How long have you and Bob been married? It is a question I have been asked (often)and I would think hard and the answer would be be "UMMMM....I don't know"...cause I didn't. I know the day that we got married (November 16) but not so much the year.
So here is the tribute to Ohio State Football.
We were married in the home of our friends, Tom and Kris. They have a beautiful, gracious Victorian with a foyer at the bottom of a grand staircase (where we held the ceremony) and the guests started arriving. The OSU-Illinois game was on TV and they were watching. I was waiting upstairs and could here the cheering...all the ooohs and ahhhs and nooos and yeahs. There is a knock at the door of the room I am in and my stand up Connie comes up to say the game went into overtime...okay a little postponing...it was maybe 6:15. I don't know football...how long can this last? (It was my wedding day....I forgot TV football time). Connie back upstairs to tell me the game went into a second overtime...I could hear the much louder OOOH!..YEAH!.. much clapping and cheering and everyone is having a great time and I am looking at the clock and it is now 6:45 and I am getting a little nervous because I am a little superstitious and was concerned about being married on the upswing of the clock. (In case you didn't know, it supposed to be bad luck to get married on the downswing.
The Ohio State Buckeyes did their job...and our ceremony started at about 6:50. It was a lovely ceremony and I can just picture it in my mind's eye...so much warmth and happiness and people we love around us.
Bob and Bruce were talking and we finally figured out that we got married in 2001 because that game was part of the undefeated season and the Buckeyes won the Big One in 2002. We've been married longer than we thought or would have guessed. I think that's a good thing.
Here is my tribute to Jim Tresell...thank you for the upswing. Apparently you are a great motivator...at least in my mind.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
I'm Really Special...
...so I can do things the way I want. This unfortunately was the credo of the day in Chicoland and was hurled at me by one of my co-workers.
We have a Friends and Family event that starts tomorrow and there were to be no pre-sales...nothing was to be rung until tomorrow. Of course, my co-worker was the exception to the rule. She asks if the Friends and Family discount can be applied to her customer today (of course she asks in FRONT of the customer after she had rung everything in) and I tell her that the discount doesn't start until tomorrow. She tells me she cleared it with our new store manager and I didn't think fast enough to call Gwen (the new SM) and ask. The sale was over $2300!!!! In honor of MAPS, we applied the discount and I seethed. The customer thanked me sweetly and then proceeded to tell me how her dog Bow was being so generous and good to her by buying her all these lovely things. Yes, indeedy, you did read that correctly. I complimented her on a lovely ring she had on today and she told me that Buttons (her other Bichon) had bought it for her. She talks like this all the time and quite frankly, it just really creeps me out. These kinds of comments are only charming if a) you are 90something years old b) three years old or c) seem to be missing some of the playing pieces on your upstairs gameboard. She would be none of the above. This woman is an aging trust fund baby (yeah for her...and I do mean that honestly) who is a spoiled princess. I swear to God this woman could out Blanche Blanche DuBois! She has elderly friends (who are also our customers) who came to pick up boxes for her when she moved. FOR SIX MONTHS!!! She called to make sure that we held the boxes but never picked them up herself...even though she was in the store numerous times and we told her we had boxes. She told us the other people would pick them up. I am not sure if I mad at her for not picking them up because she apparently is too precious and delicate for such tasks...mad at the elderly couple for coming numerous times to collect the boxes...or just envious that someone can be that manipulative of people (let's face it...it's a gift that should only be used for good) and then pissed off that I feel that way!
So yes...another rant from Chicoland. I was pissed because I got backed into a corner (although a GIANT step for me...I did tell my co-worker I was pissed...told her why...and watched her backpeddle all over herself because she knew she was being false in what she was telling me)...but the bottom line is...tomorrow, when I talk to Gwen (who's mantra is to follow the rules), she will probably be unhappy with me and possibly chew my butt a little. I don't blame her. I am pissed at myself for not being stronger in the situation but I am pissed at my co worker for taking advantage of the situation and in sense me.
I am tired of people not playing nice in the sandbox and I really hate when the other kids pee on my shoes.
At least, I had my Doc boots on today. They are pretty pee proff and let me tromp at least a little.
We have a Friends and Family event that starts tomorrow and there were to be no pre-sales...nothing was to be rung until tomorrow. Of course, my co-worker was the exception to the rule. She asks if the Friends and Family discount can be applied to her customer today (of course she asks in FRONT of the customer after she had rung everything in) and I tell her that the discount doesn't start until tomorrow. She tells me she cleared it with our new store manager and I didn't think fast enough to call Gwen (the new SM) and ask. The sale was over $2300!!!! In honor of MAPS, we applied the discount and I seethed. The customer thanked me sweetly and then proceeded to tell me how her dog Bow was being so generous and good to her by buying her all these lovely things. Yes, indeedy, you did read that correctly. I complimented her on a lovely ring she had on today and she told me that Buttons (her other Bichon) had bought it for her. She talks like this all the time and quite frankly, it just really creeps me out. These kinds of comments are only charming if a) you are 90something years old b) three years old or c) seem to be missing some of the playing pieces on your upstairs gameboard. She would be none of the above. This woman is an aging trust fund baby (yeah for her...and I do mean that honestly) who is a spoiled princess. I swear to God this woman could out Blanche Blanche DuBois! She has elderly friends (who are also our customers) who came to pick up boxes for her when she moved. FOR SIX MONTHS!!! She called to make sure that we held the boxes but never picked them up herself...even though she was in the store numerous times and we told her we had boxes. She told us the other people would pick them up. I am not sure if I mad at her for not picking them up because she apparently is too precious and delicate for such tasks...mad at the elderly couple for coming numerous times to collect the boxes...or just envious that someone can be that manipulative of people (let's face it...it's a gift that should only be used for good) and then pissed off that I feel that way!
So yes...another rant from Chicoland. I was pissed because I got backed into a corner (although a GIANT step for me...I did tell my co-worker I was pissed...told her why...and watched her backpeddle all over herself because she knew she was being false in what she was telling me)...but the bottom line is...tomorrow, when I talk to Gwen (who's mantra is to follow the rules), she will probably be unhappy with me and possibly chew my butt a little. I don't blame her. I am pissed at myself for not being stronger in the situation but I am pissed at my co worker for taking advantage of the situation and in sense me.
I am tired of people not playing nice in the sandbox and I really hate when the other kids pee on my shoes.
At least, I had my Doc boots on today. They are pretty pee proff and let me tromp at least a little.
Monday, October 20, 2008
A Love Letter...
...to my husband. He probably will never read this because every time he has read this little missive his response is "I already knew that."
I came across a picture of Bob that I had taken when we lived in Delaware and he was sitting on the porch. The picture is blurry and not the best but to me it is everything that he is and everything that I treasure about him.
I love his openness and innocence and wonder at everything...but it is coupled with a grown up awareness. He has an integrity that just emanates from him. He always tries to do his best and very near to all times does. He rolls with the punches.
He is a realist...he is a dreamer. Sometimes I see those things clash within him...and now I understand why he was a Philosophy major. Oh, those little epiphanies of life.
He worries more than he would wish and probably doesn't think that I know that about him...and understand because I chew on everything and he gets that about me.
He chastises himself about his bad habits and tries to correct them and frequently does...he is so much better at taking care of himself than I am...and he worries about me because I don't so much take good care of myself. I have a tendency to be a candle at both ends. It bothers me that I worry him.
I admire and love his tenacity.
He is such a brother to his friends...and I am glad that he found his Twin Brother of Different Mother, John. They understand each so well.
He has the best laugh and is not afraid to share it. I love that I tickle him by talking into his neck and he hates it and loves it at the same time. Hates that it tickles, hates that it is annoying and he laughs anyway, even while pushing me away.
He is a man in the moment...and he has left places abruptly leaving people to ask and ponder "What about Bob?" I always thought it one of his charming quirks...but could be upsetting to others...even insulting. He has know thought to include the goodbye portion of the program...being in the moment does not always mean deference to social graces...but he knows himself and we should all take a lesson on when to leave from the master.
I thank whatever fate in my life that brought us together. Neither one of us has an idea of how long we have been married...I do believe it is in the five or year six year range...but we know our anniversary day...November 16. (We had to postpone our ceremony slightly because our guests were watching Ohio State play whoever in a championship season and it went into two (I think) overtimes...anyone who knows me would know how ironic that is)...if you know the game and year...let me know how long we've been married.
To steal from Joni Mitchell:
He's a singer in the park
He's a walker in the rain, he's a dancer in the dark.
My old man, keeping away my blues.
He's my sunshine in the morning,
He's my fireworks at the end of the day.
He's the warmest chord I ever heard...
Thank you, Joni Mitchell...how I love that man of mine.
My world rocks because of him.
I came across a picture of Bob that I had taken when we lived in Delaware and he was sitting on the porch. The picture is blurry and not the best but to me it is everything that he is and everything that I treasure about him.
I love his openness and innocence and wonder at everything...but it is coupled with a grown up awareness. He has an integrity that just emanates from him. He always tries to do his best and very near to all times does. He rolls with the punches.
He is a realist...he is a dreamer. Sometimes I see those things clash within him...and now I understand why he was a Philosophy major. Oh, those little epiphanies of life.
He worries more than he would wish and probably doesn't think that I know that about him...and understand because I chew on everything and he gets that about me.
He chastises himself about his bad habits and tries to correct them and frequently does...he is so much better at taking care of himself than I am...and he worries about me because I don't so much take good care of myself. I have a tendency to be a candle at both ends. It bothers me that I worry him.
I admire and love his tenacity.
He is such a brother to his friends...and I am glad that he found his Twin Brother of Different Mother, John. They understand each so well.
He has the best laugh and is not afraid to share it. I love that I tickle him by talking into his neck and he hates it and loves it at the same time. Hates that it tickles, hates that it is annoying and he laughs anyway, even while pushing me away.
He is a man in the moment...and he has left places abruptly leaving people to ask and ponder "What about Bob?" I always thought it one of his charming quirks...but could be upsetting to others...even insulting. He has know thought to include the goodbye portion of the program...being in the moment does not always mean deference to social graces...but he knows himself and we should all take a lesson on when to leave from the master.
I thank whatever fate in my life that brought us together. Neither one of us has an idea of how long we have been married...I do believe it is in the five or year six year range...but we know our anniversary day...November 16. (We had to postpone our ceremony slightly because our guests were watching Ohio State play whoever in a championship season and it went into two (I think) overtimes...anyone who knows me would know how ironic that is)...if you know the game and year...let me know how long we've been married.
To steal from Joni Mitchell:
He's a singer in the park
He's a walker in the rain, he's a dancer in the dark.
My old man, keeping away my blues.
He's my sunshine in the morning,
He's my fireworks at the end of the day.
He's the warmest chord I ever heard...
Thank you, Joni Mitchell...how I love that man of mine.
My world rocks because of him.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Am I Doing Something Nice....
...the right reasons? Do you ever wonder that when you put yourself out of your way for a work colleague? I do...but of course I question and doubt myself at least 85% of the time on any given day so why would this surprise me?
Our new store manager started this week and she seems very nice and a good fit for us. She seems to have a very positive attitude and definitely is used to being at the top of her rankings in any company that she has been with previously. I get the feeling she will expect that from us and the store but doesn't seem like she will kill us to make that happen.
