Surviving Saturday

I don't really bring my work into my blog, but after yesterday I just have to. There is no rest for anyone who works for me...it's bridal season. We all go mack speed during October, November and December for the holiday retail rush. Everyone wanted their photo cards, holiday cards or gift 10 minutes ago. They wanted miracles and we tried our best (and succeeded for the most part) to deliver them. Compound that with one of the busiest December's to date for bridal appointments and you have yourself a team that just hasn't quit since summer. Saturdays lately have proven to be chaos for everyone and I can't boast enough about Lindsay, Liz and Tina who are all rock stars in my opinion.

I'll preface by saying I'm utterly grateful by the bridal traffic we have flooding the shop during the week and certainly the weekends. I sincerely am appreciative and never try to bite the hands that feeds all of us, BUT being 7 months pregnant and working yesterday was quite a challenge.

Liz and I were running the shop; we had 9 bridal appointments/walk-ins. Most of them were timed pretty well and we even had one couple return later in the afternoon after seeing how busy we were in the morning...it's always nice to see people return. I think at one point I was helping two brides and one shopper at the same time.

Again, I LOVE being busy and under 'normal' circumstances I would have enjoyed yesterday very much. I like the juggle and it's one of the reasons why I enjoy being a small business owner so much. Stress doesn't affect me negatively too often...don't ask any of the girls at the shop if this is true or not. However, when my hips ache, my son is kicking the crap out of my cervix all day long, I have to excuse myself every 20 minutes to go pee, my back is killing me and I'm waddling as fast as I can up to the front to ring someone out...it gets to be a LONG day. lol...I'm sure I was quite the sight and probably why I felt a few people were looking at me with an expression of "oh I'll be patient, I see why I was waiting so long".

I haven't felt too irritated with customers (okay, there are a handful). Yesterday, I was in the back office and heard the door chime so I got up. The instant this woman walked in and didn't see anyone she yelled "hello?"....I yelled back in a very irritated tone "HELLO!"....in other words....GIVE ME A FREAKIN SECOND TO WALK OUT THERE! And what did she do?? She yelled back again "hello?" just as I was rounding the corner. People....take a deep breath, I'm coming...no one is going to leave you standing out there.