Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A Snicker

I was scanning clothes today when I heard a girl say, "I'm-a get dis, Shaquoia."
I laughed to myself.

Monday, April 23, 2007

I Feel Giddy

So as most of you know already, my husband and I are heading down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for our first anniversary.  It's where we spent our honeymoon, and it's just incredibly gorgeous down there.  I think I oogled over it enough last year, but I think I found my second home.  I wish it could be something we could do every year, but it's too expensive (around $500 just for renting the chalets for a few nights), and we want to try to get our own house by the end of this year (God-willing).

The chalets are set up on the Great Smoky Mountains, and almost any one you're in, you get a beautiful view of the mountains.  You can see scenery for miles.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get the same exact chalet we had for our honeymoon because someone reserved it, and the only day/night that was free was our anniversary. 

However, the cool thing about the one we got is that it has an indoor hot tub as well as an outdoor.  Our last one just had one outside, and we stopped using it at night.  We discovered a racoon walking around on the deck when we looked out the screen door while we were playing cards.  A sexy/romantic night out in the hot tub could turn into a living hell with one of those walking around.

Another nice thing is that it has two TV's and two DVD players.  Our last one had one TV, and it didn't even have a DVD player.  We ended up watching tons of episodes of Yo Mama until we bought a DVD player and season three of Spongebob Squarepants at WalMart one night.  Yes, we watched cartoons on our honeymoon...by choice.

A couple things it doesn't have that our other one did are a pool table and a loft bedroom.  Now, the pool table was a nice asset to the place, but it could have been placed better.  I'm not sure where exactly, but not up on the loft.  Between the slanting roof and the loft rail, it was hard to get a good shot.  Just ask my husband how extremely frustrated I got.  I think I even scared him.
The loft bedroom didn't get much use except for one time.  'Nuff said on that subject.

I'm hoping the weather will hold out for us this year.  We got pretty lucky last year as it really only rained a couple times (once when we got there and once the night before we left).  They were originally calling for rain this entire weekend, but it looks like Thursday's the only bad day so far.  I'm fine with that since we won't be there until around 6:00 or 6:30 that night anyway.

I don't know if I'll see the two "amigos" before I leave (that especially means you, Tam) or if I'll get to blog again, but try not to miss me too much.  I'll try to take lots of pictures, and hopefully no redundant photos.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Only In Erie...And New York

I rarely go downtown, and there's probably a reason for that.  I can't say Erie is abundant with people playing with a full deck, and there was evidence of that today.

I was hanging out with Tam and her daughter, Britain, this morning.  After walking around the Bayfront for a while, we grabbed a bite to eat from Tickle's and took it to Perry Square.

After picking a bench, Tam started getting Brit all situated when an older, black¹ man walked over to the bench we were at and took a seat.  Um, ok...out of all the empty benches on the square, why'd you choose this one?  I tried to pretend as if I didn't see him, but then he started talking:
"I like Chinese."
That's terrific.  It's good to have a favorite food.  I turned around to see him opening his box of takeout Chinese.
He continued:  "It's oriental."
No crap?  Chinese?  I never knew.
"You want some?"
I tried to be friendly, but it was hard to hide the I'm-really-creeped-out-by-you vibes.  I replied, "No, thanks.  We have food."
Tam looked up at me and mouthed, "You want to move?"  Of course, my eyes and face spoke a resounding "yes".

We took our food over to another bench and left Mr. Creepy Pants in the dust.  While we were eating, we occasionally discussed the oddity of the guy.  Tam came up with an idea.  If he came over, we could say we were together and were having our commitment party.  She decided to demonstrate the linked arm thing with me (check out ron and Jon's unconventional version) as we were holding our subs, but it caused me to crack up too much to actually go all the way through with it.

After a while, the guy got up and started making his way towards another bench where a couple women were seated.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy he went over there instead of to our bench again.  After taking a seat at the bench, we speculated he asked if they wanted to share in his Asian delight (it's oriental, after all).  A black woman got up right away and walked away, and we had to laugh.

It just goes to show there's all kinds of crazy around here, and there's no getting away from it.

