I'm a stranger in a strange land...

...or maybe it's more like I'm just strange! Either way, I had another interesting weekend at work.

I guess I should introduce the cast of characters to you first. The deli consists of these people: The Boys, which includes about 4 or 5 early 20 something young men. The Supervisors, one male and one female, both of whom are more my age. The Manager, who is probably in his 40's. The rest of the crew are women, all around my age with the exception of one or two.

Now for some background on me: I listened to loud music as often as I could and usually with headphones on from my teen years on, so therefore have a hard time hearing. Not really hearing sounds, but distinguishing words from that sound. To complicate things more, most of the people I work with speak with accents so I have an even harder time trying to figure out what words they are saying. I have to really concentrate to figure it out - which is to say that I look at their mouth, squint my eyes and open my mouth, as if that is going to help me. Heck, if I flapped my hands around I'd probably look like I had to sneeze! Couple that with the fact that there's usually a radio blaring in this little echo room I work in and you get the following train wreck!

So I'm making pizzas and daydreaming. That's what I like about the deli. You don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to. I do a lot of thinking in there while I'm assembling food or doing dishes. There are two other people in there with me at this time. They are working on the table behind me, happily involved in their own conversation. I hear one of them say my name so I turn my attention to their conversation. What the hell? Did she just call me a whore? How am I a whore? I'm just minding my own business, making pizzas. How is that whorish? The nerve of some - that thought is interrupted with my name being said louder. And there it is again - she called me a whore! So I turn around and look at her with a cross between my sneeze face and my "what the f**k did you just say?" face. She's pointing at me. No, not AT me. Past me, over my shoulder, to the door. What kind of game is she playing? She seems pretty adamant that I look. Fine, I'll bite. I turn and look. There's a customer standing at the door. Oh. (long pause) OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! She was telling me there was a customer at the DOOR - not calling me a whore!

It's no wonder, really, that I get the looks that I get. They probably think I'm an idiot. Hell, I'D think that too if all I got from someone was sneeze face stares! I should probably go get my hearing checked!

I was a little disappointed at the vibe of the deli this weekend. I've heard all about the day crew - which is mostly all women, and how they gossip. Even the Supervisor does it. I don't usually have to work with them - maybe only half and hour or so during the shift change on the weekends. I got to experience some of it first hand over the weekend. Although I'm not sure what they were actually saying - they were speaking Spanish - but occasionally they would break out into English and I think I got the jest of who they were talking about and why. I just don't like being around that anymore - complaining about this that and the other. It's negative energy and I don't want any part of it. Then the ladies left and it was the boys' turn. Guys don't gossip. They are just plain mean to each other - right to their faces. That's too confrontational for me. I didn't like the energy from that either. There was one guy in particular that was really doling it out and he got on my nerves fast! Again, too much negative energy. But, towards the end of the night we were back down to our small group of 'night shifters', which is a pretty easy group to work with.

There was something a little strange that happened though. I told K.C. that maybe after my deli stint I'd try to cross train on the floor - which means stocking/moving inventory around. I don't know why buy that sounds fun. Anyway, there's one guy that works on the floor (drives the forklift/stocks - heck, he may even be a manager for all I know) that I'd always see when I was working on the front end. I'd always smile and say hi and he wouldn't even look at me. It was only when I went to the deli that he actually spoke to me - but it was only to tell me that there was a pallet of something or another here or there or somewhere and it was maybe only one time. So I was headed into the break room over the weekend (keep in mind that most people that I worked with and talked to on a regular basis while working the front end don't even recognize me with my deli outfit on) and this man walked right past me, turned and asked me how long 'they' were going to keep me in the deli. I was a little shocked so couldn't say anything right away (probably had my sneeze face on again). I finally said something to the effect of 'just till after the holidays'. He asked if I liked it back there, which threw me into even more of a shock. He just doesn't strike me as the type that would 'get personal'. I said I did and that was the end of the conversation. Strange! So now I'm curious as to why all of a sudden he's decided to talk to me. Maybe I'm not the only one in the world that is totally socially awkward after all! One can only hope!

Well, I know I could go on and on about the events of the weekend but the girls have reached their wits end with me being on the computer! I've been obsessively working on our Year in Review video and they are so over watching TV and eating their meals on the couch upstairs! They want some Mommy time! So, we're going to go out and deliver cards to the neighbors and then go do some shopping! Now that's what I call a good ending to a weird weekend!