I'm dreaming of some white gift boxes... oh wait, they're upstairs? &%@$!!!!

So the aforementioned Satan's holly jolly Christmas tunes seem to stir something in otherwise normal good hearted people who enter the store. They become monsters. Or it's quite possible that they were monsters to begin with and it has nothing to do with the Christmas jukebox not even Arthur Fonzarelli's powerful fist would be able to fix. For some reason the season of peace and goodwill seems to bring out the opposite in shoppers as I have learned over the five most unfortunate years of my life. I've encountered a few prime examples of these folks the past couple of days...

The first lady I had today walked up to my register, smiled, and placed her items ever so gently on the counter and immediately proclaimed "I'd like boxes for these." She seemed pleasant enough so I smiled back and nicely replied, "They're available upstairs in catalog." Her expression immed

iately changed and she threw (yes, threw) shirts at me, muttered something about not wanting these and stormed away. The other customers being waited on where aghast at her behavior, but agreed that boxes should readily be available. Because once again, I have the power to change store policy. It's not like it's the managers who don't want a mountain of boxes behind the already cluttered register area, they're all for it. I'm the one who put my extremely powerful foot down. I don't know what's gotten into me, but now I almost hope for the angry customers just so I can laugh at how ridiculous they act. Never have I completely flipped out on someone I've known for about

5 seconds, but for some reason these customers think it's completely acceptable. There's nothing else to do but laugh. And that's exactly what I did to the lady who threw shirts at me over free boxes that are located up the escalator and a few steps away, but I held in my laughter until she was out of earshot...almost

Another sales associate (seriously) asked me if I

offered to run upstairs and get boxes for her. I laughed even harder at this suggestion. The woman had two legs that worked. I could tell from the brisk pace she kept while angrily storming out of the store. Sometimes I do feel bad for the (sweet) elderly people who just seem exhausted even just thinking of going upstairs and having to wait in another line. But that's about it. Everyone else can suck it up and realize it's a pretty busy time for retail stores. If they truly weren't expecting it, then I offer them a big welcome to America- land of greed and home of the brave (meaning they're brave enough to punch you out for the year's biggest Christmas toy). Everyone else- start shopping in July.

I don't know if I've lost so much respect for myself that I don't care how demeaning people are towards me or if I can laugh it off and truly not give two shits what these imbeciles think of me because I for some reason put myself on a ped

estal as the untouchable sales clerk. All I know is I hope that I have a somewhat broader view of the world that I never throw a hissy fit over something as trivial as boxes. Not to sound preachy, but there are so many people out there who have a lot less than I do and as much as my life sucks- it could be a lot worse. Isn't now the time we should be thinking of them instead of beating people (mostly the sales associates)to a pulp in order to get the cheapest price or another sweater that the giftee doesn't need and will probably be take to Goodwill next year anyway? I guess that's why it's the season of pieces and Goodwill.