Oh, in "story" news, I have customer service story from last week that still gets me HOT mad when I retell it. So, I'm in my bookstore, doing bookstore things, when this customer sails in, on his cellphone, chatting away to his wife, as I take it. From the one side of the conversation I can hear, I gather he is in to buy gifts for a group of people. He gets off the phone and starts perusing our discount tables. After 10 or 15 minutes, he comes up with a book in his hand - its a hardcover picture book about Kensington Market in Toronto - rather nice little book, if I may say so myself. He asks if we have any more as he needs 14 of them in total. I say we only have 6 in this store. He says fine, and says he'll look around for something else - I ask if I can help him find something, and so he tells me he's trying to buy gifts for his kids teachers for end of the year presents. I suggest some cookbooks that we have in stock - he needs 8 to make up the 14. I spend some time looking out books, show him several, no, no no. I held up a really nice summer cookbook, which we have 10 of, and he says (as if I should have known pyschically) "well, they're Jewish teachers and I dont think they would appreciate a cookbook with a picture of shrimp on the front!" Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me! Fine, so I put that away and leave him to do his own browsing. I've helped enough. Another 10 minutes or so go by and I'm up at the front cash. He brings up a stack of hardcover cookbooks, with an Italian countryside theme on the front - nice looking books. He asks me what I think about them. I flip open the book and the first page I opened had a picture of a big pie with 6 dead, cooked birds sitting on top, heads, feet and all. I said "ewww" and he said "what, you dont like it?" I said, "well it's a nice book but the first page I saw had all these dead birds on it, and they look a lot worse than those yummy barbequed shrimp on that other cookbook. He was on his cell phone at this point, conferring with the missus, and I heard him say to her, "I had just picked out this cookbook but the sales girl pointed out a page with dead birds on it" (like I did it on purpose) So he gets off the phone and says, "well I really want these Kensington books - do you have anymore in any of your other locations?" I said we had 10 more at the store down the road. He said "fine, I'll pay for them all here" I said "I can't ring in the ones at the other store here, as I can't ring in more books than we have in stock in this store as the cash registers arent all connected" He looked at me as if I said something rude, and started storming around the store saying things like "I dont understand - it's a simple process, why wont you just do it, it's not that complicated" in a loud, angry voice. I said, "If you just pop down there, they can have the books at the front cash for you ready to pay for.." he interrupts with "do you know how busy I am? I have so many things to do this weekend, I dont have time to go to another bookstore - I dont want to have to park my car and go in - why dont you just call them up, give them my credit card number over the phone, have them ring the sale through then have someone stand out on the side walk, I'll drive up and they can put the books in my car while I sign the credit slip" - Oh yes, why dont I call them up and have them do that - because that is such a REASONABLE REQUEST you freak! At this point he was absolutely raging at me and there was no way I was going to even think about making that happen. Who did he think he was, some kind of diva rock star? A colleague of mine stepped in at this point because he was concerned for my safety. Mr Anger Management took exception to this as now it was 2 against 1 and continued his rant, calling my coworker a dick in the process. At this point I said "That's enough! Both of you!" (hahahaha) Blah blah blah, the man paid for the 6 books and stormed off, taking our names down and asking for the owners name and number. 10 minutes later I got a call from the store where the owner works (altho it was the evening and I knew he wouldnt be in) from a part timer there, who said "I've got some maniac on the phone - what happened?!" To make a long story short (too late) the guy wouldnt take "the owner isnt in right now and, no, we wont give you his home number" for an answer, so the employee called the owner, who called me, I explained that the man was bonkers and the owner said he would deal with it. All this for some end-of-the-year teachers gifts that could have been bought a week earlier and saved everyone a lot of hassle. Fuck customers.

Well. It only took me 11 interviews but I seem to have landed my internship for the summer. Halellujah (sp?) as my mum said earlier today. My sentiments exactly. The last few weeks have been somewhat trying, one might say. Some interviews were short and sweet (or not so sweet) and I kind of just figured that they didnt want me - fine. Other places had me in for more than one interview, then after 2 or 3 I would find out I didnt make the team. Some interviews, the person I had arranged to meet wasnt available when I arrived so I met with someone else who had no authority to hire me - SIGH. But the place which has so kindly taken a Humber High grad on for the summer is one of the interviews that went really well. I had 2 with them, met with three different people, we all had a laugh or two (inevitably I said stupid things but apparently they either didnt catch what I said or didnt mind that I shoved my foot in my mouth during the interview - ie. "Are you a left brain or right brain thinker?" Sio says: Oh, definitely a left brainer, yep, I'm a lefty alright" (Meanwhile, back at the ranch, left brain = logic and right brain = creative - and as we all know, sometimes logic isnt one of my strengths) ARGH!

Anyhoo - yay me.