From the frying pan and into the fire. From bad to worse. From craziness to insanity. From NaNoWriMo and into Christmas. All of these sentences mean the exact same thing when you work retail. Have you been wondering where I have been recently? I have been working myself really hard to prepare for christmas, and for puppies (Which arrive this saturday. Which… OMG I’M SO EXCITED, FACE MELTING CUTENESS! YAY!). I’ve never had a pet, so I don’t even know how these little buggers are going to take to our house. We are very much hoping they’ll take to each other and become the best of friends. But… I have worked retail for the past (Oh Man…) decade.

Christmas in retail is like being stuck in a building crammed with people and someone pulling the fire alarm. There are so many people and so few staff that trying to get to everyone is near impossible. Not only that, but I’m not sure when or how people came to the conclusion they’re entitled to everything, but they definitely do. My product was defective, and now I want a new one AND a fifty percent discount. Oh ha ha… oh wait, that guy was serious. Christmas brings out the crazy in people. Also, people make it very clear that “This is a christmas gift, so I need it before then.” I’ll be honest for all of you out there, no matter if you need it next week, or next year… the exact same process is in effect for both situations and you will get it ASAP in both scenarios. I promise!

So I know some people who did really well this year at NaNoWriMo (Congrats from me to Becka, BTW Check out that NaNo Cake!) Also Lorie and a few others!) I also know many who didn’t do so well… one notable one especially: Me! I had set the target of the end of November to be completely done my edit. I can give you a million reasons why I didn’t accomplish my goals, but not one as to how I tried to. I failed because I didn’t try to. I admit my defeat and move past it. No sense dwelling on it. But I am now aiming to have it done by the end of the month.

Of course as I mentioned earlier, I work retail. The hardest part about that at Christmas is I always want to do really well for budgets and the team morale. This involves me and some (Read: Many) extra hours at work. Arrive early, leave late, rock it for the entire day and revel in my own incredible productivity. Then I come home and glance at the couch before passing out on, near or around it. Horizontal is the new vertical, and I love it. So comfy. Anyway it seems I need to start waking up before work to get back into the habit I made to write.

Anyway congrats to all those who managed to hit fifty thousand words, and congrats to those who made those fifty thousand words matter! I will be back ASAP with more progress! Talk to you all soon!