¹No need to get fussy about the fact that I mentioned race.  It's purely for visual sake and not to be taken as a racist comment.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The Journey Has Ended

If you can believe it, today is the last day of my thirty-day journey.  It seemed to go by pretty fast.  I'm happy to see it end but not at the same time.  I was trying to take on too many commitments at one time between Russian, making vlogs, and writing blogs. 

It's especially bad that my Russian has gone to the back burner to do all this.  It makes me sad everytime I hear Olga speaking to someone in Russian.  It makes me want to go back to spending more time with that.  I did, however, feel good on Sunday when she "slipped-up" and started speaking Russian to me mid-conversation.

She wanted to put a crib pad on her friend's registry, but she didn't know if it was waterproof, so she had me look over the package.
"Well, it's not waterproof.  It just says absorbent," I said.
"What does that mean?"
As I was about to answer, she said, "Harosho s--"  She began laughing, and I did a little too.
She said, "I just speak Russian to you.  You know what is 'harosho'?"
That's an easy, easy word¹, so I said with a smile, "Yeah, I do."
So she began again.  "Harosho suck up?"
"Da," I replied.  I was a happy camper.  It wasn't a lofty, Russian vocabulary moment, but it was nice because that was the first time we ever spoke it to eachother within normal conversation.
Later on, I pulled her aside and told her she should do that more often, so I can get comfortable with speaking it.  My husband still thinks I should do more initiation, but I'm far too shy to do that.

It's moments like these that make me want to stick to the Russian for a while.  I'll still blog, and I think I'd still like to make videos, as well, but now it's their turn to take the back burner for a little bit. 

Thanks to everyone who reads these.  I appreciate the support.  Maybe I'll do this again sometime when I'm not so busy with life.

¹"Harosho" means "good," basically.

Monday, April 16, 2007

I Finally Exited the Bat Hole

It was nice to finally get outside and enjoy myself with friends; even if the weather was too cold to do anything outdoors.  I haven't gone out with friends in a long time; especially two at one time.  I met Tam and ron at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner last night after going to a coworker's baby shower.  I walked in but couldn't find them anywhere, so I called ron only to find out he and Tam were sitting in a booth on the opposite side of the divider near the entrance where I was standing.  They were playing Texas Hold 'Em, which I've never played before.

Under ron's guidance I learned how to play.  Spending four hours playing it should be enough time to learn, and it was.¹  By the end of the night, I brought down Tam's $38,000-something to around $21,000-something, and I took a lead.  I don't remember what my high score was, but it was somewhere around $35,000.  Bring it on next time we go there, Tam!

While playing, we discussed the intricacies of first times, psycho boyfriends/girlfriends, and being called gay (all three of us are victims of that).  Ok, maybe they weren't "intricacies"--per se--but we touched on them.  I found that we all have similar viewpoints on things and the same sort of sense of humor.

After all the serious discussions and beating the crap out of eachother on THE, we discovered the chatroom on the electronic gamer we each had.  Actually, I should give ron credit for finding it first.  Being basically the only three still in the restaurant at the time (save for a few people hanging at the bar), we began chatting back and forth through text.  You wouldn't believe how many words they have censored out of that chat.  We couldn't say words such as "like," "beat," and even "poker," but we found ways around the system.  Just add a space between each letter.  Easy enough.

We all started putting in random words to see what it would block out.  We went from "liver" to "kidneys" to Tam's entry of "liver trats" (was supposed to be "treats").  Then it was "rectal trats" and "rat trats"...and eventually "amoebic dysentery" and "oregon trail".  At one point, ron typed in "our waitress is cute," and I responded, "ask her if she eats liver trats."  Being that we were tired and it was getting late, these messages were making us die in laughter.  I hope they don't log these, however.

In order to type in the chat, you had to be in the trivia, I guess, so we were trying to answer trivia questions of which we couldn't see the question nor the choices for an answer.  They didn't have it displayed on the TV near us and neither ron nor I could read it from that distance, so we all just guessed numbers.  Tam ended up beating us by a landslide.  I came in second, and ron came in third place ("Don't you mean last place, ron?" -Tam).

I'm really looking forward to the next time the three of us hang out again.  I haven't had this much fun or laughed this hard in a long time.  I think this was a good step.  Hopefully, we won't shatter your 30 vices challenge in the process, Tam.

