Sunday, May 24, 2009

Go Ahead....make my day...

I approached the customer service desk with some trepidation.

Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. And because you're my friends, I'm going to tell you the truth and admit something about myself.

I don't like dealing with customer service desks. I really don't. I mean, nine times out of ten I don't have the right receipt (it was the one I accidentally stuck my chewed gum into), or the item I want to return cannot possibly ever be returned (on a particular 'bad Mommy' day, I spent 27 minutes trying to get the gal at Best Mart to take my temper tantrum throwing three year old off my hands), or there's no one actually at the customer service desk (seriously, it was like a ghost town! I think, at one point, I even saw a tumbleweed go by!).

At any rate, those are the reasons I generally dread going to the desk. However, today I was going to try something different. Because, you see, it's my understanding that insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. So today...I'd try something new. I formulated a plan. It wasn't very complicated. It was a simple, easy to do plan. This time, as I approached the desk, I was going to do something I hadn't done before.

I was going to smile.

That was my plan. A big ol' grin.

So, as I was saying, I slowly approached the desk, smiling. The gal behind the counter was taking care of a customer when another person stepped up to her and demanded attention from the clerk. She (the clerk) was amazing! She smiled and said in a friendly voice, "I'll be right with you. I'm taking care of this customer right now."

Well, the other gal was having none of that, and continued speaking...at which point the customer service clerk politely asked the other customer to wait a moment and handled the 'squeaky wheel'. She got her out of there quickly and took care of the first customer. I patiently waited. (After all, I was just relieved that there WAS actually someone behind the counter.) And I still smiled.

As the first customer moved away and I stepped forward, the gal behind the desk began muttering as she tidied up her area. It sounded a little like this:

"Tell me that you need--garbled mumbling--mezzarazza something--why don't you--something something--growling--that's the last time I--ragafraggle--"

She saw me standing there at the counter then.

"Oh," she said mechanically, "Welcome to Best Mart. How can I help you?"

My jaw beginning to ache a little from the smile, I say, "Well, you see-" and I hand her the receipt that I managed to keep my chewing gum out of this time.

"Can you believe some people?" she says, interrupting. "I mean, what do they expect? Am I just supposed to drop everything for them? Just create stuff out of thin air for them? It's like, you know, they want me to wave some sort of magic wand and POOF! There's their stuff! I mean, what has happened to common courtesy, I ask you?"

"Well, I - " I began, my smile faltering a little. Just then the store phone rang.

"Excuse me." she said. And she answered the phone. And I continued to wait...patiently. I found myself pushing up at the corners of my mouth a bit. It looked less like a smile and more like I had a severe denture issue.

Still, I attempted the grin. And marveled as I watched the clerk manage to talk on the phone and take my item at the same time. With ruthless efficiency I see her print out a new receipt, staple one to the other, ask me to sign on the dotted line, and hand me back my cash while hanging up the phone.

Without missing a beat, she continues our conversation.

"People just don't know how to treat people nicely anymore. I don't understand it. It's like there ought to be a class on courtesy! But you know what? I'll bet no one would show up!"

I stand there, receipt in hand, slightly smiling. I look down at my purse on the counter.

"Well, thank you!" I manage to say, taking two steps back.

"SEE? No one says that anymore! Thank you! You made my day!" she says. "And go Cards!"

"What?" I ask, confused. And then I look down and see that I'm wearing my Cardinals tee shirt.

"Yes," I respond weakly. "Go Cards! Well, you have a good day."

"You too! Thanks for being such a great customer!"

As I sat in the car, I pondered over what had just occurred. I hadn't done anything truly remarkable. All I had done was smile.

And I think that smile made a difference.

My friends, consider smiling at just one person today. Just one. See what happens. You might make someone's day!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The MOREL of the Story

First of all, I think he was lying about the gunshot scaring them into showing themselves.

I think he was.

I think...

Still to this day, I'm not positive. I mean, I wanted to believe him. Because I trusted his judgement on so many things, I wanted to trust it on this. After all, he'd been doing it for years. He must know what he's talking about, right? So, it kinda made sense, in a way.

I know that for myself though, if someone fired a pistol around me, I'd want to hide. Not show myself.

But he assured me that it would work. The gunshot would scare them into showing themselves.

So he fired the pistol...
and later that night, while we ate, I wondered at his practices...but enjoyed the result.

I learned a lot that day, in the woods.

And mushroom hunting has never been the same...

You see, my friends, several years ago my father-in-law Gordon took me mushroom hunting for the first time. In fact, the whole family went along. The more folks, the merrier! The more folks, the more mushrooms!

Do you like mushrooms? I like mushrooms. But they're not an "in between" food, are they? I mean, you either like them...or you don't.

And as I said, I like them. So the idea of hunting for them was intriguing. I'd never done it before. How hard could it be, right?

We headed out one fine morning in April to this patch of trees that belonged to a friend of Gordon's. He'd let him hunt on the property. I don't know if Gordon paid his friend back in mushrooms or what, but this had been going on for a while, because Gordon was very familiar with the land.

However, it was not easy to get to the land of 'shrooms. We had to hike along a fenceline for what felt like 12.7 miles. It wasn't like there was a sidewalk there; it was work to get over those big ol' dirt clods! And those big ol' dirtclods were really more like mud...so I was hot and a little sweaty before we even started to actually hunt. I began to wish I had some sort of native guide...or a pack mule or something...

Eventually we entered the woods. It was like another world. Dark, quiet. Gordon gave me some tips on hunting.

"Kick the logs first. Then step over them." Gordon directed.

"Does that help with finding mushrooms?" I asked.

"Scares the snakes!"

Great.

I'm not going to find mushrooms now. I'm going to find some snake neighborhood! Um, maybe mushroom hunting is not for me after all.

"Once you find the first one," Gordon continued. "You'll see 'em all over the place!"

SNAKES? Once I find my first SNAKE? EEEEEK!

But he was talking about the mushrooms.

"And be careful. Some mushrooms look like Morels, but they're poisonous."

Great. As if I wasn't worried enough about the snakes...now there are 'bad' mushrooms to be on the look out for!

I can't really explain the joy and excitement I felt when I found my first Morel. It wasn't very big. And I could've sworn that I'd looked in that same spot about 27 times...but there it was!
"Is this one?" I asked, gingerly holding it up.

"Yep!" Gordon clapped me on the shoulder. "You found one! Now let's scare the rest of 'em out of the ground!"

And he fired his pistol into the air.

And I about wet myself.

It was almost too much excitement for one person to experience.

I'll never forget that day in the woods. You know what? We found enough mushrooms to make one meal. Just one. It was a lot of work and effort for what seemed like very little payoff...but they were SO delicious!

There's something, my friends, to be said for working hard towards a goal. There's a delicious reward at the end of the day. What we have the hard time with, however...is the job itself. Because the job can be muddy, lengthy, and possibly full of snakes and gun shots. It can make us weary, and we can discourage easily...because sometimes all of our hard work doesn't look like much.

Stay strong, though. Here, have a Morel. I just picked it.