Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Friday, August 24
The tooth is still hanging in there!!!…I am not making that up…It’s one resilient bugger, that’s for sure and it is drawing my admiration, frankly…I still fiddle with it because fiddling with it seems to be part of the natural order, the same as breathing, but it is still there…It’s very loose, and I suspect there isn’t too much keeping it in, but whatever it must be made of titanium.
Honestly, it’s not really doing anybody any good, but it prevents a gaping hole in my smile and while I don’t think it will hold out for three more weeks, I’ll take as much time as it wants to give me before the dentist gives me a new smile.
The good part is I am losing weight…Recall the tooth is strategically located enough to make chewing tedious and uncomfortable so I am only eating things I don’t have to chew too much…Breakfast this morning was a scrambled egg sandwich and not that I’m complaining about that because I enjoy scrambled egg sandwiches…Lunch at the retailer was soup and a protein shake and at the hotel, I had another protein shake and some oatmeal…This isn’t an awful lot, especially compared to what I usually eat but the mind is funny because I haven’t been hungry in two days.
Swamped at the retailer today…I reported bright and early for a 1000 shift and walking in it was plain the day would be dead sprint…Not only that, as soon as I got to the service desk Supervisor Patty fled for her lunch and Lacey left for hers a half-hour later and I was alone for no small while…There was always someone and usually there was a line of three or four which, depending on the transactions, could have you waiting for five-ten minutes.
One lady wanted to return a lampshade she had purchased four months ago…Well, no, you can’t do that…We’re not here to take crap back when it falls out of favor…Per protocol, she got snitty, informing me she’d always been able to return whatever the hell she wanted whenever the hell she wanted…I called Patty over and she confirmed it, just like she confirmed to the lady who wanted to return a jar of something or other without a receipt or the barcode we wouldn’t take her return, either.
Friends, before you return something that you bought in 1973 or don’t have a receipt or barcode for, think for a second if you would accept this return at your store…If the answer is no, we probably won’t take it either, and good luck finding more liberal return policies than ours.
The big news is the house shirts I bought Wednesday – the ones that look baseball undershirts from a bygone era – are selling like hotcakes…I was pleased, as their popularity completely validates me getting two of them to wear around the house this winter.
There was somebody new when I got to Hotel A tonight, a middle-aged man named Ragib…He looked at me quizzically when I walked in and I don’t think he was expecting me…In fact, I know he wasn’t because he said he thought I worked Saturday/Sunday here and I told him, no, Friday/Saturday here and Sunday/Monday/Tuesday at Hotel B.
Ragib is the GM at a company hotel in another part of the state and he is up here for a month…This week Puja and her boy Dustin are on vacation and he will also be pulling duty at Hotel B because GM Adam is leaving in a week or so for his annual two weeks of air force reserve duty…He said he is going to Guam.
Ragib is quiet, almost diffident, the type of person I’ve learned over the years you underestimate at your peril…He was getting the breads and muffins ready for breakfast, which was nice of him, further proof he wasn’t expecting anybody to come in…The only downside was he left the breads and muffins uncovered, so I covered them up with some plastic wrap…Later, he said he was going to make some waffle batter, but I waved that off, telling him I would be delighted to that and encouraged him to go get some sleep because he was relieving me in eight hours.
First impressions last, so I made myself useful…I made keys for the remaining arrivals and put the pool towels he had folded away…I would even have swept had he had the broom out.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 0100 Friday until 0730 Friday…Had to set the alarm for a 1000 shift at the retailer, but 6.5 hours isn’t too bad, especially when you consider I had 13 hours the day before…I don’t have the weekly totals in front of me, but they’re pretty good, and the totals for the month might be the best yet, tho we don’t want to jinx ourselves.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th century British novel of the same name.