What Was I Thinking???

Yeah, I worked Christmas Eve, and it was busy until we finally shut down at 9. I went home and ate something, as ws intending to go to midnight services whe my friend D. called and we ended up talking for about two hours about everything and nothing. He will be back in town for school in a week or so, and I have missed him.

I volunteered to work Christmas from 8-4, my reasoning being that (1) All my friends are out of town;(2) I have no family here and (3) Come on: it'll be a slow day, with people coming in to pick up a few things here and there that they might have forgotten ... What was I thinking???

Christmas morning it was about seventy degrees Fahrenheit (21 C) and 80% humidity, so I didn't get to use the really kewl bike tights that my sister sent me (and I haven't yet). I got to work and, within minutes, the store was packed with customers. These people were not just picking up a few things: they were loading up their carts with every kind of foodstuff imaginable! It was horrible! It never stopped! I never got a break and barely got to run to the toilet a couple of times. When it was time to close up the store, people still kept coming in. We had to lock the entrance door and post an employee there to keep them from coming in the exit door!

Of course, we were way understaffed, because nobody expected this much business, and the store was staffed completely by volunteers. We made at least a dozen closing announcements and finally, a manager had to walk around the store and tell individual customers, who were still shopping as though it were any other day, to please get the fuck out. It was hell.

The liquor side was shut, so I didn't get whisky for my egg nog. I wanted to eat somewhere, but everything was shut except for IHOP and Jack-in-the-Crack, so I went home, fixed a frozen dinner, and watched Almodovar until I got tired enough to sleep. That was my Christmas, and it sucked greatly. On top of that, I had to work Boxing Day, too, and every day until Monday, which will be the first time I have had time to think in a week.

The moral of this story is: even if they pay you extra to work on holidays, if you have anything, I mean anything better to do, do yourself a favor and do that instead. This season is enough of a retail hell without adding insult to injury.

Peace. Out.