I found this on my old livejournal, written Sept 5th 2006 at 12:30am. I liked its commentary on what it's like to work retail, so I figured I'd post it again here. enjoy.
_
you find yourself in a strange mall, in a strange town, in a state far
away from your own. somehow, you are behind the counter in a retail
store, fielding endless requests from an endless sea of hungry
consumers. you are sick, weak, tired and hungry. they are fueled by
objectives and impatience. round 241 begins.
their only goal: to get in and out as fast as possible with all of their boxes checked.
your only goal: to get through the day in one piece.
in
every direction around you, a person is standing, their eyes stuck to
you. they are waiting until you make eye contact with them so they can
stab you with words. nevermind that you are doing 3 things at once,
while helping another. nevermind that you are blowing your nose, or
taking a sip of the bottled water you are running out of because you've
been working 6 hours by yourself. dodge verbal bullets, dying ninja.
jump when we tell you to. your beads of sweat are the points we are
keeping track of. one of us will win, and will get to pillage your
corpse. we will drive the wrong way on the other side of the road. we
will demolish your home to make way for our convenience machines.
drive home for years.
arrive,
and get assaulted by the Nonsense Entity who faults you for that which
is not yours, and puts you on the list for future disposal.
Close your eyes, daytripper.
You must be the cheetah.
