belligerent

that is the only way i can describe the customer we had tonight.

and i think, many times, people use belligerence to their advantage.

sure, my kid co-worker threw the customer's receipt in the trash (not a good idea). but the customer didn't have to be an ass while he demanded a new one.

it's all about the way we go about things. the tone.

i saw him stuffing the signed receipts for his credit card into his wallet. and i asked for them politely.

i need those sir.

they are my copies.

no sir, i need those.

i would not budge until he handed them over.

ultimately, i gave the guy what he wanted just to get rid of him. i don't have time to watch my kids being badgered, and it was all i could do to step in between these two puffed up males and keep the peace.

make the drink,

i kept saying.

and finally, my co-worker did.

one customer came in early tonight and caught me at the top of my downward spiral (actually, it wasn't that bad. i was able to keep a positive mood going until this jerk frustrated me).

so when i'm talking to my kid co-worker, the nice customer walks up, and i said,

i'm trying to become one of those people whom nothing affects. who let everything roll off my back.

he smiled at me.

but it's not working. i have to scream first.

he said,

it's called a primal scream.

yes,

i said. cause this guy walked up in the midst of my venting about my well meaning co-workers on the mid-shift (the kids, sigh).

they think they are helping by doing all the "work" of the evening shift, freeing me up to "clean" (smile here, what else can you do), and focus on sampling.

but when i walked in, the place looked like a bomb hit it, i kid you not. chocolate sauce slathered on cupboards and on the dish areas of the sink (where you set the dishes before they go into the basin).

empty coffee pots (that one i love, truly). because when it comes to coffee, people are patient as the day is long.

and no lids (well, there was one, but it is supposed to be non-dairy only) lids for the blender pitchers (of which there were only three, one being the non-dairy pitcher). we go through three pitchers in five seconds at my joint, and where are all the pitchers and lids? steeping in cold, yuckified dish water.

now, on a good day, hell, on a bad day, i can handle any of these variables. but all at once, when they leave me working alone because my young co-worker forgot he was working (and they wished me the best, but couldn't tell me when he'd be in).

i get a little irked.

i try not to, but i think, even mother teresa would be screaming if she worked there today.

and i'm amazed that leaving all the cleaning for me is the answer to the issues that arise when i say,

i can't do all the cleaning alone.

what is the answer then?

i genuinely don't know.

we spent the night, not focused on samples or shit like that. just getting the place back to a controllable level of chaos.

i've learned a grocery store, the amount of stock in the back that all has to come out, and the bzillions of signs and customers and carts, the whole place is pretty wild. add into that mix a service business with an impatient (generally, we do get some very patient, gracious, i would do anything for them customers) customer who needs their fix.

primal scream.

that's what i need to do.

that or just the best i can, then go home as fast as possible.

i just realized, i forgot what i went up to the office to do before i came home. perhaps i'll remember before it's urgent. perhaps not.

this is what happens at jobs though, i'm sure.

but when the asst. manager who orders all the mixes and stuff "forgets" to place an order, just like that, it leaves us all scrambling. and i'm not sure how to help my boss, maybe i should tell her about the primal scream.