For some reason, it seems that every time an angry customer comes in, or some bizarre encounter happens, I'm working that day. Sally and I were working on a rather slow Saturday and the store had one customer inside. As she was leaving, we first thought "Yay. A breather." As she was exiting, it appeared that she was meeting her extremely thug-ish man candy outside to venture off to another store. When she passed him at the door, making it clear that they were absolutely not together, we both had minor panic attacks. Dressed in pants below his rear, a wife beater, cracked out facial expressions, and coated with body odor, we put our context clues together and realized this man was not in the right place. He walked in with his hands behind his back and his Afro far from being polished. Immediately, I came to the conclusion, we are about to get robbed.
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| Thug-Life |
When he first walked in, someone had called the store and Sal answered it. I could tell it was someone calling about the (scariest human being I've ever seen) man because Sally wasn't answering any typical questions and she was being very vague over the phone. Sally went up to him and asked "Do you need help find anything?" because she didn't want him to think A) he was incognito or B) that she was terrified of him (which we both were). He said he was just browsing and he walked past the counter and I made sure to check his hands because he was holding them as if concealing a gun. It was a tape recorder (later we found out it's a place where people store crack, seriously). He walked to the back of the store and looked at some magazines and then rolled out. The person on the phone was an employee from another store inside the shopping center warning Sally that he has been banned from it and making sure Sally wasn't alone. We called the new security guard, Terry (who is like a mini-bounty hunter), and he chased him across Youree Drive. Points for you Terry! At the end of this lovely encounter, we were both shaking and freaking out, but no worries, we're totally safe...for now (dum dum dum).
Another day I was working and this woman came in to return a pair of shoes. The return policy is that you have seven days to return shoes for store credit only. Simple, right? Not at all (apparently). I explained to her our return policy and pointed out where she initialed her receipt under the return policy and she would not accept that. I was being extremely kind because well, I didn't want to piss her off anymore. She told me she would never shop there again and began cursing me under her breath. After she left, there was a family consisting of a mother and her two daughters sitting in the back and they told me that I handled the situation as best as possible. The angry woman came back and demanded our "corporate" number. I told her we didn't necessarily have a corporate number but that she could have the owners phone number (the other two stores were closed because it was a holiday) and that she could call the next day when they were open. The manager at the time came out and gave her the number and told her that she could tell the owner she spoke to the manager as well. After raising hell for the second time, she left again. Third times a charm though! The store had about seven people in it and this woman opened the door and began shouting "DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM HERE. THEY WILL NOT COMPLY TO ANY KIND OF RETURNS. I'M GOING PUBLIC WITH THIS!!!!" Literally shouting, hence the caps lock being turned on. I was terrified. I also wasn't rude in anyway because I'm not an idiot and I wouldn't speak to a person/customer in any condescending way. What does going public mean? Is this a new Watergate Scandal? Tough love y'all. Tough love.
Update on LSUS:
New year, new school. I've had quite the eventful first-half-of-the-semester as a soaring Pilot (Go Pete!). My first English class went well, and then I realized that everyone participating was much more intelligent than I. Using intense words for such simple statements, like "I'm exasperated," just say you're tired dude. I went to my Philosophy class and sat in possibly the only broken seat in the classroom of 200 desks. Literally, it was being held together by two screws. Imagine me riding a mechanical bull except it was a small desk in the middle of 150 other students. On to my other English class, I've come to the realization that it's quite difficult to concentrate when three ass cracks are in my vision like "Hey, whats up?" I accidentally stole someones seat on the first day of Fine Arts. These two girls had an empty seat next to them so I figured, "hey, they look compatible, let's become friends." Another girl walked into class five minutes late and made contact with them and one of the girls said "We tried to save you a seat...but...(head nod towards me)" and the girl found another desk. If they wanted to save her a seat, they should have put some type of object on there to reserve it. I mean, granted, I moved one of their backpacks to the ground but how was I supposed to know? Just kidding. There really was nothing on it. Also in Fine Arts, I obnoxiously leaned backwards to stretch out my back (fine arts is SO exhausting!) and saw one of my friends, Trey. We made eye contact and I waved and then he looked repulsed and turned back to face the front of the room. Why is he being such a jerk? Why is he wearing an LSUS baseball hat and sitting with five other baseball players? Oh. Not Trey. Whoops. After I explained my awkward moment to Actual-Trey, I naturally began to take pictures of his twin so that I can have proof of his existence. None are turning out quite the way I plan, and he's beginning to catch on I think. This guy in my first English class has braces and I think he may go to the orthodontist every time we have class that day because he is constantly tapping/touching/rubbing/ them. It's just odd.
A friend that I made in Philosophy is a participant on the Debate team (National Champs, YEE-UH!) and mentioned that I should check it out. I thought this was a brilliant opportunity because I've never done anything of the sort and thought it would be really fun to meet some new people. Not a good idea at all. I've never participated/seen a debate so that was fault number one. Then I realized, I am the least bit argumentative or confrontational, and I am terrified to speak in public. Fault number two. I went to a couple of the practices though so I was legitimately on the team, but then I noticed how I would have panic attacks and start sweating nervously before them and realized I was driving myself into a state of anxiety. Everyone was really cool though, I think I just wanted to hangout and become friends with all of them without having to actually do anything. Kind of like the girl on Mean Girls who says "I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school... I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.." Yeah. Just like her.
Another friend of mine, "Liz", decided to choose me as her subject for a class project. Her assignment was to go up to a stranger on campus and ask them "What is the most interesting thing about you?" Since she wasn't going to go up to a stranger and ask them that, she asked me and I told her "My parents house is haunted." This resulted in the LSUS newspaper writing an article about me. The way I did the interview made all of the stories sound humorous and just plain weird and then the article comes out and it makes me sound like a scared little baby. Which I am. But I wasn't going to let the student body see my weaknesses
Article Showing That I'm a Huge Wuss.
if that link doesn't work, then here it is again! Whoo-hoo!
http://almagestlsus.com/latestnews/2012/10/12/i-always-feel-like-somebodys-watchin-me
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just had to fill you in on what's been going on. Talk to you all shortly. Love you.
