Thursday, June 28, 2007

Old classmates

The other day I was driving to pick up my mom, and I happened to notice these two guys on the street. It was two of my former classmates, way back from middle and high school. They were in front of the one of the guys house. In fact, one of them used to go to Sunday School with me. I hadn't seen them in years. Then, when I did pick up my mom, she wanted to take my cousin Joanne out to eat. We went to this Pho restaurant. I noticed this guy sat down a few tables away and thought he looked familiar. He must've been thinking the same thing because he looked at me, and then waved. Well, I guess he and his mom had to move to a different table. As he walked by me, he bent down and gave me a hug and a pat on my back. This guy ... I think we had kindergarten, preschool, and first grade together. I think we also ended up at the same middle and high school. But, he wasn't someone I really knew or talked to. Just another classmate. I remembered his first name and by the time I got home, I remembered his last name. Also at the same restaurant, there was girl sitting in the back table with two other girls. I think she was also another classmate of mine. That one I'm not too sure about. But quite interesting to say the least. There are two classmates of mine who I have run into in the past. Once happened while i was outside taking photos for my photography class. The guy was driving by on his way to a friend's house, saw me, stopped and said hi. The other guy rang my doorbell on Halloween. I think it's a tradition of his.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

I'm still alive

Okay, so it's almost been a week since my last post. I'm still alive. My boss schedule me to work for eight consecutive days. Since they aren't in one week, it's okay, I guess. But that doesn't leave me much energy or time to make space and get to my computer to blog. On top of that, since my cousin is here, she's been in my room. I've been sleeping (okay, trying to sleep) on the floor in my brother's room. I finally found some time to go to Target and purchase an inflatable bed. LOVING it. It's even better than my bed. My bed is hard as the floor. Sweet. Anyway, I'm gonna get off and go play some MLB the Show!!!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

EXTRA

RUSSELL NATHAN JEANSON COLTRANE MARTIN was featured on today's Extra!!!

I've been looking for this all week. I heard about it earlier that he was going to be featured as one of America's most eligible bachelors. Hmm how does that work? Since he's Canadian?

The funniest thing happened over the weekend. My friend saw a video I posted on my Bebo where Russell was chatting with some fans. My friend left me a comment about Russell speaking Canadian. I played along for a while, teasing him about learning how to speak Canadian and stuff. I finally told him that you can't learn how to speak Canadian in Canada. He goes, "how do you know? You don't know what Canadian sounds like." BTW, it was French that Russell was speaking.

Headaches galore

Okay, I had several things I wanted to blog about. Where do I start.

My cousin flew into LA last night from Asheville. She's in town till August 1st. She called me a little after 1 PM (PST) saying her flight in Asheville was delayed. This was around the time she was supposed to be getting on her flight in Atlanta to LA. Her flight was supposed to arrive at six. It didn't get in till 9:30. And I didn't have her new flight number, so I had no clue what time she was coming in. Headache begins. We call Delta and are on hold forever. I finally get the info. Before I can even get to LAX, my mom calls me and asks me to drop my uncle off in Chinatown. I've been to Chinatown a million times, but I never know where the 100 southbound onramp is. Well, fortunately, where I dropped my uncle off was on a street that came down from Dodger Stadium. And I knew there was an onramp there.

The headache just escalates from there. I get to LAX just as she landed. When I get to baggage claim, she calls me, telling me they took her to a this place where they kept the other "unaccompanied minors" and because they had several of them, they couldn't bring her to meet me. That's what they did with my brother last year. I met him at the top of the escalator. Well, they tell me to go to Delta Direct and get a pass so I can get through the gate to go get her. Unfortunately, tonight was a very busy night. Everyone and their mom was traveling. So, I get in this line. It takes about half an hour before I even see a representative. No wonder they had me on hold so long earlier when I called. I get my pass and the lady tells me to go around the machine and get in line to get through the gate. I follow the line. It goes out the door and onto the sidewalk. I was so frustrated. I was frustrated to the point of tears. Joanne calls me and I tell her it's going to be awhile before I even get through the gate. BTW my phone is practically dead by now. A representative tells me that she'll meet us at the Delta Direct place, so I wouldn't have to go through the gate.

