Whoopie Cushions
I woke up 15 minutes before I was due at Audrey's. Jumped out of bed, yelled explecitives, skipped shower, got into uniform (one fortunate thing about retail jobs, same uniform every day), brusehd teeth, ditched hair and drove to the apartment, only 2 mins late. I get there, feed the cat and realize the place is eerily quiet, check bathroom (Audrey takes quiet baths in teh morning) and realized she wasn't there, but her school bag was, so she must be in teh apartment somewhere. Not many rooms, checked her bedroom and she was sound asleep, tried to wake her up, no avail. Then I listen and realize "Shit, daddy is asleep too!" So I call my mom for advice "what do you do when your employer is sound asleep and he's late for work?" Solution: ring doorbell. So I stepped outside, rang the door bell and sure enough daddy wakes up, mutters some explecitives (just like me 20 mins before) tells himself he can't believe he slept in, answered the door and woke Audrey up (woohoo!). While he's rushing a shower (he has hygienic sense, I don't), I flip through the TV channels, knowing Audrey is still sleeping (she's gotta wait for the bathroom and what else is there to do?). I sadly note that there's no HBO and only morning news (c'mon it's 7:15AM), about a mass transit strike (again?) that would effect subways, buses,etc. Fucked up right? MTA just HAD to have their strike Christhmas week in order to make a big statement. City is fining MTA union $1 million/day striked. Bastards deserve it. I then switched to Double Dare 2000, one of my favs as a kiddie (when it was just Double Dare). Audrey took her bath begrudgingly b/c it was "just right" in the words of Goldie locks. Kid was dressed and ready on time, we also watched "figure it out" which is a kinda neat show (since it was animal themed). It was so sad at the bus stop when I told Audrey's "bus buddy" Shawn that I'd be gone after this week, since I'm going to visit grandma in Fl first week of January for my History Internship. Holocaust Studies here I come. I don't think I'll enjoy it but it'll look impressive to my advisor and I kinda have to work in museums, might as well be one my grandma is in good standing at as a docent. Today the topic of Holocaust makes me very depressed and reluctant to study (I used to play hookey from Hebrew School when we covered it in class).
KB was a lot more fun today. I'll talk about a few interesting customers (since beatles4life loved to hear about Christhmas shoppers). First off, every shopper was procrastinating. One lady who at first I thought was gonna be a pain turned out to be a terrific consumer. She told me the ages of the boys and girl she had to buy for. 10 y/o boy and girl, 12 y/o boy. OK, I read the gift guide yesterday (tells you what to get for which age group). We would up getting teh boy a Star Wars Monopoly (I pressed on her that Coruscant was Boardwalk and she didn't understand so I explained), teh girl got an IZ (the new and latest thign to hook your IPOD/MP3 player to plus it farts and burps and yells "Oh Yeah" at the twich of a button) and Zathura (since it's a popular movie) for the other boy. She also got an erecter set (said it was CHEAPER than the other one she got elsewhere) and asked for a microscope which I gladly showed her in our science section (she'll get it for him for his b-day next month, hope we still have it), she also got a bunch of other items for a neat bill of $140. Ok for 3 kids. She was so picky but kind and dilligent and knew what she wanted but never once said "I'll look at another store." I ended up ringing her up too, b/c my manager was busy with something else so I used his register and then I brought her bags to her car. the kind of KB service everyone sheould get this holiday season. She was thrilled, got my name, and during the long time we spent togehter she found out I was a biochem-turned history major and what shcool I was in and that I'd taken a semester off and missed my friends (she asked me if I missed them). Really neat.
Customer 2 had a shit fit when her tab ran over $48 and she still had half her stuff in the cart. She first decided to get rid of some things (some I'd already rung up, then wanted them back so her hubby could pay for them and asked me to bag the unpaid items (against policy). I told her so and said "your items will be in this shopping cart and it'll be at my register" and she pusehd the cart enough to BLOCK ME INTO MY REGISTER, and asked "are you sure these will be safe for when my husband comes to pay?" Did I mention there were 4 other people on line waiting. The next customer gave me a sympathetic look when the no-dough-lady left and we had a pleasant chat. Lines went smoothly, people were in the "Christhmas Spirit" one man didn't want his change (5 cents) and people were willing to bag their items for me to get the line moving. I didn't run out of cash (woohoo!) and processed 2 checks perfectly (just like yesterday). One of my coworkers asked "How do you SMILE and act so HELPFUL aroudn EVERY customer? I can only do that to every other customer" and I said "You put all the shit and problems at home aside and just think "I'm at work, at a toystore, no stress, just help people". I mentioned I skipped my shower today. Deoderant that I bought didn't come out of hte tube so I hoped ppl would notice my BO (and I did have it) thankfully people were more distracted by the heat and the gas smell in the store (a constant complaint). At my register was a box of electronic whoopie cushions so every so often a customer would press it (either from boredom or just for fun) and it started to really annoy me. OK finally there were 2 crying babies in teh store, one was on my line and I heard her while I was helping the customer ahead of her mom. That's when I decided to hand out those paper ornaments (they are front and back and can be colored). She loved it however, several minutes later, she was back, more quiet and I was thinking "young kid needs ornament" when I saw it in her hand! Gosh, at least she was quiet. Mommy forgot to buy a trainset (man those trains are going fast!). I was so glad to see empty shelf space today, especially on our sale racks up front. We made 20 grand yesterday, it sure as heck felt like it and I bet we made close to that today.
