Tuesday, June 28, 2005  

Today's random thoughts:

I am glad i have air conditioning.

If this is what Africa feels like, do i really want to do a short-term trip there? Yes. Still do.

I do not like doing laundry at all. One of our two washers is busted. Ugg.

I have my 2nd spiritual stone in Zelda. On to find the 3rd one. Beating the 2nd bad guy only took me like 5 tries. It was easier than i thought. Just put the bomb in his mouth, he is stunned and then whack him hard with your sword like crazy.

I am also thankful for the fan in my bedroom.

I am not on overnights this week. I am not sure what is worse - customer service or sweating like a really fat chick lifting cases of paper all night. Jeans sticking to me bc they are too big for me bc i am too poor to buy a new wardrobe as i'm in my transition weight LOL Face red. Hot. got a few zits on my forehead bc i wore a baseball hat all week last week and was perspiring hahahahaha

I made some kick-butt enchilladas this weekend. OMY. So good. But had to freeze 2/3 of it bc it was way too much for me.

Only two kids showed up for band bible study on monday. We ended early so i could go home and sleep. It's Pastor Aaron's last week. :(

Finally found a cheap copy of Bounce on DVD. Love this movie.

   [ posted  @ 2:42 PM | ]

I've got a huge bruise on my arm from a 78" steel beam falling on me Sunday night when i was by myself building a counter for work. Lord. I should rely on people more. Ouch. I'll take a pic when it gets more ugly.

I had just finished typing a huge post but it got extinguished somehow...

Listening to this - you should too (click.)

What a deal i got this week. Officemax says it is not responsible for typo's in their fliers and that they do not price match for typos but we all know they will do it... And there was a 120gb external 2.0 usb networkable harddrive that originally retailled for $299.99 in there. It had previously dropped to 199.99 at active retail and then went discontinued clearance at 139.00. Now that was a good buy if you ask me but the flier that came out this week said "hurry while supplies last" at that the price was marked down to *** $39.00 *** no rebates involved. It was a blowout special. I had promised the one i had left at my store to a customer bc i screwed up an order they did for an 80gb last week. But i called Shakopee and they had 4 left so i asked for 2 - one for me and one for a guy i work with. Then i had this 10.00 coupon for off of a 30.00 or more purchase!!! So i got that thing for 29.00 bucks!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! I rock!

Now i just have to figure out what to do with it. I'll have to have my 007 Trevor show me. He recommended Norton Ghost to help me back up my computer. But he's on some clandestine mission for work this week and i miss him ... I'll have to figure it out myself. Can't be that hard right?

Well off to bed. Speaking of bed, you should read this, it's funny! Car ploughs into house and runs man over in his bed...

   [ posted  @ 6:22 AM | ]

You know i've been playing too much Zelda when i think i can take a monsterous pot-hole going 55 around a curve with Kelly Clarkson blaring at 6:15 in the morning. I must think i am really a superhero to think that my right front tire would not completely shatter and explode.

Thankfully, even tho i was the opening manager today, there was an overnight crew there last night so i called for rescue and someone came and got me. I was only a few minutes from the store. Then, my heroic manager (who does not play video games but SHOULD) drove his car out after he had worked a 10 hour over night shift, came out and changed my tire to the spare, drove my car back to the store and then WALKED back to his truck at 8 a.m. Ugg. He's such a great guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, after work, I took my car to TIRES PLUS, which is right around the corner, and because my mold-breaking brother-in-law DAN had put on these MacDaddy super awesome out of this world tires on there last year, they had to special order a new tire because they don't keep those in stock. The guy took one look at my tires and says, "Wow you have really nice tires on there!!!" haha. He said they would have the tire instock tomorrow morning for me and i can come get it. So i made him promise me that my miniscule wimpy spare would not deflate if i drove it all the way home and back and he was pretty confident that if i didn't go fast and was real careful it should be fine.

But

Then since i am too scared to drive on my spare the 15 miles on the curvey hilly potholey hwy 101 i took my car to the TIRES PLUS across the street from where i live just to SEE if they had the tire i need in stock -- it was worth a look to me. Of course, if the TIRES PLUS near where i work would have offered the same great customer service as we do at OFFICEMAX, he would have called the Shakopee store FOR ME to check. But he obviously wanted the sale so i won't be too mad about that. As i pulled into the TIRES PLUS here, i saw there were hardly any spaces left. I could tell they were very busy. I walked in, and about 8 customers were waiting in chairs and they gave me this look like, "Lady - are you seriously bringing your car here? You're nuts!!! We've been waiting for HOUUUUURSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS." But of course since i deal with the dregs of humanity all day long (translated - uppidty too good for anyone evil business customers) i figured they could go jump in a lake. Normally i get really good fast cheap customer service at this particular place. So the guy walks out to my car with me to check what kind of tires i have, and he says, "Wow, you must be really special to have these tires..." He even stopped what he was doing to catch my eye.

