MY LIFE - JANUARY

Friday, January 26, 2001

There's one problem with working any kind of day shift when you're not used to it. You continually forget what day it is. That was the problem that plagued me throughout the day. I kept thinking it was Saturday because I'm not used to working early in the day otherwise.

Today wasn't bad up until probably around 4pm, then we got hammered and I had to fight with a couple of people over things. It was bad enough that Joanne decided to bitch at me in front of a customer over something I couldn't control, but it was compounded by her insistence that I must have done something wrong when I didn't.

I'm not even upset that she reamed me out either. I'm more pissed that she did it in front of everyone else and for no other reason than to try and appease a customer who as the day would go on, would end up calling four times because she didn't understand something about her medication. Then the copay turned out to be correct and I never got an apology from the bitch.

I then was trying to figure out what was up Paul's ass and what was up Linda's ass. Both were being jerks and could barely stand each other today. Paul continually made the comment that he was going to throttle Linda at some point or quit. All I was thinking was that he needed to just shut up and deal with what he could deal with and not worry about anything else. Throttling Linda will only provoke her into doing something and an already nasty mess becomes bigger.

I finally got out of there around 7pm and was more than happy to leave. I had enough of all the bullshit going on for one day. These people just cannot get along with each other at all and they refuse to even try and work things out. At one point Paul was demanding that someone help him with the register. The only thing he didn't take into account was that everyone else was tied up with something. Linda was filling, Jim was on with a doctor, Elizabeth was on with a doctor, and Roberta and I were trying to figure out what was going on with one of our customer's scripts. How was any of us supposed to help? Then he was complaining about it later on and I just told him to shut up for a while.

I hate to be mean, but there's only so much complaining you can stand before you just want to tell the person complaining to shut up. I am the wrong person to complain too unless you're a good friend. Otherwise, I'll just look at you and let you talk for a while before making it clear that I don't care. And I had stopped caring about Paul's complaints two weeks ago. He and Linda both need to realize that I have no sympathy towards them. The messes they get into, they get into themselves.

It really wasn't that bad of a day either. Aside from Joanne's yelling fit, Paul's overall fit, and Linda's catankerous attitude, I had a good day. I've gotten some major problems taken care of and despite knowing that I work three more days before I get a day off, I know that I agreed to it and therefore have no reason to say anything.

I feel better also because I've been reading funny things all night. First was a joke of the day that I'm going to reprint here because it deals with airlines and all sorts of funny stuff. Second will be the "Monday Moaning" that I promised earlier this week. Third will be my take on an online comic that I just started reading today and find incredibly funny.

So without further ado, here are the Rules of the Air:

• Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.

• If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.

• Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.

• It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.

• The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

• The propeller is just a big fan in the front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.

• When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.

• A "good" landing is one you can walk away from. A "great" landing is one after which they can use the plane again.

• Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

• You know you've landed with the wheels up if takes full power to taxi to the ramp.

• The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa.

• Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.

• Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that moutains have been known to hideout in the clouds.

• Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of takeoffs you've made.

And now, some "Monday Moanings."

"I want to scream every time I hear the mothers of today who proudly proclaim they are stay-at-home moms. When my son was born in 1967, the women's movement was well underway. I was ridiculed and labeled a leech and a sponge, simply because I knew it was impossible to be what was later termed 'super mom.'"

Wait, so are you upset at the moms of today or what? This person really doesn't know who she's mad at when you look at it. Why does she want to scream at mothers today for staying at home? Did I miss something. I think this person needs to be sedated and quarantined.

"I hate it when the clerks converse with each other while the customers are standing in line waiting to be waited on."

Did it ever occur to you that there might be a reason why we aren't ringing you out? Maybe we aren't aware that anyone is standing in line. We aren't supposed to be mutes at are job. We are allowed to talk to each other and try to enjoy work a little bit. I'm sorry if it inconveniences everyone's busy schedules. Besides, maybe you were that person who was on their cell phone blabbing about your social life while we tried to unsuccessfuly figure out what you wanted. It's both sides people. Deal with it.

"Penitentiary Glen sounds like an honor farm for convicted felons. For Pete's sake, change the name to reflect what it really is, a beautiful nature reserve in the Cleveland area."

Okay, now we're just getting picky. If you have that much time to worry about the name of a nature reserve, I really have to wonder about you period. By the way, who in the hell is Pete?

"What happened to the once highly touted golden years of retirement? The soon-to-be-retired, aging baby boomer has been forced to give more than my portion of the gold to the natural gas suppliers because I don't want to freeze to death this winter."

I dunno. Maybe it has to do with all the boomers driving $40,000 cars, living in $250,000 homes, with a tv in every room in the house not to mention cars for all their children. But who am I to judge?

Okay, so there isn't a whole lot in the moaning department this week. I guess people were too busy bitching to each other to complain to the newspaper.

It's about time too. Sometimes, I really wonder about people. Then I remember what I'm wondering about and realize that I'm wasting my time and get on with my life.

But, in any case. I received an instant message from someone a long time ago linking me to a site called Sluggy Freelance that I really didn't pay any attention to at the time. I finally got around to checking it out.

It's absolutely fucking brilliant. The humor is so off-key, so strange that you can't help but laugh. Like some comics, there are story arcs that go on for a while before ending and a new one starts up. But these stories are so twisted, so unreal, it makes it that much more amazing. Imagine having a character at war with Santa Claus. A Dimension of Pain. A character called Squeekyboo Ball.

It's just the funniest thing I've read in a long time and I'm now intent on reading it from the beginning so that I might have a clue as to what's going on right now.

You might check it out and not think much of it, but maybe it's because some days, it doesn't take much to captivate me. My attention is easy to get, but it's also easy to lose too.

Case in point, once in high school I was being kind of goofy in my French Class and my teacher kind of either called on me or yelled at me. I'm still not sure. I think she was telling me to be quiet though. Unfortunately, five minutes later she was saying my name again. I just looked at her and said "what?"

The girl next to me, Rachel, said at the time "you must have a short attention span" which prompted me to ignore my teacher for the third time as I answered her. The class got a good laugh out of it because she could not keep my attention.

But that was way back when I was fifteen. Five years has made me a little more mature than that now. I still am goofy, but I pick my spots a little better than I used to.

At least that's what I like to tell myself.