You'd think the headache would stop there, right? Nope. We went to check for her baggage and of course it wasn't there. We checked with a representative who said another flight had just arrived from Atlanta. So we waited around for it. That was after we checked the baggage claim, asked a representative, then asked another one, and filled out a form so in case her baggage was already brought in, they would send it to us. We waited and checked and no baggage. She went to use the rest room (she doesn't like flying very much). Then we went back and finally there it was. Head still hurting.

Man, my head was pounding by the time I got home. On top of that, I had to clear of my bed so she could sleep in my room and clear some room on my brother's floor for me to sleep there. WELL I couldn't sleep, so I played MLB 2k7 for a little while. And my brother is a night owl now that he's been out of school. So I had to fall asleep with him on his computer. Needless to say ... sleeping on the floor isn't that much different from sleeping in my bed. Except, I have more room to move around on my bed.

My headache was still there when I got up, but disappeared by the time I showered.

It doesn't end there folks.

Work was tough. Customers were tough. Returns were tough. A certain coworker was tough. Even my assistant manager got frustrated with her. One customer complained that she (the coworker) wasn't helping her. The customer said she came in yesterday and the employee was busy talking to her friend and was doing it again today. Naturally, the only person we would think it was, was who was in the front at the moment talking today. The same person who disappeared into the stock room to use the phone (for who knows what reason) leaving me alone on the floor with my assistant manager. After the customer made that comment, my assistant manager brought it up with her. The worker said very loudly that she didn't even work yesterday. Of course, I expected her to get VERY defensive. And when she gets "defensive" she gets loud. And I think another customer lodged a complaint about her too. This also gave me a headache. Two customers (of her culture) came up to pay for something. The daughter says her mother didn't have her charge card or ID. She still wanted to pay for her purchase with her charge card. "Could I look it up with her phone number or social security number?" The only way I can do a look up is with an ID. And technically, I am not allowed to accept charge card numbers. I have to have either the Charge card (temporary or permanent) or the holder's ID. So, I let my coworker take care of it. I didn't want to have anything to do with it because they didn't want to use the options I gave them. So what did she do? She took down the customer's address and looked it up that way. No I.D. Nothing. One of my first mistakes when I started was, a customer showed me her charge card number written down. Immediately, my associate manager told me that I couldn't take just a number. I had to have her card or ID.

The entire day, we were all irritated and frustrated with that worker. When she came in, she did what she usually did at first. Stand around. I made that comment to Sarah. I said, "Man, I wish I could just stand around." Of course, I spent most of my day running around in circles trying to keep the store clean. My coworker came up to the register to check on how "our" sales was going. Guess she didn't expect how much she had in, because she sure looked disappointed. That's okay, because I was making sure she was working for her productivity while I was there. If she wanted the sales, she better earn them the right way.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start my day off right. With a nice mocha. I tried to do that this morning, but no luck. The line was incredibly long at Gloria Jean's. So I had to go to Cinnabon and try one of their mochalattas or whatever they're called. Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Class final, mini-golf, and MLB 2k7

Started off with the usual Saturday routine ... me running late to my library class. I don't remember if I have ever been on time to my Saturday class. Thankfully, this is the final class of the semester. Meaning, I had to take my final. There were three parts to it. The first part was questions where I had to write in the answer. I should get all (if not, almost all) of those questions right. The second part was where I had to catalog a book. Not sure if I did everything right. The third part was a questionnaire about the class. Overall, it took me about an hour and a half to get it done. It was actually done in about an hour, but I was stalling for time and making sure I got everything right.

