Port of Call

If you're following me on twitter, you already know that I have obtained a Thor standee from my place of employment (lovingly called Job #1). We were supposed to put it on the floor for advertizement, but - despite the impressions that corporate seems to be under - our store is not a Tardis, Hammerspace, or any other pocket dimension with nearly endless space. So Thor was kept in the box.

I came across him when I was putting together the X-Men First Class display, and decided that, yes, I truly need this even though I don't really have the space for it. My manager made a deal with me: make a goal of getting four memberships and its mine. Three seems to be my limit, though, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a forth. Manager, being pretty awesome, revised it to something a little easier: get a combination of four memberships and promos, and it's mine. Normally, this goal would be EASY to make, but I think he jinxed me, because that week was the worst week for getting anything.

Yesterday, the Senior Assistant Manager cut me a new deal: get just ONE membership or promo (because it was a good day for sales but a horrible day for numbers) and she'd let me take it home.

Well, guess who came home with me yesterday!

( Things you can do with a cardboard Thor )

George RR Martin's ONLY stop in the Midwest is at a Barnes & Noble out in Carmel, IN (very close to Indianapolis) this Saturday starting at 2pm. I have to work that day at Job #1.

Dammit.

(Also, the B&N has some ridiculous rules - like you can only bring items purchased at a B&N and you have to have a receipt to prove it. Admittedly, I don't know if this rule is even ridiculous because I've never been to a book signing, but when I ran it past a friend, he balked at it)

(I should also take this time to point out that I missed a once-in-a-lifetime concert in Fort Wayne on Friday - the Philharmonic performing with two local band and one band with some national renown - because Job #1 BEGGED me to come in because there was no one else. This was after my sister and I had bought tickets. Fortunately, she found somebody to take my place, but I was and am still pretty ticked about it)

(Lastly - A Dance with Dragons - soooooo good!)

I've been so busy this past week with work. I originally was only scheduled four days with shifts that ranged from 3.5 hours to 6 hours. Thursday, my manager called in sick, and the assistant manager (who's really awesome, so I'll resist using the nickname for this position from Chuck) called me in to cover his shift. Unfortunately, that put us over in hours.

(Explanation: In some retail, there's this really weird practice where if a store needs another person during a shift but doesn't have enough hours to cover that shift, the manager can take that shift and the hours s/he works won't count. Or something. I think it's because the management is salaried.)

All my shifts were hectic and a blur. Holiday shoppers are fucking scary. I've had a small crowd mob me a couple of times when I was helping another shopper. The mob was really insistent, because they had been waiting for assistance for a couple of minutes and there was nobody else on the floor (reasons: we only had two workers in the store, because the third was on break, or we had two people manning registers and only one person on the floor). In one case, the shoppers I had originally been helping up and left; I spent five minutes after things had quieted down, searching the store for them (and this was AFTER I found the item they were searching for, which was hard to find). On other occasions, the shoppers were totally understanding, because - hey! - it's the holiday season, we're obviously understaffed, and getting a sales associate to help anybody is kind of a clusterfuck, but we're all really polite and willing to help them. (Which is the truth. I'd rather have somebody accept my help when I offer it, than have them refuse or completely ignore me and search the entire store in vain, only then coming up and asking for help when they're frustrated)

So, the holiday shopping season is running me ragged.

A few points of etiquette that I'd like for people to take from this:

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Other points of etiquette for this holiday season:

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