On this day at work...

Today, I had - by far - my worst day at work to date. Here is why:

1. A rather crochety older woman in a wheelchair accompanied by her husband came up to my register with 3 perfumes, 3 lotions, and 3 shower gels. Two of our current promos are that you can get a free lotion with each perfume purchase and that if you buy three Signature collection items, you can get three free. Well, she took that to mean she could get six items for free by simply purchasing the three perfumes. I explained to her that we couldn't combine the promotions that way, and she looked at me, smirked, and said, "Well, you're going to have to learn how to do it then, aren't you?" I went and got the manager, who let me override the transaction so the woman could get what she wanted. When the manager walked away, the woman says, "See, you learned something today." I held my tongue, silently completed the transaction, wished them a good day, and prayed to God for grace in my heart toward her.

2. A customer came in with her screaming child, who grabbed everything within arm's reach, stuck it in his mouth, and threw it on the floor when he was done. She kept looking at everything, all around the store, saying she was "in a rush." She stayed in the store for over half an hour, took forever checking out (because she kept trying to get a better deal on her purchases), and then stayed in the store for another ten minutes or so before finally leaving. We all needed Advil afterward.

3. Our district manager was there for a couple hours, and you could feel the tension in the air. I'll leave it at that.

However, all things considered, it really wasn't a bad day. Both Ellen (neighbor and church friend) and Kristy (church friend) came by with big smiles, which cheered me up. Most of the customers were very friendly and thankful for the efficiency of the transactions and the effort of gift-wrapping.

And to top it all off, near the end of my shift, this very flamboyantly homosexual man strides up to the counter with his friend and says, "Okay, girls, I have a Christmas party to go to in, like, a nanosecond, and I need a gift bag. For my Secret Santa. She's around thirty. I know nothing about her. Help me!" It cracked us up.

I was also a bit on a high from our young adult community group last night. We went caroling around our town to various people's houses from church, "surprised" the youth group at church with caroling (Justin - the youth pastor - knew we were coming), and then had games and a gift exchange at our house. It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad everyone came and was blessed.

Okay, that's all for now, because if I stay up any longer, I'm going to get the munchies. And I do not need that.