My day in hell....

Usually a day in the needlework shop is a good day...except when you have a summer cold and you are working from 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Connie wasn't busy on her morning shift yesterday so I was figuring I would cruise through the morning shift...WRONG! I arrived to find them waiting to get in which means I was on the go instantly from the time I opened the door....wow!!! But I still held out hope I would sit for a major part of the day...WRONG! Pat and I worked to get out the cartons which arrived yesterday and just as we finished them here came UPS with 6-8 more cartons...are you kidding me? I just looked at Pat and wanted to cry. So then she and I started on the new stuff, with 1/2 the energy that we worked on the first cartons. I was losing ground fast...Pat is like the energizer bunny...honestly she works from sun up to sun down and never loses her pace. I on the other hand, had to stop to drink water, hack all over myself, and then get back in the swing of things. At least we did have stitchers in today so that made things easier. Having to deal with the cartons and stupid questions would have put me over the top so I was glad to have stitchers here. I swear I did a blog since this one which I wrote on Tuesday, but in any event...it's now Thursday and I have to tell you...I'm not getting any better at handling the tourist season. Fortunately for me I had some of my "peeps" in yesterday when Molly L., Sandy G., and Joan D. came in. We had fun chatting, comparing projects or at least talking about what we were or were not working on and as they were about the leave, in fact they were walking to the door...Joan did the unimaginable. She stopped at the front rack, pulled the Carousel Charm display out and asked if I had any more. I was a little slow on the uptake and thought she meant the kit so I answered sure, they are on the rack right beside you. And then she uttered the words I have come to dread, "Oh, you mean I have to make it." And the worst part, she wasn't kidding. Molly and Sandy looked at me, and I just was in shock that a stitcher would walk in this shop and say those words. Needless to say, Joan was a good sport as we gave her a 5 minute lecture on what she did wrong. I'm sure she won't ever ask that again, especially not in front of me. Luckily, she's one of my "peeps" and we allow them faux pas. Unfortunately today I had many non-stitchers in..."Oh, I don't do needling." What the hell is needling, but believe me I wasn't about to ask that woman. But with the weather on the overcast side...it was a full day of shopping for people and they really, as usual, didn't even look at which shop they were going in so I spent the day explaining that we sold the kits not the finished pictures and prayed that Connie came in early to get me out of here. I went from the shop to my little room to get a nap before the night shift and when I came back into the office all hell had broken loose. I'm telling you it's dangerous to leave this place for more than 10 minutes. Sara was at my desk having a hissy fit and trying to print a paycheck (a final paycheck) and was so upset she was unable to do it. So I took over while she explained what prompted it. Apparently one of the foreign students, who she caught sleeping in a room she was suppose to be cleaning last week, thought it was approxpriate to lay her head down on the counter in the Bikini Shoppe and take a little snooze. Needless to say, today was Val's last day. Gone ... one down, God knows how many to go. But this should straighten up the attitude of the other foreign workers...well actually we have a good group, perhaps a couple of bad apples, but basically a good group this year. Anyway, I'm alive and almost well in Ocean City and looking forward to fall.