The Adventures of She Who Should Post More Often...

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Hard to get time to do them at work. We are finally on the phones, but there just hasn't been enough time to blog at work yet. I figured I'd do a quick one today. Am supposed to be doing laundry right now, but I just don't have the energy to. I'll do it later.

So, I had an interesting time after work last night. Had to go to the DMV to get my tabs renewed for my car. Usually, it's pretty quick as they have an express lane for tabs. Unfortunately, not last night. I was horrified to see that there was a "window closed" sign in the express lane. To backtrack a little, I told Dana to stay in the car because I wouldn't be long at all. With windows open. It was very humid outside. And no, I'm not hinting that I could have left the keys in the car for her to turn on the air conditioner. So I'm inside and I grab my number. C61. They were helping B10. I didn't really catch the B part of it right away. This particular site has a very diverse group of customers. I love children, but why do you need to bring your 10 children with you to the DMV? You aren't really watching them. If you were, you would see your smallest child laying on the floor in the middle of everyone. Not to mention the fact that he hit his head on the post and is about to cry any minute. Or the mother yelling at your screaming child to shut up. Or the children just running around in general with no purpose. I really don't know why I come here. There are many others I could go to, but I always set myself up for this. It's never quick. And poor Dana is sitting in the car. At least she has her book. They say the wait time is only going to be 35-45 minutes. And here I am without my book. So this guy behind me asks me what letter I have on my ticket. I tell him and he points out that he hopes they aren't really on B. But I guess we'll find out if two people have the same number. CRAP! I really hope that it isn't true. Please, please let it be wrong! So we chat while waiting and hope that they end up skipping a bunch of numbers every time they call a new one. I was grateful that there really weren't 51 people before me or 151 if they were truly on B (which they weren't, thank goodness). I think it was more like 30. Still took the 45 minutes, but at least it wasn't longer than that. So the guy says that he hopes it isn't raining. That reminds me that there were thunderstorms predicted for last night around that time. Then some wonderful non-working DMV clerk says that there is a tornado warning until 9pm. GREAT! Now I have to keep hoping that it isn't raining. My poor car will be wet inside. Oh yeah..Dana too (kidding Dana, I was more worried about what you were going to do if it was raining). I couldn't go out and close the windows because I could lose my spot in line. I really didn't want to wait another 45 minutes because I had to take a new number, so I had to hope that all was okay outside. They finally call my number, only to find out that I have to wait in line for the cashier now. Yeah. Great! At least that was only a 5 minute wait. Happy that that horrible experience is over, I go back out to the car. I notice that it had rained. Didn't think it was that bad until I saw the big puddle. Oh oh. I hope Dana isn't too wet. Imagine walking up to the car to see an umbrella sticking out of the window. Gotta give her credit for thinking of the umbrella. I felt bad, but was laughing hysterically at the sight.

So on our way to the DMV, we pass a car fire. Wasn't big at first, but it got bigger as I was driving away. I kept watching out of my mirror to see what was going on. I just have a few questions:

If your car is on fire, why do you try to put it out?
Do you think that it's going to help?
Do you not know that gasoline is highly combustable and your car will explode?
If you see/hear a tiny explosion, why must you continue to try and put out the fire?
Do you really think that it is going to help?
Do you have a death wish?
If it explodes a third time, why do you keep going back?
Don't you realize that it could be a much bigger one the next time?

Yes, I saw the flames get higher and small explosions. The dude kept trying to put it out and go back towards the car. Let it go. You can't stop it.

Okay one more thing before I go. So we drive by a sign for upcoming concerts and whatnot occasionally. Last night we saw "Smuckers Champions" or something like that. I can't wait. I get to see Grape and Strawberry.

Until next time...

A life of crime...

With jobs that I have held in the past, I have seen some interesting things. When I first moved here and was working for a convenience store, one of the news stations decided to do a in-depth report about gas drive-offs. Dealing with them is not fun if you are the person that is working when it happens. Depending on the company, they may make you pay for the lost gas purchases. I had been written up by my manager for having alot of them. All I can say is that if a bus is in the first row of gas pumps and you can't see behind it, how is that my fault?!?!

The best part about the newscast was not the fact that they were filming actual customers driving off without paying for their gas, but the fact that the police chief actually made a statement that they don't really care about drive-offs. Yes! Thank you so much. You have just told everyone watching that it's okay to drive off without paying for your gas!

I think that my favorite drive-off story is this couple who were successful one of my last days at the store while I was in Wisconsin. They totally did this intentionally as they had put mud on their liscense plate to block off the last number. They parked at the farthest gas pump that was closest to the parking lot exit. He pumps the gas and she comes inside to make other purchases. I asked if she had gas, not shocked when she said no. I figured that he'd come in to get that. Not unheard of and pretty common when I think about it. So she walks out the door and trys to go into stealth mode. Yeah. Pretty obvious when almost the entire store front is windows and she slowly walks to the left of the doors while watching what we are doing inside. As I am pretty much by myself, it's hard to leave the register to catch her. Got the plate for what I could see that wasn't covered by mud. She gets to the car and they drive off. Yeah. Gotta give them credit for pulling it off. I did report it to the police, but it was one of those..."well, we'll send them a letter and they have 30 days to respond to the letter." What the crap? A letter really works.

