"Lunch Time Rocks!"

Here is a journal entry describing my day today, starting at 12 am, when the day officially began.

I had just received “Hello McFly” via instant messenger. I gave it a listen, it rocked, I gave it a second listen, I went to bed.

I lay awake in bed.

I tossed and turned in bed.

I got up an hour later to check some windows updates I’d set the computer to download…while I was supposed to be asleep. While on, I IM’ed someone…and I was surprised to have them reply that God wanted me to read the Bible because I couldn’t sleep. I was convicted because I’d already heard the same thing. Why did I ignore that still small voice? Stupid me.

I lay awake reading Zecharaiah…2:5 read something like “I the Lord am a wall of fire around you.” God spoke to me, I wrote a couple poems, God spoke to me some more, I fell asleep probably just before 3 a.m.

…and that little demon known as the alarm clock woke me up at 5:15 a.m…I almost jumped out of my skin instantly, it seemed so loud. It felt as though I had been just awake…

At 5:55 a.m., I was knocking on the door at Sav-A-Center supermarket. After all, I was scheduled to work the morning shift, but the store doesn’t open till 6 a.m. apparently. After being let in, I realized this would be one weird, “Twilight Zone” type of cashiering shift. The lighting was weird…like in your dreams or something. There was only the store manager and two underling managers at first. There was barely any light outside. The manager still had his untied tie draped around the collar of his starchy shirt. We chatted as I helped him get the daily paper and stuff. I opened up on express lane #2. In the first hour, I probably only checked out 7 people. A cup of coffee helped me feel a little more alive…as alive as you can feel on this little sleep. It was strange seeing the supermarket like a bit of a ghost town…and I felt strangely privileged to see all the preparations the store managers have to accomplish while much of the world is still in bed.

After an hour, my coughing subsided some…and I started to feel conscious. The nice thing about the morning is customers are too tired to complain about anything, says one of the managers. She is apparently right. Then again…that’s only for the morning people shopping. I usually don’t think that much about the souls who are alive and grooving already at 5 and 6 a.m. on Saturday mornings…but today I, Joshua Clayton, not a morning person, was one of them.

Till about 7:30 I went back and forth from my register to stocking candy on the aisles. I was the only cashier for the first 3 hours…so things got busy as all the customers had to come my way. Some seemed frustrated…but hey ladies and gentlemen: you’re the ones who decided to shop before the sun has had a chance to get out of bed and shine once more.

After 10:30, it was tremendously busy in the spurts till 2:20 p.m., when I left. This was the busiest day I’ve seen working at the store, and I’ve worked there since late May. It’s strange…I kept getting this adrenaline rush seeing a bunch of people backed up and knowing we’ve got to clear it out. I find I work faster and more efficiently under pressure.

We’re trying to reduce our scan time at work…so there’s a strategy we’re using where if an old grandma takes forever to find her check, or someone runs to get another item…or there is some unseen delay, we’ll temporarily sign off. Because you see, the “scan time” includes the whole time we’re doing the transaction with the customer, until the cash drawer is engaged. And whether we’re scanning or not, it counts against us. Tara came out the office and told me I was at about 14 items per minute…that’d had been better than my usual 11…because now I was signing off and signing on probably literally 5 times for every customer…when there was any slight delay…even me having to double bag an item, I’d sign off to cut the scan time down and then sign back on with my four digit password quickly. It became a fun game to see how man rings per minute I could increase. The highest I could get to was like 15.5 something…that may seem slow per minute…but remember all the things that could interrupt the scanning process…

“Did the card take off for my green beans?”
“Excuse me, where are the garbage bags?”
“Please get me a liquor box to put all this booze in.”
“Please put everything in paper bags.”

OR

The item is not on file and someone has to run check the price.
I have to void an item because it costs too much.
The last customer left several items behind and I have to dash out and catch them.
A host of other niceties…

Got a paid fifteen minute break at 10:30. Stupid me, I didn’t sit down but 5 minutes, the rest of the time I walked around and even got more coffee cups out. But the time I did sit, I got some more java…aaah.

Even the front end manager admitted this was an awesomely busy day…when picking up my high value bills, I had easily over $1,000 in hundreds…not to mention all the other dough in the drawer…

All the while, I’ve got this lightheaded feeling like I have a balloon with hot air for a brain…yet God’s grace was apparently sufficient, so on little sleep I had a very productive day…

And when lunch time at McDonald’s for me came at 1 p.m., I surprised myself thinking aloud, “LUNCH TIME ROCKS!” I was hungry, folks.

Saw several people I knew from New Jerusalem Praise and Worship Center / seniors I knew from high school at lunch.

And I had this craving to listen to Hello McFly again when I got home, which I listened to and is now stuck in my head…and I’m a bit tired at 3:58 P.M…

…and I’m going to have a nap and I’ll post this to my blog later and…and and adn meh blah blah bleh blehandsdfl ;lkss ssd;lkjsajf;jsafsaj;18

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2 ½ hours of naptime latter
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Ouch. Did someone hit me on the head with a sledge hammer while I was out?

Shrimp creole is delicious. You should have some if you don’t know what I'm talking about…of course with a megadose of Louisiana Crystal Hot Sauce…