Inside Kimmy's Mind » Blast You Mental Math!

Blast You Mental Math!

{ February 1, 2014 @ 2:07 am } · { life, work }

Friday was the first time I was on the cash register at work. I had no desire to ever be on a register but my manager wanted everyone to be trained in both areas. So I dreaded it, it became a constant worry for me. She kept putting my training off and I remained a server for the past few weeks. Until today, she had me on an actual drawer. I thought, there’s no escaping it now, I started having flashbacks to when I was a child and I was learning how to count money for the first time. It was a horrible time for me. XD I’m being drastically dramatic about this.

money
Flashback: Second grade. age 7? We had started this “Class store”, each student would bring in a nick knack to sell. Our teacher would put a price on it and then if you wanted to buy something you used money you earned with your grades. It was obviously play money, but you earned X amount for every A and B ect. Anyway, I decide to bring in this rubber goldfish to sell in the store. I have no clue where it came from, possibly a gum ball machine, but the minute I placed it on the table I knew that I had to buy it to get it back.  No idea why I was filled with such regret but I knew  I had to work fast to buy it before one of my snot nosed classmates tried to. I hurried to my collection of paper and plastic money, the cost of my rubber goldfish escapes me now, but it couldn’t have been that much. All I remember is how much I struggled with counting out the amount needed to purchase it. Lunch time came so, unlike in real life, I kept the goldfish at my desk so that I was guaranteed to own it once again. I managed to buy it, but I still can remember the struggle I went in order to claim it as my own. End of dramatic flashback.

Anyway, to sum things up. Simple addition and subtraction, along with all the complex things about math, are the pain of my existence. But thankfully today wasn’t as busy so it was the perfect time for me to learn. And it didn’t take me that long to pick things up, I just need to practice simple addition. And as embarrassing as it is to admit it I’ve turned to the internet for help and have found this children’s game, Cash Out.  Medium level is just perfect, gives me similar amounts I might see at work.  Of course, in this game my customers are zoo animals, but hey I suck at counting and at least I’m trying to fix that….right? >.< Most customers use cougar cash or regular debit/credit cards, but a few used cash today. Nothing too difficult and some even gave me exact change which was awesome.  Besides working on my mental math, I also have to remember to go slow when pushing buttons. We have a huge menu so there are a lot of items that might be confused for each other. So learning where everything is on the register is something I will learn over time. But all in all, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And my manager was really patient with me, thank goodness. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a lot crazier than Fridays so I’m  nervous but after Friday, a lot of my nerves have calmed down a bit. 🙂

This subject made me think of an episode of How I Met Your Mother, when they discussed knowledge gaps. Everyone has a few gaps somewhere, and one of mine just happens to be mental math. -.- Hopefully, I get a bit better because of this though. What about you, any knowledge gaps you’d care to share to make me feel less embarrassed?

Thanks for reading and commenting

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