Warning to All You Creepy Dudes

Yeah, yeah, I know. Don't grump at me for not writing for two months. They have been hellishly busy and the past one was one bad/frustrating/sad thing after another which I will relay in another entry.

But first, I want to rant about something. It ties in with one reason that I have been MIA. See, shortly after the last posting, I got offered the assistant manager position at the bookstore because Jessica was transferred to another where they needed an experienced hand (I'd been asked if I would consider going there but had laughed -- so not going to that mall). Well, considering how my relationship with Mike is going, the fact that I'm a little burned out with teaching English, and also doing a lot of work at the store anyway, I decided to interview for it. My only competition was Kerrie, a young co-worker who has only been at the store since November. She mostly worked at the calendar kiosk (at which she did an awesome job) until February. Needless to say, she didn't have nearly as much experience as me with the store. She is very quick to learn and enthusiastic but there were some reasons for hesitation (I think one was the fact that the employees -- and I include myself in this -- had trouble with taking "orders" from her). Kerrie had been looking for another job somewhere because she wanted a managerial type position (read: more money). But I got the position (as I'm sure you figured out). Kerrie was greatly disappointed because she'd thought that she was a shoe-in for it until she found out that I was interviewing. Tony did give her full-time status (read: guaranteed hours) but Kerrie kept looking for something else but didn't tell Tony that until she found a new job and suddenly gave her notice. Granted, she gave a month's notice but that left us in a jam because we were already down to a skeleton crew (having lost Natalie about two months before). My friend, Kelly, got bounced to keyholder but she has since resigned and is just a "normal" bookseller again. So, Jonathan is our new keyholder. Fortunately, school is out so he can work full time hours which he needs anyway. So, it's all good. Would Jon like more money? Yeah, but he likes working with all of us. We've all become a kind of family there. And that can be much more satisfying than $1.75 more an hour. But I digress.

Anyway, we had to hire someone new. One day, this young woman, Lindsay, comes into the store and we get to chatting about working there. She takes an application, Tony does a spur of the moment interview, and next thing I know, I'm doing a proper one the following week. Lindsay is great. She fits in quite well with the group. She has just the right sense of humor to be able to deal with us. Plus, she's a business major at USC and is a very quick study of things. Obviously she loves to read and the best part of that is that she can fill in our genre gaps (mostly kids and young adult). I've become a Renaissance scholar of sorts through listening to various customers talk about books but nothing beats having someone who's actually read in the section fairly recently.

So, she started two Fridays ago and is doing well. Now, here is where the title of this entry comes in. On Saturday, Lindsay was helping this older guy. I had been helping people here and there and caught the tail end of their conversation while he was at the register. There was something odd about him but I passed that off as me feeling alpha protective (there's a reason I'm the "big sister"). I even worried about her when she went to her car that night but dismissed it as me being overly paranoid. I wasn't. Dude was waiting in the parking lot for her and called out to her. THEN -- and this is the part that I can't believe -- he actually showed up at her church on Sunday and sat next to her in the pew!! I mean, my God, you apparently can't even have chitchat about which church you go to without creepy people stalking you there. When Lindsay came into the store yesterday to share some of the cookie cake I'd bought everyone (for the holiday and to celebrate doing well last month), she told us about this. Needless to say, Tony, Jon, and I all got our fur ruffled and our various totems (I know Tony is a bear, I'm a wolf, and Jon seems like a lion to me) came out and we formed a quick game plan. Lindsay should, if nothing else, feel protected!

Well, Creepy Dude showed up at the store tonight. Just heard from Jon cause he is closing with her. Dude left, though, when he saw Jon with a customer who is built like -- and actually is -- a bouncer. Security has been alerted and hopefully we can put the fear of God in this dude cause he will need some serious help if he tries anything. No one hurts anyone I know -- especially not someone whom I consider under my care (so to speak). I don't care if I'm her boss, I am not putting up with Creepy Dudes stalking her. grrr lol And Jon feels the same way. I just hope that when he gets frustrated with Lindsay, the Dude doesn't succeed with whatever he has in his head. It could be harmless but. . .I trust my instincts. However, since he hasn't done much beyond what I said above, I don't know what else we can possibly do. It's a little frustrating.

So, there is a sampling. I'll probably write some time next week once I have some room to breathe. Right now I'm gonna go and chill. Hugs.