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I even remember them today, which must mean they're all right. (Old rule-of-thumb---if you can't remember the idea it couldn't have been any good.)

Anyone going to be at the Seattle State fair on monday?

While I was designing with her she had told me that she needed to keep it small for the space she was putting it in. I showed her a mat size that was both appropriate to the piece and fit her parameters. Mind you, this is a vintage fashion drawing and we had chosen a petite frame.

Now she has talked to the owner and said she doesn't like that the mat is so small.

I don't mind this in itself. If a client doesn't like the way something came out I am more than happy to change it. (This is extremely rare by the way.)

What bothers me is that she accused me of not advising her well. That I should've told her that the size of the mat was too small.

I have been doing this for twenty years. I am very specific when I work with clients about them seeing exactly what they're getting and I DO tell people if I think they're making a bad decision. I'm actually known for my direct, honest style and I have a lot of clients who appreciate that. There is about a half inch range where mat widths will look good on any given piece. It is not too small. And I did not fail her in giving advice.

But I am not psychic and I can not predict her whims of insanity or b****iness.

When I go in this morning she is going to be meeting with the owner to 'fix' the problem. I really don't want to be there because it's going to be very hard not to say something snide. I will try to be out of the room as much as I can.

That or I will sit at my computer focused on typing up the story notes I came up with at dinner last night for NaNoWriMo and try to ignore them.

Aaargh!

By the way, the boss knows how I work and he's not holding anything against me.

The spoon is dirty. I didn't want ice in my drink. I was expecting my salad with the meal. Where is my meal? I didn't order this. This is cold, take it back. I want to see the manager...
The waitress was rude, unhelpful, slow...

Event planners (bless their hearts), will get the worse of it. Most of their contacts, representives for their clients, are helpful, kind, and a pleasant to meet. Then you'll get one that seem to revel into making anyone that answers to them uncomfortable. They search for the smallest flaw, ask a pointed question about it, and walk away in mid-sentence when the planners represenative attempts an explanation. They'll ignore the poor person assigned to make them happy and act like that person is an eyesore. Yet once when that poor person seeks a little time away, they go looking for them.

Even if I had gotten a paycheck today, I couldn't have cashed it---the bank I do business with nearby are closed, and I wouldn't have felt motivated enough (or broke enough) to chase down a branch that was open. Moot point, anyway.

Also they pulled this stunt over the Labor Day weekend. If the check comes tomorrow, I won't be able to cash it till Tuesday. If it doesn't, I won't be able to get it until Wednesday night or Thursday morning. (Assuming they have it even by then.)

I didn't try too hard to get to work on time yesterday, as evidenced by the coffee and breakfast sandwich I walked in with. And by the time I got there, about eight minutes late, she had been and gone.

The boss did defend me and tell her that I am very good at what I do. But do you know what's telling? She said that the space she was going to put the piece was bigger than she realized and she offered to pay for the change. She didn't take back her comments about me but that's as good as admitting that it was her screw up. If she truly thought it was my fault she wouldn't have offered to pay.

Admittedly, I'm a little burned out right now. I have to go in today and I already have someone bringing in ten vintage posters first thing in the morning. After this though, I have finagled four days off and if I need it I will stretch it to five. More time to write and clean the bedroom

Sorry you haven't gotten paid Robert. That is lousy. Give 'em heck.

(But I might've put off buying that Blu-Ray DVD player if I'd'a known it was coming.)

*****

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Does it add to the picture if I tell you that I work near Hollywood? The attitudes between the 'industry' people and Beverly Hills people can be outrageous. Though, most people are nice.

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Yes it does, G42. It solidifies my opinion. In my previous career I moved people across the country. The job made me the middle manager on site. Not only was I responsible for my actions and the workers on the crew, I was also the represenative for the entire company to them. Such people can make your life hell. It is almost like they are testing the limits of your composure. It can be a game to them. You lose your cool and they win, and that's when the real fun begins.

