Mom in Retail

Gwen is 4 and a room is being painted still

2009-08-21T13:29:00.002-04:00

Gwen just turned 4. Wow. I keep telling her to stop aging but she refuses. She calls Gary's new family her cousins. They came over and everyone enjoyed pizza and a Dora cake. Happiness all around.

I'm in the process of painting the girls room. I had them paint a shelf for me. I put it on a blue tarp that is now 90% white. They are almost white from head to toe. I had a lot of trouble getting it off them so I gave up. They are going to get yet another bath tonight. Hopefully their body oils will be working on the dry paint and it will come off easier later. If not, they may need some elbow grease. Never fun if it is on a kids skin.

Daddy's home

2009-08-17T09:10:00.003-04:00

Wow. It took me three days to break my own password. I know I suck at this whole update thing. Luckily there are only about 2 people who read this.

Tom just came home from his two week drill. Yeah! There is great rejoicing. The girls barely registered his return. This is from two weeks of crying that he wasn't there. It took them about a half hour to go "Wait a minute. That is our daddy!". Then there was happy tickling all around.
I really missed him. I still can't find my camera or I would have had a picture of him and the girls to put on this blog. The phone company took my ability to email pictures to myself away. They suck.

I have off for the next week. My goal is to repaint the girls room, but first I have to get ready for Gwen's birthday celebration. Wow. She is going to be 4. My little girl is no longer a toddler but a full grown child. Sigh. I keep telling her to stop aging but she insists on getting bigger, stronger and more knowledgeable. She is so smart.

When daddy came home he brought these pillow friends that are just amazing. I highly suggest you go to http://www.anitaspillowpets.com
They are just adorable. They are stuffed animals that you can unfold into pillows or fold back up into the animal. They are made to last. Even the velcro has a little flap to keep it from getting dirty. And I never felt such a soft animal. Gwen got the elephant and Heidi got the bunny. These things are huge. They are not overly expensive and are made correctly for little child play.

Heidi can now sing all the letters of the alphabet. The first five are even in the correct order.

Angry over credits

2009-07-12T19:31:00.003-04:00

We needed to be at 10% credit today. We had 3 credit card sign ups and 31 transactions. Yup, we had a 9.7% credit. We missed it by one transaction. That includes all of those people who insisted on more than one transaction. Because four people had to have seperate receipts for whatever reason we did not make our goals and I have to be on a conference call tomorrow to find out how horrible we are doing and how we are bringing the company down. Can't wait. If my Store Manager quits and I have to deal with the District Manager directly, I am putting in my two week notice that day. So is everyone else I've talked to. Let her try to explain that to the rest of the corporation.

TGIF

2009-07-10T12:17:00.002-04:00

It's Friday and the girls are all better except for a runny nose. According to the doc, when their fevers broke they were no longer contagious. Just in case I am not taking them to the babysitter until next week.
They are out back right now playing in the water table. We recently added sand so they are a very happy couple of toddlers. I took a picture of their extreme cuteness but I had to use my phone because I cannot find the camera. I will put it up on this blog if I can ever figure out how to get it from my phone to this computer. I tried sending it to my email but its been awhile and no new message.
The girls constantly fight and argue but when they are playing with water it seems like nothing will bother them including each other. I hope this lasts.

sick days no longer a day off.

2009-07-06T09:08:00.003-04:00

Heidi has the croup. At least that is what I am thinking this barking cough is. I'm going to call the doc in a few minutes. Either way, I can't let her go to the babysitters with such a cold. The other infant might get it and that would be horrible. Now my entire week is messed up. I can't go to work until Tom gets out of work. I can't let either child play with others until I know they are not contagious. And as soon as Heidi is better, I know that Gwen will get sick.
Anyone with a child knows that joys of sick days. No longer something you get to relax in. To make is worse, you are using them when you feel perfectly healthy.

passwords and hairspray

2009-07-02T22:51:00.004-04:00

Does everyone else hate passwords as much as I do? Don't get me wrong. I truly believe that they are a necessary evil. But they are evil nontheless. I just tried to crack into my blog for a half hour today. Then I gave up and reset it. After negotiating that maze, I am pretty sure that I just reset it to what I originally had it as. Joy. Fun.

Cool. The star of "Hairspray" is on "Ace of Cakes" right now to learn how to decorate cakes. I love that movie. Gwen and Heidi like to dance to it.

I would complain about work right now but I don't feel like writing a five page blog.

