Work yesterday was weird. Coworker "A" called me midday, asking if I could switch shifts with her because she didn't want to work with coworker "J". She said, "That way, you'd go in for my shift, and when he leaves, you call me and I'll come in." I told "A" that I had class, but I could come in at 6 instead of 6:30 if that would help. She said that'd be fine and gave me her cell phone number. So, I was going to go in at 6. But she called me back and told me never mind, her girlfriend (this is my lesbian coworker) would come and "sit with her" so she wouldn't be alone with "J", and I could just come in at 6:30. So, that was the plan. I threw out her cell phone number, went to class, and went to work at 6:30.

When I got there, "J" was outside, smoking, with his friends. I thought "A" would be inside but she wasn't. As soon as I walked in the door, the phone rang, and it was my boss, Heather. As soon as I answered, she said, "Oh, there is someone else there. "J" said there wasn't." I told her I'd just walked in the door. She said, "Oh, that's fine, okay, bye." "J" left, shortly after that.

I had a list of things I, as the pre-closer, needed to get done. Problem was, I had a lot of customers, and I was the only one in the store for three hours. I had a few breaks in which to get some things done, but overall I was hardly able to accomplish anything because of the customers. I was pretty discouraged until Heather came in and said, "So, where's Angie?" My response: "Angie was supposed to be here?" My boss: "You mean, you've been working by yourself this whole time?"

In the end, the mix-up was several people's faults, but NOT MINE. Luckily, my boss is gracious and she was mad at the right people. When "A" had called me to see if she and I could switch shifts, and I said I had class, apparently she called Heather and told her that we were switching shifts, or something like that, even though I'd just said I was unable to. Then she called me back and said, don't even bother coming in early.

So, "J" worked by himself for an hour and a half, because "A" had never showed up, supposing that I had taken her shift, even though I had specifically told her I couldn't. And the reason she didn't even show up at 6:30, which is what she would have done if we had decided to switch shifts? Well, she had told me to call her and tell her when "J" left, so the coast would be clear for her to come to the store.

Okay, she knew that I had class and wouldn't be there till 6:30. She knew that "J" was off at 6:30. Why didn't she come in?

Whatever.

I don't even know what her sudden problem with "J" is. But it doesn't matter, because we just found out last night that "J" is going back to jail (he was on some kind of work-release program) for some reason.

Anyway, there's some workplace drama for you. Because of other people's incompetence, I had to leave work 45 minutes later than I would have, and my boss had to stay probably an hour later than she would have.

Some customer stories:

1. I was pretty chipper at the start of the night. I was just pouring a bucket of ice into the machine when a lady customer walked in. I smiled and said hi, and she had kind of a sour face as she nodded back. I asked her how she was and she said stiffly, "just fine." She wanted two sandwiches, and one with half the meat. So, I asked her if she wanted the other half of the meat separate. She said, "Well now, no one's asked me that before!" That seemed to cheer her up a bit. It just makes sense, when you're paying for a full amount of meat, you should get it. The meat is what determines how much a sandwich costs, anyway.

As I made her sandwich, I said, "How has your day been?" and she started crying. She had put the family's cat down today. He had a tumor in his eye, and the doctors said if they did surgery he'd have a 10% chance of survival, and lose his eye in the process. Her 12 year old son loved that cat and slept with him every night. Also, her son's best friend was killed last week when she was crossing a street - a car made a left turn, didn't see her, and hit her. And her neice was killed a few months before that. I felt so bad. I told her I'd pray for her, and I did.

2. Two black girls came in. Now, I am not racist, but ever since I've worked at Subway, I've noticed that black people tend to be more rude than white people. Of course there are always exceptions - I have lots of wonderful, nice, black customers, and lots of extremely rude white customers. In fact, I only get a few "extremely rude" customers at all in a day (they tend to stick out in my memory), but statistically, they are usually black.

One of the girls was just kind of bossy. She wanted deli, we had no deli because whoever had worked before me didn't make any. She asked when we'd have some. "Tomorrow morning." "Why?" "Because it takes three hours to make." "Well, why does it take yall three hours to make?" I explained the process to her. "Well now, can't yall just give me some regular bread for the same price?" I told her I'd be happy to oblige.

As I made her sandwich, she was giving me looks like I was the weirdest person on earth for asking her things like "What kind of cheese do you want?" Finally, she asked me, "Are you new?" I usually don't like that question, because it implies I don't know what I'm doing. I said, "No, I've been working here since September." She was rude when I rung her up too. She was one of those people I couldn't wait to get rid of. She and her friend ate in the store and left.

Half an hour later, she came back. I thought she'd come to complain, but she said she wanted another sandwich, because "the one you made was so darn good I just had to get another one. You make those things really well. Seems like lots of people don't care if you get the hard bread or whatever." She kept on with the flattery about the excellent sandwich I had made. It was more weird than anything else. That's all that happened.

I'd like to think I'm good at making unhappy people happy, but I don't know about that. Especially when it gets later in my shift, I am usually not very conversive or full of pleasantries. Hm.

I am sick. This morning, when I woke up, the congestion in my chest was so severe it was kind of hard to breathe, and my voice was gone so I could only whisper. I knew it would clear up somewhat about midday, like it did yesterday, after I started coughing stuff up. But I'm not getting any better, and I still have a lot of sinus congestion too. I went to the nurse to see if she could give me something but she told me to see a doctor. She gave me some phone numbers but I called and they all have some reason or another why I can't make an appointment. I don't have insurance, either, so that makes it more difficult.

So I'm not going in. The nurse said I'll probably get better eventually on my own anyway, but I'm definitely sick. This explains why I was so tired the last few days in spite of my sleep! And also why my eyes have been so red. I couldn't figure it out.

So now I'm all "me-focused". But the nurse sold me a bottle of cough medicine for $1.50, and so far I haven't taken anything for my cough, so I'm sure that will help.

Waaah. I wish I didn't have school. I'd so much rather be sick at home.

I'm going to:

1. Take a shower.
2. Eat breakfast.
3. Sleep.

Actually, I think I'll sleep first and see what happens after that.

Bye now!