Grapefruit Juice and Hookey Playing
Sorry for not being on in a while, busy times.
Saw the last of Audrey yesterday although not as nicely as I'd have liked. Her father had the day off so it was just the cat, her and me. We were so busy watching "Figure it Out" on Nick GAS that we forgot the time and rushed to get her packed for her mom's (1 week with mommy), get a snack and coax her to eat crackers for breakfast (never happened). Get to the bus and Shawn is rushing to get there at the same time, all of us to see that the bus already came. Great. I did the unthinkable: asked Shawn for his mother's work number, called her up and got the affirmative to my offer of driving Shawn and Audrey to school. She was so sweet and appreciative about it. I've met her a few times and I always think: could I babysit for you instead? You seem so much saner and easier to get along with.
Shawn and Audrey got to school wiht minutes to spare, then I floorerd it back to work, on teh other side of town, at KB. I even honked at a pedestrian! Poor guy.
My favorite customer (actually 2 days ago) was a nurse in training who had to purchase for 5 kids in a $60 budget and needed help. So I immediately brought him to the front Playskool stuff which was all under $10, he got some items then said he could go up in price, since it was worth it for his son. So we got the last 2 Spiderman items (son loves Spiderman) then headed back to Playskool/Fisherprice in aisle 7. He got a doctor's set since one of his son's loves that stuff. I told him about the really big Step 2 exam room set up with IV stand that we had a month back and he gave me his card, requesting a call for when we get it in stock again (fat chance I'll be there when that happens) but it was still neat. A lot of the day had been spent helping long lines of customers (always 9-10 before they start work and 12-2 when they're at lunch). Then there were the irritating phone calls as in : "Do you have this toy in stock? Are you sure it's THIS? How much? Could you place it on hold? I'll pick it up at this time." So irritating b/c 70% of the time we don't have that specific toy and 80% of the time the customer never comes for it so we have a bunch of toys strewn around our register shevles with names on them (scotch tape + register paper) that have to be reshopped. I've gotten very good at tossing toys from my register into the reshop cart. Gosh I love reshop cart.
Hint to all chasiers: always have an empty cart around the register so you can toss unwanted or broken items into them, rather than pushing them around your register. It's so frusterating when people push toys "aside" when in fact the things are still in reach of the scanner (aka I could accidentily scan them) and the customer never tells me "Oh I didn't want that." Another thing that you may have easily observed: when cashiers run up items the scanned items go to the end of the counter, the unscanned ones are far away on the near end of the register (my right, their left) so that I know what I rang up and didn't ring up. Sometimes a weirdo (or just very stressed person) will start piling stuff next to the rung up items and I have to take the extra time to figure out what was scanned and what wasn't. Nowadays, in the rush of things and when there are 10+ items for everyone, I check the "quantity" box on the screen and then count the items (even name them) to the customer so that I know I scanned all the toys once.
The pet peeve I mentioned before about people who can't pay at the register b/c the nimwits didn't count their prices before the checkout line. When poeple have ot sort through EVERY toy and demand the price of everything (when it's right there in teh upper right corner of the box) is annoying, not when the person is the only one on line (then I can take my sweet tiem and be sweet). But when there is a big line and I have to spend lots of time with the customer it's aggravating.
Got an idea for Audrey's Christhmas/Hannukka present: teh game Cranium. I think it could be joint gift to her dad and her since he's a big intellect. May get him a puzzle, he likes those.
Biggest lie yesterday: I told alittle girl that I'd just been on the phone with Santa Claus. She asked the most logical question ever: Why would Santa get me that toy if they have it here at KB? I was ready to crack up! Good girl, next year you'll figure it all out. Her father explained that Santa and KB worked very closely together to have the same toys available up at the North Pole.
Speaking of Santa, I gotta run and help unpack the sleigh from the North Pole-I mean truck from our NJ warehouse. I wanna spread a rumor around today that to the kids that I was very concerned about Santa: he told me today that Rudolph was favoring his right hind leg and may not be able to make the trip tomorrow night. Would't that be evil?
Told Audrey's dad to call my mom, "what about?" he asks. Audrey's Wednesday absences from school, "I can't do anything about that, it's my ex-wife's doing." I think you can, just call mom. Sure enough, mom, who served on teh Special Ed board and saw cases of kids who had truant officers escort them to school from their beds when the hookey playing got bad enough, convinced the father to go to court about the absences. He took her advice, told my mom that Audrey had been very healthy this year (bs by Audrey's blabber about having a fever every Wednesday). Ahhh no more Audrey hopping out of her mom's car and chipperly telling me "I had a fever today!" And yet she looked so energetic and healthy adn when on earth did she have time to recover while shopping for those new toys and clothes? Oldest divorce trick in the book, pamper the kid and let ehr miss school. Audrey's mom drives all the way from CT, drops Audrey off at my house, the kid disturbs my "music chillout" in my car and says "My dad is takign my mom to court because you told him I was missing school!" Oh and this is my fault? I don't want the truant officers getting to Audrey, she's too bright and sweet a kid to go through that shit. It's for her own good, how dare her mother tell the kid about that! It's between teh parents, not the kid, what can the kid do? Call a cab when mommy tells her "Oh I thinik your sick today so I won't drive you to school" Heck, now htat i think about it, they probably come up with sick excuses in teh car while driving to the apartment, just ot convince me it was legit. Fuckers.
I'm out.
Made grapefruit juice yesterday (from squeezed grapefruits) yummy. Gonna go get another glass.
