School's Out!

I have been feeling incredibly light, just unexpectedly bouyant for a person working 75 hour weeks at 3 jobs. I think it's because I'm out of school for the first time in 5 years- since I was 14 I have taken summer classes at community college and highschool electives like Wilderness Leadership Training. Because, I was not about to get a job and community college is free for under 18s.

My El Pollo Loco job is a little bit boring and I don't like how my managers act- they are very, very rigid- not just about coming to work on time or dressing to code, but in their thought patterns. Yesterday I didn't have a customer so I looked up the salad options for my coworker who was trying to help someone but not very successfully. I told him the options so everythig could go smoothly, but Laura swooped in to sign in a new girl and froze my screen. "Why are you doing this?" she asked angrily, because I guess it kind of looked like I was ringing up a salad for no one. I just apologized (or told her good luck, I always get those phrases confused in spanish) but she shouted "go, you have a customer" which, yes, there was a man in line, but my register was currently completely nonresponsive, and there was another cashier so I was just planning to sort out the register and then help the guy. But laura needed me to help him so I called him over and he waited while I used laura's card to reset everything. It's like there's a flow chart of behavior choices and if something doesn't go exactly as planned, the only choice is to freeze up and get your higher up.

The other cashiers are quite good at it- yesterday a girl was two cents short and asked whether it was okay or if she had to break a twenty and he just took the two dollars and 15 cents and counted them several times before informing her that the price was $2.17. I get a lot of tips for someone in a fast food place that doesn't have a tip jar... I think people appreciate that as long as they're there I'm going to focus on them, not on the touch screen.