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it's been...tolerable. Though I might have to quit over the parking situation (I kid...I think).

This is going to be LONG so for those of you who don't have the time...

tl; dr: I neither love nor hate the job, it's going fine but I can't see myself retiring from Chico's in 10 years.

As someone here very astutely pointed out, I am not likely not going to be happy with ANY job at this point. It's very frustrating to have spent over 30 years working and be neither in a comfortable position at/near the top of my field or eligible for full retirement. While I never really envisioned myself doing any one specific job, I also never thought at almost 56, I'd essentially be starting over. But that is what it is.

A lot of what I've experienced so far has been what I expected. The pay is still too low. I'm getting more hours than I was initially told but I wish they would be contained to a few days rather than scattered throughout many days (it would save on gas and wear and tear on my car driving back and forth), and I wish I'd at least be assigned to a "shift". This week, I worked 10:00AM-3:00 PM Monday and Wednesday, I worked a "swing" shift (noon-5:00 PM) yesterday and today I'm working 2:00-7:15 PM (the store closes at 7:00). The next three weeks are pretty similar, with me working almost daily but not being scheduled for one shift or the other. And despite me saying I "couldn't" work Sundays (really, I just don't want to, as that's the Lord's Day), I've already been asked--very nicely--to work a Sunday this month and told them yes. I'm waiting to see if that becomes a regular thing...

The people are, as they are everywhere else, a mixed bag. So far, the customers have been overwhelmingly kind and patient as I struggle to master the register (why does it take so many steps to complete a simple transaction <g>). While I have shopped at Chico's before, I never realized how many of their customers can make an afternoon of it. One woman was in the dressing room almost 2 hours Wednesday, trying on items, buying a couple pairs of pants but rejecting everything else. At least she rejected them nicely; no Karens so far.

I've only worked with 5 women so far. The store manager (SM) has done most of my training and she's...interesting. She's very, very passionate about her job, which is good, but it makes her kind of intense, and while she's been mostly nice to me, it doesn't always feel genuine, and it slips when I make a mistake. She reamed me out the other day for letting a customer use the restroom (long story but the gist is it's a very small store and they only want employees or "good customers"--aka those who spend a lot of money--using the restroom). SM has only one full-time employee, "B"...B is easily one of the nicest, sweetest, most genuine people I've ever met. She absolutely loves her job, loves the people, loves the clothes. I got to work with her yesterday; "L1" worked the first three with me (there's two Ls there, same name, different spelling) and "S" the last two. S, like me, is new--she's only been there about a month now--and she's also sweet as pie. L1 is nice but a bit bossy. She kept trying to show me how to do things I already knew how to do--unpack supplies, steam the clothes--and if I did something the way SM showed me and not how L1 does it, I got "taught" L1's way. The last person I worked with was "D". D is generally nice and can be a lot of fun but D is a bit of a complainer. Nothing terrible though.

Speaking of complaining...ugh, the parking. It's hard to describe the set up but I'll try; the store is in a quaint, charming small town that like so many other quaint, charming small towns suffers from a lack of parking. There's street parking with meters. The store is located on the main strip but there's a back entrance (which customers can use and employees have to use) that opens up to a plaza with a good size parking lot. BUT...most of the parking spaces are strictly enforced "2 hours only" spots; during most of the day, a person drives through checking to see what vehicles have been there too long. There's also parking spaces for plaza employees but you need a permit, and Chico's isn't considered part of the plaza, so they're not available to me. There's a row labelled "municipal parking--all day"; there's some debate if that means people who work FOR the city only or also for people who work IN the city. There's a bank at the end of the plaza with a HUGE parking lot...and signs saying "bank customers only". The businesses on either side of us have their own back entrances and most have a few spots labeled "<business name> customers only--all others will be towed!".

So...last Friday, I got to the plaza 7 minutes early and was 8 minutes late to work because I couldn't find any parking. In over 30 years, I can count on one hand the times I was late to work and have fingers left over. I called SM and told her I was here but I couldn't find parking; she told me to park at the bank, as they have "a good relationship". Well, I did, and when I came out after work, there was a note on my car telling me I was NOT to park there and next time, there would be consequences. I'm grateful I wasn't fined, or worse, towed, but at the same time, I'm kind of annoyed that this bank has a huge parking lot and reserves ALL the spots for the customers who are probably mostly banking online anyways <g>. SM told me I could pull up in the very short "driveway" in front of the back entrance of the store and just park behind another employee. Yesterday, I left 10 minutes early, anticipating parking issues...there were no spots in the all day municipal parking row. The spots in the driveway behind Chico's were all full. There's a single free parking lot behind the row of stores on the other side (the lanes of Main Street through town are separated by a lovely park); it would have been about a five minute walk had I parked there...but I went over there, circled twice and no openings. I came back to the store, parked in a 2 hour spot, came in and told B where I was parked and about the cars all in "our" driveway. She called someone to complain but I *believe* they were all there legally. There's a real estate business above our store; their employees and customers can also park in the short driveway at the back.

Amusingly, the problem turned out to be "M". She's 84 and works at Chico's but has been off due to having surgery recently on her wrist. She'd stopped by "just to chat"...and was there for hours. Once she left (about an hour after I arrived), I pulled in behind L1 and then later had to go out and move my car when her shift was over.

Dad and I had a long talk the other night about how places who want you to visit should provide ample parking. Bonus points if it's free parking. Another Cleveland neighborhood with this problem is Little Italy. Lots of great stores and restaurants, lots of visitors...almost NO parking. I once circled the neighborhood for 25 minutes looking for a space and finally left in frustration. Another time, I parked in the parking garage in Coventry, which is a street (and a great Cleveland destination in its own right) and walked to Little Italy. I tried to find out the distance between the two neighborhoods but all I could find was it was a "10 minute drive". Which no, it isn't, except maybe when traffic is bumper to bumper and you hit every red light. I didn't mind the walk TO Little Italy but the walk back takes up up the long and somewhat steep Murray Hill, and when you're full of pasta and gelato and cannoli, that's a loooooong, arduous hike <g>.