Thank you, Mr. Tourist, for Setting the Tone for the Day...

You've heard me say it before: working in this gallery is not the best job in the world and some of the people are freaks of nature. But there are others who really get my goat.

Take Mr. Tourist, for instance.

I'm standing in the front of the gallery and a middle-aged gray haired man walks up to me and asks, with a severe accent, the price of a piece hanging above the fireplace.

"About twenty-two hundred," I reply.

He laughs and asks: "Why?"

I just stared at him, unable to say anything, but I didn't need to. He just continued in his accented tone.

"Dis is crap. I don unnerstand why you can sell for dat?" All the while, he's chuckling. I remain silent and stare daggers into him, ready to toss him out the door, but he doesn't stop. "Back en my condree, we have aaht like dis, in Stockholm, in da plaza. We call it 'square aaht'...'crappy aaht'." He turns to walk out. "I don like dis."

"You're entitled to your own opinion." Was all I managed to get out.

I'm not here to actually defend Thomas Kinkade, but I don't have to put up with shitholes like this either. I don't walk into a Gap store and say: "These jeans are crap... How can you sell that sweater?..." Or some lame shit like that!

FUCKING UGH!!!!!!!

A few minutes later, the Suede returns with his friends. I'm sitting at my desk and I hear the distinctive accent. He begins discussing the 'crap' with his friends and I've had enough. I walk up to him:

"Look, I told you a few minutes ago that you are certainly entitled to your opinion. But I am not required to be subjected to it. If you do not like this art, then by all means, there's another gallery right across the way. I would appreciate you leaving my store at once."

He actually shot me a look as if I were the one being rude!!!!

Needless to say, I have more than six more hours to go in here today and I'm not in the best of moods. Let's hope this little venting session I'm typing will smooth me over so I can deal with the next idiot who walks through these doors.

I promise...my next post will be better...