AWKWARD ZOMBIE

That happened to me, in my own house. I was digging out Cockfighting Society SoulSilver and the dang DS box had ants in it. Like with eggs and stuff too. I basically threw it across the room after I opened it.

Turns out my brother had spilled soda on part of the box and they just thought it was cozy in there, I guess.

I'm still having scheduling problems with Pizza Hut regarding school, despite NUMEROUS times telling them exactly what my class schedule is. My manager at Taco Bell is saying I can get more hours there if I was only working there, and I haven't had any scheduling problems there, so I think I'll take them up on that offer and quit Pizza Hut.

Oh wow, do I have a story for you AZ. Sorry its so long. ;w; it's like my biggest story from work ever.

See, I work at Sea World as a performer. Normally I am Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, and what I do is walk around and take pictures with kids. She looks like this. My friend is in the Elmo suit, I'm the PANK one. And during the winter season, we had this thing called Block Party where we could dance around with kids and take pictures with them. Mainly dancing, though. Super fun, super cool, and very exhausting. We get a ton of people of all types. Lots of families from different backgrounds, friends going in groups, couples, and a bunch of army guys. Well, one night, while we were doing Block Party, I was just doing my thing, dancing around with kids to songs like Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree covered by Elmo and friends, when I noticed a strange person.

I mean, he didn't look strange. It was just, I immediately got a weird vibe. In this massive crowd of people of parents, kids, costume characters, strollers, and dancers, this one guy was not dancing at all. It's not unusual for people not to dance. And maybe it was just because he was smack dab in the middle of this crowd not dancing that threw me off, but this one guy gave me a weird vibe. He didn't even seem to be affiliated with any family or anyone else in the crowd. I kept glancing back at him as I twirled around. And for one moment, like one of those weird slow-mo moments in movies where peoples' gazes meet; I realized he was watching me.

I didn't want to alert my escort (performer in regular uniform who looks out for me, so I don't get hurt or something), because I didn't really have any cause for alarm than a weird feeling. Besides, he wasn't even doing anything except just staring. I couldn't even confirm that he was infact staring just at me. I mean, I tried testing it by running around the area to different places to see if he was looking at me, and he was. But I pushed those thoughts out of my head and decided it was nothing. I even told my older brother after work what happened, and he said I was crazy.

The days went on, and I saw the guy two or three more times again at our Block Party. Doing the same thing as always, not dancing, just staring, but overall, seeming to have a pleasant time.

One day I was in costume doing my shift of being in the photo studio. It's a basic green screen room where guests can take pictures with the characters. (It's really boring though, because no one I worked with ever wanted to go out and get guests to come inside.) But that day, these two dudes walked in like it was natural. Everyone stopped their conversations abruptly, because we're not supposed to talk in costume. These two guys seemed excited and giddy to see us. It's not unusual though, some adults are just as excited as kids are. They took their pictures with us, gave me tight hugs, said they loved my character, and went on their way. Later that night at Block Party, I saw them again. I figured it'd be hilarious to go up to one of them and lip synch/mime the song "All I Want for Christmas is You". And it was pretty funny. The other guy video taped the whole thing, and I made the guy I was "singing" to all embarrassed and pop flyin'. My escort even said that he loved me, so I was satisfied with my day's work.

The next day, my escort buddy tapped me on the shoulder and asked "Hey, do you know that guy?" And I asked her to point him out to me, thinking it was an old coworker friend. Nope. It was that guy from yesterday. Who I then realized, WAS THE CREEPY GUY FROM ALL THE OTHER DAYS. I don't know why I didn't realize it before, I mean, I thought there was something familiar about him.. But anyway, I told her I had no idea who he was. And she said "Really? Cause he was asking if you're the same 'Abby' from yesterday! That's really creepy." So we were both really freaked out. Especially more freaked out when he kept FOLLOWING US AROUND THE WHOLE AREA, AND TRYING TO GET CLOSE TO ME. In hindsight, we probably should've called a supervisor to talk to him.

At the end of the show, we went inside and freaked the hell out, and everyone we worked with started talking about the creepy guy. Long time workers there knew who he was though. Apparently, he used to work here at Sea World. But got fired for some reason (?) Not sure if that part is true, because my friend was telling me that, and he added that he probably got fired "for being too creepy". But basically, he used to work here, and he had a thing for Abby Cadabby. Like, he LOVED her. And he would always want to escort her, and help whoever was her that day in and out of costume, even if he had to help someone else. My friend who worked there quite a long time said that I shouldn't worry because he doesn't care for who's inside the costume, but for the character itself. But it still freaked me the hell out because this is the FIRST TIME he ever asked about the PERSON IN THE COSTUME. I really wish I didn't sing to him, and that I recognized him sooner.. I haven't seen him again at the park yet though, so I guess things are okay.

TL;DR I got stalked at work by someone who had a thing for my costume character.

Jesus fucking Christ.

That's all kinds of messed up, miss.

I hope my workplace tales take your mind off crazymans!

See, I work as a casual teacher (when not at uni) and boy do I get to work with some zany kids! In my first year of training I had the pleasure of supervising a young boy who was a confirmed pyromaniac with hyperactivity. That was fun?

I also (just last year) was warned a boy in the casual class I had for a week was likely to flee the room for giggles only to return to bust out his friends. I took the precaution of making sure the bags were locked away safely and the door firmly closed; feeling pretty safe!

