Of Occupations, Occasions and Outrages

First of all, I would like to address several subjects, many of which I tend to avoid simply due that I am trying to keep this as neutral to positive as possible. That being said, this rather lengthy post is a tad more angst-y than usual.


I have been in the South King County area for a grand total of three months, give or take the odd day or so. During the majority of this time, I have been exploring the streets of the Seattle-Tacoma area, getting thoroughly lost within them to the point where my GPS even has a hard time discerning my location, finding myself (to an extent, both in the figurative and literal sense), getting an apartment nailed down, learning the new job, getting used to the transition from a 30-hour sit-down job with very little interaction to the 40+ hour on-foot job that keeps me running from the moment I clock in to the moment I clock out, getting my emissions test, getting my new driver's license, getting my car title, getting my car title registered in my name, getting the title witnessed, forfeiting the title to get my new title, getting new plates for my car, paying for everything in relation to my car (Washington has quite the racket going), finding the most efficient way to get to work and getting lost (again) in the process, getting internet set up, following the #OWS movement and their chapter here in Seattle, abusing my Netflix account, learning the main thoroughfares, getting lost yet again trying to navigate on my own, swearing at the GPS when it takes over fifteen minutes to find where I am, getting over two colds, and finding out that my store was part of a corporate takeover and that I will be gainfully unemployed in about a month.

Yes, you heard correctly. I will lose my job due to some soulless corporation buying out my store. Just when the world becomes a little less chaotic, fate decides to throw a big ol' bag of crap (metaphorically speaking) my way. And around Christmastime, no less. So, with the rather lengthy list of things that happened in my life, and the more minor things left out, this past Christmas was be rather joyless for me.

Which reminds me...

If I ever catch the !@#$er that arranged the holiday music playlist this year in the store, I'm going take their pirated CD of Christmas cheer, break in half, and tell them to go slit their wrists with it!

Okay, not really, but I most assuredly would tell them where to stick it. It's not that I have a problem about playing cheerful music regarding non-consensual sex, cheating partners, a fat pedophile in a red suit and the construction of golems, all the while hinting at the corporate greed of a capitalist society, it's that I hear the same dozen or so songs...

Repeating...

Several times...

...within a set time period. Sure, It's nice to hear a classic like Suzy Snowflake, but it gets stale after the second time you hear it in the same day. I usually want to murder someone after I hear it five or six times for the entirety of my shift, which typically consists of less than eight hours. Considering that I actually counted at least that many times means they probably played it at least twice or three times as many times as I heard it, so I'm betting they played it no less than a dozen times to possibly over twenty in that same eight-hour period.

Also, it doesn't matter how many renditions there are: Pop, Country, Rock-a-billy, Classic, Rap, Acapella... "Jingle Bells" is still Jingle !@#$ Bells! And you !@#$!@#s are still playing it!!! Christmas ended almost three days ago!

And doing this while avoiding to play the more religious-oriented songs such as "We Three Kings of Orient Are", "Silent Night", "The Little Drummer Boy" and other religious-oriented classics (not that I prefer them, mind you... I've just noticed their absence), and gradually building it up from the first day of November to the full-on Christmas Craptacular by Thanksgiving, You (and I am talking to retailers here) should know better. It was also pretty bad that you were playing "Auld Sang Lyne", a predominantly post-Christmas pre-New-Years' Eve song on loop before it even hit December.

If you have the gall to put on Christmas music that early without the more-religious-themed implications, you had better have a decent selection of music, or be willing to take risks by playing non-traditional Christmas tunes on your monotone intercom that you force both consumer and employee alike to listen to.

You, sir/madam, are the one of several, yet main reasons why employee hires "go postal" (or in the grocery store business, "go grocery shopping" or "going grocery").

Now, taking a breather from that rant, I feel it is time to address the fact that I will most likely be in the unemployment line come this January. I had originally thought that I would still retain employment by the company that bought my store, and by association, me. Evidentially my current company I work for thought I was going to be employed by the new company with some details changing such as the name, but it would be more-or-less business as usual. The company that took over thought that the current employees would be re-absorbed by the other company, and would stock their own cronies to take over, and any people they decided to keep were going to get a steep pay cut and/or have them drive over an hour to get to their new job.

Falling in both categories, I would have respectfully told them to go !@#$ themselves and die in a fire, but seeing as their website is devoid of that option, I decided against filling out the new application they sent me that was based in Tumwater, which is almost an hours' drive away one-way (assuming that I do not get stuck in traffic) from where I currently reside.

