Because you give a little love...

[laliandra]

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I've been volunteering in a charity shop. I did it before I had my previous job, and I've been back for about a month. It's fairly awesome.

For those of you who don't know, a charity shop is one that relies on donations from the public and people working there for free, and they use the money they make from selling the stuff to a specific charity. The one I work for is a heart disease charity, there are ones for Save The Children and Oxfam, and pet charities like the RSPCA. We mostly sell clothes and books. I do all sorts of things, I sort and price and tag donations, I sort out the shop floor and I work on the till.

(Tangentially, there is an RSPCA shop next door to us. Several people have brought in donations to us and declared that we are getting their money/items because they don't like animals.  People are so odd.)

I decided to go volunteer for a few reasons. As one of the Great Unemployed, I have a ridiculous amount of free time, and it is tragically easy to descend into wearing your pjs all day and hardly emerging from the house during daylight hours, like some sort of plaid clad vampire.So having something to get up and go to is pretty important, and probably good for me.

And I used to walk past the shop a lot and see the sign that said, "Please Help! We need volunteers!" and I do like to help out. It's a really good thing to do, and that should be reason enough.

Also, it's one of the most rewarding things that I have ever done, on lots of levels.

Generally, the feeling that you get from working somewhere like a charity shop is one of incredible optimism. It's full of people who are all there, working for no money, just to make the world a better place. And there are lots of volunteers. Then, at the end of the day you get to see how much money that has been made by the shop, and you know that all that money will be going to do great things for people who really need it.

And people are always giving us more money or bringing in items to be donated or putting change in our collection box. I have never felt so reassured about human nature as I have working in my shop.

On a personal level, it's been amazing what working there does to my mood. Like I said, it makes me feel better about the world. And everyone who works there is extremely nice. Not being able to find a job plays hell with your self confidence, let me tell you. But at the shop, people are always saying things like, "Lal can do that, she's a smart girl," or "That's a great job you did there" or "What a nice skirt you're wearing." It may not seem like such a big deal, but having people be positive in a really matter of fact way about you is pretty awesome. When I told my boss I had been made redundant she said, "Those bastards! What idiots."

And I like being able to interact with people. Headingley, where the shop is located is a strange place in many ways. It's one of the student areas of Leeds, where a lot of student housing is and most of the businesses there are quite student orientated (bars, takeaways etc). But it's also right next to a really nice upper class part of Leeds, AND really near one of the poorer areas. So you get all kinds of people coming into the shop. My favourites, I have to say, are the students looking for fancy dress outfits. And my favourite of those are the boys who come in to buy dresses.

It's amazing.

They always come in groups, stand round the rail and have this conversation.

Guy 1: Dude, what size am I?
Guy 2: No idea. I think my girlfriend is a, 12, or something?
Guy 3: This looks huge, but it says 20, and I'm usually a 38 in shirts.
Guy 4: Why are there no odd numbers? Why does it start at 8?
Guys: THESE SIZES MAKE NO SENSE. WOMEN ARE CRAZY.

Then the large majority? Get really into it and start trying to find whole matching outfits and holding the dresses up to themselves in front of the mirror to see what suits them.

I do have a new found hatred for people who A) cut all the tags out of their clothing, thus forcing me to guess what size something is when tagging it. Even though I am one of those people! Tags are annoying. But seriously, I am a really bad guesser of sizes. B) Commercial radio. OMG you guys, it is so bad. Local commercial radio. Where you can hear the same songs every hour! Interspersed with low budget advertising for car dealerships and outlet malls!  C) And this is real hatred, people who try and get money off. One, this is a CHARITY SHOP. Any money you give us goes to charity. And you are begruding 50p? Seriously? Two, you are already getting a good deal. Most of the stuff we get in is hardly worn, and loads of it is brand new. I would say that on average people are saving over £10 PER ITEM. Also, did I mention that we are a charity shop. And you know who are the worst at this? Not the students. Not the old people. No, it is middle aged middle class women who come in laden with bags from high end retailers and then think that £4 is too much for a brand new pair of Levi jeans. I'm sorry, but it makes me SO ANGRY.

