Dave’s Great Escape From Retail Hell

Today has been my first day of freedom from Sears, and I’ve certainly made the most of it.  It began with a nice, boneheaded blunder on my part, though, by oversleeping, and thus missing out on fulfilling a promise I made to Shera to go with her as she visited with a surgeon about getting her gall bladder taken out.  She absolved me of any and all wrong doing (though I wasn’t as quick to do so myself….I felt bad for hours and hours).  But, good news followed, as they are, indeed, going to remove her gall bladder.  Once the surgery (and recovery period) ends, there’ll be no more pain.  So that’s good.  I spent some money on myself today, too, buying two books (Sgt. Frog, Vols. 11 and 12), a cheap as hell used game that I already own for another system and have beaten before (Grandia II, getting the hard to find PS2 version for a measly five bucks….thank you Great Escape).  Then I traded in several crap games (Black, Katamari Damacy, Hot Shots Golf Fore!, X-Men Legends II) and put them towards a purchase of The Legend of Zelda:  The Twilight Princess for Gamecube.  Because, y’know, I’m not backed up on games I need to play (having just started Final Fantasy XII last week……and with Rogue Galaxy coming out at the end of the month).  And then I gorged myself at Steak and Shake.  And, before coming home, I helped Shera kill some time before she went to work.  But I’m getting ahead of myself here.  This is meant to be the final tribute to my time at Sears…

The last day in itself was anti-climactic.  The one person I most wanted to wish a happy goodbye to was off, and had, indeed, gotten her goodbye on Tuesday.  That goodbye consisted of a 45 minute conversation over a lunch she forced me to share with her because she couldn’t eat it all.  Once again, I realized just how easy it is for people to open up to me and share things that it shouldn’t be so easy to get to.  I mean, I know Tammy has trusted me for quite a while now, but….I dunno……it just seems like I know way more about her past than I probably should.  Listening to us argue about sharing her lunch was hilarious, too, in retrospect.  During it, I made the comment that she was as difficult as having an older sister.  And that’s how I think of her.  She was like the older sister I never had (and wouldn’t have wanted until I got to know her).  I promised I’d come back and visit her from time to time……..but we’ll see about that one.  I’ve never been fond of going back to places I’ve worked, even years later.  As a for instance, I’ve been back to Fred’s all of twice since I quit there in 1998, Movie Gallery maybe thrice since 1999, Dell never, Vol State once or twice since 2003……you get the picture.  It just isn’t something I do.  And there’d be so little to go back to Sears for anyway.  The greatest thing I’ll be taking away from Sears is the relationship Shera and I have.  And she hasn’t worked there since October.  We just happened to have met because of Sears.

I will say, though, that I came back to life while working at Sears.  Most people have had their souls sucked out of them by that hellhole.  But not me.  Mine was re-awakened from its near-death-like slumber.  It’s funny, because I tried so hard for months and months to not make friends there because the whole thing was supposed to be short-term.  But try as I might, the rest of the guys in the back brought me out of my shell….slowly but surely.  That got the process started.  Getting to know Tammy better released the parking brake.  And meeting Shera was the violent shove down the steep incline that brought me back to life.  Nowadays, I’m as vibrant as I’ve been in years.  I talk more, I laugh more, I go out more…….I’m just Dave again, y’know?  And as much as I loathe all things Sears……………….I have that place to thank for this.  That’s why it’ll always hold a place deep down in the bowels of my heart…somewhere near the basement.

Now Playing in Dave’s Mental Jukebox:  "Valentine" and "Don’t Go Soft" by The Vincent Black Shadow (sorry….their CD Fears in the Water is the only CD I’ve listened to in weeks….it’s very, very good), and "Lithium" by Evanescence

Before I die, I desperately want to know what it was that Bill Murray whispered in Scarlett Johansson’s ear at the end of Lost in Translation.  Captions and Subtitles refer to it as "inaudible whispering" or somesuch nonsense.  I’m guessing the only people on earth who know are the actors themselves.  But rest assured, I will dedicate a very, very small portion of my life to finding out exactly what was said.  I’m just a nosy fucker like that.

My neck has been killing me for a few weeks now.  I should probably go see the chiropractor about it, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.  Especially since tomorrow would be the last chance to do it for about two months, minimum.  And I have zero plans to do it tomorrow.  All I’m doing, so far, tomorrow is paying bills.  Hooray for that, eh?

Christmas and New Years were mostly uneventful.  Christmas ended up extending out until December 29th for me, as no one else in either family was in town besides the parental figures.  So I had to wait for various siblings and grandparents to get into town or return from out of town before doing anything.  I rang in the New Year with my mom’s side of things…..almost all the siblings were in town, not to mention the entire family of my sister-in-law.  And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the triumverate of drunken phone calls I got from Shera that night.  Drunk Shera is much easier to deal with when not present….though that isn’t likely to happen again, because her caretaker did a terrible job that night (mostly because they were also intoxicated……which never works out well, y’know?).  But she had fun, which was all that mattered that night.  She needs nights like that every now and again.  Will and Monica were in town, too, but we just couldn’t get anything worked out to hang out together, thanks mostly to my extended days of Christmas.  Next year, that shit ain’t happening.  Get it all over with in a day, says I.  I got better things to do than hang out with family, y’know?  I got friends I barely get to see.  They should come first……I just can’t do it at the expense of getting blackballed by the family.  Oh well.  There’s always a next time.

And with all that in the books…………I’m finally done typing.  Finally.  Sometimes I just get so damned long-winded…..sheesh…..

Sayonara.