Oh, Heidi voluntarily used the potty today!!!!!

threat level orange

2009-06-20T22:15:00.004-04:00

I managed to get zero people to sign up for credit cards yesterday. That made me very desperate to get some sign ups today. After I got two I downgraded myself from desperate to just needy. After my third, I downgraded myself from need to just greedy. Yeah, no meeting tomorrow to discuss why we couldn't get people to sign up for credits!!!!

Corporate is nuts.

2009-06-19T22:35:00.002-04:00

Crappy night in the retail world. They took away most of the coupon offerings to entice customers to apply for a credit card. Now we can only offer a 30% off one item coupon if they are approved. There is also a sale where most of the store is only $10. It goes like this: Can I offer you a credit card? It will save you a whole $3 if you are approved. Who in their right mind is going to agree to that? We are still supposed to haIve a certain percentage of CC attempts to transactions. Yeah, not happening. We have to meet on Sun morning every week we don't make it. I don't plan on meeting but I think it just might happen.

blog....what blog...

2009-06-17T23:19:00.002-04:00

Wow. I am really really bad at this blogging thing. My husband just pointed out that it has been two months since I left a post. Sorry about that. Since then I have watched my girls until I giggled with happiness, had my downstairs bathroom demolished and partually rebuilt, lost my mind a work a few times and been pretty much a normal women of the new century.

The big tragedy is that my coworker lost her baby a couple of nights ago. She was three months along. That has been taking up much of my thoughts. I am just so lucky. I really wished that God had allowed her to experience the joy that I experience on a daily basis. I don't know why he didn't. I am sad.

On a completly different note, we had a major storm just pass through and business was very slow. This was good because I worked a twelve hour shift and those can be killer when it's too busy.

Ewwwwww

2009-05-10T08:29:00.001-04:00

It is really really hard to enjoy a bavarian cream doughnut when your daughter's nose is producing something the same color as the cream.

Lost friend and babysitting.

2009-05-08T23:12:00.004-04:00

Yeah!!! My friend K from highschool just contacted me. He is the only friend I still talk to from then. I missed him a lot and had lost my contact info for him so this is a big deal for me.

On another note: Gwen only has a week left of school and then it is time for summer vacation. Tom was just put on constant days and I requested constant nights. The good news is that we were able to tell our babysitter that we need her for a fairly set schedule now. The bad news is that this seems to include to seeing of the spouse. I'm only going to get to see Tom awake when he waits up for me or I get up early. Yes, we will have a day or so off together so that will be nice too. How do people with more than two kids (like K) do it? Tom and I have enough trouble sneeking off to snuggle. Anything else seems like just a dream.

Dora the Explorer

2009-04-20T10:33:00.002-04:00

I think I figured out the secret behind Dora the Explorer. She doesn't actually go on all of these missions. She is just a little 5 year old with a very active imagination. Boots the Monkey is a stuffed animal that she takes everywhere. She shows off what she learned in preschool to her stuffed friends. She also liked to show off her language skills to them. How else can the instrument playing bugs be wherever she is finishing a task. And if a local lake has crocodiles, wouldn't a smart parent be very careful that her daughter doesn't go near it let alone try to cross it on a weekly basis? Seriously, if this is real, her parents need to be visited by children's services.

Okay, I know it is just a cartoon. One that my daughters are madly in love with. Heidi is currently on a Dora and Little Einsteins kick. If the two ever put a movie together I think her head would explode with happiness.

Finally out of work

2009-04-17T22:35:00.003-04:00

The good news about the nice weather is that it is causing increased sales at work. The bad news is that people are out later and see nothing wrong with coming in at 8:55 when we close at 9. I want to get home. Yes, I will help you with a smile. I will clean up after you and I will act patient around you. Trust me, I don't feel nice or patient. I just have no choice because I am not an overworked employee to you, I am the company. I don't need to get yelled at by the District Manager because I was rude to a customer. Just don't you dare stay in my store after close while leaving fifty things on the floor of the dressing room and decide you only need one item and then complain that it is only clearanced down to $9.96 when the original price was $29.90.
I may be willing to risk my job in order to tell you what to do with that item after you leave the store today.
Oh, and I get to open tomorrow. Yeah!

Believe it or not, I still love my job.

hold on.... I need to catch my breadth...

