Sunday, November 7, 2010

My Year in Lists, the first instance

Yesterday celebrated my forth weekend working at Mounds Mall 10... I've been a shaky stocker at confessions and a crummy cash registarist in the box office for a month now.  I think my psyche is putting up a tripwire on me no matter what my task is.

I'm naturally neurotic anyway, worry about making mistakes, make mistakes, try harder, make mistakes, try to calm down, make mistakes, work faster, work slower, make mistakes.

Okay, I'll wipe my tears away.

So, my boyfriend is an all-out music nut.  He's a musician who plans to go pro "when he grows up."  Before I met him, I listened to "The Gummy Bear Song," "Numa Numa" (known in Moldova as "Dragostea din tei"), and "Hollaback Girl" ... How do you make an emoticon skull?

So, he redeemed by poor butt.  Now I listen to real music like Emmy the Great, The Weakerthans, (see my profile; I just spent an hour adding artists)... Why am I telling you this? Where's the list?

Actually, I'll answer those in one sentence: I've been listening to Los Campesinos who have this song "My Year in Lists." Since I (heart) lists and metaphors, similes, vivid, specific details, and the like, I decided to start spinning my blogspot globe with a list of things from the movie theatre:

mixing up drinks - forgetting which is Dr. Pepper and which is Pepsi

lying on my bed at night, sick on coconut oil

getting pelted by popcorn shooting from the popper (strangely comforting)

melting ice in the sink with hot water

making drinks nobody asked for

using an employee pass to see Social Network - score!!!

Kids Tray with Skittles - easiest thing to fill

unscrewing pop fountain spouts - most difficult task

brown paper bags and mini cups for mall employees

20+ teenagers, without IDs, trying to get into an R-rated movie

20+ teenagers, without IDs, trying to get into an R-rated movie with one ID-toting "friend"

writing a short story in cell phone texts

my butter stained uniform

going to the bathroom just to rest my legs

hearing a movie through the bathroom wall

peeling off my socks in the mall hallway after hours

customers wanting to buy an entire salt container

who was that famous writer who worked at a movie theatre?

not recognizing the son of the mall owners

paid in change

a broom half my height

the left mate of my only black shoes losing its rubber bottom

Anderson University mug filled with Wild Cherry Pepsi

free bread sticks from Tony at Tony's Pizza

snapping lids on Icee cups

10 foot cardboard set-up of Megamind and Metro Man with raised eyebrows

making a four-page list of movies I want to see when I began working there


List-making is a great exercise for writers.  Every so often, grab a memo pad and jot down sights, sounds, colors of crayons, different kinds of dispensers, new dinosaur names, band names, stuff outside your window, I like, I hate, I love, I'm on the fence about, movies that should be made, books that should be burned, lists I should make in the future...

This is Emily, aspiring writer, pushing Publish Post... now-

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