The good thing I offered and am doing...tomorrow begins my vacation but I am going in to do markdowns. It could be a big bunch of markdowns but I am going to be doing them with Gerri and I know we can get them done in a couple of hours. Gerri is like the supreme worker bee on speed. That woman could probably get the whole store marked down and placed by herself in three hours....and we don't have hand scanners...so we are talking a LOT of touching and hauling of clothes.
ANYWAY...the reason that I had said that I would come in and do the markdowns was because there didn't seem to be anyone else because we also are supposed to move the store around tomorrow. Fine and good but did make me feel a little cranky that I of course was feeling responsible and guilty at the same time....blahblahblah.
Gwen (our new SM) called to say she was running late because of a phone call and lost track of time and was on her cellphone, on her way (she is a Chatty Cathy which I can appreciate and relate to but is a trait that will drive a couple of our ladies crazy). In the short conversation we had she bubbled out that she had gotten tickets months ago to the Cincinnati football game, they were expensive, she was going to take her grandson who is 12, and she was late because the phone call entailed trying to find someone to take the tickets because she was going to be working tomorrow. I talked to Karen, we looked at the schedule, and called Gwen back to say "Don't do anything with the tickets". When she got to the store, I told her that I would work until mid afternoon which would give us the same floor coverage if she had been here and that she should take her grandson to the game. She seemed a little surprised at the offer but happy about it.
Phrases that made my mind up..."tickets bought months ago"..."my grandson". When she told me he was 12, all I could think of was Cory's relationship with my Dad at that age and all the stuff my Dad did with him. The fact that she was taking her 12 year old grandson to a football game...and that he was cool with going to a football game with his Grandma and was upset when she had to tell him they couldn't go...well, that cinched it for me. The grandparent/grandchild relationship is really important and I want her to have that before her grandson gets to be 14 and turns into a teenager...God only knows where boys minds go between the ages of 14 and 20...but they don't often think of grandparents.
So I did a good thing by being in the store a couple of more hours tomorrow.
Here is the query/quandary? Did I do a good thing to be nice or was I sucking up...or just worried that it looks like sucking up? I know the answer and it is about appearances...and really how it appears to only one co-worker...and that is because I have seen her applying a whole lot of Chapstick this week.
Meow.
Our new store manager started this week and she seems very nice and a good fit for us. She seems to have a very positive attitude and definitely is used to being at the top of her rankings in any company that she has been with previously. I get the feeling she will expect that from us and the store but doesn't seem like she will kill us to make that happen.
The good thing I offered and am doing...tomorrow begins my vacation but I am going in to do markdowns. It could be a big bunch of markdowns but I am going to be doing them with Gerri and I know we can get them done in a couple of hours. Gerri is like the supreme worker bee on speed. That woman could probably get the whole store marked down and placed by herself in three hours....and we don't have hand scanners...so we are talking a LOT of touching and hauling of clothes.
ANYWAY...the reason that I had said that I would come in and do the markdowns was because there didn't seem to be anyone else because we also are supposed to move the store around tomorrow. Fine and good but did make me feel a little cranky that I of course was feeling responsible and guilty at the same time....blahblahblah.
Gwen (our new SM) called to say she was running late because of a phone call and lost track of time and was on her cellphone, on her way (she is a Chatty Cathy which I can appreciate and relate to but is a trait that will drive a couple of our ladies crazy). In the short conversation we had she bubbled out that she had gotten tickets months ago to the Cincinnati football game, they were expensive, she was going to take her grandson who is 12, and she was late because the phone call entailed trying to find someone to take the tickets because she was going to be working tomorrow. I talked to Karen, we looked at the schedule, and called Gwen back to say "Don't do anything with the tickets". When she got to the store, I told her that I would work until mid afternoon which would give us the same floor coverage if she had been here and that she should take her grandson to the game. She seemed a little surprised at the offer but happy about it.
Phrases that made my mind up..."tickets bought months ago"..."my grandson". When she told me he was 12, all I could think of was Cory's relationship with my Dad at that age and all the stuff my Dad did with him. The fact that she was taking her 12 year old grandson to a football game...and that he was cool with going to a football game with his Grandma and was upset when she had to tell him they couldn't go...well, that cinched it for me. The grandparent/grandchild relationship is really important and I want her to have that before her grandson gets to be 14 and turns into a teenager...God only knows where boys minds go between the ages of 14 and 20...but they don't often think of grandparents.
So I did a good thing by being in the store a couple of more hours tomorrow.
Here is the query/quandary? Did I do a good thing to be nice or was I sucking up...or just worried that it looks like sucking up? I know the answer and it is about appearances...and really how it appears to only one co-worker...and that is because I have seen her applying a whole lot of Chapstick this week.
Meow.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Happiness Runs...
...and it did tonight. Friends came over, lawn chairs in tow, food packed and ready to share...and John was cooking steaks. We were on the patio until the skeeters got too bad and we moved inside. The food was fabulous and nothing is better than steak and summer salad dishes on paper plates eaten with plastic silverware and a side of great conversation.
We all moved out to the Tree house and eventually turned off the lights and were lit by the brilliant moon. We all got so silly. We were making shadow puppets on the wall and singing Simon and Garfunkel and some other spontaneously stupid song that we cannot remember what the heck it was but everyone was singing and we were laughing until our stomachs hurt. It was brilliant. Bob thought was that turning off the lights makes everyone free...to be stupid and childlike and just be okay to be you.
It was an evening to savor and love for the connections and the moments and just because everyone was IN THE MOMENT...it just seemed an affirmation of the good people and things in our lives...in my and Bob's lives. We were with family.
I wish you all the best for the coming week. Rock your world and love the people in it.
We all moved out to the Tree house and eventually turned off the lights and were lit by the brilliant moon. We all got so silly. We were making shadow puppets on the wall and singing Simon and Garfunkel and some other spontaneously stupid song that we cannot remember what the heck it was but everyone was singing and we were laughing until our stomachs hurt. It was brilliant. Bob thought was that turning off the lights makes everyone free...to be stupid and childlike and just be okay to be you.
It was an evening to savor and love for the connections and the moments and just because everyone was IN THE MOMENT...it just seemed an affirmation of the good people and things in our lives...in my and Bob's lives. We were with family.
I wish you all the best for the coming week. Rock your world and love the people in it.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
What Goes With This...
one of my customers asked me as they were holding up a pair of cotton and spandex blend pair of BLACK pants. After I looked at her quizzically and she back at me the conversation went as follows:
Me: Do you mean was there a specific piece to match it?
Her: I guess so.
Me: No, there wasn't. What kind of a thing are you looking for?
Her: Something to go with these. (holds pants out to me)
I am thinking...actually screaming to self...THEY ARE F'ING BLACK PANTS...ANYTHING WILL GO...and instead of voicing that opinion asked...
Me: What are you looking for? A sweater?
Her: I don't know...
Me: A jacket?
Her: I don't know...
Me: Casual?
Her: I don't know...
We're starting to see a pattern here...and as we begin our tour of the store and look at every piece with black print in it or a black that didn't match the particular black of the pant, it became clear that she wanted sale merchandise only and only wanted to spend no more than $70...well and good and that was a good thing to know. We found her a jacket that was on sale that looked great on her...showed her how to put a belt on top of the jacket and I could tell by the way she looked at herself in the mirror, she was happy and felt cool and pretty. Mission accomplished.
...but why does it have to be so hard? If she only wanted sale (which is what I look for) why couldn't she say that off the bat? Did she think that I would not be helpful or nice to her if she told me that? Maybe that was her thought process...and that kind of makes me sad.
Part Deux of Strange Little Monkeys in Chicoland...and this one was Flying because she had been at the Rusty Bucket with her girlfriend. I admire and applaud and miss and lust for girlfriend time and lunch/dinner and shopping is the best girlfriend time ever. (Connie and I blew off Sunday excerpts at OCTA for Girl's Day at Easton) I am believing though that when the sales person can smell your alcohol content two feet across the counter...you may want to rethink your shopping expedition. We found this person what she wanted after a little confusion at my interpretation of what she was looking for and that was all well and good. Her friend pipes up as the woman is checking out that she has a coupon that she can use....we could look it up.
We have changed our coupon policy so that you can only use your own and not look up someone else's because of "Privacy Issues" (i.e. the company finally figured out that people were abusing the system...NO DUH!) I explain that I am sorry but we can't do that any longer blahblahblah...and then the following conversation ensues...
Her to Friend: I know Verna Gibson who was the President of The Limited...
Friend: Who?
Her: Verna Gibson...she was the President of the Limited and now is on the Board of Directors for Chico's. I know her. I was her Financial Planner...God, the Chico stock sucks...I would have thought it would be doing better now that Verna Gibson (who I know) is on the Board of Directors...
I do believe that I heard the name Verna Gibson at least ten more times and fuck it, I took the stupid $20 off for the friend's coupon. I didn't tell her that I did it and she will probably never even realize.
I hate it that women can come into our store and stomp their feet and know that we will buckle because God forbid our District Manager gets a complaint call. That is anathema in Chicoland.
I don't like being bullied and that's what she was doing to me.
I hope she feels like crap in the morning.
Me: Do you mean was there a specific piece to match it?
Her: I guess so.
Me: No, there wasn't. What kind of a thing are you looking for?
Her: Something to go with these. (holds pants out to me)
I am thinking...actually screaming to self...THEY ARE F'ING BLACK PANTS...ANYTHING WILL GO...and instead of voicing that opinion asked...
Me: What are you looking for? A sweater?
Her: I don't know...
Me: A jacket?
Her: I don't know...
Me: Casual?
Her: I don't know...
We're starting to see a pattern here...and as we begin our tour of the store and look at every piece with black print in it or a black that didn't match the particular black of the pant, it became clear that she wanted sale merchandise only and only wanted to spend no more than $70...well and good and that was a good thing to know. We found her a jacket that was on sale that looked great on her...showed her how to put a belt on top of the jacket and I could tell by the way she looked at herself in the mirror, she was happy and felt cool and pretty. Mission accomplished.
...but why does it have to be so hard? If she only wanted sale (which is what I look for) why couldn't she say that off the bat? Did she think that I would not be helpful or nice to her if she told me that? Maybe that was her thought process...and that kind of makes me sad.
Part Deux of Strange Little Monkeys in Chicoland...and this one was Flying because she had been at the Rusty Bucket with her girlfriend. I admire and applaud and miss and lust for girlfriend time and lunch/dinner and shopping is the best girlfriend time ever. (Connie and I blew off Sunday excerpts at OCTA for Girl's Day at Easton) I am believing though that when the sales person can smell your alcohol content two feet across the counter...you may want to rethink your shopping expedition. We found this person what she wanted after a little confusion at my interpretation of what she was looking for and that was all well and good. Her friend pipes up as the woman is checking out that she has a coupon that she can use....we could look it up.
We have changed our coupon policy so that you can only use your own and not look up someone else's because of "Privacy Issues" (i.e. the company finally figured out that people were abusing the system...NO DUH!) I explain that I am sorry but we can't do that any longer blahblahblah...and then the following conversation ensues...
Her to Friend: I know Verna Gibson who was the President of The Limited...
Friend: Who?
Her: Verna Gibson...she was the President of the Limited and now is on the Board of Directors for Chico's. I know her. I was her Financial Planner...God, the Chico stock sucks...I would have thought it would be doing better now that Verna Gibson (who I know) is on the Board of Directors...
