And shove it

My parents have arrived. I have suddenly become "sick" and must take tomorrow off. I think we might need to go to the mall to make me feel better. Maggie might need to dress up in one of her holiday outfits and maybe visit Santa as well. Speaking of Santa, one time in college, some of us sat on Santa's lap and had our pictures made. I think it was in college. That's kind of weird. It probably would have been weirder if it had happened in 2007 and we had all been wearing low rise jeans and tight shirts from Hollister. Instead, I bet we were wearing giant Express sweatshirts and light denim jeans. Ew.

My junior year in college (I think), I worked at Bath and Body Works during the Christmas season. My roommate was a BBW goddess and worked there as well. She had a whole rack of product from there. I was jealous. I think I'm still trying to re-create that rack of shower gels and lotions at my house. I got in big trouble at the BBW one time because the assistant manager told me that I was not being very friendly to the customers and I needed to be more cheerful. I think I went on anti-depressants shortly after that. No, just kidding. I liked that job if I could stand behind the counter and ring people up. If I had to go out on the floor, I hated it. Speaking of working on the floor at a job, I worked at the now defunct HomePlace the summer after my first year of teaching. I HATED it. It was the most mind-numbing job ever and the shifts were about 20 hours long. I had to work on the bed and bath side and I got to fold a zillion towels and walk around and look for people to help. One time I found this cart FULL of stuff and I thought it had been abandoned so I started putting all the merchandise away and then the lady to whom the cart belonged appeared and got mad at me for putting all of her carefully chosen crap back on the shelves. Then one day, I was on my way to work and I turned right and got on the highway and went to the mall and never went back to HomePlace again. Well, except for when I sneaked back in and picked up my check when the manager wasn't around.

I also worked at Dairy Queen in high school and I mostly liked that job. For a while, I thought that might be the JOB for me and I wouldn't ever work anywhere else. Yeah, right. They had this tile floor behind the counter and when it got wet, it got SO slippery. Once I was carrying a gigantic red Mr. Misty drink (which is like a slushie and they have since changed the name because some people thought that it might be a slur on homosexuals. Okay.) and I slipped and fell down and I looked like I was an extra in a horror movie or something. My mom always told me that she wouldn't want to buy a thing from me if she was a customer at the DQ because I got so disgustingly dirty there. Another time I was really rude to a customer at the drive through and then it turned out that the customer was the parent of one of my friends. And then I started crying.

Another job that I had was working as a server at a Milliken Guest House and it was so super fun. My shifts were from 2-10, which was awesome. I learned how to fold napkins in a fancy way (that I have since forgotten), and set a table with 10 pieces of silverware per place setting. Milliken makes carpet, in case you did not know and one time, I was carrying a tray with about 8 glasses of iced tea on it and I was trying to get a door open and I dumped the tray all over the place. I apologized about a hundred times and the men who were dining at the Milliken Guest House did not care because they said the Milliken carpet could take it. They also had this specialty drink called a Golden Cadillac, which was made with vodka, creme de cacao, Galliano and vanilla ice cream. Oops, I gave away their secret recipe. Anyway, we had to make those in this gigantic industrial mixer and sometimes we had to taste them to make sure they were alright. They always were.

And tomorrow is November 30 which is the last day of NaBloPoMo and YAY! I never thought I would be so dedicated to this.