The Return of the King

Yesterday was my grand return to work. I had been looking forward to this for some time now. Since I was delayed a week after returning from Florida, I was even more excited to finally go back and see everyone.

Although it was a radical shift from the last time I worked, it was good to be back. You can imagine since my last day was Boxing Day, it was a 95% decrease in customers. But at least everything is clean now. And most of all, I don't have to be angry at the customers anymore.

You really get a sense of how disgusting people are after having worked the holiday season in retail. To get an idea, there is actually a Facebook group dedicated to retail workers who have gone as far as to lose their Christmas spirit because of their experience. It really makes you lose faith in our society.

Just how lazy can people be. Being responsible for the toy department in a store, I got the worst of it by far. They will just leave things anywhere that offers support for an item. And that includes the floor. People will continue pushing their carts while dragging an item until it becomes dislodged and can be kicked aside. It's ridiculous.

I know many will say, well that's not my job to clean the store. Well certainly it isn't. But it was also your job to be educated enough to have the courtesy to put something back where you put it instead of throwing it on the floor. In the end, you're ultimately hurting yourself. We as employees only have a certain amount of time to do work. The only duties we had in December in terms of tasks were to assist customers, and clean up the store. If you figure how packed the store in December, there is pretty much someone who needs help at any given amount of time. So there is little time left to clean.

So the little time we do have when we're not helping someone, is spent cleaning. And in this type of environment, 'cleaning' can only mean picking things up off the floor. We can't possibly begin to put things where they belong. Because nothing belongs anywhere anymore. As customers have shuffled everything out of place. As a result of this, I'm forced to remove all the price tags from the shelves. Otherwise a customer will demand the item for free when he feels cheated by the misguided price tag. So for the better part of 2 weeks, 95% of inquiries were 'How much is this?', 'Why are there no prices??' Well that's why there are no prices. And we don't have time to put new prices because we're too busy cleaning up the mess. At the end of a typical last week before Christmas day, the store ends up with about 15-20 carts of merchandise to return to its department. Either from items left at the cash, returns, and most likely items misplaced throughout the store. How is that relevent? This blew me away, on one of these days, 2 CARTS worth of toys were found in the clothing department. That's 2 carts of toys left in the clothing department by customers. Sickening.

Anyway, this was not the intention of this post to go on a rant. But I needed to paint a picture as to why such a rage against customers had been bloomed before going on vacation. But after 3 weeks off, I come back and I'm at peace. I can be happy to help the customers again. Nothing makes me happier than to have someone thank me for my help.

So it is good to be back. Even though no one else shares my enthusiasm.

Surf our way

Yes! Believe it! Channel Pat is back!

We hope we didn't scare you into thinking this place was dead.

I'm just wrapping up the end of my vacation this weekend so it's as good of a time as any to return to what we had so enthusiastically started at the end of last year. Consider this our first full-season premiere.


What I really want to start off and say is just how much excitement has surrounded me since the beginning of this year. 2009 feels so fresh and new and full of potential. I see 12 empty canvases for me to craft the most I possibly can. And do I ever have things planned for this year. For some reason I feel more in control over my life than ever before and it seems like anything I want to do is simply at the reach of my fingertips.

To give you a little sneak peek at whats coming up, here are a few things. We're of course about to begin pre-production on our CBC documentary. Which has the potential to be very good if we can commit to doing the best job possible. At the very least its great experience and a decent amount of exposure. We have signed a contract which gives CBC a 1-year control over the rights of the film. So they will be posting it online, as well as broadcasting it on network television. On top of that, their award division will submit the film should it merit to various festivals for us. So it's all just amazing. It's going to be a fun couple of months.

Apart from that we're also celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our departure from Florida this year. So stay tuned for fun little treats from the past as well as a more official announcement regarding the 2009 Pat World Tour. That's right, after such a success last summer, we're bringing it back with hopefully some new locations. Keep in mind that it wouldn't be much of a 10-year anniversary if we did not return to South Florida. So as I said.. stay tuned!

We're also coining 2009 as the Year of Driving. If all goes to plan, we can be licensed by May, and be purchasing our first automobile by the end of the fall. It's a big engagement for sure, so we can't be certain of anything. But that is the plan and I'm certainly 'driving' towards it.

School is back in full swing and we return to work on Monday. I'll wait til the week starts to discuss those returns in more extended details. For now I bid you all a good end to the weekend.

For a New Year has Come

So it has come. 2009. The new year.

It certainly is something to look forward to. And it's not a year change like ones I've seen in the past. Where I will say that this new year will be a good one. This time I already know it will be good. I just can't wait to see how good and what exciting things continue to happen.

It's the last year of this decade. A decade which has encompassed my entire growing up from teenager to adult. Needless to say that there have been some great years and some pretty lousy ones. But I think we can take 2008 and revel in how great it was all around. If there was any indication that we are doing well, it's that year. It shows me how I'm on the right path and I just need to keep going.

We set out to do the things we wanted to do this year and much more. We can feel proud in the accomplishment of our summer tour. We set out early on in 08 with the desire to go to HK, Florida, and New York throughout the summer. And we successfully did go to all of them. Resulting in a blissful summer. So I know I'm not crazy when I tell someone I can do anything.

We can take what we learned this year and continue building upon it. We can already see great seeds planted in 08 now ready to soon blossom in 09. And even if they don't, we at least know that sometimes the greatest things aren't planned and come and go into your life when and in the form you least expect it. So if what we foresee is already great, imagine what we're not.

Maybe the biggest task is to leave unfinished roads in the last pages of December. Maybe the obvious is for that to be done. But simply forgetting and ignoring all that has happened will never create a resolution. Those roads aren't finished for a reason. And have something at the end.

That is my new years inspirational speech. Happy New Year to all. May it surpass all others. And if you're as much of a fan of 2008 as I was, stay tuned. You won't believe what I've got in store for 2009.