What to Know About Joining the Police Department

First and foremost, to become a police officer, it is often said a sense of helping others would be required. A sense of right and wrong also helps. But some people think it's easy; they think it's like the film Police Academy, but it couldn't be more different. This line of work is high stress, high risk and can sometimes be fatal. But, when you take someone dangerous off the street, it's incredibly rewarding.

Ironically enough, these officers are with the Cincinnati Police Department. The bridge in the back ground is known as the Roebling Bridge, or to locals, the Suspension Bridge. It leads to the Kentucky city of Covington

Half of police involved in shootings suffer from PTSD

-Like members of the military, police can suffer from PTSD after traumatic events, such as having to shoot someone, seeing something horrific at a crime scene, etc.

Police officers have vastly different opinions on the gun laws

-Not surprisingly, police officers are usually armed to protect themselves. But even police officers have opinions on the gun laws. Some officers are completely in favor of concealed carry licenses while other officers are strongly opposed to it

Firing a weapon is not out of the question

-Being a police officer, you will have to use your weapon to protect yourself, even if that means taking the life of someone who means you harm. But, as investigations proceed, it sometimes turns out that that was the other person's intention-suicide by cop. Despite what you hear in the news anymore, a lot of police officers go almost their entire career without discharging their weapon, let alone taking a life

There is a specifically high rate of alcoholism among police

-If you think, for one second, your job is stressful and requires a stiff drink at the end of the week, think about the high level of stress police officers are under. They see things they shouldn't see, they go to places they shouldn't. Various studies have shown that alcoholism can affect 1 in 4, which equals to 25%, of all police officers. The situation certainly is not helped by drinking in social situations because of the stress of their jobs

There is a strong connection between poor health and police work

-Sure, cops love donuts. It's a stereotype that can sometimes poke fun at police. But in all total seriousness, poor health and being a police officer go hand in hand. Because of the random sets of hours they work, they have to eat when they can, sometimes on the run. And because of this, they develop bad eating habits, leading to poor health, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes

They often use outdated equipment

-You would think that being a police officer, you'd get updated equipment. That's not true; a lot of police departments don't always get the newest, shiniest equipment out there because of funding. If a department does not have a lot of funding, they will stretch their equipment to their maximum amount of use. A lot of police departments depend on government funding to help them get new equipment and if that government is strapped for cash, there's a high chance the local police aren't getting new cars, new guns, new Kevlar vests and more

Police academy training is demanding

-It should be demanding; it's teaching you skills that will save your life and other's lives. The police academy is tough both physically and mentally. You must be able to have the physicality to get you through as well as the mentality to help you through. You must be physically able to chase down a suspect as well has have good mental health to help you through the times that make you want to quit.

Field training is difficult, near impossible

-Police academy training is one thing, but field training is another. Out in the field, you do what are called "ride alongs". You ride in the passenger side of a patrol car or shadow another police officer and learn how they do their job. This helps you to develop a style of policing that will be both effective and unique to you. Field training can prove difficult, even impossible because you have to take EVERYTHING you learned in the academy and apply it to real life and you're being constantly scrutinized by veteran officers

Long and irregular hours

-It's said that being a police officer, you will work crazy hours. You might be working the lonely graveyard shift one week, dayshift another and so on. This is because police officers are needed at all times. There could be times when you work 12 hours one day and have the next day off.

Thorough background check

-Becoming a police officer involves a thorough background check. The rule of thumb here is if you have anything to hide, the police world is not for you. You better believe in a New York minute that if you're thinking about becoming a police officer, they will do a thorough background check on you, which includes investigating any misdemeanors, felonies, past drug use, credit checks, etc.

Long hiring process

-If you think, for one second, becoming a police officer is a piece of cake, think again. The process of hiring a police officer is long and tedious. It can take more than a year to become a police officer. Potential officers are scrutinized through a lengthy training process and intense background check. And some departments even require previous experience from other law enforcement-type jobs before becoming an officer. If all is good and everything comes through clear and positive, you're on your way to becoming an officer

Excuses, excuses

-Whether you are actually breaking the law or some other reason, everyone has been pulled over at one point or another. Every driver has an excuse of one thing or another. Police have heard every excuse in the book and sometimes, if they are lucky, they get to hear new excuses. So the next time the blue and red or blue lights appear in your rearview mirror, just be honest or keep the talking to a minimum and move it on out

Higher education is not necessary

-While it does sound nice and certainly helps, it's not necessary to becoming a police officer. The reason for no requirement on higher education is because potential officers go through academy and field training.

