(No)Food(Until Sunday)

I just found out today that one of my favorite record stores in Phoenix (Hoodlums) is closed until further notice because of a fire. This is sad as I know the owners and wonder how they will make their families christmas's. Also this was one of the few indy record stores that was still making it in the modern MP3 world. (Which is another thing that has made me sad, watching all these indy record stores close here in LA.) More troubling is they were just flooded out this past summer and were closed down for a few weeks to recover from that. It's like there is someone trying to tell them something or it's the work of Zia trying to sabatoge the biz. My heart goes out to the owners and all the hoodlum without work right now. If there is anything we can do let us know.
That wasn't the only thing to get me going today. One of my employees is driving me nuts. It's like he's just trying everthing in his power to get my goat. Normally I would let it go and move on but he seems to do it without trying. The more I try and get him on track the more he acts like a whipped puppy and ignores his duties which gets me more frustrated. Arrg. Maybe it's the holiday season. My 11th in retail and they seem to get worse ever year. People are more cranky, try to squeeze every discount and use/abuse any angle they can get. It's not ever customer that does this, just enough that it grinds on you. Also in the retail world there is always the one or two hot items that everyone wants and are never in stock. Endless phone calls and questions about why you are crushing their christmas because you didn't know to save them this item. My store gets over 100 calls a day for the hot item (thanks axe for the clicker). It just grinds on a person. Well atleast there is only 20 more shopping days until returns start rolling in. I need to ask santa for a new job for christmas.
And to finish the emotional roller coaster, my wife got to tour Dodger stadium as part of a christmas party with her friend. So jealous. I would love to have the chance to stand at home plate and look out at the "think blue" sign. It must be insane when the seats are filled. 50 thousand people looking down on you, how crazy must that be.