Ahh, summer. I have to say, I love it most of all…except for
when I’m working. But that’s all of us, right? I mean, this time of year is
P-A-ainful for working retail. Especially beauty retail. Everyone’s on vacation
or going on vacation. People are wearing less makeup for the season, or they’re
shopping for cute summer clothes, not summer makeup. Any way you slice it,
summer hours can drag on endlessly when you’re missing the best of them—that is,
when you’re trapped inside a windowless, heavily air-conditioned store all day,
doing what amounts to a whole lot of nothing.
For me, it really affects my mood…because if there’s one
thing I hate, it’s being stuck in cold-ass air conditioning. I hate being cold
as much as I hate being stuck. Maybe more. So when Lipstick Lady walks up to
my counter, smile on her face and smelling of warm summer air—I find myself
having to dig deep for the niceness I know is in me somewhere.
I don’t know if any of you ever reach that point—the one
where it’s been so long since you’ve helped someone, you’re just not in the
mood to help anyone anymore. Let alone the damn near albino woman who walks up
wanting the same nude lipstick she read Nicki Minaj wears—with the unshakable impression
it’s going to look exactly the same on her. You then have to spend the next
half hour or so, convincing her slowly that she needs the right kind of nude—not
the one she read about in a magazine.
Maybe she gets it, maybe she doesn’t. For me, I just focus on
surviving the moment.
This is also the time of year when everyone starts asking
you where the bathroom is. I don’t know how many times I’ve wished for a sign I
can hold, which would save me from having say the same thing over and over and
over. Floods of people come wandering in from the heat, looking for quick
relief from the sun and their full bladders. Every other question I hear is, “Where’s
your restroom?”
Good thing our bathroom isn’t totally tricky to find or
anything. Oh, wait…
So how do we survive summer?
Well, we do a lot of chatting, which helps kill some time. We
organize and reorganize our counters and drawers (or maybe that’s just me;). We
take an extra break, or two (or more)—all of this for the sake of our sanity. And
if we can sneak it in, we do makeup on ourselves or each other—which is my
preferred method for killing time.
I’ll admit freely that I both truly love, and totally dread
this time of year. Which I find an unusual and interesting contradiction.
…So how do I
survive summer? One glorious and painful moment at a time;)…
Happy summer to you all! And happy shopping:)
*If you have any great tips for beating the summer blah session...let me know!*
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