Hot Chocolate and Cookies, Yum

I am done with aiding Christmas shoppers in their frantic state of manic "holy moly I haven't even bought a single gift and only have TWO shopping days left!" gift grabbing. I luckily am not on the work schedule until 6pm on the 26th so I have relocated myself to B-town for Merry Ho-Ho festivities. In fact, I've been here for about an hour and am half way watching White Christmas with Dad. It's great, I walked in the door and had hot chocolate waiting for me! I should totally come home more often.

My drive down was a breeze, though without any breeze as far as I could tell. I took my newly found short-cut to the 166 (saves me about 8 miles by not driving east to the 99) and I barely saw anyone until I got to 101. But even on the 101 there wasn't as much traffic as I expected. Maybe everyone was over at the mall and Best Buy shopping center stressing out and driving store employees batty with their silly questions. "Do you have more of the big gift baskets with all the cool Bath & Body Works stuff in it?" "Why yes we do have more of the really cool gift baskets but decided to hide them in the back since empty displays look so nice and we thought it'd be fun to see you stress out..." I understand why they ask but when half the tables of the special items and gift baskets in the store are very bare, you gotta assume that it's for a reason. We have at least ten people working and only five registers so whoever isn't working the registers is filling displays as quickly as possible, if we have the product left. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind answering customer's questions and helping them find something that suits their needs but there are only so many times that I can say "yes, all the items on the table that says 50% Off are in fact, 50% off."

Yesterday when I was working the sales floor (I've mainly been at the register) I had a lady asking me if we had any gift bags for sale. I pointed out our large selection of bags and boxes which were 50% off and she turned to me, winked, and said "you can give these to me for free?" Uh, sorry miss fancy designer (non-knock-off) purse, you can't afford a bag that is not on sale for 50 cents!? Even I can spring for a fifty cent bag! Then she asks if we have tissue paper and I told her that we did (we use it to wrap breakables) and could give her a few sheets if she needed it. I ended up helping at the register when she came up to pay and she proceeded to ask again if I would give her the gift boxes for free, the equivalent of three packs of tissue for free, a roll or our ribbon (we use it when we gift wrap items in cellophane) for free, and the expensive item that's barcode isn't scanning for free. Each time she winks at me (not like a kidding wink, but a I won't tell if you hook me up wink) when asking and leans in a little bit in anticipation of my answer. Which of course, was a (very forced) polite 'no' each time. I mean, if she'd just joked once that the item that won't scan is free I'd have laughed and joked back, but the persistent attempting to score free merchandise really irked me.

I'm glad that I finished my Christmas shopping early. Though I still had to give myself an extra 15-20 minutes just to find a parking space when going to work. It took me 10 minutes one day to get from the road the mall is on into the parking lot. I was at the point where I'd be yelling out my window to people asking them if they were leaving and slowing following people as they walk down the parking lanes. I just got so tired of circling and getting the spot I was driving towards or waiting for poached by soccer moms. And there's a limited area in which employees park, especially when working evenings, so those rare spaces were like gold. We all try to park in a certain range so that we can all walk out together at night and aren't too far from the hallway we exit from.

Ok, I have to end this especially derailed train of thought entry because Rascal keeps scolding me. He is ready to go to sleep now and I need to get into bed so he can sleep on me.
Loves.

Making Spirits Even Brighter!

You must must must watch this elf video. Mom made this one and it's totally how we spend each Christmas after we've finished building and wrapping all the gifts.
Loves.

Survey Says...

I found this and thought it'd be kind of fun to do seeing as it's totally that holly jolly time of year. Is my Christmas excitement annoying yet? Think so? Just you wait. I think I'm making up for the fact that it doesn't really feel like Christmas time to me. Snippets of my day do but I don't feel like it's only 6 days away. So, here's a holiday themed survey.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. Really, it has CHOCOLATE.

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Sets them under the tree. The elves wrap the presents, Santa wouldn't be able to do much with all those (potential) paper cuts on his hands.

