Tuesday had less peoples.

Yup. Today was even slower than yesterday. Shortcake started out on crowd control on headset. She got to spend a good two hours with Teddy Bear. She saw a man walk by wearing a kilt and carrying a Victoria's Secret bag. Au Bon Pain (directly across from Santaland) was playing music today. Some of it was Christmas music and some of it was Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville." So Shortcake sang "Margaritaville." All the way through. Because she knows all the words. She also danced to "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Fields of Barley." Yes, it was that slow. She did meet a family from last year. They didn't recognize Shortcake, but they mentioned an elf named Ralphie, who stays at their house on the mantel, and Shortcake remembered a family from last year (while she was Photo elf) who had a Ralphie. Repeat customers!

Shortcake also spent an hour and a half at the Village Exit where she directed people to the right to view photos or to the left to exit. Turns out "right to view your photos" is difficult to enunciate. There were 2 women who wouldn't come straight to Shortcake to exit; they insisted upon looking in the Boring Room. Hot Chocolate named the area right next to Shortcake the Petulant Alley, or, alternately, the Unimpressed Cavern. He also led them on a Jabberwocky shortcut.

All of the elves get a little stir-crazy when it's slow.

There was one woman who saw Santa and then talked to Shortcake for awhile about how she believes in Santa. She considers Santa the equal of Jesus or God. If she needs something during the year, she will ask Santa for it (similar to praying), and he tends to come through.

During lunch, the elves tried on some princess tiaras. Star models it for the camera.

After lunch Shortcake was sent to Photo. Santa was very hot and tired. It was an ace team in the house: Shortcake, Star and Figgy. It was a model of efficiency. If only there had been enough people to necessitate efficiency. There was one little girl, all dressed up in a beautiful dress, whose face lit up as soon as she saw Santa, and she walked right to him. It was a great visit, and afterward her grandfather fist-bumped Santa. Awesome.

Shortcake is still working on getting babies to smile in photos. They will look at the camera (thanks to her magic bell), but they don't want to smile.

Slow Monday

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving. It was not expected to be busy. Guess what? It wasn't busy. There were few peoples.

Shortcake started the day manning the headset for the front line (per usual). She was tempted by the sight of gingerbread cookies across the way, but she decided to wait until lunch, since elves are discouraged from eating and working. It's difficult to say "Merry Christmas" with cookie in your mouth. (But then there were no gingerbread cookies at lunch! Travesty! She had to make do with a chocolate croissant instead.)

Shortcake ushered next, and there was a man who came through and talked to Santa for awhile. He wanted to know why Santa didn't leave him any presents in 2009. Apparently, this was his third visit this year. Seeing Santa probably comforts him. After the man there was a group of 14 Macy's managers who all wanted to be in one picture. Bobble somehow managed it. Some of the district managers had Christmas spirit, and some clearly just did it because they were told to. Unfortunately, they had to wait a bit due to the aforementioned man who asked about his 2009 presents, which did not improve the managers mood. Humph. But after the 14 adults, a boy named Cooper visited, just to say hi, and sat on Santa's lap for awhile.

After lunch, Shortcake photo-ed. This meant she saw about 6 families in an hour. Slow day. Very slow. With few peoples. So Shortcake and Sequin and Santa just chatted away in the downtime about Stephen Shwartz and Connecticut train lines and siblings and things.

She ended the day back where she started, on crowd control, on the front line, on headset. It smelled like bacon instead of gingerbread cookies, which taunted Shortcake since she had just eaten lunch. There was one incident of a woman squatting in a corner, vomiting into a bag. Her companion said she was pregnant and had maybe had some bad food. Shortcake offered to direct her to the bathroom, but the woman just threw away the bag, and had some water, wiped her mouth with a kleenex (offered by Shortcake), and continued in to visit Santa. Which was a little odd. To say the least.

Where are the peoples?

Shortcake failed. She had volunteered to work the Autism Speaks event (wherein families with autistic kids see Santa before the store opens, so it's a much less threatening environment), and then forgot it was Sunday. FAIL.

