Since we have guests staying this week Kevin and I had to do some major grocery shopping over the weekend.  Due to things (having been out of town, mostly) we didn’t end up getting to the grocery store until about 9:30 at night on Saturday.

While we were there we needed to get a chicken but the chicken display was empty.  We asked a nearby employee if he could help us find a chicken and he literally ran across the store to find people to ask because whoever he was trying to call wasn’t picking up.

Because he went so above and beyond to help us I left a compliment with the managers on duty. As I did, one laughed and muttered to the other “he gets so many compliments.”

That reminded me of my first-ever cruise.

Kevin took me on my first cruise when I was in college.  We took a Norwegian Cruise Line ship all around the Caribbean.  I hugged a sea lion!  It hugged me back!  I drank out of a coconut!

I’ve been on two cruises since then but the NCL one remains my favorite, largely because of the cruise director.

A cruise director is in charge of making sure that the passengers have fun.  They plan parties and outings and events and whatnot for everyone to attend.

On our ship, the cruise director was tall, skinny, and extremely charismatic.  At one event he told us that he had actually started with NCL as a kitchen person.   His job was, at breakfast, to work the waffle station.

Apparently while he flipped the waffles (or whatever it is one does) he sang show tunes themed around the weather that day.  To this day he holds the record for most complements on the ship.  As a result he worked his way up to cruise director.

I don’t really know what the point of sharing this story was except for general agreement about how nice it is when you happen across an “above and beyond” situation.  I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn’t inspire record-breaking compliments when working with the public.  My stint in retail confirmed that.  But I supposed people like me make coming across people like these guys that much more special.

Anyone else have bad memories of working retail?  Or good ones?  Or a cute story like your waffle guy singing rain-themed show tunes?  Let me know!

P.S.  Book two is finally well underway, now that I’ve been able to do some in-person research.