I do believe that I heard the name Verna Gibson at least ten more times and fuck it, I took the stupid $20 off for the friend's coupon. I didn't tell her that I did it and she will probably never even realize.
I hate it that women can come into our store and stomp their feet and know that we will buckle because God forbid our District Manager gets a complaint call. That is anathema in Chicoland.
I don't like being bullied and that's what she was doing to me.
I hope she feels like crap in the morning.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The Fight...
...over bedding has become an issue in our house. I like to crawl into a bed...well, crawl isn't the best description...I suppose slide would be better...into a bed that is tucked tight enough to be an envelope. Bob, on the other hand, wants to be free. When he gets into bed, the first thing he does is kick the sheets out at end of the bed. All well and good and part of marriage. I have learned how to make a bed and only hospital corner one side and not grumble too much when I make the bed in the morning because it always needs remade like you are changing the sheets.
Our bedspread has become a bone of contention. It is pink gingham with two big ruffles at the bottom and I love it. Bob has put up with it because I love it but the warfare with the bedspread has begun. Every night it either ends up heaped on my side of the bed or totally banished to the floor because he gets mad at it...which for some reason just pisses me off. Logically, I know that I am being irrational...he is insulting my pink bedspread and my efforts to bring pretty into our bedroom!!!
Bob is all about form follows function (did I ever mentioned that he was a Philosophy major...which to me equates with he majored in thinking...which to anyone who knows me means that he and I really ARE ying and yang). His explanation of the fight with the bedspread is that he never slept under one and it's too heavy.
Okay, that makes sense and is logical...
...and I am okay with that...
...but I still want the pretty bedroom that I never had as a kid. I wanted the white furniture and the canopy while my parents bought the furniture that was utilitarian classic dark wood that you would be able to take with you when you grew up and moved. My sister and I both took our bedroom suites into our grownup lives.
My friend Molly recently saw our bedroom and liked the pink bedspread and wondereed how Bob felt about it...it does take a real man to deal with pink gingham. I guess I kind of blew the question off...
We are now sleeping underneath a quilt and a blanket.
Compromise and love are wonderful.
Our bedspread has become a bone of contention. It is pink gingham with two big ruffles at the bottom and I love it. Bob has put up with it because I love it but the warfare with the bedspread has begun. Every night it either ends up heaped on my side of the bed or totally banished to the floor because he gets mad at it...which for some reason just pisses me off. Logically, I know that I am being irrational...he is insulting my pink bedspread and my efforts to bring pretty into our bedroom!!!
Bob is all about form follows function (did I ever mentioned that he was a Philosophy major...which to me equates with he majored in thinking...which to anyone who knows me means that he and I really ARE ying and yang). His explanation of the fight with the bedspread is that he never slept under one and it's too heavy.
Okay, that makes sense and is logical...
...and I am okay with that...
...but I still want the pretty bedroom that I never had as a kid. I wanted the white furniture and the canopy while my parents bought the furniture that was utilitarian classic dark wood that you would be able to take with you when you grew up and moved. My sister and I both took our bedroom suites into our grownup lives.
My friend Molly recently saw our bedroom and liked the pink bedspread and wondereed how Bob felt about it...it does take a real man to deal with pink gingham. I guess I kind of blew the question off...
We are now sleeping underneath a quilt and a blanket.
Compromise and love are wonderful.
It's 5:00...
...and I am still in my robe. I do feel a little guilty about it but if the truth be known...not so much. I have taken a bath, the clothes I intend to put on are ready to go...I just haven't gotten around to it. I have been doing little projects but not really the stuff that I really need to be doing...like the laundry that is overflowing or picking up my clothes in our bedroom because it looks like my closet has regurgitated all of its contents. (Have I mentioned how patient my husband is about that kind of stuff?)
All in all, I am having a lovely day. Sitting in my litle computer room I get to look out at the change of season and listen to music and it makes me happy. It's brilliant.
I hope that y'all are having an equally brilliant day.
All in all, I am having a lovely day. Sitting in my litle computer room I get to look out at the change of season and listen to music and it makes me happy. It's brilliant.
I hope that y'all are having an equally brilliant day.
Friday, October 3, 2008
I Would Like to Thank...
the three or four or more ladies who asked me this week if I had gotten a promotion and was now the Store Manager. I wish I had told them how much that question meant to me... to explain the delight and satisfaction to me that they saw me that way. To a couple of them ...who are regular customers and I see often...I laughed (kind of loudly) when they asked me. They looked puzzled... and I explained that our company doesn't usually hire within. They loked even more puzzled...like our company was crazy. ( That so feels like bragging to me.)
...and their puzzled faces made me believe I must me doing something okay. (Another uncomfortable little moment.)
I am having a good month as far as bonus goes and I am thankful for it...yet I have not kept track of persons who those brilliant sales were from so that I can continue to call them to keep them informed of the wonderful, unique, supreme quality Chico's clothes comng to the store near them...and nor do I want to. I can be annoying enough in person ...I do not need a telephone as an accessory to annoyance.
Bottom line...I hope that the customers were happy with what they purchased and it suits their needs.
Isn't it funny how we reveal the truth when we least expect it and have little epiphanies? The above line was a way earlier part of this writing that I somehow thought I edited...but there it is...and that is what I believe about my job.
I want a person to come back to my store because she felt good after she left...not because she felt hustled into buying a bunch of clothes that benefit the salespersons bottom line but are going to hang in her closet.
In the grand scheme of things...
I don't want to swim with sharks. I don't have a wet suit nor a stun gun and I am very afraid of chum in the water. (It's a retail thing...if you've experienced it, you know.)
I think I must have been an Elf and and a Communist in another life. Maybe that explains a lot.
...and their puzzled faces made me believe I must me doing something okay. (Another uncomfortable little moment.)
I am having a good month as far as bonus goes and I am thankful for it...yet I have not kept track of persons who those brilliant sales were from so that I can continue to call them to keep them informed of the wonderful, unique, supreme quality Chico's clothes comng to the store near them...and nor do I want to. I can be annoying enough in person ...I do not need a telephone as an accessory to annoyance.
Bottom line...I hope that the customers were happy with what they purchased and it suits their needs.
Isn't it funny how we reveal the truth when we least expect it and have little epiphanies? The above line was a way earlier part of this writing that I somehow thought I edited...but there it is...and that is what I believe about my job.
I want a person to come back to my store because she felt good after she left...not because she felt hustled into buying a bunch of clothes that benefit the salespersons bottom line but are going to hang in her closet.
In the grand scheme of things...
I don't want to swim with sharks. I don't have a wet suit nor a stun gun and I am very afraid of chum in the water. (It's a retail thing...if you've experienced it, you know.)
I think I must have been an Elf and and a Communist in another life. Maybe that explains a lot.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
I Forgot How Much...
I love making costumes. A friend from work is going to a conference and a costume party with theme is involved. It is a required event at the conference and you have to have a costume to get into the party. (She works for Highlights for Children magazine) and was bemoaning to me one night at closing how much she hated the whole costume thing and had no idea what she was going to do and I piped up and said I would make her a costume. (Being an actor, I really don't quite understand that someone wouldn't jump at the chance to put on a costume.) The theme of the party is Enchanted Forest. We decided (well, basically me...but she agreed) that Morgan Le Fay would be a great character and Toni was happy.
Today I was off and it was my day to go shopping for costume materials. Since I said that I would do this for her, I have been in a tiny little internal panic. I haven't made any sort of costume for years and my internal mantra was quietly roaring into "What was I thinking???".
I used to do a lot of costuming for community theater and always loved it. Community theaters never have big budgets and most of the time you are wearing your own clothes onstaage or finding your own stuff. I just always loved the challenge of doing something workable on the ultimate cheap...explains a lot about the way I dress.
I found what I needed today at Half Off Everything Day at my favorite thrift store and went home...I felt more engaged in a process than I can remember feeling in a while. I started sewing and loved it. I had made a sketch and what I actually have started to put together looks like what I had in my mind and put down on paper.
I feel like I am having a "Damn, I am so cool moment!" and that is not at all what I mean to be about. What I am really getting at is how joyful being creative made me feel...the fact that I get to do something for a friend is extra wonderful.
I feel like I have been alseep in so many areas of my life because I have let work take over everything. No, I don't think that is probably correct. I just get afraid to try stuff and do stuff...even stuff I used to know how to do.
So here I am looking at a costume that I have made and that I hope Toni will love and feel great and beautiful in and wonder...
What the hell happened and where did I go?
Today I was off and it was my day to go shopping for costume materials. Since I said that I would do this for her, I have been in a tiny little internal panic. I haven't made any sort of costume for years and my internal mantra was quietly roaring into "What was I thinking???".
I used to do a lot of costuming for community theater and always loved it. Community theaters never have big budgets and most of the time you are wearing your own clothes onstaage or finding your own stuff. I just always loved the challenge of doing something workable on the ultimate cheap...explains a lot about the way I dress.
I found what I needed today at Half Off Everything Day at my favorite thrift store and went home...I felt more engaged in a process than I can remember feeling in a while. I started sewing and loved it. I had made a sketch and what I actually have started to put together looks like what I had in my mind and put down on paper.
I feel like I am having a "Damn, I am so cool moment!" and that is not at all what I mean to be about. What I am really getting at is how joyful being creative made me feel...the fact that I get to do something for a friend is extra wonderful.
I feel like I have been alseep in so many areas of my life because I have let work take over everything. No, I don't think that is probably correct. I just get afraid to try stuff and do stuff...even stuff I used to know how to do.
So here I am looking at a costume that I have made and that I hope Toni will love and feel great and beautiful in and wonder...
What the hell happened and where did I go?
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
A Season of Change....
has begun at my little Chicoland. Cherry, our store manager, has formally announced that she is retiring at the end of August. It is as if a weight has been lifted in so many ways.
Just to recap, Cherry broke her ankle last October and was off work and out of the store for five months. In that time, Joyce, Karen and I were essentially running the store...and we did a good job. It was good for me because I did feel like I stepped up to the plate and I must admit I felt kind of good about myself. That is a very hard thing for me to admit. We maybe only hit our sales plan two out those five months but everybody's business was down.
Flash forward...Cherry came back parttime in late January and things have been chaotic ever since. Scheduling became a nightmare in the extrme. Karen had been doing the schedules in her absence and after a slight learning curve, our ladies were happy, liked their regular days, and we were within our payroll hours. Cherry took over the schedule when she got back and it became not pretty. Our store has 225 base hours per week for payroll and she would schedule 249. I am sure she had her reasons for doing so but I sure didn't understand them.
The worst part is that Cherry got nasty when she came back...particularly to me and Karen. She has issues with Karen because Karen had been acting as a manager in her absence and her technical title is "Sales Lead" which translates as she can open and close the store but really doesn't have decision making power. Karen knows the ins and outs of the store as well as any of us and is a savvy business woman. She was a district manager for the company that handled Nina Ricci and Carolina Herrera fragrances. She knows her way around retail. Since she has been back, Cherry has picked apart every management type of decision that Karen has made and keeps reminding all of us "She is not a manager". She was in Cherry's abscence as far as Joyce and I and our ladies were concerned. On many occassions, Karen was the voice of much needed sensibility and reason.