2009-04-16T21:25:00.003-04:00

Daddy had the day with his girls today. They had lots of fun. When I got home I got to join them in a rousing game of tag. Wow am I out of shape. You know that commercial that talks about someone running their butt off (literally) while playing with their kids? No wonder the moms in this neighborhood are all so darn skinny. They play. (This pic is from last fall)

Floorset Madness

2009-04-13T21:50:00.003-04:00

Today was floorset day. That is when we bust our humps trying to move everything in the store to a new location according to a set of plans that are
a)not created for a store of our layout.
b)do not contain the merchandise we have.
c)contain a lot of merchandise that we do not have yet. And
d)do not seem to include letting the customer shop around you while you are busy removing an entire wall so that you can make room elsewhere by refilling that wall with the right clothes.
I've worked jobs where they do such major changes at night while the store is closed. The problem with that is that we are so short staffed we would have to go into overtime to allow that to happen. Not an option when the company is trying to cut costs to stay in business. We are told almost everyday how important it is to stay within our hour matrix. Overall, today was a good day. We got a lot accomplished and I feel like I actually helped more than hurt the project this month. I am definately learning how to read those things and when to ignore the directions.

Eggtastic

2009-04-12T17:28:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone is having (had, if you read this after the day I wrote it) a wonderful Easter. I got to watch my youngest go into the play room and get the suprise of her life when the toy oven was filled with her basket. Her older sister was very jeaolous and wanted to know where hers was. We only placed it just around the corned in the hallway but it took over a half hour for her to find it. I'm thinking that next year she will be old enough to find her basket before we even wake up.

I love eggs. I had hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. Egg salad for lunch. Deviled eggs for dinner. And Cadbury eggs in between. My cholosterol is going to go through the roof.

Old friends, college and colds

2009-04-08T09:48:00.003-04:00

I was cleaning my bedroom (no easy feat) when I came across a mural of all of my friends that I made in college. I am suddenly feeling very nasta... nosta... nasti... remembering about the past in a positive way and missing it. I tried to email a few of my old friends but I no longer have valid emails for them. This probably wouldn't have happened if I had bothered to call them more than once a decade. Oh well. I'll try other routes.
I remember sitting in the lobby at school. There was a small rug with couches on the side of a very large hallway. One of the couches had succumbed to the Ed zone. A very large farmboy who sat in it on a daily basis just killed the springs. We used to play Magic, the Gathering and talk about everything from getting our grades up to nifty crochetting techniques. There were many of us that didn't graduate. They were too busy playing games to attend class. But there were more of us that went on to get really good jobs.
Sometimes I worry that I wasted my degree. Anyone can do retail. I went on to get my MBA but I'm working somewhere that doesn't require any college whatsoever. On the other hand, I have no real experience so I know that my degree is what got me my current job. Either way, I am smart, educated, and enjoy my job if not my income. Heck, without going to college I wouldn't have met my husband. Maybe I went to school to get my MRS?

On a side note, I am still suffering from having a child in school. Will this cold never end?

Heidi turns 2

2009-04-05T12:25:00.003-04:00

yum...... Cake and Ice Cream

Happy Birthday Heidi!

2009-04-03T19:56:00.004-04:00

My little girl is turning two tomorrow. 2!!!!! I remember that cute little 5 lbs of sleeping, eating machine I got only yesterday. No way is she 2 tomorrow.

This picture is from this time last year.

Today she is sick. The doc gave us some stuff to get rid of her ear infection but I had to leave work early because she is throwing up and the babysitter won't watch her like that. I don't blame her but I am really nervous about upsetting my boss. This is the second time this week I've had to take off for a child's illness.

Rocket's Toothbrush.

2009-03-29T14:12:00.003-04:00

Today we were watching Little Einsteins and Daddy pointed out that it was silly that Rocket has a toothbrush since he doesn't have teeth. Gwen replied, "That's silly." than she thought for a moment and said, "It's to get the bugs off". What a smart girl we have!

Science and Headcolds

2009-03-27T10:08:00.003-04:00

We went to the Science Center yesterday. I was thinking, "Let's go now before school lets out and this place is overrun with kids during the summer." Yeah. Great idea. There were four schools visiting that day. The only good news is the high number of adults as well. The last time I was there during a school outing my poor kids were overrun. This time, it seems that rules have changed and there have to be enough adults to control the groups. I actually enjoyed myself. Yes, my kids still got pushed around a bit but they weren't trampled and no one talked rudely to them. My girls need to learn to deal with others anyway, I just prefer that they learn to deal with rude people slowly due to lack of exposure.
Everyone at work is sick. I did a 12 hour shift a few days ago because my replacement had the flu. I only have a bad headcold so I offered to stay and let the other manager enjoy her day off. Now I still have to write the schedules for the next month. I work from 1-8 today and most of tomorrow. Trying to get a Saturday off for Heidi's upcoming 2nd birthday was like pulling teeth. I'm not going to be sure that I get the day off until the day of.