After that, I went to the 99 cent store to kill some time. The KFWB blue crew was supposed to be at the Jiffy Lube across the street from PCC from noon to one. I wanted to check it out, see if maybe I could score some tickets. Well, I ended up buying a ton of Dodger stuff from the 99 cent store and not killing enough time. So, I went to Nina's. From there, we went to Kevin's to play MLB 2k7. Harold and Kevin played, though I did get some playing time. Then we went to get Daniel and went to the bank to get some cash. Glendale Ave (or is it Blvd? I always get mixed up), was backed up for blocks. Turns out, the 134 freeway turned into the 134 parking lot. Which was why the street was backed up.

Eventually we picked up Sherisse and went mini-golfing with Christianne. Christianne, Kevin, and Daniel all tied at first, with Nina and I tied behind them, and then Sherisse. The final hole is the one where you hit the ball into a slot and that tells you what par to put down. That was the only time I got a par! I hit mine straight up the middle into the one slot. Sweet. Another time, I hit the golf ball and it went past the hole, then came back, stopped, and then went in. Sweet. Man. My golf ball bounced over the hole, around the hole, and just kept avoiding the hole a lot. In fact, that course did that to most of us. It's okay. I'm hoping to take Joanne and Jenny there while they're here. Hopefully on one of my off days when the traffic isn't so terrible. Then again, this is L.A. The traffic is always terrible.

Other interesting points? The Dodgers lost the game today, but they took out the Angels' first baseman. I was listening to the game while we were playing mini-golf and heard it go down. After we got back, I got MLB 2k7 from Kevin (since I paid for half of it, technically I do own half of it). When I got home, I played for about an hour or two. The first time was exhibition, just to get used to it. Then I started the 162 games season. I started with the opening game against the Brewers. Somehow, instead of Ben Sheets pitching against Jason Schmidt, I ended up using Chad Billingsley. It's a good thing this is just a video game. The outcome was I won (Dodgers) with a score of 3 - 0. Gonzo had a home run, Kent stole a base, and Martin went 3 - 4. And since it was a game, I changed the lineup too. Hehe. What was it? I think it was Furcal-Martin-Garciaparra- Kent-Gonzo-Ethier-Betemit-Billingsley. How did Billingsley did as a pitcher? He pitched all nine innings, striking out 24 batters, giving up only two hits, and no runs. How did my Dodgers fare? Three runs, ten hits, one home run, one stolen base. LOL. I still can't believe out of my four attempts to steal a base, it was Kent who succeeded.

Guess that makes my record (and Billingsley's) 1 - 0. Let's see how the rest of my video game season goes.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Day Two - Please. No physical contact with associates.

One day down, many more to go.

We opened the store at eight and didn't have a soul in there for a while. Long enough for me to realize, I forgot to change my shoes when we opened the store. Twenty minutes after we opened, I was still wearing my flip flops. My boss was probably too tired to notice. I know I certainly was too tired to realize it. After all, I did get up at six to get showered, go to Coffee bean (joseph wasn't working this morning, rats), and go to McDonald's to get breakfast. Had twenty minutes to kill. So, I ate my hot cakes and felt sick afterwards. Too sweet, too early in the morning. Ick. Oh yeah, I don't know what, but the truck in front of me in the drive thru line peeled off. Hmm wonder why.

Back to work. Things didn't get too crazy till after ten. Then things just picked up and didn't slow down. It didn't feel as crazy as yesterday. Or maybe we had a better handle on things. I don't know. Let's see. What sticks to my mind from today. There was the one lady who didn't fit into our clothes who came with a friend and was in the store for a good hour. She asked my boss for a catalog and my boss told her we didn't have anymore. So, she asked me why we didn't have anymore. Her friend tried on a bunch of stuff, bought something, tried more stuff on, and tried more stuff on, and an hour later left with out two things. Total. One before, one after. it's quite sad it has come to the point where you see familiar customers and go, "oh no, so and so is here." Just because you know they're difficult.

