Allow me to remind you that you are not the only person in the world

Warning: This could get a tad bit snippy!  But If I don't get it out here, I will get it out where it isn't appropriate.

This holiday season is an interesting one for me.  I have never worked in retail before.  Now I am in the throws of it - working in retail at a toystore before Christmas.  YIKES!  This past week was a killer. I haven't been around anywhere online - not on here, not on Facebook, nowhere! 
Our little toystore had a big sale this past weekend and I worked both Saturday and Sunday.  Our prices are slightly higher than the Wal Mart we share a shopping center with but as my boss says, "Wal Mart won't wrap for you."  And they don't help you the way we do either.  So this past weekend I felt like I wrapped 1,000 presents.  The amount of sales we did, I damn near could have wrapped that many!  It has to be the biggest weekend of the store's year in sales.  I'm just a very part-time employee but my bosses don't make it a secret of what the sales are. 

So here is my little PSA and reminders to all of you out shopping this holiday season!  For the most part we had very nice customers. 

• BUT, your being unprepared and running late does not constitute and emergency on my part or the part of any other customers. 
• You being ill informed of a sale, does not mean I will stay late so your wife can rush down 5 minutes after closing on the last day of the sale. (I had a guy texting his wife to let her know about our sale AT CLOSING time because he stopped in with his daughter to pick something up.  This was on our last day of the sale.) 
• I'm sorry, but you will have to wait in line like everyone else. No, I won't just sneak you in and "ring you up real quick" or "wrap this up now because the party started 10 minutes ago". 
• Yes, it IS in my job description that I must verify large bills so please don't give me a dirty look as I hold your $100 bill up to the light that you are using to pay for a $3.20 purchase.  I'll do it to the next person as well because I've been told to.
• Sure, we wrap presents for you and we do an awesome job but your presents will have to wait in line like you did because all those people in line wanted wrapping done as well and it takes longer to wrap a GIANT box or 15 presents with different requests than it does to scan a few barcodes and run a credit card.
• You should be HAPPY I'm asking for your I.D.!  Please don't get annoyed that I am making sure they match.  You'd be even more pissed if someone stole it and was using it to spend $600 on toys for THEIR kid.
• Yes, I CAN hear you making those snide comments to the person in line next to you.  I really am going as fast as I can.  If you don't like it, go to Wal Mart where the lines are long, no one will help you select a great toy and they certainly won't wrap it for you.
• Every customer is equal.  Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not kissing your ass because you spent more.
• Would it kill you to smile? 
• Just because we haven't been able to get over to the sign and click off the "OPEN" sign does not mean it's cool to walk in 20 minutes AFTER we close and browse for awhile. 
• Really? You seriously want to make a Birthday Box when there are 10,000 people in this tiny store?  It's absolute imperative that you fill not one but TWO boxes TODAY when the birthday party isn't for a few weeks? (I know the woman who did this. She does not work so that's not what would restrict her.  Oh, missing 5 minutes of a nap time would kill her though. She's ultra scheduled and ultra "all-about-me-and-my-kids". You know the type that thinks that the seas should part because SHE HAS A CHILD!)
• When a postcard is sent out clearly stating that the sale excludes certain items, please don't argue with me. I will probably get fired over your $5 discount if I give it to you.
• When a coupon states that it cannot be used with any other sale, then don't present it to me on the day that the entire store is on sale.  And don't get snippy with me when I politely tell you I can't accept it with the sale.
• Other people can hear you and the way you speak to your kids.  WHY do you bring them to a toystore and then get mad at them when they ask you for things?!
• Please don't let your kids run wild in the store and destroy displays. 

So I'm asking you all this shopping season, PLEASE be kind to those around you - other customers, the staff working ANYWHERE (Hey, I wouldn't want to be at Wal Mart either!).  When I've done Black Friday shopping, I've always gone into it with the attitude that NO item is so important that I can't be nice to people.  I walk through the stores with a smile on my face.  I've encountered some nasty, crabby people on those shopping trips and I wonder what they think when I respond to their scowl with a smile?  Remember that yes, at least our store does really appreciate your business but we are still people working there and helping you. We have our own families as well. If we are not completely happy and upbeat, maybe remember that we have been hunched over a counter wrapping presents until our fingers ached.  Maybe the customer before you was particularly nasty to us and we have feelings too.  Maybe we haven't had time to pee or even get a drink of water in the past 5 hours.  Even though we use a cash register, it is still mentally draining to continually type, check, confirm, speak, repeat, repeat repeat for hours at a time all while hearing the comments, seeing the looks....  As I told FG when I got home on Sunday night well well past closing time, it is just mentally and physically draining to be that "ON".  We're climbing ladders, getting down heavy boxes, carrying akward items, wrapping, wrapping, wrapping.

Ok enough complaining. I'm back at it again today then I'm cooking Thanksgiving tomorrow.  The store is having another sale on Friday and I'm working that as well as Saturday day to cover for someone who wanted the day off.  I am just hoping I survive this holiday season!

PSA - Dryer vents!

Yesterday I knew our weather was going to be be drastically different starting today. So I did all the laundry and hung it on the clotheslines. I cleaned up the backyard toys that DD had scattered everywhere. I repotted an indoor plant so I didn't have to do it in the wind today. Most importantly, I had FG drag out the shop vac and take off the outside cover to the dryer vent. We did this last year as well and it was the first time we had done it since building this house. I was shocked last year when he sucked out an insane amount of lint. I figured, eh, 8 years worth of build up so it couldn't be too bad now.

HA! As he threaded the long hose into the vent, I lightly held onto it so I could feel when something was going through it. Again, scary amount of lint globs were being sucked out of the vent!

We had to buy a new dryer last year. I clean out the lint trap every load. I regularly take the indoor vacuum and stick the hose down the vent/lint trap of the dryer itself. A couple of times a year I pull the dryer out from the wall and clean out the vent in the back as well as the hose and the vent hole in the wall. It shouldn't surprise me but it does. I just can't believe that there was so much lint in the vent!

So a little PSA for you, before your weather gets nasty, take whatever vacuum you can and go stick the hose in the outside vent of your dryer. Your energy bill will thank you for it. (As well as your home since it can be a fire hazard - just ask my aunt who had hers catch on fire. Thank goodness she was home! Thus, I also never run my dryer when I'm not home!)