Fa la la la BLAH!

Make it stop, dear God, please make it stop!

I'm no Scrooge, but there should be a law against Christmas music being played before Thanksgiving. I work in retail and it's audio abuse during the holidays. I'm there 40 hours a week, and we're supposed to listen to Christmas music the majority of the time between Black Friday and December 24. Even if you really, really like a certain genre of music, I don't think you'd want to listen to it 40 hours a week for over a month straight. And the customers don't like it anymore than the employees do. Seriously, what makes stores think that people want to linger in a business with "DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY!! FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAA!!!" blasting overhead? Nobody likes it, and yet stores keep playing it every year. It's not nostalgic, it's annoying. That does not encourage anyone to shop. That encourages me to get a headache. That's why online shopping is awesome. Seriously, if stores want me (and people like me) to give them business: no loud stupid Christmas songs; silence would be much preferable over having to hear yet another lousy cover of Jingle Bells. Otherwise, Amazon is getting my money. It's quiet, fast and I can shop in my pajamas without leaving home.

And it is NOT "the most happiest time of the year" for those of us who work in retail wonderland. I don't know what it is, but people feel like it's their right to treat the person behind the counter like dirt. Like I want to be here anymore than you do, angry psychopath grandma who thinks a rock painting kit is a great gift for a teenager (just buy them a giftcard). I don't want to be at work until 10:30pm on a Friday night, collecting empty coffee cups from the bookshelves (which is not a garbage can, in case you didn't know) and cleaning poop off the bathroom walls (and yes, that is something that has happened at my store...more than once).
I'm really hoping that at this time next year I'll be in grad school and won't have to deal with this anymore.

The only thing that I'm looking forward to about this holiday season is that I get to wear this to work:

That's what will make all the crap I go through worthwhile: I get to don a hat with elf ears and it will be awesome. You know you're jealous