Measuring Up

Know where college drop outs end up? ...I do.

RETAIL.

That's where I've been for the last 20-some-odd years.
I've bounced around from Craft store, to Scrapbook store, fabrics to baked goods, and back again, but other than a couple of short stints as a receptionist, it's been a lifetime of hawking ...whatever.

It's not all bad. It's hard work, but it's honest labor, and at the end of the day I feel like I've accomplished something.
(Although, the older I get, the more I wish I had gotten that degree.)

I've gone full circle and am back at a fabric store at present.
I've been there over a year now, and am just barely beginning to feel that I have a niche there.
I applied there as much to find a new circle of friends as much as for a regular pay-check, but that part hasn't materialized. (Pun intended - ha.)
They're not really unfriendly, they're more I'll-say-hi-and-be-cordial-but-beyond-that-I-don't-care-so-don't-tell-me.

Eh. It's only four hours a day, so I can live with that.
(Because, luckily, the customers are more friendly than the staff.)

Measuring fabric day in and day out must be a boring job, you say?

Oh, not so.

No two days are ever alike (other than the screaming kids, that is,) and no two sales are alike.
We have been trained to ask each customer what they are making, (you know - feigned interest) but if you are in my line and I don't ask you that, here's why...

*I had a couple come in one day, who brought up several bolts of white satin.
I smiled at them and asked, "Is this for a wedding dress?"
The couple gave me a strange look, and said: "No, we're lining a coffin."

"Oh." Was all I could muster - no more questions. Did they work for a funeral home - or were they building their own to save money? ...I don't want to know.

*On another occasion, the lady with the big black hair, gobs of make-up and black sparkly fingernails out to here came to the table carrying black fabrics with swirls and stars. (We're not talking Halloween time here - it was like - March.)
I smiled and asked her what she was making. She gave a wilting look and a cackle and said: "....Uh, ...an, ah ...apron..."
That woman was a witch, or my name ain't Granny!

So, if you show up in my line, like the old farmer who ordered 5 yards of powder blue satin, and I don't ask what you want to do with it - and just smile and ask; "How much?" (Loving grandpa, or Prom time for the cows?)
...It's not that I don't care, it just that I'm afraid of the answer!

Ha.

- And then there are the math skills!
If you don't think you'll ever use those in real life, don't work at a fabric store.
There's always the person who comes in and says things like; "If my table is x-long and y-wide, and I want it to drape 12 inches on all sides, how much fabric do I need? Or the quilter who wants to know how much they'll need to make a bias binding for a 108 x 98 blanket.

There are rare days I can come up with those answers off the top of my head, (or at least refer to the cheat sheet under the counter,) but there are more days when it takes me 20 minutes or more just to formulate the problem to punch in to the calculator.

Meanwhile, it is Halloween sewing time now, and I have cut enough tulle in the last two weeks to outfit an entire village with tu-tus.
If a tornado should strike on Halloween night, the whole county will be taken up and fill the sky with multi-colored fluff just like a breeze over a dandelion field.

*Poof*

Other than that, our customers are basically 3 types: a) the high school sewing class student, b) the avid quilter, or c) the maniac crafter making fabric flowers.

That latter person is a frightening breed. They bring their carts to the table packed to the gills with silky floaty fabrics and say cheerfully, "1/8 of a yard of everything, please."

Oy. Have you ever tried cutting a straight line on fabrics that are as fluid as water? Small cuts like that are especially daunting, because if you do a crappy cut - you've basically ruined their piece.
The other thing that gets me about these ladies is that they are usually making them to sell somewhere.
Makes you wonder...

If every lady in the county is selling them, who are they selling them to?

Folks here are interesting...

Anyway, enough talk about work - time to get dressed and go there.

Later.
.