Mall Of America Promotions

I was offered a job to be a "model" for this gig at the Biggest Mall in the Country, in my state, Minnesota, thank- you! lol. It was for the "Zhu-Zhu" pet, and I did not know what the hell it was but it was paying $16 an hour, so I was on board. For the last five or so month my poor 98' Honda Accord has been cutting off, anywhere and everywhere inconvenient and unsafe to me, whenever it wanted, while I was driving. So, it was pertinent that I get money somehow to pay to get that fixed, because that situation, is not a fun one to be in. So, this gig was ten hours a day on Friday and eight and a half on Saturday so I was like "yep" and accepted it on my gig planner. When I arrived we were given shirts that said "Hamster Handler" on the backs, and yes we got to keep them! yey, no, not really. There was plenty of easy little jobs to do, I helped the kids answer some questions on a lil' computer module so they could tell what hamster they were most like, and then take a picture with their heads as a hamster, kinda creepy fun, but people love free shit. The Zhu-Zhu pet in itself, was the little robot hamster covered in fur, that would movie itself forward and back through plastic mazes and in cars and stuff on a table or floor, when you pressed the button on the back. It was neat, but not as neat as you would think for it being 2010 and how interested everyone was into these things. Our biggest thing was to make sure no kids, most likely, parents, didn't steal off with one of the eight hamsters on the four tables we were handling. I felt like a black Jack dealers watch dog, just pacing around, watching the table, the hands, little and big. Makes me laugh, the other people working just as miserable as I was. One guy actually said to me, " I just bought my daughter one, do we come here to train them" oh my gosh funny. I was like, "they take batteries and that's pretty much all there is to it, and I wouldn't play with it here because some kid may take it and play with it and then she may be sad". People are so funny sometimes. It was a neat set up though, these four people went all around the country promoting these things, which was crazy to hear about. They even had a dance they had to do and thank God we were not paid to do it, it was so embarrassing, the song went "Hey Hamster Homies" haha. It was terrifying, and in the Mall of America, or MOA as we call it here to the natives, there is like 5 floors, so people can just stop and watch down and you, from all angles, for all hours of the day, and they did. I was so sick of kids by the end of the day, we had a half hour break each, during ten and eight hour shift days, and that was it! Understaffed and under appreciated all we went through for a free event to the visitors. It was interesting to say the least, I got so sick of stickers, by the end of the day I was simply sticking them on everyone I saw around me, we went through sheets of them. As well, a toad was found, just hopping in my area, so I brought him to the main "hype" man and he made an announcement that, "if anyone here lost a toad, to come see him" lol.