Which brings me to my next note of interest: The Occupy Wallstreet Movement. Given the list of things above of what happened to me, is it any wonder why the 99% is pissed off? Granted, I don't believe the 99% is actually 99%, nor do they all hold the same core values at heart, especially at big rallies and political protests, as every individual's ambitions are different from any other persons' views (after all, this is the reason why our country is so great while at the same time fuels the want to have everyone punch others in the crotch).

Now, some of you hard-core conservative brats that live in a like-minded state think so-called Occupy protesters should "Get a job, quit squatting, and quit attacking the police!" Well, I got news for you: most people attacking the police or creating controversy are political opponents, people who are being unlawfully detained and beaten, in multiple areas, and using unnecessary force in a few of several hundred instances, have a job and a place to live, and are not creating wonton violence unless (in the rare instance) provoked first, or trying to be provoked. Conversely, a lot of the police whom are handling these Occupy protesters are severely lacking in proper civil handling techniques in general, as demonstrated here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (for the record, I just copy-pasted a dozen "here" words, as I knew there would be no lack of accounts in the less than ten minutes it took me to google, copy and then paste the links to the appropriate locations).

While I could go on about the various infractions the police have been creating out of the OWS protests, I do not want to bore you, give you nightmares, and whatever else reason that may be brought up. Why? So this doesn't happen/keep happening.Granted, keep in mind that, while the first link is dated (over two years old), it sums things up quite nicely, with some situations in the film that were hypothetical coming into fruition to where they were plausible to where they are now possible. The second of the movies is also pretty clear-cut.

Getting back on topic, for those who think that the OWS movement are a bunch of domestic terrorists, we would be doing such things as kidnapping corporate investors' children and holding them for ransom, bombing buildings, performing hits on wealthy businessmen and politicians, and militarizing in such a way that terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Hezbolla would be sharing notes with OWS, if not getting pointers. Instead, Occupiers are being pepper-sprayed for making withdrawals.

Mount Rainer in the background. The pic doesn't do justice.

As for my new location, I live in a rather nice location that is pretty much a hop, skip, and a jump from Seattle proper, but still close enough away that I can enjoy some of the other areas. I was originally trying to find something around the Des Moines area, but when I have a view just outside my balcony for a moderately inexpensive rental fee that suits my budget, I suppose small sacrifices can be made.

As for Washington (aside from the police force here taking things to an extreme), the outskirts of Seattle is quite nice. People keep talking about this "Seattle Freeze." To my my knowledge, this Freeze is nothing to the Wyoming Shut-Out. People are friendly here, aside from the (quite literal) few exceptions I've come across. There are some towns in Wyoming where the locals pin you as a native (lived in the town 30+ years or were born there) and more-or-less embrace you with open arms, or you are an outsider and will have nothing to do with you, as was the case with my friend who was a Wyoming native, but moved to Glenrock, Wyoming. After five months of trying to make friends and explore any type of ventures or locations there, he was so miserable that he moved back to Marquette, Michigan.

Glenrock is not the only exception to this; I have encountered this in the many cities in Wyoming. It took me years to forge any lasting friendships that were not my coworkers or friends of my siblings (which, considering that all of us worked for the same employer at one time or another, reiterates the statement of friendships not being coworkers). Granted, I know that it was partially due to the unique situation is that my nearest neighbor growing up was about five miles away, might of had a small impact on my social upbringing, but damned it all if I didn't try to make friends with people while I was there.

So far, I want to say I have made more associates and friends in the first month I have been here than possibly the first year I was in Laramie (or any other city I resided in Wyoming, for that matter). That being said, I hope that Laramie is the first to catch any fallout when Yellowstone blows up, provided all my friends get out of that black hole and/or are on vacation when it happens. I also hope that a piece of rock about the size of an SUV falls between both the stadium and arena or squarely of UW (Wyoming) or onto Old Maine, thereby quite possibly destroying anything in the near vicinity.

While I could indulge you into the details as to why I have a penchant hatred towards the University of Wyoming, let us just say whenever I receive a donation request from them, I am sorely tempted to drive the 1,000+ miles back to Wyoming, go to the college dean's office and give him a donation of my two cents with the complimentary foot shoved up his butt.

Additionally, while the outlook of Washington has been mostly positive, there are a couple of things I would like to address regarding living here.

Washington drivers: You suck at driving (though at least you admit it). Even having driven I-25 in Denver at rush-hour... right before a three-day weekend... on a game day, you people drive worse than what they do. In fact, I would not put it past most Denver drivers to eat you alive if you are somehow unlucky enough to find yourself there during normal, non-chaotic hours. If given the choice between traveling I-5 on late-night off-hours and I-25 during rush hour, I would choose I-25.

If you Washington drivers would follow these basic rules of thumb, I would appreciate it, 'kay?

