Borders Sagas 11 - Eleven already!

Jim Morrison is an old guy who comes into the store at least once a week. When I first started working, he seemed nice. He remembered my name, would talk to me about stuff, and would tell me about PBS specials about the environment. But now he's kinda creepy. To the point where I try to avoid him when he comes in. He kinda makes me uncomfortable. Last Tuesday he came in. When I saw him, I hid in the History section in the hopes that he wouldn't see me and want to talk. But, alas, the phone rang and I had to come out of hiding. He saw me.

Jim: Hi Nicole. How are things going?
Me: Crazy. I've been so busy. I have so much work to do. Tuesdays are the worst. (I point to the 3 carts full of books that I've been trying to shelf all day) (I was hoping that Jim would see that I have a lot of work to do and would just go away)
Jim: But what about life outside of work?
Me: I have no life anymore. Work has been keeping me busy. (Short answer. Once again, I hoped that he would get the message)
Jim: Well that's a shame. Well, if you have some time and would like to get your life back, we should go get some lunch at the Chinese buffet down the road.
Me: [Nervous giggle] Really. Well I should be getting back to work.

Aaaaaaahhhhh.


Ariel was showing me how to do shelving stuff when we saw this little boy scamper away suspiciously from behind a bookshelf when he saw us walking by. She walked over to where he ran away from and found "The Penis Book". Oh yes, it's what you think it is. A penis picture book. Women holding penises. Men playing with penises. Big penises. Painted penises. Just FYI: The only reason I know what's inside the book is because Ariel showed me when I asked her what book the kid was looking at. It's not something I frequently peruse through. Ewww gross! But really, where was the parental supervision when this 10-year boy was looking at a book full of fully-aroused male genitalia.

Sometimes I'm scheduled to work in the cafe during lunch breaks. Me working in the cafe is like a deaf person working in a music store. What does he know about music, and what do I know about coffee? I don't drink the stuff. I can't tell you how dark and rich our dark and rich coffee blend is compared to other place's. I can't tell you if our Harvest Spice lattes taste well enough to justify the $5 cost. I have no idea if the drink is strong enough with just one shot of espresso. Sure, I can lie... "Goodness, I love our Peppermint Mochas! I've had three this week!". "I love putting caramel syrup in my iced coffees!" "In my opinion, I think our drip coffee is better than Starbucks'". But I don't like lying. The last time I worked cafe, a man did ask if the Harvest Spice coffee was good, and I straight out told him that, honestly, I don't drink coffee, so I have no idea. He just got a regular coffee, and gave me a $1 tip for being truthful and not "deceiving him".

No one told me that Day Light Savings was yesterday. Sucky. I use my phone as my alarm clock, and I guess my phone isn't equiped with an automatic time-change option thingy, because my wake-up alarm time didn't "fall back" an hour. So I woke up, did my morning stuff, and went to work, at what I thought was 10:00. But it wasn't 10:00. It was 9:00. Luckily, managers come in two hours hours before the stores open, so when I got to Borders, Pam (#1 manager) was there. She was nice enough to let me clock in at 9:00 and get some work done. Goodness Nick! After work I called mom to tell her that she is a terrible mother for not reminding me. She told me that I should get a life.

I totally almost fell for a killer scam this afernoon! Like, a $6,000 scam! Brian (#3 manager) got a call from a woman named Sylvia Roberts who wanted us to order books for her. She emailed him all the info, and then he passed the email to me because I'm the Corporate Sales person. She wanted 20 law dictionaries and 20 medical desk references. Each book is about $150 a piece! I was so excited because our store was going to make so much money! What was odd about the order was that Sylvia lived in Las Vegas. Why was she working with us when there are many other Borders stores closer to her? But whatev, more money for us! Before ordering the books, I wanted to email her a quote to show how much the order would be. I asked Martha (#2 manager) about shipping charges, and that's when we figured out that this was a scam. Apparently, people like Sylvia would have stores order expensive books, have them rung up using credit card info shared over the phone, and then shipped. It wouldn't be until a couple days later when the store would find out that the credit card was no good and they weren't going to get paid. By then, the scammer would have the books to sell on Ebay. Martha told me to email everything about this order to our district's Loss Prevention person. Within minutes, LP called me to tell me that I did a good job in catching this scam and to play along with Sylvia. When Sylvia emails me back, I'll tell her that I placed the order and that she should call my manager (who will actually be LP) about the credit card info. Then hopefully Sylvia will be caught!

Oh, and one last thing. I don't think I'll be able to get enough days off this December to come home for LOEF Holiday Party. Ultimate sadness! From Nov 23 to Jan 1, the store imposed "Black Out" days, so no one is allowed to request time off. I will get Christmas off and either the 24th or 26th, but nothing else. Sucky McSuckyface. I'm taking the LSAT December 5th, and I asked for the 3rd and 4th off so I can focus and study. I hoping they can do this for me, considering that my life depends on this test. Ok, maybe not life, but seriously, LSAT = important! Stupid Borders.