Job Red Alert!

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It's a role, man. It's acting. As AuntBlabby has suggested on here, I have a knack for it, it comes naturally. My customers never see or hear the real me, it's just another gig. Honestly, socializing is barely 1/6th of the time I spend working. There's cooking food; cleaning dishes, glasses, the work areas; mixing drinks, keeping track of inventory, paperwork; emptying ashtrays; scanning the floor for guests running on empty, making change for pool players, watching out for customers dashing off, sometimes threatening to call the law over drug deals in the bathrooms.... bartending isn't like you see it in the movies and television. We don't just stand there talking, watching customers drink and offering advice about their problems. I won't say it never happens, but it's not typically a sedentary job. Check out Bar Rescue on TV if you want to see what it's like. Serving/waiting is a lot more social in its nature, which is why I never enjoyed it as much, or made the kind of tips I do bartending. I can mix a decent drink based on just a few hints as to what you like, and I can make a customer feel as if he or she is the only one in the place, no matter how crowded it is. That goes a long way.



I'm a social butterfly, TBH. I'll talk to anyone. I may not look [or act] normal doing it, but that's just how I roll. My issues with socializing are wholly local in nature. Racism and anti-immigration sentiments are a trigger for my PTSD. Read on to find out why.



Sure, loud engine noises all day, trucks, motorcycles, muscle cars without mufflers... fireworks, pipe-bombs, automatic gunfire.... yeah I'm just drowning in peace and quiet, tell ya what. Lack of public health care, rampant drug addiction, high murder rates, high poverty, can't breathe the air for most of the year for the smog, can't drink the water or eat the fish from most rivers due to coal ash pollution.... Public corruption... try getting help for issues with bad neighbors, or clogged drainage, or illegal dumping. The KKK last marched around here 25 years ago, there was a neo-nazi rally in downtown Chattanooga, with a permit and police escorts, five years ago. I had a gay friend who was literally sued by his brother and lost the home he inherited from his mother about five years ago. Back in the 1990's, an openly gay couple was murdered and had their house burned down nearby. There have never been any arrests or suspects questioned or named in the murders. There are Amber Alerts for child kidnappings about once a month, people's dogs are shot on their property somewhere in the Chattanooga metro area every few weeks. Believe me, the South isn't how it looks on the Andy Griffith Show AT ALL.



Have you ever been targeted by police...? Arrested? Done time...? Didn't think so, bless your heart, that'll really harsh your mellow, FYI.



Legal cannabis is far from the only reason I liked Oregon. They were nice to me out there. They respected my life decisions, my interests, my personality out there.... They treat me like crap down here. I'm regularly asked what my ethnicity is when I first meet people. I'm "sick" because I don't like sex. I'm "weird" because I grow my hair long, I should "try to look and dress like everyone else". I'm "boring" because I don't like binge drinking all of the time.... You've clearly never been to the area I live in. All but three of the dozen times I've been arrested were on the front porch of this house, not more than three feet away from where I'm typing this. I've only been charged with crimes twice. Once guilty [cannabis pipe], once not. I pled "no contest" for a crime I didn't commit and was on probation for seven years. They follow, they profile, they've killed people around here and called it suicide. There are helicopters that fly low with thermal cameras looking for outdoor grows and peeking into windows and yards at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. Shoot, over 30 percent of this county's income comes from probation and parole fees. Please, google "police shootings in Georgia". They've shot people inside of their homes for unknown reasons and gotten off Scott-free. I salute BLM, I wish more people around here would stand up to the way people of color, like me, are treated. My marching days are over, I've been a targeted individual for far too long to feel safe in any crowd for political reasons, unless I'm in line to vote. Three months ago, a sniper was spotted on a rooftop pointing a gun at a peaceful crowd protesting police brutality in Chattanooga. He had a loaded semi-automatic rifle, and an empty bottle of whiskey. He was questioned on the scene and released. Protestors are not the problem around here, but the problems are still clear and present in this area.



Been there, done that. Trouble is, most of the people who sell cannabis around here do so to fuel their hard drug habit. When one in a small town such as mine is caught around hard drug users, the pi-er... police assume that you're on dope, and in my fifteen years here, I honestly have trouble blaming them for that. Most NT's I meet who just smoke herb are uncomfortable around me, and over half of the time, they literally ask me if I'm a cop. This isn't 1969, you can't just ask someone who smokes cannabis to go get something for you anymore. It's not only impolite, it's a great way to lose a future friend.

[MODS: many apologies for going so far off topic on this one, I will not comment or post any further on this thread, thanks for what you do]