The best part was right towards the end of my shift. I was hanging some t-shirts up. This lady comes up, and looks at the pile of shirts I was hanging. They were folded nicely, in two colors. She picked up the top color and put it next to the second color. Not very neatly, I might add. She looks at the color and tells me, "Give me a large." I wait to see if she had anything else to add. Then she says it again, very bossy and snobby like, "Give me a large." Okay, so what am I supposed to do? Ignore her? I gave her the large, but didn't say anything to her. She says, thanks, proving that she must know a little manners. Apparently not enough. Hmm maybe she's one of those ladies who thinks they can treat us like servants. Like the lady who snapped her fingers at me as if I was her maid. I figured this lady either had no manners or didn't have a strong command of the English language. Guess what? She goes up to the cash register and tell Sherisse, "give me this one in white." Guess she's just rude. Weird thing? On her way out, she tells me thanks and pats my back. Please. No physical contact with associates.

I forgot to write this down. Want to guess how many kids I had to usher out of our display windows? Three. Four, if you include the one my boss told not to go into our windows. I don't know why, but little kids love running around in our display windows where heavy mannequins and other props can fall and squish them.

Well, Stacy, does this answer you question about paper journal vs. online journal?

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Somebody shoot me

Oh boy. I can't wait for our sale to end. And it hasn't even officially started! Today was the preview day of sale for charge card members. And of course, the public could still shop. So, technically, you could say the sale started today, though the official date is tomorrow.

Well, this morning I had a couple things to do before I went to work. It was 1) go to bank and deposit money and 2) get food. Well, I decided to go to the back in Glendale, get a sandwich at Whole Foods, and while I was there, go to Coffee Bean and get a blended drink. First of all, when I got to the bank, I discovered my debit card wasn't back in my wallet yet. Great. It's probably still in my jeans pocket. I don't know where it is. Somewhere at home. No checkbook. No account numbers. It's okay, because I managed to get my deposit in anyway. I get my sandwich. YUM! I tried out a new spread instead of my regular mayo. Great stuff. Love it. I only ate half my sandwich on my dinner break (which was basically my only meal of the day). Went to Coffee Bean, got my mocha mudslide, and checked out Joseph's Sports Board. There's a worker there that has a bulletin board and he puts stuff on it, mostly Dodgers stuff. Sweet. He had something up there from last night's 3 consecutive home run game! (BTW the Dodgers won tonight, sweeping the Mets for the first time since ... a long time. 9 - 1. Sweet). Got my mocha and my cookie and headed to work, with twenty minutes to spare. At the light before the mall, this guy was crossing the street and he was reading my car while he was crossing. Flashed me two thumbs up. Either he's a Dodgers fan, a Russell Martin fan, or both. Hehe I flashed my thumbs up back at him and pointed to my parking stubs. I've got five Dodger Stadium parking stubs on my dashboard. I'm missing two.

So, I got to work with ten minutes to spare. As soon as I walked in, my boss asked me to clock in. Work as a complete zoo. It was a disaster zone. I spent the first half hour of my shift on the register. Then the rest of the shift trying to put the store back in order. There were go backs everywhere. Clothes everywhere. Every time I went into the fitting room to clear it out, it took me at least three trips. We even used the go-back bar in the fitting room. That doesn't get much use. It certainly filled up today. There were a couple times I walked into the fitting rooms and they were all being used. And there were three ladies in line waiting for them.

Tomorrow should be worse than today, since tomorrow is the official start of the sale. Because now the mannequins will have sale shirts on and the banners will be up. Speaking of tomorrow, I better head of. I'm supposed to open at seven. Hehe I'm hoping to get up early and go to Coffee Bean and get my mocha. Joseph usually works the morning shifts. I may get to meet this Joseph tomorrow. HMMM McDonald's hot cakes for breakfast ...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

