http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5405793Oh my.
ddeclue (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 02:55 AM
Original message
Why is it that every time I have a nightmare it is that I am back working at Kroger
and I'm the practically the only cashier and the lines are huge and angry and I can't seem to clear them up?
I just woke up from this particular dream again.
I mean given that I've been through things that should clearly be a lot more stressful like car accidents, really bad traffic in places like Atlanta, four hurricanes, getting hit by a car trying to stop a car jacking, stopping a robbery, performing CPR (two different times), and landing and taking off airplanes - why is THIS my bad dream?
I never ever have dreams about these other sorts of stressful things or about embarassing myself in front of a crowd or in front of a girl, or people I know being hurt or dying or being stuck in a school test or office meeting where I didn't know the answers or any of the classic bad dreams that most people have.
It doesn't happen all that often but whenever I do have a bad dream, my bad dream is always being stuck back in my college job at the supermarket checkout with this same no win scenario - I never ever dreamed about it at the time that I did it and I never viewed it as all that stressful at the time either.
Is working in retail really that stressful that I should have bad dreams about it 17 years later?
The primitives as usual are showing contempt for their audience, by assuming their audience knows everything, and if the audience doesn't, well then, the audience is stupid.
What's well-known in Florida, where the clueless primitive's allegedly from, might be obscure in the other 49 states.
When the primitive said "Kroger's," I assumed it was a plumbing supply store.
God, I'm glad I'm a courteous person, when mentioning "Hy-Vee," alerting the reader to the fact that it's a grocery chain, because not everybody has heard of Hy-Vee any more than they've heard of Kroger's; it demonstrates franksolich respects his audience.
Hardrada (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. Hard to say. I used to, for years, at a certain part of my sleep cycle have dreams about being stuck in some interminable bureaucratic muddle in stuffy offices with pompous and stupid people. I have spent almost no time in such places except when I worked for several months in a church social agency which was well-meaning but definitely a hierarchy.
ddeclue (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:18 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Supermarket PTSD??
I used to joke about it as Kroger - it's not an adventure, it's just a job.
At the time, my college studies at Ga Tech were a lot more stressful to me and I kept this job for nearly 6 years and was basically a head cashier and book keeper for most of that time. I never dream about not being able to balance the books there (which sometimes happened), or coming up short or getting robbed at Kroger, it is always about huge lines of angry customers. (Which some times happened but not all that often.)
murielm99 (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:17 AM
Response to Original message
2. People who interpret dreams would tell you that it stands for something else.
I have had a recurring dream that I am going to take a final for a college math class. I had never attended the class once, but I was there to take the final. The dream caused me to wake up sweating with my heart pounding.
I don't like math, but I got B's in both the college math classes I took. Why isn't it a foreign language class that I never attended, or some other thing I could not fake my way through?
It probably has nothing to do with Kroger, just like my dream had nothing to do with math. I think it is about feeling like your life is out of control in some way.
All primitives' lives are out of control.
ddeclue (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:20 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Well I've been through a lot of unemployment in the last year and have just been unemployed for the last 3-1/2 months but I'm not dreaming about that unless the point of the dream is that I'm going to have to go back to working there?? I'm supposed to start a new job late this week - I just accepted it today and I got the offer last Thursday.
murielm99 (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:44 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. The point of the dream is lack of control.
Unemployment probably makes you feel like you have no control over your life. It makes things precarious for you, to say the least. How can you eat, stay in your home, pay for gas, etc., without a paycheck?
Having a job again will give you control over your life and purpose. So many of us define ourselves by what we do for a living. "I am a teacher," or "I am a CPA" is what we say, not, "I am a 57-year-old man with two kids and a pet iguana."
I'm not saying that is bad. It is just an observation. Our work should give us dignity.
Some part of you might be feeling anxiety about the new job, too. It is not easy to start a new job. Most people feel nervous.
That is only my take on your dream. Who knows? I might be crazy. Anyway, good luck with your new job.
medeak (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:36 AM
Response to Original message
5. Safeway: "Slaveway:"
good friend calls it after taking job to get health benefits. Apparently there should be a support system for grocery store employees?
ddeclue (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:39 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Funny...
I worked at Bi-Lo in high school (a smaller GA-SC chain) and then at Kroger in college in Atlanta for 6 years after that so I spent a lot of time working in supermarkets at the beginning of my career.
LisaL (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:48 AM
Response to Original message
8. I dunno. I used to work as a cashier but I have never dream about it.
And I also can tell some stories about that job.
Joe the Liberal (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:53 AM
Response to Original message
9. Tell me about it.........
I worked there over the summer back in high school, I wasn't a cashier though. I hated it but not enough to where I have had a nightmare about it. I saw cashiers with long lines of people who had shopping carts overflowing with food, so I know what you mean. But 17 years is a long time although I've usually found that bad experiences can lead to bad dreams/nightmares even if it's been years since that bad experience happened.
Qanisqineq (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 03:59 AM
Response to Original message
10. I have a recurring dream about college
I dream I took a history course, didn't show up but maybe the first day of class, didn't take the exams or do the homework. I dream it is finals week and I have to read the entire textbook, write a paper, and ace the final exam to pass the class.
The dream is always about history class and I've always missed the entire semester.
ddeclue (1000+ posts) Tue Apr-07-09 04:02 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. Yeah that's a classic dream like being chased or having to give a speech etc. that people talk about having - I can understand that better than my own dream. In fact I always felt more stressed about college than working at Kroger at the time that I was doing both.
I guess both are forms of dreams about a lack of control. I can't get rid of the lines and you can't pass the test.
