11/16

Yeah, it was a typical Wednesday, I slept till 4, got up and watched a few shows then ate dinner. I was right in the middle of a program when I realized it was payday and I hadn't gone for my check. The problem is that if I don't get it before the manager arrives on Thursday she drops it in the safe and I would have to hang out until the owner arrived  and that could be anytime between 9 am and 11. So at 8 pm I headed up to the station.

When I got there the afternoon shift woman, A, asked why I was there. I said "Isn't it 10 pm?" She said "Well you are a little early". I told her I was a lot early since I was off until Friday. And we laughed, yeah not really. We chatted a little and then I went home.

Fooled around, did a lot of nothing, and then I went to bed. I did find out that A, from the afternoon shift, is on her way back. I guess the whole "true love over the internet" didn't work out so now I'm not worried about having to decide between my Thanksgiving plans or moving to the open slot on the afternoon shift. After next week people can screw up all they want but they have to behave until next Saturday, that is all I ask.

No found money.

11/17

Since I went to bed early I woke up early, this is becoming a habit. It was a nice day so I went for a walk. I stopped at the station first, it was still a bit on the cold side, to see what was new. When I had left the Coke machine was half out of order, the last time they delivered they hadn't brought any mix. Well they finally made a delivery but the manager was upset, there was no root beer. She had gone to the downtown station to pick up a box so the morning shift woman was running the place by herself. The manager showed up and went to hook up the new syrup bag to the machine but she couldn't find a line. I pointed out that they hadn't had root beer on the machine for over a year. She went over to the machine and pulled the one out of order sign off only to discover it was over the Diet Coke button, which was already hooked up. I laughed. Later she had to haul the box of mix back down town. It pays to be observant. 

Since I am going out of town next week I spent the rest of the day taking care of stuff I need to finish before I leave. Bills are paid, arrangements to take care of the house have been....arranged. Then came the call. It seems my mother's car wouldn't start and my brother needed some help so off we went. The battery wouldn't hold a charge so we got it started and went to the mechanic, he thought he had done a full servicing a year ago but it turns out it had been around 7 so it was no surprise the battery was dead. We left it with him and headed home. I finished up my pre trip preparations and then went to bed early again. I think I'm ready to go, I hope. 

11/18

I woke up early again so I went for another walk. I was surprised that the Hippie was there, usually he tries to take Friday off but after the whole no show bit I think he realized he needs a job so he has actually been coming in. Of course he wasn't actually working, while I was there he fell asleep behind the counter. Yep he's a dedicated employee.

The morning shift woman was making up a shopping list and wanted to know what people normally serve for Thanksgiving. It seems she is planning on making a big feast for both her family and her useless boyfriend's family. I'd love to see a video of the "happy gathering" but I will just have to wait to read the police report in the paper.

While I was there my nose started to run. I was hoping it was just a touch of allergies. I hope. 

I then went home and took care of this or that. I took an afternoon nap and then got ready for work. I am so looking forward to another exciting Friday night.

~

By the time 10 rolled around my nose was seriously running and my sinus were starting to ache. Yep I had a head cold and it was the first day of work. I considered calling in and saying I couldn't make it but I had no idea if both my coworkers were going to show up, sure enough Diane had taken the night off, I guess I was going to work sick.

When I got to work I was the only one from my shift again. V is back from her Wyoming adventure but I didn't ask about the details, considering she wasn't planning on coming back. She had brought a CD player and her choice in music was rather questionable. I was giving her a hard time so she pulled out a copy of Bieber's song, did I mention she is older than me? I started to mock his mindless "Baby Baby" lyrics by doing it in a Beeker from the Muppets voice. I was shocked to find out nobody knew who Beeker was not even Amy, who had finally come to work. I seriously need to give these people an education in pop culture.

V was surprised at how busy they had been and Amy commented they had been just as busy all Thursday night. I pointed out that Thanksgiving is coming and some people take the whole week off so they leave as soon as they get off work, some people even take Friday to get an early start. I always get a chuckle over this because the idea is they are going to beat the crowd, along with the thousands of other people out to beat the crowd. Gotta love tourists. 

The night started off when I noticed a big splash of soda on the window. This isn't that unusual but it was at the top of the window, a good 8 feet high and behind the cappuccino machine. There was also a dent in the sign above the coffee machine, what the heck happened and why didn't anyone clean it up? Amy went ahead and climbed up on the counter and found that the mess was all the way down the back of the machines too, why did they leave it? Yeah, I know, no need to ask an obvious question.

My first customer of the night prepaid for gas and got a quart of transmission fluid. A short while later he came back and got another. When he got the third I figured he might as well have gotten a new filter too and just finish the job. I hope he has extra because if he runs out in the middle of nowhere on a weekend night he's going to have a heck of a time finding a tow truck and a mechanic. Good luck buddy.

