attention shoppers!

• It's not a display of your own smarts when you reply, "You probably can't help me. You don't have a college degree," when I ask if I can help you locate a book. I may be working at a job that pays just above minimum wage, but I assure you, I do have a college degree. I used that degree for several years to produce and edit a variety of publications. Very successfully, I might add. My framed diploma and awards might now be tucked away in a storage container in my basement rather than on the walls of an office like the one you must work in, but I assure you, I can still use my skills as a writer even if I all I am doing now is selling the works of other writers. If I had the opportunity to edit our conversation, I'd respond to your comment with one of my own that contained an expletive or two, for you pushed me to the point where all I could do was think "Asshole," as I walked you over to the science and technology books. But I like my job, even if it doesn't require me to use my college degree.
• It's not funny when you throw up your hands in victory and shout "Approved!" before wiping the imaginary beads of sweat off your worried brow when your debit or credit card successfully goes through the system and your purchases are paid for. It's especially not funny if you're the fourth person who does it during a 45-minute shift spent manning the cash registers. I smile because I'm a nice person, but if you put yourself in my position, you'd be annoyed by it, too. Perhaps not enough to blow the dust off my college degree, but annoyed nonetheless.

...'twas a long night last night.