As far as her attitude to me...whatever I did... it was wrong. I thought I was being paranoid and insecure until a couple of comments about her behaviour to me were passed in my direction...from our ladies. It was nice to know that I wasn't making mountains in my head and I became very glad that I am short and can hide behind the racks. It got to the point that I hated going to work and almost felt sick about having to be there on the same days she was. It's awful to feel like you are screwing up royally and have no idea why. This is retail...not brain surgery but I swear if I put a pair of pants on a hanger, the way I hung them would have been wrong in her eyes. Logically, I knew none of this really had anything to do with Karen or myself. The talk among our ladies was "She is acting nuts and needs to take meds or up her dosage."
So Cherry has made her announcement...and the weight has been lifted. She has been so much happier in the past week and is more like the Cherry that hired me..the person who encouraged, had an easy laugh, and was just fun.
Retail is not an easy job...at least in my store. It is hard, physical labor. I heard the story when I was off for my foot surgery of the woman hired who lasted two days. She was a customer that we had hired...and she was shocked that she had to run the vacuum cleaner and clean the mirrors at the end of the night. (I guess my working at Cedar Point the summer of the Bicentennial and having to bleach the patios and change the fryers every night has tempered my view of "glamourous jobs"....I was in college expectations were low and we got to use the beach.)
The bottom line is that I am glad she is leaving...not for the way that sounds. She didn't want to come back, had been talking about leaving before her accident, and just needed this time back in the store to make closure. She has a granddaughter who just turned a year and she wants to spend time with her. She misses being with her family...her son is in town, but her parents who she worries about are in Toledo and her daughter is in Lexington....and the epiphany I just had.
She's a widow of 19 years and is turning 62 the end of this month.
She's just worried about time.
Just to recap, Cherry broke her ankle last October and was off work and out of the store for five months. In that time, Joyce, Karen and I were essentially running the store...and we did a good job. It was good for me because I did feel like I stepped up to the plate and I must admit I felt kind of good about myself. That is a very hard thing for me to admit. We maybe only hit our sales plan two out those five months but everybody's business was down.
Flash forward...Cherry came back parttime in late January and things have been chaotic ever since. Scheduling became a nightmare in the extrme. Karen had been doing the schedules in her absence and after a slight learning curve, our ladies were happy, liked their regular days, and we were within our payroll hours. Cherry took over the schedule when she got back and it became not pretty. Our store has 225 base hours per week for payroll and she would schedule 249. I am sure she had her reasons for doing so but I sure didn't understand them.
The worst part is that Cherry got nasty when she came back...particularly to me and Karen. She has issues with Karen because Karen had been acting as a manager in her absence and her technical title is "Sales Lead" which translates as she can open and close the store but really doesn't have decision making power. Karen knows the ins and outs of the store as well as any of us and is a savvy business woman. She was a district manager for the company that handled Nina Ricci and Carolina Herrera fragrances. She knows her way around retail. Since she has been back, Cherry has picked apart every management type of decision that Karen has made and keeps reminding all of us "She is not a manager". She was in Cherry's abscence as far as Joyce and I and our ladies were concerned. On many occassions, Karen was the voice of much needed sensibility and reason.
As far as her attitude to me...whatever I did... it was wrong. I thought I was being paranoid and insecure until a couple of comments about her behaviour to me were passed in my direction...from our ladies. It was nice to know that I wasn't making mountains in my head and I became very glad that I am short and can hide behind the racks. It got to the point that I hated going to work and almost felt sick about having to be there on the same days she was. It's awful to feel like you are screwing up royally and have no idea why. This is retail...not brain surgery but I swear if I put a pair of pants on a hanger, the way I hung them would have been wrong in her eyes. Logically, I knew none of this really had anything to do with Karen or myself. The talk among our ladies was "She is acting nuts and needs to take meds or up her dosage."
So Cherry has made her announcement...and the weight has been lifted. She has been so much happier in the past week and is more like the Cherry that hired me..the person who encouraged, had an easy laugh, and was just fun.
Retail is not an easy job...at least in my store. It is hard, physical labor. I heard the story when I was off for my foot surgery of the woman hired who lasted two days. She was a customer that we had hired...and she was shocked that she had to run the vacuum cleaner and clean the mirrors at the end of the night. (I guess my working at Cedar Point the summer of the Bicentennial and having to bleach the patios and change the fryers every night has tempered my view of "glamourous jobs"....I was in college expectations were low and we got to use the beach.)
The bottom line is that I am glad she is leaving...not for the way that sounds. She didn't want to come back, had been talking about leaving before her accident, and just needed this time back in the store to make closure. She has a granddaughter who just turned a year and she wants to spend time with her. She misses being with her family...her son is in town, but her parents who she worries about are in Toledo and her daughter is in Lexington....and the epiphany I just had.
She's a widow of 19 years and is turning 62 the end of this month.
She's just worried about time.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Things I Want to do this Summer....the Update
It seems that July is whipping through the winds even faster than June did. In an earlier post, I listed some things that I wanted to do to make summer seem like summer. The Update....
1. I can't find my roller skates. I know that they are here SOMEWHERE. I rode my bike instead and almost ran into the side of the garage while riding out of the garage. I also clipped the bushes in the driveway. I think my skates are hiding from me for my own protection.
2. I haven't read Tolstoy in my bathing suit but instead chose Edith Wharton (three books thus far). I decided I would have to go and buy the Cliff Notes if I read Tolstoy...oh hell...I'll just read the Cliff Notes and forget the books.
3. We have had three impromptu get together cookouts. Our friend John grilled the most incredible steak a couple of weeks ago...I can still remember how good it tasted and I am definitely not a foodie. Laughed so hard at these little fetes my face hurt.
4. I have gone swimming twice and even have a nice little X tan line on my back. Gotta love the Speedo tank suit.
5. Haven't laid in the grass and looked at stars but have sat on the porch and dreamed. Still feels like being in the Adirondaks sitting out there and I am still passionately in love with this apartment. Bob takes his time falling in love but he's coming along.
Hope everyone is having fun and doing exactly want they hoped to do this summer.
1. I can't find my roller skates. I know that they are here SOMEWHERE. I rode my bike instead and almost ran into the side of the garage while riding out of the garage. I also clipped the bushes in the driveway. I think my skates are hiding from me for my own protection.
2. I haven't read Tolstoy in my bathing suit but instead chose Edith Wharton (three books thus far). I decided I would have to go and buy the Cliff Notes if I read Tolstoy...oh hell...I'll just read the Cliff Notes and forget the books.
3. We have had three impromptu get together cookouts. Our friend John grilled the most incredible steak a couple of weeks ago...I can still remember how good it tasted and I am definitely not a foodie. Laughed so hard at these little fetes my face hurt.
4. I have gone swimming twice and even have a nice little X tan line on my back. Gotta love the Speedo tank suit.
5. Haven't laid in the grass and looked at stars but have sat on the porch and dreamed. Still feels like being in the Adirondaks sitting out there and I am still passionately in love with this apartment. Bob takes his time falling in love but he's coming along.
Hope everyone is having fun and doing exactly want they hoped to do this summer.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Dinner...
Bob and I went to dinner last at Figlio's. Lovely little place in Grandview. Small, charming, good food, not horribly expensive. We are always fascinated by the lovely dried roses that are spiked upside down to the wall as art. Simple, beautiful, elegant and one of those things you see that makes you think "I could do that". We could because Bob grows beautiful roses...we just haven't found the perfect wall space to put the "I could do that" project into practice.
As we were leaving, I ran into the mother of Cory's best forever friend. It took me a moment to recognize her...it was one of those moments when you know someone and it takes a moment for the Rolodex in your head to flip through the pages...I know that I had this perplexed look because I didn't place her right away. Seeing her just brought back such a flood of memories.
Carson (that is Cory's friend) was the best kid. He had the most infectious laugh when he was little. He and Cory became friends in Kindergarten and Carson spent alot of timme at our house and Cory at their's. I think back and know that Cory got the better end of the deal. Carson's family took Cory to Chautauqua TWICE...we took Carson roller skating and to see Mel Brook's "Men in Tights". I oo remember Carson leaning over to me during the movie and saying "This really isn't very good, is it?". I just looked and nodded. I guess what I mean to say is that Carson got the beer experience with us while Cory got to taste champagne with Carson's family.
...but it never seemed weird. Janice and Karl are two of the loveliest most generous people in the world. Both supremely intelligent and just...nice. I did tell Janice last night that I never called Karl (and probably never will) anything except Mr.Peterson. He would come to pick Carson up and there would be this large man...a larger than life presence ...and I would always call him Mr Peterson. He would say "Call me Karl" and I would usually answer "Okay...Karl. Mr. Peterson". That answer was always met by a gracious booming laugh. She laughed loudly, and I don't think she's a loud laugher.
Your kids lose touch with their friends, just like we did. Luckily for Cory, he went to a samll high school and since graduation there has been a steady flow of the Grandview Gypsies to the Portland area. The friends he grew up with from a young age are the people he hangs with now in Portland. Having moved so much growing up, I admire that consistency of friendship. You find the people you need and love and want tohang with even if it means moving across country. One of the first things that Janice said to me was that Carson had been out to see Cory. I guess she and I know how important thhis friendship is to them...more than they know.
A side bar about the Grandview Gypsies: you know the scene in "Sleepless in Seattle" where the flight plans were crossing? I swear for awhile that was how it was between who was going to Portalnd, who was coming back to Ohio. which meant a new apartment and moving every couple of months. It got real confusing.
Janice said something great to me last night. Her comment was "Cory was always just the most wonderful kid". I do think she glowed a little talking about himj ust like I do when talking about Carson. I loved her son and she loved mine.
We have both raised men that are as we both hoped they would be. Even though I never knew Janice well, we both had our hands in. Our young men are better for it.
As we were leaving, I ran into the mother of Cory's best forever friend. It took me a moment to recognize her...it was one of those moments when you know someone and it takes a moment for the Rolodex in your head to flip through the pages...I know that I had this perplexed look because I didn't place her right away. Seeing her just brought back such a flood of memories.
Carson (that is Cory's friend) was the best kid. He had the most infectious laugh when he was little. He and Cory became friends in Kindergarten and Carson spent alot of timme at our house and Cory at their's. I think back and know that Cory got the better end of the deal. Carson's family took Cory to Chautauqua TWICE...we took Carson roller skating and to see Mel Brook's "Men in Tights". I oo remember Carson leaning over to me during the movie and saying "This really isn't very good, is it?". I just looked and nodded. I guess what I mean to say is that Carson got the beer experience with us while Cory got to taste champagne with Carson's family.
...but it never seemed weird. Janice and Karl are two of the loveliest most generous people in the world. Both supremely intelligent and just...nice. I did tell Janice last night that I never called Karl (and probably never will) anything except Mr.Peterson. He would come to pick Carson up and there would be this large man...a larger than life presence ...and I would always call him Mr Peterson. He would say "Call me Karl" and I would usually answer "Okay...Karl. Mr. Peterson". That answer was always met by a gracious booming laugh. She laughed loudly, and I don't think she's a loud laugher.
Your kids lose touch with their friends, just like we did. Luckily for Cory, he went to a samll high school and since graduation there has been a steady flow of the Grandview Gypsies to the Portland area. The friends he grew up with from a young age are the people he hangs with now in Portland. Having moved so much growing up, I admire that consistency of friendship. You find the people you need and love and want tohang with even if it means moving across country. One of the first things that Janice said to me was that Carson had been out to see Cory. I guess she and I know how important thhis friendship is to them...more than they know.
