WWWE: I Made $20!

So after I left the Shoe Dept. I found a job only a couple miles from my apartment. I worked for Blockbuster Video in York, PA. There were about five Blockbuster Video stores at the time in York, I worked at the one on the corner or George St. and Rt. 30 just in case you were wondering.

The cool thing about this job was that we could rent five movies a week for free! We also got to rent movies two weeks before their release date. The uncool thing was how I got tricked into working on Christmas. When I interviewed for the job, the manager told me we had to work at least two holidays out of the year. I told her I wanted Christmas and Easter off and she said that was okay. It was around Thanksgiving of 1998 when I was supposed to start working there. The manager told me that I didn't have to start working until after Thanksgiving so that it wouldn't count as one of my holidays off. I thought it was a good idea. So I started working after Thanksgiving. I told the manager what days I wanted off for Christmas so I would have enough time to go home to see my family. She said that's going to be a problem and I asked her why. She reminded me that she told me in the interview I had to work at least two holidays in a year. Then she said there are only two holidays left this year, Christmas and New Year's Eve. Not only did she tell me in the interview that I could have Christmas off, but she made it sound like a good idea to start after Thanksgiving. See, if I would have started before and worked on Thanksgiving I could have had Christmas off and worked on New Year's Eve. That's how I was tricked into working on Christmas. I was still able to go home and see my family for a couple days before Christmas, but what my boss did was just conniving and evil.

Fortunately, the big wigs in the company like conniving and evil managers so they promoted her to become the manager of a different Blockbuster and her replacement at our store was really cool. We got along great. Everyone who worked there was pretty cool. There was a kiddie section in the store close to where the cash registers were and when it was late we would put on movies that we liked, but still with a PG rating like Labyrinth or Star Wars, and we would watch them from the front counter.

One night I was working with one of the assistant managers and we were bored, really bored. The guy I was working with was only about 5'3" and he said "I bet you can't do this" and he jumped straight up and onto the counter. The height of the counter was almost at my chest. I figured if he could do it, I could do it. So I hopped right up there and I did it! But I landed on just the tips of my toes and I started to lose my balance. Both my feet came right out from under me and I came down on both my shins on the corner of the counter. It hurt so bad I just started laughing. I sat in a chair and started rubbing my shins. I looked at the assistant manager, he looked horrified and he told me he would pay me for a new pair of pants. I asked him why. I looked down and my one pant leg was soaked with blood. I didn't even know I was bleeding at first. So I went to the back room and cleaned it up. It was pretty sore for the next few days, but the bloodstain came out of the pants and I made $20! I don't think I would ever try doing something like that again though. To this day I still have a little white indented circle on my right leg.

It was fun working there, I was even voted employee of the month twice while I was there. But the time finally came where I had to move back home to Jersey Shore, PA. It was sad leaving that place, but I was able to transfer to the Blockbuster Video in Williamsport, PA. It wasn't as much fun working there as it was in York. It was the only Blockbuster Video in Williamsport so it was very busy. Usually on a Friday and Saturday night I would work an 8 hour shift and not even get a chance to leave my cash register because the line was never-ending, and this was with four registers open! It was busy! People around here have nothing better to do I guess. I don't have to many memorable moments from working at the Williamsport Blockbuster so I think I'll end it here. It will probably take a few posts to talk about my next job since there are a lot of stories to tell about that one. Till next time, adios!

WWWE: Manure, Strawberries, Manure

Okay, where were we? We are at job #6 or #7, but I don't really count the telemarketing thing as a job since I was only there for three days, so I'll say we're at #6. So in the cliff-hanging conclusion of yesterday's post I had mentioned that I was running low on funds and my roommate had been laid off so we did some job hunting together. We both found a job, at the same place. It seemed cool that we were working at the same place, but we also had the same classes at college, and shared the same room at the apartment (bunk bed of course). So yea, we were around each other a lot, which wasn't always a good thing.

We had gotten a job at the Shoe Dept. at the York Galleria Mall. It was a pretty good job. The people I worked with were friendly. To be honest I don't really have any significant memories of working there, nothing all that interesting to share except for the time Rip Torn (Men In Black, Dodgeball, Bee Movie) came there one day to buy shoes, but I was off that day. My roommate was there though and he told me all about it.

Actually I do remember another story now. One day I was helping a lady with a pair of shoes but she felt uncomfortable to go up to the counter to purchase the shoes. She said she wouldn't go up there because the man working the cash register was black. I thought she was being racist, but she said she was afraid, she had been abused by a black man when she was young. I assured her that he was a good man, but her fear was too great. I tried to convince her there was nothing to be afraid of, but she gave me her money to go up and pay for her shoes for her. It was difficult explaining to the cashier why I was making the transaction for her. It really upset him when he found out why. It was uncomfortable for me too. I can understand why she would be afraid because of a traumatizing incident, but instead of living like that I think she should have sought help. Because even if she wasn't racist, it seemed like she was.

Our boss relocated to a new Shoe Dept. that was opening at the Park City Mall in Lancaster, PA. Shortly after she went there I asked if I could be transferred there. I thought there would be more of an opportunity to make more money since we worked on commission, but only if we made more than what we would make on our hourly wage in a week. The drive from York to Lancaster was about a 40 minute drive and it smelled like manure almost the entire way, except for a candy factory that I passed on the way, then it smelled like strawberries, but then shortly went back to manure. So it was manure, strawberries, manure.

I enjoyed working at the Park City Mall, it's a good sized mall. I got along with everyone there...well, almost everyone. There was this one guy that I thought was a real jerk, but I tried not to let him bother me. There was an older woman who worked there and she enjoyed my sense of humor and she also enjoyed the jerky guy's sense of humor too. He would give me a hard time because he was jealous that I made her laugh too. But she explained to him that we both had a different sense of humor. She said he had an R-rated sense of humor and I had a G-rated sense of humor. I told her "Oh, c'mon, at least give me a PG-rating."

Once our vacuum cleaner quit on us so we had to borrow one from Suncoast Video. They had a weird looking vacuum cleaner, it looked like something from Star Wars. It really sucked...I mean it didn't suck, I mean it sucked at sucking. It sucked in a metaphorical sense, but not in a literal sense...yea.

As much as I enjoyed working there, I wasn't making more like I though I would, plus it was a long trip and I used a lot of gas to get there and back. Also, traveling 40 minutes up and back ate into my study time for school, so I had to look for another job, one that was much closer. My boss was really sad to see me go, she was another good boss, one of very few. I went back to visit every so often though. So that's all for today, I'll continue the story tomorrow. Have a great day!