Random thoughts

I still do not like snow. There seems to be quite a bit of it out there. I know, I live in Ohio and should just be used to it by now, but I just don't like it! Yesterday we received about 8 inches of snow or so. I had a snow day (one of the very few days I was actually scheduled to sub too!), and I was off at my other job, so I was able to relax. Good thing since I was sick. I think it's just a sinus thing, but it could be a cold too. It had kept me up all night Tuesday into Wednesday, so I was glad to be able to rest and recoup a bit during the day. I did feel bad for Joe though. He had to shovel the drive so he could go to work, only to find out that they'd sent the Lottery guys home around 10. He left around 2:30 and come home and shoveled the drive again. Yep, lots of fun was had in the Ramey casa last night!

The next topic on my mind is the economy and work. Now, I'm not going to get all deep about the economy, or how a new president is going to change everything. I'm going to talk about a simple observation I've made at work. As most of you know, I work for a large retail department store-the same one that hosts the Thanksgiving Day parade. Anyway. Last week we heard that they let 10 people in our store go, the mens department, a couple of shoe ladies, some in juniors, and then the cash office. It wasn't just our store-it apparently happened at others in the area too. I can understand letting people go because the cash isn't there, but aren't there other ways to cut back too? Say, closing when the weather is bad and no one is going to be out anyway. Or, closing at a decent hour, like 8 or heck, I'll say 9, during the week instead of staying open to 10 when the mall closes at 8. The amount of money that is saved from those hours alone would probably pay for those 10 people they had to let go. There aren't sales-the only folks in the store are the employees!

Ok. That is all I have on my mind right now. I had other things I was thinking about blogging about (like how I really want a dog) but I will save those for another day. Until then check out this book. I'll hopefully have a review of it up on my book blog withing a few months. :)

Cold.

I don't like it. It's horrible. I don't like it when the high is expected to be 4. It's just not right.

That is all.

Two Days in a Row

I know, it's amazing. I'm doing what I can to keep everyone on their toes.

So. Retail. It's an interesting world. It takes up a lot of my thinking time these days, as I've been there quite a bit. It's fun to watch people. Especially old people. They're all for getting the biggest bang for their buck. Today's sale I'm sure has them coming out of the homes in droves. In a way, I'm happy to not be working tonight. Tomorrow night it's supposed to snow, so there's a chance that the sale will fizzle. Not sure how I feel about that. I would like a sale or two. I'm not being greedy. There are some really awesome pieces on clearance in our department! I have my eye on an aquamarine ring that with all the discounts would be around 100 bucks. With my additional discounts, it'd be more like 75. My eye will stay on it, but I won't buy it....I think I'd rather have a necklace as my next piece of jewelry. I was really surprised how much the sales bring prices down.

Today and yesterday I've been subbing in a science class. We watched Apollo 13 in all 3 classes. I enjoyed the movie when it came out in '95, and it's still not bad now. There are some pretty good quotes that you could take out of the movie. I've found that some of the students just don't get the movie though. Some think it's all a hoax, and it didn't happen at all. Others think that this was the mission that burned up upon re-entry. *sigh* It can be scary sometimes. I worry about what's going to happen when they grow up. They're likely to be the ones that give me problems with the discount system.

Oh. I forgot. This is a fun little story. (Ok, not really, but anyway.) I left to go to work last night, and as a good person does, I closed and latched the door to the house. Only then did I realize that what I thought was my keys was really my phone. Oops! At least it was my phone. So, I made a quick call to my dad and about 5 minutes later, he arrived. I went in, got the keys, and off to work I went. We definitely need a new plan for lock outs, that's for sure!

Anyway...I'm off for now. The movie is almost over, and we're still waiting for Apollo 13 to re initiate contact with Houston....

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! It's hard to believe that 2008 has come and gone. It's amazing to think back to all of the things that have gone on in the past 365 days or so. There have been changes, some good, and some not so good.

I've started working retail again, and I can't totally make up my mind. I have more stories to add to the previous post-it's amazing how people react to discounts, or lack there of. I must say, my most common question I receive is asking where the bathrooms are. Or if I can ring up socks. I am also no longer working on my online job. That ended as of the 31st. While I'm a bit relieved-I'm also a bit sad. In February it would've been 3 years, that's pretty good for a job for me! (Aside from subbing, that is.) I am happy I don't have to worry about responding to reports and getting x amount done in x amount of time. I'll miss finding out about campaigns, but you know, I'll be ok. I still have the friendships I've made, thanks to blogs and Facebook.

I cannot say that I made any resolutions for the new year. I never seem to keep them anyway. I do hope to better myself though, whether it's through classes-fun or educational, weight loss (I hope!), or just becoming a better person in general.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. (Not to mention, it's lunchtime here at school. :)) More soon!

I really am still alive, I promise!