A side bar about the Grandview Gypsies: you know the scene in "Sleepless in Seattle" where the flight plans were crossing? I swear for awhile that was how it was between who was going to Portalnd, who was coming back to Ohio. which meant a new apartment and moving every couple of months. It got real confusing.
Janice said something great to me last night. Her comment was "Cory was always just the most wonderful kid". I do think she glowed a little talking about himj ust like I do when talking about Carson. I loved her son and she loved mine.
We have both raised men that are as we both hoped they would be. Even though I never knew Janice well, we both had our hands in. Our young men are better for it.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Remind Me....
...why am I in retail? Oh yeah, it's because they hired me when I needed a job. As you know, I REALLY do like the job. Then come those things called holidays. Sorry...the soapbox is coming out from under the desk and I am going to stand on it.
We are open on the Fourth of July. Unitl 7:00. It sucks. It sucks because I have to work, but in reality that is a minor point to me. I really am offended that ANYONE has to work on the Fourth. What has happened to us and our society?
Growing up, I remember the Fourth of July as a time to be with family and it meantto mean something importanht even if I was too young to understand when I was little. It seemed to be a holiday about honour and hope and celebration. Now it just seems like an excuse for stores to have three day sales.
I have had customers outraged that we are open. The frequent comment is "In THIS community?". The Upper Arlington celebration is a big tradition but it should not just be about one community...it should be about everyone.
I can understand drugstores and even grocery stores being open part of the day but why a clothing store? Why Macy's? Why JoAnn Fabric? These are not stores that provide anything that you need to live. You CAN wait until Saturday to return that top or buy that spool of thread.
Back to my situation...because I think it is typical of so many. Our headquarters is closed except for the skeleton crew that works the help desk. Yes, I am happy that our Everydayman gets the day off...but are the big wigs who make the decisions to be open going to be at the stores working? NO. Are we going to get stern messages on Saturday because business wasn't as good as "they" think it should have been? YES> How much differance is this ONE day going to make in the life of a company? Quite frankly, if one day matters that much the company has been screwed for a long time.
Here is my challenge to anyone who reads this little missive. Our customer service number is 1-888-855-4986. If you think ANY store being open is on the Fourth is inappropriate...call and tell them. I know that you will have to refer specifically to Chico's being open but that's the number I have. Go on the web. Find other store numbers. Call them. I want the holidays to be special again...for all of us.
The soapbox is back under the desk.
I hope you have a lovely Fourth. Independence is the sweetest thing and we all are blessed who have it.
We are open on the Fourth of July. Unitl 7:00. It sucks. It sucks because I have to work, but in reality that is a minor point to me. I really am offended that ANYONE has to work on the Fourth. What has happened to us and our society?
Growing up, I remember the Fourth of July as a time to be with family and it meantto mean something importanht even if I was too young to understand when I was little. It seemed to be a holiday about honour and hope and celebration. Now it just seems like an excuse for stores to have three day sales.
I have had customers outraged that we are open. The frequent comment is "In THIS community?". The Upper Arlington celebration is a big tradition but it should not just be about one community...it should be about everyone.
I can understand drugstores and even grocery stores being open part of the day but why a clothing store? Why Macy's? Why JoAnn Fabric? These are not stores that provide anything that you need to live. You CAN wait until Saturday to return that top or buy that spool of thread.
Back to my situation...because I think it is typical of so many. Our headquarters is closed except for the skeleton crew that works the help desk. Yes, I am happy that our Everydayman gets the day off...but are the big wigs who make the decisions to be open going to be at the stores working? NO. Are we going to get stern messages on Saturday because business wasn't as good as "they" think it should have been? YES> How much differance is this ONE day going to make in the life of a company? Quite frankly, if one day matters that much the company has been screwed for a long time.
Here is my challenge to anyone who reads this little missive. Our customer service number is 1-888-855-4986. If you think ANY store being open is on the Fourth is inappropriate...call and tell them. I know that you will have to refer specifically to Chico's being open but that's the number I have. Go on the web. Find other store numbers. Call them. I want the holidays to be special again...for all of us.
The soapbox is back under the desk.
I hope you have a lovely Fourth. Independence is the sweetest thing and we all are blessed who have it.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I can't believe...
that it already June 17. Where has the time gone? That statement makes me feel old...didn't our parents say that? Now we say it. I suppose because we too are getting old...well, older.
Today was one of those perfect spring days. I loved watching the sun dance with the clouds. I also thought about the time going quickly and not wanting summer to slip away...it sometimes has a tendency to do that when you work retail hours. As I type that, I realize that the hours are not the cause...it is me. I don't feel sometimes that I am present in all areas of my life because I get so drawn into the stuff with work.
I had a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago about his job. He is a store manager for Subway and is REQUIRED to work at least 50 hours per work. I was taken back. He is okay with it because of good benefits etc. But what the heck is wrong with us when working fifty plus hours a week has become a requirement and more and more a norm?
I remember the first time I went to Hilton Head with Connie and Kay. We had gone to a bar at Marriott Hotel that was on the beach and met a Dutch couple who were on vacation. They had started in Detroit because they had gone to see Bruce Springsteen and had worked their way around the country to South Carolina. They had been on vacation for about three weeks when we met them and were traveling for a couple more weeks before going home. Their five weeks of vacation was the norm in the Netherlands. They were slightly appalled when we told them we generally only got two weeks a year.
I recently figured out that I have about six weeks of vacation time accrued which actually was a bit of a shock. I have also been advised that one should use your sick time first because if you leave a company then they would have to pay you your vacation time...which of course played into my insecurity issues which have been raising their ugly little heads lately but that's a whole other blahblah.
I will be happy to get my two weeks of vacation this year but more importantly, I want to DO things this summer.I don't want the season to slip away unmarked.
Here is my Ten List of Things I Want to Do this Summer.
1. Dig out my roller skates. The streets are pretty smooth in our neighborhood so I think that potential for damage could be minimal.
2. Plant pumpkins.
3. Get a croquet set and use it. We could have the Croquet X-Games on our lawn...huge tree roots in the front yard.
4. Have a slumber party.
5. Read Tolstoy in my bathing suit.
6. Find a pool to read Tolstoy at in my bathing suit.
7. Ride my bike way more. My streamers want the wind in their plastic.
8. Perfect a Southern accent and get a hand held fan in preparation for the Dog Days of Columbus humidity. I would then be able to use both when we...
9. Start Sunday open house cookouts.
10. Lay in the grass and look up at the clouds or the stars and just dream.
Today was one of those perfect spring days. I loved watching the sun dance with the clouds. I also thought about the time going quickly and not wanting summer to slip away...it sometimes has a tendency to do that when you work retail hours. As I type that, I realize that the hours are not the cause...it is me. I don't feel sometimes that I am present in all areas of my life because I get so drawn into the stuff with work.
I had a conversation with a friend a couple of days ago about his job. He is a store manager for Subway and is REQUIRED to work at least 50 hours per work. I was taken back. He is okay with it because of good benefits etc. But what the heck is wrong with us when working fifty plus hours a week has become a requirement and more and more a norm?
I remember the first time I went to Hilton Head with Connie and Kay. We had gone to a bar at Marriott Hotel that was on the beach and met a Dutch couple who were on vacation. They had started in Detroit because they had gone to see Bruce Springsteen and had worked their way around the country to South Carolina. They had been on vacation for about three weeks when we met them and were traveling for a couple more weeks before going home. Their five weeks of vacation was the norm in the Netherlands. They were slightly appalled when we told them we generally only got two weeks a year.
I recently figured out that I have about six weeks of vacation time accrued which actually was a bit of a shock. I have also been advised that one should use your sick time first because if you leave a company then they would have to pay you your vacation time...which of course played into my insecurity issues which have been raising their ugly little heads lately but that's a whole other blahblah.
I will be happy to get my two weeks of vacation this year but more importantly, I want to DO things this summer.I don't want the season to slip away unmarked.
Here is my Ten List of Things I Want to Do this Summer.
1. Dig out my roller skates. The streets are pretty smooth in our neighborhood so I think that potential for damage could be minimal.
2. Plant pumpkins.
3. Get a croquet set and use it. We could have the Croquet X-Games on our lawn...huge tree roots in the front yard.
4. Have a slumber party.
5. Read Tolstoy in my bathing suit.
6. Find a pool to read Tolstoy at in my bathing suit.
7. Ride my bike way more. My streamers want the wind in their plastic.
8. Perfect a Southern accent and get a hand held fan in preparation for the Dog Days of Columbus humidity. I would then be able to use both when we...
9. Start Sunday open house cookouts.
10. Lay in the grass and look up at the clouds or the stars and just dream.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Ooooohhhh...so that's how they did that!
We got our stimulus check in the mail yesterday.(YEAH!) We thought from what we had been mailed that we would be receiving $1200 (BIGGER YEAH!) The check was for $1013 and change (slight disappointment...let's not be greedy) but I was confused by the difference.
Today we get the letter of explanation.
We owed taxes last year because of Bob's paper route...had been paying all year...and the difference in the check was the $186 and change that we still owed. Fine and good...our debt is paid and that is another YEAH!!
HOWEVER...the letter of explanation referred to our check for the amount of $1013 and change as "an overpayment of taxes from 2007". Call me dumb... but what does that mean? Did we really over pay on our taxes and we are going to be getting another check to stimulate us? Of course not because this check was clearly marked as 2008 stimulus check.
My observations about receiving said check:
1. Happy to have it because now we can buy a real couch for the Boy's Room and make it a better place to watch football. I have been told that it dampens the atomosphere of watching football games when you are drinking a beer sitting on a daybed covered in an antique crocheted bedspread.
2. We might actually be able to put something in a savings account...I have heard tell of them.
3. A hell of lot of people in the USA must have overpaid on their taxes.
Today we get the letter of explanation.
We owed taxes last year because of Bob's paper route...had been paying all year...and the difference in the check was the $186 and change that we still owed. Fine and good...our debt is paid and that is another YEAH!!
HOWEVER...the letter of explanation referred to our check for the amount of $1013 and change as "an overpayment of taxes from 2007". Call me dumb... but what does that mean? Did we really over pay on our taxes and we are going to be getting another check to stimulate us? Of course not because this check was clearly marked as 2008 stimulus check.
My observations about receiving said check:
1. Happy to have it because now we can buy a real couch for the Boy's Room and make it a better place to watch football. I have been told that it dampens the atomosphere of watching football games when you are drinking a beer sitting on a daybed covered in an antique crocheted bedspread.
2. We might actually be able to put something in a savings account...I have heard tell of them.
3. A hell of lot of people in the USA must have overpaid on their taxes.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
...so that's how I look
I got a call today at work from an assoicate at our Worthington store to look for for an item for a customer. We got talking. She said that she had been working with a couple who had been in our store yesterday that I had helped. They told her that they thought I was great and liked me...always nice to hear.
Their description of me to her...
"The small girl with the funny hair and the funny shoes."
Tickled me and made me laugh.
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and don't forget to remember your Mom tomorrow.
Their description of me to her...
"The small girl with the funny hair and the funny shoes."
Tickled me and made me laugh.
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and don't forget to remember your Mom tomorrow.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Something to say...maybe
I just read a post by a friend of mine who wondered if he didn't have anything to say or was being just lazy about blogging. We are all lazy in some form or another and we all have something to say ...it's just that sometimes nobody listens, or in this case reads, when we want them to.
