Headaches galore

Okay, I had several things I wanted to blog about. Where do I start.

My cousin flew into LA last night from Asheville. She's in town till August 1st. She called me a little after 1 PM (PST) saying her flight in Asheville was delayed. This was around the time she was supposed to be getting on her flight in Atlanta to LA. Her flight was supposed to arrive at six. It didn't get in till 9:30. And I didn't have her new flight number, so I had no clue what time she was coming in. Headache begins. We call Delta and are on hold forever. I finally get the info. Before I can even get to LAX, my mom calls me and asks me to drop my uncle off in Chinatown. I've been to Chinatown a million times, but I never know where the 100 southbound onramp is. Well, fortunately, where I dropped my uncle off was on a street that came down from Dodger Stadium. And I knew there was an onramp there.

The headache just escalates from there. I get to LAX just as she landed. When I get to baggage claim, she calls me, telling me they took her to a this place where they kept the other "unaccompanied minors" and because they had several of them, they couldn't bring her to meet me. That's what they did with my brother last year. I met him at the top of the escalator. Well, they tell me to go to Delta Direct and get a pass so I can get through the gate to go get her. Unfortunately, tonight was a very busy night. Everyone and their mom was traveling. So, I get in this line. It takes about half an hour before I even see a representative. No wonder they had me on hold so long earlier when I called. I get my pass and the lady tells me to go around the machine and get in line to get through the gate. I follow the line. It goes out the door and onto the sidewalk. I was so frustrated. I was frustrated to the point of tears. Joanne calls me and I tell her it's going to be awhile before I even get through the gate. BTW my phone is practically dead by now. A representative tells me that she'll meet us at the Delta Direct place, so I wouldn't have to go through the gate.

You'd think the headache would stop there, right? Nope. We went to check for her baggage and of course it wasn't there. We checked with a representative who said another flight had just arrived from Atlanta. So we waited around for it. That was after we checked the baggage claim, asked a representative, then asked another one, and filled out a form so in case her baggage was already brought in, they would send it to us. We waited and checked and no baggage. She went to use the rest room (she doesn't like flying very much). Then we went back and finally there it was. Head still hurting.

Man, my head was pounding by the time I got home. On top of that, I had to clear of my bed so she could sleep in my room and clear some room on my brother's floor for me to sleep there. WELL I couldn't sleep, so I played MLB 2k7 for a little while. And my brother is a night owl now that he's been out of school. So I had to fall asleep with him on his computer. Needless to say ... sleeping on the floor isn't that much different from sleeping in my bed. Except, I have more room to move around on my bed.

My headache was still there when I got up, but disappeared by the time I showered.

It doesn't end there folks.

Work was tough. Customers were tough. Returns were tough. A certain coworker was tough. Even my assistant manager got frustrated with her. One customer complained that she (the coworker) wasn't helping her. The customer said she came in yesterday and the employee was busy talking to her friend and was doing it again today. Naturally, the only person we would think it was, was who was in the front at the moment talking today. The same person who disappeared into the stock room to use the phone (for who knows what reason) leaving me alone on the floor with my assistant manager. After the customer made that comment, my assistant manager brought it up with her. The worker said very loudly that she didn't even work yesterday. Of course, I expected her to get VERY defensive. And when she gets "defensive" she gets loud. And I think another customer lodged a complaint about her too. This also gave me a headache. Two customers (of her culture) came up to pay for something. The daughter says her mother didn't have her charge card or ID. She still wanted to pay for her purchase with her charge card. "Could I look it up with her phone number or social security number?" The only way I can do a look up is with an ID. And technically, I am not allowed to accept charge card numbers. I have to have either the Charge card (temporary or permanent) or the holder's ID. So, I let my coworker take care of it. I didn't want to have anything to do with it because they didn't want to use the options I gave them. So what did she do? She took down the customer's address and looked it up that way. No I.D. Nothing. One of my first mistakes when I started was, a customer showed me her charge card number written down. Immediately, my associate manager told me that I couldn't take just a number. I had to have her card or ID.

The entire day, we were all irritated and frustrated with that worker. When she came in, she did what she usually did at first. Stand around. I made that comment to Sarah. I said, "Man, I wish I could just stand around." Of course, I spent most of my day running around in circles trying to keep the store clean. My coworker came up to the register to check on how "our" sales was going. Guess she didn't expect how much she had in, because she sure looked disappointed. That's okay, because I was making sure she was working for her productivity while I was there. If she wanted the sales, she better earn them the right way.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start my day off right. With a nice mocha. I tried to do that this morning, but no luck. The line was incredibly long at Gloria Jean's. So I had to go to Cinnabon and try one of their mochalattas or whatever they're called. Wish me luck for tomorrow.