Hippophilliac
Saw the last of Audrey yesterday although not as nicely as I'd have liked. Her father had the day off so it was just the cat, her and me. We were so busy watching "Figure it Out" on Nick GAS that we forgot the time and rushed to get her packed for her mom's (1 week with mommy), get a snack and coax her to eat crackers for breakfast (never happened). Get to the bus and Shawn is rushing to get there at the same time, all of us to see that the bus already came. Great. I did the unthinkable: asked Shawn for his mother's work number, called her up and got the affirmative to my offer of driving Shawn and Audrey to school. She was so sweet and appreciative about it. I've met her a few times and I always think: could I babysit for you instead? You seem so much saner and easier to get along with.
Shawn and Audrey got to school wiht minutes to spare, then I floorerd it back to work, on teh other side of town, at KB. I even honked at a pedestrian! Poor guy.
My favorite customer (actually 2 days ago) was a nurse in training who had to purchase for 5 kids in a $60 budget and needed help. So I immediately brought him to the front Playskool stuff which was all under $10, he got some items then said he could go up in price, since it was worth it for his son. So we got the last 2 Spiderman items (son loves Spiderman) then headed back to Playskool/Fisherprice in aisle 7. He got a doctor's set since one of his son's loves that stuff. I told him about the really big Step 2 exam room set up with IV stand that we had a month back and he gave me his card, requesting a call for when we get it in stock again (fat chance I'll be there when that happens) but it was still neat. A lot of the day had been spent helping long lines of customers (always 9-10 before they start work and 12-2 when they're at lunch). Then there were the irritating phone calls as in : "Do you have this toy in stock? Are you sure it's THIS? How much? Could you place it on hold? I'll pick it up at this time." So irritating b/c 70% of the time we don't have that specific toy and 80% of the time the customer never comes for it so we have a bunch of toys strewn around our register shevles with names on them (scotch tape + register paper) that have to be reshopped. I've gotten very good at tossing toys from my register into the reshop cart. Gosh I love reshop cart.
Hint to all chasiers: always have an empty cart around the register so you can toss unwanted or broken items into them, rather than pushing them around your register. It's so frusterating when people push toys "aside" when in fact the things are still in reach of the scanner (aka I could accidentily scan them) and the customer never tells me "Oh I didn't want that." Another thing that you may have easily observed: when cashiers run up items the scanned items go to the end of the counter, the unscanned ones are far away on the near end of the register (my right, their left) so that I know what I rang up and didn't ring up. Sometimes a weirdo (or just very stressed person) will start piling stuff next to the rung up items and I have to take the extra time to figure out what was scanned and what wasn't. Nowadays, in the rush of things and when there are 10+ items for everyone, I check the "quantity" box on the screen and then count the items (even name them) to the customer so that I know I scanned all the toys once.
The pet peeve I mentioned before about people who can't pay at the register b/c the nimwits didn't count their prices before the checkout line. When poeple have ot sort through EVERY toy and demand the price of everything (when it's right there in teh upper right corner of the box) is annoying, not when the person is the only one on line (then I can take my sweet tiem and be sweet). But when there is a big line and I have to spend lots of time with the customer it's aggravating.
Got an idea for Audrey's Christhmas/Hannukka present: teh game Cranium. I think it could be joint gift to her dad and her since he's a big intellect. May get him a puzzle, he likes those.
Biggest lie yesterday: I told alittle girl that I'd just been on the phone with Santa Claus. She asked the most logical question ever: Why would Santa get me that toy if they have it here at KB? I was ready to crack up! Good girl, next year you'll figure it all out. Her father explained that Santa and KB worked very closely together to have the same toys available up at the North Pole.
Speaking of Santa, I gotta run and help unpack the sleigh from the North Pole-I mean truck from our NJ warehouse. I wanna spread a rumor around today that to the kids that I was very concerned about Santa: he told me today that Rudolph was favoring his right hind leg and may not be able to make the trip tomorrow night. Would't that be evil?
Told Audrey's dad to call my mom, "what about?" he asks. Audrey's Wednesday absences from school, "I can't do anything about that, it's my ex-wife's doing." I think you can, just call mom. Sure enough, mom, who served on teh Special Ed board and saw cases of kids who had truant officers escort them to school from their beds when the hookey playing got bad enough, convinced the father to go to court about the absences. He took her advice, told my mom that Audrey had been very healthy this year (bs by Audrey's blabber about having a fever every Wednesday). Ahhh no more Audrey hopping out of her mom's car and chipperly telling me "I had a fever today!" And yet she looked so energetic and healthy adn when on earth did she have time to recover while shopping for those new toys and clothes? Oldest divorce trick in the book, pamper the kid and let ehr miss school. Audrey's mom drives all the way from CT, drops Audrey off at my house, the kid disturbs my "music chillout" in my car and says "My dad is takign my mom to court because you told him I was missing school!" Oh and this is my fault? I don't want the truant officers getting to Audrey, she's too bright and sweet a kid to go through that shit. It's for her own good, how dare her mother tell the kid about that! It's between teh parents, not the kid, what can the kid do? Call a cab when mommy tells her "Oh I thinik your sick today so I won't drive you to school" Heck, now htat i think about it, they probably come up with sick excuses in teh car while driving to the apartment, just ot convince me it was legit. Fuckers.
I'm out.
Made grapefruit juice yesterday (from squeezed grapefruits) yummy. Gonna go get another glass.
Hippophilliac