{"id":64480,"date":"2011-09-21T01:23:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T05:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/64480\/gotta-pick-ukulele\/"},"modified":"2011-09-21T01:23:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T05:23:35","slug":"gotta-pick-ukulele","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/64480\/gotta-pick-ukulele\/","title":{"rendered":"I Gotta Go Pick Up My New Ukulele"},"content":{"rendered":"

At about 3 PM, I got a voicemail I\u2019ve been waiting a week for.\u00a0 It was from Val, the store manager at Guitarville.\u00a0 My new ukulele had arrived and I could come pick it up.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the store is only open until 6 PM (note to Guitarville: you\u2019re a retail store, not a bank.\u00a0 You need to stay open nights).\u00a0 I was scheduled to work until 6 PM.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t seek permission to leave early.\u00a0 I just told the boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to leave a bit early tonight so I can go pick up my ukulele.\u201d
\n<\/em>
\nI\u2019m guessing this was the one and only time my manager, a long time retail veteran, has had this excuse been used by one of his employees as a reason to leave early.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inventory time and he\u2019d been on the job from more than 12 hours straight.\u00a0 He just kind of looked at me blankly.\u00a0 Confused.\u00a0 Ukulele? What?<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI\u2019m getting a brand new one!\u201d I continued to inform him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this some kind of code for something else?\u201d he shook his head, bewildered by the idea of his top salesman informing him of a need to leave early to pick up a ukulele.<\/p>\n

I went on to relate the story I shared a couple blogs ago about the amazing customer service I received from Guitarville and the Oscar-Schmidt Ukulele company.\u00a0 In a rapid fire anecdote, I thought this outrageous example of outstanding customer service would inspire my boss.\u00a0 We are a retail company too, after all.\u00a0 After I was done telling the story, he just said, \u201cGo. Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

See, I\u2019m finally getting comfortable enough in my position at my new company to share with my co-workers more of who I am outside the workplace, as weird as that may be.<\/p>\n

Guitarville was cool enough to have a staff member stay behind an extra 10 minutes past closing, an unavoidable delay on my part caused by unpredictable bus schedules.<\/p>\n

\"\"I got it.\u00a0 A new ukulele.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019d normally be posting a new video here of me playing the new uke.\u00a0 Two problems with doing that right now.\u00a0 First, with brand new strings, the new uke won\u2019t hold it\u2019s tuning for more than a few minutes, so it kinda sounds like crap right now.\u00a0 Second, I promised a fellow Gang-of-Ten FriendBurster that I would write her a song.\u00a0 See, I\u2019ve had a bit of writer\u2019s block lately when it comes to new music, and I thought posting a quick contest wherein the winner would pick a topic for a new song from me would be helpful.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure most of you missed it, as it was a late-night (West coast) post in the bulletins.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got the melody down.\u00a0 My problem is coming up with the lyrics to a song entitled \u201cSome People\u2019s Kids\u201d<\/p>\n

I have, at least, a photo to share from my adventure today.\u00a0\u00a0 I did not have my ukulele case at work when I got Guitarville\u2019s call today.\u00a0 How to transport my new uke home?\u00a0 Try doing THIS <\/strong>with one of those big-ole GUITARS!\u00a0 The ukulele: a bicycle friendly instrument!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At about 3 PM, I got a voicemail I\u2019ve been waiting a week for.\u00a0 It was from Val, the store manager at Guitarville.\u00a0 My new ukulele had arrived and I could come pick it up.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the store is only open until 6 PM (note to Guitarville: you\u2019re a retail store, not a bank.\u00a0 You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,8],"tags":[81,106],"class_list":["post-64480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendburst","category-life","category-music","tag-joko","tag-ukulele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}