It Happens Every Day

One of my setbacks to making journal entries, or in this case blog posts, is that I'm always looking for the big important or noteworthy things to write about. It's a huge hinderance. Yet, more and more, I realize that the most fascinating and interesting things are found in the common and simple things that happen every day.

I never knew that being a cashier was such a dirty job. There are times I will find the palms of my hands covered in a dark coating of black or gray powder and wonder, "How long has that been there?" as I wipe my palms on my pant legs. Adults and children alike drizzle the contents of their shopping carts with spilt soda and sprinkle it with cookie crumbs and remnants of salted pretzel. And most carts are littered with napkins and serving cups from the demo stands. I don't know if I ever noticed them before I worked at Sam's, but there are huge gray garbage bins at the end of almost every other aisle in the store -strategically placed for the disposal of demo-trash. But who comes to the store to throw away their trash -honestly? We can't expect too much, I guess.

Most often, when people are buying meat, they fail to notice the plastic bags conveniently located in front of the meat displays. They don't bag the stuff. Maybe when they played "grocery shopping" as kids, the plastic baggies were only to put your produce in. I don't know. So I have hundreds of people lining up to hand me their dripping styrofoam trays. That's right. I get the honor of touching all of them. Slimy puddles build on the conveyor belt as people plop their juicy purchases in front of me.

Today, a lady was buying some beef roasts -nice, red, plump, and juicy. I can't say I blame her for not noticing the seepage of the blood. She was rather old, and was probably so frazzled with shopping that she just couldn't bring herself to dig her glasses out of her purse to see what was going on. But as I handled the purchase, I felt like I had travelled back to the time of Moses and blood sacrifice. My hands were dripping with a dark crimson liquid. And what was I to do, leave my register and run to the bathroom to wash it off? I grabbed a napkin from the cafe table and wiped most of it off, knowing that I'd just have to wait 'til my break to properly sanitize. And then I remembered that the cashier behind me had some hand sanitizer. Ah! A solution ---of sorts. I borrowed a bit. It was the spray-on kind. I don't know why, but I always have to smell my hands after using hand sanitizer. Well, this kind smelt funky. It was like some funky herb smell or something.

My next customer had been watching me the whole time. I joked with my co-worker: "This is some funky stuff! It smells weird." I laughed. My co-worker agreed. We couldn't quite determine what the smell was, but it was vaguely familiar. "Ah, maybe it's a new kind of perk -hand sanitzer, with a hint of lime." At this point, my customer starting laughing aloud. And she added, "for those with more elite preference when it comes to hand-sanitizers." I love it when I am reminded that the beings I am serving are actually human.
So there you have it. One insight into a moment of my work-day. Tomorrow, I have a day off. And what stories will I have to tell?