kitanzi | Being a people person for fun and profit

The job hunt still goes on, but I did get a one day gig yesterday through a temp agency as a product demonstrator for the opening weekend of the new Costco down the street.

I was officially designated a "breaker", to cover breaks at all the different stations so other people could get a bit of rest. It's been a long time since I've done face to face customer service rather than in a call center, and I'd forgotten it can be seriously a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong, eight hours standing on a concrete floor dishing up chicken salad on crackers or trailmix in a cup at top speed in a riotously busy store is exhausting and tedious. But the people... right up until the last hour when I started realizing how much pain I was in, I was actually having a lot of fun. I got lucky, I know. No parents yelling that I gave their kid food without permission, no kids whining and crying because their parents wouldn't buy whatever or someone's brother stole their bit. But there's fun in trading comments and grins with people who are in a good mood, being able to joke or quip with random people while handing them a little food with a smile. I absolutely wouldn't want to do it for a living, but for one day? Yeah, I had fun!

(Oh, and I met another Larissa. A very nice lady tried to talk to me at the cranberry juice table while I was there. Her english was pretty sketchy, and I didn't realize until her son explained that she didn't want to know what kind of juice it was, she was trying to tell me (in Russian, I believe) that we shared the same name. That was very unusual, and pretty cool!)

Tomorrow, I hopefully have a lead to followup on for a data entry job someone left me a phone message about Friday. Wish me luck!