the old salt mine

i suppose fred meyer isn't quite that bad, but at least working in a salt mine would get me in shape. "work" yesterday was ridiculous. it was supposed to be our 'buddy training' day. we were given 2 hours to read the cashier guide book--only took 1 hour--then got to sit around and wait for our buddy to show up. after teaching us how to ask for time off, we were given a very brief tour of the deli, and then sent off to observe cashiers. that is, we got to stand around for the next two and a half hours. the cashiers there actually earn their keep by doing almost all of their own bagging, so we were fairly useless on that count. it was a very boring 4 hours. on the bright side, i got paid for it. and on wednesday, they're actually going to let me use a register... for about 8 hours. i really don't think they'll be that complicated... most of what i need to know could probably be learned on the fly in the deli.

i also managed to get into a political argument during my break. the tv in the back was set to cnn, and the anchors were wondering how john kerry would go about making healthcare cheaper. i commented (what, you don't talk back to the tv?) that he would do it by raising taxes. james, one of the poor confused people working for the union there at freddy's, heard what i said, and argued that bush was the one who raised taxes, and that kerry was going to lower them. i mentioned that bush had cut taxes 3 times already; he said "only if you're rich." it went downhill from there. unfortunately, time and my minimal knowledge of the tax system did not permit me to instruct him in some of it's finer points. i do know a few things, however. like, the people with incomes in the top 3% pay over 50% of the taxes in this country. if you pay more, you should get more back, right?

i'm going to stop there. if i go any farther, i'm going to start ranting, and nobody likes that. except james, of course.