Are we almost halfway through December already? Where have I been? What have I been up to? How goes the novel? So many questions… so little time.

As many of you beloved readers out there know, I work retail. What that means is now that Christmas is upon us, I mostly will spend my time sleeping, eating, maintaining acceptable hygiene and working. I hired a handful of staff much later than I would have liked to so now with two weeks out, I’m training them for Christmas. I am mentally and physically exhausted. Worst part is I have begun to get some sort of lower right back pain and it just won’t go away. It looks like i’ll probably need to see a doctor sooner rather than later. I am slowly losing that invincibility of youth, and that makes me sad.

Christmas brings out the best and worst in customers at this time of year. I go from a customer who is happy to spend the money to get that perfect gift to the customer who cannot believe that we’ve sold out of that majorly popular item at its blowout price. I give a silent head shake to those people but the worst part is customer entitlement. In recent years I have seen an alarming number of people who seemingly “know” that if they yell enough they’ll simply get what they want. This goes from beer soaked docking stations to laptop screens with thumb prints where the cracks have magically appeared out of nowhere.

I am very much an advocate of the good behaviour society, and I like to reward those people who were genuinely great customers with equally great service. However, wonderful readers, if you find yourself on the receiving end of some poor customer service, I’d get you to ask yourself this: Am I to blame for my poor service experience? I do understand, there are some bad employees out there too. I know some people hate their jobs/life/choices. But I’ve also had people ask for the best price I can do and then immediately tell me that someone is doing it better (We can always price match, but there is also a best price I can do).

All that aside, I love Christmas. I love the pace of the stores at this time of year. I love the great customers who come in and we share a laugh and a sale and everyone gets something out of it. I love those moments where you lose track of time because you’ve been so busy helping people that you’ve felt like Batman fighting crime for eight hours. Secretly (but not so Secretly), I love retail. I love the interactions. I love the challenges. I love the targets. I love how numbers don’t lie. I know when I’m doing well because the store is doing well.

Although Management and Politics have a lot in common from what I’ve learned. I have to spin negatively perceived policies as positive, I have to introduce changes to people who don’t want it, I have to keep a group of people heading forward no matter what challenges come our way and I must get all of this done through other people as well. All in all, a grand challenge!

On the novel front… yeeeeesh. I haven’t looked at the story since hitting that fabled fifty thousand mark. Not because I don’t want to, but because after a long day of work eating and sleeping immediately come to mind. I really should try this coffee thing that everyone raves about. If I can get a few more productive hours out of myself, then that could mean the difference between published and not.. Definitely worth a shot. Maybe what I’ll give myself for Christmas is some time to focus on my writing. I haven’t even played that many games… in fact, my Amiibos have played more Smash Bros for the Wii U than I have!

I suppose that’s where I am right now. Back pain. Lacking routine for writing. Retail at Christmas. Yeah, that about sums it up. Hopefully my next update comes sooner. How did everyone finish off for NaNoWriMo? Did you make it? How is your story now? Are you in the same boat as me?

Now… off to reread my last couple chapters!