Identifying these people before they get the opportunity to damage your pysche is crucial. They masquerade as customers that are protective of their things and have a standard of quality that they want to be met. You can help that type of customer, they're only hard to please. The other kind is the 'misery loves company' type. Here are some signs...

1) Their smile
The ones that don't return your smile are easy to spot. They'll get you to throw up your guard right away. It's the one's that give you that 'larger than a circus clown' grin that will get you to relax at first.

2) The stare
Judgemental, you see it right away. Easy to confuse it with a geniune interest of what you have to say. However, the stare they'll pierce you with is that Queen Anne one. Even when they're a foot shorter it's like they're staring down from the throne, eager to find a legitiment reason to behead you.

3) The dismissive wave
Sometimes there is no wave but the effect is the same. They cut you off in mid sentence at your first helpful suggestion. This is their way of setting the tone in your relationship. If you are the outstanding worker I suspect you to be, it will be your reaction to start trying harder at pleasing this person. They will be watching to see what you do at this moment.

4) Back to square one

The old bait-and-switch from the otherside of the counter. You worked hard on pleasing the crotchity crank, believe that you finally got what they wanted, and it all blows up in your face. Could be the most insignificant item, doesn't matter. Big show of displeasure, pointed comments to re-enforce your own feelings of inadequacy, demands to see your superior. If you get to this point excusing yourself and letting your boss handle the matter will go a long way in ruining their ploy. They are out to make your life miserable, showing that no matter what they do isn't going to ruin your day will make their whole display a meaningless, a wasted effort.

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I didn't try too hard to get to work on time yesterday, as evidenced by the coffee and breakfast sandwich I walked in with. And by the time I got there, about eight minutes late, she had been and gone.

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Good for you. You not being there made the game not fun. Can't make the peasant squirm if she's not around. Bet if you were on time her attitude on the matter and displeasure would have been different.

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The boss did defend me and tell her that I am very good at what I do. But do you know what's telling? She said that the space she was going to put the piece was bigger than she realized and she offered to pay for the change. She didn't take back her comments about me but that's as good as admitting that it was her screw up. If she truly thought it was my fault she wouldn't have offered to pay.

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Good for your boss and not a bad way to see her actions as an admission. I however see what see did as deviously Machiavellian one. He wrote attack from the position of the moral high ground or something close to it. Your boss said you were valuable as an employee. She countered with her money. Offering to pay even when she was disatisfied was an attempt to show how valuable she can be to your boss. The comment that the space was bigger than she realized was her way of saying that she is the reasonable person.

Just remember this is all fun to her, on a subconscience level. The best way to deal with this type of person is to become robotic, not in monotoned difficult way but in a detached unemotional one. This may run counter to the person you are but it is the person you are that makes them want to crush your world.

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Admittedly, I'm a little burned out right now.

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Understandable. Recharge and don't let it keep you down too long. She ain't worth it.

Unfortunately I can't pawn difficult customers off on the boss because I am the boss, well manager. I wouldn't even have left her to deal with the owner had she not known him personally and called him directly.

Some bit of good was working for me yesterday because after she left I had a bunch of customers, new and old, that were very nice and appreciative of my help. There was even one that would've left had I not been here even though he only needed a little photo frame. Made me feel better about things and yes, the incident is behind me now.

And the couple that had all of the vintage posters this morning spent about three hours but were very easy to help.

1) another term for such people is "toxic," and I give you all permission to reward yourselves with chocolate or whatever you consider a treat for having dealt with them

However, people often came there with the intent to treat the salesman, me, like crap. No matter how pleasant I tried to be, there was always that one customer, at least once a day, who decided it was acceptable to be rude and condescending. On the other end of the process, the managers had terrible tempers and would curse, demean, and actually throw objects at you if things didn't happen a certain way.

But it is true that I will bend over backwards to help a nice person and just do what's necessary for a nasty one. And do nasty people have a clue what we say about them after they leave? If they did, I don't think they'd be so nasty. Or maybe they would because they just don't care.

PS: I do get a lunch break, sometimes it is sunny.
and I did not know we celebrated father's day at different times of the year.

An impressive track list too.

