Three Nice Things about Me -- Day 21

 

My blogging buddy, Kwizgiver, wrote a post that really resonated with me. She detailed how self-care helped her helped her prevail during a (ridiculously) tough month. Her tips were very wise and so doable! So she has inspired me to take one and integrate it into my own life.

Since I can be a pretty harsh self-critic, this is the one I chose. I hope I can do this every day during March. By then it should be a habit, right?

Three nice things about myself -- March 21:

1) I redeemed myself. I distressed a card shop customer today (see post below) but I also did well. Two 20-somethings wandered into the store while my bosses (Jen and CeeCee) and I were having a lively conversation about which items we wanted to buy for ourselves. We said "hi" to the girls, told them to ask if they needed help finding anything, and went back to yakking. There was something tentative about the way they were browsing, so I peeled away and approached them. Turns out they were foreign tourists who were overwhelmed by our store, which I think appears cluttered. In heavily-accented, broken English, one of them asked for our "leathers." I still don't know what word she was trying to say, but she mimed opening a book and scribbling. JOURNALS! I took them over to that bookshelf and introduced them to our prettiest hardcover journals. They each chose one. I made a sale of about $65 and they left smiling. Best of all, Jen and CeeCee saw I could take the initiative and do good.

2) I'm trying to accentuate the positive. I know I should think more about my success at the card shop today and not my fuck up. So that's what I'm trying to do. Positive self-talk! I like that I realize I'm a work in progress.

3) I had the green beans. I ate a lot of crap today, but I did have a bowl of green beans while I was watching TV. Not a conventional snack, but I like that I'm making gut-healthy choices.

 

"Has no one ever redeemed a gift card before?"

I messed up. One of the downsides to only working 2 days/week is that I don't do the same things over and over often enough to build muscle memory. Consequently the cash register still feels like my adversary, and today I pissed a customer off.

She came in today with a store gift card. I have not checked the value on a card since right after Christmas. I admit it: I forgot how. I had to call Jen over. I apologized to the customer and she said it was OK. That was then.

When she was done shopping, I rang her up and her total was $118. The value on her gift card was $75. I asked her if she wanted me to take some of the items off her total. I said I'd be happy to go it with her item by item to get her back down to $75.

"No," she said, she wanted to split the payment between gift card and credit card. She added that she was in a hurry.

I have never done this before. Once again, I had to ask Jen. It was humbling to watch her manicured nails dance across the register. Then, wouldn't you know it, the customer's credit card was rejected. Now that was not my fault, but still, she was in a hurry and every part of her transaction was going wrong.

"Has no one ever redeemed a gift card before?" she asked, clearly pissed.

I told her the problem was likely with the credit card terminal and I had to ring her up at the other register. I apologized. I acknowledged she was in a hurry and took responsibility as we had to go through the whole thing again. 

As I finally handed over her purchase, I again thanked her for being patient with me. She softened a bit and thanked me for helping her, which was gracious under the circumstances.

I was in the break room when my boss CeeCee got in. When she came back to hang up her jacket, I told her all about it. "I heard," she said. "Don't worry about it. You're doing great."

Yeah, well, the fact that Jen told her about it right away makes me think I'm not doing great.

I am lucky in that I work at a card shop, not a grocery store or drug store. Nothing is a matter of life or death and our customers are generally in a good mood. Even when I fuck up.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash