I work in the soon to be gone layaway department. It’s not a tough job. People bring you items, you ring them up on the register, box them, tag them, bin them, record where you binned them, take payments on the items, then retrieve them when the people pay them off. Simple, right? WRONG! There are two full time layaway associates and three layaway positions. For the third position, they just send back any cashier to fill in. Most of them don’t know what they’re doing and don’t really care. Add to this the fact that we only have a store operator 3-11PM 5 days a week. The other days, the layaway person plays operator (which means I’m full time morning operator btw).

I literally dread coming to work after there are cashiers in my department. I had to explain to a customer why their item was lost for the first time a couple of days ago, and yesterday, someone got home with a different type grill than they had put into layaway. The grill I believe was the fault of the person working in the garden center. I’m betting they said, “Oh. A $200 grill. Must be this one!” and picked the wrong one. However, the layaway associate should have checked the UPC number to make sure it was the right item before binning it!

I’ve complained and been told over and over “Layaway is ending soon.“ So that means it doesn’t have to be done right? Logically, I know I should just do my job, and not worry about the mistakes other people are making, but it drives me completely insane. If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. It’s making me crazy that this isn’t being done right and I can’t work 24/7 to do it all!

The next feat, getting her to pick out a prom dress. We flipped through Seventeen magazine and she found some dresses she liked…for $500 and up. I don’t know if you all know this or not, but I’m poor. I work at WM!!! $500 is a bit too much for a dress, but that’s okay. We had an idea of what she wanted and if all else failed, we’d piece out the materials and make the dress.

Sunday, my aunt, my mom, both my sisters, my niece, Vanessa, and I all went prom dress shopping. They’re talking about having the prom in February this year and knowing how picky my daughter is (and how limited my budget is), I figured we’d better get started ASAP. The first stop, Dillard’s Outlet. They had TONS of formal dresses all marked down to anywhere from $15-$75. I was thrilled! …until I realized they only had one princess type dress like she wanted and it was not only a size 12, but also peach - not a color she likes. She was a trooper and tried on a dozen or so other dresses (she HATES to shop just like her mom). Of course I knew good and well she had an idea in her mind of what she wanted and nothing else would do. It’s the same way I am…and why I started shopping so early.

After that, we hit tons of dress shops. Vanessa is short like me (actually, she’s now an inch taller at 5’). We made her try on some little girl’s dresses and they actually fit, except for the chest. Little girls are not supposed to have one, but my daughter does. Back to the women’s sizes that were all WAY too long and most were in BIG sizes. We all knew she wanted a turquoise princess style dress with beadwork on the bodice…but finding one wasn’t easy.

Finally, the last shop we hit, they had the perfect looking dress hanging on the ceiling. We made them take it down, but it was a size 11. My daughter wears a size 2. The salesperson said, “We’ll do the alterations free! It’s last year’s model and it’s half price.” She tried it on and her face lit up. I knew she was in love. “How much is it?” $225 with tax and all. For a dress. That will be worn one time. ARGGG!!!

Suddenly, I flashed back to my senior year of high school. I worked from the time I was 12 on, but stopped for a little bit my senior year. The senior activities were taking up a lot of time and my grades were slipping so I decided to give up work to ensure I’d get a scholarship. I knew there was no other way I’d get into college. I didn’t go to my junior prom, but was going to go with a group of friends to my senior prom that year. We tried on dress after dress after dress, and finally I found one I liked. My mom said, “Nope. Can’t have that one. It costs too much.” That was it. The only dress I wanted. I couldn’t pay for it because I wasn’t working and I didn’t find anything else that I wanted. I didn’t go to my prom.

“We’ll take it” suddenly came out of my mouth. My shopping party looked at me as if I were nuts, but my daughter looked at me as if I were the greatest mom on earth. As the day went on, I began to panic. Got home though and a net friend called me princess. I called him on it (as I do when anyone calls me a term of endearment) and he said, “Every female should be a princess to someone.” I said, “Heh. Not me.” and thought, but you are right and my daughter found that out today.

My aunt was lucky, in that the plots the family wanted were still untouched. After the funeral, she and my mom went to mark off the plots they believed they had to start with. When my mom got back that day, she was telling my sisters and me, “We got 8 plots. That’s one for both of us and one for each of you kids. Since we figure the boys won’t use theirs, it’ll give one for Todd, Alex, (my brother-in-laws) and ….”

I finished her sentence, “For Renee to gain 700 lbs, become one of those shut ins, and require a specially built over sized casket that will take up two plots?”

“NO! For whoever you meet.”

“Ahhh…so like any person I meet could be buried next to me?”

“Hush! You could still meet a knight in shining armor!”

“Mom, that’s a fairy tale. Have you not been following my life story?”

“It could happen.”

“Do you even know one person that thinks the way I do? Male or Female. Married or not.”

“Well, no…”

At that point, my sisters stepped in and changed the topic like I’m doing now by talking about how we need to go out and mark plots for our families. Sounds like a really fun day though so we’ve been saving it for another time.

Did you ever see the movie Friends With Money? Sometimes, I can identify with the woman that doesn’t wash her hair. (Only there’s no way on Earth I’d stop washing my hair! EWWW!!!!)