. They are an interesting bunch of people. You see some come through and leave you with the impression that they are just passing time at this school thing. Then there are others I hear come through and they're talking about some pretty serious subjects. Its annoying, really, because they aren't there long enough for me to talk with them about the subject they're interested in.

One young man makes a point of going through my register the days that I am there and I asked him what he wants to study in university. He is going for history of the western world. I asked him if that will include the U.S. Civil War. He said he hopes so and I was interested in that! ! ! !

I am fascinated by that portion of American History and can never learn enough. But we only ever get about two sentences together. I'd love to pick his mind. Such a nice, polite, young man.

Then there's the university one that came through and I found that he was studying genetics.
WHOAaaa.

Another topic I am fascinated with. To the point that when I bred rabbits I was doing cross breeding to get the most meat on them. I had to keep two breeds of purebreds and then cross them to get first generation vigour. I'd end up with babies that grew pretty fast to killing weight in a decently short time, which is what most farmers are aiming for.

I would have loved to talk 'turkey' with him.

Then there is this one girl I work with. I have a great deal of affection for her and would love to have her as a life long friend. I would love it if I somehow had some influence on who she turns out to be. She has the coolest sense of humour and she talks to me not only as an equal but as a peer.

We updated some electronics and she didn't have this device. So, as I now had a spare I gave it to her. She was all embarrassed about having it given to her, but pleased as well, and came up with some jokes about it to cover her delight.

Doesn't fool me for a second. I don't know that I 'love' her but I sure as heck like her a whole lot. She is like the daughter I never had.

I love to bake and hardly a week goes by that I am not taking some kind of treat into work. Well, I found out that she LOVES coconut macaroons. I had this new recipe I tried and she fell in love with it. So I made her a batch of her own and the next thing I know she is wanting to pay for ingredients.

How neat is that. She is such a responsible young lady and I adore her. It will break my heart when it comes time for her to move on. I've had other people around here that I have missed terribly, but she's different. She has the quirkiest sense of humour.

And quick!!!!???

Anyway, sorry Happy Girl and Smart Girl. But I don't hear from you anymore even though I still have the silly notes you wrote me stuck to my fridge. As I was saying, sorry, but you've been replaced in that little space in my heart. (yes, I actually have a heart)

Okay, not replaced, but definitely shoved to towards the back.

Later, all ! ! ! ! !

Opinions needed

I have a new bag and was thinking of showing it off by reading a couple of blogs aloud and posting them on YouTube.

That doesn't mean I won't keep writing. I prefer that method. Its a little less work. And I don't have to worry if the bag isn't ironed.

A promotion of sorts

Not me.

Don't get me wrong, promotions are nice. Its empowering to know that someone thinks you are good enough to move up in job status or pay grade or whatever.

Being a 'lowly' cashier suits me to a ' T '. I'd like to, at times, be a 'customer service' person dealing with lottery, till balances, counting money, etc.

BUT . . . .
I AM a customer service person in that I am one of the last people the customer sees and the last one they deal with in the store. I have to leave a good impression. The customer remembers that. They remember someone that was concerned for them, cared enough to pack the groceries well, made sure the bags weren't too heavy if its an older person. You know, important stuff like that. Sometimes being pleasant is all they need.

You have to be able to read people. You have to know if they need chatter or quiet. You must not force your opinions on them or try to force them into something they don't want. You have to be able to tell which ones are in the kind of mood to linger a little or to get out fast. You have to look down the line as well, to see who you have coming. I know which of my customers want 'double bags on everything' or need lots of bags with little in them, or, unfortunately, know the one that tries to steal things. I haven't seen her since she overheard me warn a newer cashier to keep on their toes around her. She has tried to steal something every time I have dealt with her. The problem is she's not good at it.

* * * * *

So, anyway, the Promotion goes to . . . . . .
The Diva !

She is now known as The Prima Donna.

This woman has or is trying to take over everything. I mean knowing how to do lots of stuff is good, but telling people when they can go on break, doing lottery, telling an employee they can get through the line before customers, pushing around co-workers with more seniority? 

I'm older than most of them there, but I also recognize when someone that's young enough to be my GRANDdaughter is also the person in charge that night. I mean come on, I COULD send them to bed without supper, but they show me the respect I deserve for my age, because I show them respect for their authority.  And for that matter you can't push around people with less seniority TOO much because you are NOT THE BOSS that night. If the customer service/head cashier tells you do to something then, damn it, do what you're told, when you're told.

The Prima Donna is developing a reputation amongst her peers for being rude, bossy, loud, grating, pushy, etc.

And, when you are running the express aisle you HAVE to realize that, even though we are supposed to push our new program, you must know when the customer is NOT in a receptive mode. Yes we want them to use the 'program' but more important is the fact of getting them home. We want their last thought to be "boy, I got through fast, finally the day is done, supper soon" NOT "why didn't that person shut up and do her job so I can get home."

