teague | Entries tagged with hot topic

As everyone in America knows, this was the Day After Thanksgiving. The busiest shopping day of the year. Kinda weird if you ask me. Everyone bitches and complains about the crowds and the craziness, but the stores put on the sales, and people still eat it up like the masochistic consumers they are. Anyway, the real fun is behind the scenes, with the lowly minimum wage slaves working behind the counters. I was one of those today. Everyone who reads my bloggy knows I work at Hot Topic. As you can imagine the store kinda looked like a bomb had gone off, and man, you never saw so many punk dressed folk coordinating against shoplifters like the FBI. That being said, I just want to say that for the most part it was a pleasant day. Most everyone was in a good mood, and were polite and patient when forced to stand in line, or wait for attention. There was one that seemed to want to not understand english. I'm not talking about an actual foreigner. I mean someone that made my manager explain 5 times that when you redeem a frequent buyer card, you don't get frequent buyer stamps on the purchase. A lady behind her even said, "It's like that everywhere. I work at Barnes and Noble and they don't do it either." The arguing lady humphed. I think some people think if they argue enough, you'll just give in. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. I think folks need to learn a more graceful boundry of when to stop arguing. yeah, when I am queen of the world.

Current Mood: accomplished

Oh man...I came in from work last night, my feet just aching. I had a major need for carbs, and made myself a pot of noodles with parmasian cheese, garlic. herbs and butter. Not very diet conscious, but I'm PMSing, I think, so what ever. I watched afew recorded court shows, then I fell asleep on the couch til 2 am. I still felt tired so I went to bed. I didn't get up again til almost noon today. What the fuck? I feel fairly decent now. I wonder why my body decided it needed almost 12 hours of sleep though. I could understand it if I had been missing sleep, but I haven't. Sometimes my bod just makes these unilateral descisions. Might be the PMS too. I'll take sleep over cramps any day.

I can remember having unusual dreams. Just snatches, like being a slave in a mine on an alien planet. The Overseer looked like Bill Murry, no shit, and apperently I was decently popular, and a betting woman, as I made a bet against some poor, slow witted creature for lasting much longer, even though I had just previously been kind to him. I think at some point I was that slow witted creature too, and was just confused about this fate to be in a dark, dirty mine. The weird thing is, it wasn't all grim. There was a community with lighting, and civilization. People partied, and mingled socially, and there was even a priest that was dressed in sort of trash finery, and had bird people that entertained him. I wish I could remember my dreams more often.

I've been missing the Unusual People reports from work. Haven't been as inspired lately due to some family drama that I've avoided reporting out of respect. So here is a catchup. The day befor Halloween it was definately the old lady, and I mean, she was 70, if she was a day, coming into Hot Topic and buying fur handcuffs. Hello? Things that boring at the Home? I decided not to ponder it that deeply. Yesterday it wasn't so much an unusual customer, as one I felt I really helped out.

Poor chica. She was gorgious. She was tall, and willowy, with her hair dyed black, and cut short and edgy. Her almond eyes were neatly ringed in a sort of powder blue, and she had on glasses with square rims. She also had gotten her ears pierced at a tattoo parlor, and they had given her *no* caresheet. Come on...Claires at the Mall gives you a care sheet. She asked me if I knew how to get her horseshoe shaped earring with the screw on back out. I went to help and saw that her poor ears were completely fubar. All crusted over. I told her, "Oh darlin, your poor ears!" She nodded and just spilled out the story. I blinked. This was not acceptible. She said they were a great tattoo place. Doesn't make them good piercers though. I told her not to take out the rings until she managed to get the infection under control. The hole will need to have a way to drain. I told her what I remembered from my care sheet, wash twice a day, use this cleaning solution (which we had), no, don't use alcohol! She seemed surprised to learn she was doing more harm than good. I showed her how to wiggle them, using my own piercing. I really sympathized. I lost a piercing once due to migration, and if I can spare someone else trouble, I will. And it was kinda neat having a hotty hanging on my every word.

