Sales Associate of the Month

 

For Christmas, among MANY other things, Ella received a very life-like cash register. It has a digital screen, makes plenty of realistic cash register noises, comes equipped with beucoup faux money (paper and plastic coins) and even accepts its very own Visa charge card (how’s that for preparing our next generation of debtors?). Ella LOVES this red and blue cash register and has been in full “maker” mode since Christmas Eve night when she received it from Mommom Kim (my mom). In Ella’s mind, a “maker” is the person who is behind the counter at McDonald’s; the ever important 15 year-old who “makes” her cheeseburger with no onions or pickles. She thinks that anyone who stands behind a counter somehow “makes” the merchandise that is sold to us.

Anyway, not only is Ella in training to be a maker, but my sister, Jessica, and I think she is also in line for a pretty lucrative sales career someday. On Christmas night Ella was playing maker with my brother, Bey and my dad’s wife, Grandma Donna. Ella asked Donna what she would like and in reply to Donna’s apparently ridiculous request (something as unfathomable as an apple), Ella replied, “we have oranges.” Donna took it in stride, replying, “Well, I want a big, fat orange, not those little scrawny ones.” Ella looked at her — the look of an overly tired, underpaid, forced to do 2 million Christmas returns in one shift employee and said, “Do you like lemonade?”