1. The speed limit should be followed +/- 10 mph. If you are doing 25 mph or less in a 45+ mph zone for no apparent reason, you are causing a driving hazard. Same thing goes for going 45+ mph in a 25 mph zone.
2. Green means go, red means stop, yellow means yield. NOT: Green means go... after the person in back honks his horn after waiting over ten seconds on a green light. Red means stop... assuming I'm farther than 1/4 of a mile when it changes. Yellow... means go really fast?
3. Left lane is for passing, middle lane (if applicable) is for cruising, right lane is for turning.
4. There is more than the one lane you are using, and there should only be one lane you are using at any given time.
5. Turn signals were invented for a reason-use them.
6. Do not cross three lanes of traffic (please refer to #5) to cut me off and then drop your speed twenty miles slower than what I was traveling (please refer to #1).
7. The gas and brake pedals were invented for a reason-use them (please refer to #1).

The next (and hopefully last) thing that is currently irritating me would be the newest-hired coworker. Perhaps this is just an isolated incident, but I seem to find it to be a common occurrence to find traits similar to the Millenial-Hipster generation and Generation Z, that are rather priggish, egotistic and vainglorious, exhibiting behavior unfit in any situation of peers and superiors.

The coworker in question is five years younger than me, and has exhibited a work ethic that was less than my study habits of Art History after I knew the teacher was going to flunk me regardless how hard I studied, which in that comparison (if you truly know me) speaks volumes. To say that she is doing the bare minimum is almost an understatement. What is worse, is while she did not outright lie in regard to the fact that she was pregnant while interviewing her, she did a damned good job of hiding it until it could no longer be "hidden". While in my experience that might not have had a big effect in our hiring process (we would have hired her anyway due to her performing well on the interview), the fact that she withheld that information for almost a month speaks to her business acumen. Now that she is in no fear of being fired due to her secret, she has been using her baby-bump to avoid some almost all of the other job obligations she does not want to do, such as lifting anything over a pound or actually using some elbow grease. My manager has made the observation that she doesn't even dust.

Considering that before it came to this whole takeover debacle that we were already down a person (normally we have five people, three full-time and two part time) the 3.1 people working there (sorry, I don't consider the new hire more than 1/10th of a person) have been struggling to make sure the store we work at isn't being run into the ground. The new hire, as my manager so aptly put it "got too comfortable too quick." To clarify this, she was sitting on the counter reading the paper the very first day she was there (and if I'm not mistaken, the very first hour as well). Her social skills are horrible, as she has been giving customers attitude (kind of important for a customer service job), and was starting to give me attitude for no justifiable reason by the third day.

After typing up a search on her name at the time of writing this during my insomnia-induced morbid curiosities, I found that she "...supports herself as a big girl should." That being said, I feel sorry for her kid once she pops it out, as I have seen no level of responsibility exercised by her, both on the professional and personal level. While it is not usually my place to judge, I see her five years from now possibly being a crack addict living in a half-way home, while Protective Services take her kid away. Granted, this is one of many possibilities, but the level of the addictive personality she exhibits, I view this one as plausible, more so than her having the reality check of realizing that she'll be a mother in four months and getting her ducks in a row.


While not quite the same level of circumstances, this, again, is the same disparity for for anyone who is, essentially, not them or part of their clique, reveals within me a fear that the future generation, not so much is doomed, but is in a great need to be humbled by their peers. It is this contempt for their fellow man that tries to help them to a better existence in some shape or form I believe that will inevitably be their downfall, as they will not be able to see an opportunity to take advantage of even if it slaps them in their face.

And for what? Their vanity? Sometimes they have to realize that kissing someone's ass usually pertains to scrubbing the toilet that said ass sits on. If they have a job, very little debt due to their parents supporting them through the years or through exemplary circumstances, and not living on the streets, then congratulations, they're doing better than a large number of people who bust their ass every day to make sure federally-assisted programs such as food stamps, subsidized housing and other necessities are there for these newer-generation slacker-tools to (ab)use, all the while those same slacker-tools are yelling "Where's my money!?!"

Listen, if those of you working a close-to-minimum-wage job are cleaning a public-access restroom that services thousands of people are bitching about it, then by all means, go ahead. That's how I started out, and since I've done it I know how nasty those restrooms get (and for the record, when it comes to public restrooms, hands-down--women are grosser). I have also worked 80+ average hour weeks for months straight with no overtime, some of which was actual backbreaking labor. But if for one instance you are earning at least $11.00 an hour (which will jump up to $15 after three months) for a part-time manual-labor job and you bitch that you are "too tired" to dust, pray for dear life I do not find you in a dark ally, and pray harder that you do not find my mother, who actually knew what hard work was.