at least my pay check will be nicer

My first day of work at Aeropostale was fuckin crazy. Where can I begin? Let's begin at the start. When I went to orientation last week, I was given my schedule, which clearly said that my first day was Sunday from 6am to 3pm. Despite that being a totally shit time to have to get up to go to work at the mall, I wasn't going to question authority. So Sunday morning I got up at 5am and got all ready to go and got on my way to work. The roads were as empty as the mall parking lot. And, apparently, as empty as the entire mall. The doors were locked and Janine, the manager, didn't answer her cellphone or the store line. I left a voicemail and drove back home thinking that I perhaps had the wrong times or the wrong number. I didn't have either wrong. So, for the next few hours, I called the store and Janine's cell about every half hour. At about 9:30, Katie, the assistant manager, answered at the store and I told her about my confusion. She didn't have much information for me since I'm too new to be on the schedule. We speculated that maybe Janine meant to write Saturday 6am to 3pm (what Janine had worked on Saturday) or that possibly she meant to put Sunday 6pm to 3am; what Janine was scheduled to work. A little after this, Janine called me back and come to find out, she had meant to write Sunday 6pm to 3am. Janine and Katie both apologized a lot and I tried to use this to my advantage and get my hours changed from 6pm to 1am. Janine agreed to this, but read on! haha

So, after that got all settled, I called my mom to let her know because we had made plans to meet at Volkswagon so I could get things fixed on mah ride. Since my hours were different, we decided to meet then. So, I drove down to Cape May Courthouse (about 40 mins away) and dropped my car off. Then my mom and I drove in the most disgusting smelling car (my brother's) ever to my Uncle John's so that I could borrow my grandmother's car so I could get to and from work the next few days. On a side note, I can't believe how horrible my brother's car smells. So rancid. So disgusting. It actually made my chest hurt. We had to open the windows.

Anyway, I got my grandmother's not so sweet ride, drove home, made myself a sandwich, and tried to lay down for a few hours to get some rest. I'm not very good at napping so I don't really know how much rest I really got. I was so in and out. I got back up at about 3:30, got re-dressed and chilled out with something to drink. This would be the last drink I'd have for many, many hours! I left a little early to get gas, but in my rush to get out of the house so I'd have time to get gas, I completely forgot to bring a drink with me. It did not register in my head that the mall would be closed the entire time I was there and thus there would be no way for me to get anything to drink. But I figured it'd be alright since I was leaving at 1am so I didn't stress....

So, what was I doing? I was doing "floor set". The Aeropostale corporation sends them books with how the floor sets are supposed to look and what clothes go where and we're supposed to follow that and make it as close to that as possible. But that means you have to move the clothes already on the walls, tables, racks and put them somewhere else. It's not fun. It's a big undertaking. And when we started, there was 6 of us doing it; Janine, Caitlyn, Alison, Devon, Ana, and myself. Devon is a minor so she had to leave at 11. At 11, we all went outside (because we can't be left in the store alone without a manager and Devon had to be walked out) and we had our break. It wasn't much of a break since all the benches outside were soaked so we just stood outside while Janine smoked a cigarette. After that, we all went back in and got back to work. Then at 12, Ana and Alison left. I don't know why. I guess they were just done. I know Ana had classes in the morning, but I overheard talk and it seems that Alison just is lazy and never stays. I don't know! hahaha So then it was just the three of us and there was still so much work ahead. Janine with a sinus infection and Caitlyn who sounded like she had one and me. I had a headache brewing, hadn't eaten since noon, and was seriously dehydrated. But, when 1am came around, there was still just so much work to be done and I couldn't just leave the two of them to do it alone...

So, I stayed. And it sucked a lot. I did a lot of shit. I can't even hardly remember. Just a lot of shit. I tried to work quickly but efficiently so that things would just be done and I could get home. With every hour, my headache grew, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I knew Advil wouldn't have helped at that point and taking a Codeine without anything to drink or eat would undoubtedly led to me being too sick to drive. So, of course, I got a migraine. I continued to work and tried to like go into a sort of meditation in my head. I was putting these tank tops on hangers and they kept slipping off and there was soooo many, but I kept my cool. Just tried to be chill. It got really bad when Janine and Caitlyn started to clean up (I was still hanging tank tops) and found that Ana and Alison had left piles and piles of clothes for us to clean up for them. We had no place for them. Janine like flipped out at one point in the back. I was crawling around on the floor folding plaid cargo shorts. We were all exhausted and unhappy and Caitlyn kept saying, "I feel so bad for you... this is your first day!" and at one point said, "I hope you come back..." hahahah

At 3:55, we clocked out. I don't know how I managed to drive myself home. Thank God I live so close because I definitely wouldn't have been able to drive much farther. I had to drive with one eye covered in a car that's not my own. Horrible.

Upon getting home, I took a codeine and laid down in the dark with a piece of bread, a drink, and my Gizmo. I started to feel like I could function so I got up and made myself some mac & cheese (something I had been like fantasizing about all night!). For a while, I felt good. "Knocked UP" was on and I had eaten and I felt a bit better. But then I started to feel really nauseous. As time went on, I felt more and more sick and had to sit up and I was trying to breath slow, but it was no use. The feeling started to overwhelm me. So I went into the bathroom and said goodbye to my mac and cheese. :(

I didn't wind up going to bed until like 7am. And now I'm all having the after effects of a migraine and feeling like shit. It sucks. At least I don't have to go back there til 4pm tomorrow.

I think I just stole Benji's longest blog post award! OH OUCH!