I haven’t posted for awhile, and I won’t bullshit you by saying I’ve been too busy. Oh, I’ve been busy, but that’s no excuse. I’ve heard that some of my former coworkers have been following the blog to keep track of my post Dex adventures, so I’m going to use today’s post to update the world on this pilgrim’s progress. As if the world gives a rat’s ass.

My plan was to not write about the coffee shop gig here. It’s probably something that could get me fired and I’m a little uncomfortable with going into a situation “under cover” and then writing about it publicly unbeknownst to the subjects. But in this case I’m going to give you a bit of an update on my “barista” career, just for historical background on the rest of my adventure. Continue reading Catch Up Ball →

I haven’t been behind a retail counter for 31 years. Until today. Last time I was slinging drinks, the cash register had real buttons with numbers on them. You rang up the prices, took the cash and made change. God forbid someone gave you a credit card, you had to get out that crazy slider thing. Change jumped into my hands, I didn’t even have to think about it, and a lot of the math I did in my head. Now each product  has a menu button and the array of buttons is mind boggling.

But that’s not the interesting part of my new job experience. Maybe I’m just self conscious but I think I noticed a little bit of reaction among the customers to the new guy. Which of these does not belong. The old person! I fancy myself as being pretty good at reading people and I definitely saw a range of interesting responses. There was, “This poor old fart is having to work behind a counter, must have gotten laid off somewhere,” to “We need to be extra nice and encouraging to this poor old man who has to do a young person’s job.”

It doesn’t bother me. I know what I left behind, which was for me insanity. I know it’s an opportunity to get out among people and make some extra dough to take some of the pressure off as I try to get my graphics gig up and running. But I think I get a little bit of insight into what it must be like for people who constantly see that “you don’t belong here” look on peoples faces.

You know what hasn’t changed though? You still have to smile and say, “Thanks for comin’ in!”

New snow, new job, new carpet. There’s a theme here. It looks like a day of cleansing. As much as I hate to see snow in mid October, a new snowfall, one with “big hunky flakes,” is a beautiful thing. It looks clean, and even smells clean. New carpet, well it probably will smell like a chemical spill for a couple of weeks, but even that beats the cat pee stench that we’ve been living with for months. If we’ve entertained you at our house in the last three months, it means we are very comfortable in our friendship, or we don’t give a dam about impressing you, or both. And then there’s the other smell of newness, fresh brewed coffee! I start my new career behind the coffee shop counter today. I’m not going to make any comparisons  to my old job and cat pee though.