8 YEARS!

Hello out there. Today marks 8 YEARS since I started working at the little convenience store/gas station in Port Orchard, Wash., that still pays my monthly bills. Recently things have been pretty quiet. The last few weeks especially have been good. These days I feel less stressed, happier, less likely to freak-out while working. So there goes that idea for a post I was going to write called "The Poster Child for Stressing-Out."
I don't think the job has changed much. I know that I have. I'm handling things better. The big improvement came back in July when I finally started playing the radio at night -- see my other blog, www.tadsbackupplan.blogspot.com/ for MUCH more about this. Too bad it only took me 7-1/2 YEARS to figure out that turning on the radio might not only improve MY mood but my customers' moods as well. Now I wonder why I resisted that idea for so long....
Also: A year and a half ago I had a physical and the doctor I saw told me that because of my age, taking an 81-milligram aspirin each day might do more good for me than even taking a daily multi-vitamin ... because I'm moving into the heart-attack zone, don't ya know. And I never have been much for exercise -- especially not on my weekends.
Well, for awhile I felt better taking the aspirins. Especially if I felt nervous or jittery or hyper before I went to work. But then it was like they stopped working. My heart started POUNDING at work for no outside cause and I couldn't make it stop -- even if I just kicked back and rested for a few minutes. I started getting pains in my left arm that wouldn't go away.
All this shook me up pretty good.
So I stopped taking the aspirins about a month ago, and for the past few weeks I've felt pretty good. A lot less stressed, more relaxed, a lot more friendly, more human. Happier.
I don't know if it's good medicine, but it seems to be working for me. I feel a lot less stressed for some reason, and that's got to be good.
That doesn't mean I don't still stress at work -- sometimes I do, usually on my Mondays. But it's nowhere near as bad as it was. And I don't feel unhappy or like I'm somehow being threatened all the time.
Other than that, I don't think I'm doing anything differently. I've tried to watch my diet and make sure I always eat something before I go to work. I cut my caffeine intake IN HALF about a year ago, & that's helped. I try to drink a fruit juice or vegetable juice at least once a day. I'm not perfect, but in some ways I feel better and happier now than I have in a long time. So that's all good news.
Of course the winters here in Western Washington can be long and dark and wet and cold, so we'll see how long these good feelings last....

Enough of the boring stuff. It's the controversy you want, the screaming and raving and daily chaos. Well, I'll try to oblige....
The OCD Girl I mentioned in the last in-depth post (who replaced the possibly-drug-addicted Afternoon Guy back last May) quit work in October (after a little over 5 months) for a variety of reasons -- her reasons depended on who asked. The store was too busy, it wasn't busy enough, there was too much to do, there wasn't enough to do, she couldn't keep up with the customers, she wanted more breaks, she hated working weekends.... Whatever.
Her replacement is a woman in her mid-40s who's done this sort of thing before, and she seems very nice, really steady, not OCD at all. And she's a worker. More good news.
I don't know if any of this makes for good reading, but it's a more comfortable work environment....

So, 8 years! And things right now seem pretty relaxed, normal. Not chaotic. But I remember The Bad Old Days....
I remember the staggering drunk who threw cheeseburger parts at the front of the store after I refused to sell him any more beer.
I remember the several customers over the years who have asked me (or asked my co-workers) if I was gay -- usually because in their view I was "just too friendly -- that's not normal."
I remember the day I gave away $150 in "free gas" to two customers who drove away without paying. One of them was a Regular. One I had to track down at his work site to get the $75 he promised to pay me....
I remember the 10 days after July 4, 2004 when our store went without gas shipments -- when we had no gas to sell because our (former) owner (see "The Screamer," below....) was having cash-flow problems -- and I remember how in the middle of it, despite almost NO money coming in, he somehow managed to pay us all our full paychecks, on time. I'll probably never know how he did it. I probably don't want to know....
I remember the little old man with the deep scratchy voice who destroyed one of our bathrooms back in 2004 (see "SHIT!," below) -- and I'm still waiting for him to come back....
I remember the Summer of 2008 when the price for a gallon of Regular gas peaked at $4.59 per gallon and every day at work was nothing but screaming chaos. I remember dreading going to work every day, KNOWING in advance that sooner or later I was going to get screamed at by somebody.... By the way, our store's current price for a gallon of Regular is $3.77, as of 1 a.m. Monday morning....
I remember the little old man who told me in 2004 that our milk prices were "A fucking rip-off!" while my old boss stood right next to me and nodded his head cheerfully as if he didn't understand a word.... And the next person in line was a Regular who screamed that he was NEVER going to shop in our store again because he couldn't count on us to always have gas available....
I remember the folks who've tried to steal beer and cigarettes over the years, and I'm surprised there haven't been MORE of them, especially during the last year or two....
I remember the drunk who came into the store five minutes before closing and took 15 minutes to pick out a can of beer -- and after I rang him up he asked me "Do you think I'm a stupid man?" And I remember picking his can of beer up off the counter and leading him out of the store with it, holding it up out of his reach so he'd follow me, and then setting it on the sidewalk outside because he didn't understand that it was 12:15 a.m. and all the store's lights were turned off and I had to CLOSE now....
I remember the methed-out guy who came in begging to borrow the telephone and then babbled and screamed gibberish into it for the next 45 minutes, until I had to explain to him that it was now 12:25 a.m. and I had to close and that the store didn't switch over to "mood lighting" after midnight....
I remember a lot of those folks who've yelled and screamed (some of them detailed in posts below), who've told me that I'm worthless, that I suck ass, who've asked me "What's wrong, don't you like helping people?" I don't mind helping people, but some of them need more help than anyone can give.
Aren't people amazing? Just when you think you've seen it all -- you haven't. As Jim Morrison said, "People are strange...."

Thank you for reading here, and I hope to post more here in the near future....