The Mask (1994), The Mask (2020)

Like I've mentioned before, I am thankful to be gainfully employed during this time, and to have easy access to food and other necessities (in addition to the store I work in, Walgreens and a liquor store are right next door, with Chipotle Mexican Grille across the street), but I'd be lying if I said this was an easy time for us all.

It is funny, I kept this job so I could pursue my artistic endeavors outside of a day job, and my part-time gig was the smallest part of my day and mental space. Now, it's going to be the thing I am known for during this historical event. Honestly, I thought it would be for something much more incriminating. Hello, NSA. Maybe I'll finally have a reader on this damn blog now.

The store I work at generally has an upper-echelon clientele (so they tell themselves-it's mostly middle-aged women in unflattering Lululemon teetering on a Percocet addiction while their husbands cheat on them with their nanny), so thankfully we don't have as extreme horror stories as those who work in big box stores or larger, general grocery stores.

Unfortunately, there are still shitheads everywhere. Under normal circumstances, I get at least one racist thing said to me at my day job a week. My reactions have ranged from being utterly humiliated and crying in the back of the (now defunct) sample food prep section, to verbally reprimanding and correcting these grown-ass adults as if they were ignorant children (my personal favorite). One time, a woman claimed that she could say the VERY offensive thing to me because, "her husband is Asian, so it's ok, like, it's all good." At least she never threatened my physical safety, much akin to today. Ah, a simpler time.

I feel like every one of these posts turns into some sort of racist chronicles rant, moving on now.

The company I work for has taken many safety precautions for their employees, which I am thankful for. We have yellow tape on the sales floor, marking off six feet exactly, along with limiting the amount of customers that can shop at once. We are also supplied disposable gloves and, now, are required to wear cloth masks throughout our whole shift. I understand it's all for our safety and the safety of others, but oh my fucking god it's a nightmare. You can't really breathe in these masks, but you also can't really breathe with the virus so it's a real Sophie's Choice. I thought if I was to be paid to wear some sort of a muzzle, I'd be making a lot more money and wearing sexier clothes.

Interestingly enough, the company-issued masks bear a resemblance to the mask worn by Marsellus in Pulp Fiction. You know which scene.

ANYWAYS one of my favorite childhood movies was The Mask (1994), starring Jim Carrey (as if there's another one?). At first, it terrified me (it came out a year after I was born, and was a frequent VHS tape played at my cousin-who I idolized and tried to be like), but then I grew to enjoy the grotesque-ness and the humor within that. I will never explain or understand my sexual attraction to Jim Carrey, but I'm guessing his influence slipped under the garage door of my formative years via The Mask (1994).

If you're not familiar with the plot to The Mask (1994), then you've lived under a rock until yesterday, or you were born after the year 2000 (which either are totally fine-I love Billie Eilish ). But as a recap, a beta male (Jim Carrey) finds a "mysterious, magical mask" (or, as some put it, the mask finds him-much like adopting a stray). And when he wears the mask, he gets to unleash his "shadow self" (a term I learned in therapy, not actually in the press release), and thusly, wreak havoc on the city as a true "antihero". He has more confidence to speak his mind, and to go after the girl (Cameron Diaz-in her film debut no less!), and overall to appear to have a backbone. All is well at the end, until the sequel comes out that we will not speak of.

I never thought that I would have a chance to compare any part of my life to The Mask (1994), but working at a grocery store during a pandemic, I can absolutely say I can now. When I wear my mask, I immediately get pissed off and my shadow self is out to fucking play (in the confines being professional and reminding myself approximately 845 times a day that, "I need this job" in between crying and saying, "fuck you" to nobody in particular). I can make any face I want at shithead customers and they can't see, and it's a lot easier to make asides under my breath now.

Wearing a mask sucks, especially when you're already generally uncomfortable at work to begin with, but hopefully this'll pass and we can all get back to not looking like we are all in a shitty Bane costume. Thanks for reading (shoutout to Julie! Beep!).