8 - 1

Yup, another Dodger game. This one was sort of unexpected. It was unexpected that we were going and the outcome of the game was quite unexpected, too. First off, Kevin mentioned a pair of tickets he was bidding on Ebay for today's game. He didn't say if he got them yet by the time I went to bed. When I got up for work, I texted him to see if he won or not. I found out during my break that he was. Okay, problem. The gate opens ten minutes after I get off. That gives me an hour or so to get home, get changed, get food, get cash, and of course, get Kevin. Given, LA traffic, that should take about an hour. Well, I got off, got Kevin, got cash, went home, dealt with thorn in my side sister, changed, and went to the game. We got there and the Mets were still having batting practice. I even got to see Davy! Well, as for the food part, I got garlic fries. I didn't like them as much as Sherisse does. The fries are very crunchy and drenched in garlic. Well, personally, I like my fries soft and soggy, like McDonald's. They have the best. Kevin and I joked about how Russell and I would get along because he could eat all the crunchy fries and I'd eat all the soggy ones. Hehe, I told Kevin, yep, I like my stuff soft and chewy. Cookies, Red vines... Russell.

Onto the game. I got some great pics today. Much better than yesterday. Maybe because my seats were 400 some feet away yesterday. And today, we were in the field level, second row. Much closer. We were about ten seats from the foul post line in left field. In fact, during batting practice, a foul ball came our way and landed in our row! It was about five/six seats away from where I was sitting. As I tried to rush over there to get it, a bunch of people jumped in front of me and blocked me. Someone else did end up getting the ball. Still, I think getting a player to throw a ball to you is best story you can tell. GO JOE!

If you haven't heard anything about the game today, this is probably what you will hear the most. THREE CONSECUTIVE HOME RUNS!!! WHOO!!! Kevin and I couldn't believe it was happening after the third home run. It was something I definitely didn't expect. After all, the third hitter (technically, fourth) was the pitcher. Here's how it went down. Russell was the first up to bat in the bottom of the second inning. He got out. Then came Betemit. He whacks a home run into left field pavilion. A guy fell over a row to get the ball. Next comes Kemp, fresh off being recalled from Triple A Vegas. He whacks the ball into the Loge Level, which is the level above where I was sitting. Not only that, it sailed over our heads! I was shouting, "stay fair! stay fair!" because it could've done what Russell's did and curve foul. But, nope, it stayed fair and landed in the level above and behind us. Next comes Kuo, the pitcher. Okay, so I didn't expect our pitcher to hit a home run, seeing as he has only one hit in his major league career. Well, now he was two hits and one home run. Sweet. Now if only Russell had started off the inning with a home run and we could have had another four consecutive home runs under our belt (and Russell's).

The picture count today is much higher than yesterday's. Probably twice as I. I think I only took about 260-265 yesterday, were as today, the count is 507. Of course, that is including videos.

Okay, so you think after a game like that, I would've had a good day right. Well, you could always count on my "dear" sister to ruin and put a damper on any good day I can ever have. And if you can tell, the "dear" is dripping in sarcasm. My sister moved out as soon as she graduated high school. But she feels like she can still come home and tear me apart. Of course, that put a damper on my day. But, I forgot all about it when we went to the Dodgers game. Then I came home, and noticed my pile of newspapers is missing. Of course. She threw them out. So I spent a good half hour digging through trash and bags looking for my paper. I subscribed to the L.A. times so I can cut out Dodger and Russell Martin clippings. Well, of course, I can't go through the paper every day. So, once a week or more I will sit down and go through everything. Given, I haven't done that in over a week, so there is a backup in my pile. She threw it out and I had to look through the trash ... in the dark. Great way to end my day, right?

Monday, June 11, 2007

7 - 1

Sept 2 - Won 15 - 4 *James Loney hit his first Major League Home Run in his first Major League At-Bat
April 11 - Won 3 - 0 *Russell and Juan pulled off a double steal
April 24 - Lost 3 - 5
May 1 - Won 2 - 1
May 2 - Won 2 - 1
May 12 - Won 7 - 3 *Russell stole his sixth base, Joe Beimel threw Kevin a ball during batting pratice
May 15 - Won 9 - 7
June 11 - Won 5 - 3 *Russell stole his eleventh base, Loney hit his first major league triple

