Pet Peeve #1

Today Bee and I ran some errands. It being a Saturday, there were a lot of people out and about. I try to run my errands on off days in order to not run into traffic, plus I find it less annoying when there are fewer people waiting in line ahead of you. But as we were busy all week and I had some things that I needed to buy sooner then later (i.e. toilet paper, shampoo, etc.), today was the day. Things went pretty smoothly, and Bee was in a silly, happy mood. She loves to shop, so it's all good to her. We went to Target where I was very careful to comparison shop and only buy the things that we absolutely needed, which is completely opposite of my mindset a year ago. But I digress. I paid for my items with cash, and when the clerk handed me my change, he just sort of shoved it into my hand all mixed up and mumbled the amount. I hate that! Pet Peeve #1! Have you noticed that clerks don't even count your change back to you anymore? I think it's because they don't know how to. They just punch some numbers into a register and it tells them what they owe you, they count it out to themselves and then just sort of heave in it your direction.

I used to be a cashier at a movie theatre, and I must say I really liked that job. My sister got me on there, as it was a summer job for her during her break from college. As I was going to school in town, I was hired year round. Our manager was a cool guy named Joe I think, who had dyed blond hair. On slow night when he had plans he would talk customers into coming back some another night by enticing them with free movies tickets and snack coupons. It always worked, no one ever turned him down, and then we all got to leave early. Other perks of the job were free movies for any theatre in town for you and your friends, and all the popcorn you could eat, which got old pretty fast. It paid a little over minimum wage, but the perks evened it out, at least to us at the time. I didn't mind working there until Joe quit and we got a new boss named Miss Stickler. She was a crazy mass of neurosis, but that is another story. The point I want to make is that I sold movie tickets, and worked the candy counter, working without a cash register. We weren't even allowed to use calculators; instead we had to add up everything either in our heads or on a pad of paper if it was a really big order. I got pretty good at adding things up in my head and counting out change back to customers. I always counted their money back to them, and kept it in order: all the money facing the same way, with the largest domination on the bottom and smallest on top. It's not that hard to do, and I just wish that all clerks and cashiers would do that these days. I like having my money organized, especially in this New Depression, and I expect people to have respect for my money and not mumble as they shove a wad of change into my outstretched hand. Surely that's not too much to ask.