Having to Work on Days Like These, (or The Perfect Storm)

It snowed here yesterday, a lot more than normal.  The weather experts were calling it “Snow-mageddon.”  Seriously.  Schools closed and the mayor issued a state of emergency.  Sure, that was all exaggeration, (the roads were pretty bad in the morning, but by the afternoon, most of them were clear), but it was a perfect excuse to slack off, like all day.  You, like I was, are probably thinking the day was filled with children building snowmen and families heading off to the pond to skate, or to the nearest hill to go tobogganing.  I was all ready to grab my stick and head to the pond myself, but for whatever reason, I had to go to work.

As I have said before, I work in a bookstore in a mall.  I don’t work at a pharmacy, or as a police officer, I don’t even work at a convenient store.  I work at the mall.  I work in a place where if the whole building vanished overnight, the only way anyone would be affected are the people who lose their job.  Sadly I also work at a place where, people line up and wait until we open and threaten to call our head office if we are five minutes late letting them in.  I work in a place where on Friday and Saturday nights there are so many people there we had to hire security to keep the peace, (honestly, though he is completely useless).

So on a day where I could have slept in, read a book cover to cover and played hockey with strangers until my feet were numb and the tears that flowed from my wind stung eyes would’ve frozen to my face, I had to get up and hour earlier than normal, dig my car out of the snow, drive at 25 kilometers an hour behind a minivan with it’s four ways flashing, (have I mentioned I hate minivans), and trudge to the mall so people can do the same thing, buy a six dollar coffee and thumb through magazines they will never buy.  (I don’t want this blog to end up being all about work, but lately, (and sadly), the only eventful things to happen to me have been about work, and this one in particular screamed to be addressed).  I wanted to punch the face of everyone who walked through the door.

All those wonderful images of families frolicking in a wonderland of snow were shattered as the parents dragged their children to the one place stupid enough to be open, in turn dragging me with them.  Honestly, it wasn’t the worst type of day to work, time moves at a rate that makes the movement of glaciers seem meteoric, but for the most part, it was a total slack day.  I spent more time juggling (literally) than anything else, but really I should not have been there, and neither should have anyone else.  It was the perfect day to get nothing done, and no sane person would have thrown blame.  It was the perfect day to spend time with the family, or clean, or watch movies, or just sleep, (all day, no distractions, dreaming peacefully with no pants on).

I had to work, because people couldn’t go one day without going to the mall.  That sucks and I am going to hate those people, forever.

While I’m on the subject, teenagers, I get it, you hangout at the mall, it’s been popularized in TV and movies since the eighties, (and probably before, but I didn’t exist then and therefore it doesn’t either).  What I don’t get is during exams, when you have odd time off from school, (and when your not studying, assuming you did at all), why do you spend all your time at the mall.  Exam time is, or was, the best time for street hockey and organizing “study dates” with girls.   Do something other than go to the mall sometimes ok?