I think I looked cute yesterday too. I had new pants, the overly long strappy kind, a black v-neck t with the front that is gathered (slimming) and my black fishnet shirt under it. I am in love with the black fishnet shirts now. They let me wear the shorter sleeves, or sleeveless, without feeling like my arm fat is waving at everyone. I had my hair fluffed out, and even alittle makeup on. Yeah...I even caught someone checking me out. Aaaw yeah.

Current Mood: bouncy

Should have posted yesterday, but I was tired. My sleep pattern was interupted by going to work in the morning. Sunlight BAD! So anyway, my weirdness from yesterday, since something weird almost always happens when I work at Hot Topic, usually in the form of Customers. I had two customers that were interesting to say the least.

Customer one was a female, perhaps my age or slightly older. I'm getting to where it's harder to tell. People who have tanned alot, or otherwise abused their bodies look older in their 30's than people like me who live under rocks. Anyway, she comes up and lays a variety of items on my counter. There was a whip, pleather pants, spiked collar, stockings, and gloves. Nothing terribly unusual there, except then she asks me in a soft voice if we sell leather bondage masks. I take it in stride, although inside I'll admit I'm giggling like a teenager. I say no, and ask if she's looked at the local adult shops. She says yes, and looks abit disappointed. I advise her to try at the leather goods booth at the local Flea Market. Heck, I don't really know if they have any, but I'm helpful. And I'm looking at what she is getting and thinking..Wow...hot date. She ends the transaction with asking me if we sold leashes. Hot indeed.

The next customer was kinda hard to look at. He was a young male, and he looked, seriously, like he's taken a fresh beat down. I mean looked like he hadn't cleaned the blood off his face. He had a butterfly bandage across the bridge of his nose. He only wants to buy a t-shirt, and as I'm listening to him speak to me about a patch, I'm having a hard time picturing this guy getting in a fight by his attitude. He was so polite and soft spoken. He looked rough in dress, and had an engaging soft russian accent. Maybe they beat the asshole out of him for the day. I noticed he also smelled strongly of booze. Not beer either. It was roughly noon. Who knows.

Here is a crab update since I haven't made one in awhile. Both my girls are still alive. Wolfie has traded places and is now in the big tank, while Sparkle is buried in the Iso tank. I gave Wolfie a bath, and cleaned her tank, and checked on Sparkle. She's at the bottom of the fishbowl, and she wiggled alittle so I know she's alive. I discovered that Legos make an interesting structure on which hermits like to crawl on, and I can customize them. Make little temples and stuff. Amusing.

I ment to post yesterday, but my head was tired. Anyway, I worked, and as usual there was at least one thing worth noting.

I am getting to know the new assistant manager, Scotty, pretty well. We get along well, possibly because he's also not as young as some of the other folks working there. We both remember the 80's in a different way. It was a morning shift again, and things were deadish. It was also the first day back to school for most of the kids post hurricane. Here's the fun part. These two cute young things come in...Maybe jailbait, but probably not. They looked at least 18. One is dressed in a spagetti strap top, and low slung sarong that shows off the fact that she has a series of stars tattoed along the contour of her belly. It's a flat, but delightfully curved belly. Her friend is wearing jeans, and showing less skin. They wander, looking. I pay them just enough attention to know they are around. Finally they come up to the counter with purchases to make. The sarong girl looks at my shirt, which is black with gold stars all over it. She exclaims, "I love your shirt!" and proceeds to show me all her stars. "I love stars!" I smile, cause it's hard not to, and reply that I can tell. Her friend chimes in, "You should see where else she has stars!" I arch a brow. The star girl giggles and says she just can't stop adding them. I smile and say, "Ink fever?" They nod enthusiasticly. I pull up my sleeve to show off my tat, which is a stylized tribal kite, with a turtle on the kite. Next thing I know, I am being treated to a tattoo show and tell session with these very cute girls pulling at each other's cloths to show me. Oh my....If I had only been a man, or more of a lesbian. Hell, I enjoyed the show anyway. It never got worse than PG rated, but the suggestion was very fun.

