I lived in a Motel 6 in a working class suburb of St. Louis, MO for a few months when I was just nineteen. That’s a fact stored deep in my bag of “check-out-this-sh*t”-facts that I carry in case someone in a group is getting more attention than me. It’s not like I am that annoying – I use the Motel 6 story way before, “I can tie a cherry stem in knot with my tongue…”
When I was living in the motel with my BF, I got one of my favorite jobs ever, working at a cosmetics counter in a mall. Loved the job, loved putting eye-shadow on older ladies – you would not believe how much the human eyelid varies from person to person – and I loved getting free make-up and selling really expensive face cream. However, I was pretty lonely and didn’t like going to mall bars with my department store coworkers and my BF was always busy working so I was on my own most of the time.
Like many others suffering from social issues who eventually turn to animals, I filled the hole in my existence by visiting a great dane puppy at the mall pet store every day I worked. He was kind of blue-ish grey with dark spots and from what I remember, very hyper. I named him Sisco (pre-thong song) and I never knew if he found a good home because I quit to go to Mardi Gras with a friend. Those were the 90s, you could just quit jobs on Friday and get another one on Monday.
I thought those days were long gone, however, I find myself turning back to animals for guidance and companionship, but I’ve moved up from pet stores and on to the zoo. Behold my new part-time friends:
*The cheetah kind of reminds me of Sisco.
The zoo is walking distance from our place and ever since I got a membership I’ve been going so much I figure I should get a good khaki outfit and a walking stick and start giving animal talks. I might wait for my hair to go a little gray first (and for my mascara to fall off my eyelashes). For now, I am pretty sure I will start a separate blog called “Overheard Parental Disinformation at the Zoo” but it will have to be anonymous because I fear retaliation for outing grown people that don’t know the difference between a zebra and a goat, so you will have to forget you ever read about it here.
6 comments:
this just made me laugh very hard. thank you for that.
and that dirty polar bear nearly made me cry. emotional tick tock!!!
i sniffled and giggled. i'm actually disappointed when i meet people who've never worked in a mall! so many stories, cookie cake, glamour shots, jack and coke's at Applebee's, and trying on prom dresses with no intent to buy.
Molly - don't worry - that Polar bear just has a special haricut because she has to live in Memphis - she's not really dirty, dirty.
Kimberly - where did you work in the mall? I also worked at "Contempo Casuals" AND "Glamour Shots" but that's not a blog post - that's a book...
and I don't know why I had to capiltalize "polar bear"..... I guess I feel that they are very important.
I worked at a low-brow Claire's sorta kiosk where I pierced ears and I worked at Bath and Body Works. Agreed. Novella at the very least! By the way, I just talked to my little bro and sure enough he got ideas for his screenplay but he never wants to ride Greyhound again!
HAHAHA! contempo casuals was my FAVORITE!!!!!!!!
Post a Comment