It's all gone. No, we have no cameras...

Friday (22nd) we finished liquidating all of the store. Because we did such a great job, the liquidator we were working with decided to take us out to lunch which was greatly appreciated. My favorite thing in the world is food and going out to eat is my favorite activity I think lol. I've never gone through the liquidation process before so it was fairly interesting and over all a good experience even though I lost my job. I don't think I'd be leaving for Japan in two weeks if I had not had to deal with losing my job honestly. Because I was forced to make a decision on whether I wanted to get a lame job over the summer or go to Japan things became pretty clear as to what needed to happen. I've gotten off topic forgive me. I mean to talk about liquidating and what happened. You deal with some pretty interesting people when liquidating. Here's a list of stupid things,

1. Guy comes in to apply for a job at the store that says, "70%-90% off, everything must go!, Going out of business"... I don't think words are necessary here.

2. Woman gets pissed off because she realized we were liquidating after she had her prints done by us which for some reason meant that we did a worse job??? She seemed to think that we didn't care about our printing anymore because of the liquidation. None of us understood her logic.

3. Woman asks me if we have photography vest for her film and such. "no we don't have anything like that." her, "do you know where I could get anything like that?" No, I'm not sure. I would just get a vest at an outdoors store and put film in it..." she got mad at me because we didn't have the vest for her to buy after 6 weeks of liquidation... Evidently I didn't understand what her question was because she kept repeating, "you don't understand" She never explained herself any further. She stormed out of the store saying "Now I know why my daughter doesn't like coming here." (well it's probably cause you raised her to be a biatch just like you.) I would have liked to have said that.

After we had sold everything from the store and came back the next day to clean things up and throw crap away we had more interesting customers,

4. The gate is down but not locked. Dan is the only person there and he's on two phones trying to figure out what to do about payroll because our manager wasn't there to sign our time sheets and he needed to fax them in that day. Some dude opens up the gate, walks in and asks him while he's on the phone if we're closing.... the store is COMPLETELY empty! no products anywhere.

5. Later that day I came in to clean and help with things. The gate is down. Some guy walks up to the gate and says, "So you guys are closed huh?" Dan, "yeah..." "Do you have any cameras left?" Dan, "Nope..." What the HELL?! Why in the world would we have cameras left? Oh yeah we've been hiding them in the back lemme go get you one.

I have taken away from this experience that just as soon as you thought you've seen it all you'll see something even dumber then that. So remember to never underestimate the stupidity of people. And that is the moral of the story.

Ritz camera: Ghost town of the mall

Holy crap man the store is sooo empty. I'm constantly amazed by the crap our customers find to purchase for themselves. What would we do without these bargain shoppers? Loose our jobs probably. Wait, we're already loosing our jobs. If I'm lucky we'll have enough customers to prolong our demise until my next paycheck. I'm really enjoying the lack of lab activities on account of the lab machines being packed up in what appears to be saran wrap... not sure about that. I also take joy in telling our customers our lab is packed up/closed and we're not able to develope their film. It may sound synical but I'm just not a big fan of developing film. We have these nice chairs previously used for our customers at the print bar (which isn't there anymore) currently behind the counter, I like to set my computer up on a shelf under the counter and watch a movie or two while taking advantage of our new seating. Good fun. Oh! and we finally got a sign that says "only 10 days left!" we haven't hung it yet. I take this as a good sign because it atleast tells me we're not closing before 10 days lol. I was about to forget the most hilarious part about working at a store going through liquidation. Signs all over the place (Big red signs 3' x 12' that read Store closing sale.) explaining how we're closing our store. Customer comes in, spends about 15 mins looking around and says, "are you guys closing?" me, "yeah... see the big red sign that says 'closing sale'?" him/her, "ohhh so are you guys moving or closing?" me, "no we're closing." him/her, " oh that's too bad I wish you guys were staying open." "yeah me too...". Good times though. Lots of interesting stories. Our clock is missing... it's really bothering me.

It's about 24 days till I go to Japan. That is sooo soon... I'm pretty nervous about going back but at the same time so excited about it. It feels really surreal to think I'm going back since it's been almost exactly 4 years. I'm going to miss my friends, dogs, cats and family quite a bit when I go. I feel like I have this sugar coated dillusion of what Japan will be like and I'm afraid I'm going to be let down.

I have made some really cool friends this semester and I'm kind of sad that I have to leave them for the whole summer. My best friend is graduating from high school right after I leave and his birthday is the day after that, what horrible timing on my part. I'm hoping I can still hang out with people after I get back before school starts for the fall semester.

Recap on things

I haven't updated my blog much it all lately but I will start back up soon. I'll cover a few things that went on in the absence of my writings. Ritz camera, the place I work at is closing which means I'm out a job. Started taking computer art at Abtech (community college) got B's on first 4 assignments, dropped class because I couldn't handle the speed of the class and gained a teacher I can't stand through it. yay.... I wiggled my way through printmaking without producing anything that was acceptable to me and getting a B+ I think... not sure yet. My art teacher has something against posting grades... I've met some really cool people this semester and got aggrevated with the same dumbasses that seem to inhabit Abtech. That pretty much covers the things that went on within the last few months.

When I heard that our store was closing I was not particularly saddened or happy that work was ending but in a state of disbelief as to how it happened and why us. I am so thankful for the push that life gave me when I had come to realize I'd be jobless soon and that if I didn't do something I would just be squandering my summer and money away in the hunt for a job. So my plan is to go to Japan! So I started contacting my good friends in Japan and arranged for a place to stay. So since my grand decision to go to Japan I've bought the plane ticket, read up on Japanese transportation and figured out it doesn't make as much sense as it seems it should, Stolen hours from a friend at work, asked many questions of my Japanese friends and spent too much money on things that have nothing to do with Japan... note to self, stop spending money.

I spoke to my good friend from Japan today for the very first time in 4 years and even though we had kept in contact over the years through email there's nothing quite like actually talking to them for the first time in years to bring back the memories. It's a little less then 1 month until my dream of the past 4 years finally reaches the light of reality. I'm ready to live in the midst of my dreams...