Mouse Droppings and Movie Stars

nyag submitted 112 days ago

"Cool" jobs are often the worst jobs. You know, the job that everyone wants at that one cool bookstore or record store or coffee house? And you wonder why everyone seems so grumpy who works there when clearly the place is so cool? Wonder no more.

I worked at one of those cool joints. Only a couple days a week, in addition to my regular job. Because I believed in the place. No one else there ever did any real food service work, so I was always the one cleaning up and organizing-- the other employees were super people, but they just weren't used to the dirty work. And there was a lot of dirty work. I'd come in on Fridays and Saturdays, organize the inventory, clean all the surfaces that hadn't been touched. There were a lot of mouse droppings. Like, a lot. It was gross.

The boss was one of those types who is super friendly to you until you start working for him. We all allowed for his outbursts because he'd been thru some tough times, even when he was nasty or attacking in front of customers or friends. One time he locked us in the backyard because we didn't close the door fast enough.

One day a kind of famous actor comes in. I knew he was in an art movie I had seen a long time ago, but I mostly knew him because he was in a band with a friend of mine and I had seen them play. We talked for a bit, I helped him and his girlfriend book a show. I never mentioned that I knew he was in that movie because it kind of didn't come up.

That night, I got a call from the owner, angry that I hadn't rushed over to make sure they were introduced. He was staring at a computer not ten feet away while they were there. I told him I didn't want to make a big deal out of him being there (and also I didn't even know the guy's name at the time, just vaguely knew that he might be kind of famous). I felt bad about it.

That night, while I was there off-duty with friends, he berated me about it again in front of them. Embarrassing.

The next day, while I was working, he started yelling at me even again in front of customers. I interrupted him to tell him that I couldn't understand how he could take that tone of voice with people who really loved him and cared about him. He told me to put my keys on the counter if I didn't like it. So I did.

I felt so bad about it. Still do. Because I can't see what I did wrong. It's not about the money-- I didn't make any money there. But I lost a whole community. I met my boyfriend there. I used to hang out there all the time, and it's just ashes in my mouth now. All my old friends still hang out there and I can't bear to be there. It's like losing friends after a divorce-- people are going to gravitate toward the more popular and powerful. How can I compete with the cool place? One of my "friends" even gladly took over my shifts.

Oh, well. I'll get over it. But I sure feel bad right now.