So, I’m kicking off my first day off in 10 days. I’m at the ‘puter, got NPR on the radio, coffee brewing, husband, children, and parents have left the house: I’m a happy camper. 🙂
I’ve got a chit-ton of stuff to do today. We’re having a garage sale tomorrow. I’m selling all our baby gear. Which has been a bit of crisis for me, watching the fishy swing (God, Linnea LOVED that thing! She spent hours and hours and hours in it…it literally saved her colicky little butt, because when I didn’t know what else to do with 8 pounds of screaming newborn: into the fishy swing she went); Sarah’s pink Boppy papa san-type chair (it was so soft, and I didn’t have anything pink, since all our baby gear was gender neutral, but when I saw this little seat I wanted the PINK one. It had the mother’s heartbeat sound, and she would snuggle down in there, and just sleeeeeeeeeep. SO sweet); the baby bathtubs, the Pack ‘n Play, the baby stroller all be relegated to the “sell” pile. I told M, “I don’t particularly want another baby, but I’m really sad we won’t have another baby.” He just grinned at me and said, “And if we do, we’ll get new stuff!” He drives me crazy. He really does. One day he’s talking about getting “tutored” and the next day he pops off with something like that. Give a girl’s ovaries some consistency, willya? 😉 We’re selling a TON of baby clothes, a lot of Fashion Emporium stuff, some household goods, M’s XBox (yes, the green-eyed HoBox is going up for grabs…), and other things that I decreed could go, since we hadn’t needed it, used it, or missed it in a year. We’re keeping our books (since we purged those pretty ruthlessly in the move), our kitchen supplies, and our art, and that’s about it, except for furniture.
Seeing our stuff again? Makes me miss having our own place.
Watching what’s happening on Wall Street? Makes me glad we’re coming to a better place financially and can help Mom and Dad the way they’ve helped us the last year.
NEWS ON THE JOB FRONT
A committee of other chaplains has been convened. None of the people I had hoped would be on there, but M says they are actually better people to have on the committee, as they are sort of the “senior” members of the chaplaincy staff. They’ve been chaplains a long time, the directors trust them to give a good recommendation, and M thinks they’re all fabulous people. Now, we just have to coordinate the schedules of five adults who work full-time. Granted, they can leave their work in the middle of the day in order to interview me, but since my boss doesn’t know that I’m actively searching for another job: my schedule is the stickler. And when I’ve got schedules when I don’t have a day off in ten days? Not so easy to schedule around.
So, there’s movement, and it’s good movement, and it probably does seem like it’s taking a long time, but really: this has all gone down in less than a month, which is pretty darn quick for religious types. 🙂 My goal is to not being Fashion Emporiuming it at Thanksgiving. That’s what I want.
The retail environment is tough right now. Our store is doing pretty well, all things considered. We’re consistently in the black, but it’s harder and harder to get there and stay there. When times are tight, women don’t want to/can’t spend $100 on a jacket or $90 on a blouse, or $80 on a pair of pants. And we can argue that our clothing will last longer than the $20 pants they buy at Penney’s, but it’s easier to come up with $20 now and worry about needing new pants when you need new pants than it is to come up with $80 and say, “Pants, forsooth! I’m set for pants for the next 8 years!” Plus, women are starting to get just plain bitchy! The other night I had to take an $888 RETURN on merchandise she’d already worn and had owned for 2+ years. Her excuse? She didn’t like it. We’ve got a “no problem” return policy, and so I had to take all that clothing back, because she had all her receipts. And she’s not the only one pulling this shit, she’s just been the ballsiest and gotten the most money back. What’s wrong with people?
So, I’m ready to be out. Be done. Not have to stand on my feet for 8 hours a day. Not have to smile and say, “Please come see us again!” after handing over most of the contents of my cash register to a woman who (as far as I’m concerned) just robbed me. Not have to be held accountable for every penny I made (or didn’t make) in my shift. Because what I want to do is be with people.
A customer of ours lost her husband to cancer. She came into the store, and I went over to her and expressed my deep condolences, and gave her a hug. She called home office and raved about how I make our store “the store with heart”. I had a customer come in to order a dress for a wedding, and I asked her a simple question (where would she like to have the dress sent) and she started to unload about how she was taking care of her parents who were very ill, and how her mother has dementia, and her dad’s head was bleeding and nearly exploded, and how while she was up in Seattle with her dad, her mother fell and broke her hip quite badly. She went on and on and on and on about her life, and I just let her talk and get it out. Then I asked a very “pastoral care-y” question, “Who is taking care of you in all this?” and she stopped cold, looked at me, and started to cry. She said, “No one has ever asked me that before.” And then, once again, I’m left with a customer crying in my arms on the sales floor. I had a daughter of a customer call yesterday. Her mother had died, and she wanted her mother removed from the Fashion Emporium mailing list. I explained that we couldn’t do that at the store level, but gave her the customer service number. Then we stayed on the phone while she cried, and talked about how much we at the Fashion Emporium meant to her mother, and how much joy visiting our store brought her, and how the daughter just couldn’t believe how kind I’d been to her.
THAT’S what I want to be doing. Not selling pants. And I think that God has given me this slew of ministry opportunities to highlight that fact, and to keep me sane in my job. It’s like he’s saying, “Yes, Beege, I know, you’re tired of selling pants and you want to get back into ministry. You keep bringing that up, and really: I’ve got it. I’m working on it, but in the meantime, here: take care of these ladies for me, OK? That’s a good girl.”
OK. Coffee’s been done for awhile, and those baby clothes ain’t pricing themselves out there. I’d better get to work. Enjoy your Friday–I’m planning on enjoying mine! 🙂
Mairsy Dotes 