My record still stands! The Dodgers have only lost one game when I was in attendance. Tonite, we sat in the all you can eat section. Kevin, Daniel, and I got there early for batting practice. Since I hadn't eaten all day, I scarfed down three dogs before batting practice even ended. I had one later in the game, and half of one before the night was over. Daniel had about five or six. Kevin had four. I think. Sherisse has four and a half. Man. I don't think I'll have having another hot dog for awhile. Again, things got rowdy in our section because there were two Mets fans in the front row, one section over. It got to the point where people were throwing peanuts and stuff at them. A girl sitting by them got up and was like, "hey what are you doing that for? I'm just trying to enjoy the game." Anyway, security came and broke it up. They kicked out some of the instigators and questioned the Mets' fans. It just shows you what bad sportsmanship there are in the fans out there. Normally my throat starts to hurt in the seventh inning from all the yelling and cheering. Tonight, it started to hurt by the top of the fifth. Great game, terrible fans.

BTW RUSSELL IS NOW FIRST IN THE THE NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR VOTING FOR CATCHER!!! WHOO!!! Sure, I maxed out like five e-mail addresses voting for him. And my car is a running campaign. Still. HE'S FINALLY FIRST. He's only ahead by about 15000 votes. So, don't stop voting guys! We need to keep him way ahead of LoDuca! I didn't even know Russell was ahead till Sherisse told me. I haven't had a chance to check my computer this afternoon. It's okay, because they put it up on the Jumbo Screen anyway. Go Russell! There were "Vote For Russell" stuff everywhere at Dodger Stadium. The employees had a sticker (the same logo I borrowed), and it was on the screen and stuff. GO RUSSELL!! Okay guys, now that we've got him in first place. Let's keep him there.

Okay, I gave in and went to Borders and purchased a new journal. I usually go to their bargain section and buy the one they have there because they're hard-bound and 8 x 11. Well, the had two kinds. A huge one and a small one. The huge one was twice as big as the one I normally buy, and the small one is half as small as the one I normally buy. But they're still 8 x 11. Just not as many pages. So, I got the last two they had, purple and green. That way, when I finish the purple one, I can use my spiral, then the green, then spiral. And in the mean time, I can keep an eye out for my journals so I can stock up on those. One of these days, I will have to put them in a box and burn them.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Don't know what to say ...

Thankfully the person who I don't know what to say to doesn't really read this blog. I thought about putting it on the other blog that the person sees, but I don't even know if that person sees that or reads that one either. I contemplated writing about this on and off this week. It's quite personal, and I don't always divulge such personal things online. I usually save those topics for my journal. Sadly, my journal is out of commission right now. I need to go buy another one. Actually, I have plenty of journals. They just don't meet the size requirement. Or maybe it's time I break away from that. Do I really have to be that strict about what size journal I use?

I am quite frustrated. With life. With people. With friends. Mainly, with myself.

The topic I started this blog entry about ... it applies to several people in my lives, but one person really had me thinking about this. It's starts with a person (in my case, a guy or several guys) who say they want to be friends. They want me to call and keep in touch, but they won't put in the effort to do the same. Why am I supposed to be the one who calls them first, or sends them an e-mail first, or instant message them first? Is it the good old double standard that I'm the girl and they're the guy? I don't get it.

This doesn't apply to just any one guy in my life. I can name at least three! In fact, one of them is online right now. I've seen him online several times, but he never messages me first. And I refuse to be the one of do it first. Call me stubborn, but that's how I feel about this. The other two guys, I rarely hear from. And when I do, it's usually the same excuse. They've changed cell phone numbers or lost mine or didn't save mine. In fact, one of them called me recently. I missed his call. He left me a message telling me that he changed his phone number and this is his new one. I made a mental note to save it later. Guess what? Mental note got lost somewhere and I forgot to save it. Guess that means he better call again or else he'll never hear from me again. Then there's the guy who I haven't heard for years. I don't even know if he'll remember who I am. Though I'll always remember him because of what an impact he made on my life. The one guy that I was thinking about when I wrote this said he wanted to talk more often. So, for a little while, we did. We chatted once or twice a week online. And he even asked me to call him during the week to talk. He called me once or twice, but that was it. I haven't heard from him in a long time. No chats. No phone calls. No comments online. Nothing.