Not so great $$$

-This is not one of those high paying, Fortune 500-level paycheck jobs. The pay isn't great, but for a lot of officers and even detectives, the reward of giving someone closure on a murder case or taking someone dangerous off the streets often is better than the pay. Police work is often said to have a poor work-life balance

Police officers are only drug tested during the hiring process

-There is a sad but true statistic about police officers and struggles with drug addiction. Some officers are able to struggle from drug addiction and hide it well from their fellow officers and even their lieutenants and captains. The reason? Many police departments only do drug testing during the initial hiring process. Like alcohol, drugs can quickly become the other major coping mechanism for the nasty sights and horrors seen by officers

It's all about politics

-To give you a sense of this meaning, watch the television show Blue Bloods and notice how there are always politics involved. In addition to trying to do their jobs by keeping the streets safe, police have to deal with politicians, local police watchdog groups, civil rights groups and the public. It feels as though every move they make is under constant scrutiny and this can lead to frustration and lack of trust. It's all because of politics on the job

High level of scrutiny

-Every time you hear about a shooting on the news, what is the first thing you hear about nowadays? Body cam footage! Police are under constant scrutiny because even the littlest mistake will be reported to their superiors. Like politicians, police are the second most scrutinized job in the world. Some decisions are not fair, but police still take heat for it. It's almost superhuman how police officers can take so much crap from people but still manage to do their jobs

19 Rockstars Who Worked Regular Jobs Before Hitting It Big

Everyone has to start working somewhere, even the big name rockers. Here are 19 rockstars who, according to Kerrang! magazine, worked regular jobs before the music bug bit them.

Jonathan Davis, Korn

-Embalmer's/coroner's assistant

-He told Kerrang! in an interview that he initially got into the job because he was into horror movies and dark s---. "Little did I know that that s--- would f--- me up for a long time. I saw some really f---ed up s---...I had post traumatic stress from seeing dead babies."

Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath

-Sheet metal worker

-This could only be described as "ironic". The city in which Tony hails from is extensively steeped in metal, no pun intended. So it's fair to say there are a lot of steelworks and steel foundries. Tony found work in one of them. It's been said that him losing the tip of his two middle fingers in an industrial accident when he was 16 and having to use prosthetic thimbles helped shape the dark sound Sabbath is known for. He said he only used light gauge strings because it made it easier and less painful for him to play

Kevin Wasserman aka "Noodles", The Offspring

-School janitor

-When The Offspring's 1994 album Smash debuted, the band's lead guitarist was working as a janitor at the Earl Warren school in Anaheim. "I took a three year leave of absence. I was still working there when we blowing up 'cause I'd promised my boss I wouldn't quit until the end of the school year." he said in an interview with Kerrang!

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

-School janitor

-In the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", there is a dancing janitor. This refers to the fact that, like The Offspring's lead guitarist, Kurt Cobain worked as a school janitor

Dani Winter-Bates, Bury Tomorrow

-NHS operations manager

-Despite the fact that Bury Tomorrow is self-sufficient, Dani still works his job of operations manager for the NHS (National Health System) in the UK. He even does it remotely on tour because he's passionate about it. "The rest of the band have Bury Tomorrow as their main career, but I do it because I love working for the NHS and I'm massively interested in public healthcare." he said in an interview with this magazine.

Bon Scott, AC/DC

-Postman

-It's hard to imagine, but the former AC/DC front man did work as a postman. He also worked other jobs, including bartender and truck packer. He mainly delivered mail in his home town of Fremantle, Western Australia

Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead

-Roadie

-It's hard to imagine this iconic metal legend working as a roadie. But, it's not as hard to imagine as you would think. He got his inspiration for "We Are the Road Crew" from his time and experience lugging gear around for 60s rocker Jimi Hendrix

Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath

-Slaughterhouse employee

-A lot of people like to give Ozzy flak for this, saying that in his book I Am Ozzy, he must have enjoyed the work too much or something to that effect. He, most likely, regarded this as just a job that brought money in. A lot of people definitely didn't know that a slaughterhouse in Digbeth employed Ozzy for a time after he was let go from a factory in Birmingham making car horns.

Chris Cornell, Soundgarden

-Fish handler

-Prior to establishing that "Seattle sound" band Soundgarden, frontman Chris Cornell worked as a fish handler for a seafood company. In an interview with this magazine, he revealed "My job was to wipe up the slime and throw away the fish guts."

Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society

-Gas pump attendant

-Something you don't see too much of anymore. While playing in local bands, hoping against hope for a big break, Zakk worked as a gas pump attendant. During this job, he heard Ozzy had been searching for guitarists. He sent in a demo tape of his playing to Ozzy and the rest is history. This is almost cliched fairy tale of rags to riches. Only in Zakk's case, it went from gas-scented coveralls to riches

Tom Araya, Slayer

-Respiratory therapist

-Prior to forming the legendary thrash band, in the 1980s Araya worked as a respiratory therapist. He sunk his paychecks into the funding for the band's debut album Show No Mercy.

Peter Steele, Type O Negative

-Parks and recreation

-He once said that his days of working his way up from park maintenance to park supervisor were among the happiest days of his life. Who could blame him? Plenty of fresh air, sunshine? What could be better than that?

Steve Harris, Iron Maiden

-Architectural draughtman/street sweeper

-Like all the guys in Iron Maiden, who all had day jobs to help keep the band behind "Up the Irons" bring in money, bassist/founding member/primary lyricist Steve Harris worked as a street sweeper. He went from working as a architectural draughtsman, where he created the iconic Iron Maiden logo during working hours, to working as a street sweeper, anything to keep money floating in to keep the band afloat until Maiden could hit it big

Maynard James Keenan, Tool

-US Army

-Prior to forming the band known as Tool, he served four years in the US Army. In an interview, he revealed "It's a strange phenomenon for me when people think there is a complete division between that warrior spirit and actual artist spirit."

