merry happy
Suppose I should update to say that I quit the job I had just gotten as of last post. It was mostly standard retail, which I didn't mind and was at least able to find people-watching pleasure in, but there was a hard-sell element in the form of these discount cards each cashier had to shove down customers' throats. 5% of all sales had to be purely discount cards - that is to say, about 5 or 6 cards sold per 8 hour shift. They cost $20 up front and are only good for one year. I was "coached" twice, i.e. yelled at, for underselling, and the third strike is as good as a firing, whether or not they do it immediately. So I went ahead and quit. Amazingly enough, I believe in not making people's days shittier than they already are. I also believe people when they say "no," especially when I have to make them say it six times during the course of one spiel.
I did discover that I don't mind retail, though. Even just standing in one place for 8 hours beeping barcodes. The few times I skipped my card-pitch out of frustration, I had fun little conversations with customers as they checked out. People are generally nice if you let them be.
Failed at NaNo, but I don't really mind. I won last year, and this November was crazy stressful - and not in the productive, challenging way. Try again next year; in the meantime, I have stories (LOTS) to tweak and edit and post. :)
Mom & I participated in a local holiday craft market - the first annual one in this venue, so it was both cheap to sign up and fairly well-attended due to curiosity. Unfortunately I worked all weekend and quit the job on Sunday, so I couldn't be there and was in no fit state to enjoy the fact that it was going so well while I was 40 minutes away, sticking it to the man. But! It was well-attended! And from all accounts, loads of fun! And they're doing it again in April and Mom & I are getting the same booth again, with preferential treatment as far as expenses because we were in the debut fair, and because we actually covered the cost of our expenses the first time AND made a profit, Mom & I are pretty excited about the April fair! We mostly did it for fun and to see if we could, the first time, but since we actually did a decent turnover in business, we may take the next fair more seriously. We also have an Etsy store set up and may start getting our hands dirty in the home-craft-selling business.
I'll link to the Etsy when we really have some product on it and polish it up a bit. I've been out of commission since the job fiasco and because I spent the last two weeks making Christmas presents. But I'm done now, and totally free, and I'm going to start digitizing my cross-stitch patterns and selling them as pattern-only PDFs, fabric-and-thread kits and (a few) finished pieces.
Also! I bought gerbils! Or actually, I was given gerbils for Christmas in November. :D I had been talking about it for ages, and finally after the job thing I just snapped and realized that I could damn well go to the pet store and get them if I wanted them, expense and planning be damned, and I was literally about to walk to the car when the 'rents said, "Ohhh... shit. We were going to get you a big PetSmart gift card for Christmas because you said you wanted gerbils." And thus, I was deflated. But also: awesome! And we all went to the pet store and I got gerbils and now there is happy all around. Except with the dog, because he is not allowed to eat them and is therefore very sad.
There are two of them and their names are Sirius (because he's black and has little white rings around his wrists that look like handcuffs) and Muad'Dib (or Mo for short; he's brown and black and chubby and prone to falling asleep on top of their little hut and toppling off of it onto the ground without waking up). They sleep a lot and are absolutely winning in the war against cardboard. It's awesome.
Update complete. And now: bed.
-rave
I did discover that I don't mind retail, though. Even just standing in one place for 8 hours beeping barcodes. The few times I skipped my card-pitch out of frustration, I had fun little conversations with customers as they checked out. People are generally nice if you let them be.
Failed at NaNo, but I don't really mind. I won last year, and this November was crazy stressful - and not in the productive, challenging way. Try again next year; in the meantime, I have stories (LOTS) to tweak and edit and post. :)
Mom & I participated in a local holiday craft market - the first annual one in this venue, so it was both cheap to sign up and fairly well-attended due to curiosity. Unfortunately I worked all weekend and quit the job on Sunday, so I couldn't be there and was in no fit state to enjoy the fact that it was going so well while I was 40 minutes away, sticking it to the man. But! It was well-attended! And from all accounts, loads of fun! And they're doing it again in April and Mom & I are getting the same booth again, with preferential treatment as far as expenses because we were in the debut fair, and because we actually covered the cost of our expenses the first time AND made a profit, Mom & I are pretty excited about the April fair! We mostly did it for fun and to see if we could, the first time, but since we actually did a decent turnover in business, we may take the next fair more seriously. We also have an Etsy store set up and may start getting our hands dirty in the home-craft-selling business.
I'll link to the Etsy when we really have some product on it and polish it up a bit. I've been out of commission since the job fiasco and because I spent the last two weeks making Christmas presents. But I'm done now, and totally free, and I'm going to start digitizing my cross-stitch patterns and selling them as pattern-only PDFs, fabric-and-thread kits and (a few) finished pieces.
Also! I bought gerbils! Or actually, I was given gerbils for Christmas in November. :D I had been talking about it for ages, and finally after the job thing I just snapped and realized that I could damn well go to the pet store and get them if I wanted them, expense and planning be damned, and I was literally about to walk to the car when the 'rents said, "Ohhh... shit. We were going to get you a big PetSmart gift card for Christmas because you said you wanted gerbils." And thus, I was deflated. But also: awesome! And we all went to the pet store and I got gerbils and now there is happy all around. Except with the dog, because he is not allowed to eat them and is therefore very sad.
There are two of them and their names are Sirius (because he's black and has little white rings around his wrists that look like handcuffs) and Muad'Dib (or Mo for short; he's brown and black and chubby and prone to falling asleep on top of their little hut and toppling off of it onto the ground without waking up). They sleep a lot and are absolutely winning in the war against cardboard. It's awesome.
Update complete. And now: bed.
-rave