Day 18

I have discovered the joys of caffeine and sugar. And I have seen that they are good.

Since Friday sucked so badly, I tired working out a system to get me through the day with a little more pep, even if the customers try to make my life a living hell.

When I work an 8 hour shift, it's actually 9 hours long. I work for about two hours, then get a break on the clock. Then back for two more hours, floowed by an hour long lunch off the clock. Back on for two more hours, then another break. Then finish up my shift in about an hour and a half. During break number one I make sure I get sugar -- glucose, fructose, whatever. Fruit snacks work best. During lunch, I make sure I drink some caffeine -- not pop mind you, but double-shot esspressos -- followed by some fruit to take away that awful coffee breath (apples work wonders). During my last break, I finally get candy. My personal favorite is a snickers bars, becuase it's got protein, too. That's makes it sound healthy when it's really not. But it got my through the day with a smile, even though it wasn't too different from Friday.

In fact, it was probably worse. From 11:00-6:00, we had a solid line of customers coming through. I will never do my shopping on a weekend afternoon again, in hopes of giving those who work in retail a sense of equilibrium during other hours. It's the absolutely worse time of the week to shop (unless you're grocery shopping on weeknight between roughly 4-6, which is also a madhouse of epic proportions). After "dinner" is my favorite time, because customers are a little more mellow, and more willing to chat, rather than "How are you doing?" small-talk BS.

Did you catch the fact that I hate small-talk? Maybe this wasn't the right position for me within the Wal-Mart organization....

Today's Sales: $17,000