A Disappointing Day

I got to work today and soon after clocking in, I just became disgusted for the rest of my shift...

Sam's Club is trying to promote a new membership we offer, the Collegiate. It's basically just a regular advantage membership all dressed up to look like a great idea for college students. Anyway, to promote this, we've taken the "back to skool" craze to a new level and the entrance of Sam's Club is decorated to look just like a college dorm room. It's all decked out with a little twin bed, a desk, a computer,a 40 inch tv, a cart FULL of food. It's actually a pretty high-end dorm room. We even have a lady serving pizza in it and this weekend, we were giving away backpacks. The backpacks don't come full of school supplies and they have the Sam's Club logo on them, so they aren't cute. To most people, it's just an undersized, Sam's Club backpack that isn't good for anything but maybe carrying books back and forth to the library. Now excuse me while I get racial for a moment: I'll have it be known that black people were the only ones trying to take 3 and 4 backpacks, eating 4 and 5 slices of pizza, getting out their cell phones to call other people (who didn't even have memberships) to come to Sam's and get a backpack, and just overall causing problems. Take one backpack, take one slice of pizza, and keep it moving <-- that idea seemed to be lost on them. Even the most ghetto employees at my job were taking note of how our fellow black Americans were acting. One of my homeboys, Dre, stated that he did not like black people. I seconded it with "I do not like them Sam I Am." And then he took off with it "I do not like them Sam I Am, I do not like black women and men, I do not like them in the park, I do not like them after dark. I do not like them when they act like a jerk, I really don't like them when I clock in at work. All they do is end up in jail; I do not like them, they will not prevail." That's all that I remember, but it went on and on. In theory, it was not funny. I won't say that it was actually funny either...but it was just one of those experiences where you can't help but take notice and it's sad.

Then, this professional photographer came to make his prints so he can sell his packages. He had an image of four young girls who looked to be about 14 or so, and they were all pregnant. You could take one look at their faces and tell that they were extremely young. They had on matching outfits and jewelry. It was disgusting. Who told them that it was cute to be in middle school and pregnant?? And which of their mothers paid for the sitting fee?? And which of their mothers was purchasing their package?? It included fifty million wallet sized prints that I'm sure will be passed all around school next week. I guess it's good that these super young ladies are being made to feel positive about their situation, but I'm not sure that it warrants professional photos that showcase their fast-assness.

This particular photographer has came to my lab before to get some prints done. He came with a large order that included a lot of poster prints. The poster printer at my job is extremely slow. It may take an hour or longer for one print to load up and begin printing. Once it starts, it only takes about a minute for the actual print to be completed. It took hours for his order to be completed and he flew off the handle. Lost his damn mind. Just snapped and acted a fool. Said that Sam's Club has never disappointed him like this before in his life. Said he can't believe how slow our equipment is. Said that he's got the police after him because I was making him look like he was running a fraudulent business. Just said all types of crazy shit. None of it said calmly...all at the top of his lungs while he angrily paced back and forth in front of the counter, throwing his hands in the air, yanking his hair out, jumping up and down, and trying to come into the photo lab and take a look at the printer himself. He was fit to be tied. So imagine my shock and discomfort when he walked in today. He ordered several regular prints and 8 posters. He already knows what the deal is with the poster prints...my printer runs slow. It sounds bad, but the truth is that it could take approximately 8 hours to print those 8 posters. I have called technicians and there is nothing that can be done about it, I have to wait until they do the company-wide upgrades on all the machines. So anyway, he placed his order and when I saw those posters, I went and told both managers on duty that he was there and they remembered him from the last time. However, they both shrugged their shoulders and looked at me as if it was my problem. I went and found the photographer who was riding around the store in a sit-and-shop like he lacked the ability to walk (ugh, lazy negro). I explained to him that nothing had changed since the last time he was there, my equipment was still extremely slow, his order would not be completed by the time the store closed at 6, his best bet was to come early in the morning and place his order and then leave and call back for an update midway through the afternoon. He seemed so kool...he said he understood. But he didn't leave. He sat in the "college dorm room" and glared at me and watched me shut down the photo lab. He didn't say another word to me. But at 5:59, he got up and went up to the service desk and ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. He was stark raving mad. Doing all the same things he did the first time...screaming, jumping around, yanking his hair, throwing his arms in the air. The two managers who had already been pre-warned stood there alongside some other employees and looked like they just got a whoopin' while every single customer and worker stopped what they were doing and stood there with their mouth dropped open while he ranted and raved. I clocked out and left before it was all said and done, but I later found out that one of the managers ended up giving him 60 bucks worth of free pictures. The same manager tried to avoid eye contact with me as I left, which I wasn't feelin. I was somewhat glad that they got a taste of what I have been dealing with and trying to tell them...the man is crazy. I know that tomorrow, not one word better be breathed to me about the situation. One of the managers came to me before I clocked out and was trying to get a better grip on the situation and wanting to know why he'd been there for 4 hours and his order wasn't complete. I explained the situation to her. She didn't say too much, but she's known to be a bitch (like, a real one). The other manager, he's extremely passive and tries to deal with as little as possible. I'm not sure what could be said to me about it, I handled the situation the best that I could, but since it was right at the closing of the store, I wonder if they really wanted to sit me down and try to somehow make it my fault and are just going to do it tomorrow.

About 30 minutes before I got off work, Shanee sent a text saying that she was going to take a nap. By the time she woke up, I was writing this post and even though I said that we could talk then, she still wanted to get off the phone until I was done. So, it's the end of the day and we've only talked 30 minutes, which was at 9:30 in the morning. It saddens me. I know she's got a life to live and I'm not her whole life, but I've just been extremely sensitive about it lately. When she is at skool in Philly, I know that she's often bored and she misses her family a lot. But when she goes home to DC, she's happy to be around her family and her close friends. That's all fine and good...but I hate it that our communication suffers terribly when she goes home. She does the best she can, but it's way less than what I'm used to. I want her to be happy and going home makes her happy...but it would be a lie if I said that I'm not happy when she goes back to Philly and things get back to normal. It kind of makes me feel like it's only convenient to talk to me when she's in Philly without a lot of close friends and family to keep her entertained. Maybe I'm just a big baby or maybe I'm spoiled, but I feel somewhat like an afterthought when every time she goes home, our communication gets all fucked up. I know that these things aren't true, but I'm just needy. Like I said in a xanga post last week, when she's with her mother and her sister, they are so close and have so much fun together, it's more like a group of girlfriends. It's true that I'm jealous of the fact that she's so close to her mother and they have so much fun together. I'm glad she has that because it makes her happy, but it's double sadness for me because I can really only talk to her first thing in the morning if I call and wake her up or late in the night when she's finally in bed, then the reminder that she's got a good relationship with her mother and I don't. It also scares me because I wonder how happy she'll be next year when she moves away from her family. She gets pretty homesick and unhappy if she doesn't get to go home every few weeks. That's not going to work if she's any further than 3 or 4 hours away. I wonder if I should just suck it up and move to DC...I don't have those close ties to my family like she does, it would be far less painful for me to be far away than it would be for her. Hmm...I just thought of that, maybe I should discuss it with her.

One tidbit of non-disappointing news though!! New England lost! I suppose it's still disappointing since it's only the preseason though...!

I made that banner at the top of my page...and I noticed today that my ear looks WEIRD.