(no subject)
Christ, how long has it been? Not exactly sure why I'm writing in this thing, I guess I have some time to myself and I feel like being self indulgent in some form or another.
I started my new job recently, a retail stint over at a Sears. I'm selling electronics to people with more money than brains, and like your typical sleezy salesman, its my job to rope more money out of em by selling them "Protection Agreements"... I sound like a fucking extortionist. Unlike a kneebreaker, though, these "Agreements" are actually fairly good, Sears just banks on the fact that people are too lazy to make use of the offered preventative maintanence housecalls that are one of the main selling points of the contracts.
I had a relatively good day today, despite how little sleep I got. I was up at around 5am, my nerves generally making it impossible for me to fall right asleep, when the power went out. It stayed out till around 7am, and the entire time I had to stay up because I couldn't fall asleep without the alarm clock set to wake me up because I had to be at work at 1, and knowing how my sleep pattern is, I'd have slept till 2 at the earliest if I didn't have the alarm.
The power did finally come on, so I was able to get some sleep before work.
I worked on some training for the first couple of hours, then my manager moved me out onto the floor to do some register work. I feel most comfortable here because it's what I know from my last job, so that went well.
Around 6pm I went for some dinner, had a slice of pizza and a soda. While I was sitting there eating, an old man who later introduced himself as Louis came over and asked me if there was a place where he could get a pair of glasses. We struck up a conversation, mostly him asking me questions about myself. It was a little weird, to be honest, he was about 85 and kept talking about God, the hereafter, and sin. He had a hardon for sin, apparently, and kept mentioning how he wanted to go to heaven, but he felt as though he were a sinner. We talked about religion for a good while, and I got the sense that this poor old guy was hitting on me the entire time, just from the way he kept harping on sinful urges, kept asking me if I had a girlfriend, asked me once if I was straight or homosexual. At first I thought he was going to try and convert me to christianity, but he didn't seem bothered by the fact that I'm an Athiest.
This whole old-guy hitting on me thing is starting to spook me a little. I've delt with it before, but never in my life as much as I have to out here. You'd think liberal old NY would be rife with dirty old gay men, but I swear I've had to deal with more come ons from my own sex out here in America's heartland than I care to relate.
So Lou walked back with me to my department, although he wandered off after I had to clock back in. I reported over to my section and for the last three hours or so of my day I was on the floor learning the ins and outs of the sales procedure. I'm still not familiar with a lot of the stock we have there, so there's not much I can do to help the customers just yet. I helped a woman a bit looking at some digital cameras, but she didn't buy anything. Mostly I just kept people in the department long enough for one of the other two sales associates on duty to get over and help them out. But I'm picking this stuff up as I go, I learned a bit tonight that'll help me tomorrow.
Right now, I don't feel too comfortable with the job. There's a ton of procedure I'm still working on learning, but I like the people at least, and I think once I learn more about the products themselves I'll be in good shape. My people skills aren't the issue here, it's catching up with the electronics industry I haven't been keeping tabs on since the late 90's.
In other news, Kingsley emailed me earlier, he proposed to his girlfriend, and she accepted, so it looks like I have another wedding to go to soon :) That makes two of my friends, and my sister, all within a short span of time.
On the one hand, this is depressing as fuck, and I'm going to quite writing here because I'm starting to sound like an ass in my own head. Every friendship, I squander. Put it that way.
I started my new job recently, a retail stint over at a Sears. I'm selling electronics to people with more money than brains, and like your typical sleezy salesman, its my job to rope more money out of em by selling them "Protection Agreements"... I sound like a fucking extortionist. Unlike a kneebreaker, though, these "Agreements" are actually fairly good, Sears just banks on the fact that people are too lazy to make use of the offered preventative maintanence housecalls that are one of the main selling points of the contracts.
I had a relatively good day today, despite how little sleep I got. I was up at around 5am, my nerves generally making it impossible for me to fall right asleep, when the power went out. It stayed out till around 7am, and the entire time I had to stay up because I couldn't fall asleep without the alarm clock set to wake me up because I had to be at work at 1, and knowing how my sleep pattern is, I'd have slept till 2 at the earliest if I didn't have the alarm.
The power did finally come on, so I was able to get some sleep before work.
I worked on some training for the first couple of hours, then my manager moved me out onto the floor to do some register work. I feel most comfortable here because it's what I know from my last job, so that went well.
Around 6pm I went for some dinner, had a slice of pizza and a soda. While I was sitting there eating, an old man who later introduced himself as Louis came over and asked me if there was a place where he could get a pair of glasses. We struck up a conversation, mostly him asking me questions about myself. It was a little weird, to be honest, he was about 85 and kept talking about God, the hereafter, and sin. He had a hardon for sin, apparently, and kept mentioning how he wanted to go to heaven, but he felt as though he were a sinner. We talked about religion for a good while, and I got the sense that this poor old guy was hitting on me the entire time, just from the way he kept harping on sinful urges, kept asking me if I had a girlfriend, asked me once if I was straight or homosexual. At first I thought he was going to try and convert me to christianity, but he didn't seem bothered by the fact that I'm an Athiest.
This whole old-guy hitting on me thing is starting to spook me a little. I've delt with it before, but never in my life as much as I have to out here. You'd think liberal old NY would be rife with dirty old gay men, but I swear I've had to deal with more come ons from my own sex out here in America's heartland than I care to relate.
So Lou walked back with me to my department, although he wandered off after I had to clock back in. I reported over to my section and for the last three hours or so of my day I was on the floor learning the ins and outs of the sales procedure. I'm still not familiar with a lot of the stock we have there, so there's not much I can do to help the customers just yet. I helped a woman a bit looking at some digital cameras, but she didn't buy anything. Mostly I just kept people in the department long enough for one of the other two sales associates on duty to get over and help them out. But I'm picking this stuff up as I go, I learned a bit tonight that'll help me tomorrow.
Right now, I don't feel too comfortable with the job. There's a ton of procedure I'm still working on learning, but I like the people at least, and I think once I learn more about the products themselves I'll be in good shape. My people skills aren't the issue here, it's catching up with the electronics industry I haven't been keeping tabs on since the late 90's.
In other news, Kingsley emailed me earlier, he proposed to his girlfriend, and she accepted, so it looks like I have another wedding to go to soon :) That makes two of my friends, and my sister, all within a short span of time.
On the one hand, this is depressing as fuck, and I'm going to quite writing here because I'm starting to sound like an ass in my own head. Every friendship, I squander. Put it that way.