Christmas Eve at the store was interesting, to say the least.
Rupert told me he noticed "Miss K." standing by herself, very quietly, back by the televisions. He asked her if he could help her do anything. With a heavy sigh she said no, she was discussing plan-o-gram tasks with the entertainment specialist.
She avoided eye contact, and seemed to have a slight edge. (For someone as quiet as "Miss K," that's about the same as shouting out "God, I'm going crazy, get me outta here!") Rupert said he just knew that somehow she was unhappy. When he turned away for a moment to help a guest, she disappeared.
Rupert told me he closed his eyes, remembered the words that Cedric taught him, and spoke them inside, toward her, as deeply and as heartfelt as he could.
"PACIS, MEUS ANGELICA."
Rupert. He's such a forlorn love-puppy.
Cedric taught me the charm, also -- more than once I've used it with Crickett when she's upset. She always seems to be pretty happy after that.
The characters we had come through the entertainment department were definitely one of a kind. When I say one of a kind, I mean weirder than a Star Wars Wookie dressed in hoop skirts. There was the usual cadre of winos and boozers. These people could barely stand up while they asked me for what they wanted. Their breath was so caustic it could disolve glass in a picture frame.
We also had a continuous stream of selfish people who all thought they were a special case, telling us "excuse me sir, I know I'm interrupting your other guests like an inconsiderate ass, and that you're busy with several people waiting their turn ahead of me, but I'm a special case and I feel rightly entitled to demand an answer to a quick question just this once, because I'm a rude, unprincipled degenerate with the manners of a pack animal...." Now multiply that by about THIRTY people who all thought they were special.
I've got to be sure to mention several people who were real angels. Many of them told me they appreciated our work and they respect how we were able to multi-task so well. That surprised the heck out of me -- I definitely wasn't expecting that. People can really surprise you.
This next item is something I thought I had gotten away from when I left working for that Southern-owned Dollar Store Chain with the shop in a location on the other side of the tracks. I only mention this type of unpleasant business because it indicates a social condition I wish could someday be remedied. While working there I repeatedly witnessed a type of business transaction that my co-workers and I affectionately called "The Payoff."
"The Pay-off" goes something like this. An older white man, usually in his 50's or 70's or there abouts, approaches the counter with a basket full of food and clothing, most often women's clothing. By his side is always a young woman, or at least a woman clearly younger than him. Very often the woman will look like she's seen a couple of miles, in spite of her youth. Very often it's a Hispanic or African American woman, or a run-away teen girl. The woman is always dressed in very worn clothes. The man will ring up about $100 to $200 worth of items, whip out a credit card, and hand it all over to the woman when the deed is done. Once they get out the door, they go separate ways. I see this exact same type of transaction so many times, I seriously doubt the older men are doing charity work.
I mention this because we had a case like that show up at the camera counter. The old man was rude as hell and made my co-worker ring up a whole cart full of stuff when other people were waiting for service with electronics. My coworker is this itty bitty petite quiet and precious little angel high school girl, the kind that help you think there's hope for America's future. It's her first job, and she doesn't quite know all the ropes yet.
The jackass across the counter got rude with her because our machine wouldn't read his American Express Corporate Card. I guess we embarrassed him in front of his hooker -- ooops, I mean twenty years younger girlfriend. I was furious at the man. It's bad enough that he's exploiting and denegrating one young woman, he also has to be a complete jerk to another young lady who is only trying to help with with his purchase. I wanted to jump the counter and really kick the guy's ass. I struggle to feed my children and this corporate asshole comes in with a hooker, a silver card, and an attitude. &%$# him to hell.
I helped my co-worker go through the right steps to manually enter the charge into the register. It was necessary in that particular case to make an impression of the card on a slip. He got mad about that, as well. We finally got rid of him, and I explained to my co-worker what the situation really was with the guy. Her eyes got wide as saucers, and said "Ohhhhh......." I was half tempted to follow the guy, get his license plate, and report him to the vice squad. If it weren't for the many other people I had to help, I would have.
Across from the camera counter, the toy department was almost completely empty. We're talking picked cleaner than a beef carcass on top of an ant hill. I mean cleaner than a dessert plate at a weight watcher's convention. What little toys we had left were all over the floor. Oh, speaking of picked clean -- we had very few cameras left, as well. Almost our entire inventory was gone. I don't need to mention, of course, the continual stream of morons exclaiming "you're out of cameras!? How could you be out of cameras!?" I'm thinking to myself "well, there's Christmas, family gatherings, teen girls saving up for spring break trips, you name it. 1 + 1 = 2. Are you people that stupid?"
I even managed to get a smile out of "Miss Beluga" today. At the start of my shift I approached the operator's station in softlines. "Miss Beluga" growled at me, and mean really growled "what do you want!?" I decided to laugh it off. I pointed at her and laughed. I said there's a seminar I know that she should really take. It's called "how to win friends and influence people." She actually laughed and waved me off. "Oh, you. Go away," she said. Later on in the shift she smiled and waived at me as she passed by. Surprised the daylights out of me -- usually she's mad at me.
Well, any way, there's more to write, but I can't remember it all right at the moment. I'll post more later....
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