endorphins

I haven't blogged in a while for couple of reasons. First, I coudn't get online because our phone line at home got cut. My mom refused to pay the bill which contained erroneous IDD charges we didn't make. Turned out though, those charges could've been internet charges from porn sites. (HULI ang kung sinong nagsurf ng porn sites dito sa bahay. BWHAHAHA!) Second, I didn't feel like writing because I had nothing to say. In my humdrum-sorry-as-I-make-of-it kind of a life, what is there worth sharing?

But then I guess I don't give my life the kind of credit it deserves. Things have been brewing up lately. For five straight days, my parents took off to Manila for their general check-up and left me to manage the drugstore and the house all by myself. Syempre naloka ako! I was thinking , without my dear mother (the pharmacist) who possesses the expertise of disposing medicines to customers, I (a mere political science graduate) and my team of two (both college undergraduates) would have difficulty in locating a products among thousands of classes and in suggesting to customers alternatives products for non-available ones. But I could not afford not to take my staff and and forge ahead in this endeavor. I, at this point was the assigned master and commander.

First, that meant waking up at 6 am to open the store.(Oh nooooo!) It also meant monitoring the salespersons and not dozing off at the cash register in the middle of reading a book (which I normally did). It meant making extra effort in being able to sell more by mainting fast-paced service and friendly assistance to clueless customers. It meant giving out product orders and receiving deliveries. It meant taking care of the money from the sales and depositing it. Whew! I surely had a lot of work to do. Oh and I almost forgot, since we didn't have a CR in the store, it meant holding up having to pee till lunchtime when my brother Kevin would take my place during his lunch break from school, and till closing time at 7:30 pm. Haaaaay nako! Buti nalang di ako pala-ihi.

Surprise of surprises I did manage to wake up early. This reinfores my theory that I can really wake up early of I wanted to (evil me, not being able to do so on normal days). Also, the good thing is that in those 7 months of forced bumming around at the store, I have been familiarized with most of our products, though numerous they were, and therefore have already known their storage locations, uses, and generic names so that I had been able to cope when I was finally in charge. For those times when I didn't know where to look for the goods or which to substitute, I referred to MIMS, the Pharmaceutical Manual available for use in every drugstore. Slowly, I was fitting myself into the role even thinking of things to do in the store in the occassional lulls of the mid-afternoons. My team and I fixed displays and took inventories of products that have run out. I got to admit, I started to like it.

I have said to myself over and over again in the past that I am not a salesperson. I never will be. But I guess it is difficult not to get the sales bug when you are in a family of salespersons. (Both my mother and father's families are in retail and wholesale). But then again maybe it is not the sales job per se that brought out a positive energy in me. Maybe it is just the job period. I find that I am most happy when I am busy and deeply engrossed with work. I haven't been thais busy since I was in school and I loved it.

Turned out, this responsibility didn't do great things for me alone but for the business as well. My mom observed that sales rose to up to 20% when I was in charge. Maybe she's just pulling my leg though---to convince me to stay a little bit longer. Well I don't know. I mean who knows? Maybe i will.