My Life

Jail VS C-Store

I worked with Justin and Noor today. (That’s always interesting.) I was telling Justin about what I had written yesterday and how I thought everyone should have to work at a c-store for two weeks a year. He asked me why? I told him I had written about having to be nice all the time. He reminded me that he came to work here so he didn’t have to be nice to anyone.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, go to work at a restaurant where you have to be nice to everyone or you don’t make any tips. I came to work here because I was sick of being nice to rude people!”

“But you’re nice to people here.”

“Gina, think about it!”

I started laughing. “OK, I see you’re point. But you are so cunning at putting people down, they never know how to take it. Since you’re laughing the whole time, they never know if you’re serious or not.”

When Justin does offend someone, he is still able to provoke laughter from them before they leave the store! He’s a pro!

Anyway...He said that he would highly recommend everyone having to do jail time two weeks a year.

“Count me out on that one! I may need a vacation, but I’d rather go somewhere sunny and warm.”

“But think about it Gina. When you’re with the public all the time, you draw from them. If you are left alone to think and draw only from yourself, you find out who you are.”

“I think I pretty much know who I am Justin! I’ll just stick with what I’m doing now.”

“I don’t know, think about how much you could write in just two weeks if you didn’t have to interact and spend so much energy on other people.”

“Good point...I better get back to work.”

Dude almost made sense, time to leave the area!

Linda is beginning to pick up some of Justin’s bad habits. She’s starting to come in late, she occasionally needs a phone call to get her out of bed, she is flirting with all the guy customers...I started reminding her that she is a happily married woman with 5 kids! “Chill girl!” She just laughs.

But, sometimes Justin does make me think outside of the box.

For instance; Last week we lost two cartons of cigarettes. You can’t just lose two cartons of cigarettes! Someone had to know something, so I went on a campaign to find out what happened. I narrowed it down to what day they became missing. I was going to have to watch several hours of videos to figure the rest out. I was not looking forward to that at all!

But first, I asked Justin again. “By chance, did you stock cigarettes and leave a couple cartons laying on the counter?”

“No, I didn’t even stock cigarettes.”

“Geeze Justin, I can’t afford to pay for two cartons of cigarettes! Please think.”

He then said something that triggered a thought in my my mind. I ran back to my office where I found the cartons sitting on the medicine cabinet, not in the locked cabinet where they where supposed to be. I came strolling out of my office holding them in the air. “ Look what I found.” I was so relieved that I then ran up to him and gave him a big hug and said thanks.

Now don’t get me wrong. Justin is my friend, but I don’t ever hug him. That could be misconstrued as sexual harassment! But I had been panicked for three days! I Couldn’t help myself.

He reminded me of how panicked I had been last week about the cigarettes and how relieved and free I felt after finding them. He then said, “That’s what it’s like when you get out of jail. You feel free and open. Everyone should experience it!

Still not with him on that one! But I got the gist of his point.

The whole cigarette thing would have cost me just under a hundred bucks because it was actually four cartons of buy one get one free. Before tax, it would be 20 @ $4.49.

Tonight on my way home from work, Justin called my cell phone.

“Remember the conversation we were having before?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I thought you might like an analogy.”

“I’m listening.”

“This lady just came in and asked for a pack of Parliaments. I scanned them and laid them on the counter. She said that she was sorry, she actually wanted Parliament Lights. I told her that that was a pretty significant piece of information to leave out. She said that she thought I was being rude, and that if I was one of her college students, I would be asked to leave her class. I told her if she was one of my high school teachers, she would’ve already known who I was and would’ve just kept quite.” [sic]

“Justin!”

“No problem, she was laughing when she left. You can get back to what you were doing now, I just thought I would tell ya.”

I swear I don’t know what to do with him sometimes! But regardless, you just have to love him!