Whew! This week was another crazy busy one. I keep thinking things are going to settle down, but so far, no such luck. Wednesday was my birthday. Thank you one and all for your birthday greetings! I ended up having to work on my birthday, which happens more often than not. My birthday tends to sneak up on me, and I always forget to request off. Oh well. I ended up having a lot of fun at work. This could be because I told everyone that they had to be nice to me or else the Birthday Fairy would smite them. One of the cool things about this job is how nice all of my coworkers are. Everyone genuinely likes each other, which makes dealing with the customers bearable. On Wednesday, I got to work in a good mood because it was my birthday. What got us all wild was the phone call James got about midway through my shift. This is how he described the call:
James: “Thank you for calling BN. This is James. How can I help you today?”
Caller: (in a rather perturbed voice) “Do you know when laser printing started??”
James: “um….what?”
Caller: (in an even more angry voice) ” Do you know when laser printing started??”
James: “No, not really.”
Caller: “Don’t you work in a bookstore??!!”
This went on for several minutes. Apparently, this guy had gotten two identical books out of the library. The only difference was that one was laser printed and one was not. For whatever reason, this seriously irked his taters. By now, everyone was at the service desk listening to James. Finally, to get rid of this guy, James said, in the most dead serious voice, “Sir, I share your righteous indignation!” Then the guy hung up, and all of us hit the floor. The look on my manager’s face was priceless. You could tell she was torn between “I can’t believe you just said that!” and “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!” After James explained what the guy was calling about, we came up with a new phrase to handle phone calls like that.
“I’ve just had a brain aneurysm. Please hold the line for the next available bookseller.”
No sir! That is HI.Larry.us. Oh man. What was the laser printer buff thinking you would say. Well, sir, as a BN Bookslave, I happen to know that laser printing started shortly after books were invented and shortly before today.
I share your righteous indignation.
I called your cell on your birthday. And then, remembering that you don’t use your cell so much, I called your house, but the line was busy (I am suspecting Glitter Sister). And then I was kidnapped to Maryland for the rest of the weekend. But there will be a card and a package, late as per my usual.
You can be righteously indignant about the whole situation, if you want.
Kendra~ I’m passing your response on to James. He’ll appreciate it!
Julz~ If I ever got a card from you on or before my birthday, I’d probably assume it was from Christmas. Just like you would if you got your birthday card before November. Really, this is why we’re friends!