Luckily, for every person who makes me mad, there is someone who tells you a joke, or tells you to keep the change or who buys books and then brings them back the next week to be sold again

Something I find quite interesting and quite like, is that the shop is very much ruled by women. There are guys who work there, but the staff are mainly female and all the people in charge, managers, supervisors etc, are women. They are not hippy drippy types, either. And it's really cool! There are free tampons in the bathroom, and really good biscuits in the staff kitchen. No one is allowed to be disrespectful, although friendly banter is encouraged all round. My bosses do not take crap from anyone, and won't let you, either. And everyone is free to complain about stuff but everyone just gets on with the job in hand. It's kind of hard to explain, but the general atmosphere is so great and the work ethic so good it makes me wonder just how awesome the world would be if it was run by really no-nonsense women from Yorkshire.

Volunteering. I recommend it! Cheap clothing (I get a staff discount! How ridiculous is that!) and the ability to make a fairly cynical person like myself all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Other than that, how is everyone? Twitter is awesome. The two days of summer we had, also awesome. Househunting? Sucks.

Comments

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean so much about local commercial radio; I work in a farm shop in my holidays and one of the two women I work with (they do alternate Saturdays, so I only get one of them at a time) ALWAYS puts the radio on. And it is awful. I've taken to twitching with impotent rage every time I hear the slogan ("Musical variety for Sussex") because it's a damned lie; I hear the same songs over and over, every week. I counted once, and heard one song something like sixteen weeks in a row. And it's not always that it's current songs! They just have certain (dire and bland) songs from any time in the last decade that they play constantly. And every time a song I particularly loathe comes on and I have to turn the volume down a tiny bit for the sake of my sanity, the woman I work with comes into the back room and turns it right back up. *seethes*

Sorry for the rant! I've just come to hate it so much over the past few years. But aside from that, your volunteering sounds really good, and it's so great that you're doing it; both because it's a good thing to do in general and because, like you say, when you're not working (as I find in the holidays) it's so easy just to do nothing sometimes, so yay you. I love charity shops, and yours in particular sounds lovely; you've made me want even more to do some volunteering this summer.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

(Also, yay Bugsy Malone quote!)

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Oh god, yes. The SAME SONGS aaaaaaaah. I think that I am tuning them out, and then when I get home I fond myself singing really shit RnB the whole day. Why do I know all the words to all Jason Darulo songs. FML. AAHH I feel your pain. When I am left alone I change the station but people keep switching it back!

:), thank you! I highly recommend it, it's awesome and, god knows I have heard this statement enough times to hate it but it's true, it looks good on your C.V!

I think mine is especially lovely, I must admit :D

Also, yay, someone recognised the quote! I have had that song in my head all evening.

[arkeiryn.livejournal.com]

I love my local charity shop, it's an Oxfam Boutique so it has some really good stuff in there for really cheap! I need to get a job when I go back home for the summer, but I'm thinking I might go charity shopping instead... I dunno, I kind of want the money to go interrailing...

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the boutique shops are amazing. Someone bought a Chloe bag in our shop for £6 the other day. I am mad that I didn't see it first and get it on ebay!

You can totally do both! Most shops are happy to have people for one afternoon a week, or the like. But I would pick interrailing over most things, should there be a choice, that is an awesome summer plan :D

[arkeiryn.livejournal.com]

I can only go interrailing for a month, and I have a three month break in which to find things to do :P

[altogetherisi.livejournal.com]

...why didn't I think of this. Now I'm home from uni, a lot of people seem to want me to find a job, but I feel uncomfortable knowing that I would need something super flexible since I have a bunch of disjointed plans and holidays, but perhaps I could find a charity to volunteer with that would let me do a week here and there. Plus, I could probably use the experience more than money. I've wanted to volunteer before but couldn't fit in around school, but now I shall seriously look out for any opportunities since it would clearly be awesome and a valued way to spend some of this time.