Guess the title is misleading, because obviously, I do know what I want to say. I just don't know what to say to these people in my life. I guess I will have to break down and forget about my standards for my journaling. After all, I have several small journals that I can use. My regular journaling is done in 8 x 11 journals, while everything else is done in 6 x 8s. But the way I feel tonight, I may have to break down and forget about it all. I haven't journaled in almost two months. That's two months worth of memories and emotions to write down. No wonder I'm frustrated.

BTW if you're reading this ... I could really use some feedback. Really.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Can things get any more interesting at work?

This one I just had to put up on here.

This lady walks in and I greet her with the usual: good afternoon, how are you, how can I help you? She says she has a return to make. She makes a comment that she has never been to our store location before. I ask her, which location does she usually go to? Her response shocked me. She said, "The store from hell" (I hope using that word in that term is appropriate, so please don't throw rocks at me!). That's what she said. Verbatim. It took a little nudging to get her to tell me what store she was talking about. She said the item she was returning was not what she wanted, the wrong size, and so forth. She goes on and on about how horrible the other store is. By the way, she did say which store it was.

I wasn't too surprised because I do get complaints from other customers about that store. WHICH by the way it is all a matter of opinion. Some people prefer our store to theirs and vice versa. Some think our store is better and others think that store is better. In fact, I had one customer say that to me and I have never seen her since. This other customer was making a purchase and she handed me her statement to use her number. I was trained to not take numbers to use as their account, but to ask for their I.D. to do a look-up. Well, I did. The customer got all offended that I asked to use her I.D. for a look-up instead of taking her account number off her statement. I told her that it was for her security and protection. She said, that was why she preferred to shop at the other store because they treated her better.

Anyway, I got off topic there. The customer who came in today was so upset about the service she received in the other store that she was shaking as she made her complaint. She said she has several letters of apologies and was expecting another letter from the CEO of the company. I do a quick efficient return for her while talking to her and with her to get her to calm down. She was visibly shaking as she was talking. Hehe I even complimented her on her purse. She said she's had a bad couple of days. She browsed around our store a little bit, since she had never been to our location. She goes to petites, where our new girl is working. The new associate asks the customer if she could help her with anything. The customer said no, she was looking around since she had never been to our store location. WELL the new associate asked her which location she usually shopped at. Oh no. Here she goes again. Poor thing (the associate this time).

Well, she tells the new associate a different story than what she told me. She told the new associate about her bad experience in the other store with a new associate there. The new associate in the other store didn't know what she was doing and didn't know how to help her. I guess the customer said she complained and wanted to get the new associate at the other store fired. WELL this certainly doesn't help our new girl, who I think is on the floor for the first time in our store. She was panicking inside, freaking out, hoping that the customer won't do the same to her. Poor thing.

Man. I could write a book about working in retail!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

From the L.A. Times today


Young go through a shaky but scoreless seventh in which the Dodgers had two hits and one weary base runner. Martin drilled a lead off single and tried to steal second on at least three occasions but was thwarted by a fly ball and a pair of foul tips.

Martin tried to go to third on Tony Abreu's one-out single to right, but he slipped and was eventually tagged out in a rundown.

"I was going hard and my legs were getting a little heavy right there and I couldn't keep my legs underneath me," Martin said. "I'm sure running to second base 18 times didn't help."

Los Angeles Times
Ben Bolch
June 6th, 2007

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Interesting thing happened at work today

Okay, so I know I blog more about the Dodgers than I do about work. But this ... this had to make it into my blog.