Mark Morton, Lamb of God

-Restoration roofer

-Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton worked as a slate and copper restoration roofer in Richmond, Virginia before hitting it big with Lamb of God. "I took a lot of pride in my work and it's what paid my bills as I was coming up through the ranks with the band" he told Kerrang! in an interview

Devin Townsend

-Guitar instructor

-This guitarist, often described as a "mad scientist", had worked as a guitar instructor prior to playing guitar professionally. He's held down plenty of jobs, including dish washer and working with sheet metal fabrication. He says that having to dissect music to teach guitar in a formulaic fashion is the absolute worst

Rob Zombie

-Bike messenger

-Who would have thought that someone like Rob Zombie, whose very own concert goers come donned in zombie makeup and gas masks, would have worked as a bike messenger? He says that his least favorite job was working as a bike messenger. Of all places, it was in New York City, a city jam packed with so many other bike messengers, cars, trucks, vans, semis, buses and more. "It's the worst job anyone could have, I got hit by cars so many times" he said in an interview with Louder Noise

Serj Tankian, System of a Down

-Software company owner

-Prior to forming the band System of a Down, Serj Tankian was the owner of a company called Propriety Vertical Industry Modular Accounting Software, which provided machine coding

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Creatively

We've all wanted to get revenge on someone who may have wronged us. In this case, it's the service industry. You are basically the servant of the public, whether it be behind the front desk at a hotel, food service, etc. Here are a few examples of how people got a little sweet payback.

1.) A customer at a liquor store and wants to pay with a big denomination bill, despite having the right amount. She certainly got her exact change-ZeroPenguinParty

-Just happened. Its towards the end of the business day for my bottle shop. I'm running low on certain items of change in the register, so I am asking for people to pay with exact amounts, or by card. Enter Karen. Karen comes in, and purchases a $7 bottle of wine. If she was to pay with a $10 note, that's ok. But she decided she wanted to pay with a $50 note. I asked her if she had anything smaller, and she claimed she didn't...yet I could see the edge of a $10 note in her purse. I could have given her 2 $20 notes, or a $20 and a $10 and 2 $5 notes as part of her change, but I decided not to. I decided to get some petty revenge on her. For while I may have been VERY short on notes...I had plenty of coins...especially $1 coins, as a customer had paid a $20 sale with $1 coins just 30 minutes ago. So I told Karen that I would have to give a few coins in her change...then proceeded to count out $43 in $1 coins. Her face was getting redder and redder, until eventually, at about the $25 mark, she said "Wait, I might have a $10 note", and then proceeded to get the $10 note out to pay with.

2.) 2 year decaf binge-guacamollie19998

-Hey Mister Verizon Man,

You sold my dad refurbished iPhones and told him they were new. They were Hanukkah presents for my brothers and I. My dad was so mad that you sold him used phones— you lied to him. And he returned them. He returned them and he swore off iPhones, and I didn’t get a smartphone until I was eighteen. Mister Verizon Man, I was (nearly) the only one in my class who didn’t have an iPhone because of you. And you made my dad very angry on our favorite holiday. Mister Verizon Man, you didn’t know me, but I knew you. And when you walked into Dunkin Donuts, you ordered an extra-large hot coffee from me. Black. Mister Verizon Man, you ordered that coffee from me every morning I worked for two years. And every morning, after you ordered, I or my friends behind the counter would pour you decaf coffee. Every morning for two years, you thought you were sipping that sweet, caffeinated Dunkin coffee. But you were enjoying some lowly decaf. I hope my subtle revenge has made you a sleepy guy behind the counter lying to customers, selling refurbished phones in place of new. Maybe you pocket the difference in money, I don’t know. But anyways, Mister Verizon Man, screw you.

3.) Steps to looking like a jackass in a card store. 1. enter a store screaming. 2. pick up wrong card intended for lesbian couple. 3. give to happy couple-Marx0r

-Here I am, working a Saturday evening shift at a card and gift store. (Think Hallmark, but not that brand name.) As anyone that's worked one can tell you, a good 50% of the customers are clearly enroute to the event they're buying the card for, and a good 50% of those people think that their lack of planning is your problem. So I'm in the middle of assisting a customer when I see a Very Expensive Car pull up and park in the fire lane outside the store. A man in a Very Expensive Suit gets out of the car and walks in. Upon entering, he heads to the back without breaking stride and shouts "WEDDING CARDS?" I don't think he even saw me, he just figured that since he's the most important person in the world, there must be someone at his beck and call. I'm mid-sentence with my customer, so I finish it before addressing him. Before I can, he actually used a little effort to find the clearly-labelled cards himself, which he politely informed me of with a "GOT IT!" About 4 seconds later, he arrives at the counter, having obviously picked out the first card he saw. Maintaining volume, he respectfully requests to borrow a pen to fill out the card while he's in the process of reaching over the counter to grab one from my pen cup. While he's filling it out, as I ring up my next customer around the space he's taking up on my counter, I look down and notice that he's adressed the card to at least one male name. I also notice that he's picked out the one wedding card we sell that is unambiguously for a lesbian couple. I saw no reason to trouble him with that information.

