Santa Fe

I love Santa Fe and want to go back. I spent most of a week there at Camp Stitches (a knitting camp) meeting fellow knitters and learning how to knit in swirls, free form and other unexpected shapes. My class was taught by Debbie New an incredibly smart and gifted knitter. She has made beautiful objects including jackets, vests, socks, boats, tea cups and statutes. She is hot stuff and I learned enough at that class to know that I am no Debbie New.


The pictures above are of Santa Fe. The flowers were outside a knitting shop on the outskirts of Santa Fe and the sunset is behind my hotel.

Santa Fe is fascinating and beautiful. The land is red and raw, the architecture is thick and strong, the light and colors are intense. I loved it and want to go back. My one problem is I didn't have a car and it was hard to get around to see the sights. I could and did easily walk around the town. I saw knitting shops, the Georgia O'Keeffe museum (but not the paintings - that part of the museum was closed), the local cathedral and many historic building. I loved it. But the town is only a small part of the whole experience. The best part would have been driving around and seeing the scenery. Oh well next time.

Practicing What I Preach

Working with the public is just plain interesting. Almost everyone who calls or comes into the store is pleasant and polite and appreciate of the fact that this chain prides itself on providing customer service. Even so, every once and a while a customer is just plain angry and unhappy with us. Sometimes the bookseller is at fault and other times the customer just is impossible to please.

Today was the first time one of those customers was angry with me. She called and ask me to check and see if the book that she had requested be shipped from another store had come in. I found one possibility but since it did not have a name on it, I read the title of the book to the customer and asked her if it was hers. She got huffy and hung up on me.

Hanging up wasn't enough, she called back three times to complain. The first two times she spoke to a co-worker the third time she asked for me by name and spent 5 minutes telling me how unprofessional of me it was to read the title of a book that belonged to someone else, to her. I tried to explain that I was trying to see if it was her order, and she told me that was not true. I tried to explain what I had done, she wasn't interested in hearing anything I had to say. I asked if I could get the manager for her, she was uninterested in talking to him. She just wanted to bitch and have me listen. I listened, I apologized, I even (very politely) thanked her for telling me how unprofessional I was. And after she finally hung up I whined about her to all my co-workers (away from customers).

I know part of dealing with the public is dealing with idiots, but I don't like it.

When it happened to other booksellers I would listen and tell them some customers were just pains in the butt and that if you had been polite and responsive, you should just chalk it up to "Life is interesting".


But I will say when it happens to me, it is no fun.