I started this bloggy thing nigh on a year ago after doing "(W)holes" and heard other castmates talking about it. I, of course, wanted to be a cool kid too and so kind of found out how to do it. (The castmates who already were involved in blogging I consider exceptionally cool and wonderful people and it was kind of like a wonderful thing that they shared this secret with me. Something I never would have stumbled upon on my own.)
...but I do love words. I think that is part of the reason I love acting or maybe have learned to appreciate words more because of it. I love the way words sound. I love how some of them just taste in your mouth or ring in your ears. You can paint colours with words and intonations. Ahhh...but it is the written word here that we are talking about because blogging is about the written word.
Everyone who sits at their computer and types a blog is writing their biography or their monologue about life. We want to be Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Albee, Wasserstein or whoever you admire. We want to be important; we want to know that what we say matters. It is our humaness in us that makes us want to connect...to have people read us, post comments and acknowledge our existence.
I had someone post a comment on one of my blogs that I didn't know and at first it kind of creeped me out. I guess I thought that nobody except people I knew would ever know about this...but how silly is that? You write it...it is OUT THERE for any one who cares to find it. It is scary and intimidating. The comments were kind and maybe made me feel a little like I did have something to say worthwhile. (I have reread my essays and I think I am sentimental, angry, nostalgic, boring, obsessive and wish I was way more clever and witty than I am.)
After a post, you go back and check for comments...cause you just do. It's kind of like turning in an English paper but it's a diary kind of thing. When nobody comments, it sometimes feels like you're sitting at the bad lunch table in high school.
What is the point of this rant? We all want to matter and to be heard. Your challenge...listen to someone you take for granted and don't hear in the places you least expect...the grocery store, the gas station, the line at the movies, your waitperson. Engage...ask questions.
Everybody has something to say and we all have such a need to be heard.
I started this bloggy thing nigh on a year ago after doing "(W)holes" and heard other castmates talking about it. I, of course, wanted to be a cool kid too and so kind of found out how to do it. (The castmates who already were involved in blogging I consider exceptionally cool and wonderful people and it was kind of like a wonderful thing that they shared this secret with me. Something I never would have stumbled upon on my own.)
...but I do love words. I think that is part of the reason I love acting or maybe have learned to appreciate words more because of it. I love the way words sound. I love how some of them just taste in your mouth or ring in your ears. You can paint colours with words and intonations. Ahhh...but it is the written word here that we are talking about because blogging is about the written word.
Everyone who sits at their computer and types a blog is writing their biography or their monologue about life. We want to be Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Albee, Wasserstein or whoever you admire. We want to be important; we want to know that what we say matters. It is our humaness in us that makes us want to connect...to have people read us, post comments and acknowledge our existence.
I had someone post a comment on one of my blogs that I didn't know and at first it kind of creeped me out. I guess I thought that nobody except people I knew would ever know about this...but how silly is that? You write it...it is OUT THERE for any one who cares to find it. It is scary and intimidating. The comments were kind and maybe made me feel a little like I did have something to say worthwhile. (I have reread my essays and I think I am sentimental, angry, nostalgic, boring, obsessive and wish I was way more clever and witty than I am.)
After a post, you go back and check for comments...cause you just do. It's kind of like turning in an English paper but it's a diary kind of thing. When nobody comments, it sometimes feels like you're sitting at the bad lunch table in high school.
What is the point of this rant? We all want to matter and to be heard. Your challenge...listen to someone you take for granted and don't hear in the places you least expect...the grocery store, the gas station, the line at the movies, your waitperson. Engage...ask questions.
Everybody has something to say and we all have such a need to be heard.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Playing Nice with the Other Kids...
I hated my job today and I really didn't like myself so much while I was doing it.
Our company's stock is not doing very well right now so "they" are tightening things up...the controllables. This theorectically is a good thing. One of the fixes is the hangers that we give away. We usually give out the really nice hangers that we use in the store. Previously, we had gone to "give away" hangers...thick plastic things that our customers didn't like....they wanted the good stuff. So after complaint calls (which is a no-no in Chicoland), we ditched the give away hangers...literally. Our store alone THREW OUT at least five boxes. (Do the math...we have over five hundred stores). We went back to giving away the good hangers...to the tune of (I swear I read this in an e-mail) $3.12 million. So now we are back to the ugly hangers and there will be calls AGAIN...and happiness will reign throughout the land.
We are also on a two-two-two schedule...which means that there are two people covering the floor on any given shift. Theorectically, another sound practice...except we are trained in "MAPS" (Most Amazing Personal Service)and do our best to deliver and our customers expect it. If there are five or six customers in the store and only two of us...once again do the math. There are people to attend to and counsel with, find stuff for, cashier, clean out dressing rooms, rehang the clothes and put them away, all the while giving "her" the best shopping experience she has ever had. (In between all of this fun, there are markdowns to be done and windows to be changed and whatever other stuff can be thought up to boost the bottom line). I do think someone at headquarters watched that damn "Enjoli" comnercial from the late seventies one too many times..."I can bring home the bacon...fry it up in a pan"...blahblahblah.
I value compassion and being nice, or as I refer to it...playing nice with the other kids. We should all try to that even if we haven't had our naps. Today I so felt like I just wanted to scream at people..."You don't need that! You don't even want that and you're just going to bring it back along with pants you spilled bleach on and you will call defective because they have spots on them (HAPPENED...REALLY!!!) Those pants are way too tight and your ass looks like a barn (even though you want me to tell otherwise) and some stuff you just ain't gonna find here even though you want us to so you can use (and we will) your expired 50% coupon from December 2007because you have it in your hand." I usually can deal with this on a daily basis in a fairly rational and pleasant manner....at least I hope so.
Today, not so much. We had a woman in the store carrying an armload of clothes. Each of us approached her and asked if she needed a dressing room and we were all rebuffed...sternly. She finally goes into a room and there were at least 12 other customers in the store...once again, today's theme...do the math. When she left after buying one item (cool...that's all she wanted) Mary called me over to the dressing room she had used. All three rods had at least 10 hangers with stuff on them and on the floor was a pile a foot and half high...the important point of this sentence is ON THE FLOOR. Not on the bench, ON THE FLOOR.
I felt incensed. It may be irrational. I know I work in a service industry and that is my job... to wait and serve. I truly do want people to come in our store and feel good and be happy when they leave, whether they have purchased something or not. We do our best to be respectful to our customers and of them. Why can't our customers do the same for us? It is not the majority of people who are like this and it does seem to run in streams...
This week, we in Chicoland know what it is to be salmon.
Our company's stock is not doing very well right now so "they" are tightening things up...the controllables. This theorectically is a good thing. One of the fixes is the hangers that we give away. We usually give out the really nice hangers that we use in the store. Previously, we had gone to "give away" hangers...thick plastic things that our customers didn't like....they wanted the good stuff. So after complaint calls (which is a no-no in Chicoland), we ditched the give away hangers...literally. Our store alone THREW OUT at least five boxes. (Do the math...we have over five hundred stores). We went back to giving away the good hangers...to the tune of (I swear I read this in an e-mail) $3.12 million. So now we are back to the ugly hangers and there will be calls AGAIN...and happiness will reign throughout the land.
We are also on a two-two-two schedule...which means that there are two people covering the floor on any given shift. Theorectically, another sound practice...except we are trained in "MAPS" (Most Amazing Personal Service)and do our best to deliver and our customers expect it. If there are five or six customers in the store and only two of us...once again do the math. There are people to attend to and counsel with, find stuff for, cashier, clean out dressing rooms, rehang the clothes and put them away, all the while giving "her" the best shopping experience she has ever had. (In between all of this fun, there are markdowns to be done and windows to be changed and whatever other stuff can be thought up to boost the bottom line). I do think someone at headquarters watched that damn "Enjoli" comnercial from the late seventies one too many times..."I can bring home the bacon...fry it up in a pan"...blahblahblah.
I value compassion and being nice, or as I refer to it...playing nice with the other kids. We should all try to that even if we haven't had our naps. Today I so felt like I just wanted to scream at people..."You don't need that! You don't even want that and you're just going to bring it back along with pants you spilled bleach on and you will call defective because they have spots on them (HAPPENED...REALLY!!!) Those pants are way too tight and your ass looks like a barn (even though you want me to tell otherwise) and some stuff you just ain't gonna find here even though you want us to so you can use (and we will) your expired 50% coupon from December 2007because you have it in your hand." I usually can deal with this on a daily basis in a fairly rational and pleasant manner....at least I hope so.
Today, not so much. We had a woman in the store carrying an armload of clothes. Each of us approached her and asked if she needed a dressing room and we were all rebuffed...sternly. She finally goes into a room and there were at least 12 other customers in the store...once again, today's theme...do the math. When she left after buying one item (cool...that's all she wanted) Mary called me over to the dressing room she had used. All three rods had at least 10 hangers with stuff on them and on the floor was a pile a foot and half high...the important point of this sentence is ON THE FLOOR. Not on the bench, ON THE FLOOR.
I felt incensed. It may be irrational. I know I work in a service industry and that is my job... to wait and serve. I truly do want people to come in our store and feel good and be happy when they leave, whether they have purchased something or not. We do our best to be respectful to our customers and of them. Why can't our customers do the same for us? It is not the majority of people who are like this and it does seem to run in streams...
This week, we in Chicoland know what it is to be salmon.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Time Changes Everything...
Bob and I got to be home together today in the middle of the week...what a lovely treat.
We now have a lawn mower of our very own. We bought it ...it's ours. I know that probably doesn't seem like such a big deal to the homeowners out there but it's all about perspective. Bob has taken over the lawn care (and we will get a break on rent in the summer) so hence the purchase. Buying a lawnmower makes me feel like a grown up....they are something that your parents bought. The lawnmowers we have used at our previous residences were left by previous residents or provided by landlords. I swear the last one was held together by duct tape and rope. I couldn't start it unless I held the start thingy, stood on the lawnmower and jumped backwards really far and fast.
Bob mowed and I pulled out ivy. We have a nice patio out back with pretty trees and a spot that was landscaped at some point in time but the ivy has just overtaken all. Working in a garden is something that I am warming up to basically because I really don't like to get dirty. Didn't like it as a kid and still don't...but I'm learning.
Our last project of the day was going to be painting our new to us wicker furniture. We bought a set from one of the ladies that I work with and Bob wanted it to be Hunter Green. We washed the furniture, let it dry in the sun and took aim with the spray paint only to find we have six cans of defective paint. It sprayed for a minute and then dribbled down the side of the can. We'll be finishing the chairs another day.
Here is the real point...my nostalgia epiphany of the day. I went for a walk down our street and passed an apartment that was exactly the same as the one that Mario and I lived in when we first married many moons ago. (There are about three sets of these buildings scattered throughout Grandview on differant streets.) The apartment was empty so I looked in the window. I was amazed. It was SOOO TINY... yet at the time we lived in that apartment it seemed huge to me.
...but it was huge then. It held my world and the people I loved most at the time. My son began his life there...I had a best friend that I shared coffee with almost everyday while our kids took naps...my Mom wallpapered the kitchen for me when I GREAT with child (I can still remember the really pretty brown, cream and turquoise floral paper...sounds gross but it wasn't). So much life held in such a small space.
