Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Where I am, Where I Was

The boss came to the office yesterday. I was reading NFL.com. He asked me if I was keeping busy, which threw me off-guard for a sec, until I realized he was kidding. We talked about football for a bit, since there isn't much work to speak of. Looks like I'll be here for at least another month, doing fuck-all every day. Not complaining, mind you.
Today, I wrote one check. That was at 8:45 a.m. That's it. That's the sum total of my entire day's workload.

I get paid more to do this than I did when I managed a shoe store in 2001-2002. That was a nightmare job. I started as assistant manager and got promoted when the old manager quit. I thought the old guy was a thick brickhead, but he proved he was smarter than me by quitting first.
On the way to work on my first day as manager, I heard a radio report about a plane that had just hit the World Trade Center. Not a good omen.

When I got to the store I grabbed the TV from the break room just in time to see the second plane hit. The clerks and myself watched in horror as first one ,then the other Tower collapsed. The few customers who hadn't heard the news watched with us. I let most of the staff go home- I couldn't imagine that anyone would go shoe-shopping on such a day. For the most part, I was right.

The owner didn't agree. He called and asked how things were going. I told him I just watched thousands of people die thousands of horrible deaths and America was being attacked. He told me to turn off the damn TV and sell some shoes.
Right then, I knew I couldn't work for this man.
A few months later I got really sick and needed time off to recover from surgery. They wouldn't allow me the time I felt I needed, so I gave my key to the cashier , walked out and went home.
Stayed home.

Last winter I learned they went out of business.
Karma, man,karma.

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