Customers 20

A man, late 20's or early 30's, dark hair and beard, wearing jeans and a jacket came up to the counter with some magazines. Redbook, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart Living, and Skunk.

"I need to do this in two transactions. I'll pay for these on a credit card," he said, pointing to a pile. "This one," and he pointed to Skunk, I'll pay cash for."

        

My guess? He doesn't want his wife to know he's buying Skunk.

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A couple came up to the Information desk. She: late 20's, dark red, almost maroon hair, angled hair cut, nice make-up, jeans and boots. He: Short reddish blond hair, jeans and a t-shirt.

"I'd like to know if you have a book. I'LL MATURE WHEN I'M DEAD

     

I looked it up. "It's actually coming out in paperback in a few weeks, so we don't have the hardcover in the store. Most people want to wait for the paperback. I can pre-order a copy of the paperback, or I can order a hardcover for you if you'd like."

"Hmm," she said. "Darn it. I was hoping to get it tonight."

The man she was with picked up a book from the table behind them. "Hey, look at this," he said to her. He showed her a book.

     

She looked at it and laughed. "Are those buttons?"

"Yep," I said. "Go ahead and push them. People do it all the time. One of our managers does it almost every time he walks by this table."

He pushes one of the buttons. A fart noise is produced. We all laugh.

"The book I asked about? I'LL MATURE WHEN I'M DEAD? I want it for him. She pointed to her companion. Could you tell?"

"That doesn't surprise me," I said, laughing. "Do you want to order a copy?"

"Yeah, let's do that," she said.

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A woman came up to the counter. Short blond hair, black turtleneck, she put a book on the counter.

"I'd like this, please," she said in a quiet voice.

      

"Sure," I said. "Do you have one of our club cards? It saves at least 10% every time you shop."

"Um, I don't think I have one of those," she said, quietly.

"Would you like one?", I asked.

"Um, well, hmm..." She looked down.

"Extra coupons come in email..."

"Um, I, uh..."

Done with my spiel, and knowing she didn't want a card but wasn't able to come right out and say so, I whispered and pointed at the subtitle on her book (When to Say YES, When to Say NO, To Take Control of Your Life), "It's okay, you don't have to get one.' And in my regular voice, "That'll be $14.95, please."

One of the most appropriate purchases, ever.

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Can't Read Fast Enough

It's that way, isn't it? For a while it's hard to find a book to settle into, and now I can't read fast enough to keep up with all the books I want to read.

I just started and am devouring ANNABEL by Kathleen Winter. Recently published in the U.S., it's been winning awards in Canada for its luminous writing. Comparisons will be made to MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides, as they both deal with hermaphroditism. MIDDLESEX I read and greatly enjoyed. I am liking ANNABEL even better.

        

Next up is ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT by Jeanette Winterson, a British writer. Semi-autobiographical, she writes about growing up in an evangelical Christian home and discovering her lesbianism.

        


After that might be DELIRIOUS by Daniel Palmer. A thriller, I was interested after reading the first page and discovering that the action starts out in Marin County, California, where I grew up. (Which I know isn't enough by itself to make a good story, but it's a good start for me!)

        

And just yesterday I just saw BLOOD WORK: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker, chronicling the conflict between religion and medicine in the 17th century with blood transfusions and looking at the same conflict today with stem cell research and cloning.

        

Happy reading to one and all!

You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom. Thanks for reading!

Customers 19

A young girl, maybe early 20's, black hair, dark grey eyeliner, black jeans, a black sweatshirt, a heart tattoo by her left eye and more tattoos visible on her neck, asked if we can ship something from the store.

"To a facility?", I asked, pretty sure she was asking about sending something to a correctional facility. She nodded. I explained that she can select items from the store to be sent to a prison or jail, but we have to treat it like a ship-to-home order where the items come from a warehouse, not from the store.

"What about magazines?", she asked.

"Some facilities don't accept magazines."

"Oh, this one does. I've done it before," she said in her quiet voice.

"Okay," I said. "I thought we couldn't send magazines from the store, but let me check just to make sure." I called the manager and she said that jails accept magazines but prisons don't. I told her and asked her if it was a prison or a jail.

"It's a prison," she said, "But they do accept magazines. They just can't be sent from ME."

"Let me check again," I said. I called the manager back. She said that as far as she knew, prisons wouldn't accept magazines. I asked if we could do it if the customer would assume the risk, that if the magazines never arrived, she wouldn't be able to get her money back. The manager agreed that we could do it.

