THE CHAIR SCARE

The absurdities of my job wasn’t nearly as evident as when winter began. Like every other person living through a cold winter I wore a coat to work. My clients likewise wore coats, they wore scarves, hats, earmuffs, and gloves. The owner of the company I work for decided that the ‘LOOK’ of the store would be “Shabby Chique”. Which basically means any used furniture that can be salvaged and painted white would do. To set the scene properly I have to describe my job, I meet with Brides, need I say more? I consult with brides, their grooms, their parents, grandparents, bridesmaids and occasionally their dogs to discuss their Wedding Invitations. On this particularly cold day in the middle of the week I had a appointment with a bride and their mother. I invited the clients to take a seat at one of the three table options at my store. The table they choose is this crummy old dining table that is literally sinking in the middle but painted over completely in high gloss white paint. It is the largest table in the room. The table is usually preferred for our meetings due to its size in relation to the size of the sample invitation books. I am about to sit down on one of the uncomfortable high gloss wicker chairs when the clients who are simultaneously hanging their coats, scarves and pocketbooks on the chairs. Suddenly I hear a boom boom sound and watched the confused looks of my client’s faces and realized the chairs are too lite to handle the weight of everything. Obviously, I apologized and said that was strange. Subsequently this continued to happen at every client meeting I had for the following week. So, I decided to discuss this problem I noticed with my manager and detail the experiences I had. My manager seemed nonplussed and said she would look into ordering new chairs thus the inception of my new motto began. Every time I would meet with clients the chairs would hit the floor, I would automatically defend the incident by saying “we ordered new chairs, I can’t wait till they arrive”.  On one incident that I will never forget is when my client decided to drop by to go over her invitation proof and discuss her guest addressing. The bride had just come from walking her dog, she called ahead to see if I was available and if it was okay to bring her puppy into the store. I said it was fine and that I would have everything ready by the time she had arrived. The bride came into the shop holding the cutest puppy ever, as I am not a dog expert I identified the dog as being a brown, fluffy, medium sized  with pointy ears. No puppies were hurt in the making of this scene. However, the bride hung the leash on the back of the chair everything seemed fine as we were going over the changes and then boom and screech..the chair and subsequently the puppy went down. I equated this turn of events with the puppy stretching on its hind legs and leaning against the back of the chair.  I think the puppy was shocked because it sat on the chair staring up at us with an awkward tilt to it’s head. The bride was apologetic blaming the puppies young enthusiasm...I didn’t know what to say I just finished the meeting and sat at my desk trying to figure out what has just happened…I decided then and there to really push for the new chairs. My argument was that a clients family member was sitting on the chair when it tipped over and if we didn’t get new chairs we would get sued! (dramatic I know….but I was probably as shaken as the puppy …mostly with guilt)

 We still don’t have new chairs but I definitely put in a fight….I have thus instituted new rules for who may sit where during appointments.