Shop 'til I drop

There are only two types of jobs that I've never failed to get in my life. Weekly newspaper reporter and grocery store stock boy. Several times in my life, I've even managed to hold down both jobs at the same. When I have, it has usually led to a spectacularly flaming disaster, but still.

My vast grocery store experience sometimes manifests itself when I go grocery shopping. (For the record, I have gone over a year without having to use my grocery store experience as a trump card for a full- or part-time job. Hooray for me.) Sometimes, I'll get the urge to pull forward the items on a shelf (Depending on the grocery store chain, pulling forward may also be referred to blocking or facing). Other times, I will be inordinately smitten with new products. Look honey! - Freeze dried Pringle ranch chips. They never had those back in my day!

Perhaps I still have a magnetic draw to the supermarket because supermarket jobs have represented both my longest held and highest paying jobs (even though the two did not overlap). It's in my blood. God knows I'd cut myself to let it out, but there are still some drops left.

Lately, when I've been shopping, I've felt sorry for the people working at the stores. Maybe it's a little snooty. I have a professional job. Boo hoo for all of you service workers. Partly though, I think I feel sorry for these people because I feel sorry for who I was, in part. I had that job and rationalized it to myself over and over.

But you know what? The only reason why I feel sorry for the me then is because I've finally come to appreciate the me now. Goddamnit, I like what I'm doing now, I love my life. If that means I feel sorry for people who don't have it as good as me, well, good for me. It's been a long, hard road, but I'm finally past the speed bumps.