So she worked crowd control from the store opening. It was quite a rush at the beginning of the day because people thought the store opened at 9am, instead of 10am. There was a horde of people waiting for the doors to Macy's to open. And they all rushed up to the 8th floor to see Santa. Within 15 minutes, there was a line into Parade hallway (about a 45 min. wait). But the line kept moving because Santaland was a model of efficiency. Shortcake just kept asking people to fill in a corner and dump their coffees and everyone was quite pleasant and understanding. She got to hang with Teddy Bear whom she hadn't seen in about a year. By 11:30am, the line was back down to the normal 15-20 minutes.

After the morning rush, Shortcake was sent to Usher, where she got to witness a Special Santa visit. Some twins. One set of triplets. The usual. After lunch she was sent to the Maze at the Town Hall position, which was a surprise. Shortcake hasn't been in the Maze in over a year. Okay. The Welcome Kiosk yesterday doesn't count. Basically the Town Hall helps direct traffic after people take their family photo with Christmas trees. There's a big banner that says "28 Days to Christmas" which, of course, was wrong. It was 27 days. Mostly Shortcake just stood there and said "Trains on your right; bears on your left, and straight ahead to see Santa. Say hi to Snowball as you pass." (Snowball was the next elf they would see.) Then Shortcake was allowed to leave early because there were too many elves. There just weren't enough peoples for all of us. So Shortcake ran an errand, called her parents, and went to see Tangled. Which is decent. Sometimes, you just need a Disney Princess movie to make you happy.

Black Friday

Today was the day after Thanksgiving. Shortcake picked up an extra shift today because she wanted to help Santa out on what is supposed to be a very busy day.

And then there were no people. Okay, there were people. Santa saw people. But there was not an excessive line. It was thoroughly manageable, and, really, never got longer than 30 minutes. On Black Friday! WHERE WERE THE PEOPLE?

Shortcake started as Photo Elf, getting used to it again after a year away. She made some rookie mistakes (not saving the photo which resulted in a reshoot, etc), but she did manage to make a boy smile at the camera by handing him a train. Trains do wonders. After Photo, she moved into Ushering and ran into a lot of trees. Walking backward is more difficult than you think. She can, however, skip backwards. She helped stage a few photos for the Photo elf. The Photo elf was new and didn't quite know how to arrange 12 people. After lunch she was sent to the front line where the line was never longer than 20-30 minutes. Really. So short. Justin Time the conductor was there as well, making sure everyone had a ticket to the Santaland Express. For the last 30 minutes of the day, Shortcake worked the Welcome Kiosk, wherein she welcomed them to the North Pole and asked them not to feed the penguins. Seriously. Anything other than raw fish gives the penguins stomach problems, and raw fish are smelly. Santa has a special feeding schedule and a fridge in which to keep the fish.

Also, new outfits.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And a very happy 60th birthday to Shortcake's father.

Shortcake woke up bright and early at 3:30am. The alarm went off, and she was up and running. Here's what she looks like at 4am, dressed as a human, in a jacket far too large:
She reached Broadway and 35th at 4:45am, reporting for 5am duty. She then moved some barricades on 34th St. Here's what 34th St. looks like at 6am on Thanksgiving morning:
Shortcake spent the time before and during the parade at 36th St. & 6th Ave. working crowd control with some police officers.

It was windy and slightly cold. Shortcake did not dress appropriately for the weather. By the end of the parade, she was quite cold, sleepy, and tired of the cranky people. There was one man who wanted the bands to play music, but the bands couldn't because they were too close to the televised performances on 34th St. Here's what Shortcake looked like after the parade, while holding a sign telling people they couldn't cross 7th Ave, and watching people walk right past her to try to cross 7th Ave.

Afterwards, Shortcake went home to shower, eat the most delicious turkey of her life, and take lots of naps.

Shortcake is back!

Hi everyone!

Shortcake is thrilled to be working at Macy's again. It's positively balmy in New York, as opposed to the frigid wintry climes of the North Pole.

She is attempting to volunteer for the Thanksgiving Day Parade, but has yet to figure out what she's actually doing. But she picked up her credentials today. So that's good.

Her first day working is the day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday. Usually, Shortcake will be working Sun-Thurs, 9am-5pm. And she will also be working Christmas Eve. Because Christmas Eve is magic.

In other news, there are new outfits. It will be exciting. Particularly the striped socks. Stop by and you too can witness the extra-large red mock turtleneck with apron and knickers.