What, I work tomorrow?

2009-03-09T22:18:00.003-04:00

I open tomorrow. I forgot this little fact until my manager called me and reminded me tonight. Wow, she is so intuitive. I wish I had half her intuition. I will learn.
My girls were put to bed 45 minutes ago. They are still chatting. I am pretty sure my youngest is out of her bed. I am tired of putting her back. I have tried countless times to use the "supernanny" technique of putting her back without talking as many times as needed. I found it is just best to let her collapes wherever she ends up. The only problem is that she does not understand daylight savings time and thinks she was put to bed early. She is in for a big shock when I wake her up early to get to the babysitters on time.

rain rain go away... wait, I need you to water the grass first.

2009-03-08T15:00:00.002-04:00

It is my day off so of course it is raining. At least I got a few hours in my flower garden two days ago. I say flower garden but I was turning it back into grass. I know me and don't want to bother with it this year.
I may have lost my temper a few minutes ago. It's a bit hazy but my girls are giving me a wide berth and the living rooms been picked up. (just kidding. yes, I need to stop yelling but it would also be nice if they would clean during the first fifteen times I ask them to help me). Honestly, after cleaning up after customers all week you would think I would be used to this type of mess. Actually, my little girls are much cleaner.

tired

2009-03-04T18:23:00.002-05:00

Worked hard today. Kids are full of energy. I keep trying to get it to rub off on me but it doesn't work. I am thinking of switching from hugs to nose rubbing. We'll see if that works.

Feeling just Thwell.

2009-02-26T13:11:00.003-05:00

I'm thick. Tho thick that I want to thtay home from work. My nothe is clogged and my head hurth. I need to go to work. L, the other manager, can't come into work today. Thhe had a root canal done thith mornink and I don't want her to work today. I would rather work with thwollen glandth than with a raw mouth.
The girlth were nithe enough to share their cold with me. At leastht they are feeling better. We went to our uthual Thur lunch at Wild Buffalo Wingth today. I love it there. They know our order before we even tell them. According to their manager they are not having much of a thlow down in todayth economy. I hope thith ith a good thign. We are pretty buthy at work too. Of courthe, the item we sell the motht right now ith interview clotheth.
Hope everything ith okay for my readerth (all one of you, Amber ^_^).

Having a Glee moment.

2009-02-22T21:56:00.002-05:00

I am now the Co-Manager of my store. Glee. E was just given keys because she was promoted to assistant manager. Now my task to get M to start doing her job. She is awesome. She is a hard worker and I really really really dont want to lose her but there is one item she isn't selling. Those stupid credit cards. We'll see what happens. I hope that we can get her to understand.

I got a new computer! It's one of those ity bitty inch thick ones with a 10 inch monitor. It's pink. It is called and ideapad. I love it. Tom got me a matching mouse to go with it! Glee again.

does good service mean I think you are a thief?

2009-02-01T10:17:00.003-05:00

We had an upset customer. We have a rule where we are to go to every customer, no exceptions and ask them if we can help them. We take things to dressing rooms or to the counter to free up the customer's hands. This person tooks M's customer service as an accusation of theft and told me that M must think that all black people are thieves and that this isn't the 70s anymore and that white people should respect people like her. That her money is just as good and that we shouldn't make assumptions based on skin color. Poor M went into the back room and had herself a good cry.
Now to be fair, we do hover over all customers because our store has an alarming amount of theft for the company. I explained to her that we treat every customer with our full attention because store policy is to be there to help you with anything. It is not meant as an insult. She told me that our store was not nearly as nice as those in New York. She told me that our quality is going down and went on about how in New York she wasn't treated with suspician.
This goes on for over 40 minutes. When I was done with her she bought $250 worth of stuff and had calmed down enough that she even gave back the customer service number saying that she wasn't going to call corporate on us. I honestly hope she never returns but I am pretty proud of myself.
There is a very large chance that this lady (with a big hole in the butt of her pants I might add) just wanted a discount on her purchase. We don't give discounts. Period.
On an extra note, as she was leaving she told another worker that she had no right working in a big girls clothing store because her presence alone made the big girls feel bad. This worker is a size 3 and extremely beautiful. Not due to dieting but due to being deathly sick most of her life. This last bit of info is none of the customers business. The worker is one of the smartest and hardest working that the store had evered hired. Her size has nothing to do with her ability to do the job and should never come into play.