The next customer wanted a pack of cigarettes but didn't have enough money, he told me he would be right back but then drove off the lot. He came back about 20 minutes later and counted out a stack of small coins, he must have been really desperate. The worst part is if he went for the cheaper off name brand he would have had enough the first time around.

Next a woman came in and she was doing the "I really gotta go" dance. She didn't even have to ask, I just pointed in the direction of the restroom. She had run into the restroom but strolled out, I wonder how long she was holding.

The next customer asked Amy if we had Sixlets. Amy told her she had never heard of them so the woman asked me. I gave her the same answer so she described them to us as chocolate coated in a candy shell. Both Amy and I had the same opinion, just buy some M&M's. I had to go home and look up Sixlets, they seem to be an Ohio thing.

Then came the creepy moment of the night. Some guy came in driving an old station wagon. He told me how he had been driving from Meridian MI and had sped across Louisiana and Texas but now he could slow down. I didn't ask what the rush was about. Then he asked if we had those papers with the mug shots in them.....yes I was a little freaked. He said his brother in law printed one and was always looking for a new market but I was beginning to wonder how much longer he was going to hang around, and was that a knife in a sheath hanging off his leg? Thankfully a crowd rolled in and he left, I seriously considered calling crime stoppers to see if they were on the lookout for a fleeing felon or something.

Amy's favorite customers showed up, the 5 am Amarillo bus. A crowd piled off and soon lined up to buy junk food. Remember that head cold? It  made my sinus more sensitive, when someone got a cappuccino I could smell the flavor from across the room so, and I'm not trying to be mean but the bus people tend to have a bit of body odor. I maintained but there were a couple of passengers who made me want to openly gag. Thankfully they left and the air cleared out.

The last customers of the night were the construction crew. I had to laugh because they all lined up at Amy's register and even though I was standing there they all pretended they didn't see me.  I honored the bro code and didn't waive any of them over, instead I just hung out laughing. 

The hippie finally came rolling in, a half hour late and we did the shift change. Early in the night the morning shift woman had called and asked Amy if she would cover the morning shift, it was a good thing she didn't ask me because I would have told her I was sick and going home first thing. Since I didn't have to wait I left, and reminded Amy to be on time tonight. I went home and popped a couple of cold and sinus pills and went to bed. 10 hours later I woke up, when it comes to drugs I am a real light weight. At least I felt a little better. 

Found money  16 cents

11/19

It was day two of my head cold so I took a couple more cold and sinus pills, I made sure to take the Daytime formula so I didn't pass out at work, that wouldn't be good. P from the afternoon shift had taken the day off and the Hippie had covered her shift, I considered showing up late like he does but I figured that wouldn't be fair to A since the Hippie would take off as soon as possible, so I went in on time. Sure enough, even though I had stressed Amy needed to start coming in on time she was late and V would have been stuck for at least a half hour, when you figure her counting down her drawer and doing the end of the shift paperwork. Oh if only it had been P and the Hippie.....yeah I'd still go in on time.

It seems Amy slept through her alarm but she has a roommate now and was woken up. The roommate also made her a sandwich and the night before had brought dinner. I kidded around that she didn't have a roommate but a wife so now our running joke is Amy's Fake Lesbian Marriage. I think this one is going to be fun. 

It must have been sports night. First a Women's volleyball team came in, tall women everywhere. Then a football team showed up, big guys everywhere. Finally a wrestling team came in, kind of a mixed bag from short skinny guys to big chunky guys. I guess the colleges are getting in all the sports they can before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Then came in the guy with the hundred dollar bill, and he wanted to buy less than 5 dollars worth of stuff. I told him I didn't keep that kind of change in the drawer. He asked if I would have change if the next guy went first and I said "Only if he's buying $80 worth of stuff". He left in a huff, but seriously, if you go into a convenience store in the middle of the night don't expect to use a large bill, get change in advance. He wasn't gone for more than 10 minutes when another guy showed up and wanted change for a hundred, he wasn't buying anything he just wanted me to break the bill. Sheesh!

I watched a guy try to put a soda cup lid on a hot cup, they don't work. I would have gone and helped him but I was busy and it was entertaining. He finally figured out the hot lids fit the hot cups. People.

By 3 am my sinus pills were wearing off and my head was starting to swell up again. It was a good thing all the nonsense had ended because one more customer lacking common sense and I might have lost my temper. 6 o'clock couldn't come soon enough. The night finally ended, everybody shockingly came in on time and I went home. My plan was to sleep again, and I did.

Found money, 20 cents. 

11/20

Amy has developed a bad habit of coming in late. I keep telling her she needs to be on time and she swears she will so last night we made a bet, for every minute she arrived before 10 I would pay her a nickle, for every minute she arrived late she would pay me the same amount. Originally she wanted to go for a quarter but I didn't want to take all her money. When she finally showed up she paid me 80 cents. She says she wants to try again but it will have to wait until after the Thanksgiving holiday, tonight was the last time we would be working together until next Saturday.