Colored lights on tree or white? Colored lights. White lights should only be used in moderation, or for lawn deer.

When do you put your decorations up? In the past, when Dad got around to it. hehe. This year about two weeks in advance.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ham. I love a good ham. Or our traditional scrambled egg breakfast.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Becca and I in our bunk beds listening for Santa when we went to bed on Christmas Eve.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth about Santa? Oh, you mean that the mall Santa isn't the real Santa just a helper? Yeah, I learned that a long time ago, the parents and I discussed it.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not normally. Would if it was cute PJ's to wear that night.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Very slowly. We now each put up about 5 ornaments then get bored and give up. At some point somebody gets tired of the nearly naked tree and the billions of boxes with all our ornaments sitting around and finishes the job.

Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it. Probably because I don't know any better. Though I am dreading it a little bit because most the highways out of here were closed a few days ago because of snow. I want to be able to get home for Christmas easily.

Can you ice skate? No. But I can rollerblade. I've never tried to ice skate.

Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't remember a lot of my gifts from when I was little. More the excitement or the waiting for assembly.

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with my family and friends.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pie. It makes a wonderful breakfast.

What is your favorite tradition? Stockings, scrambled eggs, presents.

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Definitely giving. I love finding unique things that I think people will love. I don't like having to shop off of wish lists.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? I really like Baby It's Cold Outside.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum in hot chocolate.

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, but it was a White Elephant gift.

I Get It From Dad

Seeing as we're getting closer to Christmas I thought I'd throw another festive post up here really quickly. Last week (when I had four days of nothing going on) I dedicated a day to wrap all my Christmas gifts, watch Disney movies (my traditional viewing when wrapping), and decorate my apartment a little bit. I think my need for putting up some Christmas lights comes from dad's need to compete with (and totally beat) the mad skills of Clark Griswold. Dad wins because he uses color lights and more decorations than Clark. Really, anyone can cover the entire surface area of their home with boring white lights and throw Santa and his reindeer on the front lawn. It takes a special type of skill and many evenings and weekends to strategically place all the different elements and make sure minimal fuses are blown when the lights are lit up. That and our Santa never gets launched into orbit by toxic fumes released by a crazy in-law... On that note, here is my festive decoration for the apartment.

I tried to put the lights up outside but there was no outlet available. Then I was thinking about plugging them in through my porch light on my patio but I didn't have an adapter to do so and Longs didn't have one when I bought my lights. So then I was going to hang them on the outside of these blinds so that it'd look festive inside and outside but I couldn't close my blinds then... But that's ok, this way I can be a little Grinch-like and not share my holiday light spirit. Muhahaha. Next, Max and I will go sledding.

I'm also including photos from Dad's decorating skills from last Christmas. Ah the fond memories of using more than two power-reliant items in my room at once only to blow the fuse then walking to the backside of the garage in the cold and dark to restore power... Apparently this year he is trying to eliminate such a threat of half-house blackout and is plugging some of the lights in through the back yard.

Six days until Christmas!
Loves.

I Want A Charlie Brown Tree This Year

I am totally in the mood for Christmas. In fact, I'm really into the whole winter season this year. Normally I just get into a holiday mood, not so much a seasonal mood, but I think I'm embracing my cold fingers this year. Last night I dug through my closet to find my gloves because my fingers were freezing! I figured that wearing my gloves would be more comfortable than sitting on my hands all evening. Plus it's difficult to read when sitting on your book which is in your hand. Difficult and uncomfortable.

I love iTunes because they give me two free Christmas songs a week every week after Thanksgiving. They've been doing this for a few years so I am getting a pretty good collection of holiday songs. I have a great range of artists from The Killers and Jimmy Eat World to Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr. Right now I have about 30 songs on my computer (good mix of free and bought) and two more CDs somewhere in my stack of music. Once I transfer the songs from my computer to a CD I'll have non-stop music for my drive to and from B-town for the holidays.