We are not closing, we are just out of everything.

2009-01-09T10:25:00.004-05:00

We need merchandise. Corporate sends us lists of stuff to put on sale and how to decorate the room but they are not sending us anything new. We need more shirts. We need more options of pants in petiet and tall. We need the scarfs they are telling us to sell. We need the stuff to sell in order to make the sale. This is nuts. We haven't had a box to open in a month. We won't until the 12th. How are we suppose to increase our sales when we have nothing to sell? People are actually asking us if we are closing. As far as we know we are not. Heck, we are even looking into hiring a new assistant manager.
Gwen's at school right now. Heidi just had a tickle fest with Daddy and I. I love a job that gives me time with my girls.

Sigh, I'm going back to bed.

2009-01-04T21:02:00.002-05:00

How come I am tired every day I get off work. At work I have tons of energy. I see no problems cleaning and folding. At home, I am tired. I look at the pile of toys with the intermixing of cheerios and just loose all energy. I'm sick. yeah. That's it. I have a disease that forces me to be extremely lazy. Like lupus or toxoplasmosis or something... Actually, I might since I show a lot of other symptoms. But let's worry about that after the doctors visit. Right now, I think I suffer from a bad case of "don't wannas".

Let all forsaken be forgot...

2009-01-01T21:16:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year to those who didn't wake me up at 3 am because they forgot that they were in a different time zone!

free clothes stampede

2008-12-29T22:44:00.003-05:00

I posted a bunch of free clothes on Craigslist. I just wanted to get rid of them. It's a full day later and I had to delete the post because of the overwhelming response. I had a very full mailbox when I went online. The clothes are getting picked up tomorrow by the first lady to email me. She has three girls under the age of 3. I'm thinking triplets but you never know. I hope she gets many happens uses out of them. I wonder if she needs any pots or pans...

Santa may have been too good to us...

2008-12-28T11:38:00.004-05:00

Wow. I actually get a day off. The girls and I bundled up and went out on the swing for a bit. It was super windy and a bit of rain was falling but we needed out. We can't move in our house. We have two rooms out of commission while the house is being redone. I had to take every toy out of the girls bedrooms and put them in the living room. There is no room to walk. You are stepping on something no matter what you do. And yes, I did just give some toys to a friend of mine who is expecting soon. I also gave her clothes but we have tons of that as well. I feel like I am drowning in excess but what do I get rid of? I cannot just throw the girls things away. They are not mine and it is not worth upsetting them. I would love to throw away all of the stuff in the basement but they are worth too much money. I need to get a pile together to donate. Do you know anyone who needs pots and pans?

On another note, we have gotten very tight at work with the registers. We audit them a few times a day. Ten dollars was missing twice. I was the only constant between those two days. This scares me. Luckily, I had my register audited before leaving a couple days ago so when a check was missing, it wasn't my fault. I hope this blows over and never happens again. I know that I didn't take the money but I have no way of proving it. Because other people used the register as well, they can't prove it was me so I am being suspected but not in trouble yet. I have already told the boss that I will not share a register for a while. I just don't trust that I won't get blamed for someone else's mistake.

Wow, those girls can whine. When they cannot get even the simplest toy to work it is naptime. Good night.

Bad Evening

2008-12-19T23:55:00.003-05:00

The til was $10 short today. There were four of us using it. I have no idea what happened. I honestly do not believe it was stolen. I believe that it was a case of too much change was handed out. Or it could have been misplaced. Either way, we are short.

work, the girls and mirrors.

2008-12-18T23:30:00.003-05:00

Still love my job. I am learning a lot. Right now, everyone likes me. We'll see if that changes.
My girls leave tomorrow to spend a week with Nana and Grandpa. I am sad. They have been getting to be extremely good friends. Their giggling is so contagious. I feel sorry for people who choose not to have children. They are tons of work but I was so happy today just watching them. When I pretend to fall asleep they both tell me to wake up. Heidi says, "wake up Heidi!".
I met up with Tom at work today because I needed to work before his VMware group was over. That meant that the girls had to go to work with me until he could pick them up. Since he was a bit late getting there I clocked in 15 minutes late. No big deal. My boss knew that I wasn't blowing work off. The girls danced in front of the big changing room mirror. Then they started hitting it. I had to wash all of the mirrors and doors when they left. What is it with kids and touching everything?

