CONNNN!

This morning (Thursday), I’m heading out to my favorite stomping grounds (in fact, the place I consider to be ‘home’). I have some good friends who have organized SoDak Con. It’s an anime convention, but over the years it has evolved into the premier gathering of nerdy goodness in South Dakota and the surrounding region. […]

Meet Mr. Oblivious to Irony

I shouldn’t be surprised at this point by any of the people who make their way to the gas station counter. But this guy left me speechless. Here’s the story: The man comes to my register with his purchases and casually slides his EBT card towards me. (EBT cards, for those who don’t know, are […]

How should an employee behave?

If you’re a reader of my blog, you may remember a post a couple of months ago called How Should a Manager Behave? In a store, the expectation of proper behavior is not a one way street. It’s not even a two way street. Actually, it’s not a street. It’s a store with many interactions […]

Local Artist

Quick post today. A couple of days ago, a nice man came into the gas station with a hand full of serpentine belt (for those unfamiliar with cars, it’s one of those rubber-band looking things in your engine that makes it difficult to drive if it shreds into a million pieces). His van was parked […]

Priorities

Today was a typical spring day in Iowa. That is to say, tornadoes. I was lucky enough to be by myself in the gas station while a Tornado Warning was issued. (A Tornado Warning means there is a tornado on the ground near you. It means stop what you’re doing and take cover.) When the […]

New Things

[Note: This post is inspired by MsKristina85 and a comment she made on my last post. Thanks!] I love to try new things. There are so many experiences out there that might seem weird or dangerous or even disgusting. I’ve gone skydiving. I’ve dressed up as the strange buffalo-headed god from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. And […]

Waste

The place I work, which will remain nameless until I finally leave it, is a gas station that serves hot food. This hot food has to be ready for any customer whenever they want it. The majority of this food is pizza slices, and they can only be left in the food warmer for 90 […]

Desperately Seeking

I’ve been working into the late evening shift, getting done at about 11:30 PM. I’m usually by myself at the gas station during the last hour or two. I like to spend those hours doing the end of shift paperwork and just winding down from the torrents of customers coming in seeking sugar, fat, alcohol, […]

Some moments from yesterday

Moment 1 I was at work yesterday (yes another work story), and Boris the Soviet Love Hammer was there again, buying his 40s of Bud Light and a handful of scratch-off tickets and lotto tickets. It’s difficult to communicate with a person with a thick accent. It’s doubly difficult to do it when he’s drunk […]

The Wrong Trousers!

In most jobs, there is some kind of dress code or even a strict uniform. Mine is no exception. The uniform is: white button-up shirt, tie, khaki pants, name tag, shoes of some kind. Last night, I was expecting to be working alongside a particular coworker. This coworker was the same one I described in […]