I'm off of work all week (I'm not on the schedule until Friday) and tomorrow I am going to Longs to buy myself some Christmas lights so that I can have a festive patio like many of my neighbors. I also have to get some sort of adapter so that I can plug my lights in through the porch light out there. Maybe I'll even get myself a Christmas tree like Monk's. It's nice, no worrying about cleaning up fallen needles or remembering to water it. Cardboard cut-outs are great. But really, you can't beat the classic Christmas tree.

That's about it for now, I'm going to go find the rest of my Christmas music.
Loves.

Finally Facilitating Fragrance Finders in a Friendly Fashion

Yesterday was my first day of work. Finally! I've been waiting to be on the schedule or even to be used on any of my call-in shifts. I was scheduled to work from 3pm to 8pm with a possible extension to 10:30pm if it was busy. I had my VCR set to tape Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy, a Luna bar in my purse to snack on during my break and was ready to rock the sales floor. At Bath & Body Works they give us girls lockers to store our purses in so I got to fight with a silly combination lock for a few minutes after I got clocked in. You would think that after working at a bank that has two combination locks on the safes that I would be able to work the stupid things. But no, it took me about four attempts to get it open at the start of my shift and three and the end of it. I got my name tag made, apron on, and spy gear placed (ear piece and communication pack, very top secret like) before I stepped out onto the floor for a quick overview of the many specials and sales going on and then instructed as to what I'd be doing.

I was working the front half of the store greeting people, introducing Vanilla Noir the new fragrance, helping people find what they're looking for, giving bags to people with their arms full of merchandise, and straightening the displays. For a while foot traffic was kind of slow and the front of the store was so well stocked and straightened you would have thought we had not opened yet that day. Well, maybe it wasn't quite that organized but I had nothing else happening so I just kept making sure everything looked good. Later Suzanna, one of the managers, told me that she liked that I didn't just stand around if there weren't customers in the store. Go me! Even if I wasn't new and trying to impress them so they give me more hours, it bugs me when people think it's ok to be paid to do nothing. I've worked with a few people that thought it was ok to put off doing the work that needed to be done and I don't think it is fair to everyone else that they work with or the customers that it may end up affecting. The only thing that she said that I needed to work on was offering demos to customers. I just find it a little awkward just demonstrating a product on a customer but I figured out a way that I can easily offer the demo. Instead of something along the lines of "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, let me have you try the lotion..." I have been practicing "we have a new fragrance, Vanilla Noir, that I'd like to show you, would you like to try it or just smell it?" That way I'm giving them the choice to try that product but still making sure that they are introduced to it. That's right, along with my spy gear I was also wearing my thinking cap.

I had a few interesting customer interactions at work, the type that make you want to go back just to see what other situations you may have. I had one lady who kept asking me questions about the air freshening products that we offer. She wanted to know what she could use that isn't a plug in because she doesn't trust those and isn't a candle because she doesn't like to burn things. So, I told Anti-Pyro that we have room sprays that work nicely and have the travel ready air freshener which can be clipped or placed wherever she needs. So after talking to her for far to long about how she can make her apartment smell nice for the holidays she wandered toward the back half of the store to do more shopping. About five minutes later, Anti-Pyro walks back up to me and asks me how much our cashmere teddy bears are. I check the tag, let her know and she thanks me and walks back to the other end of the store. After that I start saying "let any of us know if you have any questions" rather than "let me know". Not that I minded helping her but she could have easily asked one of the three other girls working instead of walking all the way back up to me. Later this nice, chronologically advanced woman came into the store and told me that she was happy to have found us. Apparently a few years ago the store was downtown or something and she moved away when the store moved to the mall so she didn't think we were in the area anymore. I don't know, I was very confused I just know that she was happy to have been reunited with the store. I showed her Vanilla Noir and answered a question she had about one of the products then left her to browse when I checked on someone else. A few other times I helped her with stuff and when her bag was full and about to head up to the register to check out she walked over and asked me if I work on commission. I told her that I didn't but then wondered if she was asking because she wanted to give me credit or because I acted like I was looking for a sale. I am pretty sure it was because she liked me and the service I offered her and she wanted to give me credit for the sale if possible.

