There might be some magical point at which we are no longer able to live lean. That time came for me sometime in the last few years. I think after you maintain a certain lifestyle you lose the ability to do things normally out of your comfort zone. I discovered this most clearly this year when I attempted to work at both a restaurant/bar and a retail store. Neither of these were career options of course, but while sending out resumes and killing time until the husband got back from Iraq they seemed like an easy way to earn cash. Then I got hired and went to work and discovered that the public is irritating, other employees are stupid and no amount of money is enough to make me want to work those jobs.
Maybe I am just too old or too lazy or perhaps I just no longer have it in me to work that hard for so little. Something about being younger and in need makes it easier to live a lifestyle less comfortable. You’re in college, you take a job on campus, you sleep four hours a night and still somehow feel okay. Well no more. The restaurant gig lasted a month and I hated it from the first two minutes of day one, but it wasn’t until another server said one of the most racist statements I’ve ever heard that I threw in the towel and never went back. That was six months ago.
This time around I thought it might be fun to take a holiday job at Anthropologie in the mall. I did it mostly for the discount, but also because I honestly just got tired of the unemployed road. I got hired two months ago and so far have worked a total of seven hours. I have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $500, so I figure I’m in the hole for about $455. How the hell do people do this? If I were homeless with four kids I would not work in retail or the service industry. Then again, with four kids I could put them to work and reap the rewards from their child labor.
The retail gig is coming to an end tomorrow morning. I am scheduled to work 8am-5pm on Black Friday and again at 6am on Saturday. I want to be responsible and do the right thing, but not nearly as much as I want to just sleep in and cuddle up with my husband. If I needed this job to pay the bills I’m not sure it would be different. I think I have just reached that point, either from age, physical discomfort, or economic stability that I am not able or willing to put up with the general populace. I’m not all that fond of the mall or the people in it on a normal day let alone on Black Friday at 8am. I think it’s probably better and safer for everyone if I just bow out of this experiment. I’m never going to be 22 again and I just don’t have it in me to work like I am.
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