Embrace Your Light

As part of Best Buy's comprehensive training I was shipped (against my better judgement) to Edmonton in the dead of winter for the entire month of January to master the art of pushing imported electronics designed to "create a better life."

I am a reluctant traveller.  Contrary to popular belief, travelling for work is not glamorous and for a creature of habit and comfort such as myself, it's actually a form of torture.  By this point of my career I was already a seasoned traveller thanks to the demands of my previous role at IKEA.  I knew the ins and outs of living comfortably in a basic hotel which meant that yes, I took along an extra suitcase packed with my own pillow and blankie for long hauls.  Ya, go ahead and snicker but it is essential for my sanity.

I remember this day so clearly.  I was trapped in the back of the Operations room learning the archaic system of scheduling people to budgets and paying them properly.  It was about as exciting as watching beige paint dry.  I looked at the time and was excited to see that it was 5PM which meant I would be free from the shackles and finally able to leave the dark room of no windows.  Just before I was going to pack it up and call it a day I heard yelling and then a shriek coming from the Customer Service counter.  I flew open the door and my superviser and I ran into a crazed man holding a syringe to one of our Customer Service reps demanding money.  My adrenaline kicked in which meant my brain usually shuts down.  I immediately started using my big girl voice, "Put that fucking needle down and leave the store NOW!"  The wide-eyed man obviously strung out on some kind of high started to lunge over the counter that separated us from him.  I instinctly picked up the chair that was beside me and threw it at him creating enough aggression that he dropped the syringe and ran out the door.  "V," the General Manager who was also in training with me and was in charge of this ship for the shift came running up from the back warehouse after the other staff alerted him and called 911.  This all happened in less than 3 minutes.  We locked down the store and went through the painstaking process of filing all the police reports.  Luckily no one was injured except for the poor chair which probably had some DNA from the culprit attached to it since it did clip him in the head. 

Let's just say it was a bad day.  As a manager I have chased down junkies, kids stealing toys and yelled back at aggressive customers that felt they were entitled to the world but... being robbed was definitely a new achievement on the old resume.  It was 9PM by the time V and I finally left and we were heading straight to our hotel's bar.  Since all the staff and men in blue were finally not around us anymore, he started laughing like a crazy man.  Although he never witnessed the altercation first hand as he was 3 seconds too late, he did review all the security tapes with the police.  He confessed it was hilarious to see me bolt out the door like a bat out of hell, yell obscenities at the junkie and then hurl a chair at him when he started to climb over the counter.  Ya, really hilarious I'm sure.  I am 5' on a good day.  The junkie was over 6' and we logged him on our paper work as being approximately 200lbs.  It never occurred to me that further agitating the obviously strung out man was a poor decision.  Luckily the chair bashed his head enough to scare him.

My heart never slowed down since that incident and I badly needed a drink.  As V continued to chuckle through my glares I slammed the button on the elevator door to the floor where our usual watering hole was located.  The elevator door was just about to close when suddenly this woman that looked eerily like Bette Midler pryed open the doors and then just stared at me.  Our eyes deadlocked for the longest minute... E.V.E.R.

"Oh my God!  All this energy is from you?" incredulously asked the the stranger who was hysterically waving her finger at me.  I am a person with a very large personal bubble.  On any average day this bubble is usually 3 feet in radius which means no one except my immediate family can enter within it without making me feel uncomfortable.  After today, it had effectively increased to 10 feet, especially for spazzy women rocking a red fro. V can see my fists clenching up so he automatically stepped in between us.  "Excuse me, but do we know you?" V protectively asked.

The high energy woman embarrassedly apologized for the abrupt invasion and explained that she was one of psychics partaking in the "Psychic Circle Convention" that was being held at the hotel.  Her area of expertise is reading auras so when she noticed this huge "light force" pouring out from the elevator she had to rush to see what it was.  The intensity in her eyes as she was studying me made me feel like she was looking at me naked.  The woman with the massive hair just kept shaking her head.  She then explained that I had 5 times the normal person's aura radius which was so different.  She then grew quiet and stared at the space above my head.  "You have a black light that is hovering above your own life energy!  But it's not attached to you, there is an actual gap between your light and the black light.  Do you notice if street lamps or other electrical items surge when you walk under or near them?"

I was caught off guard and highly annoyed because I can feel my coping system shutting down.  I really needed a stiff drink and the last thing I wanted to do was discuss the colors in my rainbow with the short, roundish woman who kept invading my space.  "I'm sorry we have dinner reservations and we're running late."  The woman again realized how poor her social skills were and apologized.  She gave me her card and told me to call her for an in-depth consultation and since my aura was so unique, she wouldn't even charge me!  V pushed her out the door and I quickly pushed the button to take us to our final destination.

Dinner was unusally quiet.  There was no witty banter, no sarcasms about our favorite topic - stupid people... just... nothing.  It was an uneventful dinner where the only conversations taking place was completed with gestures and eye contact.  Finally V broke the silence and asked if I was going to see her.  I told V I already chucked the card, so no.  He seemed shocked that I didn't want to learn more about my aura.  I told him it was like opening Pandora's Box and right now I am not curious enough to handle the truth.  Besides, that lady's energy gave me the heeby jeebies and I wouldn't be caught dead alone with her in a room by myself.  She probably would keep me trapped somewhere and use my body parts for potions or something.

V walked me to my room like he normally does and before we said our customary goodnights, he blurted out in a drunken slur, "You know what was so weird?  On the surveillance tapes your face kept going in and out of focus when you were raging mad and freaking on that perp.  At first we thought it might have been a dust mark but then the cops realized you moved so it wasn't a static thing on the lens.  I didn't think much about it until that crazy lady asked if you surged electronics..."

Uuuuuuuuuuggggggghhh!  I am not having this conversation.  It's past midnight.  My brain is marinated in fermented wheat and my heart is shot from all the adrenaline rush.  I rudely walked past V, slammed the door on him and fell face first into my "comfort" pillow where I happily stayed until noon the next day.