4.) Drinks are worth the price-dearghewls

-I'm a bartender and the area I work in is upper class and petty as hell. As I tell people all the time “I don’t go out here, I just work here.” One random night not too long ago I’m making drinks at the well for servers to take to their customers at their tables while the other bartenders handle our bar top guests. It’s the middle of our rush and one of my servers comes up with a drink 1/4 full and sets it down saying the customer hates it and was demanding a different drink. Specifically, they wanted a vodka mojito. I was too busy to put up a fight and the poor girl looked run down already from the night, so I went ahead and made it, even though it was obvious the woman was just looking for free shit.

The server runs the drink to the table and it happens to be the table closest to my well so I can see and hear everything. She sets it down and hurries off to another table waving her down and I watch as this woman SLAMS the drink until there is nothing but mint and ice left in the glass, with maaaybe half an ounce of liquid in the bottom, then turns around and grabs the server again. “Uhm, I specifically asked for this with VODKA.” “Yes, ma’am, it is.” “I know what vodka tastes like, this is clearly rum. Tell your bartender to make it right this time, I’m not paying for this.” The server tried to say something but was rudely cut off and told to get it remade again, so she picks up the glass and walks over to me.

“I’m so sorry OP,” she starts, and I immediately tell her it’s okay, I saw the whole thing. “Girl, don’t worry. I got you.” So I remade the woman’s drink. One virgin mojito coming up. Nuthin but mint, lime, simple, and soda water. I cannot explain the satisfaction we both felt when that drink hit the table and we watched the woman sip it and go “Now THAT is vodka.” You get what you pay for.

5.) Penny for your thoughts?-throwaway105597

-So I used to work at a now closed-down retail shop in the UK that sold cd’s, DVD’s, vinyl, that sort of thing. We had a lot of regular customers that used to irk us, but in particular was this one guy who used to come in, buy roughly £20-£40 worth of things, and then pay for his entire transaction in coins, mainly pennies, 5ps, 10ps and 20ps. Not even pounds. Each time we’d have to stand there and count each coin individually (otherwise the tills would be wrong at the end of the day), holding up the queue, while he stood there with a smug look on his face making jokes about how long it took us to process the transaction.

Now, I’m not the greatest at maths (I have dyscalculia) so numbers aren’t my strong point. I used to hide when this guy came in so I wouldn’t have to serve him because I knew I’d take longer than everyone else to count up his money and put it in the till and then I’d hold up the queue. This time, there was no one else on shop floor, and the penny guy comes in. So I had to serve him. To my surprise, this time he actually gave me some notes to pay with, and secretly I was thrilled, because it meant I could now take revenge. I processed the transaction and with a smug look on my face, start counting out £12 worth of change in pennies, 5ps, 10ps and 20ps.

He questions what I’m doing and I say, sorry sir, we have too many coins in the till and we’ve been told to get rid of them (a lie obviously). He stands there for a good 10 mins while I count out his change, lose count, have to start over again all the while smiling and putting on my best fake sweet customer service voice. The entire time he’s standing there getting red faced and impatient, tapping on the counter, sighing loudly under his breath until I finished and gave him all of his change. He remained a regular customer, but never paid in pennies ever again!

6.) Closing at 10 means exactly that!-arsenicandoldspice

-Last night I was at work at my Family Owned Beverage Shop. It's not my favorite job I've ever had because the customers are incredibly entitled. The end of the night was approaching, beautiful, sacred closing time. We had gotten a decent rush about 20 minutes before we closed (at 10pm) so we were a little cranky about how behind we were on finishing our tasks for the night. At 9:55, we're finally getting somewhere with our cleaning when the phone rings. Sounds like a youngish boy, I'd say 15y/o at most. He asked what time we closed, and I responded with my usual, "We close at 10 every night, but we'll be open at 11 again tomorrow morning!" That's not working for him. "My friends and I really want some of your drinks but we can't be there by 10, can we come like five minutes after and still get drinks?" I tell him no, the doors get locked promptly at 10. "Oh, well we really want the drinks, what can you do?" I say "You can be here by 10, because I personally will be locking the doors." We hang up. I know he's going to try to come in anyway.

Sure enough, at 10:06, my coworkers and I hear a bunch of banging and rattling on the closed doors. Yep, like three or four high school aged kids. Sorry, we're closed. The chairs are up, the menu is turned off, someone is mopping, THE DOORS ARE LOCKED. Any time they catch one of our eyes (which we all do our best to avoid) they give us what they think are puppy dog eyes, and we laugh and shake our heads at them. No dice. They keep assaulting the doors. It's getting annoying, so I look up at them brightly with a big smile and start walking toward the doors. They start getting excited, thinking they've finally worn us down. I hold eye contact until I swerve to the right to turn off all the lights. I could hear their collective "awwwww!!!" of disappointment through the door. It felt amazing. They left. I laughed. I won. 