I have had people come over to my aisle because even though I'm doing larger orders I am confining my talk to what I can get done WHILE doing the order. Oh sure, I have some customers where the conversation carries over to the next person in line, but I am not ignoring that next person. AND I apologize to them for the delay. I also leave them with some kind of pleasant comment, even if its only "you have a great evening".

AND I made several people happy last week, even though they were in a hurry, by stopping and giving one woman a hug because she had just lost her mother and was suddenly missing her. They all commented on what a 'nice thing" I had done.

* * * * *

So, apparently I think I'm wonderful and she's not.

She is a nice person on a personal basis, but just too plain bossy and know-it-all-ish in the work experiences I have had or have witnessed or, worse, heard about from other employees and customers.

So that's my 37cents worth for today.

And Furthermore . . . .

Also at work yesterday I had one of my regular customers come in and we started talking. She was telling me about going to 'the enemy' across the highway. We got to talking about cashiers and things and she told me about the attitude they have there. Being one who is concerned about customer service I had to hear more.

Turns out she was in there, with her own bags, and a fairly large order, the cashier rings stuff up, barely acknowledges her and just keeps piling groceries up at the end. My customer was trying to bag it, but is used to us doing it.

Sidebar: When we started charging for bags and accepting customer supplied bags it was, and still is, our policy to pack the customers groceries. Unless they don't want us to. Nothing changed because we were charging or because they supplied bags.

Back to the story:

My customer was falling behind and then the cashier turns to her and asks if its debit or credit. Arms folded across her chest, looking at her like how come she's not finished already. Then after the cashier processes the order, she is making it clear that the customer is now in her way. After all, there is another customer she can be rude to.  ZING !

The cashier did not even ask if she could help her at all. I do that when customers are bagging their own groceries. I also try hard to be polite to people that insist on doing it themselves and are holding me up. In that situation I try to move their groceries to the side so I can continue on. But I always offer to help.

I can not believe that they do not bag your groceries. And yet people still go there. I hear comments about how rude they are. I know from experience that they don't treat you very well when you bring returns. Granted that could have changed in the many years since I stopped shopping there. But none the less, its kept me from going back there.

Oh, I have occasionally stopped in when i am looking for a certain product or something. But 99% of the time I can not find what I want. They seem to have a lot of groceries and products etc, but they do not have a variety of sizes. I have often looked for a large size of peanut butter or the large decaffeinated tea. Never find it. They have a lot of their store brand stuff. A LOT of it. I have yet to be impressed with any of them.

And, I've had customers tell me that we are more expensive than them. Maybe that's true on what they buy, but on what I buy, sorry. Wrong.

There are two things that will tick me off, though. People that ask me to bag for them,  then proceed to rearrange everything when I'm done.

AND, people that are packed and ready to leave but hold up my job because they have to get their mittens on, or a scarf just so, or yap on the phone. Get out of my way. Have you no consideration? There is usually an empty register next to me, and if not there are always the cases of water along the front. You could actually put your stuff there and get ready to leave. That way you aren't holding anyone up.

Who the hell is in charge down there

We have these plastic triangle shaped dividers that we use between customers orders. We then know where theirs ends and the next one begins. Pretty simple design. As I said its a triangle and closed on all sides. That 's good, because as you start an order you need to be able to get that picked up, put in the slot and give it a quick push for the next customer to grab.

The slot is just a small, long tray, I guess, just wide enough for the divider. The slot also has two walls on it of about 3/8" in height.

Sooooo. Someone at the divider making company sold some advertising to an online bank and we got these terrible open bottomed dividers. Plus they have some kind of cut out shapes in the top. You can sort of see it in the first photo, to the left of the black one. Anyway, when you grab it and try to put it away it usually catches on one of the outsides of the slot's tray. You have to stop and fiddle with it to make sure you can get it in there.

The more savvy of us last week, tried them for a little while and determined what a dumb idea that was. They were slowing us up so much that we traded them out for the old ones.

I show up at work yesterday, and we have the first ones back and some other new ones, again open bottomed, cut out tops, and our old ones are in hiding somewhere. These second ones came from the OLG, Ontario Lottery And Gaming Corporation. They are NOT provided by our store. The OLG can come in with their signs etc and change the advertising, as we are a selling agent for them. I think the bank had to ask us to put them up but NOT the OLG. I kept two of them, even though I would have preferred to not use them at all. But customers really do like to have them. A few hours into the shift, there was a gap between two people and I got a good look down my belt. I mean the dividers are annoying and all but I didn't study  them when I got to work. Anyway, in front of the second order is this new divider and it suddenly hit me what was wrong about the thing.  Have a look at this:

It was the second picture that made the image show so bright in my mind. What were these people thinking? Have they never heard of World War 2? Hitler? Nazis? Auschwitz?

For a stupid lottery?