That gave me more time to brag about Dan and how great he was to put those tires on my car in the middle of winter during Christmas when by some miracle my bald tires didn't blow out on me on the drive home to Wisconsin. It turned out the guy did have 4 of them in stock but the wait would be over 2 hours and i didn't want to walk across the street home (even tho it is literally just across the street) i was so tired and hungry (had not got a break all day, so all i had eaten was my Oatmeal Raisin Crisp for breakfast at 5:00 a.m.!!!) and by now it was after 4 p.m. and i just wanted to get home and i figure i will risk it and just drive back to the store tomorrow before work (i don't have to work until the afternoon yay) and they can put it on there for me. I may live to regret that------- because tonight would have been a sure bet - i could just have it done and be done with it. But i'll have to pretend to be a video game hero and drive the scary road back to work tomorrow hoping my spare holds up.

   [ posted  @ 2:36 PM | ]

You know you've been playing too much Zelda when...

You're driving north on HWY 169 and see a gate on an off ramp blocking passage and to insure that no cars try to go beyond the gate, the gatekeepers also place a huge boulder next to the gate. You see this boulder, and the first instinct you have is to push "down" on the joy stick to launch a bomb to blow it up. UGGGG! Then i looked over to the left and saw a tower that had the reflection in it that looked like a ladder and i thought about pushing "up" to climb the ladder.

When the joystick becomes an extention of who you are and your thought process, it's time to go find something else to do, huh?

   [ posted  @ 6:55 PM | ]

Health Warning Notice
Attention ALL GRANDMAs!

This weekend there was an epidemic of grandmas dying - which resulted in very poor attendance at a lot of work places. Perhaps if you were out shopping this past weekend and got poor customer service, it may have been related to this grandma-death epidemic; less workers on the sales floor to help you find what you needed? Incidently, this coincided with the popularity of many graduation parties which students never asked off for.

Why is it always the GRANDMAS who die when people suddenly need off work? I don't get it. Why is it never "my great aunt" or "my grandpa" or "my _____." ? It's always the grandma. I've got one associate who is on about her 8th grandma's death, and also her sister had such a terrible pregnancy that for about a month she was having a baby ironically every darn time Heather had to work. Only when Heather was scheduled, that is when the baby was about to be born again. What horrible rotten luck.

One grandma who died over this last weekend lives all the way in FLORIDA (so far away!) so this person needs at least 5 days off for the trip, etc. Hmm. When offering my condolences to this employee as he came into work yesterday, it's a miracle, she's still living but barely hanging on!!!!! So, she may have a death-issue to deal with this next party-weekend!!! Way to go grandma! She must have abstained from a high cholestrol diet in her latter years ? We'll see how healthy she is this weekend when the next party opportunity comes up for her grandson. Yeah, careful!

So, I just wanted you to spread the word. First, if you are a grandma or have a living grandma, you should make sure all grandmas are taking their vitamins, drinking lots of Orange Juice, and getting enough rest (and also exercise.) Call and check up on them! And if you happen to have to go to a graduation party but are scheduled to work, but your grandma is healthy, well, i'll leave that up to you.

   [ posted  @ 12:12 PM | ]

Today I was on a REALITY TV SHOW!!!! OMG!!!

Okay that's not true, but it sure as heck felt like one... Just like what you see on t.v.

First of all, a commute that should have only taken about 40 minutes or less took me two and a half hours so I was AN HOUR LATE to the stupid CARREER DAY. OMG. The evil curse words that my car heard me say... over, and over, and over. I'm so sorry baby Jesus, but I knew of no other way to get the frustration out. Ouch. I'll say some Hail Marys to make up for all the evil words i spoke in that car in that drive. Apparently because of the demonic storms that whipped thru the metro last night, the power cut off the traffic signals on 169 and 494 - and if you don't know what that means, it basically means that a bible-tottin' Jesus freak had cause to curse and swear for a good hour or so because of traffic that wasn't moving. At one point i saw it took me 30 minutes to go one mile. OMG.

So anyways I arrive an hour late. The saving grace for me was, just as i pulled into the parking lot (of the Officemax up in Brooklyn Center which is what i call a ghettoMax store) - so was another late attendee. He was more ticked off than i was. We met in the parking lot and he was red-faced angry and i asked him if he was stuck in traffic and he said yes, that he was coming from Shakopee and i'm like 'OMG me tooooooo!' And we both had to pee super bad. Ugg. Just terrible.