Went home, forgot to return DVD's (again, 1 wk overdue, oh well) and while I was sitting in the driveway listenign to Q104.3 to chill out, mom came up in her car and we then went to the library together to tell Angel that my sis couldn't come in (she works there after school) and so mom could pick up a book, I checked up on some books I'd taken out 3 wks before to find that they were indeed overdue. I renewed them and paid a 40 cent fine (exact pay of course). Didn't clean up dinner b/c I thought my sister woudl come downstairs, she never did. After the library I took a long nap and then did some genetics (read Ch.4 on probability adn statistics) but my mind was wandering around (despite the ritalin) thinking about horse shows and doing jumpers and fantasizing about having my own horse again. G'night or I should say good morning. Work at 9AM, in 8 hrs b/c Audrey is at her mom's and I wont' babysit until the afternoon.
Toodles
Hippo
KB was a lot more fun today. I'll talk about a few interesting customers (since beatles4life loved to hear about Christhmas shoppers). First off, every shopper was procrastinating. One lady who at first I thought was gonna be a pain turned out to be a terrific consumer. She told me the ages of the boys and girl she had to buy for. 10 y/o boy and girl, 12 y/o boy. OK, I read the gift guide yesterday (tells you what to get for which age group). We would up getting teh boy a Star Wars Monopoly (I pressed on her that Coruscant was Boardwalk and she didn't understand so I explained), teh girl got an IZ (the new and latest thign to hook your IPOD/MP3 player to plus it farts and burps and yells "Oh Yeah" at the twich of a button) and Zathura (since it's a popular movie) for the other boy. She also got an erecter set (said it was CHEAPER than the other one she got elsewhere) and asked for a microscope which I gladly showed her in our science section (she'll get it for him for his b-day next month, hope we still have it), she also got a bunch of other items for a neat bill of $140. Ok for 3 kids. She was so picky but kind and dilligent and knew what she wanted but never once said "I'll look at another store." I ended up ringing her up too, b/c my manager was busy with something else so I used his register and then I brought her bags to her car. the kind of KB service everyone sheould get this holiday season. She was thrilled, got my name, and during the long time we spent togehter she found out I was a biochem-turned history major and what shcool I was in and that I'd taken a semester off and missed my friends (she asked me if I missed them). Really neat.
Customer 2 had a shit fit when her tab ran over $48 and she still had half her stuff in the cart. She first decided to get rid of some things (some I'd already rung up, then wanted them back so her hubby could pay for them and asked me to bag the unpaid items (against policy). I told her so and said "your items will be in this shopping cart and it'll be at my register" and she pusehd the cart enough to BLOCK ME INTO MY REGISTER, and asked "are you sure these will be safe for when my husband comes to pay?" Did I mention there were 4 other people on line waiting. The next customer gave me a sympathetic look when the no-dough-lady left and we had a pleasant chat. Lines went smoothly, people were in the "Christhmas Spirit" one man didn't want his change (5 cents) and people were willing to bag their items for me to get the line moving. I didn't run out of cash (woohoo!) and processed 2 checks perfectly (just like yesterday). One of my coworkers asked "How do you SMILE and act so HELPFUL aroudn EVERY customer? I can only do that to every other customer" and I said "You put all the shit and problems at home aside and just think "I'm at work, at a toystore, no stress, just help people". I mentioned I skipped my shower today. Deoderant that I bought didn't come out of hte tube so I hoped ppl would notice my BO (and I did have it) thankfully people were more distracted by the heat and the gas smell in the store (a constant complaint). At my register was a box of electronic whoopie cushions so every so often a customer would press it (either from boredom or just for fun) and it started to really annoy me. OK finally there were 2 crying babies in teh store, one was on my line and I heard her while I was helping the customer ahead of her mom. That's when I decided to hand out those paper ornaments (they are front and back and can be colored). She loved it however, several minutes later, she was back, more quiet and I was thinking "young kid needs ornament" when I saw it in her hand! Gosh, at least she was quiet. Mommy forgot to buy a trainset (man those trains are going fast!). I was so glad to see empty shelf space today, especially on our sale racks up front. We made 20 grand yesterday, it sure as heck felt like it and I bet we made close to that today.
Went home, forgot to return DVD's (again, 1 wk overdue, oh well) and while I was sitting in the driveway listenign to Q104.3 to chill out, mom came up in her car and we then went to the library together to tell Angel that my sis couldn't come in (she works there after school) and so mom could pick up a book, I checked up on some books I'd taken out 3 wks before to find that they were indeed overdue. I renewed them and paid a 40 cent fine (exact pay of course). Didn't clean up dinner b/c I thought my sister woudl come downstairs, she never did. After the library I took a long nap and then did some genetics (read Ch.4 on probability adn statistics) but my mind was wandering around (despite the ritalin) thinking about horse shows and doing jumpers and fantasizing about having my own horse again. G'night or I should say good morning. Work at 9AM, in 8 hrs b/c Audrey is at her mom's and I wont' babysit until the afternoon.
Toodles
Hippo