The other store I worked at in Wisconsin was just a blast. It seemed to be the Friday/Saturday night hang out for the local high school kids. There was a short order restaurant in this store and they would hang out in the restaurant and make a huge mess and then just leave. One night, two of the ususal mess makers decided that they would steal some beer. We sold the liter bottles as well as the 12-packs. The liters were their intended target. The person in the restaurant comes running up to the register and tells me that there is a kid back by the beer door with his pants down. I, of course am flabbergasted by this as I couldn't beleive that someone would actually do that. I had her hang out by me so that we could catch the little culprit. I did, but things went wrong. He came up to the register and you could so tell that he put the bottle in his pants. There is no way that the bulge I saw was real. Give me a break. So I have him sit down in the restaurant. I loved the look that I got for him being caught. His friend left. He tells me that he has to get something and before I know it he is out the door. The next thing I see is this guy in a white shirt running down the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch him, however, I did manage to tell him that he couldn't come back the next time that he came in. No more public exposure priveledges for you!

One more shoplifting story before I go...

So once I moved here, I worked at the same chain of stores in a very scary area. I have to say that the store I was at was the only in it's area that didn't get held up. It was a pretty common occurance. It was also in a lower-income neighborhood. I would get upset as some of the parents would send their 4 year olds over to the store to get them their king size candy bar and a liter of pop. Okay, did I mention the fact that the child has to cross a very, very busy street? So this particular child would wander in the store. Never really thought much about it, but once I realized what he might have been doing, I watched him like a hawk. He and one of his little friends decided to shop lift. I caught them as they were about to go out the door. Held them captive behind the register until the police showed up. They had a large bag of cheetos and some other stuff that they had shoved in their jackets. As I am waiting for the officer to show up, this older woman sees them and asks me what they did. I told her exactly what they did. She shocked me by asking me if she could give them each a dollar. What the crap? I asked her why she wanted to pay them for shoplifting. Her response was that they didn't know what they did. I argued with her about that for about 5 minutes. I eventually gave up and they each earned a dollar for stealing. Hmmm...the message that I got was "look...people will give you money if you steal. It's okay." I was so mad. So the little theives were standing there and laughing and having a fun time. I got mad and told them that they had better be quiet or I'd take the money away from them. The best part of this was that once the officer did arrive, he recognized one of them and told me that he's had problems with him before. A 4 YEAR OLD!!! The only thing I could do was tell them that they were no longer allowed in the store. The did get a ride in the police car home though.

Until next time...

She Who Should Post More Often Says...

I will, but it is so much more fun irritating Dana by non-blogging. Now that I have more time on my hands and can do this more often, I will try and post on a more regular basis. I cannot tell you how frequently as I don't want to say I'll do something I cannot commit to and disappoint you.

Training is going rather well. I was surprised to see that they were putting us on the phones our second week. I have to say that I like the opportunity to apply what they've shown us so far.
Dana is also in the same training class. That can be trying at times. I am liking the drive into work as well. It's nice not to drive on the freeway. No more accidents and delays. Has to be the best thing. Of course, we now work an hour later and there's nothing like being an hour early to work. We've got it down to 1/2 hour now.

There will be more soon, if only an update on the training until we get out into the real world. :)

The Disappearing Sunglasses...

First of all, I can hear Beth as she reads this...."It's about time!!!" You'll appreciate this particular blog.

Dana has a knack for misplacing things on a regular basis. Then I hear "Keem, where did I put this (sunglasses, books, clothes, shoes, you name it...she asks where it is)?" I found her latest pair of sunglasses yesterday. Not the sunglasses that you'd typically see a younger person wearing. She's old (hee hee), but not old enough to wear the granny clip on sunglasses because they are cheap. You'll never guess where I found them. It was actually an odd place to find them. They were in the trunk of my car so to speak. Not actually in the trunk, but in the space above the hinges. Found it odd that that was where she left them.

One more quick Dana story before I go. We both started a new job this week. Thank goodness it's Friday! Long, long week of training. Anyway, about a month ago, we both interviewed for the jobs. The day before her interview, she asks this question.."Keem, what time is my interview tomorrow?" Of course, I know what time it was set up for, but I wasn't going to tell her, at least not yet. For anyone that doesn't already know this, she has a tendancy to forget things...quite often. (yes, Dana, I am picking on you...but I can't help it) My usual response is "Dana, I am not your calendar or your PDA." There are more Dana stories to tell, but I'll have to do those at a later time. Gotta get back to work.