Working at International

I arrived for my first day at International Plaza with my gear in tow. (laptop, coffee, purse, phone, etc) I got there about fifteen minutes early which was actually educational. I got to watch all the stores in the mall come alive... the gates go up, the music comes on.. and the standard dress code around here seems to be black. Everyone I saw was wearing black (including me) which is something I remedied for day two. I grabbed a cup of coffee over on Bay Street (outside the mall where all the restaurants are.. which includes a cheesecake factory) and sat for awhile waiting for my store to open.

The office is all shiny, with new equipment and new carpet smell. Dr W has a very nice desk set up in the office with wireless internet all hooked up. I spent most of my first day on the internet since I had only four patients all day. They told me this office was slow, but wow!! Four patients.. that's really slow.

I did get to spend the day bonding with the staff. They all seem like very nice people and I should enjoying working with them. Most of my front desk techs are in school so they're all in their twenties. In fact, most of my clients/patients are in their twenties as well. Think of the population who frequents a high end mall and it's mostly the late 20s and 30s crowd.

At lunch during my first day i ran downstairs to the California Pizza Kitchen to sit at the bar and get a bowl of soup and a sandwich. This is when I realized I am out of my league in this mall. A woman was sitting next to met eating and glanced over to ask if I was Christmas shopping. I said, no, that I worked upstairs in the mall. She smiled and proceeded to show me the really atrocious 500 dollar turquoise cowboy boots she had just purchased at Nordstroms. She admitted they were "a splurge" and that although she was buying for others for Christmas she still managed to buy those boots and a 300 dollar pair of bedazzled jeans. She then proceeded to tell me how to properly shop for 200-300 dollar jeans (like I would ever spend that much). I am sooo out of my league in this mall. My jeans are 20 dollars on sale from the Gap. I was wearing a sweater from Kohls and an Old Nay pair of wool slacks. (and shoes from Target because I love Target). This mall I now work in is the Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor, Betsy Johnson, Coach, and Armani Exchange mall. Yeah, out of my league. I know this woman was just looking for justification of her purchaes and in a way I'm sure I somewhat gave her that.. I was polite and told her the offensive turquoise cowboy boots were "nice". Wretch. Someone please talk some sense into me if I ever start to think that 500 dollars for boots is "normal".

The first day only brought me four patients so I was out the door by 6pm since there was no one scheduled and no one in the store.

Now, I'm back in the office for day two.. back on the internet and I'm about ready to run into the mall to start recruiting people. I will get all my errands done today. I've already brought in the belt my mother got me for my birthday to exchange for one that actually goes around my pants (not my waist). The belt fits perfectly around my waist, but that's not where my pants ride. I have a very high waist and long torso so my pants ride about three inches below my navel.. about at my hips. So, the belt is too small. My mother also got me black when I asked for brown. Oops.