¹Yes, we were at BWW for over four hours.  I'll bet the waitress just loved us.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Response to Mike

This is really in response to Mike's blog from yesterday.  He had an interesting entry on how men treat women these days in relationships (and vice versa to some extent).  He made a mention of the relationship my husband and I have and how we should set an example for other couples out there.  Not to toot our horn(s) or anything, but we do have a really good connection, and it's not platonic or based on the physical things.  Plus, we never treat eachother like garbage.  I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me in the past with ex-boyfriends, and it's really shaped who I am and how I react to things today.

I had a couple boyfriends who just enjoyed terrorizing what used to be my self-esteem and self-confidence and put faithfulness on the back burner to supplying their personal wants.  One thought it was alright to start dating a girl he met while working at Judson Baptist Camp without at least having the decency to break up with me first.  I had a feeling something was wrong the last week or so of our relationship, so I even sent out my own aunt to spy on him at the camp.  What I'd heard back was none too desirable to hear.

When he did actually break up with me (over the phone, mind you; even though I saw him in person that same day), it wasn't a very apologetic tone.  He said it so matter-of-fact-like that I still don't believe that he cried about it that whole weekend.  I highly doubt he even cared about me that entire relationship.

Another boyfriend I had was keen on checking girls out wherever we went.  He wasn't shy about telling me how hot the girl at Giant Eagle was and after giving him a look, he responds, "Well, you're good too."  Thanks for the vote of confidence.  When he broke up with me, he told me he had some things he needed to figure out with his career.  What I found out later was that he really just wanted a new girl and/or casual sex. 

I was the "pristine" girl who never gave it up to a guy.  Maybe that was my downfall; maybe not.  Whatever the case, I'm glad I didn't and saved that for my husband.  However, both these guys knocked down my self-esteem and self-worth, and I've been struggling to build these back up.  I don't know if they understand the effect they had on me, but I should hope they never repeat that in another relationship.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Speaking of Creepy People

We have a guy that comes in on occasion that likes to...uh...whack the monkey (so to speak) in the store.  He'll pick out a girl or two that he likes, and he'll go off in a fitting room and jerk off.  He's probably in his 50's, and he's kind of bigger (as in bulky; not fat).  No matter what we do, we can't seem to get him kicked out of the store.

He happened to make an appearance yesterday, and I called our loss prevention, which did absolutely no good.  They just ignore us anyway.  What's the point?  So the guy starts taking off because he knows what's up.  So much for that...

He was in on Halloween day, and one of my coworkers was dressed up in a costume.  It was somewhat revealing cleavage-wise, so this was bad news for her since he was around.  She was in the backroom, but you could see her if you stood in the linens department and peered in.  Well, that's what he decided to do, and it freaked her out.  Needless to say, she changed out of her costume right away.

And they still didn't catch him.  What's the point of our loss prevention if they don't protect us too?

Friday, April 13, 2007

April Snow Brings May Sleet

I can't help feeling kind of crappy when it's April, and all Erie can muster up is some snow/rain and cold temperatures.  It makes me long for the warmer Aprils we've had.  It's certainly depressing to look out the window everyday to the same cloudy sky, and when I step outside, I freeze.

I'm really looking forward to our trip down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee in a couple weeks for our anniversary.  I'm just hoping the weather will be warmer down there.  It was so beautiful last year when we went for our honeymoon.  I think it was raining a little bit when we got there, and it rained the night before we left, but that was it.  The rest of the days were sunny and warm.

One thing I wished we had done that I'm hoping we can do this time around is spend more time outside.  We ended up going to the arcade a lot and blowing our money there.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, per se, as we both enjoyed it, but we want to see what more that city has to offer.  There's a park that we neglected entirely, and I'm hoping we can visit it this time.  To be honest, we only went in Gatlinburg one time during our trip.  We were caught up with all the goings-on in Pigeon Forge.  They just have one large strip of almost anything and everything you could imagine.

