Cost Plus, bald ferrets and MORE Snarry

[grrgoyl]

Last night we inventoried Cost Plus. This is the chain that I suspect gave me piiiiiiiink eyyyyyye last cycle (though this particular store seemed a lot cleaner this time around). But I'm not going to talk about the inventory at all, rather my co-workers.

The laziness of kids today is really beginning to concern me. This job requires a certain amount of self-sufficiency and initiative. I'm not talking climbing-the-corporate-ladder initiative, I'm talking being able to seek out more assignments when the current one is completed. Doesn't sound that hard, but there are an alarming number of kids that work for us who see this as an opportunity to take a little break, slowly shuffling about the store pretending to be looking for the supervisor but really just killing time until the inventory is over. It is MADDENING I tell you, as someone who inherited a strong work ethic from her father.

So last night there was this girl. We were all finishing up in the backroom on a couple of palettes of seasonal stuff. About 5 of us were pulling down big boxes and counting them. She timidly approached us to help so I gave her a box. When she finished it, she announced triumphantly "Okay!" and then just stood there looking at me. "Okay," I repeated and looked back. "What now?" she asked. Oh for the love of...."Help yourself" I said, indicating the rest of the boxes on the palette. Hand-holding. Hand-holding and babysitting are what these kids need nowadays. As we neared the end of the palette she was the first to finish. Taking what passed for initiative for her, she asked if she could help anyone else. We all said no, and she stood there. And stood there. And stood there. After about 10 minutes when I noticed she was still there, I said "I would prefer you go talk to Dave rather than stand there watching us." They're like dolls that need the giant key in their back rewound before they'll move again, I swear. Initiative. Look it up, people.

Then we started the salesfloor where I ended up counting with Alex all night long. Alex is a nice enough kid. I wouldn't call him stupid so much as young and inexperienced. He is, however, very exuberant, like a 6-foot-tall Labrador puppy. I've been distancing myself from him because this has a tendency to annoy me, but since we were stuck together last night I thought I should try to be nice and make conversation. BIG MISTAKE. He has a problem where he voices every little thought that flits through his mind the very second that he has it. It's like having a conversation with James Joyce, except without the intelligent things to say. Complete stream-of-consciousness diarrhea of the mouth. As an example, he once remarked to the room at large, apropos of nothing, "Having an IV is weird. It's like, one minute you're thirsty, and the next minute you aren't."

During the course of his chatter, this exchange occurred. He told me he was thinking of going to Starbucks for a second job during the RGIS slow season. He had worked for them before so didn't think he'd have a problem being hired again, except he didn't know what the pay was these days but he was pretty sure he could get a decent rate, he really liked working for them and blah blah blah you get the idea. Then THIS was said:

Alex: (after a respectable silence, during which I thought we had dropped the Starbucks topic) My sister works at Starbucks in New York, right across from the World Trade Center.
Me: Not anymore she doesn't. Now she works across from Ground Zero.
Alex: Not the Twin Towers. The World Trade Center.
Me: The Twin Towers WERE the World Trade Center.....?
Alex: What happened to the World Trade Center?
Me: (you can imagine my incredulity) Ummmm....it got blown up. Do you ever watch the news?
Alex: Oh! No, not the World Trade Center. What's that other big building in New York?
Me: The Empire State Building?
Alex: Yeah! That's it! I just get confused because the Empire State Building USED to be called the World Trade Center.
Me: Wait, what?

I'm seriously considering posting this to mock_the_stupid. And last night I was seriously considering begging Dave to let me count anywhere else but near him after that. All in all I think I was better off when he was wary and regarded me as unapproachable.


Thoroughly unrelated, but Tery insisted I post this pic, I wanted my hair cut but I hate going to a hairdresser. I hate this because it's kind of like Christmas day for me: Either they barely touch my hair and it looks like nothing has been done, or they insist on making it all poofy and girly, blowdrying and spraying and styling the crap out of it. Either way I feel obligated to ooh and aah over it as if I really like it (kind of like my Christmas presents), before running to the car and taking a comb to it to try to look like myself again and not some bizarre tomboy/runway model hybrid.

(Though I will grant you that the hairdresser doesn't require as much moral support or guarantees against violence should it not go according to plan.)

So Tery called me from the bar and I reminded her I wanted her to cut my hair so please don't come home drunk. Three hours later she arrived, not exactly drunk but not 100% sober either. It is a testament to how much I hate the hairdresser that I would prefer to allow a half-inebriated person to come at my head with scissors. She didn't do a half bad job, actually, but when we were done she decided to have some fun with Griffyn. Poor Griffyn has adrenal cancer that has caused most of her fur to fall out. Tery thought it would be amusing to loan her some of my discarded hair:

She insists she is happier with the hair. Based on this pic, I for one can't imagine she's enjoying her Ted Koppel combover.


Even more unrelated, here is my new favorite (work-safe variety) Snarry pic. I wish I could credit the artist but I just copy images from the internet at random and don't make note of where I found them.

"Invisibility"

It's just perfect. Severus looks so morose and lonely. Harry looks older (I HATE Snarry chan art) and so....beside himself with desire. Yum.