oops

2008-12-13T09:02:00.002-05:00

I was at work an extra half hour yesterday trying to correct a closing mistake that I made. It was still unresolved when I left because I needed the store manager to sign some paperwork. Otherwise I covered it okay. I added $0.20 instead of $20. I do not like the calc that we use. People keep resetting the number of decimals making it difficult for me to know how to type stuff in. I thought I figured it out but I was obviously wrong. Stupid mistake too. It could have been avoided by slowing down and rechecking my numbers. I feel really small right now.

tired

2008-12-11T11:26:00.002-05:00

Big shock here. I have been working until 10:30 or later at night. It takes me a bit to unwind so I haven't been falling asleep until 1am-ish. My Youngest woke up at 6:30 this morning wanting to play. My husband is working nights this week so I need to let him sleep until I leave for work. Yep. I'm tired. Yawn. I just hope that this isn't one of those days where they are convinced that they don't need a nap. I want to take one.

She may not be a theif but I don't know that...

2008-12-10T00:08:00.002-05:00

Royally pissed off my first customer today. She came into the store with a shopping cart from a neighboring store. We have a rule about no carts. When I tried to tell her about the new rule she became upset. I tried to explain that we where implementing a lot of rules to combat theft. She thought I was accusing her of being a thief. I was not. She left in a huff. Talking loudly about how she was going to buy something and how the store obviously didn't need her money. Etc Etc...
I think she doth protest too much.

working with kids

2008-12-08T08:04:00.003-05:00

I like my job. I love my children. I don't want to miss watching my children grow up because mommy needed to pay the bills. Right now, I am fine. When they start school and I close most days, I will only get to see them on my days off. I hope that is not how it happens. I got really nervous about it yesterday. Don't worry about the future. I don't know yet what is happening. Argh. Wish I could just "not think about it".
Heidi is sick. Terrible head cold or allergy or something. She isn't sleeping at night because she coughs too much. Which means that I am not sleeping. I can't tell if I am this cranky from lack of sleep or the new medicine. I bet the medicine would work if it wasn't going against waking up every other hour to rock a sick baby. I need to wait another hour before I call the doctor and make her an appointment. I know what they'll say: it's a virus, just let it work itself out. Meanwhile, she is on edge from not sleeping at night.

Why is the register in the back of the store?

2008-12-05T20:25:00.003-05:00

Fun day. I worked my first full shift. The regional manager and someone she was training were in today as well. They made the store manager nervous by just talking amongst themselves and pointing all day. They did help during a ten minute period when we were extremely backed up but the rest of the time they just whispered and pointed. I understood that The RM wanted to show the guy what to look for and point out. Since she was in the store yesterday and already told the SM what she needed, she didn't need to repeat it today. I just wish that they hadn't stayed for so long. I stay up front to great the guests and make sure that the merchandise stays inside the store until it is paid for. The SM worked the back of the store including the registers.
Now, why are the registers in the back of the store? Doesn't that invite theft? When my grandfather moved the registers from the back to the front of the store, he lowered shrink in his store by over 50%. That is very significant. I wonder if it is just an aesthetic thing. If it is, they need to change. It could be to force customers to go through the store and admire the clothes before they do a return but honestly, the amount of theft vs convincing a customer to buy one item is just not enough in my opinion. Of course, I don't have any hard numbers with which to compare the theft vs returns gained. Oh well. I'm just an assistant manager anyways. What do I know.

2008-12-02T17:09:00.002-05:00

I wish that I could convince the world to leave me alone some days. I woke up in a bad mood. Granted, it was at 5:30 this morning to a 3 yr old yelling that she needed dry clothes, sheets, blankets and stuffed animals. I was calm until everything was changed. All I needed was for her to put on her shirt and get back into bed. She wasn't putting on her shirt so I put it over her head. She started screeching at the top of their lungs. I may have lost my cool at that point. Tom took over. I still say that I had every right to yell back. I tried to nap this afternoon but everyone needed to talk to me the second I started to dose off. Yep. This is a great day off work.

Boring Sunday

2008-12-01T09:38:00.003-05:00

Work was dead yesterday. We had maybe 15 customers all day. This could be due to the fairly heavy rain or the fact that most people did their shopping on black friday and saturday. We actually would have lost money if the returns were not mostly exchanges.
I learned how to open the store and close it. I learned how to do a lot of the management type jobs. I learned how much it sucks to tell a customer that we cannot accept her return because the coat doesn't have the tags on it. It is not her fault that she received it without tags. She bought it over the internet and should have been able to return it to us but we did not have a code for it to put it in our computers. Now she will have to pay shipping just to return a coat. That sucks. There should be a way that we could have accepted it. I can't think of one though.