I got so addicted to that city and the surrounding area.  I even told my husband I wouldn't mind moving down there, but I've gotta think more realistically about this.  It's hard not to get addicted.  We were up in the mountains in a chalet (cabin), and you were semi-secluded.  The people there were so nice, and their welcoming accents made you feel warm and fuzzy inside.  There were so many little critters walking around there.  It was interesting to see.  We had a couple "geckos" (as we called them because we didn't know what they were exactly) around the outside of the cabin, and we took pictures of them.  I was tempted to take one home with me, but we really don't need another pet.

Not only am I looking forward to this one-on-one time with my husband (don't get that a lot lately), I want a new atmosphere.  I want some warm temperatures and different scenery.  This Erie weather is extremely depressing, and I can feel it affecting my mood more and more each day.

I think we all need that little getaway.  Don't you?

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Urban Day Right to Rude Day

I had one of the worst days I've had in a while at work yesterday.  I'm trying to practice the frame of mind the psychologist is telling me in order to not take things so personally when I have hard-to-handle customers.  Yes, we've diverted from the fact that I don't eat much to trying to deal with difficult people.  I think this was actually somewhat helpful because I probably would have had an even worse day if I hadn't taken it into account.

Where do I begin?

It all started out with an older couple who wanted to buy a floor model of one of our cribs that was on clearance.  I don't know if they had called in to put it on hold or if they had come in, but regardless, someone apparently told them it'd be taken down the night before, so it'd be ready when they came to pay for it.  Well, it wasn't taken apart when they came in yesterday morning, and guess who was none the wiser about it?  That would be me.  I was all by myself, and I had no note left to indicate that anyone had planned on buying a floor model crib that morning.

Needless to say, they were a bit pissed off because it wasn't all ready to go.  I wrote up paperwork for them to take down to the registers anyway, and I told them it'd be about 20 minutes to take it apart and bring it down.  To me that was a realistic assessment because it wasn't that big of a crib.  It would have taken that amount of time if curveballs hadn't been thrown in the middle of it.

I called one of our guys up to help me take it apart and carry it out.  We were in the middle of taking it apart when one of our managers called him downstairs to help carry in these fixtures we got in.  They apparently told him that the people with the crib could wait.  The couple was standing right next to her when this happened, and she let it be known that it was her crib, and she was pissed.  I was getting upset myself because I knew they were already mad and didn't want anymore delays.

Olga had come in while I was dealing with this and tried helping me out, but I found that I needed pliers in order to get some bolts off, so she went downstairs to get me a pair.  While I was waiting, I decided to mess with it to see if I could get any of the bolts off myself.  The lady came up behind me while I was doing this.  Oh, lord, now what?
"I'm giving you five more minutes or I'm taking this back!  I'm really pissed off right now!  Don't you have people to take these apart?!?"
"Well, I had a guy helping me out with it, but they called him downstairs," I calmly replied.
"I know!  I was down there!  I want to speak to your manager!  Is there a manager on duty right now?!?"
"Yes.  She's downstairs with the guys."  I told her the name, and she stormed off and went downstairs.  Fine.  Just get out of my hair.

After getting the pair of pliers from Olga, our guy came back up so the customers wouldn't get anymore irritated.  We got it all packaged in the box, and while we were taping it up, the guy came up.  For the love of God, leave us alone please!
"Are you guys about finished with that?  My wife is pissed off, and we need to get this downstairs now or she's gonna take it back."
Does it look like we're putzing around at the moment?

So finally after a half hour of me dealing with their pissing and moaning, they took the crib, but it wasn't without putting in their two cents:
"You tell your manager that this is the worst customer service I have ever gotten!"
*sigh*
Well, what can you do?  I did my part, but it wasn't enough.  What else can I say?

Not even an hour after I dealt with these customers did I get yet another set of nasty people.  I had a mother and daughter tag team.  They wanted to buy a crib, combo, hutch, and bed rails.  Now, the hutch and bed rails always have to be special ordered, and that generally takes 8-10 weeks to come in.  The mother wasn't having it:
"What?!?  She's due in two weeks!  The lady told me you guys had all these in stock!"
I hate to say it, but you don't need the hutch or bed rails when the baby's born.  And on top of that, why are you shopping for furniture when she's due in two weeks?  How is this my problem?  "We don't keep the hutches or bed rails in stock.  They always have to be special ordered."
"Well, I want to buy your floor model then."
"I can't sell you the floor model, ma'am."
"You need to ask someone so I can buy your floor model."
Are you deaf?  Clean the wax out of your ears! "I can't sell you the floor model.  I'm not allowed to do that because this is something we regularly carry, and it's not discontinued."  Basically, I'd lose my job or be pretty close to it if I sold it to you, and truth be told, you're not worth it!
She was disgusted with me at that point, and there was no hiding it.  Not that she was trying to hide it anyway.

