OK, so that didn't work
OK, so the idea of daily blogging didn't work. Whatever. I'll just try to do more.
I'm still at work right now, waiting for my hubby to pick me up and take me home. It's been a long day. Kind of felt down all day. The sun'll come up tomorrow, I'm telling myself. I'm damn precious, I'm telling myself. The people who count love me, I'm telling myself.
My sister wrote about shopping in Safeway (hey, maybe I can write a daily blog by using my sister's ideas every day!). She wrote about the clerks who stand by the registers and ask if you're ready to go and direct you to a free register. When they do that it always makes me think of the prostitutes we saw in the red district in Amsterdam. I guess because the clerks are standing in their little aisle and the prostitutes stood in their solitary windows.
I once wrote a letter to the editor of our newspaper (an email actually, but you know what I mean) about the canned speeches from grocery store clerks. A bunch of people were complaining about clerks who talk to their co-workers instead of talking to the customers. That can be annoying, but meaningless, pat conversation annoys me a lot more. It's so dumb that they have to read my name so they can say it to say thank you. And when some young kid says, "Did you find everything you needed?" I want to say, "Yes, because I've shopped here since before you were born." Once I got to know a clerk a little and would ask her how her schooling was going because she was going to nurse's school. The last time I did that she kind of ducked her head and said she couldn't talk because the manager was looking and they weren't supposed to chitchat with the customers. How ridiculous is that? Real, friendly conversation is not allowed, only the fake, memorized kind.
I also often think about the fact that, actually, we could do our entire transaction without one word. I slide my card, she knows my name, the numbers show up on the screen, the screen prompts me for my signature, we're done. Would it be better to have no speaking than fake speaking? Not sure about that. Maybe.
I'm still at work right now, waiting for my hubby to pick me up and take me home. It's been a long day. Kind of felt down all day. The sun'll come up tomorrow, I'm telling myself. I'm damn precious, I'm telling myself. The people who count love me, I'm telling myself.
My sister wrote about shopping in Safeway (hey, maybe I can write a daily blog by using my sister's ideas every day!). She wrote about the clerks who stand by the registers and ask if you're ready to go and direct you to a free register. When they do that it always makes me think of the prostitutes we saw in the red district in Amsterdam. I guess because the clerks are standing in their little aisle and the prostitutes stood in their solitary windows.
I once wrote a letter to the editor of our newspaper (an email actually, but you know what I mean) about the canned speeches from grocery store clerks. A bunch of people were complaining about clerks who talk to their co-workers instead of talking to the customers. That can be annoying, but meaningless, pat conversation annoys me a lot more. It's so dumb that they have to read my name so they can say it to say thank you. And when some young kid says, "Did you find everything you needed?" I want to say, "Yes, because I've shopped here since before you were born." Once I got to know a clerk a little and would ask her how her schooling was going because she was going to nurse's school. The last time I did that she kind of ducked her head and said she couldn't talk because the manager was looking and they weren't supposed to chitchat with the customers. How ridiculous is that? Real, friendly conversation is not allowed, only the fake, memorized kind.
I also often think about the fact that, actually, we could do our entire transaction without one word. I slide my card, she knows my name, the numbers show up on the screen, the screen prompts me for my signature, we're done. Would it be better to have no speaking than fake speaking? Not sure about that. Maybe.