7.) What language do you prefer?-AlfafaFloozy

-I'm an American that was born and raised in the south. It's an obvious dialect. Also, English is a 2nd language for most people here. Language barriers are not uncommon. All of this comes into the revenge. Years ago, I worked in a call center. It was a large company with English and Spanish departments. I worked in the English department, but sat next to our Spanish department. I handled billing. No one calls billing in a good mood, but in general they're angry with the company not the rep. You calm them down, fix the issue, and you're off to the next call. Few customers are memorable, but this one I will never forget and I still laugh. This call happened on a busy day with long wait times. This just made the revenge sweeter.The call went like this.

Me: Thank you for calling blah blah blah.

Lady: I want an American on the phone.

Me: What?

Lady: I said I want an AMERICAN on the phone.

Me: Mam, I'm an American.

Lady: I WANT AN AMERICAN ON THE PHONE!

At this point, I can only assume I'm not speaking the right language.

Me: Un momento por favor

I put her on hold, transfer her over to the Spanish line, and just giggled to myself.

BUT IT DIDN'T END THERE. The lines were starting to calm down and I was chatting with one of the Spanish reps when his desk mate pops up and says she's got a psycho on the phone. IT WAS THE WOMAN I HAD TRANSFERRED!!! She was going BALLISTIC! The Spanish rep had her on mute while talking to us. I apologized and told her what happened. She started laughing. Then looks right at me and said "I'm gonna put her back in the Spanish queue". The Spanish department had a blast laughing at this crazy b*tch as they kept putting her back in the queue. I don't know if she ever got her issue fixed. Then again, we never found out what the issue was either. She was too busy yelling at everyone. Moral of the story, be nice to phone reps.

8.) Shoplifting don't pay-Erik069

-When I was in high school I worked as a stocker in a grocery store. One hot Saturday I’m stocking the ice cream freezer and saw a young women grab a couple ice-cream bars and shove them in her shorts. Quickly I found my manger and told him what I’d seen. I pointed out the women as she was walking out of the store, he went running. Caught up with her. I watched from the store entry as he chatted with her for a few minutes in the hot parking lot. I wondering what the heck they where talking about. As the manager is walking back to the store I see her reach in her shorts and toss the bars into the landscape planter. His revenge was to tell her the store was doing a survey and had some customer survey questions for her. Probably being scared she cooperated. When he saw melting ice cream running down her legs he finished the interview. Thanked her and came back into the store. We had a good laugh over his creative way to punish this shoplifter.

9.) Troublesome customer has to get her refund...50 miles away-Joelovesbacon97

-Before I start, for some background, I work at customer service as a department lead and I'll say my hardware store practices the rule that says "we reserve the right to refuse and limit any returns for any reasons" very often. With that being said... A Karen slithered into my store with a water heater that was around $800, She hissed at us "I want to return it" I asked if she had a receipt, she ask why does she need one and I said to do the refund, since it was over $50, we would for sure need a proof of purchase, she groaned and dug around in her purse and called me a moron and etc, she was already rude for no apparent reason.

I was kind of already in a pissy mood that day so I decided I'd have some fun with her being an a**hole by being an a**hole back to her. When she presented the receipt, I looked at the receipt to find any possible reason to deny her return and saw it! It was bought at a store 50+ miles away, with items that expensive we normally ask the customer to return to point of sale. So I told her "you can't return this item at this store, you need to return this item at the point of sale, which is the riverside store" when she heard this she hissed at me in anger something to the effect of "NO I WANT TO RETURN IT HERE I AM NOT DRIVING THAT FAR FOR A REFUND!” She proceeded to yell at me and my associates further, calling us rather offensive names and whatnot, until she asked for a Manager, so I got one, but I made sure to call my manager who has the same mindset of denying returns just like me. When my boss came, he saw what was going on, and he was on my side, he told her the same thing I said and she cursed us all out and slithered off to hell. As soon as she went off to the parking lot, we all began to laugh :)

10.) My two cents on this-/jzimm79

-I work retail and part of that is ringing customers up for their purchases. Occasionally you’ll get a total of 9.02 and the customer will pay with a ten. Normally I’ll give them a dollar instead of counting out .98. Today I gave a customer the dollar instead of a handful of change and he asked for another dollar because one corner was slightly torn. Instead of giving him a new dollar I gave him a handful of change. Oh the look on his entitled face. That tiny bit of revenge will get me thru this day.

11.) Waiting is the hardest part...for hard work-lupin_stargazer

-I work a crappy retail job, and we just started putting out our christmas stock (It kills me to say that when it isn't even Halloween yet). I was working the register while my coworker was in the back room handling a delivery. It was a quiet night, no customers for about half an hour, and in walks a woman with her three year old daughter. They start looking in the christmas aisle. I happen to walk by it about ten minutes later, and the aisle is completely trashed. I watch as her daughter pulls three pegs worth of garland off the wall, then as her mother picks out the color she wants and leaves the rest on the floor. This woman had allowed her daughter to do this for nearly everything in the aisle.

