Today started out well enough.
I slept in a little, took an extra 15 minutes to curl my hair, and threw on something cute. I knocked out a few deliveries, stopped at Michael’s for some fall decorations, bought a couple sweaters at Target (still patiently waiting for a cold front) and picked up BBQ for lunch before heading back to the shop. It was a lovely morning.
Cut to just four hours later, and my stomach is in knots.
I’m not sure what flipped the switch on my easy breezy afternoon; but whatever it was, it triggered a landslide of nastiness that’s put me in a major funk fest…
Most days our job’s all roses and sunshine (quite literally) but every now and things get really thorny. I refrain from sharing these war stories on the blog, and I won’t elaborate on the specifics of today’s brutal encounter. Instead, I’ll just say this: Sometimes a customer thinks you’re wrong; but you know in your heart of hearts that you’re right. You even have proof and a stone cold alibi to back it up! But no matter what you do, or how much you explain, you’re never going to have a meeting of the minds. Like, ever.
I understand that this is part of the territory of owning a retail service business, so most of the time I shake it off. But every now and then, we get a customer that takes it to a whole other level and makes it personal. I never understand why people say mean things just to get the upper hand in an argument; especially when they don’t know anything about the person on the receiving end. Between one such situation that cropped up this afternoon — featuring no fewer than five merry-go-round conversations that left me reeling — and a couple of other unrelated awkward confrontations, this ended up being one manic Monday. When it rains it pours…
When I got home, C and I snapped a few shots for the blog in the driveway (no sense wasting a cute outfit) and rehashed the craziness of the last several hours until I gave myself an anxiety attack. Now I’m in my PJ’s, cuddled in bed with a glass of wine and Seinfeld reruns, and things are looking a little better.
Tomorrow’s a new day.
What do you think?