Day Ninety-eight - Wolf like me

When I started working at that big-box retail store, I began by doing customer care related work - cashier, but I never felt the tempation to lift anything ever, and sometimes I'd be in the booth for the sort of store/club card, or I'd be in the ticket office. It all fell under the purview of the customer care department. Very early on I realized that a significant chunk of the people who were working in that store were bound to leave in a few months, to go work at the new location that the company would be opening later down the year. So with that in mind I started strategizing to see if I couldn't place myself where I wanted to be - the music department. Now, back then, this encompassed a whole lot of things, and this being 2002, a lot of what is now called legacy media was still being sold : we sold CDs, very little - if indeed any - vinyl, audio cassetes, some MiniDiscs and possibly some DATs, and though DVD was just taking off, we still sold a whole lot of VHS. And to be fair, the guys and gals that worked in that department all seemed incredibly cool. In my mind's eye, I saw myself working in that team, being one of the cool guys. And, as that transition began to happen, with some people coming from other stores to replace some of the staff that was moving to the other store that was about to open, the new head of department also arrived. So, I made sure that whenever there was a chance to shine - and there were quite a few, like when we did a full, store-wide stock take, and there were also some other times when nights had to be worked to change some of the store layout, and I volunteered for those - that those moments would not be wasted and I would shine brightly. And so it came to pass that after a few months in customer care, and the new management team being fully in place, that the openings were officially open. I jumped at the bit, got myself an interview with the new boss - all the while not being aware that in those moments where I shone, a lot of people had their eyes on me, both from the teams that were migrating to the new store, and from other teams in my store, though my heart was well and truly set - and I aced that interview, eventually getting the higher up approval to move to the new team. To the dream team. This, I think, was around September 2002 - by year's end things would change drastically for me. Dora and me would finally split up, then in the first few months of the following year I'd move back to my grandmother's place - where I still live to this day - and that would start leading towards what would be a downward spiral for me, but mentally and emotionally. But for now, let's focus on what was good.