She saw me, took her daughters hand and said "Come on honey, lets go check out while this nice lady cleans up." And she leads her kid toward the check out. Well, jokes on you, lady. I'm the only one working them tonight! I start cleaning the aisle (very slowly) while she waits at the register. After a few minutes, the lady looks at me and clears her throat. I look up, smile and say "I'm sorry, but company policy states that I can't leave any obstruction in an aisle unattended. I'll be with you as soon as I can." And I go back to cleaning. Made her wait for a good twenty minutes trying to entertain a bored, increasingly whiny toddler before I came up and wrang her stuff up. I made sure to give her my biggest smile as I handed her her change and said "Have a nice night!".

12.) The change-man strikes no more-PM_YOUR_PRETTY_FACE

-I work overnights in a gas station in a particularly bad part of town. So from 11pm-6am I use a pass through drawer to make transactions so I don't get shot or robbed. This one a**hole shows up a couple times a week and gets at least 20 dollars in gas, and maybe 10-15 bucks in other stuff. How does he pay? By just dumping a handful of change into the drawer, making me pick it all up. Even if I have my hand out, he'll go under my hand and throw it in the drawer. That pissed me off like you wouldn't believe, so I started being rude back to him. I don't give him his stuff until I pick up each coin piece by piece and then count it all out and put it in the drawer. I'm talking like $30 in quarters and dimes and nickels so it takes a good five minutes. One time I was doing it, he says "Come the f**k on man, I'm in a hurry!" I just said "Yeah?" and kept going while he huffed and puffed and swore and paced back and forth. After 5 or 6 times of this, he started paying only in bills. I win :)

13.) Today was your last "free meal comp" from us-blobley

-I'll start off by saying that I take pride in cooking customers orders to perfection, and I strive to always make the customer happy. It's hard to do that when the person calls back every time no matter what and says that we messed their order up in some way. Well today sir, today was your last meal from us. I deleted your account and blocked all of your numbers that you have ever called us from. When you call, you will get a never ending elevator music tone. I also took the liberty of emailing every pizza place in a 3 mile radius of our store to inform them of your selfish habit. I told them what you do, and how many times you have done it to us. Hope you like Chinese food from now on f***er.

2018: What a Year!!

Like every year, there are the highest of highs and lowest of lows. My year has been, in one word, interesting.

Was laid off for the first time and got a new job three weeks later.
-On 10/26/2018, I was laid off from my job. I worked as an Image Processor I for US Bancorp. My job had me scanning and processing financial documents all day. A few weeks before I was laid off, our big boss, Jane Biessener, had come in from Milwaukee, where she works. Apparently changes had been underway and of course, my department had no knowledge. The week of 10/26, we were told that changes would be happening. That Wednesday before I got laid off, I was called into a meeting with our boss Jane along with two of my coworkers, Pixie and Carrie. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that the Cincinnati location would be shut down due to that magical word called "restructuring". In my opinion, that means "We don't need you. Find a new job!" Of course, I cried because I had never had that happen. And as always, the HR rep told us that he would help us find a job. YEAH RIGHT! He did fuck all to help us. We were on our own. But, enough on the negativity. I applied for jobs and I did it hard. I was thankful and lucky enough to land a new job three weeks later. In fact, on the very day that I would have had to file for my severance pay, which was 11/26, that was my first day in a new department, still in US Bank. I am now a Lockbox Clerk 2. I process payments for retail. I have been working there for four happy weeks. I feel a lot calmer and a lot less stressed out here than at my last job. I only have two words- THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got two more tattoos.
-I should really post photos. I had gotten two more tattoos. I have a tattoo on the inside of my left forearm. I have always been fascinated by those tear away tattoos that tattoo artists refer to as "skin rips". I have a "skin rip" tattoo on the inside of my left forearm with the English flag inside. It's to represent part of my heritage, since I found out that I have 8% Great Britain in my heritage. Boy, that certainly does explain a thing or two. The other tattoo I have is on the inside of my right calf. It's of the Disney character Mulan. It represents my love of/appreciation for/interest in Chinese culture and history.

Bought tickets to see Iron Maiden

-Yes, that's right. This girl and her family are going to see Iron Maiden. Ironically enough, the day that the tickets went on sale for Iron Maiden Fan Club members is also the day I was interviewing for my current job. While waiting for the manager to come to the lobby, I was playing Beat the Clock and trying to buy the best Iron Maiden tickets I could. It was hard doing it on a smartphone and trying to be fast about getting four tickets. But, I got them, and strangely enough, I am in the same exact general vicinity as I was when me and my family had gone to see Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd. Which means I will have excellent photos!!!!!

