The Handy-Man Can

Work was reeeeally boring yesterday. I cannot stress that enough. I had one walk-in men's haircut when I got to work at three, and then didn't have any more clients. Luckily, (haha) my manager is very adept at finding "projects" for me to do around the salon. She saves special projects just for me, and won't assign them to anyone else. They call me "the handyman" of the salon. I have a tool kit my father gave me a few years back, and since I'm the only stylist who always has a set of screwdrivers in the trunk of her car, I was given the nickname. I've taken down shelves, assembled new appliances, fixed broken chairs, replaced old cash drawers, etc. Nothing entirely difficult, but stuff that if it had been left up to one of the other girls to do, then our salon would be falling apart right now.

I admit, I take a little pride in this reputation of mine. I like to feel useful and appreciated. I also like to be able to use the few skills my father taught me when I would help him in the garage or around the house on Saturdays. I like to problem solve and find ways to fix things using just the tools I have and the resources at hand. In this way, I really have become like my father, I suppose. He was a professional at making do with what we had. A couple of examples: when our VCR got old, and stopped accepting tapes, he stripped a couple of wires and voila!All you had to do was touch the wires together, and it would take the tape! We didn't even think this was weird when we were little, but I remember our friends thinking it was crazy. Also, our lawn mower didn't turn off, unless you got a stick and used it to disconnect a spark plug on the side of the mower. Maybe it wasn't a spark plug, but whatever it was, if you tried to use your hands, it would shock you. One day we lent the mower to our friends down the street, and about an hour later I remember getting a phone call from Joey, yelling "How do you turn this thing off?!!" As the mower roared loudly in the background. Oops! Hilarious. Haha.

Well, back to my project. They (Regis corporation) installed these video screens at every station in the salon, with the hopes that they'd be these cool new things that showed videos on how to flat-iron your hair better, which products to buy, random music videos and sports videos, and red-carpet fashion blurbs. Long story short- they were a big fat nuisance that never worked right, were obnoxiously loud, and took up a lot of space which made the salon have this cluttered feel to it. I hated them from the beginning, it's true. Well, back in November, we finally heard that Regis was going to take them out! "Woohoo!"

Months passed.

Nothing happened.

So one Wednesday night a few weeks ago, (it was also reeeeally slow) I decided to take them out myself. I got my tool kit and went to town. It took a good couple of hours almost, but I took every single one out of the walls, and stashed them in boxes in the back of the salon. :) Everyone cheered the next day when they saw what I had done, I got high fives and hip-hip-hooray's! They bought me lunch and let me take the big-tipping clients!

Just kidding. But they were happy, and they said "thank you very much", "you rock", etc.

Yesterday I got to work and my manager said that they finally sent us a kit with directions on how to disassemble them and also sent boxes to use to ship all the parts back to headquarters. So, that was my job. Luckily I'd already done the time intensive part of this project, so all I had to do was box it all up. The letter of explanation they sent was funny, because it apologized that it took so long, they were having trouble getting technicians out to the salons to take out the system, so we would have to do it ourselves. I'm actually surprised they entrusted us with such a big project. Usually the hardest thing they assign stylists to do is install a new ink cartridge in the printer.

Well, anyway, I got that all done, and then just found some cleaning to do the rest of the night because our area supervisor is coming for inspections in a few days, and my manager is freaking out about everything.

The moral of the story is this. Come visit me on Wednesday nights in the salon, because I am most likely bored. I accept all kinds of food, and ice cream. We have a TV and DVD player, and I also enjoy watching movies. Heck, I'd just enjoy the company and conversation. Also, if you come I might give you a free scalp massage... Just think about it.