Also, this? it is tragically easy to descend into wearing your pjs all day and hardly emerging from the house during daylight hours, like some sort of plaid clad vampire. Oh god, so so true.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

You should do it! I basically just rock up whenever, or sometimes they ask if I can come in at a specific time if they are short staffed, but it is usually very flexible. And it is an awesome way to spend time, and yes, the experience is great. It is also, SIGH I HATE THIS PHRASE BUT STILL, very good for your C.V! Mostly though, it is fun.

It's when you can't remember where you put your keys because you haven't left the house in that long that you need to worry.

...not that this has ever happened to me. Of course. No. Not at all.

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

This sounds like an awesome idea! Is this the same as a thrift store? Because I've never heard of a charity shop here, but we have plenty of thrift stores. However, I feel like Goodwill and St. Vinny's actually pay the people who work there (or at least I've never seen signs in their windows asking for volunteers), so I guess not. Still, I'll keep it in mind to try seeking one out for job experience this summer if my attempts to get employed do not succeed (which, given my past record, has a painfully high probability of happening).

And, wait, WHY are guys buying dresses? Like, for Halloween or costume parties or... what? (Since I feel like actual transvestites would probably know their dress size by now...) I'm so confused.

Woo two days of summer! It's currently pouring rain here and I am under a pile of blankets, while all my friends NOT in the Northwest keep sending me emails going, "IT'S 95 DEGREES HERE AND I AM DYING AGH," and... it's a little weird.

Since when are you househunting? Or did I just miss this entirely ages ago?

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I think it is very similar to a thrift store, yes. Except that you don't get paid to work there, which makes it like a soup kitchen. Only we sell stuff. Man, translating into American is hard! But yes, it's great experience. And you get retail experience which is all kinds of useful if you are looking for part time studenty kind of work.

Ahaha, for dressing up, for parties and the like. It is a fairly common thing here, especially among the particularly manly and therefore UBER homoerotic clubs such as football teams and rugby teams. Mostly they are doing it for this thing called the Otley Run, which is a Leeds student tradition and custom. So, Headingley, where lots of students live and the shop I work is located, has a road that runs all the way to the city centre. This is the Otley Road. Along this road there are many bars and pubs. You have to have a drink at each one along the way, and that is The Otley Run. There are about 16... People usually do it as a large group all dressed up, usually with a theme. It's fairly hilarious to watch, lethal to attempt.

Those were two great days. I wore summer dresses and flip flops and we had a barbeque. It is now really cold again, under 10 degrees Celsius, which, IDK, I could convert it to Fahrenheit but I'm lazy. ANYWAY. I would prefer to be somewhere in between blanket needing and melting, but I don't think that is going to happen.

Um, since about a month ago? Have I not mentioned this? Only houses to rent hunting, not houses to buy hunting, obviously. I'm, um, movinginwithmyboyfriend.

Not freaking out about this. No siree. I can be a grown up.

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand your pain, don't worry. People are always giving me curious looks when I say things like "brilliant" in normal conversation. (Though luckily my best pal at college spent a year in England before starting, so she does it too and I do not feel so alone.) I feel like we must have something like that somewhere, I just wouldn't really know where to start looking. (Also, I'm not sure they'd have one near where I live, since I'm up in suburbia, not in Seattle proper itself.)

Ah, got it. Yes, I do find that tradition of exceptionally manly men to feminine it up on a occasion to be a little... baffling. (Like poor quality fanfic come to life.) The Otley Run sounds... entertaining? (For all that I am now going to college, I'm pretty sure all the partying/alcoholic side of college has completely passed me over, so it's strange yet true that I still view these events with an "oh, what an interesting cultural phenomenon" sort of approach. My Wisconsin cousins (and my older sister) might shake their heads in despair, but if I'd rather spend my time with my friends making fun of crap movies and going on midnight breakfast drives to Seattle, I feel that I am allowed. Not to mention, I'll actually remember it all the next day.)

That sounds dreadful - we're only down to 20 degrees Celsius here, so, you definitely win. Of course, it's at this time that my two friends who are coming to visit me this summer decide to start asking me questions like, "I saw Seattle's average temperature is 65 degrees (which is what we have right now)... should I be bringing a sweatshirt? A coat? A parka, perhaps?" Well, just wait until they get here in July and it's NOT 100 degrees out and deathly humid, unlike their own home towns - then I shall have the last laugh.

