groundhog day!

that's today, when americans gather around a groundhog named "punxatawney phil" who crawls up from his hole and foretells whether or not it's going to be a longer winter by his shadow. just by looking at the calendar, though, you'll know it's gonna be six more weeks of winter. but hey, let's not rob little phil of his once-a-year job..hehe.



and speaking of jobs, yesterday was my first official day at work. but the night before that was a long training for me because i stayed till the mall closed at 9:30. i had my share of boo-boos when they sent me to the floor, while i was still in training. i felt like being thrown into a tub of ice water. they suddenly let me ring up a transaction at the kids' department! and this old lady was irritated by my slowness in scanning the tags of her purchase.

oh, they assigned me to the handbags/accessories department, much to the delight of my sister, mom and aunt who are very much into bags. i'm a bit into bags now, too, but i won't buy expensive branded types just yet because i can't afford that now. i was introduced to adele, this old lady who has worked there for 8 years. actually, i think i'm the youngest in the bag section, because the two other ladies i worked with yesterday, linda and rose, were also way older than me. granny types, but really nice. they helped me a lot in things i'm supposed to do. they call me "honey" a lot because i look that young to them.

anyways, on my training night, i was waiting by the employee locker room because my sister was supposed to pick me up. the guy from loss prevention, steve, was there guarding the door. steve works with olga at this room filled with hidden video monitors of the store, so they can see shoplifters. he chatted with me a bit, and even asked for my age. i should've asked for his too, but i bet he's younger than me despite his height and build. he has earrings on one ear, but it looked cool on him. i had told him i'm from the philippines and i just came here last october.

him: do you speak english in the philippines?
me: oh, just in school.
him: wow, for someone who just got here last october, you speak good english.
me: oh thank you.

by "good english", i think he meant that i speak with an accent like most americans, and not with a thick, foreign-sounding accent. i guess he doesn't know that filipinos can be more american than americans in many ways.

anyway, when my sister finally came, my aunt was also in the van and had asked me who the guy was. i told her it was someone from loss prevention and that i forgot his name at the time. then she said "he's cute!"

fast forward to yesterday, my first day at work. i came in at 1pm. had my share of scoldings from everyone at the house because it was 10 minutes to 1pm and i was still not ready to go. thankfully i swiped in with a few minutes to spare. i had apologized to my first set of customers for my slowness with the cash register and told them it was my first day, and they were very understanding. some of the other customers were not, though. especially this guy who wanted to buy something but the tape inside the register had run out and i had to ask linda to help me with it.

i had two shining moments, though. two old ladies were very pleased with the way i served them. one was this lady with a european accent who had asked about getting a job in that store. i informed her about getting an application downstairs. then there was this other lady who wanted to get another color of a bag which was 50% off. i had searched in the stockroom for the same bag which was in blue, but smaller. she ended up taking both, and told me that i was the "nicest associate" she has ever met "in many moons." i thanked her and chatted a bit, she told me she was from south carolina. ah well, if only a lot of the customers were as nice as her.

i still have a lot to learn. i have to familiarize myself with the merchandise in my area. the expensive bags, like coach and dooney & burke, go inside the glass display and are secured with sensor tags.

there was this lady who came to me with two knitted hats, both gray, but the other one had flower stitches on it. she wanted my opinion on which to get. she wore both for me to see. i said that the one with the flowers look nice on her, because the other one was just too plain-looking, something other people would also wear. how's that for fashion advice? haha.

my family and i heard mass after i got out from work...and then i started to feel a migraine coming on. it didn't help either that i have a cold which made it hard for me to breathe. i woke up at 4am today and found it hard to go back to sleep.

i work again on thursday. hmmm..what to wear...