No More Nordstrom

Last night was my last night at Nordstrom. The job is finished, so we move on. But before I talk about yesterday, I need to jump back to the day before, since I didn't post yesterday. I know. I'm a sinner.

Not a whole lot worth mentioning happened Tuesday night. I sat with Mr. Perry at dinner, which was a blast. We talked about movies, and he started telling me about serving in Korea. All I can say is wow! He got into the Army at fifteen, because he lied about his age. He was captured pretty soon and was in a POW camp for two and a half years, while he was sixteen and seventeen. He said they were served a single bowl of rice every day; he showed me with his hands the size of the bowl, and it was between a tea cup and a coffee mug. That's it. He said he can't eat much now because he's positive his stomach shrunk after two and a half years of that. When he was first captured, they stuck him in a mud room with a single light bulb that they left on constantly for two weeks. Then they turned it off for two weeks. Then on for two weeks. And so on and so on, until he didn't care anymore and they found something new to do. Every morning, though, for the first month they would come in to wake him and the others up by putting a rifle barrel to the head and pulling the trigger. You never knew if it would go off or not. He said by the end of the month you didn't care if it did go off, and rather hoped it would. Once they reached that point, the enemy stopped that tactic and found some other way to mess with their minds. They were beaten every day with bamboo poles. He didn't say much more, except that to this day he'll wake up in a cold sweat because of nightmares. He hates how people say we should just forget about the war. He can't. He has shrapnel in his hip and hearing aids to remind him every second of every day, and dreams at night. His two older brothers, who were much older than him, both served at Normandy in WWII. One was a paratrooper and the other came in on a pontoon boat. Both made it. He's a pretty tough man. I can't imagine somebody joining the military at fifteen. That would be my little brother next year. He probably joined right as the war started, which means he was in training and served for six months, then spent the rest of the war in the POW camp. I guess the only reason he got out was because the war ended. That was pretty much all that happened Tuesday night; I went home at 2:30 A.M. which was exciting. Not.

The reason going to bed at 3:00 in the morning was so difficult was because I had to be up again at 6:30 to get cleaned up and go to Baltimore for training for my banquet serving job. The location was Sylvester's Saloon in Essex, close to Rosedale. I read the map, and, being thoroughly unfamiliar with Baltimore, I thought that Sylvester's Saloon must be slightly upscale. After all, it's a saloon and not a bar. No. I was so in the ghetto! Sylvester's Saloon is this white trash honky tonk right next to Sylvester's Garage, a white trash mechanic shop. All right in the middle of the ghetto, at 8:30 A.M. I thought, "What in the WORLD am I doing here? What have I gotten myself into?" I went into the upstairs room that we had for our uses, filled out my paper work, and felt more comfortable when I found out that my bosses know the guy who owns the place. He let them borrow the room when they couldn't borrow a hotel dining room. So in the upper room of a trashy ghetto bar, I learned French service, timed sweep, and other various techniques. We had a table set formally, and were practicing French serving the soup. We had no tureen, just a stainless steel mixing bowl filled with water and a cheap ladle. That was classy. My boss said, "Yes, and if you're ever at a banquet and that's what you're using to French serve the soup, fire me." It was so much fun! Right about that time the hilarity of the situation hit me. The complete and utter divide between where I was and what I was doing was incredible. I think God is just having fun messing with me this Summer. So after that, I was planning on meeting one of my pastors for lunch and catching up, but he was sick, but I went to the church office anyway and hung out with all of my old coworkers. They got me up to speed with all of the latest news in the office. One lady is now a grandma, and her family came in and paraded the baby around. It was so good to be with them again! Then I went home, took care of a few things, and napped for about an hour. Then it was dinner time and off to work for one last night.

The first exciting part of last night was that the trucks were actually on time! That meant we were an hour ahead of where we'd been the previous nights. During break I gave Enon Alice in Wonderland, since I hadn't been able to the night before. He must have thought I was kidding before, because he seemed really touched. He wanted my number so we could read it together and talk about it. I slipped out of that one, but I think we'll be working on the same assignment in a week or so, so we'll be able to discuss it then. I'll have to read it in the meantime. Mr. Perry came in his uniform last night and had his Purple Heart pinned on. Apparently management gave him a hard time about not wearing his uniform and only wearing a security T-shirt. I got off work at 10:30, which was great. There just wasn't that much to do. About 10:15, I was asking various managers what I could do, when Shawn came up. He made one more valiant (HA!) effort. "What's up? I heard you was looking for me," he said. "No. I'm looking for Elizabeth." "Oh OK, I must have been misinformed." He sauntered off and went outside. He walked right past Mr. Perry, who was sitting behind a stack of dollies. He must have noticed that Shawn was wearing his dorky blue hat again, because he poked his head around the dollies, pointed to the door, and mouthed, "That him?" I made a face and nodded. He started chuckling to himself, and I heard him say, "Pah, Burger King!" I never gave Shawn I Kissed Dating Goodbye because my dad really did not like the idea. He said that's not the kind of crowd to joke around with like that. He didn't want me getting shot on the way out. I agree, it would have been a pretty dumb idea, but the death-and-mayhem part of me really wonders what would have happened if I had given it to him. Oh well!

So that was pretty much the extent of my night shift adventures. In a few hours I'm going into the office to get briefed on my next assignment. I'll be driving to various 7-11s tonight to see if they card me when I try to buy cigarettes. I guess I should figure out what brand I like. =P This job will only be a two day assignment, tonight and Monday night. It should be really fun! I'm also working my first banquet Saturday night. I'll be wearing a tux, except for the jacket. It should be interesting!