Seen Lynyrd Skynyrd/.38 Special

-What really irritated me about this night was that .38 Special was supposed to play for an hour. They only got 45 minutes, which confuses me. Then, of course, Hank Williams Jr. comes on and does a two hour show like he thinks he's the headliner. He is, no offense to any fans, trashy to me. He had to keep changing hats for every song. He spit on the stage, which is about as uncouth as it is possible to be, and he had to keep throwing politics in between his songs. He is just absurdly trashy and uncouth. Not only that, these two older gentlemen kept hitting on me and my sister with their wives right there. But, all in all, seeing Lynyrd Skynyrd was amazing. My sister had bought the tickets, which were thankfully very reasonable. I know it made my mom happy because she said that "Free Bird" was played at her graduation. She had been a fan since she was a kid and it made her feel almost on the verge of tears to know she could see them on the tour they dubbed "Last of the Street Survivors" tour, named after their album Street Survivors. That show was amazing!!!!! If .38 Special ever goes on tour again, I'm buying tickets so that we can see two hours of .38 Special, not two hours of some hillbilly hick who changes hats repeatedly and basically believes everyone should support our idiot president and who spits on the stage like he owns it.

.38 Special



Lynyrd Skynyrd

Seen Judas Priest/Deep Purple again
-Yes, we have now seen these two bands twice. We saw Deep Purple for the first time in September of last year when they had come to Cincinnati to play at the Riverbend Music Center with Alice Cooper. And just this past August, they had come once again to play with Judas Priest, who was touring their recently released Firepower album. Man oh man does Judas Priest know how to rock!! I loved seeing the look on my sister's face when Rob Halford rode out on his Harley, done up in Firepower artwork to sing "Hell Bent for Leather". Another cool thing is that two of the roadies for Priest were raising money for Parkinson's Disease research by charging $5 to get a photo on the motorcycle Rob would ride. Of course, me and my sister both chipped in for three good reasons: A.) it goes to a good cause, B.) We're fans of Judas Priest and we both knew Rob would ride that bike C.) It was because of Glenn Tipton recently being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and we both thought he was the good looking one.

-As for Deep Purple, they were good, but a lot of their songs were long extended jam sessions. A lot of the songs they played I was not familiar with, like "Maybe I'm a Leo", "Wring That Neck", "Lazy" "Perfect Strangers", "It's Good to Be King". The songs they played that I did know were "Knocking At Your Back Door", "Strange Kind of Woman", "Woman from  Tokyo", "Space Truckin'", "Hush", "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star". When we had seen Deep Purple the first time, they had ended the show with "Smoke on the Water". This past time they ended with "Hush". No disrespect to Ian Gillan, his voice seems to have taken on a nasally tone. He bobs and dodges around the high notes. I mean, I know he's getting older and probably can't do that high stuff anymore, which is fine. But it does seem like his voice is going out. Sadly, I think I'm starting to know what Ritchie Blackmore was thinking when he did those last few albums with Deep Purple and and how Ian's voice is just awful.

Found two more autobiographies that I read and loved

-That's right. I'm constantly looking for interesting rock or metal bios. I found two that I read and loved. Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore by Jerry Bloom and Heavy Duty: Days and Nights in Judas Priest by K.K. Downing. The book about Ritchie Blackmore is a biography while the book about K.K. was written by him. I love books like this because sometimes the person will inject their own little thoughts and they are hilarious. Reading about K.K. certainly was eye opening. I never knew that he had such deep resentment for Glenn Tipton. Of course, they got along, but it seemed like it was just for the band's sake and not personal sake. As for Ritchie, reading that book was interesting. Of course, with him talking about the band Rainbow, I ended up going on the internet and listening to Rainbow's music and am now a fan. I want to get some of their albums. The song I like best is "Street of Dreams" from their album Bent Out of Shape. It has that nice pop-rock melody to it. No wonder it's Ritchie's favorite song.

Seen a cool movie about the band Queen called Bohemian Rhapsody. Also saw the new Halloween movie.
-The new movie Bohemian Rhapsody is awesome. It's essentially about how the band formed and how they played their famous gig at Live Aid. It's awesome. The new Halloween movie is interesting as well. It's definitely not for kids, which leads me to wonder why people had their children, aged 10 or under, in there. There was one part where the psychiatrist looking after Michael Myers gets his head stomped on and it bursts like a pumpkin dropped off a freeway overpass. Another part involves two police officers getting killed, one with a bullet to the heart and the other with his head removed, hollowed out like a pumpkin and his flashlight inserted inside. Not suitable for children

My mom had her first car crash in 41 years and was robbed highway robbery-style
-My mom had her first car crash when she was 16. A car had rear ended her not paying attention. Once again, things have come full circle. Friday night my mom had been rear ended by a box truck on I-75, coming back from Florence, Kentucky, where she works. It had been raining, which almost always guarantees the roads will be slick. My mom, of course, was taking her time because it was stop-and-go traffic. This box truck, not paying attention, had no time to stop and it rear ended her. Luckily, she was able to get off to the right side of the road. She was ready to murder the driver, lol. She was swearing left, right and center at him and of course, he says that there's no need to cuss, lady. The Fort Mitchell Police had come and collected her purse along with the ambulance who was there to take her to St. Elizabeth in Edgewood. After finding out that, thankfully, she had no broken bones, but mostly just a sprained back, wrist and shoulders, she was allowed to go home. Yesterday morning, we had gone out to collect her bag from work, which contains her Amazon Kindle Fire table, which she uses to read e-books, her MP3 player, a couple of spare phone chargers and a pair of brand new eyeglasses, which she uses when she takes out her contacts, we find the car is unlocked and the bag gone. Someone had robbed my mother. It's that old highway logic-broken down car, let's see what valuables are inside. And with it being right before Christmas, there might be Christmas gifts inside. My mom had been robbed!!

