At the end of the day

Published on by Jane

Yes, this is what my brain feels like. Yarn spaghetti. Mushy squiggles. Miles of mess.

The day began with a man growling and yelling at me because I would not let him attach his clambake company brochure’s holder to the store’s bulletin board. He is going to buy his books elsewhere from now on, by the way.

The day ended with a woman on the phone asking about a book. When I asked for more information, since the title she provided was not listed in Books in Print, she laughed and told me, in one of those tones, that other booksellers were willing to order the book for her, so she’d be taking her business to them. It was the laughter that got to me. The “you are an idiot masquerading as a bookseller” laughter.

I’ll shrug it off, let it go, get over it. But I will never understand why it seems to cost some people so much to be pleasant. Just plain old, ordinary, everyday pleasant. I am not meant to understand these people. I am lucky that I cannot understand them.

And I have something that they will most likely never have: I have knitting. I am sticking to my plan to knit at least one repeat of the Flower Basket Shawl every evening. There are no new pictures, because I had to frog and begin again, and I’m back to just past where I was when I posted this.

I’m pretty sure mean people can’t be knitters, anyway.

13 thoughts on “At the end of the day”

  1. And the worst of it is, you know you’re paying for another bookstore’s laziness and poor training. She calls another bookstore, asks for fictitious book, clerk doesn’t see it, figures they just don’t carry it and offers to order it. She says no thanks, she’ll check around, and then barks at you because she made the false assumption that the first bookstore knew what the heck she was talking about. (Can you tell I’ve been there?)

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  3. Oh, yes, Rho, I bet you do! It sure is a small town.And thanks, Rachel. You do know how it is. It felt like an ambush right from the start. Tomorrow will be better.

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  4. Some days just aren’t the way you thought they would be when you woke up, are they? Good for you, though, for taking the high road [although sometimes it feels good to take that evil “low road” no one ever talks about!]. Knitters seem to be very nice people, all around, I agree. Especially the ones who operate your LYS–why is that? Why can’t the clerks at Wal-Mart be as friendly? Or the grocery store? I think a LYS customer service promotional DVD is in order, along the lines of that FISH one–did anyone ever see that?

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  5. Sweet Jane,Sorry that you had a day when people growled & yelled – that’s so not cool ^.^And while you are lucky that you cannot understand their behaviors, you are lucky (& so are we) just because you are you.XOXO

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  8. I removed it due to egregious typos.Here it is, edited for accuracy:Can you knit yourself a powerful yet gossamer shield that will protect you from consumer-spawned rage? Maybe from some yarn you spin yourself?I hate it that you’re bearing the brunt of our cultural anger. So many people are carrying huge burdens of rage around. I believe that’s why there’s so much heart disease in this country. Now they even have a pathology for rage: Intermittant Explosive Disorder. The American Medical Association recommends anti-anxiety medication. Sigh ….Retail is so hard, but summer doesn’t last forever. May the force be with you!

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  9. Pearls before swine, my dearest Jane. And if you’d been wearing any handknits, we’d have PURLS before swine too. Why some people insist on being idiots is beyond me. I’m sorry.

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  10. It still amazes me how something as simple as knitting can make it all better. Here’s to a better day tomorrow ::raises glass::

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  11. Simple, ordinary pleasantness has left the building…my husband and I were just talking about that today. We have 2 or 3 families on the next street over that choose to stare at us rather than return our wave. My husband swears he’s gonna wave with his middle finger next time to see if he gets ANY reaction. 🙂

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  13. That kinda bad behavior just sucks. Sadly, it seems to be spreading everywhere – the breakdown of civility, alas…

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