Spoiled children rant

2008-11-30T08:02:00.003-05:00

I just read an article on yahoo news about how parents are writing letters to toy manufacturers to stop advertising to their children. It said that parents are giving up everything in order to give their children the toys that they ask for. One woman is even going to prostitute herself to give her children what they want. Since when is the gift giving of Christmas mandatory? Since when do children automatically get everything that they want? At the very bottom of the article it mentions that this is the perfect time to teach your child that they can't always get what they want and how to negotiate in a world full of advertising. I bet most readers have stopped reading by that point in the article.
How selfish for current parents. Instead of teaching their children restraint, they are teaching them to get everything they want. That is why my generation is so bogged down with credit card debt. That is why the mortgage industry has tanked. That is why parents are calling their grown children's teachers and bosses to hash things out. Let the child learn! Teach them to say no to purchasing the new shoes. Teach them to live in the smaller house. Teach them that they will never have everything the Joneses have so just deal with it.

2008-11-28T15:40:00.002-05:00

Happy Black Friday! I don't know if most stores are now officially in the black but my new store was a bit busy today. We sold sweaters like crazy. Of course, we had a coupon out there that gave you $10 off a choice of three types of sweaters. I learned the register today and received the most wonderful compliment. I was told that ...

Sorry. Gwen needed a booboo kissed...

As I was saying, I was told that I have a lot of brains and common sense. To me that is the nicest thing someone could say about a new hire. This group seems like a lot of hard working and considerate women. I like it there.

2008-11-27T18:29:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch. My husband had to be at work by 3. He decided to go in early because we were just sitting around digesting (not even talking. Too much triptafan) so he wanted to allow everyone else to leave early. He got a message from work saying that the boss's boss bought everyone lunch/dinner who had to work today. That was so sweet.
The girls ate normally. Gwen picked and complained that she wanted more turkey when there was tons on her plate. Roomie finally figured out that she wanted a leg to knaw on. Normally I'm okay with that but this bird was tough and I didn't want her choking on those bone-like tendons. She'll live. Heidi would still be eating if she didn't run out of food over an hour ago. I have to limit what she gets or she will eat until she throws up. Then her tummy is empty and she will eat again. It's a vicious cycle.
What a boring set of games. Could they hook up more different teams? If a team wins by over 30 points, there should be a rule that whoever picked those teams for a major game watching day apologizes.

2008-11-26T22:33:00.003-05:00

First real day on the job. Feet hurt. Feet hurt. Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.
I bought new shoes after work today.

2008-11-23T21:08:00.003-05:00

Yeah! Mom and Dad to the rescue. I found an great babysitter but she can't start working until Wed. My parents are coming down to babysit for my first day of work.
My nephew is in the hospital (he'll be fine but he will be there for a while). Gwen and I spent the day making him cookies. I wonder how broken they will be by the time the Post Office gets them to him?

2008-11-21T16:51:00.003-05:00

You are now reading from a post by the new assistant manager at a fashionable plus sized women's store. Yeah!! I meet the new babysitter tonight. Everything is falling into place. It's amazing what happens when you put your worries into God's hands.
I got a call from the craft store telling me that they didn't need me to work tomorrow. It was so awesome to be able to tell them that it was okay because I needed to put in my two week notice. I'm sorta sad that it is during such a bad time of year but they had a few management positions open since I started working there two years ago and at no time did they even give me a chance for them. I also warned them that I was looking for a new job so I actually feel no real guilt.

2008-11-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

Haven't gotten the other job quite yet.

It's amusing that all of the new hires assume that I am their manager. I am just a peon like them. I refer to mysef as the senior cashier because I have been there the longest but there is nothing in my title that is different than theirs. I was asked by one of them why I didn't ask to be moved into management by now. I told them that I applied and the store did not think I was management material. They are actually losing employees due to their refusal to promote from within. It's amusing that the latest front end manager quit yet I have yet to hear of a an opening for her position. Oh, and they just hired this lady from outside of the store and are in a real hurry to train her in everything. Yep. My resume is out there.

2008-11-19T22:08:00.001-05:00

Gotta love retail. Just offered a job for $8.50/hr. The babysitter would cost me $7/hr. Yeah, I'm desperate enough for the experience to take it.

