“Take a Lunch…”
So my boss came in to the dispatch office and told me to ‘Take a Lunch.’.
I replied ‘I’ve never taken a lunch. It’s been forever since I’ve had a lunch break. In fact it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten how to take a lunch!’
Got to thinking about the truth in that, and it’s been a good 4 years since I’ve had a lunch break. Or rather, been sent on one.
My last lunch break would have happened in 2005 when I was working at Perkins as a hostess. My job after that, when I moved to Virginia for 4 months, was as a sandwich master at Subway, and a waitress at a nice little pizza place called Atlas Pizza, both of which were between 4-6 hour shifts, and therefore, unneccessary for lunch breaks.
When I came back from Va, I worked in a gym as the receptionist, and though I worked 8-12 hour shifts, I worked straight through my lunches because we were short handed, so between computer work and pressing the buzzer to let them in, I would take bites from the Villiage Inn or coffee shop food that we would order from on occassion. Sometimes I didn’t even eat!
At Claire’s, after moving to Lakewood, I would mostly work a shift alone, and wasn’t able to leave the store; even my short breaks were cut shorter from answering phones, or customers walking in, so lunch breaks there were nil.
Pier 1 worked me 4 hours a day, sometimes I’d be lucky to grab a double, but when those doubles came, I always had a few hours inbetween, so that’s not really considered a lunch break.
In security, sure I’ll take lunchbreak…the whole day! We only really work when something goes on and that changes from day to day, but I don’t announce that I’m on an official lunch break, going to a call in the middle of it, and continuing it after everything has slowed down. In dispatch, I’ll eat as I work, only calling for breaks when I need a cigarette, or to run and get food from the fast food places right across the street.
And because I’ve forgotten how to take a lunch break, I figured I’d write a blog about it, to fill in my 30 minutes, and get my mind off of it. Now that I think about it, I really don’t care for lunch breaks. It’s boring. All I’m doing is sitting here, outside, in the cold, looking like a chimney as I continuously take puffs from cigarettes I should only be smoking every couple of hours.
<3,
xoxo!
The Ghost in the Breakroom.
There’s a rumor going around every single square inch of this mall that this place, and it’s precessor; Villa Italia Mall was built on an Indian burial ground. As my grandparents owned a house across the street for years before anything, even Villia was built, I know for a fact that my mall was not built upon such a place. My father used to play as a kid here, while it was still a field, and never once ran across any bones, or feathers, or anything that could resemble a burial ground of any sort.
That doesn’t mean that paranormal activity doesn’t exist however. Everyone who has worked here, from the janitorial crew to us lowley security guards have had our run-ins with at least one thing that made us stop in our tracks and develop goose pimples. Mine happens to be every time I work in dispatch.
Things will bump, doors in the office will open or close, sometimes both. Mostly, I can hear someone whistle as plain as day, it comes from the back of our station, and our cameras show nothing. I’ve told my seargent about it and at first he was only agreeing with me to make me feel better. Tonight, just a few minutes ago, he experienced it for himself.
I’m quite skeptical when it comes to hauntings and ghosts and anything that goes along with it, but I still believe it’s possible. I need to see it, hear it, taste it, touch it, and feel it before I can grasp the concept of there being something not on this plane besides me. I’ve had every one of those senses tickled while working here, so I can’t doubt that I’m not alone when working.
Maybe it’s one of the elderly tenants that have passed away coming to check in, or possibly one of our security guards that passed from a heart attack last year stopping by to say hi. Whatever or whoever it is, I wish they’d speak to me or show themselves on our cameras.
<3,
Xoxo!
