WHY DID I EVEN BOTHER TO GET OUT OF BED?

Have you ever awakened and knew immediately it wasn’t going to be a good day?  Well, today was that day.  I didn’t have a great vision or anything.  I just got out of bed and wanted to stay home.  I have a set routine each morning, and this morning I just couldn’t get into that routine.  I got to work and things seemed normal enough.  I went to the restroom, combed my hair, then fixed me a glass of ice water in the kitchen and went up to start my day at the register.  Still, nothing concrete, but that nagging feeling “today is NOT going to go well”.

 

It was nearing time for me to take a break when an older black man walked up to the counter with an armful of clothes.  He immediately told me that “the short lady told him he could get some clothes for free”.  I asked him if he knew her name and when did she tell him this.  He didn’t know her name, but from what he was saying, it seemed “she” had just told him that.  I knew that our “intake” specialist was on a day of vacation, so I told him I would go and check with someone in the back as to who he had talked with and what they had told me.  I asked the older women in the back who has been there the longest if she was the “short” lady he had spoken to, and she said it wasn’t her, but to tell him that he would have to wait till the director came back from running errands.  I went back to the front and did so.  The man started saying things like “oh no, that can’t be right” and “I come in all the time and the little short lady always tells me I can get what I need” and “I don’t have anything to wear and this just ain’t right”.  He walked off toward the door and I put the clothing on another counter so as to wait on another customer.

 

The man walked back toward me and asked how much they would be if he paid for them.  I pulled out the calculator and, giving him a discount on each item, with tax, it came to around $12.  I told him and he went outside.  I began waiting on the other customers in my line when a few minutes later a large hand came out of nowhere to the front right of me and slammed the counter and this booming male voice started announcing who they were and who they were with and what types of volunteer work he has done and how often he had worked with that very salvation army store and I couldn’t even give a man some clothes when he had nothing to wear?  First of all, the man’s hand slamming down on the counter frightened me and his booming voice only made it worse.  But when I looked up at the man, he was a very very very large (obese) white man about 6’5” with a very red angry face.  He kept on yelling at me for not helping the black man with clothing.  I interrupted his tirade and asked if I was allowed to tell the man my side of the story, the truth, and he kept trying to talk over me, yelling louder and louder.  I looked around the store and it appeared that everything was in slow motion, and all eyes in there were on the man.  I turned to the phone and called over the pager for the woman in the back (who had told me to tell the man to come back when the director was there) to come to the register immediately.  She came up and I started to explain what had happened when the white man started talking over me again, and this time, though still very loud, he changed his tone a bit with her.  His story was much different than when he was talking to me.  He was a bit calmer and almost apologetic……..to her.  I tried to interject my side there in front of both of them, and he accused me of being unfair and unjust and he was going to call the home office of the salvation army and report the incident as well as me.  The woman patted me on the back and shushed me.  I could see he wasn’t going to own up to the truth, and then he said “I” accused him unjustly, so I turned and headed to the back and left her up there with him.  As soon as I hit the back door to the warehouse, one of the community service girls came right up behind me and pulled me into a hug and stood there, clutching me tightly, rubbing my back and telling me not to let it upset me.  When she did that, I burst into tears and then one of my coworkers came over and asked what was wrong and hugged me, as well as another community service worker, and then the coworker pulled me by the hand to the picnic table outside and by then I was hysterical.  I was sobbing deeply and just couldn’t stop crying and shaking.  I looked up and another coworker came up and put her arm around me and asked what had happened and I couldn’t even speak I was shaking so badly and snuffling.  Then the woman who had come up to the register to handle things came up to me and was concerned about me and told me she took care of things and for me to not worry about it.  They all told me I did the right thing, but I couldn’t stop crying and wondering why it all happened.  Wanna hear the really ironic thing?  Guess where the man claims to be a volunteer FROM.  The First Baptist Church, right here in my town, the very church my landlord, the mayor, is a member of.  Fine representation of Christianity, right????  It is people like this man that cause non Christians to remain agnostic or atheist due to the hypocrisy.  I guess he thought since he was loud, huge, and tall he could bully his way to the end results.  I bet he was a big bully all the way through school. 

