(no subject)
Entry III
I work a small town sort of job at a record store. It's not great pay, it's not a great environment, it's not anything except for a place to fill up time. Being young and working with music is fun in a way, though. You can sample all the music you want and get discounts on those overpriced albums. The downside, however, is having a boss that loves a style of music you can't stand. In my case, country music. Now don't get me wrong, I won't judge a person or anything like that just because they like country music. It was more of the fact that all day every day that was the only music she would play in her store. I tried to let myself become numb to it and every once in a while it worked. She was understanding sometimes because I was the type of guy that would hold in frustration. When she saw me cringe or something she would shout out across the store and ask me if there was something I wanted to listen to and she would play it.
She was a nice boss.
The customers we got ranged from shady to ostentatious. By saying so, I mean we got all sorts of different people with different tastes of music. For example, I saw a "gothic style" kid come into the store and purchase an album of some pop singer or another then later, maybe a few days later, another "gothic" kid would come in and pick out a heavy metal band. I never really made conversation with anyone, though I would have liked to sometimes, which made the shifts a little bit more boring than they should have been. Particularily on Mondays I had the trouble of boredom.
Like every small town business, there are regulars who come to a place for one reason or another. Sunday and Saturday we had mainly the rock groups coming in to sample music and try to steal some albums, some with success others without, and the occasional country fan would sneak in because they couldn't make it for the day before, Friday, for their honored day (On Fridays Shanon would have one of the local country radio hosts come over and do signiatures and just be funny. I think she and he were friends or more of that). Tuesday through Thursday seemed to attract the pop culture kids from all across the neighborhood probably because they were the ones that didn't have jobs to worry about. Speaking of which, another thing I noticed while working there was that the pop culture kids would stay for several hours while the rockers would stay for maybe 20-30 minutes and the country fans would last as long as their good humor did. Monday was the day that hardly anyone ever came in. Once we tried to take a survey on people who came in which day they prefer coming in and over three fourths of the people asked had replied that Monday was the optimal day. Funny how things work out like that.
As I said before, the job wasn't much pay. I would take on other endeavours, particularily on the slow Mondays, and try to bring in some extra money for the apartment or for such and such new electronic device. At first, when I was fifteen years old (the year I started working at the record store) I tried the childish lawn and gardens services. I wasn't a professional of any sort but I got the job done. I was able to mow the lawns to a perfect height and water the gardens but some houses were unspecific if they wanted front and back yard services and some that had ordered front and back only had a front or a back and not both. The profit wasn't too bad considering I was able to use their water for all my needs on their property and I was able to get a taste of different cultures and accents (the accents were fun for me especially since I was still an impressionable little boy), but I was getting tired of asking for rides with my lawn mower and transportation became more and more difficult each week. Finally, I moved onto what I thought was a brilliant idea to get a second job for part time work. It's funny how the law prohibits us from doing what we want to do sometimes, whether it be constructive or destructive to the society. Because I was still only 15, I was only allowed to work X many hours in one week and the record store was already over that ammount so everywhere I had gone seeking employment I was quickly turned down for both age and law.
Since I was in high school and high school students are always seeking new ways to expand their minds I thought I could get into that tricky business. I don't know if a part of me was trying to spite the laws that wouldn't let me get a second job or if I was thinking of pure profit or if I was thinking it was a good way to get a free feeling but it brought me some of the money I wanted. So maybe things were getting a bit intense for someone so young an nearing their sixteenth birthday, but I was enjoying the ride while it lasted. My name never spread too much because people who bought from me said I was only a quick fix not worth remembering. Whatever that meant, it kept me out of any serious trouble with both law and dependents. I forget the exact reason why I had gone out of that particular business but I did and moved on to the current second-source for my income which has lasted me almost two years: nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job right now. It's relaxing in it's own strange way and my boss is a nice lady as well. In the three years I have been working for her, only a few things have changed. First of all, the guest from the local country station is over much more often to talk to her and they take breaks during the day more often now to go to Starbucks. They've been customers of the week for about a year now (I tried to tell her that it's not healthy to be drinking so much caffeine and she laughed at me saying I still thought like I was fifteen). We added another 1000 square feet to the building because business starting blooming for us (I say us because I was there for all but two months of its existance) where we filled up more rows of music and a new section for movies and games and a small ticketmaster booth where it let you go online to buy tickets. We became the main supplier of music, movies, and games within about ten miles and she hired a few more people.
