update

man, what a weekend.

yesterday, i didn't get nearly as much done as i had hoped for.... however, if nothing else, you can now see pictures (a) from when alliswan was here two weeks ago, and (b) my past week visiting tons and tons of people here.

it's gonna be a crazy couple of days. i can't seem to track down the guy who agreed to do pizza seminar this friday, so i'm hoping against hope that i hear from him... otherwise, eric and i had a chat and he *might* be willing to do a talk on the fly if i get him proper equipment. (a projector, etc.)... i sure as heck don't have time.... the math server keeps crashing doing the computations i need it to for my reading class, so as of yet, after not meeting for 3 weeks i still have absolutely nothing to show dr. z. this can't be good. that and that amount of hw due for combo this friday doubled this morning and i hadn't even finished the first half! all this and arlene gets in tomorrow (that's the exciting part of my week :-)... i just hope i'm not a horrific host due to workload!)

here's my random story of the day though... illustrating the utter incompetence of some cashiers. yesterday, i go to riteaid to drop off film. there's a sign on the photo center counter that says "for 1 hour film developing, fill out a blue envelope and hand it to a cashier". i fill out a blue envelope (the 3 day envelopes are red), ask a cashier who to give it to and she takes it.. i assume being an employee and being able to read, she's smart enough to put it where it needs to go.

2 hours later, i return and see the same cashier checking someone out at the register. the man paid $100.25 (his total was something dollars and 17 cents, and he wanted to minimize coin change). the cashier accidentally types in $125.00 instead (fine), realizes her mistake (good), and calls for help. i guess she needed approval to edit the transaction in the computer or something... that's fine. however, she and the TWO other cashiers who came up to help, kept punching in the man's total before tax into a calculator and subtracting that from $100.25 instead of the real amount.... he saw the mistake since he didn't want howevermany dollars and 77 cents back, and finally after pointing it out 3 times, and getting the response of "well, we punched it into the calculator, it must be right", he was like "ok, well you can come up short at the end of the day if you really want." they got worried then and called up the manager, who (novel though), counted back his change to him the old-fashioned way without using a calculator or computer of any sort... immediately her three cashiers who can't even use a calculator properly are all "oooh! she's soooo smart, that's why she's our manager!" i'm glad *someone* in the store has the ability to count change!

because that wasn't entertaining enough... i get up to the cash register next and ask for my film... from the SAME GIRL I GAVE IT TOO earlier in the afternoon... she looks for it and can't find it... she calls up the two cashiers from before and finally one of them finds it in the send-out for 3 day developing bag... um duh... my faith in her realizing that a blue envelope meant 1-hour developing was completely misplaced... her cluelessness in looking for it annoyed me even more since she's the one who put it there! another employee apologized profusely and said they'd have it ready in 30 minutes. i return in 40 and the same cashier who's screwed up repeatedly in front of me all day plays dumb that she can't find it again, when i can see it sitting on the end of the photo machine done, and just needing to be wrapped up. when i got the photos, the colors were all off, and i was annoyed. when they went to charge me though, they rung me up for singles instead of doubles, so i shut my mouth and left with the pictures while i was ahead.

maybe the girl was just having a horrible day, but really, repeatedly, how hard is it to (a) put things in the right place (my pictures), (b) count out change, and (c) maybe remember what you've done with things and take responsibility instead of playing dumb.

incompetant people never cease to amaze me.