-The Fort Mitchell Police HAD NOT locked up my mom's car, as she was told. She was enraged, on fire, furious, every word for angry. And if you know her like me and my sister do, she cries when she gets angry. She kept saying "I hate people". I do not blame her. Luckily, my sister was able to contact Amazon customer service and have the Kindle shut down, unable to be re-registered. Because when my mom would buy e-books, her credit card information was on it. My sister talked to Amazon and told them the situation. That my mom's Kindle had been stolen. That she wanted it wiped completely clean so no one could use it. That it was only her Kindle that would be wiped clean, not her actual Amazon account. That all the books she had bought would still be available via the Amazon Cloud. So now, whoever gets that Kindle, thinking they have a new one, will be unable to use it. When they contact Customer Service to get it activated and read off the serial number, it will register as stolen. So it's now a $50 coffee table decoration. As for the MP3 player, the cord to charge it was also in there, so they now have a used MP3 player. Just hope they mind the buttons sticking. Sucks to be them! Luckily, me and my sister have my mom covered. My sister ordered my mom a new canvas bag with dolphins on it (my mom has a thing for dolphins) and I ordered a new Kindle Fire after Christmas, when they go on sale, for my mom. I'm even ordering a new tablet cover for her. I want purple because my mom loves purple; it's her favorite color. But she went ahead and bought herself a new 16 GB MP3 player. So, essentially, me and my sister did our good deed for the day. I also did another good deed- buying lunch for my mom. She's diabetic and if her sugar drops, she gets lethargic. I bought Subway for her since she didn't have breakfast.

-The point of this little situation is-I HATE PEOPLE! I've always hated people who think of only themselves and no one else. It seems to get increasingly worse the closer it gets to Christmas. People want to fight and be stupid over the things that don't even matter. To make matters worse, because of the idiots at the Fort Mitchell Police Department, my mom was robbed. She called them and told them she was robbed and they didn't seem to take it seriously. Like they thought a $50 Amazon Kindle Fire, a $60 MP3 player and a pair of $200 progressive-lens glasses was no big deal. Like it was low priority for them, when they had more important things to worry about, like useless idiots OD'ing on heroin or other drugs. They blew it off, saying they would "look into it". Which translates into "Lady, we have more important things to worry about than some tablet, glasses and an MP3 player". It's because of police officers like this that I have a hard time respecting men in uniform sometimes. These kind of police officers don't seem to take their job seriously, investigating a robbery, which is their job, look at it like "what do you want me to do about it?" while the ones who DO take their job seriously are not trusted by others. They do their job and investigate it and get nothing in return.

Saw Def Leppard/Journey
-We saw these two bands in May. I saw Def Leppard already, so it was my second time seeing them while for my sister, it was her first time seeing Def Leppard. It was both our first time seeing Journey live, though. My sister had bought the tickets and when she looked at the price later, it was hideously expensive. She couldn't figure out why until she looked at the breakdown of costs on the tickets. She had, unknowingly, bought a VIP meet-and-greet with Def Leppard. When she realized that, I think she blew a few microchips. The thought of meeting Def Leppard and getting a photo next to Joe Elliott and Phil Collen was enough to make my sister happy. When the blessed night came, she made sure to wear all her Leppard gear. What cracked me and my sister up, though, was when we got inside US Bank Arena, where the concert was, there were two lines-one for VIP meet-and-greet with Journey and one for Def Leppard. Everyone got in the line they thought was for Leppard, but turned out to be Journey. I never seen a line of people move so fast, rofl. Anyway, me and my sister, and about a hundred other people, mostly women, were in line to do the meet-and-greet. There was a black woman holding a child backstage with them and of course, now the rumor mill was up and running about who it was. Every one there thought it was Phil Collen's wife Helen, but it couldn't be. She was in L.A. and had just given birth to a baby. She wouldn't be able to fly just yet. It might have been the girlfriend or even wife of one of the other band members. I didn't ask because I felt it was not my concern. We got the photo, the photographer telling my sister to relax, lol. For her, it's hard to relax when Joe Elliott and Phil Collen are RIGHT BEHIND YOU! I was calm as ever, being near Vivian Campbell and Rick Savage, but inside, I was dancing like an idiot, jumping for joy! The concert, both bands, were amazing. When Def Leppard came on, they did a mix of early and new material, like "Rock Rock ('til You Drop)", "Let It Go", "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Hysteria", "Animal", "Foolin'", "Love Bites", "Armageddon It", "Man Enough", "Invincible", "Undefeated", etc.


Journey

Def Leppard

Day 26-Your week, in detail

So far, really boring!!!! And will probably be boring, lol.

How to quit your job like a pro

We all have had jobs where we want to quit because one coworker is a giant anal annoyance or other reasons. Here's how some people quit their jobs like pros.