To make this part easier, I'll start naming everyone I mention so hopefully it will make more sense to you. My boss, Shanon, had hired a few more hands for the growth of the store. There was Claire, a lovely little lady who had moved in from some ancient place deep within Ohio. Fashionably dressed and casual in tone, Shanon thought that Claire would be a lovely addition to the gaming department so as to make the shoppers feel less embarassed if they felt insecure of their hobby. Then there was Michael who was in charge of DVDs. He had a sixteen-mile drive everyday between work and home and Shanon would burn him copies of the in-store CDs to sample on his drives to and from work. He was in charge of our inventory and somewhat of an accountant. Next up we had Janet who was a little older than me and twice as entertaining. I used to think that Shanon hired her so I would have someone to talk to at work but lately she's been to shy (I think) to talk to me anymore. Shanon was put in the same department as me which was to organize the music isles, clean up, put up posters, take down posters, and make chit chat with the customers. We only had two people on the cash registers at a time, usually it was Me and a guy named Phillip who was into the heavy metal style of music. Phillip would come to work in a nice car and expensive clothes (which he had torn holes into himself and put on hand made patches and band logos which was always interesting to see) and always looked perfect in his own little brand. When I wasn't on the register usually Shanon would come take over or in the most "desperate" cases (desperate meaning when I had to take care of anyone else's shifts, Shanon leaving with Tommy, the country station guy, and the store was crowded) where she would smile, press the right buttons, and avoid eye contact with the shoppers. I'm sure I'm missing a few names from the truck deliverers that we considered usuals but that's because they weren't employed by Shanon. I was pretty much tied into the core of that store and knew almost everything about it. Shanon told me that one day, if the store became prosperous enough, she would make me the manager. Then, if it got even bigger, like a Tower Records store, should would make me in charge of her company. We always laughed about silly stuff like that but it was fun to look forward to. She told me I should start getting ready for my job at a big company for her so she even made a section of the store a cubicle for (at first just me) whoever was taking charge of paperwork for the store.
At any rate, that's the kind of environment I've been put in. I don't want to put in too much more time into my past or into these analyzations of where I'm working or anything like that. I just want to put down infront of myself what's going on in my life. I remember back when Janet and I were still talking-to save ourselves from boredome or whatnot-she told me "The only way you're ever going to understand what's going on is when you finally let go of everything you're trying so god damn hard to hold onto and take a step back and... and... well... look at it."
So here I go. I'm letting it go.
I work a small town sort of job at a record store. It's not great pay, it's not a great environment, it's not anything except for a place to fill up time. Being young and working with music is fun in a way, though. You can sample all the music you want and get discounts on those overpriced albums. The downside, however, is having a boss that loves a style of music you can't stand. In my case, country music. Now don't get me wrong, I won't judge a person or anything like that just because they like country music. It was more of the fact that all day every day that was the only music she would play in her store. I tried to let myself become numb to it and every once in a while it worked. She was understanding sometimes because I was the type of guy that would hold in frustration. When she saw me cringe or something she would shout out across the store and ask me if there was something I wanted to listen to and she would play it.
She was a nice boss.
The customers we got ranged from shady to ostentatious. By saying so, I mean we got all sorts of different people with different tastes of music. For example, I saw a "gothic style" kid come into the store and purchase an album of some pop singer or another then later, maybe a few days later, another "gothic" kid would come in and pick out a heavy metal band. I never really made conversation with anyone, though I would have liked to sometimes, which made the shifts a little bit more boring than they should have been. Particularily on Mondays I had the trouble of boredom.
Like every small town business, there are regulars who come to a place for one reason or another. Sunday and Saturday we had mainly the rock groups coming in to sample music and try to steal some albums, some with success others without, and the occasional country fan would sneak in because they couldn't make it for the day before, Friday, for their honored day (On Fridays Shanon would have one of the local country radio hosts come over and do signiatures and just be funny. I think she and he were friends or more of that). Tuesday through Thursday seemed to attract the pop culture kids from all across the neighborhood probably because they were the ones that didn't have jobs to worry about. Speaking of which, another thing I noticed while working there was that the pop culture kids would stay for several hours while the rockers would stay for maybe 20-30 minutes and the country fans would last as long as their good humor did. Monday was the day that hardly anyone ever came in. Once we tried to take a survey on people who came in which day they prefer coming in and over three fourths of the people asked had replied that Monday was the optimal day. Funny how things work out like that.
