I like trends

I've gone along with a lot of the blog trends over the months: the picture of sleeping people on Bryan and Lynnea's blog, the list of books, and now I will go along with the latest trend of Lynnea's: My Tribute To Erik.

Dear Erik,
Long time no see. Where were you the last seven years? Oh yeah, we've caught up. I tried to call you Christmas of 1999; your mom said you weren't there. It's okay though, we still celebrated your birthday here every year, despite the distance. Thanks for the Jazz CD. I like it a lot. Hope you like the calendar.
Very Sincerely, Krista.

Now, on to other matters...

I've been working in retail for the last two and a half months, during this full-fledged Christmas season. There's really nothing like it. I feel like I got a good taste of customer service working at Starbucks, putting up with a lot of demanding customers, but seeing little glimmers of the positive aspects of the job shine through when chatting with a customer that I had really developed a relationship with. It was a little sad when I quit because I had some great co-workers that I was leaving, but I was also ending a number of friendships with customers that I had seen daily and felt like I had gotten to know well. I couldn't believe that I had been there long enough to see toddlers running around the store and remembering when the mother found out she was pregnant and had to start drinking decaf. I had customers bring me boxes of girl scout cookies to make the long nights a little more enjoyable and bottles of wine for Christmas. I understood the benefit of building rapport with customers.

This retail experience is quite a bit different. I have had a number of customers that I do enjoy working with, but what is driving me to write this post is my confusion with the number of overconfident male customers I've encountered. I've lost count of the number of guys who have asked me out during my shifts, and I don't understand why so many men view a department store as the kind of place to snag a date. I thought they saved that kind of behavior for the bar scene? And what's surprising is that some guys think about the whole senario enough to actually make it all the way home and call my department and ask if I'm available. Being from the point of view of the girl who always had to ask guys to dances in high school and is pretty bold and upfront with anyone who knows me, I still don't think I'd ever bring myself to ask someone out that I had just met when they sold me a bottle of cologne. Maybe it's been so long since I was single that I don't understand the current etiquette (if any exists) of asking girls out, and these situations are not really out of the ordinary. Regardless, it's just another reason I'd love to switch departments and have a clientele of mainly women.