Stress Cat

Ok, I got majorly overstressed the past two days but I’m untying it today to get ready for my trip.
A bit ago, HippyBngStocking, asked me what ONE thing I would change if I could in retail. I chose to answer that I would change name captures as this peeved me from both sides of a transaction. Well the second thing I would change is I would give mandatory lessons in courtesy, as I think common courtesy is as rare as common sense here in the U.S. ( not sure if either is more/less common north of the border). Basically in retail I gat shat apon on a regular basis by customers and every so often by managers covering their butts from customers… and that’s what happened on Saturday afternoon. A woman showed me that she was a member of another museum and wanted a discount. See this is one of the times that the gift store is at odds with the museum. The Museum wants people to come in and learn stuff- and is linked to other establishments with the same goals to share information and better raise money TOGETHER. The gift store’s goal is to make $, and as such wants to give as FEW discounts as possible- so although the museum is linked to other museums and will accept their memberships- in the store you HAVE to be a member of THAT museum to get a discount. I told the woman that we ONLY honor memberships from OUR museum. She got peeved and explained to me that the museum accepted her membership from another museum as did the food court. I re-stated that we only give discounts to people who are a member of OUR museum. She felt that I was being arrogant about it, when really I was just being tired. I had told the woman our policy and she tried to argue with me… so I was just repeating our policy. I can NOT tell you how many times a day people ask to use a membership of another museum, and I have to explain that in the gift store we don’t reciprocate as the museum does. Heck, we’ve sorta been told to stop asking if someone’s a teacher… as again they don’t WANT to give a discount.
After the woman complains that I’m giving her attitude- never mind that she’s radiating her own attitude of entitlement… I tell her if she wants I can call the manager over. I usually am quick to bring a manager over… However that said at Staples, the manager would more often then not capitulate giving the customer whatever they wanted AND then make me look like the bad guy because I was towing company line and didn’t have the power to flaunt the rules. ANYWAY, the customer didn’t ask me to call over the manager until after the transaction was done. The manager in question was Kenny Boy. Kenny backed me up; at first, stating as I said that we don’t give discounts to other museum members…. However Kenny then filled out an ‘incident report’ to cover HIS butt and show that he talked to the woman, who accused me of being rude[ again in my opinion pot calling brown kettle black]. While he stated in the report HE SHOWED ME that he felt I did nothing wrong… I still don’t like the fact that Kenny felt he had to fill out a report- because HE was afraid she might talk to the museum about me….

The other thing that stressed me out Saturday was when I got home and found a past due cable bill. The bill was DUE on Tuesday and doing the math I realized that I wouldn’t be able to MAIL it in… So I figured I’d have to get up this morning early (which I did) and then travel a good hour or two out of my way to pay it at a service center. It wasn’t until 8am that I realized I could pay over the phone… which I did. Man, I would’ve saved a bunch of stress (and maybe have gotten an hour more of sleep) had I realized this. I guess I didn’t think of it because usually I pay bills with checks and I NEVER want to give companies permission to siphon off my bank account unless I have to (like with pay pal). Fortunately, I was able to do a one time payment on my cable bill- which also does my internet service.
And I should mention one of the other reasons this stressed me out was I need my hair to be buzzed- and I figured it wasn’t gonna get done unless it got done this( Monday) morning before my trip ( as I shove out at about 9am tomorrow for my noon flight). So I’ve got my time back because I was able to remember to phone it in… so I’m mellowing as bill is paid and I’m going to leave at 9am to ask my friend to buzz my hair- and I don’t have to be at work until 11am.

The next thing that spiked my stress levels was talking to my younger brother. I told my ½ brother that I was going to Cali shortly after I booked things, just in case he wanted to join me and our older brother. I did this for two reasons- a) I sorta like my younger brother and b) he has yet to see our niece… He called me last night and I found out that I was sending email to the wrong account. That sorta pissed me off, as while I have several yahoo accounts I still try and check them on a regular basis… just in case. I also was pissed as I’m pretty sure I told our dad about the trip, and not hearing from younger bro, and he explained that younger bro was BUSY… so I assumed that younger bro was too busy to get back to me. UGH. Oh well.
However on the positive front, after playing phone tag with my step brother- as he’s been working late in Cali and I’ve been going to bed early in Ma. which makes it hard to call each other… we’ve arranged at least one outing. I told him that I wanted to go to Alcatraz and he mentioned neither he nor his gf have been. So yesterday I ended up buying tickets for me, them and my older brother’s step daughters( as apparently they too have never been). I got a bit annoyed at the web site which seemed to be acting up as I had to print the 5 PAGES for all of our tickets. Likewise I got a bit peeved as 2/3rds of each page was taken up by color ads, several telling me to recycle- which sorta pissed me off as they were taking up MY color ink… and a portion of the page, which could’ve been used for the NEXT ticket.
Oh and was a little irked that this trip is costing MORE money now as I’m taking them all to Alcatraz- but oh well. I did however make it clear if they wanted to go see a baseball game( Giants V. Cubs) I would NOT pick up the tix, but would kick in some money. Now I wonder if I’ll be able to get any micro beer on my trip… though that said I WILL make time to go to the Cartoon Art Museum- with or without my bro’s step kids.

And yeah- I don’t really understand my stressing about my hair. I mean a couple of years ago if my hair was too long, well that was that… But I guess since I’m trying to be in good shape- I’m paying perhaps a bit too much attention to my looks. Sad state of affairs to ala my mom be so shallow that I’m worrying about the fact that my buzz hasn’t been done in a week or two… or the fact that I’m not sure if I want to wear some of my XL fanboy tees while with Evan because I might want to wear something that fits a bit better.

Also, have been stressing about meeting Evan for the first time. While I’m sure this stress is ungrounded, nevertheless it’s there… It could be because I’ve changed in the past 8(?) years- getting older and more bitter… Plus we don’t play the games together anymore, nor do either of us read as many comics as we did… So I’m sure we’ll have stuff in common, but will we have AS MUCH AS WE DID?
Then there’s the fact that I’ve never meet him and his brood and yet I’ll be staying with them… I try to be a good house guest but even when I sorta invited myself to Mark’s (to see Weird Al with him) I had met him before. Likewise when I met Adam, I stayed at a hotel nearby as I showed up during the week and didn’t want to impose… so I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t drive Evan or his wife INSANE while staying there… even though I’m pretty sure we’ll have a bang up time.

Anyway even though I gain time with paying my bill over the phone I still have to go. So this is it until I get back. I’m sure I’ll post at least a pic of me and Evan when I get back. ( IF he doesn’t kill me with Mr. Pointy… then HE might post the pic to pretend that I’m still alive…)