My first day at the new store.

Have you ever seen the first episode of "Mary Tyler Moore," when Mary interviews with Lou Grant? Mary's all chipper and eager, and Lou Grant is scowling and indifferent and tells her that he hates spunk.

Picture me as Mary, and you've basically got me and the rest of my new bookstore. At least, that's how it felt.

I was working my ass off - or trying to. I was trying to be up-to-speed and useful. And people either didn't notice or didn't much care.

For some reason, Mall of Georgia hasn't deleted me from their system yet, which means that Buckhead can't give me my register and computer codes yet. So I can't run a cash register, the thing I'm really good at.

Instead, I was doing customer service and shelving. I think I walked the length of that store 17 times last night. If it stays at this pace, I'm going to be in great physical shape.

The layout of the store is completely different from mine so that, even though I know the sections and know what books are in the sections, I don't know exactly where the sections are. So I got lost a lot.

You see, at my store, Drama, for instance, is next to Fiction. In the new store, Drama is next to TV and Film. So, if I thought I had an idea where something was and went there, I'd still end up lost.

The customers were nice enough, even though I asked someone else where a section was before I walked a customer to it.

The manager spoke to me in this bemused, mildly irritated tone. And, even though the store was still a mess by my standards, he told us it was all right to go home, which a bookseller assured me other managers wouldn't do. (MOG managers would've been freaking out over the status of that store.)

When the manager gave me a quick, point-to-a-section-and-tell-you-what-it-is tour of the store (which I did pay attention to), I didn't want to seem like just some random new employee, so I started straightening shelves when he would walk me by them. (I wasn't trying to be obnoxious. I was trying to be useful. I know the basics of the store already since I've worked at one for four years, and I can't just memorize it from having it pointed out to me. I'm going to have to walk there with books, learning it myself. Hell, I'm being paid to "work.") Eventually, he started straightening, too.

It was frustrating. And amusing.

So, from what I can tell, the store needs help. And I'm there to help.