 

Awhile later the man came back, but didn’t come in.  I noticed several people running around looking for the director and I found out why.  The man was outside and the director went out to talk to him.  He said the man was very apologetic and was truly sorry it all happened……even donated some of his old suits.  Point is……..he never came in and apologized to me. 

 

I felt pretty good today healthwise, so even though it was nearing time for me to go to lunch, I decided I wasn’t going to fuss today, just wait and see if anyone came up to relieve me for lunch.  About 15 minutes before my lunchtime, one ofthe ladies came up and said I could go on to lunch.  I asked if she had already gone on her lunchbreak, and she said it didn’t matter,  because when I got back from my lunchbreak, she was going home early.  I asked her why, and she said because she was pissed.  I wondered if maybe “I” had done something, and she said that one of the other coworkers and she had been more or less fighting in the back the last couple of hours and another coworker was doing nothing but putting stuff in her van before it ever got into the store, and she was just sick and tired of it.  She was supposed to leave at 5 anyway, so she was just going to leave early and get away from it all.

 

I wasn’t planning on eating lunch out today, but with all that was going on, I decided I wanted to be far away from there for at least 45 minutes.  So I Subway’d.  I was stuffed when I got through with my 6” tuna sandwich, but I had a peaceful lunchbreak.  I hated to go back.  But I did.

 

When I got back, I discovered that there had been a mistake.  The director had scheduled only 2 of us to close, and neither of them, (me and another girl) knew how to set the alarm.  The director was under the impression he had shown me how.  It was while I was finding all this out that I also found out what some of the problem was between the 2 women in the back.  One had said she was giving her key back to the director, because she wasn’t coming in to open anymore, neither was she closing.  The other coworker decided to stay and help me close up the store.  The director showed me how to set the alarm and to shut it off when I come in, as well as gave me the passcode in case the alarm company called and asked for it to shut off the alarm.  So I guess I am about to be “promoted” without a raise in pay, lol.  I am sure he will ask me to come in early and open up, as well as close up some evenings (the latter of which I already do).

 

I got an afternoon break and while I was sitting outside in the back, one of the volunteers drove up, came over and sat down and started talking to me.  I went in after my break and went on back to the cash register.  I noticed about 30 minutes later, the man sped off in his truck.  I wondered why he didn’t stick around like he usually did.  Well, I found out why.   My daughter’s 3rd grade teacher has become our volunteer librarian, and keeps the books in order and rotates them to keep a new supply and more choices available.  I really like her, and I just assumed she liked me too, but probably wasn’t as fond of me as I was of her.  She has known the man who volunteers for some time, and I have known her for 14 years.  All the folks in the back save all the wigs that come in for me.  Some of them are costume wigs, some are expensive wigs.  Today, a practice head was donated.  It has hair on it, and the cosmetology students use them to learn how to cut hair.  It had most of the hair cut off the lower back,  and then it was about an inch long on the top.  It looked rather comical.  It had a face that could be made up with makeup and had makeup on it.

 

After I went back up front, the man volunteer made some comment to another volunteer about how the mannequin head looked just like me.  The librarian went off on him.  Blessed him out, told him I was a very nice person, sweet person, and couldn’t help how my hair looked and it was rude and inconsiderate of him to talk about me that way, and she wasn’t going to have it.  Whew!!!!  Man!!!!!  I wasn’t expecting that!!!  One of the volunteers he was talking to about me came up and told me what had happened.  He took off really fast after he got that tongue lashing.  I will have to thank her the next time I see her.

 

I finally made itthrough the day, though emotionally bruised and battered.  I am off tomorrow, so hopefully I can recouperate from today.  It is payday so I have some running around to do.  I also hope that the state income tax check comes so that I can pay off one of the ladies I owe money to.  I will soon have all my personal loans paid off and that will feel really good.

 

Well, I have bored all of you long enough in this entry.  I just had to vent.  I just don’t understand grown people who feel they have to bully others.  We are all created equal and all deserve to be treated with respect until we do something to no longer earn it. 

 

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