Vacation Shopping

Today I went out with my mom and my aunt to Divisoria, with full intention to buy a pair of cropped khaki pants.

I am a hard fit when it comes to bottoms, mainly because my waist is a -0 but my ass is around...well, a 0. (there's a difference, I swear!)

I almost never shop. My mom thought I went with them because I just wanted to look around. Which is ridiculous, because this is DIVISORIA, the mecca of bargain hunters. Where even the people from Greenhills go to shop.

One does not brave the heat, the smell, the crowds, heck--the distance--to just go there. Rockwell it is not, you don't go there to window shop. You go there to buy! buy! buy!

Which is what I ended up doing.

I never went home with the pants--it's still in the realm of dreams, since everything is in a size 25, shit--but I did go home with a hecka lotta things! My mother thought I was in some sort of high, since I bought two pairs of pants, two shirts, and a pair of cute wedges.

This coming from the starving writer.

On the way home, my mom decided to forgo her vacation to Aurora and gave her seat to me instead. So tomorrow, I will be taking my first official vacation in four years.

Don't get me wrong, i've been out of the city since then. But it's been that long since I had more than an overnighter. This one is five days and four nights. And I am going hiking! Woohoo!

Aurora is one of the best places in the country. It doesn't have a lot of tourists and it's river is consider one of the most beautiful in the Philippines. My uncle (who is actually my grandfather, but I call him uncle) is taking me to the jungle, since I haven't been to one ever.

I am...excited.

I really could use the break. After this it's back to work in writing the book.

I'm considering taking a no brainer job--probably waiting tables or being a sales clerk in the nearby mall, I don't know--just for damage money. I don't need the funds to support myself, but I feel really guitly leeching off my parents. Luis and I discussed this, and he told me that it's time to get over my mental high horse and start accepting the fact that this is a need.

I'm looking at my projected schedule, since it will be hard for me to handle a nine to five job if I have to do research in a call center (my friend Luis' manages one) I told him that i'd bum around listening to calls and observing operations for a whole shift for five days. If he takes one night shift in a week, I might even consider doing that.

People think that working in a call center is bum-fuck easy. The truth is, it's anything BUT.

I worked at a call center for about a month. A MONTH, thinking that I could whip up enough money to buy a PC.

A MONTH, heck, it wasn't even 31 days. I think it's 25 days or something, but since I went in during the Holidays, I had Christmas included.

All it took was 25 days for me to develop an allergy towards call centers. And i've been on both sides: i've worked as a Service Agent, i've done sourcing, and i've done hiring for them. It sucks either way.

If you want to know what working in a call center is like, watch The Boiler Room. The stress factor is ridiculous, even more so in outbound/telemarketing.

Even though I know what it's like to work in a call center, I feel like I should sit back and observe again. Maybe even re-live some of it for my script.

None of it is easy. Not taking calls, not telemarketing, not managing the huge bulk of employee turnovers.

It's going to be a monster project, writing a script on this setting, but I like the challenge. Part of it is telling people that even though these telemarketers and service agents may be annoying, they are people just doing their job.

There are a lot of asshole customers out there, some of them might even be you. These people might be paid to put up with your attitude, but it doesn't give you the right to verbally abuse them or insult their intelligence. That's shit.

Chances are, you aren't the first ass that they've deal with for the day, and you won't be the last. Losing your patience won't improve service, and you'll just get frustrated.

Try and remember that the next time you get a telemarketer on line or call the service center.