"Okay, the manager said that we can send them, but it has to be through UPS, and some facilities don't accept UPS packages, or rather, some do not get to the intended recipient. Sometimes we send something, and the customer will come in and tell us that it never arrived and we don't know why. Maybe someone is having a bad day and refuses the shipment. You need to know that if that happens, you're just out the money. We can send it, but if it doesn't arrive, you're just out the money."

"Okay, I understand. I appreciate all your help."

"You might want to only do one or two, just in case it doesn't get there, then you're not out too much money," I said.

"That's a good idea. Thank you SO much for all your help."

She was so sweet. I wanted to ask her two questions...
1) What's he in for? and
2) Are you all right?

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A woman, maybe mid-50's, short brown hair, wearing a brown suede jacket and a scarf comes up to the register. She puts a book on the counter with a receipt in it. It's a book by Laura Schlessinger.

      

"I need to return this," she said.

"Okay, is there anything wrong with it?", I ask.

"No. Nothing wrong with the book. I bought it for my niece, but nothing can help her." She sighed.

"Well, at least you're thinking about her and trying to help," I said. "Sorry this didn't work out."

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A woman, 60-ish, graying brown hair, black corduroy pants, black and white jacket, came up to the register to purchase a book...

      

"I'm going to get this and do what it says. I'll look 10 years younger by this afternoon!"

I laughed. "Sounds great! Maybe I'll have to get that book!"

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A young couple came up to the register. He: 20's, crewcutshort reddish blond hair, some minor facial hair. About 5'8". She: 20's, long blond hair, about 5'9", wearing a beige wool coat. They are buying two books and a bookmark. He adds another bookmark that (evidently) had her initial on it.

"Don't let him buy that," she tells me, laughing. "Oh wait," she says to him, "it has a dog paw on it!"

"Because you love your dog so much," he said.

"I DO love my dog," she said. "This is perfect." She turns to me. "Okay, he can buy this."

"What kind of dog do you have?" I asked.

"He's half border collie and half we-have-no-idea-what-he-is," she said. She gets her phone and pulls up a picture of her dog to show me.

"Is he still a puppy?" I asked.

"No, he's a long way from being a puppy, but he's still a puppy to me."

"He is adorable. What's his name?" I ask.

"His name is Dewars." She paused. "Yep," she said. "I named my dog after alcohol."

"I think that's a pretty great name," I said.

"Thank you!" She was laughing as they left the store.

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The Right to Write

We got a dog in October. She was found with a dozen or so other neglected English Springer Spaniels in a back yard in Idaho. Rescued by the English Springer Rescue Association, they cared for her until we adopted her.

Just like the birth of a baby in a family, her arrival has changed our lives.

Since we got her, I've had less time for writing. Or rather, it's been harder for me to make time to write since we got Shelby. And then, right on the heels of getting Shelby, I was working the holidays at the bookstore, which were absolutely crazy and hectic. With the holidays and the dog, I was TIRED. And not writing much.

With not writing came frustration, the same frustration I felt when my children were born and I wasn't writing. I missed that creative outlet, felt as though I was unconnected to who I was, yet felt too tired and utterly drained to do anything about it.

Since the new year, it's slowed down at the store and we're settling into more of a routine with the pupper (who is, to the vet's best guess, about 18 months old and still acts quite a bit like a puppy). I have been carving out time to write, acknowledging to myself and my world the importance of my writing life.

The other day at the store I came across Julia Cameron's THE RIGHT TO WRITE. Shelved in the Self Improvement section, rather than in the writing section where the other writerly helping books are (such as WRITING DOWN THE BONES by Natalie Goldberg, BIRD BY BIRD by Annie Lamott and Stephen King's ON WRITING), I think this is likely why I hadn't seen this particular book before.

THE RIGHT TO WRITE, has small focused chapters with a writing exercise at the end of each.

The chapters include exercises (or "initiations" as she calls them) to help with all sorts of aspects of writing...such as exorcising the influence of people who have thwarted one's creativity (our "creative monsters"), helping get the words on the page, addressing loneliness, how mood relates to writing, dealing with our own writing drama and so on. Each initiation is an opportunity to cut through some unhelpful thinking patterns and consider more positive, invigorating ways of thinking and looking at my own writing.

Her hopes are that...

"This book will be a cheerleader for those trying the writing life, a companion for those living it, and a thank-you to my own writing for the life it has given to me. It is my hope that this book will help to heal writers who are broken, initiate writers who are afraid, and entice writers who are standing at river's edge, wanting to put a toe in."

This has been the right book at the right time for me. Not that it's giving me permission to write as the title suggests, I'm finding rather that this book is gentle encouragement and a delight to read and work through as I reclaim my self through writing.

       

Thanks for reading the blog! Comments are always welcome either on the blog itself or by email...2of3RsATgmailDOTcom.