Sticker Shock

I'm working a temp job right now cashiering at the local university bookstore. One sad truth is filling my days...textbooks are outrageously expensive. The students know it, the professors know it, the parents know it, we who cash them out know it, and the publishers??? I'm guessing, in their own way, they know it too. The bookstore itself isn't getting rich quick. They are non-profit. And I'm earning minimum wage. So where is all that money going? Good question.

My days have thus been packed full of the very real reactions felt as I hit the total button and announce the damage. I'd say the average total is around $550 with high points hitting over $700. For books. My favorite is an economics book that costs $131. Very economical. The expletives hurled at the counter include, but are not limited to, the following:
What?!?!
You're killing me!
Oh sweet baby Jesus.
Are you serious?
This is ridiculous!
God bless America.
*!&*#@**!!!

I feel their pain. I've been there. Particularly as a former science major, my individual books costing well over $100 a piece...I feel their pain and I groan right along with them. I suppose that's all a pastor can do...groan along with all of creation.

This job has also blessed me with much laughter. Despite the awfulness of the financial costs incurred in that place, we laugh a lot. The people I work with are wonderful and the students are, for the most part, patient, friendly, and gracious. Funny things happen every day. Here are a few of my favorites...

On Saturday, move-in day #1, I was working at the door. Among the chaos, a distraught looking father walked in and stood motionless in the entryway. When I asked if I could help him he said with desperation on his face, "Where's my family?"

Yesterday evening a young woman came to the counter with her books. She explained that her father was going to pay by giving us his credit card information over the phone. The problem was her cell phone battery had died. So she was asking if she could use the bookstore phone to call him. We said, sure! as long as the call isn't long distance. To this, the student replied, "Oh...Connecticut isn't long distance, is it?"

Oh sweet baby Jesus.