2008-11-19T13:21:00.002-05:00

Great day at work today. I managed to help customers while answering the phones and working as a cashier. I feel powerful. Someone even told me that I have a pretty smile. Glee. I love compliments. If you ever get an unhappy cashier, compliment her and see how much better the transactions go. I was happy since I awoke but the nice word still made my day.

I'm waiting for my girls to wake up from their naps. I'm thinking a good tickling is in order for them. ^_^

Joy of coupons

2008-11-18T20:23:00.004-05:00

The following is a conversation I had about two months ago. It is unfortunatley not as rare as you might think.

customer: I want to buy these three things but they are too expensive.

Me: I'm sorry?....

customer: Give me the coupon price or I won't buy these.

Me: I'm sorry about that but I don't have any extra coupons. I will be happy to put these back on the shelves for you.

customer: Just change it in your computer.

Me: I cannot do that. I can give you a discount on one item if you sign up for our mailer.

customer: No. I don't need to sign up for anything. Just give it to me.

Me: I'm sorry. I cannot do that. Would you like to talk to a manager?

customer: (huffs out of the store)

Okay, not a lot of people seem to understand the point of coupons. They think that it is to save them money. It is not! The reasons that coupons were created was to get you into the store. I will happily give a coupon to a customer if I have one. Do Not Ask! Smart stores realize that you are already in the store and have no reason to supply them to the cashiers. Sometimes we have them left over from stuffing bags but that is very rare. Telling me about how evil I am because I do not have another coupon is not going to go anywhere. I don't take it personally. Heck, I just see it as a very stupid customer. If the point of the coupon is to get you into the store and you are here, I have no reason whatsoever to even think of giving you the discount. Actually, that is not true. If you sign up for a mailer/credit card/store promotion/ect. I will convince the register that you have a coupon. But that occurs whether I have the piece of paper or not.
If you want to make your cashier give you a coupon there are some rules to follow
1. Be nice. Rude people get nothing.
2. Follow that rules. Sign up for the stupid mailer even if you have already signed up for it 4 times and never received it. Not my fault. Just spend two minutes filling out your address and get the $3 off your puchase.
3. Try to go to the same cashier. If I recognize you as a regular, I will be more willing to make you happy.
4. Don't be afriad to pretend that you forgot it at home. Sometimes we push it through anyways if you are very nice and buying a lot.
5. Do not demand one. Asking is okay but don't be ticked off when we tell you that we don't have one.
6. If something is damaged and you still want it, point out the damage. Where I work I have permission to give a 75% discount if I tell the manager first so don't be afraid of the chip or scratch. You will probably be turning it towards the wall or covering it up with a craft project anyways.

sick day

2008-11-17T09:57:00.000-05:00

I have today off which is good because this stupid flu/cold that I got three weeks ago still has me in its grip. Gwen went to school today for the first time in over a week. Heidi is so zoned out that I just put her in front of the tv and she is almost not moving. Poor things.

2008-11-16T20:59:00.000-05:00

I have the joy of being a mom. This is a very expensive occupation so I needed to get a job that allowed me to be home while my husband works and have some sleep on the side. Hmmmm. A job that allows me to change my hours every week to rotate around my husband's ever changing shifts and take off whenever one of my daughter's have the sniffles. Aha! Retail! I got a job at a craft store because my mother-in-law wanted my discount. I kept the job because who else is going to let me work only mornings one week, only evenings the next week and oh, I need certain weekends off so my husband can play soldier.
I actually enjoy my job. My coworkers are adults who managed to leave the back-biting of high school behind. The customers are usually kind people who are happy with you just getting them bagged and out of the store. The management is aware that their job is to let us know when we need to change what we are doing or keep up the good job. I like working with adults. It is nice. I am tired of working with 40 year old teenagers.
My entire world outside of work consists of two people: my daughters. My husband is in there too but let's face it, I am a mom first. Gwen is a 3 year old princess who loves books and her teddy bears. Heidi is a 1 and a half year old princess who loves anything that is loud enough to wake the dead. I don't mind the noise. I know where she is in the house if I can hear her.
We have a roommate too. He trades babysitting and odd jobs around the house in exchange for a warm room at night. He is a good guy that just never seems to catch a break. I mean it. If money started to fall from the sky, he would be stuck inside a broken elevator until every penny was claimed.
We also have two cats. Magic is a black kitty that has the weakest meow on the planet. Callie is a huntress who managed to catch a humming bird last summer. I would love a bird feeder outside to watch the pretty songbirds in the neighborhood but that would be like laying out corn all year long in your favorite hunting spot. It would just be wrong.