I haven't seen or talked to Mario in years...and after so many years, I really can't remember what went wrong with us. It just did and neither one of us had the energy...or the inclination...to fix it. We were just kids...
I see young couples in the grocery store with their children and it just gobsmacks me. They just look so young. I wonder if that's how Mario, Cory and I looked to people our age then....and yes, we did. We just didn't have all the tattoos and piercings but probably looked just as alien...and just as hopeful.
The hopefulness I felt all those years ago still continues...that was my epiphany. I have a man in my life who is challenging, compassionate, loving and so many things that I can't even pull the words forth...I have friends I love and who love me back and like me MOST of the time...I still have dreams...and hope that those dreams will come true.
Dream big. A space can't stop dreams...only an outlook.
We now have a lawn mower of our very own. We bought it ...it's ours. I know that probably doesn't seem like such a big deal to the homeowners out there but it's all about perspective. Bob has taken over the lawn care (and we will get a break on rent in the summer) so hence the purchase. Buying a lawnmower makes me feel like a grown up....they are something that your parents bought. The lawnmowers we have used at our previous residences were left by previous residents or provided by landlords. I swear the last one was held together by duct tape and rope. I couldn't start it unless I held the start thingy, stood on the lawnmower and jumped backwards really far and fast.
Bob mowed and I pulled out ivy. We have a nice patio out back with pretty trees and a spot that was landscaped at some point in time but the ivy has just overtaken all. Working in a garden is something that I am warming up to basically because I really don't like to get dirty. Didn't like it as a kid and still don't...but I'm learning.
Our last project of the day was going to be painting our new to us wicker furniture. We bought a set from one of the ladies that I work with and Bob wanted it to be Hunter Green. We washed the furniture, let it dry in the sun and took aim with the spray paint only to find we have six cans of defective paint. It sprayed for a minute and then dribbled down the side of the can. We'll be finishing the chairs another day.
Here is the real point...my nostalgia epiphany of the day. I went for a walk down our street and passed an apartment that was exactly the same as the one that Mario and I lived in when we first married many moons ago. (There are about three sets of these buildings scattered throughout Grandview on differant streets.) The apartment was empty so I looked in the window. I was amazed. It was SOOO TINY... yet at the time we lived in that apartment it seemed huge to me.
...but it was huge then. It held my world and the people I loved most at the time. My son began his life there...I had a best friend that I shared coffee with almost everyday while our kids took naps...my Mom wallpapered the kitchen for me when I GREAT with child (I can still remember the really pretty brown, cream and turquoise floral paper...sounds gross but it wasn't). So much life held in such a small space.
I haven't seen or talked to Mario in years...and after so many years, I really can't remember what went wrong with us. It just did and neither one of us had the energy...or the inclination...to fix it. We were just kids...
I see young couples in the grocery store with their children and it just gobsmacks me. They just look so young. I wonder if that's how Mario, Cory and I looked to people our age then....and yes, we did. We just didn't have all the tattoos and piercings but probably looked just as alien...and just as hopeful.
The hopefulness I felt all those years ago still continues...that was my epiphany. I have a man in my life who is challenging, compassionate, loving and so many things that I can't even pull the words forth...I have friends I love and who love me back and like me MOST of the time...I still have dreams...and hope that those dreams will come true.
Dream big. A space can't stop dreams...only an outlook.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Happiness Runs..
...and I am not sure where to start. I had a good day and an ordinary day...but a lovely day.
I had to work today from 3 - 6:30. Midday to close on a SUNDAY!!! (In my opinion, no one should be working on Sundays...it just seems wrong.)...but I worked with the people I would've picked to spend that time with...and it was fun. Maybe more should have been done, but I am opening so I I'll be mad at myself tomorrow.
I came home to dinner being going made. Jamaican Jerk Chicken...all kinds of lovely smells...cooked by John (my husband's twin brother born of a differant mother) and my husband. Just wonderful. We set the table and the Vince Guaraldi Trio was playing in the background...(the "Good Grief, Charlie Brown" CD ... it has the Charlie Brown theme.. which does make you want to do the Snoopy dance.)
I love being around Bob and his best "peeps"...I know that is such a stupid word, but I love it anyway. It is comforting to watch them interact...they are all such strong personalities and such different men....but so complimentary to each each other without any extra thought or effort. They just are with each other. I am priveleged to have them in my life. Tney make me feel safe.
I always ask this question of others...What was the best thing that happened to you today? There ALWAYS is a best thing...you may have to look, but there ALWAYS is.
My best thing is coming back home after making a beer run and smell of cinnamon and all the Jamican jerk aromatics wafting up oour stairway along with the voices of people I love.
"is this Heaven?"
"No..it's my house.
(Stealing from "Field of Dreams"]
Find the best in each day and dance at least one time this week in your underwear to really loud music...even if you think somebody is WATCHING. They probably aren't paying attention.
....DAMN THEM!!!
I had to work today from 3 - 6:30. Midday to close on a SUNDAY!!! (In my opinion, no one should be working on Sundays...it just seems wrong.)...but I worked with the people I would've picked to spend that time with...and it was fun. Maybe more should have been done, but I am opening so I I'll be mad at myself tomorrow.
I came home to dinner being going made. Jamaican Jerk Chicken...all kinds of lovely smells...cooked by John (my husband's twin brother born of a differant mother) and my husband. Just wonderful. We set the table and the Vince Guaraldi Trio was playing in the background...(the "Good Grief, Charlie Brown" CD ... it has the Charlie Brown theme.. which does make you want to do the Snoopy dance.)
I love being around Bob and his best "peeps"...I know that is such a stupid word, but I love it anyway. It is comforting to watch them interact...they are all such strong personalities and such different men....but so complimentary to each each other without any extra thought or effort. They just are with each other. I am priveleged to have them in my life. Tney make me feel safe.
I always ask this question of others...What was the best thing that happened to you today? There ALWAYS is a best thing...you may have to look, but there ALWAYS is.
My best thing is coming back home after making a beer run and smell of cinnamon and all the Jamican jerk aromatics wafting up oour stairway along with the voices of people I love.
"is this Heaven?"
"No..it's my house.
(Stealing from "Field of Dreams"]
Find the best in each day and dance at least one time this week in your underwear to really loud music...even if you think somebody is WATCHING. They probably aren't paying attention.
....DAMN THEM!!!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Laugh at yourself...
I have a little bicycle. I bought it a couple of years ago when my car was having problems and I didn't want to have to impose on the ladies I work with to have to come and get me. It was spring...I needed the exercise. It really is a small bike because I am short and I can touch the pedals nicely and not feel like I'm going to kill myself...an important fact when you haven't ridden a bicycle for 30 some years and the idea of traffic while in a car doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy.
A friend from work gave me streamers for my bike on my birthday a couple of years ago. They were iridescent pink and fun and just...streamy. Bob and I were running errands a couple of weeks ago and stuffed my bike in the back of Bob's car so we could put air in tires. On the way, I had a conversation with Bob about how much I loved these dopey streamers. We stop to get the air...he does the inflating of tires...didn't take the bike out of the car...was in a hurry...gets back in the car and tells me "I broke your streamers off." I was crushed and got poopy to him. In keeping with the idea that five year olds love their streamers, he told me I was being bratty...and I was.
When we got home, I tried to put my basket back on my bike. It was not going on and was sticking out at a ninety angle to the handlebars. Bob and I got into another little set to over trying to get the basket to work correctly and once again I got called bratty. I do highly recommend living in a second floor apartment on such occasions because stomping in a huff up the stairs is highly effective. Mind you someone has to be paying attention to the stomping for it to be effective and Bob was not. A quiet evening was had by all. It is hard to live with five year old times ten plus two. Bob should get a medal.
So a couple of weeks have past. I found new lovely streamers at Target. I also ruminated on the basket problem and came up with a solution. I call Bob to the garage because I thought that we would have to hacksaw part of the basket holder off. I said we needed to adjust the handlebars because my knees were hitting them. I thought that they had slipped down from storage and moving. As we talked about how to fix the problem, we suddenly had an epiphany.
The handlebars were facing backwards.
My bike is ready...I plan on riding it...you have been duly warned.
A sidebar from when Cory was visiting:
Friend of Cory: Does your Mom have a bike?
Cory: I think so.
FOC: I think I saw her riding it...and dude, it's got streamers on it.
Cory: Huh (I am sure there was some internal cringing and I know that he laughed)
The moral: It is never too late to embarrass your children...even if they live on the other side of the country.
A friend from work gave me streamers for my bike on my birthday a couple of years ago. They were iridescent pink and fun and just...streamy. Bob and I were running errands a couple of weeks ago and stuffed my bike in the back of Bob's car so we could put air in tires. On the way, I had a conversation with Bob about how much I loved these dopey streamers. We stop to get the air...he does the inflating of tires...didn't take the bike out of the car...was in a hurry...gets back in the car and tells me "I broke your streamers off." I was crushed and got poopy to him. In keeping with the idea that five year olds love their streamers, he told me I was being bratty...and I was.
When we got home, I tried to put my basket back on my bike. It was not going on and was sticking out at a ninety angle to the handlebars. Bob and I got into another little set to over trying to get the basket to work correctly and once again I got called bratty. I do highly recommend living in a second floor apartment on such occasions because stomping in a huff up the stairs is highly effective. Mind you someone has to be paying attention to the stomping for it to be effective and Bob was not. A quiet evening was had by all. It is hard to live with five year old times ten plus two. Bob should get a medal.
So a couple of weeks have past. I found new lovely streamers at Target. I also ruminated on the basket problem and came up with a solution. I call Bob to the garage because I thought that we would have to hacksaw part of the basket holder off. I said we needed to adjust the handlebars because my knees were hitting them. I thought that they had slipped down from storage and moving. As we talked about how to fix the problem, we suddenly had an epiphany.
The handlebars were facing backwards.
My bike is ready...I plan on riding it...you have been duly warned.
A sidebar from when Cory was visiting:
Friend of Cory: Does your Mom have a bike?
Cory: I think so.
FOC: I think I saw her riding it...and dude, it's got streamers on it.
Cory: Huh (I am sure there was some internal cringing and I know that he laughed)
The moral: It is never too late to embarrass your children...even if they live on the other side of the country.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Bare Trees...
Outside my window on this cold, damp early Saturday I see what looks just like the album cover of Fleetwood Mac's 70's album "Bare Trees". It made me wish I was a photographer.
I closed tonight at work and when I was driving home there was this ethereal, rolling fog on the street. At the intersection of our street I couldn't really see forward...I know this will sound macabre but it made me think of London and Jack the Ripper and how easily someone could have crept out the fog and shadows to do harm. I think that is a movie equation...fog...London...fog being spooky...blahblahblah.
...but it is beautiful. The naked trees are just packed in cotton mist and the street lights all glow gold. Somehow the fog seems so right for the season...ominous and hopeful all at once. It's the kind of night that makes you edgy and sleepless.
It's an itchy time of year...like all new hopes and dreams are bristling under the skin...Spring is right on the cusp.I think we're all ready ready for a new season
I closed tonight at work and when I was driving home there was this ethereal, rolling fog on the street. At the intersection of our street I couldn't really see forward...I know this will sound macabre but it made me think of London and Jack the Ripper and how easily someone could have crept out the fog and shadows to do harm. I think that is a movie equation...fog...London...fog being spooky...blahblahblah.