Crab Update: Those guys aren't molting...They are just fucking around. I've added Sparkle back to the tank.

Current Mood: amused

I found out today that my friend Ernesto got his car stolen from the Mall parking lot. That's really sad. He seemed so upset, and there was just no way to comfort him. We had to give him our extra key, because they stole his house key as well. God, I hope he's getting his apt rekeyed anyway. If he had mail, they might find his address, and break in there too. I need to tell him. I hope they find the car, and not all burned out. That would suck so hard. I don't think Erni has ever gone through anything like this befor. Ya'll pray for him, ok?

Went in to work at Hot Topic today. It was me, and three managers. One is the new Assistant Manager in training. His name is Scotty. He's really nice. He asked me to come in and work with him tomorrow. Another morning shift. *UGH* Oh well. Happy me on the bus again. Today there wasn't as much in the way of anecdotes. I did have a moment where these two little girls, had to be 10 or under, brought thongs up to the register. I blinked, and stared. They were talking, and I happily overheard that these were gifts for their older sister. *phew*.

One of my crabs popped back up. I guess she's not molting. I'm going to bathe and feed her in a moment.

Current Mood: annoyed

Today was pretty good. Fairly eventful. I was called into work, so here is today's Hot Topic story.

I'm running a register today. Not the most exciting job, but none of it is really. This kid comes up to me with one of those Living Dead Dolls and asks me, "Does she come with a special battery?" I give him a puzzled look. He shows me the doll as though that will explain things. I tilt a brow, and say, "No, sweety, this is an ordinary doll. She doesn't move, or talk." He says, "oh," and wanders away, disappointed. I have to bite my lip. My goodness...Aren't those things hidious enough without added things such as head spinnies, and jaw clackies?

After work I went with Brian and Rachelle to eat, and get haircuts. I gave poor Brian a shock. I now have super short hair. I wanted it edgy and spikey. To be honest it's abit shorter than I thought, but my hair grows so fast, it's cool. I kept my long, dyed bangs. I think it is the shortest I have ever had it. Brian told me I am not allowed to start carrying a wallet. LOL...Silly...I already do.

Came home and discovered that Sparkle finally decided to dig, as hoped. So now I have two tanks of sand with crabs underneith. I hope they molt well, and quickly, and don't die. It can take about a month for them to molt completely.

Then we went to see The Exorsist, the Begining. It was actually pretty good, and I wasn't expecting alot. The big complaint is they should have spent alittle more on the CGI, or left it off entirely. The non computer special effects were very nice already. Great makeup, and beautiful sets. I don't want to spoil it, but I will say there were some gut wrenching, intense moments. Oh, but there was another problem. This couple behind me doing a running dialog. I even shhh'd a couple of times. Total rudeness. I wish I could have spun my head around, and spit pea soup on them.

Current Mood: good

( Pic of Rob in front of his unique repair job. )

I love this pic. The only reason I hid it was because it is sort of large.

So today I worked at Hot Topic, in the morning, I might add. Daylight BAD! Sun! HISSSSS! Otherwise not so bad. Here is today's fun fiasco though. I am getting along with management generally, but there are times I want to choke. I was instructed to unfold a stack of Dave Chappell shirts, and take the size stickers off, then put them on hangers to hang on a rack. I do this. Then I am told to undo that, fold them back, and put the stickers back on. I sigh, smiles, and redo them. THEN! BECAUSE SOMETIMES THE MANAGERS ARE POSSESSED BY THE DEVIL! I am told it was right the first time, when I put them on hangers. He looks at me sheepishly and says, " Don't suppose you feel like doing it again?" I threaten to pull out one of his dreads. He does it himself. HA!