As I said before, the job wasn't much pay. I would take on other endeavours, particularily on the slow Mondays, and try to bring in some extra money for the apartment or for such and such new electronic device. At first, when I was fifteen years old (the year I started working at the record store) I tried the childish lawn and gardens services. I wasn't a professional of any sort but I got the job done. I was able to mow the lawns to a perfect height and water the gardens but some houses were unspecific if they wanted front and back yard services and some that had ordered front and back only had a front or a back and not both. The profit wasn't too bad considering I was able to use their water for all my needs on their property and I was able to get a taste of different cultures and accents (the accents were fun for me especially since I was still an impressionable little boy), but I was getting tired of asking for rides with my lawn mower and transportation became more and more difficult each week. Finally, I moved onto what I thought was a brilliant idea to get a second job for part time work. It's funny how the law prohibits us from doing what we want to do sometimes, whether it be constructive or destructive to the society. Because I was still only 15, I was only allowed to work X many hours in one week and the record store was already over that ammount so everywhere I had gone seeking employment I was quickly turned down for both age and law.
Since I was in high school and high school students are always seeking new ways to expand their minds I thought I could get into that tricky business. I don't know if a part of me was trying to spite the laws that wouldn't let me get a second job or if I was thinking of pure profit or if I was thinking it was a good way to get a free feeling but it brought me some of the money I wanted. So maybe things were getting a bit intense for someone so young an nearing their sixteenth birthday, but I was enjoying the ride while it lasted. My name never spread too much because people who bought from me said I was only a quick fix not worth remembering. Whatever that meant, it kept me out of any serious trouble with both law and dependents. I forget the exact reason why I had gone out of that particular business but I did and moved on to the current second-source for my income which has lasted me almost two years: nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job right now. It's relaxing in it's own strange way and my boss is a nice lady as well. In the three years I have been working for her, only a few things have changed. First of all, the guest from the local country station is over much more often to talk to her and they take breaks during the day more often now to go to Starbucks. They've been customers of the week for about a year now (I tried to tell her that it's not healthy to be drinking so much caffeine and she laughed at me saying I still thought like I was fifteen). We added another 1000 square feet to the building because business starting blooming for us (I say us because I was there for all but two months of its existance) where we filled up more rows of music and a new section for movies and games and a small ticketmaster booth where it let you go online to buy tickets. We became the main supplier of music, movies, and games within about ten miles and she hired a few more people.
To make this part easier, I'll start naming everyone I mention so hopefully it will make more sense to you. My boss, Shanon, had hired a few more hands for the growth of the store. There was Claire, a lovely little lady who had moved in from some ancient place deep within Ohio. Fashionably dressed and casual in tone, Shanon thought that Claire would be a lovely addition to the gaming department so as to make the shoppers feel less embarassed if they felt insecure of their hobby. Then there was Michael who was in charge of DVDs. He had a sixteen-mile drive everyday between work and home and Shanon would burn him copies of the in-store CDs to sample on his drives to and from work. He was in charge of our inventory and somewhat of an accountant. Next up we had Janet who was a little older than me and twice as entertaining. I used to think that Shanon hired her so I would have someone to talk to at work but lately she's been to shy (I think) to talk to me anymore. Shanon was put in the same department as me which was to organize the music isles, clean up, put up posters, take down posters, and make chit chat with the customers. We only had two people on the cash registers at a time, usually it was Me and a guy named Phillip who was into the heavy metal style of music. Phillip would come to work in a nice car and expensive clothes (which he had torn holes into himself and put on hand made patches and band logos which was always interesting to see) and always looked perfect in his own little brand. When I wasn't on the register usually Shanon would come take over or in the most "desperate" cases (desperate meaning when I had to take care of anyone else's shifts, Shanon leaving with Tommy, the country station guy, and the store was crowded) where she would smile, press the right buttons, and avoid eye contact with the shoppers. I'm sure I'm missing a few names from the truck deliverers that we considered usuals but that's because they weren't employed by Shanon. I was pretty much tied into the core of that store and knew almost everything about it. Shanon told me that one day, if the store became prosperous enough, she would make me the manager. Then, if it got even bigger, like a Tower Records store, should would make me in charge of her company. We always laughed about silly stuff like that but it was fun to look forward to. She told me I should start getting ready for my job at a big company for her so she even made a section of the store a cubicle for (at first just me) whoever was taking charge of paperwork for the store.
At any rate, that's the kind of environment I've been put in. I don't want to put in too much more time into my past or into these analyzations of where I'm working or anything like that. I just want to put down infront of myself what's going on in my life. I remember back when Janet and I were still talking-to save ourselves from boredome or whatnot-she told me "The only way you're ever going to understand what's going on is when you finally let go of everything you're trying so god damn hard to hold onto and take a step back and... and... well... look at it."
So here I go. I'm letting it go.