Hump day

- Today I had the teeniest little hangover.  Saturdays are not good for hangovers because there are so many happy, screaming children.  I was lucky in that my symptoms weren't too severe.

- One of my co-workers broke her arm and missed a few days of work.  We were short-staffed and I had a couple waiting to be rung up at my station while I was talking to a different customer about a product.  The waiting couple were being sort of patient.  The whole time they were standing there I was thinking "why don't they go to a different counter??".  I figured they must not care about waiting.  After about 4 minutes, I could help them.  I apologized for the wait and explained that we were a bit short on staff because my co-worker broke her arm.  As soon as it came out of my mouth, I regretted saying anything.  They were shitty about it in the nicest way.  It frustrates me because they could see that I was helping someone before they walked up to the counter, yet somehow thought they should be served first.  Anyway, whatever, assholes.

- I had a customer use their Sierra Club card to pay for their purchase and then want their items in separate plastic bags.

- Children with open containers of liquid in the store make me nervous.  It brings on those "my mother would NEVER have let us do that!" thoughts.

- Today a lady asked if there was a kettle that could get "hotter than boiling," which confused me because she didn't seem to an idiot.  YOU NEVER CAN TELL.

Weekly highlights

- I love it (this is sarcasm) when parents give their children some merchandise to keep them occupied and the child destroys it while the parents shop and then the parents just stick it on some random shelf and don't say anything because they know they are crappy. How is that different than stealing or vandalism? It's sneaky, willful destruction of the property of the store. And yet, if we want them to shop with us, we have to let it happen.

- There was a lady the other day reading the back of some plates and wanted to know why they could be labeled "Microwave Safe; will get hot in microwave" since, in her opinion, getting hot in the microwave made them unsafe. We talked in circles for awhile, her stubborn and confused, and then I tried to break it up with some humor. "Well, I guess it depends on your definition of safe." She did not laugh.

- OMG! Did you know that COTTON SHRINKS!! I did and so do most of my customers. So I am so surprised when they are surprised that this fiber does in fact have this quality. And what surprises me even more is that they care. So the tablecloth has an 8 inch hang instead of 9; why does it matter?

- Throws: rugs or blankets?
Quadro jug: plastic or glass?
Birthday coupon or buy local coupon?
So many hard questions.

- There was a little boy the other day wearing translucent turquoise glasses and matching turquoise shoes with an understated, simple raincoat. He was about 4, so he was small and cute, as were his accessories. I usually don't geek out too much over the way kids are dressed because most often it is some contrived outfit picked by the parents or typical "I dressed myself!" wackiness. But this kid was special. It was weird enough that you know a parent wouldn't have done it, but more awesome than most kids would dress themselves. And it was . . . inspiring!

- I want to go to Japan so that I can buy pink Le Creuset cast iron!