today has been okay
I think that exercise does a great deal of good for a person. Despite how cross I get when forced out into the bitter cold to bicycle my way to work, the ride tends to be rather bracing -- in a nice way, like a cold shower if you're the sort of person who likes cold showers, which I am not. (Even in the summer my showers are lukewarm at least.)
Work today was hectic, and I loved it. For ten or fifteen minutes I was so swamped with customers that I hadn't even a moment to take off my jacket! The rhythm of the register is glorious, and when you get into the track of it it's a bit like dancing, or perhaps something like being in a musical. I did quite a lot of things that I hadn't done before today (such as conduct a return exchange). The hours flew past, which, after Thursday night, when there was an ice storm and I stood about for four hours and only had three customers (not to mention two shifts in a row -- just as I was gearing up to close down my register and go home, the assistant manager appeared looking very harried to ask if I could possibly cover for the girl meant to take over for me who had called and said she wasn't going to try to drive through the storm). And my family showed up, at the mall to get printer ink and other things, and Mum bought me a cinnamon roll, although I never ended up eating it till after I got home.
I was very pleased at how I managed today -- apparently I do work well when there is a lot going on, and it doesn't frustrate me much, and either I didn't have many impolite customers or I simply didn't notice them. (I try my best not to be irritating, so as not to irritate them, and get us all into an uncomfortable situation, and I suppose that helps a bit.) I did get some change wrong, and forgot a few receipts -- the sight of me chasing down the hall after an elderly bloke whose receipt I'd forgotten to give must have been epic -- but we came up only a few dollars short at the end of my shift, and that was after me having more money passing through my hands today than I have ever seen in one place in my life, so I count it as a good.
(And then I went into Rue21 and they had trousers on sale and I really very much need those, so sixteen dollars bought me a pair of plum-coloured skinny jeans and -- I think they call them sailor pants? They are high-waisted and would be double breasted if they were a shirt. Anyway they are narrow-legged too, and dress pants, and black, and very becoming, as well as high waisted which is very useful seeing as I am not interested in showing off my knickers. This is sort of relieving because my blue-grey skinny jeans were beginning to complain about being worn every day -- you can tell it's my day off when I wear a dress or a skirt. Bicycling in the cold in a skirt is no good at all, even if one has got one's thickest, cosiest stockings on.)
It isn't a glory day. But I'm all right.
(I still don't like my days being so centred around things which are bought and sold, and commerce and things. I want to be outside under the stars -- or I would, were it not bitterly cold -- or getting lost in a city somewhere, and price tags and Wanting Things and Making A Profit are beginning to wear on me like a sweater with too high a wool content. I raise my hands. What can I do? Besides work in a library.)
Work today was hectic, and I loved it. For ten or fifteen minutes I was so swamped with customers that I hadn't even a moment to take off my jacket! The rhythm of the register is glorious, and when you get into the track of it it's a bit like dancing, or perhaps something like being in a musical. I did quite a lot of things that I hadn't done before today (such as conduct a return exchange). The hours flew past, which, after Thursday night, when there was an ice storm and I stood about for four hours and only had three customers (not to mention two shifts in a row -- just as I was gearing up to close down my register and go home, the assistant manager appeared looking very harried to ask if I could possibly cover for the girl meant to take over for me who had called and said she wasn't going to try to drive through the storm). And my family showed up, at the mall to get printer ink and other things, and Mum bought me a cinnamon roll, although I never ended up eating it till after I got home.
I was very pleased at how I managed today -- apparently I do work well when there is a lot going on, and it doesn't frustrate me much, and either I didn't have many impolite customers or I simply didn't notice them. (I try my best not to be irritating, so as not to irritate them, and get us all into an uncomfortable situation, and I suppose that helps a bit.) I did get some change wrong, and forgot a few receipts -- the sight of me chasing down the hall after an elderly bloke whose receipt I'd forgotten to give must have been epic -- but we came up only a few dollars short at the end of my shift, and that was after me having more money passing through my hands today than I have ever seen in one place in my life, so I count it as a good.
(And then I went into Rue21 and they had trousers on sale and I really very much need those, so sixteen dollars bought me a pair of plum-coloured skinny jeans and -- I think they call them sailor pants? They are high-waisted and would be double breasted if they were a shirt. Anyway they are narrow-legged too, and dress pants, and black, and very becoming, as well as high waisted which is very useful seeing as I am not interested in showing off my knickers. This is sort of relieving because my blue-grey skinny jeans were beginning to complain about being worn every day -- you can tell it's my day off when I wear a dress or a skirt. Bicycling in the cold in a skirt is no good at all, even if one has got one's thickest, cosiest stockings on.)
It isn't a glory day. But I'm all right.
(I still don't like my days being so centred around things which are bought and sold, and commerce and things. I want to be outside under the stars -- or I would, were it not bitterly cold -- or getting lost in a city somewhere, and price tags and Wanting Things and Making A Profit are beginning to wear on me like a sweater with too high a wool content. I raise my hands. What can I do? Besides work in a library.)