First off, I can't even begin to describe how in love I am. I wake up everyday and sometimes I still can't believe I am here. There's so much to do, and so much to explore. Everyday is an adventure waiting to unfold.
I started work last Monday, and it is extremely wild. Unfortunetely their back to school started that week, and will continue through the 2nd week in September. THUMBS DOWN. Back to school was rough in Omaha, and here it is just as busy and I am running everywhere constantly. The way they run this store is outrageous, and totally not efficient in anyway. Instead of restocking in the morning, they restock at night.
This
means
staying
later.
On my first day we stayed an extra 2hrs later, and didn't get out until 11. This week we close at 10.....I can't even imagine how much that's going to suck. I don't really mind this because when I go to work I feel like I have friends, and generally have people to talk to about the city. Everyone I work with is crazy.
No, I'm dead serious.
My General Manager, John (heavy Chicago accent, somewhat hispanic looking) seems like he doesn't really do anything but is constantly stressed out asking what's going on with everything. This assumption was confirmed by Phil (who I'll get to later) saying, "He basically sits in his office all day, and we can do whatever we want on the floor."
Fuck.
Yeah.
My Assistant Manager, Patrick (big black dude), is hilarious. He generally likes to have a good time at work, and crack jokes, but still gets work done. One of the first days I worked with him I told him I had a "cash-on-hand-warning" and he kept forgetting about it. Later when we closed he said to me, "I don't do those, I used to work in the projects before I came here ok...if we needed to pick up cash from the register, we had to close the whole store." Fair enough.
My other manager, Jodi (really short white guy) is off the wall nuts. He's the kind of guy that will tell it to you like it is, and won't really care either way how it makes you feel. But he is overally nice to customers, and talks in a quiet old woman's voice. Upon closing one night with him he found a labeler in the office and ran out screaming at all of us. "WHY IS THIS HERE?!"....."It's not on planogram, we can't find a place for it." We all kind of said at the same time. "WELL LETS MAKE A FUCKIN PLANOGRAM FOR IT! COME ON YOU GUYS!" I was so terrified. His face got so angry, and then turned straight and said, "I'm just kidding, I'll take care of this tomorrow." When he checked my bag after the first night I worked he saw my pills and asked, "Oooooo what pills you got?" and I couldn't help but laugh and say, "It's Ibuprofen."
My Logistics Manager, Helen (short big black lady) I've only worked with twice. From what I have seen so far, she works her ass off and is constantly moving. She also likes to fuckin yell in the headset, which hurts my ears.
My associates are generally all around my age, which is awesome. There's Phil (half Mexican, half white), who's really fuckin cute, but is 18, just starting college, and just talks to me about all the wild shit he does when he's drunk. He definitely likes to P.A.R.T.Y. Amir (middle eastern lookin dude who goes to Depaul), who I thought was real fine when I first saw him, turned out to be a total bro when I heard him listening to Lil Wayne videos on youtube on his break. Not a fine dude anymore. Ana (22yr old who's from Guatemala) is a super nice, friendly, and fun girl. She reminds me a lot of Rosie in a lot of ways, so I think we could potentially be good friends in the future. Stephanie (white girl from Milwaukee), goes to some fancy smart school (that I can't remember the name of, but she said it was similar to M.I.T.) and majors in physics. She's the kind of girl that automatically assumes you're dumb and don't know anything, and will try to teach you in a nice way, but it just comes out all wrong. So I'm not particularly a a huge fan of her. Nancy (29yr old from Mexico City who could pass for being Russian any day with her accent) literally lives in the building next to mine, so I have someone to ride the bus and the train with. Nick (25yr old tall dark haired white dude) basically thinks he's the shit and knows everything. Every time I ask him a question I feel like he's talking down to me, and I HATE THAT. But he gave me his number on Saturday and said, "We should go out sometime, I'll show you the hot spots." I don't really like his vibes, but I figure I'll give him a chance anyways because I don't have any friends here yet.
All of these people are so different, and so unique in their own ways, (and I haven't even met everyone I work with yet!). I love coming into work just because of that. It's crazy because I feel like the minority, there's not many people white people that work there, and it's awesome.
On my walk to the beach, I waited for the walking symbol to cross the street and an African guy ran across and turned back looking at me and said, "Afraid to die?" I just said, "Uh....yeah..." and he walked with me to the beach telling me his story of how he came to Chicago. He said he came from Africa, and that he used to be a teacher at Berkley and decided one day that he was going to leave and take nothing but his backpack and just go to Chicago for the hell of it. He said he didn't know anyone and that now he knows me. And then of course that was followed by a series of "You got a husband? Serious boyfriend? If I was your husband I would treat you right, honor you, cherish you. How does one get to know you better?" "Uh..I don't really know, do you live around here?" "Oh no no I go to the shelter, do you have a phone number of some sort, so that I could see you again sometime?" "Um...I don't really give it out..." We had come to the bike trail and it was made obvious that I was going to keep walking, and he said "Oh ok, I see you again sometime Christine, we shall meet again!" and I just smiled, said "See ya," and went to read my book. Hobo's are crazy. I get asked for change probably 5-10 times a day everywhere I go. Some of them only ask you once, but some of them sit there and give you a whole speech about how everyone should help the homeless. I've noticed there's one on my street that literally walks up and down Bryn Mawr 24/7 fidgeting with his hands and talking to himself at times. I guess it's not too appealing that there's an institution for mental illness people across from my building either. They have this fenced in patio where they're able to get fresh air, but all they do is pull their chairs up to the fence and stare at you as you walk by.
Basically the past week I have just been getting familiar with my neighborhood, walking around the block every which way, or riding the train and getting off at each stop exploring. On Thursday I was determined to find a good bakery close by.
I walked into this place and its filled with everything you can think of and everyday they put out new things. Muffins, cookies, loafs of bread, pastries, donuts, and cream filled cakes. You grab a tray and pick out whatever you want and bring it up to the register when you're done. I grabbed a muffin, a cookie, a donut, and an apple pastry and had no idea what the price was going to be, but didn't even care. It was literally, $2.50 for everything. I was in heaven. I ate the donut on my way to the train, and I about had a party in my mouth it was so good. MMMMM
I'll be blogging soon, there's a lot of Jazz happening at Millenium Park this week, and weekend that I am really looking forward to. And the best part of it is, IT'S FREE!
I can't wait for school to start.
I can't wait for tomorrow, and every other day that follows.
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