So i walk into this training - there were about 10 or so supervisors they have pegged for promotion that were invited to this reality tv show, and all the district managers and uppidy ups there. It wasn't a reality tv show, as i've already said, but they put us thru the paces like we were on one. In fact yes i'll admit i did look hard for cameras. We had to do this really hard group exercise to start off with, ranking 15 qualities of the business aspect of running a store in order of importance. First we did that on our own, then we had to do it as a group. Holy crap, it was just like i was watching the group dynamic on The Apprentice. Just nuts. Of course you had your one guy who does all the talking and sucking up to the leadership - acting like the know it all. You had the three people who would not talk no matter what. Those of us in the middle trying to be diplomatic, and a few others who just want to stir the pot. Sheesh.

Then all day we were put thru the ringer. 2 very intense "conversations" ( politically correct for "interviews" ) with each candidate and two DM's. Those lasted about 30 min. each. Then we had a half hour of sales-leading observation where we had to run the store there and be observed on how we did. It was deader than a doornail for customer traffic there so that made it really hard. We had to do a freaking MATH TEST of 10 questions such as...

A customer's bill comes to 24.98 and he gives you 44.03. What is his change? Well we were not allowed to use calculators and i'm not ashamed to admit to you that question took me a good 20 minutes to answer. I still don't think i got it right. There were other problems too. For example, "Your store made 13,490$ in sales, but the Print Center brought in $888. How much of a percentage did the Print Center contribute to the day's sales?" UUUUUGGGGGGGGGG!!!! I hate long division!!! Where are the calculators!!???? why why why why!???

Another one was something like 3 items, how much they cost, then calculate 6.5% tax (that is our sales tax here) and 10% off coupon. Super crap.

The last question on that test was "Your store's profit last year was $5.7 million and after inventory it was determined you had shrink at negative $24,000. What percentage does that calculate to for your shrink?" After i gave it a little thought, i decided to just be honest. Here's the answer i put: "As my store's shrink guru, I'll have to be honest and say i have some clue as to how to figure this but have no idea how to do it without a calculator. If i were a manager and had to figure it out, i'd go find an associate who was a math wiz and delegate the task to someone else." UUUUUUGGGG. LOL!

Then there was an essay test of about 15 questions relating to ethics and strengths/weaknesses. That was easy for me bc you all know i love to write and can bluff my way thru just about anything. Also i did love the "conversations" (interviews) because i think i really knocked their sox off with all my speel. Go me!

There were some other group discussions, and a lot of observation. We were literally being scored for everything we did all day, including our lunch conversation and what we contributed or didn't contribute. The one thing they said they would not score us on is the objects we each made w/ our 3 pipe cleaners. I made a sword for my ability to play Legend of Zelda. ROF!!!

The company will be opening xxx of stores in the next 2-5 years. I am not allowed to give out the number of stores. There will be a bunch in this market tho, and they were very honest with telling us that since these grill-sessions are by invitation only, and because we each came so highly recommended that we are all candidates for opening those stores. That was pretty cool. So within about 2 weeks we'll have the results back (the 6 or 7 facilitators were going to meet for 3 hours after we left to go over each of our scores and development plans, so this was a really huge deal...) and i'll know where i stand.

I'm so glad to be out of the car!

   [ posted  @ 3:49 PM | ]

Today I was officially handed the entire BACK TO SCHOOL package to direct the whole store thru the chaos and confusion that come with merchandising backpacks, pencil boxes, and glue sticks that the next 3 months will be. I have a pretty good handle on what needs to be done.

And yes, for 3 weeks we've been getting all the back to school stuff in. I must warn you, Officemax will be having some really hot - hip and cool stuff for BTS this year. I'd tell you if it was going to be yucky but it'll be a good year.

This week i'll be meeting w/ our district manager twice, spending 2 days with her (and her cool glasses...) and they are pushing hard for me to move up an on. The only problem is our store is horribly understaffed and I can't leave until there's someone ready to step into my place.

Went out for sushi for the first time last night in downtown Mpls with a friend. I never had sushi before, nor had i ever eaten w/ chopsticks. This was at a real sushi restaurant where i guess forks don't even exist. I tried all the stuff (was dining w/ an expert) and liked all of it. Tho it did take me about half an hour to figure out how to do chop stix right. Ugg. No wonder asian people are so small. It's painstaking to eat food. So i had a whole bunch of raw stuff that i don't know what it was, but it was good and i'd definitely try it again sometime. Seaweed yummm.

Being very overloaded with work (but in a good way, as i've been more affirmed and encouraged by my bosses than ever before) i went out last Friday to GameStop and bought me "Legend of Zelda" Ocarina of Time. I'm in love with this game and it's a great escape for me. I may have to call my nephew Ryan to get thru some points tho. Hmm. This game is much more up my alley - more so than Metroid Prime was. That game is impossible w/ out the cheat book.

   [ posted  @ 4:37 PM | ]

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