Bob’s Blog

There must be something about me. Do I have “Sucker” stamped on my forehead? Because just about every vendor in the mall today kept bugging me. “Try this, sir!”, “Come here for a second!”, “What type of cell phone plan do you have?”, “Oh, you need to try this!”, “Let me tell you about this product!” and so on.

Argh.

Here’s the deal: When I go to a store (grocery, clothing, electronic, whatever), or the mall. I want to get in and get out. I do not want to say hi to the people who work there. I do not need help finding things. My day is going fine, thanks for asking. No, I don’t want a stupid free magazine suscription. No, really. When I say “No, thanks.” I really mean, “No, thanks. I do not want to try out your shitty product”. You’re a salesman, therefore a scammer. Leave me alone, let me find what I need, maybe browse for a few minutes and get out.

No distractions. I am a man on a mission and I do not need you annoying me, or slowing me down in any way.

Summer is dragging. The store is officially on my shit list after they gave me the run around after trying to request a day off for next Friday (for family, mind you. And never mind I have to spend my holiday working and that I'm currently in the middle of working an entire week straight without a day off). And among a host of other issues that I won't get into too much here anymore.

But, I will say – I'm just genuinely unhappy back here in Cleveland, for a few reasons other than work. Work just adds to it all. But, I can't be miserable all the time, right? It's time to try and get out of this slump and just make the best out of everything and stop feeling sorry for myself.

I still haven't seen (or read) The Da Vinci Code, or X-Men 3. But, I plan on fixing all three problems soon.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Dave Matthews and going to Cedar Point though.

And, the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Stadium Arcadium, is pretty amazing and makes me happy. So, At least I've got these things going for me right now.

You want to know what the biggest problem in retail is? It is the fact that you have to answer to so many differant managers. And more often than not, you have to clean up their mess's.

At the store, I have to answer to literally, 6 differant people. All managers. Some lower level, some higher. But, generally – I have to answer to them all in some form or another. They all have their two cents to put in, on anything and everything. They all demand perfection. They all demand too much out of the people who work there. And more often than not, they will all tell you differant things. One has to wonder how a store can actually function like this.

The common theme between everybody in the store who isn't a manager is, "you do what you can do and just go home."

Here really is the core problem: You have 6 managers, and you only have so many employees. You can only do so much in a day, and you have a laundry list of things that are "supposed to get done". Naturally, some things are not going to get done because you are too busy trying to get to the other things on your list, there isn't enough time in the day, or some things are not always going to be up to snuff because of other outside circumstances (i.e. dealing with customers, being assigned to differant departments for emergencies, etc.) And then, when one of, or some of, these things are not done – you get an earful, like I did today. And it doesn't matter why these things don't get done – it just didn't get done and you get chewed out, or they become upset. No matter the reasoning.

Maybe if some of these managers weren't too busy hanging up stupid flag decorations for Memorial Day around the store and b.s.'ing with one another during the day, maybe they could lend a few departments a hand here or there and things might not be too shabby. But, hey, what do I know, right? I just work there.

You know, this is a grocery store I work at. This isn't anything serious here. I mean, it is a job and it is something to take serious in of itself, I take pride in the work I do and I work hard. But I guess, what I'm saying is, I shouldn't come home stressed out or worry about dealing with tommorrow. It is, afterall, just a grocery store. But, I am low man on the totem pole, and I have to deal with everyone else's bullshit, whether it's another worker in the department, or the managers themselves. And, quite frankly, after 4 years of this, one just tends to get tired of it.

Watching 24 tonight, this disturbing thought popped into my head: I wonder what would happen if Jack Bauer, Chuck Norris, and Macgyver got into a triple threat match with one another?

Is there anything that these three men can't do?

I think the world might very well implode on itself with such a fight.

I think it speaks for itself. Congrats, Barroid.

50 Worst Beers according to Ratebeer.com

I propose that we move Natty Light to the #1 spot, then followed by Pabst Ribbon, then to cap off the #3 spot, we'll put in Milwaukee's Best.

If that's the best Milwaukee has to offer, remind me to never visit that city. And don't even get me started on how awful Natural Light is.

I like the rain. I'll be the first to admit this. Most people don't, but I do. The most relaxing thing for me ever is to sit on my porch, with my dog Sara, and watch the rain. There's nothing more relaxing in the world for me than that. So, one would think I would be in heaven with the amount of rain we've been getting, right?

Wrong.

This is day 5 of this damned Midwest Monsoon (description of this entire storm that I dubbed at work) and this rain isn't going to stop until Friday (according to weather.com)

On my way out to Best Buy, I thought I had seen the sun. But the sky played a trick on me, and instead, it started to rain even harder.

Too much of a good thing. And I am tired of it.

I'm one of the many that think Tool is probably the most important rock band out there. There is not another rock band out there putting out music that is this consistently good and has this much depth to it. Yeah, sure, it takes them about 5 years to put out a new album each time but that 5 years is always worth the wait. I think this is their best work. Wings For Marie (Pt. 1) and 10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2) are probably the best 15 minutes of music Tool has ever put out. Not mentioning their song Rosetta Stoned which is one of the coolest tracks they've also put together. It's borderline ridiculous.

This is a really great album, Maynard's lyrics continue to get better. Musically, it's just as intense (and complex) as ever. One of the best albums I've heard in a long time, I think and by far their best work, which is a big thing because I think Lateralus, their previous album is amazing.

Their albums are literally art, it's a beautiful thing that is sorely needed these days in music.

If there is one gripe I have regarding college (besides the actual school work) it's how people often come and go into your life too quickly. As most of us know, college is a very differant animal than high school. In high school, you're forced to be around the same people everyday and they inevitably turn out to be your "friends". Sure, some may have friendships that last after high school, but generally speaking, most friendships out of high school don't last after graduation (and that's if you're lucky enough to survive all the psycho teenage drama in between).At least not with me, anyways. And for good reason.

I'll be honest, I despised high school. It was, generally, a miserable 4 years for me and I could not've been happier than the day I graduated. I don't like running into people that I went to high school with, and I've generally cut off all contact with everyone I was ever friends with or affiliated with from high school. Do I sound bitter? Probably. And to be honest, I really don't even plan to attend any of those reunions either. It was that bad of an experiance for me and a part of my life that I'd much rather forget. If there is any positive out of those 4 years, it has without question, shaped me as part of the person I am today and taught me to do my best in treating people how they want to be treated, no matter who they are, what they wear, what they do for a living, etc.

With college, the friends you make are real and genuine. The friendships you build and have are much more meaningful. It's very differant and has been the complete and utter opposite from high school, for me anyways.

I got in touch with a friend of mine today. She was actually one of the first real friends I made in BG, and my first college crush. We lost touch for a little while, for varying reasons, but we saw each other at a bar in my last night in BG last week, and had a real conversation today and it was nice and it was good to see her, and talk to her again. She's a real sweetheart and it's too bad we couldn't work things out. And even though we've never been real close, I'm happy she's been a part of my life. And that's more than I can say for a lot of people I've had in my life up until this point.