Saturday, September 19, 2009

Costco has everything I need, provided I need needless things.



Now Playing -
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death by Shane MacGowan and the Popes



Life - 
Strange group of folks in last night, especially the young girl that came in around 3:30a. She was pretty strung out looking, wearing a green, torn up hoodie, seome baggy jeans and flip flops. She had a bruise on her cheek and bright red marks on her neck. Glitter under her left eye that made her look like she'd been crying from a distance. She came in, shuffled around for a bit, asked me where the drinking fountain was, drank, wandered, drank. Then she came up to me and asked me if I had twenty dollars that I could loan her. I said no. "I can pay you back someday, I promise!" Uhh... No. "You see, I need my boyfriend's prescription. Don't you have a credit card?" Again, no.

Now, this isn't the first time this has happened, and typically, the pharmacist, Mr. Wizard and I are pretty understanding and good at working things out, but this girl had my hackles up. She went and got another drink, asked Mr. Wizard the same questions. Came back and asked me again. Then a couple of customers came in, she pounced on a young Mexican kid with a tub of hair gel. I cut her off and told her that while I was sympathetic to her plight, if she asked any customers for money she would have to leave. She again availed herself of the fountain and looked imploringly at the pharmacy.

I rang up the kid's gel. Because, you know, a half gallon of gel at 4am is important, that's why we're here! The girl walked out the door and I followed to make sure she didn't harrass my other cuistomers, but she was nowhere to be seen. Keep in mind, this was maybe 40 seconds after her.

Her bike, a mighty nice bike, I might add, was still in the handicap lane, but no tweaky blonde. She wasn't lurking around the cars either, Strontium was free of molestation. Mighty strange, partner. My wee little cashier kept an eye on things, but she was just gone... poof!

Then. around 40 minutes later, she reappeared. Smiling, friendly, and eating an Ice Cream Cone. I would not lie to you, loyal readers, she had an honest to god ice cream cone, with crispy cone and paper drip catcher and everything. And enough money to buy her prescriptions.

The only solution that I can find is that there seems to be some sort of loan sharks/crack den/Ice creamery in the trailer park behind the store. Guido's Payday Loans, Deluxe Cones and Other.  Most excellent.

Oh yeah, and I went to Costco with my mom after work this morning. Saw a lot of cool shit, but managed to restrain myself to a jar of their sublime Pub Mix and a bag of Peas. Unlike those around me with over a hundred dollars in their carts, filled without thought... kind of like zombies, only instead of "Brainnns" they moan out "Buulllkkk"


Writing - 
Got a couple of chapters done on Graves, can't wait for Wednesday, when I can start doing a bit of revisions and send it to some interested parties to get a first glimpse.



The Last Sentence - 
What I'm saying is that by the time a cure enters the picture, it's completely possible that the entire town of Missoula will be past the point of saving.



From - " Graves " (WIP)



7 comments:

sruble said...

Don't want to know how the girl got the ice cream and the money, but it was an interesting story. She'd make a great character for a book, also the guy that needed a half gallon of gel at 4am.

I love the last sentence! Good luck with revisions.

Stephanie
(sruble from the BlueBoards)

Steve at Random said...

Are there ever any mormal folks that show up at your store? We don't have a Walgreen's in ND, in part because we have a law that ensures local pharmacy ownership. Since your store seems to be a magnet for crispy critters, I may decide to back our current pharmacy ownerhship structure.

sruble said...

Oh, you work at Walgreens? That explains it! I was wondering when I first read your post. I have a good friend that was a manager at Walgreens in the Twin Cities for many years, and his wife was a pharmacist there too. Small world!

Unknown said...

We get normals every once in a while, Steve but they usually get in, get out and that's it. It's the crazies that stick around. I didn't know that about ND, that's interesting. I know we have a few of them there, but they must be pretty limited. They're in all fifty states and PR now, or will be in the next few months...

Yeah, Stephanie, I've worked at 4 different Walgreens over the last 7 years. Good company, just a little nuts on the graves shift sometimes.

The Grows said...

Oh how I love to read about your life on graevs, it never disappoints. I am however disappted that I haven't got to finish reading the rest of the book you sent to that contest. How did that go anyway? Have you heard anything? When do I get to read the rest? Is it published yet? When will I get to read graves? I am hooked with just random lines here and there. Anyway, I hope all is well. We need to get together some time while I am still living here in Pocatello.

Sherry said...

Wow, sounds interesting. I'd kinda like to know where she got the cash and ice cream, but I think it might just make me sad about the state of the world.
I had a friend from Texas/Mexico (both technically) who went through about 5 gallons of hair gel every two or three months. Amazing if you ask me, but that was his hair style. I'm not sure I could go through that much hair gel, but then again, my hair type is COMPLETELY different.

Nice last line. Keep up the awesomeness.

Unknown said...

Thanks for all the comments, guys!

B - I still haven't heard back from the contest, sometime in October, likely, but in the meantime, I've started completely re-writing the first few chapters to get to the action a bit quicker. Once I'm done with them I'll hook you up with a full copy, I promise! And yes, we NEED to get together sometime soon! "While I am still living in Pocatello" Does that mean you guys may be moving?

S - I agree completely, I think its happier to think that she found twenty bucks and an ice cream cone.