An In-Depth Look at What It Looks Like to be At a Job for Dang Near Twenty Years With a Bunch of People Who Haven’t, and Other Related Nonsense
So I walked into work this morning singing one of the oldest songs I know, “I Got Mexico,” by Eddy Raven. I was knocking it out pretty good when I stepped through the door and stopped dead in my tracks.
I know I looked like a tree full of owls when the music from the tiny player with the big noise assaulted my ears with some horrible pounding and an almost constant stream of profanity. It was at that very moment that I realized that I have to make this side hustle more than a side hustle, or my cheese will slide completely off my cracker before year’s end.
It was apparent to my young and super giggly coworkers (I wanted to say uber but I don’t know how to make the 2 dots on top of the u) that I wasn’t “down” with the music even though every once in a while I could distinguish a slightly redeeming quality to the song.
Meghan, the girl who sits closest to me on the end that you’re banished to right before you’re kicked out the door for good, told me “embrace your inner thug.”
That struck me as oddly hilarious, and definitely copy-worthy, so here I am with a long and drawn-out explanation of the first five minutes in a morning that reiterated my old age for me.
Imagine my hilarity later when this picture from Beauregard Daily News was posted on the Facebook page of my ex-son-in-law (strange title to have, but he’s a good guy and we all get along fabulously), and Tiffany (my daughter) quipped that Benjamin “didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose him!” I knew at that moment that “inner thug” definitely runs in the family.
I’m definitely proud of my Grandson, who made the paper by being an outstanding student and who wants to be a paleontologist. When I was his age, I had no idea what a paleontologist even was. That’s probably because they weren’t needed when the dinosaurs were still alive!
My day job isn’t always easy, and I do want to summon up my thug self from time to time. I was more than a little tempted today when a customer threatened our office with potential violence because we weren’t giving her exactly what she wanted.
The threat was (slightly) veiled, but it was there nonetheless. I believe that in this society we have fashioned for ourselves, we’ve gotten so used to getting our own way that it’s almost natural to try to use any means to do so.
I hope that I never do that to someone–try to use force or manipulation or the threat of what could “possibly” happen to get my own way simply because I don’t want to do the right thing.
Sure, it’s inconvenient sometimes to have to change your plans! Believe me, when I’m standing in line at Walmart and there’s not a bar code on an item and I know I’ll have to wait five minutes–well, let’s just say I get pretty aggravated. But here’s what I know I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t say something like, “Well, my husband is crazy and he owns a lot of guns. You don’t want him having to come in here on his own to buy this item, and it’s for him!”
Even if some of that is true….I’ll let you figure out which parts. Anyway, the question of the hubby’s sanity wasn’t my point.
See–that’s really being a thug. The time for me to be silent when someone acts like that is long past–I guess that’s something that the years do for a person. I will call you out on being that kind of a thug to someone…it’s called being a decent human being.
Hopefully, when that someone is confronted, they’ll go on to be a decent human being themselves the next time and think a little more about what they say to someone who might not have even been at her job for a month yet.
Just saying my inner thug is always bubbling under the surface–but she’s not the bad guy.
