I know it's Christmas Eve, but here's a letter of complaint

Dear Parents Who Shop With Children,

Isn't it sad that on Christmas Eve, of all days, I temporarily lost my belief that people are generally good thanks to you?

Okay, maybe not that far.  But I honestly don't understand why you don't teach your children anything anymore.  Or maybe it's the sense of entitlement that seems to follow the generation.  It just seems that you don't respect things.  Or understand that when your child says he has to go to the bathroom you should listen to him, and not wait until he goes all over the train table and I get to be the lucky one to mop it up.  Please tell me where in my job description it says that I'm supposed to be a maid.

You are always very disgruntled when the book that you want has a page that is slightly bent or doesn't have the plastic wrapped around it.  But when it's your child who is bending up a book, throwing them around, stepping on them and pretending they're ice skates, then whatever.  It's not your problem.  It's just so easy for you to ignore them and consider us as your free babysitters, cleaning and picking up after them.  Guess what?  That's not what I'm being paid for.

And I really don't need any attitude for you.  I generally start off at work happy each day, but thanks to your behavior and that of your children, I lose my positive attitude.  I can only imagine how those less optimistic than myself deal with these situations.

So thanks for not listening,

Fed Up Children's Department Bookseller

"I'm just a little bit caught in the middle"

I'm not really, but Lenka's "The Show" is such a cute song!  Luckily, it's on the B&N store playlist this month and I get to listen to at work and unashamedly bop along.  And I have half the boys who work in the music department wrapped around my little finger, so whenever I'm working, they play it. :)  Just a little harmless flirting, right?

In other news, I've had a really tough week.  We got our Christmas tree and decorated it, but it was so hard without Minnie this year.  She was such an important member of our family, and I still miss her so so so much.  I actually cried at work a couple times.  Not tears streaming down my face, but having to escape to the break room to calm down.  I didn't realize how much people notice me, until several people, particularly managers, kept coming up to me asking what was wrong.  Although I am usually very cheery, so that was quite a contrast.  And I had a bad hair day Tuesday.

I finally felt happy on Friday though, partly because it was my first day off in awhile, which was a much needed break after three bookfairs this week with millions of children running around creating endless amounts of work and headaches for everyone.  So what did I do?  I bought Britney's album!  It's so much fun.  "Womanizer" of course is super, but "Circus" is definitely my new favorite, with "If U Seek Amy" being close too.  I was confused about what it was trying to say though, so I looked it up and discovered that the title has another meaning if you say it aloud quickly, sort of like that track from the Atonement soundtrack: "Cee, You, and Tea."

Now I need to go work on a new movie marathon that I just created for myself with the wonder that is DVR: The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You've Got Mail.  Everyone knows that that last one is based on the first, but the middle one is the same story too, but a musical!  Therefore, the characters also work in a music store instead of a book store, but I watched a little last night, and I swear, You've Got Mail stole a scene straight from it.

Garlic bread saved my night :)

So it's been a rough couple days working in the cafe, plus just an extra emotional rollercoaster with the holidays coming up and my dog not being here anymore for them.  But tonight I came home and there were three slices of garlic bread leftover from dinner waiting for me!  That seriously boosted my spirits.

Well, that and the fact that I had a ten minute conversation with blue-eyed boy today, which is quite an accomplishment. :)

5 Randoms

1) Britney Spears' "Womanizer" is stuck in my head.  It's really good though.  I'm really proud of her and am glad to see her doing so much better.  I listened to a sampler from her new album and it seems to be a winner.  Boy don't try to front/I, I know just just what you are are are...

2) If you love "The Office" and John Krasinski, you HAVE to watch this interview with him.  He is a great storyteller and this proves it.  It was actually this video that introduced me to him and made me start watching "The Office" just so I could see more.

3) I have to be at work today at 5pm.  I'm bored though (which is partly why I'm blogging), so I want to go in early, but then I'll just be bored at work.  At least at home I can still chill in my sweats.  I like having these days where I pretty much have the whole day before going to work and I don't have any other plans.  I'll usually end up trying something new with my hair.  Today I straightened it.  I know it's straight already, but right now it's like Jennifer Aniston in "Friends" straight.  I'm playing around with "The Hills" style hairstyles since they always do interesting things with their hair.

4) I'm looking over this post so far and it's making me think: I know TV show titles are put in quotations while movies would be italicized, but italicized usually looks cooler.  I can't let go of my English major upbringing though, so they'll stay in quotations.

5) I had a few conversations with blue eyed boy yesterday.  I told him that he was like Frank Sinatra because of the Old Blue Eyes thing, having previously gotten the hint that he is a fan of Frank.  Unfortunately, he's quiet and can be kind of expressionless, so I have no clue if he was flattered or thinks I'm crazy.  Maybe I'll find out in the next few days.  But in the mean time, I have to figure out my hair (since it's my thing, according to Courtney) and which Hills star to copy! :)

Weekend!

This weekend I finally got to visit JMU again.  Even though it was loads of fun, I realized that I'm kind of glad that I'm done with the college thing.

Highlights:

- formal afternoon tea with Courtney at Mrs. Hardesty's Tea Room!  We had been wanting to do that for all of last year and we finally made it.  It was soo delicious.  And we managed to eat everything.  There were so many sandwich choices, cinnamon and chocolate chip scones (with clotted cream!), and seven different types of sweets.  It was everything I could have hoped it to be.

- DG semiformal!  It was great seeing all the girls again, especially my littles and grandlittle.  And I got tons of compliments on my dress, which is always fun. :)  It was really weird too, because I felt like I had never left, yet there were so many people I didn't know.

- breakfast at Sheetz.  Sunday morning was also delish, getting a breakfast sandwich and hash browns from Sheetz with Courtney, coming back to her house, and watching Bridget Jones's Diary.  That pretty much is the ideal circumstance.

Going back actually reenergized me in my job search.  I got three resumes out last night, so hopefully I'll get at least one interview out of them.  I had started feeling complacent in my B&N job, which I do have fun at, but I know at the same time, that I need to look for something else.  I also feel more ready to grow up.  We'll see how long that lasts. :)

In-Store Playlist

I feel like such a B&N dork.  My current favorite playlist on iTunes to listen to while writing?  My Leona Lewis/Carla Bruni list, both of whom came from the B&N in-store music.

Leona has an amazing voice and her songs are catchy.  They also lean more towards the ballad/moderate speed, so I'm not encouraged to jump up and dance around.  Plus she's British, which always puts someone ahead in my POV.

Carla is the new wife of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but before that, she was a singer/songwriter.  Her newest album definitely reflects her new love, with songs like "La Amoureuse," and there's such a cute, folksy French sound to it.

Both albums are quite relaxing and again, not distracting, which is probably the point of a bookstore's music playlist anyway.