April 30, 2005
Ahhhh, yes... The wonders of working in a male dominated industry. It sometimes amazes me - how inconspicuous the opposite sex can truly be.I sold a gentleman a used cruiser yesterday and, as he finished the credit application for the purchase, he boldly stated,
"Oops! I almost forgot to check the unmarried box as I am, as a matter of fact, UNmarried."
Taking this masterful art of a hint in stride, as I did not want to cause injury toward the sale, I merely smiled.
It was also made known that he had recently acquired a nine and a half week old, ivory colored Labrador puppy. Like most animals lovers tend to do, I fell directly into the 'gushing over puppies trap' and UNconciously opened the door for this one,
"Oh, well, I won't be able to run home and bring the puppy by before you close but we could meet somewhere or you could drop by tonight after work to see him."
Yeah, right, Romeo...
I was going to, at this point, ramble on (read, LIE) about how it is UNethical for an employee to cavort around with a customer or state that I was deeply, madly and UNconditionally involved with another man but, instead, I just sort of laughed it off without acknowledging his obvious advances. For some reason, I was absolutely UNsure as to what I should do. How did I handle situations like this before? After all, I've been in the industry for five years - had I not had a similar occurrence in the past? What had I done then and why wasn't it all coming back to me now?
And why didn't the moron just freakin' ask me out?! What's the point of all this hinting as though that will procure what one wants?
Do you go to a McDonald's drive through and slyly allude to your order?
"Yes, I would like one of those darling little sandwiches that contains a cooked animal. You know, the one larger than a chicken but smaller than a whale with some of that green and red vegetation and perhaps a couple slices of yellow dairy product which, by the way, is initially produced by the dead animal in question?"
NO! You ask for a damned cheeseburger with lettuce and tomatoes, don't you?!
It's direct, it's to the point and it gets you what you want. How can this be so difficult to understand?!
Although, these two situations do differ in that one would not normally suffer rejection by being turned down for a delicious chocolate shake by a drive through clerk at Arby's and I, personally, would have surely turned down the cruiser customer in question...
Despite all of this, I still believe it to be quite important to simply go after what you want in this life. You may not always achieve your goal, but at least you dared to try. At least you made the most of these few precious moments that we all must endure together and at least you struggled through the journey.
At any rate, today is the self-proclaimed 'Samurai Saturday' at the shop and I must make my appearance forthwith. Have a great weekend, everyone, and please pardon my recent absence as I have also been enduring exam season. I'll make an attempt to actually post something worth reading in the near future...
UNtil then -
Happy Trails!