It was a busy night, people who take the week off for the holiday were travelling. Anymore we require a deposit or a prepay for gas, only known locals are the exception so when the guy pulled onto the #3 pump we didn't turn it on, especially since we were busy. He didn't come in and didn't come in and then the jerk laid the nozzle on the ground and drove off. It was obvious the guy was planning on getting his gas and then when we were busy he was going to take off. So the next time you go to the station and have to prepay you can thank people like him.

I was walking around checking things out and looked at the cooler. There was a huge hand print on the glass, open palmed with the fingers splayed. I have pretty average size hands and it was bigger than mine. I had two questions, when did Sasquatch come in the station and why were they leaning against the glass door?

Although it's been busy the customers have been rather normal, except for one guy. He came in wearing a dog collar, that wouldn't be so unusual but he even had one of those bone shaped tags hanging off of it. I couldn't tell what it said and I didn't want to lean in too close, just in case he didn't have his shots. I just don't get fashion.

I had to laugh at Amy. She was planning on dropping pennies  but in order to do it you have to feed money into the safe total to the amount of the drop. She had set a dollar aside for it but had gotten busy, later she held up the bill and asked me "What's this?" I couldn't resist, I replied "It's a dollar, it's used for the exchange of goods and services." After she gave me the evil eye I reminded her she was going to get coins from the safe. Yep, shes fun.

The day ended and I went home, sleep time again.

Found money, 60 cents and a 1952 penny.

11/21 

Great, I had to work with the Hippie tonight. Diane called in sick, complete with a doctor's note so the Hippie was covering her shift. This wouldn't be so bad but he had worked his morning shift and then the afternoon shift for V, he was going to be going on 24 hours, plus he was going to stay and work his shift tomorrow too. What a nut. 

On Nov. 9th I was bored so I took a new dollar bill and wrote the name of the town and put the date 11/9/11 on it and then gave it out to a tourist in change. My hope was as it travelled through the world other people would do the same, and then I forgot about it. When I counted my drawer at opening I was shocked at what I found, it was the same bill, it had come back somehow. So I updated the date and sent it out again. What are the odds?  

About midnight some guy came in and the Hippie started chatting with him. The guy was on his way home from a religious conference and the Hippie just had to engage him in a long conversation about the nature of God and all that. The guy hung out for a half hour. You can guess who ran the register during that time.

About 2 am the Hippie hit the sleep wall. He said he was hot and seeing spots. I told him to either go in the back room and sleep for a couple of hours, I didn't care, or to go outside for a walk. For some reason he wanted to stay awake during the whole time so outside he went. What a nut job.  He was disappointed because he kept trying to flirt with women but they wouldn't talk to him at all. I told him that on the graveyard shift people just wanted to use the restroom, get some coffee and be on their way, that is one of the reasons I don't mind working it. It took him the better part of the night to figure out people just didn't want to chat.

I did most of the side work but the Hippie wanted to help out, so he mopped the floor. Just like usual a crowd of people showed up and walked all over the wet floor. After several tries he finally gave up. He had wondered why we clean early and now he knows.

The night finally ended and since the Hippie was working the next shift we could close out early. He was in the drawer, I did the last minute side work and then the manager came in, time for me to leave and I didn't have to come back until Saturday. I hit the road and planned on ignoring the phone, hopefully Amy remembered to cover my shift but I had asked V on the afternoon shift to take care of it just in case. I was going to go home and ignore the phone. Hello long long weekend.

Found money, 35 cents. 

11/22

Since I had taken the night off and I was planning on driving all day tomorrow I stayed up, usually I go to bed around 7 am. It wasn't easy, I was a zombie all day long, I finally went for a walk and visited a friend. we chatted about gas station stuff and the upcoming holiday and then I went home.

I spent the rest of the day planning for my trip. I packed and printed out my reservation, along with a map to my sister's apartment. I had to fight with the printer because it was almost out of ink and I didn't want to have to go all the way to Wal Mart for a new cartridge. I would print a page and then shake the heck out of the ink and then print another page. In the end it took me almost an hour to print four pages.  

Also since I had been up in the morning I was watching a live show. They were having a give away to people who tweeted the secret word to their account, so I figured what the heck. Yeah, I won a copy of Super 8, the monster movie. I can't figure out if it's suppose to be a creepy creature like the movie Cloverfield or some kind of E. T. thing, the previews are all over the road. I guess I will wait for it to show up and find out. Staying up paid off.

By 6 pm I was nodding and at 7 pm I gave up and went to bed. It wasn't until the next day I realized I missed  a show I was planning on watching. Crapper. I guess I'll have to wait for the rerun.

Found money, nothing. 

Tomorrow, it's off for a Thanksgiving mini vaction.