So, it's been awhile. I've been around, but time to blog has been fleeting. So I suppose I'll do some catching up. I have composed several blog entries since my last post, but they were all in my head. Doesn't help my reader much, but hey, my head enjoyed them!

Lately I've been doing a bit of reading (when I can, that is). I've been reviewing books and then posting the reviews on my book blog. I have a few more reviews I need to post to be caught up. I hope I can get to them in the next few days. One book that I'm currently reading is particularly interesting. It is entitled The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles edited by Jeff Martin. I received a review copy from Soft Skull Press, and I have to say that I am thrilled.

I haven't read the entire book yet, just bits and pieces, but I have to say it's great! Ok. Perhaps if you haven't lived the world of retail like so many of us have or are living, it might not be great. The stories bring back great memories. I really think I could add some of my own. One of the main ones that came to mind was from when I was working retail in college. I will not give away names, but those of you know where I worked and who we worked with will know exactly who this person is. I remember working in the back of the store, doing my job of taking customers orders, copying them, and then returning them. We had a bell on our counter for when we were off in the store, either checking stock or helping other customers. (Or working at the register up front...that happened often too.) Anyway. We had this bell, and should we were be at the counter, the customer was to ring the bell and we'd return to the counter to fill their order. There was a customer who was the head of a large real estate company in the area. We'll call her Jenny. Jenny was apparently involved in a Bible study group. Every week she would be at the store, getting things ready for the weekly study. She loved to impart her 'wisdom' on the heathens that worked at the store. (Because clearly, to work in retail (not real estate) you had to be one.) Anyway. One day I was in an aisle, helping a customer, and I heard the ringing of the bell. I finished up and returned to the counter. There was Jenny. I did my best to hide my disappointment, because inevitably, the work would not make her happy, and it would have to be redone. And usually, when it was redone, it would look the exact same, but that time she was happy. She gave me my task, and I turned back to the copier to complete it. She decided to stay at the counter while I copied her 'worksheets' on the beatitudes. While I was at the copying machine, she continued to ring the bell. Not just a little bit. Oh no, for Jenny that would've been way too easy. She kept ringing the damn thing. When asked why...she said she was making a joyful noise, and perhaps I should learn the meaning. If only I could have shoved it down her throat. The choking noise would've been awesome!

Anyway...I highly recommend the book for those of you who have any retail/customer service experience. I am reminded on an almost daily basis these days of the 'joys' of retail, and how people watching can become quite fun around the holidays. They seem to want the biggest bang for their buck, and they want a 6K piece of jewelry to be mere pennies when it's on clearance. While that might be a great deal, it's not going to happen!

I am going to try to post more updates over the holidays, but I cannot guarantee anything! If you don't hear from me, have a safe and merry Christmas! :)

Another contest

I have fun looking around and finding fun contests. I came across this contest from Always Amy, I thought I'd go ahead and join in.

I found two pairs of earrings that I found just adorable.

This pair that looks like Chinese take out boxes is just too cute! I like oriental related things, and these are just cute. :)








The other pair that I liked was this white pair of maple leafs. I think it's perfect for the fall. It would go with any outfit-you wouldn't have to worry about wearing fallish colors for these to match with! :) You can see a bigger picture here.

Life comes at you fast...

You know, I'm tired. I'm tired of politics. I'm tired of coming home from school and having messages on my machine telling me who will be in town and that I should go join the rally. And yes, I received 3 calls about the same specific rally. I didn't go. Wanted to, but didn't. I'm tired that the majority of our mail these days are "vote for this" "don't vote for that" pamphlets. This is the first campaign I honestly remember all of the advertising, being bombarded almost constantly. (I know, the Obama campaign does have a lot of money, and is spending it on advertising. I'm sure that's a large part of it.) I'm just looking forward to next Tuesday evening, when the majority of the ads will end. I don't expect the election itself to be over. I expect there will be recounts, and the election will hinge on one or two states as it has in the past two elections. I'll just be glad to not have to worry about smear ads on TV.

On to other things. Last weekend we had our annual Halloween party with the JoKeRMob. Ok. Technically the JoeRMob, because the Ks weren't there. It was up at Steve and Kate's new house. What a great place they found! It made us talk about moving, starting over, with something that we could decorate on our own. Someday we'll have that. But for now we can only deal with what we have and change it a little bit at a time, a room and window at a time.

I also won some books last week from bookbrothel. It was a giveaway of 10 books from Hachette Book Group. They're all politically related, but that's ok. I'm really looking forward to reading them, and if I don't read them, at least skimming them. I'm sure there will be some interesting tidbits of trivia in them.

Well, I'm off for now. I recently updated my starting page on FireFox to iGoogle, and I need to customize it to get the feeds I want to see. If you haven't checked out iGoogle yet, give it a try! :) Have a great week!