I don't know which is worse. The person that designed this or the person that approved it.

If I was the schmuck that had anything to do with this campaign, I'd make sure I had somewhere else to be for the next several months.

What ? ? ? ? ?

Okay, I was on express the other day. That means you pretty well deal with just customers. You also keep an eye on customer service and page for lottery or Western Union or what ever. But you don't wander away and do baskets or things like that.

Anyway, this lady comes over to me with a small soup container and says she wants a large soup. I said that if there aren't any there we are probably out of them. I  also said I don't have any containers but if you ask at hot foods they should be able to assist you. She looks at me like I am totally weird and extremely rude for not helping her RIGHT NOW. And why the hell DON'T I have the containers at my register?

She goes over to the counter and asks and is told that we are indeed out of the large. So she takes two small ones and complains to me that her friend asked her to pick up a large. I said well at least this way she has more soup and I'm sure she'll appreciate you getting it for her. I asked if she needed a bag and she said no. So I finished her order and she then says 'I need a bag.' All righty then. You have a great day.

* * * * *

Two days in a row I had the same register. That doesn't happen often but it was nice because it was still set up the way I like it.  It means I was able to get down to business right away.

The second day the Diva was already there. She is annoying in that she seems to me that she can really set people's teeth on edge. I don't know how to describe it, other than she seems to ask questions in an argumentative (?) sort of way. One customer was obviously hard of hearing and had a hearing aid that you could see.  She asks him, quietly, if he needs bags. He didn't hear her. So she asks him again, but also spots the bag he's carrying in his hand. At the same time he had turned and asked her what she said.  She says 'never mind.'  He said 'what'  in a surprised tone. Again she says 'never mind'. He looks a little surprised so she tells him 'I asked you if you needed bags, but now I can see you don't.'

Maybe you had to be there, but it just seemed kind of rude, somehow. I just don't think that is the way to address an older person, whether they tick you off or not.

*

A little while later she sees that this customer has their own bags. She asks if they would like her to bag for them. They say no thanks and she proceeds with the order. Within a few minutes she is telling them that she'd be happy to bag. They, again say no, but she now tells them that she can do a better job. Well, maybe you can, but you don't imply that a customer is doing a lousy job when they think that they are being helpful or that they just want to do their own packing. I will wait and if I think they could have done it better I'll ask if I can give them a little suggestion.

Some people are not aware that even though we have switched to bags you pay for or that they bring themselves, we are still expected to do the packing for them. It doesn't absolve us of our duty as cashiers. The customer is spending good money. They are entitled to good service.

Another store in our area, from what I've been told by customers, just put the bags at the end for you and proceed to the next order. I think our store has an opportunity to capitalize on the fact that we still do the bagging. We need to go back to some of the old values.

*

The last thing The Diva did was, in my opinion, childish. There had been some kind of words between her and the customer and it was the tone that made me tune in. I hear her telling the customer that she has to scratch the 'thank you' sticker off the bag she just bought. She's making it very clear that this is a chore. She then asked me what my nails were like so maybe I could peel this label off. Yet, she doesn't offer me the bag to work on.  She also has another customer in line. I said to her what's wrong? She said 'I have to void it off'.
Okay, just void off a different one and move on. I offered her one of my not sold yet bags to just scan the code. 'No it has to be this one. I just can't get the sticker off enough' . When I again said I have a bag you could use, she just glared at me. Then why am I even being brought into this?

She finally gets that done and then at payment time, waits until the woman inserts the card too soon before telling her she had to wait for the message. The procedure of setting the machine up now has to be repeated. And she tells her customer that in a condescending tone.

She, The Diva, gave me the impression she was cruising for a fight. Later she told me she was trying to make a point with this lady. While she was doing all this the customer was  fiddling around in her purse, or checking her phone or otherwise occupied and not the least concerned with her grocery purchase. So the customer was totally unaware of the 'lesson' she was being taught, anyway.

The result was a confused cashier, (me), a customer made to wait unnecessarily, (next one in line), an oblivious to the world customer, (purse fiddler) and a cashier leaving a bad impression, (Diva).

Pick your battles, Diva!

* * * * *

And lastly, seeing that I worked New Years Eve, (yeah I know it was only the four hours over lunch, but it was New Years Eve,) I stopped at the dollar store and treated myself to some foil hats PLUS noisy horns. I started out the day with the hat on, but it was held with an elastic and by the second customer it let go at one end and smacked me hard right under my eye. In the garbage with the BAD hat.

So I just used my horn. Not on every customer, but almost. As they came to the register I wished them a Happy New Year and tooted the horn. I got a smile from nearly every customer and a laugh from several. I had such a fun time at work Saturday. Most of my customers did as well. I even, at one point, had three people in line while the cashiers on either side had none.I guess they just want to experience the party that is me sometimes.

Makes you glad to do your job and think that you are worth something.