I also had this guy wander in who looked so lost. He was buying gifts for an exchange at his work and had no idea of what to get. I helped him out with some of the pre-made gift sets and you could see the relief on his face. I also had this guy who was shopping for his wife and had no idea about what was going on. I think he thought we were more like Sephora or somewhere that has more of skin care products rather than pamper yourself products. I asked him if he had any ideas and was trying to ask him open ended questions to get an idea of how I could help him with suggestions but he just wouldn't answer with anything helpful. Seriously the only thing I learned was he didn't want lotion and she has oily skin. I feel like I offered nearly everything possible but he just didn't seem interested. I felt like sending him to Longs or Rite Aid to just look in their skin care section.

My last interesting person was a grandmother shopping for her 12 year old granddaughter. She wanted to get her some fun lotions and lip glosses that are age appropriate so I showed her where our kids collection is and helped her pick out some lip glosses that were just shiny and glittery rather than adding color. The lip glosses are currently on sale for $5 each rather than their usual $7.50 so go get some for stocking stuffers and make the ladies happy. Sorry, couldn't help myself. So granny bought a handful of lip glosses, two kid lotions, two kid body sprays, mini seasonal hand sanitizers, and a pair of the softest socks in the world (also on sale!) for her granddaughter. I loved helping her and talking with her but I had a hard time freeing myself to check on other customers which I need to be able to do. Turned out that it wasn't too much of a problem because we weren't too busy otherwise and she ended up spending about $75 on all the stuff she bought. Our goal, in order to meet our sales goals, is to have something like 4 out of every 10 people that coming in to buy something and I think that of the people that I helped, probably 7 of every 10 ended up buying something. I doubt it was all me, but I like to think that I facilitated in some of those sales occurring.

So you would think that with such a successful sounding shift they would have needed me to stay until 10:30, right? Wrong. Even though people that were coming in were also leaving having purchased something, we were not getting a lot of people entering the store. Because of that they ended up sending me home at 6pm. So my shift that should have been five hours was only a smidgen over three. My training lasted longer than my first day of real work. So I am trying to find out if Color Me Mine is still interested in hiring me. I can't have a job that doesn't need me to work. Doesn't make for a very good paycheck nor does it keep me busy. I don't need to read through my Stuart Woods books that fast. Hopefully I'll have good news from them soon.

Sorry about the new record breaking long post. But I hope the alliteration aided in any agony.
Loves.

Hair! And I'm Not Talking About That Hippie Movie.

Yesterday I decided I would color my hair since I had nothing else going on. It's been a while since I've dyed my hair and I was ready for a little something different. I generally don't go too far from my natural color but I really like giving it a little somethin' somethin' every once and a while. I busted out my Clairol's Natural Whatever in Navajo Bronze that will wash out after about 28 shampoos and got to work staining my orange towel. Luckily I already knew that I would be ruining a towel so I used the oldest towel from my collection. Though now luckily little orange towel will get to play along any time I decide to color again. After I dyed my hair I let it air dry, again had nowhere to go so no need to blow dry, and a few hours later I went to check it out in the mirror. I try not to keep checking out the color as my hair drys because I like the final 'ta-da!' I get by seeing it wet (to make sure I only dyed my hair and not my head or ears) and then fully dry. This time my 'ta-da' moment was more of a 'ta-oh that's no fun' because apparently my natural hair color is very very close to Navajo Bronze (light caramel brown) so there is essentially no change in my hair color; it just looks a little glossier. I though it would warm up my color a little bit more and maybe give it just a little bit more of a darker brown. Oh well, next time I know not to go for light caramel brown, I need to go for medium or darkerish.

Tomorrow I am going to the dollar movie theater to go see Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. It was one that I wanted to see and luckily I get to catch it for really cheap! I think there should be more theaters that play movies two seasons later than their release for only $1-$2. I haven't been to a movie at this theater yet but I have a feeling this may be a semi-regular outing.

Loves.