Wow, congrats! (Or whatever it is you're supposed to say on this occasion, nobody's ever really said. Good luck? Hooray? I don't... yeah.) And I have total confidence in your being-a-grown-up capabilities! Just make sure you send me your new address when you get one, unless you want random postcards being delivered to your old address years after you've left, only to be received by its future inhabitant, a 68-year-old man who owns three cats and eats steamed brussel sprouts every day for lunch and has no idea who these postcards are for, especially since there's no way he can make out my impossibly crap handwriting. He will probably throw them in the trash, and, oh, what a waste that will be. Um... yes, anyway - hooray, new house!

[hanelissar.livejournal.com]

That's such a lovely thing to be doing! :D I keep walking past the bazillions of charity shops that line the end of my route into university with signs saying 'Help Wanted - PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE VOLUNTEER WE HAVE CAKE AND SPARKLY THINGS!' And I feel very bad because I do want to go and work there, but sadly am too many zillions of miles up the hill to do it. But next year, oh next year...there is this really awesome second hand charity bookshop that I would love love love to work at, but it's in a really annoying place. Hmm, we shall see!

I am so glad that it's as lovely as I imagined it being, and I love that they give you a staff discount! That's so sweet!

Love you!
xxxxx

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I never replied to this comment. And with its AVPM icon and everything! I am so bad.

Anyway, they do have cake and sparkly things! And my staff discount is TWENTY FIVE PERCENT. Which is all kinds of crazy, but I enjoy it anyway.

Love you, dearest Han, my constant chat companion <3

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Yay for doing volunteering! It's something I absolutely want to do one day, but it will be very hard to squeeze in during the next few years. It's nice that it makes you feel better though; I can imagine how you must be feeling. My dad was redundant for a few weeks, but fortunately, he found a new employment pretty quickly. You could tell how it was getting him down though, and I used to drag him out to the cinema and stuff so he wouldn't brood at home too much. I guess it's pretty hard when the world makes you feel useless, but I'm glad you found a way to be useful and awesome, having fun at the same time! :) Hopefully, there will be work for you soon as well.

I totally hear you about the middle-class women trying to get money off. I will never understand these people. There are loads and loads of people who are worse of and who are happy to get things at relatively low prices, and I really wonder how the middle-class people get the impression that they have to save such small amounts. I'm middle-class myself, and I'm grateful for that because I know I can afford to buy some things. But this is exactly the reason I don't try to get money off of everything.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for all your lovely words and understanding, lovely Bran! It does make such a different to feel useful, I can tell you. And that was very sweet of you to help your Dad out :)

I don't mind people wanting to get a good deal, but they already are! They make me so mad, arg, I don't understand them either.

Anyway, I just mostly wanted to say thank you for this positive sunshiny comment <3

[cellophane_ria.livejournal.com]

Super-late, but I wanted to tell you that I really think you are awesome. Yes. This is all. :)

(all right, maybe one post script--I totally would love to see the world work force ruled by no-nonsense women, be it Yorkshire or otherplaces)

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

No worries! You are awesome! And have my love and thanks eternal <3

(It would be amazing. I have seen the future!)

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

I forgot to comment in a timely manner because I have about FIVE MILLION TABS OPEN, but!! Yay for volunteering and I remember you telling me that awesome strapping young men!dress-up anecdote XDD OH BOYSSS~~

I HOPE THAT THE BLOOD CLINIC PEEPS ARE NOT CULLENS IN DISGUISE AND THEN WE CAN SKYPE SOOOOOON! I have gone upstairs and am trying not to wail at the idea that Federer might lose this game against Soderling, whenever they do resume play. It's a 60-40 chance for that damn Swede, ahhhhhh *sends PYSCH YOURSELF OUT DUDE DO EET DO ETT* vibesssssss /crazy

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

You get all the gossip first, my dear! They are always so funny, I love them and their crazy cross dressing ways!

THEY WERE NOT. They were merely inept and ended up messing up my arm slightly :/. I was just trying to do a good thing and karma has rewarded me with a great big bruise... Woe.

I AM SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, BB <3