Tis’ the Season to be Jolly

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

I love the sounds. I love the smells.

I love giving. I love receiving. I love the love.

There is honestly only one downside to the holiday season for me. Anyone else who works in retail knows exactly what I’m talking about…

The Christmas rush.

The stores are flooded with frustrated, agitated parents… often accompanied by sniveling, screaming, whiney children, who leave their shopping to the last minute and get angry and wonder why the products are no longer in stock.

HELLO! It’s the third week of December, what do you expect!?

So, shoppers… for future reference:

We’re retail workers, not your personal slaves. We’re paid low wages, work crazy hours and get little usable time off. We don’t need your attitude on top of all of that.

You’re not special. Nothing about you warrants any type of special discount or deal not advertised for the rest of the city. Don’t get mad when we turn down your crazy pleas to save a little money.

When you pick up an item and then decide you don’t want it, don’t just throw it in some random place. Just like you want to find the gifts you’re looking for, so does everyone else… so when you ditch that product, it’s just another gift someone else can’t find. Oh yeah, AND WE HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP.

Speaking of cleaning, it is absolutely disgusting to leave your Tim Horton’s/Starbucks coffee cups around the store. And what makes you think anyone wants to pick up that nasty tissue you blew your nose with? That’s disgusting.

And on the topic of disgusting, when I come to work in the morning the washrooms are clean and smell nice. As the day go on, it’s a completely different story. CUSTOMERS are the reason the washrooms are a mess, so instead of complaining, how about not throwing your used paper towels all over the floor, not urinating on the floor or the toilet seat and what about flushing the toilet when you’re done using it. I seriously doubt any of you act this way at home, and if you do, I’m thankful I’ll never have to use your washroom.

The list could go on and on.

So, when you’re not greeted with a smile or a friendly voice in your local toy/electronic/department store, don’t be surprised. There is a reason why retail workers get put into such bad moods during the holiday season.

Be nice to your retail workers! Our job sucks.

A Year in Review

Aaaand, I’m back.

I completely forgot about blogging this entire year. I know, awful… but I am going to do my best in 2011 to keep up with my writing, even in small spurts.

So, to start things off, let’s review my year on a month-by-month basis.

January/February: These months are a bit of a blur. Nothing really stands out to me.

March: Ah, the beginning of my many health problems this year and the first visit to the ER for problems with my jerk of a liver.

April: Full of lovely, painful gallbladder attacks and a doctor telling me there was nothing wrong with me.

May: Had my first MRI, dealt with a liver specialist and was passed onto a surgeon who made the decision to finally fix my problem – or so he thought!

June: Doctors finally decide to fix me, and my gallbladder is removed.

July: Lots of fun softball practices with the Best Buy guys and gals. We ended up coming in third in our tournament, but ask anyone… we should have been first!

August: Met the greatest guy I’ve met in a long, long time and had the best week of my entire year. You can’t go wrong with fun, sun, drinks and great company.

September: A month full of partying, enough that an average person might consider our Sunday night drinks at BP a problem.. the waitresses sure didn’t.

October: Had a great birthday with great people. Another party-filled month, leading to a not-so-party-filled month.

November: Enjoyed a week-long hospital stay, fully equipped with painful procedures, way too many blood tests and a very not-so-friendly night nurse.

December: Tons of awesome Christmas-y goodness. Great friends, great family, great time… couldn’t ask for more.

I guess you could say my year wasn’t terrible. Aside from health issues, I met and got closer with a lot of amazing people. I’m thankful for everyone and everything I have in my life… looking forward to 2011 with all of you!