People Make Me Smile

9am to 7:45pm. That was my shift at work today.

No matter how generally bubbly I appear to be, and after five or so years working at a grocery store I have gotten pretty good at keeping up the effervescence, that is a long damn day. Even the bubbliest soda goes flat if you leave it open for too long.

By about 5 o’clock, I was flat as a cartoon character that’s been run over by a steam roller. For a clear mental image, just think Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. If for some reason you can’t recall that scene or have never seen this movie, you deserve to be steam rolled.

Moving on!

Out of the blue, a magickal thing happened.

“Brogan?” A man with brilliant blue devilish eyes and a lilt in his voice peered at my name tag through his Harry Potteresque spectacles. “You must have some Irish in ya.”

“Well yes, it is Irish. I’m only about half Irish, myself.”

“I’m just teasin’ ya, boy. I know a thing or two about being Irish. The name’s…” This man listed at least six names. Among them were Brandon, Patrick, and Riley. Some I didn’t catch because his accent was rockin. Needless to say, I felt no need to question his authenticity.

“You know, I knew a Brogan growin’ up. We were friends in school. Well, not really friends. The man’s a bit of a bastard. But you seem really nice.”

Feeling round aboutly complimented, I continued with the transaction. The whole time, no other person came in my line. It was like one of my homelands, sensing its child on the brink of losing his bubble, decided to send an emissary my way. He was charged with setting up a barrier to keep my line down for about 10 straight minutes (an invisible Irish magick barrier, mind you), being ridiculously awesome, and of course re-carbonating me.

As a side note, I’m not surprised that when my effervescence was direly low I heard nothing from my German homeland. There’s nothing like a full blooded German to kick your ass back to happy town. ‘You vill bubble. YOU VILL BUBBLE NOW!’

Regrettably, I was still at work and had to finish the order. My new Irish friend told me he frequents the store, and now he would be keeping an eye out for me. We’ve got to stick together, I suppose. Kind of like I gained a new family member…crazy old Irish uncle six names.

“Alrighty, you’re all set. You have yourself a wonderful day and I will see you around.”

Crazy uncle six names looked over his change, grabbed his bags and said, “Oh with the help of Jesus and a couple police, you will.” He winked at me and then disappeared through the front doors.

Maybe I will see him again. My gut says no though. 

Either way, he put a big smile on my face and gave me the energy to finish off the day without decapitating customers.

Glad to know that Ireland’s got my back.