In January of 2005 I started to notice a customer that was tall, cute, and very thin. He was always in the Sci Fi / Fantasy section of the store which happened to be near the cash wrap. I being the upstanding employee made sure to go to him and find what he may be looking for. (Yes, I flirted with the guy. Flirting actually helped in selling books to men.)
It became a regular occurrence that he would be in the store. Very well dressed also with dress shirt and pants and a tie. What can I say? I like men dressed up. He started appearing more and more but seemingly only when I was working. Then again that wasn't hard to do since I worked all the time. In February I got my own apartment, I had never lived alone and was trying to figure out how to get my stuff moved. It was also one of these days that there was a snowstorm and business was super slow.
In walks this guy (I didn't know his name yet). As I was doing work up front he went to look at books and the girl working with me - a friend- apparently went back to him and told him "She's not dating anyone. Just ask for her number already". That was the day he asked and he called that night. Of course I was trying to pack and he heard me. Next thing I know he was offering to help me move since he had a truck. So that was kind of our first date I suppose.
So we continued to hang out until I finally asked if we were a couple. He said yes (trust me it was hard to tell). That July was the release of another Harry Potter book and another midnight event. He got to be a temp worked at the store that night. In between prep work and the opening my friends/ coworkers and I joked about me being pregnant. A week later I found out the joke was on me. I was and found out before my shift when I took the test in the bathroom there.
Two months later I found a ring in my locker when I was getting ready to leave work. Justin didn't really say anything just waited in the doorway for me. Though that I guess was my proposal. We had already arranged to take the same week off for vacation time and that allowed us about a month to plan to get married.
The next to last week before I left on maternity leave I was working when I went into labor. Ironically I was putting up the Family Life endcap which was basically pregnancy books. I joked that I was such an efficient worker that I even went to the hospital and had our first daughter before the end of my shift. I went back to work after the 12 weeks were up though I had given up my AM position.
About 4 or 5 months later I became pregnant again. Feeling like I robbed my first daughter out of time to be the baby I had started to consider leaving work. It was when I switched shifts with someone and that night my daughter said her first work that I knew it was time. It became too real that I would have missed it if I had worked that night.
Leaving was hard but I always felt I would go back after the kids were in school. My youngest is now in Pre K and goes half day but next year she will be full time. I was a year away from going back to a job I loved, to a place that holds so much meaning to me. In fact we were customers only but it was there that I went into labor with our second daughter also.
So I get that most people are not that connected to the store. That people only want to makes jokes about the closings, speculate, and get deals but it holds a lot of memories and meaning to me. There are many other stories I could have added to this blog but since it already ran long I have kept them to myself. It really has been hard for me. I tear up still and last night I learned that Waldenbook stores will close in 14 days.... now 13 days. Hopefully I will make it back in time to take pictures to share with my girls the story of where our family began.
No comments:
Post a Comment