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| - The other day was July 11th, free Slurpee day. SCORE! The little cups, are 7.11 oz. But it's still FREE! It's hot! It's summer! If you have a car & map a route just right, you can hit another location before you finish the Slurpee from your last & do that all day. I don't have a vehicle, but dare to dream.
I used to live near this sev yo (not the sketchy apartments across the street), so it was my default. It was also my bus stop to Sahara monorail stop for a couple of years. I spent many days sitting out there thinking about what to do about the job that was killing my spirit, making me stressed. It built more frustration from the inhumanity I witnessed on a daily basis with rude, demanding tourists. Imagine those were the happy days before my unemployment.
I tried reading one of those "Don't Sweat The..." books at the stop & disagreed with most of the advice. it wasn't about how to stop the problem or teach people the error of their ways. Most of the advice was to be an enabler, allowing people to live their greedy, rude & inconsiderate lives while you took it all, bottled it up to diffuse later, on "my own time!" No. That's what corporate America is, that's what working in retail is.
No wonder some of these people always look like they're ready to snap the second you say anything. I've been at my retail hell, for as long as I could manage. That was already my "just take it, it's a job" job. & I was looking for better one within a month. I have no idea how the clerks at 7-eleven maintained, I saw them put up with a lot of things. But their customers get a quick snack & are out of there, they're not browsing all day.
I made a rule that I wouldn't take my work anger back to my own doorway. I spent nights walking the length of the strip just to blow off steam & calm down. The older parts of north strip reminded me why I moved there. By the time I got home, I was just numb, sore & sad. But the happiest part of my day was my cat welcoming us home & holding my g/f as we tried to asleep. I collected all the Domo Slurpee cups for her, it's one of her favorites.
This location had a Grand (re)opening that I couldn't enjoy more because I only knew of it as I was going to work. They had a stage setup with singers & musicians. They were handing out balloons & things to kids. There was a smattering of about 20 people in the hot sun. I always think about grand openings, fairs & festivals. I think about parents looking to take their little kids someplace for these free publicity events for something to do on a hot summer day. I spent a lot of my childhood going to 7-eleven getting ice creams & Slurpees with my aunt & cousin, downtown San Jose.
Why couldn't we do this every day or even every week? I always imagined having a business where I could have fireworks every week, a concert stage, huge inflatable animals & those air people with long flappy arms, food stands, drawings, prizes. Even theme parks don't do that, they don't have community groups, they outsource to big companies. & county fairs aren't year round.
At the hot bus stop in summer, there's a small brick wall behind that's in the shade of the power line pole. I would stand behind the wall & realize that I was Charlie Brown or Linus thinking about life. I even realized it was comfortable, left hand to right elbow, right hand under cheek. I always wondered what they were looking at.
I'd have to go 7-eleven as a necessary spending evil to get change for the bus. Often I'd get a sausage muffin or breakfast burrito to scarf on the monorail. You could eat on that, not the bus which is strange. The bus has staff/ a driver on it to regulate if you litter.
There are a lot of things in the area I've seen or have to Yelp about. I never got to check out that Korean BBQ place nearby I saw every day. But somehow, I saw the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile in front twice & I tried to think of more than one connection. Palace station of course, one of my favorites. I discovered Landry's & even applied there. Dinner in the Sky was a new attraction that I had to promote when I worked in a Strip Hotel, I got to know one of the managers & his girl in booking. At night I heard people laughing & dining about 40' up, held by a crane. The area smelled like fries cut fresh from the in-n-out. Once, I had to get change from 7-eleven in my Halloween costume.
Sure, 7-eleven jacks up their prices & you pay for the "convenience." But they are open whenever you need them. I wish more smaller, local businesses could hold out with labor to be known for more extended hours. That's what brings customers in, those hours where other businesses are closed.
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