They started to check out our new Shermag furniture (extremely overpriced), so I ask, "Do you want me to give you some time to make a decision?"
"No!  She knows what she wants," the mother yells.
Then the daughter decides to chime in:  "Just go check those out, ok?!?"
Geez...wanna chill out there, Bobby Knight?

I checked in the back to see if we had the crib and combo, and thankfully we did, so I reluctantly went back over to tell them.  They decided they wanted to get those and special order the hutch and the bed rails, so I led them over to the desk.
As I was writing out the paperwork, the mother said, "I need you to do me a favor."  Oh, crap...
"Um, ok," was all I could say.
"I need you to call the company and have them ship my hutch and bed rails ASAP.  We're having family over when the baby is born, and they'll want to see the room, and we can't wait 8-10 weeks."
What in the hell?  "I can't do that."
"Yes, you can."
I'm glad you seem to know my job so well.
"Where does your furniture get shipped out from," she asked.
"It gets shipped from our Burlington warehouse, and they're filled on a first come, first serve basis," I tried to firmly state.
"Put me at the top of the list."
I laughed out loud.  I couldn't help it.
"Put me at the top of the list," she repeated.  "You sound like a very persuasive person."
And you know me to determine that?
"Pretend you're the boss and get me at the top of that list.  Whatever they need to do to get it shipped to me as soon as possible.  They can UPS it."
Yeah, they'll UPS furniture.  You're dreaming.

This woman wasn't going to take "no" for an answer, so I had to resort to "I'll try."
"No, not this eh-eh-eh I'll try.  No.  You do it."
Ok, don't push my buttons, lady, because you're already pissing me off.

It didn't stop there though.  Oh, no.  They wanted to take the crib and the combo...in her daughter's Honda Pilot.  Bahahaha!  Are you kidding?
Her daughter was on the phone, but I was still filling out the paperwork when I heard her ask, "Do you think the crib and half dresser will fit in my Honda Pilot?"
I wasn't looking at her, but I assumed she was asking me (as I get that question quite frequently), so I began to answer as I looked up at her, "Well, maybe--"
"I wasn't talking to you!"
Whoa!  I could think of some nicer ways you could have put that and gotten your point across without making yourself look like a bitch.

Finally, after an agonizing 20-30 minutes with these people, they went downstairs.  Our guy decided he wasn't going to waste his time taking both pieces down because he knew they wouldn't fit (even though they wouldn't take my word for it), so he only took down the combo.  I guess that barely fit in the car.  Now you can see I'm not as much of an idiot as you thought I was.

I could write books on all the horrible customer experiences I've had.  I think I just did...

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

"I Can't Commit"

I have such an issue with people who can't choose one lane on the road, so they decide to drive down two simultaneously.  Usually, they're in huge vans that you can't seem to get around no matter what you do.

Yesterday, I was driving home from Wegman's, and I found myself stuck behind a house on wheels (actually it was just one of those over-sized vans).  I was in the left lane, and he was in...uh...the left?  No, the right?  Wait, I'm not sure because he was driving right down the frickin' middle of Peach Street.  So if I had wanted to get around him, I couldn't and neither could anyone else on the road.

Not only that, he needed to turn left onto 55th Street, and as you know there is a turning lane.  Apparently, this guy doesn't know how to maneuver the van to stay in one lane.  He shifts the van from between the left and right lanes to in-between the left turn lane and left lane.  Now people who were in the right lane are driving by, and I'm at a stand-still.  I pretty much had to wait unil he turned before I could go anywhere because I couldn't get in the right lane to get around his butt.  I just felt like playing bumper cars and barrel through this idiot.
Am I the only one that gets this ticked off by these drivers?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Urban Day At Burlington

Ok, if you've ever shopped in there, you're probably thinking, "Everyday is urban day in Burlington."  Yes, I know.  It's the clientele that we attract.  I understand that, but yesterday was like a circus at points.  I was sure the halfway house let out for recess last night.