1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transition)
5. I Am The Walrus
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition)
10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
16. Octopus's Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition)
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
20. Revolution
21. Back In The U.S.S.R.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
23. A Day In The Life
24. Hey Jude
25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
26. All You Need Is Love

Here's the link to the correct one. All the formats can get confusing.

http://www.amazon.com/Love-CD-Audio-DVD-Beatles/dp/B000JJS8TM/re f=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1252301176&sr=8-2

You can get it for less than $20 with shipping if you click where it says "32 new from $15.91"

Tracy

BTW, they have stopped printing this version of Beatles Love like they have all the other DVD-Audio disks and it will become a collectors item once stock runs out. In three years I bet you can't touch this disc for less than $80 used on eBay.

I liked the "Love" album enough to listen to it several times---the juxtapositions were often amusing and often insightful---but nothing replaces the actual tracks. (Truth to tell, I don't find it all that surprising that "Get Back" could be matched up with the drum solo passage on "Abbey Road"---the drummer in both cases was the same, and they were recorded within six months of each other.)

I think I've mentioned it before elsewhere in these pages, but downloading the tracks to my iPod brought up some minor problems. The "Huge One" medley on what was once Side Two of "Abbey Road" is, I think, best listened to as a single entity---but the track separation of the CD did not permit me to download this as one track.

Eventually, I dug out my vinyl copy of "Abbey Road," and was able, thanks to a record player I picked up, to make one single track of Side Two on a CD-R, then download that to my iTunes and eventually my iPod. The sound quality is still good---I've done this with a lot of records now, with many more to go---but if it was at all possible to combine individual tracks on a CD into one single track, I haven't found out how to do it.

*****

Meanwhile, I enjoy a rare Monday off thanks to the holiday. I slept for nine hours.

Thanks Andrew, I haven't paid much attention to the old blog lately. I had a bit of a fling with Missy didn't I (Probably because I met her) The last song in the player is "The sound of White" She wrote that song when she was a kid, isn't that unbelievable. When she was in school someone came to tell her that her best friend (her cousin) had died. She ran to the chapel to weep and it was all white inside and she said she felt he was there with her in the white light.

Which songs did you like in the little player? That Desree song gets me emotional every time. She wrote it herself about Shakespeare's tragic Romeo and Juliette. She can carry so much emotion in her voice.

Tracy

Oh since you're in the back yard, could you wheel out the trash cans to the curb, thanks buddy.

BTW: I have put out your garbage cans.... some interesting stuff in there.

Tracy

We live in Hobart now but my family hales from Gippsland. Settled the Yarram/Alberton/Port Albert area. Traralgon was the 'big smoke'.

We regularly fly to Melbourne. You can get flights for around $60 if you keep your eye out.

Looks beautiful Andrew. I often have thought that I'd like to live on Kauai after we visited a few years back, but Gina always laughs because she knows I'd get island fever in less than two weeks. So how is it after growing up on the mainland, is island fever real? Tas is over 200 miles long so maybe it doesn't feel that Islandy. The interior has to be stunning...and unique in all the world. I go up and stay in Yosemite all time to write because I find it inspiring. The same reason Anne McCaffrey says she moved to Ireland - somehow it's easier to envision dragons in Ireland. I can see that! Do you travel on the island much?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Tessellated_Pavement_Sunrise_Landscape.jpg

Now that's inspiring. Looks like an ancient UFO landing base.

We live a little further up the river than Hobart.

Tasmania (if you include the islands) is about the same land size as Ireland. However, we have less than 10% of Ireland's population (and most of those are in two cities). So you can find some wild, rugged and isolated places.

You posted a link to the Tessellated Pavement. It is a beautiful spot, in some places those blocks of stone are entirely missing, and within the square pools left behind are these perfect little aquariums.

You'd like it.

I believe Ireland's population has mostly killed each other by now so it may be closer than you think haha.

Tracy

BTW, is Google streetview illegal in Canada or something? I mean they have Streetview in "Tasmania" fer cryin out loud, but not in Toronto???