last night was by far the best evening i've spent at the bookstore, and working with my new colleague laura is just the best. she's kind and competent and we get along very well. tonight, if i remember, i'm going to pick up a popover pan* using my handy dandy discount. i can't say i'm not excited. even more exciting is all the ridiculous drama that's happening at the book store, not the least of which is hearing someone on the sidewalk bitching about how this bank took down their sign. the really exciting part is the human resources problem that brought one of my younger co-workers nearly to tears, and his name is rick.
i didn't meet rick until sunday, as i'm taking over some of his hours we don't often work at the same time. since everyone else has gotten to know him so well these past weeks, i was warned that he's a "toucher". the very first interaction i had with him goes thus: picture me with cash in hand to put into the register and then make change, such as is done say EVERY FIFTEEN SECONDS in a retail store. he is standing directly in front of the cash register, and directly next to me (which actually happens alot, it's a small cash wrap) so i say "do you want to do this?" and he says "no" and doesn't move. so i say "well, we both can't stand here". so maybe, that wasn't the fluffiest way to say you're in my way. and when the next time he spoke to me he said "you have no sense of humor do you?" and i said "nope" and he walked away, i figured we knew where we stood and we could co-exist selling books with no need for him to stand in my space or touch me. which he didn't. what he did was go to another co-worker, ask her what my problem was and say that i was the "coldest fish he ever met". which is fine with me. i like fish. all swimmy and tasty with a little squirt of lemon. what he didn't need to do was go to same co-worker and pat her belly while she ate a cookie and tell her she didn't need said cookie and her boyfriend would dump her when he saw how much heavier she had gotten. that is the tiniest bit of the boundaries of appropriate work behavior, esp. for a mid-fifties man and a 20 year-old girl. he should know better, and she should've kicked his ass.
as she related the story to me, i said "he had to pick on a skinny girl because if he said that to a fat girl like me i'd have kicked his derrogatory bony ass" to which she said "who says you don't have a sense of humor". really. so, the girls are getting together and having a meeting with our boss today. it's of no consequence to me what he thinks or says about me, but 20 year old girls don't need anyone telling them they're fat. especially dirty old men. despite myself i can't wait to know what happened. and also to get my puffin tin. and to tell matt i'm a cold fish and hear his indignance on my behalf.


*which i keep referring to as my "puffin pan". just thirty minutes on low and your puffins are ready to go!