It was fairly quiet except for little spurts here and there (spurts of urban folks, yes).  I had just put out a few girls' Baby Phat shirts in the 12-24 month aisle that evening.  I sensored the logo like we're supposed to (that way they're less likely to take it if they rip it).  By the end of the night, they'd stolen a few and left one lying there because they'd ripped the logo trying to get the sensor off.  How do I know they were stolen and not purchased?  Well, the handful of sensors lying on the floor with gold threads hanging around them was a dead giveaway.

Usually Monday nights are fairly quiet, and it was until about 8:30 when the ghetto bus must have made a drop-off.  I couldn't believe how many loud-mouthed people came up to our department (black and white).  There were kids from about 8 years old up to adults, and they were all extremely obnoxious.  The kids were running around like crazy, and the adults were speaking in their annoying "outdoor voices" (which really couple as indoor for them because they can't separate the two).  By the time they left, the upstairs looked like a hurricane had run through it, and I didn't have time to clean up the mess. 

Good luck trying to convince your department manager that a torrent of insanely messy people came through on a Monday night.  I hope she bought the story.

Monday, April 9, 2007

I Think We Have A Voyeur

I'm sort of glad that we have snow, and it's only for this reason. I was sort of curious about the footprints that were by the house.
It was on Thursday, I believe, and my husband came home for lunch, and I happened to look out the window and saw footprints going across our lawn. They started around the driveway, and they led right to our bathroom window and took a sharp pivot to the neighbors' yard.

I asked my husband if he'd been messing with anything on the house because I saw those footprints so close to the window. He said he hadn't, but he thought they looked suspicious too, so he went outside to see where they came from. After looking for a while, he couldn't figure it out. I came to the conclusion that the person walked from the road, through our driveway, and into the yard. He did say that they stopped and were standing within a couple feet of the bathroom window.

This kind of freaks me out a little bit. I'm glad I keep the shades pulled down whenever I'm taking a shower or anything, but it's still kind of scary. I haven't seen the footprints since, but you never know. I'll just be a little more cautious.
Have any of you guys had this happen?

Sunday, April 8, 2007

3/3

Ok, so the cat wouldn't cooperate tonight, so I made a montage, and it's a very short one, at that.  Don't feel like I robbed you.  I've been cracking up everytime I watch it, and I made the stupid thing.  So enjoy Pepsi in all her drooling glory.  Happy Easter, folks!

Saturday, April 7, 2007

2/3...

Edit: Thanks again to my husband for enduring the process of making these videos.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Here It Is

Here's the first of three videos:

Edit:  Thanks to my wonderful husband for taking care of all the embedding issues while I was at work today.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Busy, Busy, Busy

Ok, so I had planned on having the "big video" that I'm uploading tomorrow be just that:  one, big video.  However, now it's going to be too large to fit into one upload.  So I've decided to split it up into three videos.  The first topic will be presented tomorrow; the second, on Saturday; and the third, on Sunday.  It's going to kick off with ron's topic, which ended up being about 5 minutes all by itself.  I guess I'm a little more wordy than I thought or I just have too many horrible impressions.

Saturday will be Tam's topic, which I can hopefully get the necessary props for today. 
Sunday will be Katie's topic.  I'm hoping Pepsi will cooperate for the filming.  She hasn't been feeling too hot lately, but if worse comes to worse, it'll just be a montage.

I hope you guys will enjoy these as they're my first videos, and I've put a lot of work into them (just ask my husband).  That's probably why this blog is so incredibly short, as well.

All The Women Wanted to Get Naked, and Picard Said, "Make It So"

I've already shared with you Daniel Radcliffe's appearance on the British comedy, Extras, but I was able to find a whole collection of shows on YouTube.  Everyone from Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom to David Bowie and Kate Winslet have made appearances on the show.  My personal favorite, however, is Patrick Stewart's appearance.  I'll never look at Picard the same way again.  Make it so...


Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Just Call Me Gimpy or Pokey

I did something incredibly stupid at work yesterday.  It was far worse than the usual because I'm quite the idiot around there.  I always seem to find ways of injuring myself on a daily basis.  Yesterday was no exception.  It's a wonder I'm still alive.

I needed someone to carry out a crib and combo that I sold last night, so I was trying to figure out what guys we had.  I was told Shane was working, so I paged him.  I didn't realize he was on lunch until I saw him walk by a few minutes later, so I asked if he could do a carryout when he came back from clocking in.

In the meantime, I decided to put some things away, which ended up being bad because I got stopped by someone who needed help.  Luckily, it wasn't anything major, so I was able to walk away pretty quickly.
I started walking towards the desk, and my department manager told me that Shane was looking for me in the backroom.  Worrying that I might lose him, I started to run towards the back.  That was a huge mistake.

My first step into my run had all my weight thrown into it, and my foot didn't support it, so it buckled underneath me, and my foot went sideways and inward.  Not wanting to look like a complete idiot, I continued to run anyway; even though I was in excruciating pain at that point.  I even walked it off when I found him in the backroom and directed him to the furniture, but as soon as I walked out to the floor, I was tearing up over the pain.

For the rest of the night, I continued to walk on it, and the pain subsided a little bit, but as soon as I got home and took my shoes off, it was over with.  I couldn't walk.  My poor husband had to carry me around the house like Pollyanna for the remainder of the evening.

Today I was walking with a limp, and I felt like an idiot.  I got so many stares.  Olga tried picking up some sort of a brace at the dollar store, but they didn't have one for ankles, so I had to tough it out.  However, she said she had one at home in her basement that I could use, so I went over to her house and picked that up, and it seems to be helping a little bit.  It still hurts to walk, but at least I have a couple days off to heal.

I'm not sure if I just twisted it or if it's a sprain, but whatever it is, it hurts like a beeotch.

Monday, April 2, 2007

I Really Have No Life

The comments section of my last blog and Tam's blog are proof of that.  I lead a shallow existence that consists of sitting in this seat and typing random, bizarre comments on people's sites in hopes that someone will laugh at my expense.  It's sad, but I have fun, nonetheless.

I have to count myself lucky that I have a couple partners in crime that make me feel as if I'm actually funny.  Tam and "ron" (I've jumped on the bandwagon of lowercasing your name) are probably the only ones to comment on almost every blog (aside from my husband).  Even when I think that no one is reading it because I'm not getting feedback, they make me feel better when they comment; even if one of them has nothing better to say than call me a "racist, heartless bitch."  At least it's an honest post.

I sometimes feel like I don't have any cool people to hang out with anymore because they've either all gone out to college and don't live nearby or they don't know how to do anything else but go out and get trashed every night.  In case you weren't aware, that's not my thing.  My husband has a couple friends that he gets to hang out with on occasion, and everytime he does go out with them, I feel out of the loop. 

I was always more of a homebody, but I did like hanging out with people, and I did more of it.  Now I've felt confined to the house a lot.  It's kind of depressing, actually; especially in the winter.

However, Tam and ron have been making me feel a lot better lately.  I can't quite explain, but I feel like there are cool people out there to hang out with that don't want to go out and get trashed all the time.  On top of that, they have the same bizarre humor as I do, and we can accuse one of having a "pencil-sized monkey," and it's all in good fun.  What's even cooler is that I met both of them through doing what I love:  blogging.

The feeling is great.  Thanks for giving me some hope and being a support system for me during this rocky spot.  I appreciate it.

I Like Yu-Gi-Oh

God bless foreign people.  Really.  I love them.  They could keep me entertained for hours.  I especially love my foreign customers.  They're the greatest.

It was around 5:20 this evening when I walked to our desk to find three different people standing around it:  a woman looking at a magazine and an Asian couple.  I asked if anyone needed help.  The woman looked up and said, "No, thank you."  The Asian couple looked at eachother first before shaking their heads simultaneously.  Ok, fair enough.  I'll just continue on with what I'm doing.

