In my case, the addictions are pretty mild. Chocolate, green tea, baked treats. But I have slipped into relying on them to get through my day and my emotional stability is more than a little shot. So I'm going off of sweets, caffeine, white flour. Day 1 today.
This is what it looks like in my head right now:
Sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, shoogar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, SUGAR, sugar, SUGAR, sugar, SUGAR, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, suuuuuuuuugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, Sugar, sugar, SUGARSUGARSUGAR, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, sugar, c'mon, just one little Swedish fish and no one will know.
And dark chocolate is practically a vitamin.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Why customer service is an art form
Customer comes in making the kind of beeline for the desk that usually indicates an intention to pick up a special order; I greet him as he walks around two customers already in the store, who are half browsing but have also been somewhat engaged in conversation with me.
Customer (baseball cap, undershirt, 60's, a stranger to me): I have a question. I don't think you'll have it, but do you have "Woman in White?"
Me: Good question! I know that section pretty well, and I think we probably don't. (Checks computer.) We'd be happy to get it for you, but it's not in the store. We have stocked it before. Hmm. We sold it in '07, and it looks like it was just a slow seller.
Customer: (congratulating himself) I bet it was.
Me: But it's easy to reorder.
Customer: No, thanks. (wanders over to card spinners, other customers say goodbye and leave without making a purchase. I don't think they would have if I'd kept talking to them, since the conversation had led to hard-to-read questions about whether discussions at the Women of the World book club were feminist, but who knows?)
Me: (receiving books into inventory, making chitchat) I read "The Moonstone," but not "Woman in White."
Customer: You don't carry postcards.
Me: Sure we do. They're over here. (Walks to Syracuse Cultural Workers postcard display near register, brings them out onto counter.)
Customer: I can look at them myself.
Me: No problem. (goes back to receiving)
Customer: (snorts) "Resist Global Corporatocracy." Now, you can't send that to someone.
Me: Depends on the someone.
Customer: Maybe you can put it on the wall, but you can't send it to someone.
Me: (shrugs, keeps checking off books)
Customer: (browses cards a minute or two more) Well, thank you.
Me: Thank you for coming by.
Customer: (coming down on each word, sounding like he's correcting me this time) Thank you.
Customer (baseball cap, undershirt, 60's, a stranger to me): I have a question. I don't think you'll have it, but do you have "Woman in White?"
Me: Good question! I know that section pretty well, and I think we probably don't. (Checks computer.) We'd be happy to get it for you, but it's not in the store. We have stocked it before. Hmm. We sold it in '07, and it looks like it was just a slow seller.
Customer: (congratulating himself) I bet it was.
Me: But it's easy to reorder.
Customer: No, thanks. (wanders over to card spinners, other customers say goodbye and leave without making a purchase. I don't think they would have if I'd kept talking to them, since the conversation had led to hard-to-read questions about whether discussions at the Women of the World book club were feminist, but who knows?)
Me: (receiving books into inventory, making chitchat) I read "The Moonstone," but not "Woman in White."
Customer: You don't carry postcards.
Me: Sure we do. They're over here. (Walks to Syracuse Cultural Workers postcard display near register, brings them out onto counter.)
Customer: I can look at them myself.
Me: No problem. (goes back to receiving)
Customer: (snorts) "Resist Global Corporatocracy." Now, you can't send that to someone.
Me: Depends on the someone.
Customer: Maybe you can put it on the wall, but you can't send it to someone.
Me: (shrugs, keeps checking off books)
Customer: (browses cards a minute or two more) Well, thank you.
Me: Thank you for coming by.
Customer: (coming down on each word, sounding like he's correcting me this time) Thank you.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Calling on the power of blogging lost dogs
My parents' dog is named for Kosmo Kramer, from Seinfeld, but it's a name that suits her by how much she doesn't fit it. She's a pretty little skinny dog in between the size of a whippet and an Italian greyhound, with the coat of a yellow lab, with light freckles on her elegant paws. She's skittish about crossing hardwood floors and shy with strangers, and if she decides she's not going somewhere, sometimes the only thing to do is pick her up and take her there. She carries stuffed animals back to her bed. Socks, too, and shoes. If she wants to make friends with you she puts her head down and her paw up. But she has to check you out for awhile before she takes a risk like that.
She's been missing since this afternoon--there are workmen in the house, and she got freaked out, and a door was left open, and now she's somewhere away from home. She's been spotted around the neighborhood, and she has her tags on, but it's raining there, and night has fallen. My parents are worried, and second-guessing themselves.
So I'm asking you, if you're still reading this on your feed, to help out by doing whatever you can to get the lost-dog-found mojo going.
ETA, morning of 5/6/09: She came home!
She's been missing since this afternoon--there are workmen in the house, and she got freaked out, and a door was left open, and now she's somewhere away from home. She's been spotted around the neighborhood, and she has her tags on, but it's raining there, and night has fallen. My parents are worried, and second-guessing themselves.
So I'm asking you, if you're still reading this on your feed, to help out by doing whatever you can to get the lost-dog-found mojo going.
ETA, morning of 5/6/09: She came home!
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