Tips on avoiding contact with customers during the Christmas season

I hate talking to customers during the holiday shopping season. Everyone is crazy. Associates are crazy and mad, customers are crazy and mad. No one is happy, really. Since I can't really avoid associates (they have to pass through my domain twice a day minimum), I like to avoid customers like the plague. Here are some tips:

1. Avert your eyes. Do not greet or smile at customers. If you don't look at them, it's harder for them to stop you.
2. Walk fast and with a purpose. If you look like you're in a rush, people don't want to bother you.
3. Whenever possible, carry a large and difficult package or boxed kitchen appliance. If you're carrying something heavy and difficult, customers aren't going to stop you.
4. Keep to the sidelines. Only go out when absolutely necessary and when going out keep to the periphery of the store.
5. Wear jeans. Jeans make it clear that you are not a floor employee and do in fact belong in the stock room.
6. Carry a PDT, or other important looking retail device. I don't know what that stands for, but it's the thing that prints price tags. You carry that and walk with purpose, no one really messes with you. You are on a mission to get them a better deal. Not them personally, but they get the picture.
7. If all else fails, go with the "I don't know I'm only the gift wrapper" bit. This is helped by having lots of ribbon on your person.

Over the moon

My parents invested in a humidifier a while ago (one year ago?) and now it's sort of broken. It sounds like a hairdryer. Now I am actually a huge fan of white noise but this is driving me bonkers. It's sounds like a mix of water going through the pipes in the walls, my mom drying her hair, and the vent above the stove. It's a little overstimulating.

Last night I looked up my fall term grades for this year. Oh boy, was I ever surprised! I expected to do really poorly in Art History 101. There was this thing at the end of the term where I didn't know when the assignment was due and sent it in but the prof refused to accept it and threatened to fail me. That was nerve-wracking, but it all worked out in the end. I prayed a lot, thought positively a lot. Things worked out. I got a B-. My other grades were fine. Reasonable, expected. But that one, boy am I ever thankful.

I have also started running. This is pretty interesting for me because my hips and knees are really bad from years of Irish dancing. Alex runs a lot and tells me about all kinds of visualizations she does to make it easier. One she likes is visualizing running a marathon. I tried that. It went something like this:

"Oh hey guys, how's it going? Yeah, we don't have to far. Great weather, eh? Oh, okay. Yeah, catch you later. Oh, hey guys. What? Oh sure. No, sorry for getting in your way. No problem. The finish line already? Yeah, sure I'll take this gold medal."

That was me unexpectedly winning a marathon. Another one I like is where I pretend to run with Alex and we catch Becky and Matt doing aerobics along the way and maybe Shannon on her bike. I also watch Legally Blonde while I run and listen to Moby's Play. Funny.