This past weekend was slow. The urge to eat frozen yogurt when it is cold outside diminishes significantly. For the most part, I spend my time at work cleaning and when I am done with that, I usually just stare at the door hoping for some human interaction. This weekend a young boy and his father walked in.

The process was the same. They asked for yogurt, I asked about toppings, they said what they wanted, and I made their yogurt. Yet when I turned around to sprinkle the last of the M&Ms on the top, I saw a boy, head resting in his palm staring back at me. He said:

“You put those on very goodly.”

I smiled and because he was cute replied:

“Well, thanks.”

I continued to walk to the register to finish helping them and the boy followed. When he arrived at the other side of the counter he plopped his head back into his hand and spread himself across his side of the counter.  He was not done with out conversation. He said:

“You know, you should be paid much more than you get.”

His dad smiled, said, “Kids” and proceeded to hand me a twenty dollar bill.

We usually ride off kids the way this father did, but you know, I think this kid maybe had a point.

Last night there were these three boys that came in. They must have been freshmen or sophomores in high school. They all ordered their yogurt, paid, and went to eat in the corner of the store. Before they left they all came back to the counter and ordered a regular topping of the sour gummy worms, the newest addition to our topping bar. My coworker helped them get their worms (that sounds wierd but anyways,) and I rung them up at the register. The total was less than two dollars and when the boy opened his wallet to pay me I caught a glance at his license.

Well I do not know if his license would allow him to drive on any roads but the ones at Disneyland’s Autopia ride. Where his license would go, was the cheap cardstock “license” they give you at Disneyland before you aboard the ride.

It’s funny that when you are young you long to be older and when you are old you want back the days of your youth. It’s just the way humans are. This boy couldn’t make up his mind. He wanted his gummy worms and his “license.” I guess that sometime you can have your cake and eat it too.

Another problem is that I am only working weekends during the school year and so the number of people I see in a week has decreased significantly.

No worries though, I still have some stories from the vault. I have settled in school now and I am going to try and continually update the site and entertain the readers.

I just wanted to apologize for my bad customer service. If I could I would offer a complementary frozen yogurt but I’m sorry I do not have that type of power.

First I tell the man 18 dollars. Then I correct myself and say 16. Not much of a correction. Math has never been my thing. It took me over two hours to get through all my addition and subtraction flash cards in first grade. I guess third times a charm because I finally got it right. Twelve. Easy, not really.

I laughed and told the man, “Good thing I’m going back to school soon.” The man smiled and replied, “No worries, its still summer. I understand.”

Well at least he understood my situation.

Situation one:

Mom: What topping do you want?

Kid: Gummy worms! (our newest and best addition to the topping bar in my opinion)

Mom: Honey you are allergic to worms.

Kid: Oh right.

Who knew a kid could be that easily convinced. All moms did.

Situation Two:

I am mopping the floors and a little kid, about three, is fascinated with the Swifter I am using. Every time I move out of his sight, he wants to be moved to see me clean.

Kid: I want to help.

Me: You can help me all you want.

Mom: (laughs) Or you can help mom a home.

Kid: okay!

I give that kid five years to figure out cleaning is not that fun. Or you never know, his mom might be using her super powers to rule and make her life easier.

I had just started my shift tonight and a girl in her early-twenties entered the store. She ordered four yogurts and then handed me two coupons. The only problem was at our location we did not accept the coupons she had.

The girl understood and proceeded to take out more money to pay. All she needed was 90 cents.

She opened up her wallet. Nothing. she searched the bottom of her bag. A couple coins. She opened up her change purse. A couple more. After she searched every inch of her bag and all of its pockets. She had only 39 cents.

I do not always feel sympathetic for customers. If they hand me a credit card that we don’t accept I will not pay for their yogurt, but tonight was a different situation. The girl was so understanding about the coupons and really tried to gather all the money she had. She even offered to downgrade her yogurt. I felt obligated to help her out with the 51cents.

As she continued searching I told her, “Don’t worry. I’ve got it.” She continued to search and I insisted that it was fine. She looked up, smiled in relief and before she walked out she thanked me a million times. Fifty-one cents is not too bad of a price for a good deed.

It was late in the afternoon and my co-worker and I were in the back taking care of some of the behind the scenes work. While we are back there, we keep a watchful eye out front for customers. Well today we missed one. He was not out front though. He was standing, patiently at the swinging door to the back. I went to go to the lobby and almost whacked him in the face. All I saw were his big eyes leveled with the window’s bottom edge.

Don’t worry there were no injuries at work today. I opened the door carefully and he started asking me about the prices of the yogurt. I led him the front and continued our conversation there. He got his yogurt, was as happy as could be and went on his merry way.

That was possibly the most dangerous game of peek-a-boo I have ever played.

My coined phrase to greet the customer. Sometimes I get a response. Other times I am completely ignored and receive a completely different answer. Usually beginning with “I want” or “I need.” Today though there was a pleasant surprise standing on the other side of the counter.

I will have to admit sometimes I change my phrase and today I asked a young man, “What can I get for you?”. Well he ordered his yogurt, a large peanut butter cup with Reeses, I’m surprised I remember, and while I was retrieving his yogurt he asked me, “How are you?”

I was not really going to tell the customer that my feet hurt from standing for three hours and how I was really feeling today but it felt good to be the one being asked. One simple question started a pleasant conversation that left me feeling pretty good.

Who knew that a three word question could really change your day.

One customer, an old man, surprised me tonight.I rang him up on my register, he handed me a coupon. As a procedure, we write some information on the coupons. I asked him the usual questions and picked up the Sharpie to write down his answer. I began to write and the man said to me, while shaking his head, “You are using the wrong hand. You are just like my sons.”

I did not know how to respond to this comment. I am left-handed but I thought that in today’s world there was nothing wrong about that. I  smiled and continued on with my night.

He might not think I write with the correct hand, but I know I am in my right mind.

One day sometime last year a man came into the store and ordered four regular peanut butter yogurts with granola topping. I asked the man, “Would you like regular or non-fat granola?”

He did not understand the question. His wife had been ordering four peanut butter toppings with granola toppings for weeks now and the man had never been given the option of different types of granola. He began to approach me behind the counter repeating, “You have been giving my wife fatty granola?”

Now I am pretty sure that the fat levels between the two granolas are not very different but granola fatty?

The man ordered the regular granola in order to keep his wife’s yogurt consistent. But let me tell you he was not happy when he left.

Now I always make sure that I give every customer an option.