CheapTickets Flexible Search: When your dates are flexible
but your budget isn't!
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CheapTickets Flexible Search: When your dates are flexible
but your budget isn't! |
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Commentary Confessions of an ex-troll By April Labine-Katko September 12, 2005 San Diego--With a combination of pride and uncertainty, I had embarked on my mission to make rent, committing myself to a temporary gig with overtones of mystery and possible humiliation. I had signed on the dotted line on the hood of a car in the parking lot of a fancy hotel. There, I was given my orders and handed a brown, paper bag containing my supplies of promotional propaganda. I would dress up as a troll and work the customers of a big box store here in San Diego.
With my head threatening to capsize from the severe weight of my psychedelic hair, I would sneak up on unsuspecting shoppers, caring little if they were happy or terrified to see me. For thirteen grueling days I strolled under oppressive fluorescent lights, noting the stares of frowning housewives as they fondled boxes of Lucky Charms. There were those, both customers and staff, who initially mistook me for a bored raver or a simple lunatic playing dress-up for kicks. One man, from within the safety of his Dockers, suggested that I should see a doctor. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that there was no cure for money, just as surely as there was no cure for his lack of fashion sense. Several unhappy spenders felt that I should justify my actions. With an air of self-congratulatory superiority they would engage me in lengthy, tedious conversation. It, evidently, angered them that I earned a paycheck pacing the same aisles where they spent their afternoons filling carts to overflowing with cheap, third world-imported garbage. And still there were those who pitied me, presuming that I was actually concerned about the impression I was making on thrifty Wal-Mart shoppers. Why be embarrassed for earning an honest buck and jarring them out of their commerce-induced stupor with the mere sight of my obnoxious wig? As far as I was concerned, I was conducting a valuable experiment in human behavior. And why, pray tell, weren’t they embarrassed for loping into the store each day and throwing their abundant selves onto the handles of their shopping carts, using their weight to propel the thing forward? 1 | 2 |
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