The boy about halfway through maths decided he was bored and in one swift movement unfastened and leapt out the darn window (luckily only about a meter from the ground.) Took off like a rocket! Rang up the office to let them know what happened, but couldn't exactly run after him! I've never seen an office lady snag a runaway so fast! Don't underestimate them!

Last thing that stands out is when I volunteered at a special needs school. Lovely, misunderstood kids, but man there's things involved in that line of work you always underestimate.

In three weeks of volunteering I had to spoon feed, treat myself for bites and scratches, write a ukulele based carol (long story), and even learn the optimal posture for walking an uncooperative child safely without hurting them, and administer an epipen for a bee sting!

...teaching is hard, in other words!

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Sounds like teaching kids can be a handful, haha. I only get to interact with kids when I'm in costume, or when I'm escorting a costume character. When I was escorting last Saturday, some kid tried to get me to tell him if it was a boy or girl in the Shamu costume. And all I could say was "What're you talking about? It's really my friend Shamu!"

My mom likes sesame street, simply because she enjoys Jim's work. But jeez that is creepy.
In response to Teacher guy, having teachers who don't read the Special ed kids IP forms suck.

I have a mental list of customers that when I see them approaching the door I hold my breath until they leave because their stank cloud is enough to shrivel my lungs.


Oh the joys of the graveyard shift.

Yeah, you'd be surprised how often that happens in part. For us casuals, we often get maybe 30 - 40 minutes notice before we're needed on any given day. Oftentimes it just isn't likely you'll be able to read all the student profiles in depth. I, personally, try my best to prioritise students who have additional needs! Sometimes the regular classroom teacher forgets to leave you this information too, which sucks. I find it helps if you explicitly ask the administrators or remaining staff when you get there if you have the time!

Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression there, fella. We do honestly try our best (most of us!)

In my example with the special needs volunteering, I wasn't the supervising teacher but an assistant to them. You still have duty of care, but as I wasn't an official part of the staff I simply did what the supervising teacher wished. They still made sure we got a decent crash course in what we needed to do!

If anyone ever has some degree of childhood training, I would recommend volunteering at these places. They really do appreciate whatever extra hands you can spare!

No worries! glad that you try. I have had some of the worst times with teachers who don't care in my area. for half a year no one knew that my brother was autistic because they lost the form.

I'm a cashier at Walmart. Don't even get me started about shoplifters.

I once had a lady try to buy a pair of shoes (which is nbd).
Except when I opened the box to scan them the shoes were jam packed with jewlery and flash drives she had ripped out of the packaging.

We've got a few regular non bathers too, Citation. Sadly, they're always in ransacking our magic cards and pony stuff. I know it seem stereotypical, but that's the kind of people who come in.
People also don't seem to get we don't sell produce. We're a normal Walmart and not a supercenter. No we don't sell milk for the hundredth time

Huh. I don't know when the last I saw a non-supercenter Walmart was.

Also yay thieves! Where I'm usually the only one in the store (and when I'm not alone, I'm in a position of authority woo), I'm the one who gets to call out thieves and dish out the punishments and threats. It's great. Saw some kid (15-16 years old, probably. Should know better is what I am saying) pocket a stack of PSN store cards. I stopped him on his way out the door.

"You know those are worthless until I activate them, right?"
"...no? What are worthless?"

+1 permaban from store

One of the other managers and I had a competition (when I worked on 2nd shift with him) to see who could catch and ban the most thieves. It was fun. Another fun part was keeping inventory, which involved scanning and manually counting the stuff on the sales floor (quick reminder: I work in a convenience store).
Monster energy drinks have a special promotional bottle out that's big and glass and has a giant MONSTER logo cap on it. You know how it is, white trash people eat that shit up. They buy Monster hats and shirts and boxers and anything with that logo slapped onto it. They also steal them. We have an ice bin (to make them more presentable so we sell more) with them in it. After 2 weeks of having them for sale we were down 78 bottles.

Had to go pick up some lumber with one of the crappy spare work trucks. I compiled a list of everything that was immediately noticeably wrong with it:

1) The brake pedal needed to be pressed against the floor before the brakes actually managed to do anything, but that was helpfully balanced out by the fact that
2) The accelerator was more sensitive than a teenaged burn victim.
3) The side mirror was screwed in place. Like, the dude just took a couple wood screws to hold it in place, and "in place" offered a permanent view of the rear tire.
4) The radio was completely gone. Even the display was off. It bodaciously would not give me the time of day.
5) The speedometer suffered under the delusion that the truck was never actually moving. I had to use cars around me to gauge my speed.

That sounds like a definite violation of... something. A lot of somethings. I'm sure OSHA could compile a complete list.

I'm lucky enough that I don't deal with loss prevention since the only registers are up in the front and none of the departments have them. I do have to keep reminding the cashiers to check inside the bags of chicken/dinner deals for excess merchandise though, since people will frequently do the following:

• Get a chicken dinner deal (8pcs fried/grilled, pound of potato wedges/potato salad/macaroni salad, 4 pack of dinner rolls, 10.99/9.99 on sale)
• Get a side salad not offered with the dinner deal, the biggest offender is coleslaw
• Wait until they're halfway to the registers before putting the coleslaw in the dinner deal bag so they can get it for free