...but it is beautiful. The naked trees are just packed in cotton mist and the street lights all glow gold. Somehow the fog seems so right for the season...ominous and hopeful all at once. It's the kind of night that makes you edgy and sleepless.
It's an itchy time of year...like all new hopes and dreams are bristling under the skin...Spring is right on the cusp.I think we're all ready ready for a new season
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Feeling Lost...
I have found myself in a strange little place lately and I really don't like it. I guess for lack of a better word, it could be described as a funk. I am just feeling like I am not sure where I belong, if people like me, if anything that I do matters. I KNOW that sounds way over dramatic but that's what there. Everything just feels to be in transition and I am not sure where I fit in. We have had changes at work and that is all still playing out...some days I feel like I am working with the Borgias or the Medicis. I just don't have the energy to play that game...or the cunning.
Interesting...there is an audition coming up that I really want to go to. The play is "The Lion in Winter". I would to audition for Eleanor. I want to audition because I haven't auditioned for so long and auditioning is painful to me. The play is all about machinations and political maneuvering. I may be totally wrong for Eleanor but more than anything want my lovely Bobert to audition...I think he would be wonderful as Henry and have the best time. He hasn't been on stage in so long...he needs to get back in the saddle. I can just see him doing this show. Kathylynn...are you there? Audition!!! You would be wonderful.
I know that my funk will pass but I hate when it descends with it's darkness and bad tapes. I can find everything to hate about myself and have a hard time finding the nice voice to talk to myself with....that's hard on the best of days.
I think I will chalk it up to gray days in Ohio in more ways than one.
Interesting...there is an audition coming up that I really want to go to. The play is "The Lion in Winter". I would to audition for Eleanor. I want to audition because I haven't auditioned for so long and auditioning is painful to me. The play is all about machinations and political maneuvering. I may be totally wrong for Eleanor but more than anything want my lovely Bobert to audition...I think he would be wonderful as Henry and have the best time. He hasn't been on stage in so long...he needs to get back in the saddle. I can just see him doing this show. Kathylynn...are you there? Audition!!! You would be wonderful.
I know that my funk will pass but I hate when it descends with it's darkness and bad tapes. I can find everything to hate about myself and have a hard time finding the nice voice to talk to myself with....that's hard on the best of days.
I think I will chalk it up to gray days in Ohio in more ways than one.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Oscar de la Jesus
Watched the Oscars tonight and yes, I smiled to myself because I am STILL in the back of my mind practicing my Oscar speech....holding my Infant of Prague. I just want each and every person I have ever done a show with to know that you will be thanked when the actual big day happens. Now all I have to do is figure out what to wear.
You know I have this wedding gowny thing that could probably be reworked somehow...
You know I have this wedding gowny thing that could probably be reworked somehow...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Feeling Eighteen....
It's snowing and soft and quiet and lovely. The sky is that beautiful rosy colour caused by city lights on snowy nights with the trees black and spiky against it. How I do love the view from my window.
Bob and I went to our little neighborhood pub and walking home it just put me in the moment of being college. I went to college in Bowling Green and we always went out on Thursdays and always walked because no one had a car. Today is Thursday and we went out...of course one of the major differences is then we never went out until at least 10:00 and tonight we were home at the latest by 10:00.
...ahhh, but the snow. It reminded me of walking with my friends and feeling free and adventurous...and hopeful. Hopeful about your dreams, your life. I don't think that I really ever felt closer to those people than when I was walking downtown with them in the snow. The snow created our own little world, somehow protective of our conversations. It was just being in the moment.
...so we flash forward some thirtysomething years and I realize that I am grateful to be where I am. I walked home holding my husband's hand and felt all those feelings I felt long ago on those wintry walks...adventure, freedom, hope...but also peace because I know I have a partner who faces the stuff with me I had no idea about back then...the hard stuff...but the conversations we had years ago on those wintry nights was about hard stuff...it was just simpler hard stuff.
Bob and I went to our little neighborhood pub and walking home it just put me in the moment of being college. I went to college in Bowling Green and we always went out on Thursdays and always walked because no one had a car. Today is Thursday and we went out...of course one of the major differences is then we never went out until at least 10:00 and tonight we were home at the latest by 10:00.
...ahhh, but the snow. It reminded me of walking with my friends and feeling free and adventurous...and hopeful. Hopeful about your dreams, your life. I don't think that I really ever felt closer to those people than when I was walking downtown with them in the snow. The snow created our own little world, somehow protective of our conversations. It was just being in the moment.
...so we flash forward some thirtysomething years and I realize that I am grateful to be where I am. I walked home holding my husband's hand and felt all those feelings I felt long ago on those wintry walks...adventure, freedom, hope...but also peace because I know I have a partner who faces the stuff with me I had no idea about back then...the hard stuff...but the conversations we had years ago on those wintry nights was about hard stuff...it was just simpler hard stuff.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Another Thing to Love about Computers...
Bob has become a big fan of iTunes. We recently had a party and he put money into the account and our wish was to have everyone pick songs. We were going to make CDs of what everyone picked...kind of a record of the evening to give. Everyone got so into to talking to each other that only one person picked a song. I guess that meant it was a successful party because people were actually more interested in talking to a person than piddling on a computer.
Tonight is the first time that I played on iTunes and I think that I could become addicted. I know that I would end up picking out nostalgia...ahhh, but nostalgia from OUR younger years. Popped into my head, found it and bought the song. If you were in college around 1973-1974, you will remember Spirit, "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" and "Nature's Way"...well it is now on our computer. It was a sappy song then...it is STILL...but it sure is nice to hear. It makes you sway and want to hold a lighter up in the air.
In the store at Christmas we get these GODawful CDs of "holiday" music that we have to play from preThanksgiving to forever. At the end of the season this year, I popped ours out the CD player and gleefully cut it to shreds. A year ago, snuck in between Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, twenty versions of "Melaklimekee" some stupid Hawaiian song that I abhor was a golden gem. Whoever programs the CDs must have been a little P.O.ed with their job. We were busy last year and I would keep hearing snippets of the lyrics and I finally looked the song up on the web. It is Bare Naked Ladies "Elf's Lament". It is wonderful. I highly reccommend looking the lyrics up and pasting them in your cubicle. It just tickled me that this song would end up on our CD. A bit of holiday anarchy that applies to the whole year.
The other song that poppped in my mind and found was Leon Russell "A Song for You". I've loved that song from the first time I heard it. I remember being at dorm parties, sitting in some room drinking beer, hearing that song, and loving it and feeling confusedly melancholy. It touched some nerve in me. Leon Russell's voice is not great but it has such a rawness in this song. The emotions he sang about seemed so adult and complicated and so beyond anything I knew. It is one of the sexiest songs to me. I didn't get until much later in life that the song is about intimacy and that what makes it sexy. At 18, it was just a hint of something I didn't know but wanted. It just spoke to me.
One song that took me years to get over hearing is Cat Steven's "Moonshadow". It is connected to a very important person in my life. Hearing the song took me back to such memories and place and time, it was overwhelming. It always seemed that the song and memories, so deeply connected, caught me by surprise. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I heard it and could smile.
...music does that to you.
Tonight is the first time that I played on iTunes and I think that I could become addicted. I know that I would end up picking out nostalgia...ahhh, but nostalgia from OUR younger years. Popped into my head, found it and bought the song. If you were in college around 1973-1974, you will remember Spirit, "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" and "Nature's Way"...well it is now on our computer. It was a sappy song then...it is STILL...but it sure is nice to hear. It makes you sway and want to hold a lighter up in the air.
In the store at Christmas we get these GODawful CDs of "holiday" music that we have to play from preThanksgiving to forever. At the end of the season this year, I popped ours out the CD player and gleefully cut it to shreds. A year ago, snuck in between Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, twenty versions of "Melaklimekee" some stupid Hawaiian song that I abhor was a golden gem. Whoever programs the CDs must have been a little P.O.ed with their job. We were busy last year and I would keep hearing snippets of the lyrics and I finally looked the song up on the web. It is Bare Naked Ladies "Elf's Lament". It is wonderful. I highly reccommend looking the lyrics up and pasting them in your cubicle. It just tickled me that this song would end up on our CD. A bit of holiday anarchy that applies to the whole year.
The other song that poppped in my mind and found was Leon Russell "A Song for You". I've loved that song from the first time I heard it. I remember being at dorm parties, sitting in some room drinking beer, hearing that song, and loving it and feeling confusedly melancholy. It touched some nerve in me. Leon Russell's voice is not great but it has such a rawness in this song. The emotions he sang about seemed so adult and complicated and so beyond anything I knew. It is one of the sexiest songs to me. I didn't get until much later in life that the song is about intimacy and that what makes it sexy. At 18, it was just a hint of something I didn't know but wanted. It just spoke to me.
One song that took me years to get over hearing is Cat Steven's "Moonshadow". It is connected to a very important person in my life. Hearing the song took me back to such memories and place and time, it was overwhelming. It always seemed that the song and memories, so deeply connected, caught me by surprise. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I heard it and could smile.
...music does that to you.
Monday, January 7, 2008
A Procedure...
Bob is having a "procedure" tomorrow....I guess actually it would classify as a test, but to me, if someone is going to be playing "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with a scopy thingy, it is a PROCEDURE.
The cleansing ritual has begun. He has to drink this fizzy lemony stuff and tonight is the Valhalla of OSU football. So what to do? Of course the instructions on the bottle are of no help. "This product will work in 30 minutes to six hours." If it were me, there would be no problem...the fizzy stuff wouldn't be working until Thursday. (I realize that is probably WAYYYY TO MUCH INFORMATION). We did laugh about him being trapped in the Netherland of the bathroom with everyone glued to the TV and not having enough paper supply. Mind you...our little "Cheers" runs out of everything...beer, wine, olives, food...you name it, they probably don't have it. They have done Kroger runs for beer and wine. If he decides to go and watch the game, we'll probably take a TP stash with us. Better to be safe...
I know that I am making light of this but it is weird to me that we (me, my husband and lots of friends that I know and love) are of the age that we should have this stuff done. I guess in my heart and soul I still believe that we are all in our twenties and perpetually take it for granted healthy....no maintenance required. Now we're having procedures and trying to find the humour in them. I think it's because we're really scared that something might be found even if there isn't any reason to expect that something should be found.
The cleansing ritual has begun. He has to drink this fizzy lemony stuff and tonight is the Valhalla of OSU football. So what to do? Of course the instructions on the bottle are of no help. "This product will work in 30 minutes to six hours." If it were me, there would be no problem...the fizzy stuff wouldn't be working until Thursday. (I realize that is probably WAYYYY TO MUCH INFORMATION). We did laugh about him being trapped in the Netherland of the bathroom with everyone glued to the TV and not having enough paper supply. Mind you...our little "Cheers" runs out of everything...beer, wine, olives, food...you name it, they probably don't have it. They have done Kroger runs for beer and wine. If he decides to go and watch the game, we'll probably take a TP stash with us. Better to be safe...
I know that I am making light of this but it is weird to me that we (me, my husband and lots of friends that I know and love) are of the age that we should have this stuff done. I guess in my heart and soul I still believe that we are all in our twenties and perpetually take it for granted healthy....no maintenance required. Now we're having procedures and trying to find the humour in them. I think it's because we're really scared that something might be found even if there isn't any reason to expect that something should be found.
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