I wrote down my work schedule, and I started to walk away from the desk when the Asian guy started following me.  Feeling him behind me, I turned and asked if he needed help.  He gave a faint, "yes" answer.
"What can I help you with today?"
"We need registry," he replied.
Unsure of whether he wanted a list printed out or if he wanted his wife to register, I asked, "You want a print-out of a registry?"
He uneasily answered, "Uh, no.  Uh, she need to do registry."
To affirm I understood correctly, I asked, "She wants to start a registry?"
"Uh...yeah."
"Ok, just have a seat and fill this out," I answered as I handed her the registry form to fill out.

She filled the entire thing out, I typed her information into the computer, and I handed her a gun.  I explained to her how to use the gun and the entire scanning process.  She interupted me mid-explanation.
"When I scan item, do I carry with me?"
Um...why are you asking that?  Why would you need to carry it with you?
She's foreign, Rachel.  Bear with her.

"Nope.  Just scan it, punch in the number of what you want, and hit enter.  Then you can go onto the next item."
She seemed unsure of what I meant, but she went along with it anyway.

About two minutes later, she came back with the gun...
Phew, that was quick.
...and she had two items with her.
What is she doing?
"All finished?"
"Yeah."

I brought her registry list up on the computer to find two items on it.  Guess she didn't put much effort into this.  I printed out a copy for her, and I handed it to her.  She was utterly confused.  She looked at one item on the list that was priced as $34.90, but the item itself was tagged $15.00.
"Is this original price?"
"Yes, but if someone were to buy it, they would pay $15.00."
"So this price I pay?"
Wait, something's wrong here...
My mind started putting things together, so I asked, "Did you want to register for a baby shower?  You know, for people to buy gifts off your list or are you buying those items?"
"I buy," was her reply.
"Ohhh.  I'm sorry.  I thought you wanted to register for a baby shower.  You just wanted to pay for these items?"
"Yeah.  I not understand.  We have different culture."

It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.  All this time she spent filling out that form and scanning items was for nothing.  All she wanted was a frickin' cash register.  Ah, the joys of misunderstanding people.  See what it produces?

Sunday, April 1, 2007

One Shoe, Two Shoe

I hate to say it, but I'm very particular about what kind of shoes I wear these days.  I've been a boots fan for the past few years now, and I can't see myself wearing anything else.  The only problem is that I go through them like a baby and disposable diapers (for lack of a better parallel).  The pair that I just bought at Kohl's a few months back was wearing down already.  The heel in the right boot is almost completely off.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through the day today as Saturdays usually require a lot of walking due to how busy the store is.

I know I must walk funny because my last pair of boots had the same problem in the same side shoe.  Only this time, the heel came off completely while I was walking on it.  Thankfully, I was walking to my car after work late at night.  I caught my heel on a pothole, and it snapped it right off [See?  Potholes are wrecking more than cars these days.].

Tonight, my husband and I went out to get myself some new shoes.  I really loathe shoe shopping, and I especially hate it when I'm tired out from work.  I tend to settle with whatever, and then I'm unhappy later on because of my laziness.

Our first stop was D.S.W., and I was really disappointed because I couldn't seem to find anything that fit right.  Oh, well, I thought, we'll just head over to Kohl's instead.
What was over at Kohl's?  Jack crap.  All the boots that they had left were a size 10.  Who the hell wears size 10, and why do they have so many?  I thought the average woman was somewhere around a size 7, but I guess they're trying to accomodate for Hewoman.  I suppose if my feet were as big as Stephen Hawking's brain, they'd fit just fine, but I guess I'll have to cut my losses and try somewhere else.

We then went over to WalMart since it was nearby.  They didn't have any boots.  Arrrgh.
Is there a reason why women's shoes are seasonal but men's aren't?  A man could go in and buy whatever kind of shoe he wanted at any time of the year, but a woman...oh, no.  She can't buy certain kinds of shoes because they're "off-season," and stores honor that.  What the hell?  I know it's almost summer, but I want my boots.  If I were a hooker, how would I manage?

We decided to head back to D.S.W. again since they seemed to have the best selection of any of the places we went.  I actually found a pair that fit, and I think they'll last longer.  I decided to go with a pair that didn't have a separate heel but was all connected throughout the bottom of the shoe.  This way I won't break the heel off and do an emergency run to a shoe store to find a new pair.

Now I'm content and tired.