A Very Merry Retail

Well, Christmas time is here, and like a fool I went and got back into retail. And not just any retail, video game retail. Yup, that is something I would do. Working in retail during the holidays makes it so hard to enjoy the time of year.

I'm not trying to complain, but there are some hardships that come with working in retail over Christmas time. The first thing is that it is insanely busy. The business grows, but that space doesn't. Somehow I have to figure out how to put an entire year's worth of profit into one teeny tiny back room. And an entire Christmas season's worth of merchandise onto one over-crowded sales floor.

Secondly, people are cranky. They are tired. They are stressed. They are stretching their dollars, and dealing with ungrateful relatives, and freezing cold weather. They have to shop, and host parties, and entertain out of town guests, and cook holiday meals. I understand all of that, but it doesn't mean that they all have to act like total jerks. See what I'm saying?

It's such a busy time of year that sometimes weeks will go by where I only have one day off. Or sometimes I think about work even on my time off. I often have those dreaded work dreams. I dream about being at work, I work a whole shift in my sleep and I don't even get paid for it. Man, I really don't like that. It's hard to juggle family life with work during the holidays. Especially since I love doing Holiday time activities with my little son.

At Christmastime, Caleb and I like to do all kinds of things. We go look at Christmas lights in the neighborhoods, we go to the Zoo lights, we go to the mountains to play in the snow. This year I really had hoped to take him on a special holiday vacation, but I'm sure that won't happen. Not only are my funds all tapped out for Christmas, I just don't have the time with all the work that needs to be done. I just try to stay positive and think about all of the fun we are going to have one day when I am done with this retail gig!