Christmas in Retail. Three words that really should put the Fear Of God™ in to anybody who has ever worked a retail job. Ever. I know it’s almost over and sanity will once again be restored to this job that I generally love, but for the time being there’s a part of me that wants to run up the stairs, wish our mascot Benny good luck, and escape off…somewhere. Anywhere. Just not here. People are beginning to irritate me to no end, and not anybody in particular, not even just the especially annoying customers: Everybody who walks in the front door, even the person who is thankfully “just browsing”, is bugging me: the way he looks, the tone of her voice, the colour of that child’s jacket…it’s complete insanity, I know.
Positives: I guess the days go faster. I’m busy all the time. I’d like to say that I’m sleeping well at night because I’m tuckered out, but I’m actually lying awake at night for far too long envisioning the next day’s horrors in my mind.
And if I hear “Aye Aye Aye It’s Christmas” by Ricky Martin, or that absolutely horrendous “Shoes” song by NewSong (what kind of band name is that? What?), once more, I might go insane.
I sympathise. I worked in various malls for years; this was my first non-retail Christmas pretty much since high school. This whole going to grad school thing is really just about getting me the hell out of there.
The one that put me over the edge last year was “A Soldier’s Silent Night”, the spoken-word-narrated-by-Santa one. Gah. Didn’t hear it at all this year, thankfully. I hope you were as lucky.