Tales from Holiday Retail

I'm home from a long day at work and soothing my tired mind and body by catching up with the online world.

Money is tight right now for me, and I'm taking advantage of winter break to work as many hours as they'll give me at the book store. Of course, the holiday season falls in the middle of all of this, and I'm sure we can all agree that no matter what holiday you celebrate, it tends to be somewhat expensive.

One thing I will say about this year, compared to my other years working in retail during the holidays, is that the people I've encountered so far have been pretty nice. It always feels so much better to help people when they've been decent to you. This time of year usually seems to bring out all the frustrated, cranky, and rude people (quite often non-readers shopping for readers) who avoid social interaction the rest of the year. But so far this year the pleasant people outnumber the jerks, and on behalf of all my fellow employees, I thank all of you who are nice to those of us who are truly doing our best to get you what you're looking for.

The best thing about working in a bookstore is that most of the customers are readers, though I do work at one of those chains that also carry DVDs and CDs, so that's not always a guarantee. But when you're dealing with someone who is a reader, no matter what they read, there is usually a common bond between you on some level, and I love that. I don't think people who work in other forms of retail get that very often.

The holiday I celebrate is Christmas, and I'd like to take this moment to ask Santa to leave Jake Gyllenhaal under my tree this year, wearing nothing but a big red bow and that Santa hat from Jarhead.

About a month ago, I had a birthday. My friends all wanted to take me to see a movie, and their original plan was to take me to see Elizabethtown. It's time to confess an embarrassing secret. I used to like Orlando Bloom waaay too much. What can I say? I really like guys with British accents and he totally did it for me in Pirates of the Caribbean. But that's the only thing he's ever done that hasn't sucked, in my opinion. Now, don't be bombarding me with e-mails, all you Lord of the Rings fans. Those movies just aren't my cup of tea. I think they present a really ridiculous good vs evil, black or white, overly simplistic picture of the world. It's far too easy to watch those movies and hear Bush saying "You're either with us or against us." That's the kind of mindset those movies embody for me.

Anyway, back to my embarrassing crush on Orlando Bloom. So, my friends all know that he was my guy not so long ago and were set on taking me to see Elizabethtown. The last Orlando movie I bothered to actually see was Troy, which pissed me off because it eliminated the part of the story where Achilles goes mad over his LOVER'S death by changing Patroclus into his cousin. Please!

My waning affection for pretty boy Orlando and the dismal reviews for his latest film lead to me suggesting we pick a different movie, and we ended up going to see Jarhead. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of those guys who can be either really hot or kind of scary looking (he did nothing for me in The Good Girl, for instance), but lately he's been looking oh so fine. I really love the hairy chest and he's got one of the hottest treasure trails I've ever seen.

Jarhead was an okay film. For entertainment value, it didn't do all that much for me, other than giving me a chance to ogle Jake. But I did think it dealt very well with a lot of the harsh realities of a soldier's life, especially after they've been to war and more or less tossed aside (I'm talking about the flashback to Jake's father, a Vietnam vet, and the end of the movie itself).

I really can't wait to see Brokeback Mountain, speaking of Jake. My only concern is that they won't come near to doing justice to the short story, which is truly beautiful. It's about time, though, that Hollywood presented a gay love story between two men who are the idealized version of 'manhood' (ie cowboys) and just happen to be gay. They're still so stuck on the accepted stereotypes of gay men for the most part.

Anyway, I guess that's all for tonight. I just wanted to write because I've been a very bad blogger so far. I freely admit this and hope to do better.