This morning, this group came it. It was a lady, her daughter, and her grandchildren (her daughter's kids, duh). Well, the granddaughter was about three and the grandson had to be a newborn. They came in and looked at a dress. The mother talked to her daughter in their language, which happened to be the same as mine. Well, of course I understand everything they're saying. They were talking about the dress. The daughter has the baby and goes a little further into the store. The grand daughter stays with grandma, who isn't really watching her because the grand daughter goes into our window display and comes out on the other end. This is a big no-no because we have nice heavy mannequins that can fall and squish little kids like her. She had to be no older than three. Didn't speak much. Well, of course, I had to go over to the little girl and tell her she couldn't go in our windows. My boss has a fit any time a child goes into our windows. And I always get a talking-to when I don't take care of such situations. Well, figuring the girl was young and probably just spoke the language they speak at home, I thought she would be more comfortable if I used the same language. I told her in a very soft and nice voice to not go into our windows. WELL she apparently got frightened by that because she spend the next five minutes hiding from me. She hid behind her grandma, she hid behind her mom. She even walked out of the store! Her mom told the grandma that they were leaving because the little girl didn't like me. The grandma explained to me that she was afraid of me.

WHAT? I was doing my best to make her comfortable and not be scared of me when I told her not to go in the windows. Maybe I should have spoken to her in English. Would that have been better? I don't know. Most little kids like me. I had one yesterday pat me on the back while I was fixing something. Well, I'm not sure if it was a pat. He just came up behind me and gave me a nice little whack on the back. He had to be under two. Then there's little Daniel who smiles every time he comes in and sees me. And then there's Jonah. See! There's plenty of little kids I know who come to our store and they like me just fine. Hmph.

Anyone free on Monday night

Today, I drove over to Dodger Stadium to buy the tickets for next Monday's game against the Mets. It's cheaper this way because then you don't have to pay the convenience charge or any additional charges. And, you get actual tickets instead of printing them out. I told the lady "nine tickets" for June 11, and Kevin and I were going to buy 2 tickets for June 12. We changed our mind about the 12th. And somehow we ended up with "ELEVEN" tickets for the 11th. Great. Now what am I going to do? Unfortunately, we didn't realize this till we were well on our way to Eagle Rock and it was too late. Anyone want to go to a Dodger game for 25 bucks? It's all you can eat (hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, and soda).

Sadly, the Dodgers lost today, 0 - 1. The highlight of the game? Russell stole second in the second inning. Well, later on in the game, he was on first base (I forgot which inning ... sixth? seventh?). On a pop fly by Andre (I think), he was rounding second and I think he fell and had to run back to first. Well, when he fell, HE TORE HIS PANTS. On the left leg! Nice trap door, Russell! Vin Scully got a good laugh out of that one for awhile. Poor Russell. They had him going back and forth from first and second. He made it to second on a pitch that looked like a wild pitch, but they ruled it a foul ball. There were several tosses to first to keep him there. Finally, he was rounding second on a hit by Abreu (I think) and he thought about going to third. Well, he tripped and fell and got caught in a run down. Perhaps if he wasn't so worn down by all the running back to first base he did earlier he might've been okay. Man. I think on the pop fly by Ethier, he had to hustle back to first. Poor Russell. Well, at least the hole this time was bigger than the hole he had last week! Hmm how many tears and holes do the players get in their clothes? I wonder ... LOL I told Nina, I wonder what kind of view were the people sitting behind home plate were getting...

So, anyone free on Monday night?

Monday, June 04, 2007

All Star Voting

The results are in for this week ... Russell Martin and Nomar Garciaparra have moved up a spot, from fourth to third! For Russell, we need less an 100 thousand votes to catch up, and even more than that to beat out LoDuca! Come on guys! We can do it! If we can cut down the difference by 50 thousand votes each week, we can catch up. Hehe. Russell hit another home run today! That's his fourth home run within this last week. He hit on for three consecutive games last week! On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! Then he got Saturday off, got to pinch-hit, and that was it. No more home run streak. It's okay, Russell... you can do it again! See guys! He needs to be on the All-Star team this year. So get out there and vote! I have. I've maxed out four e-mail addresses already. That's a hundred votes folks. If I can do it, so can you!

VOTE FOR RUSSELL MARTIN!!!
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
CATCHER

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Don't freak out ...

... but my dad is talking about moving to North Carolina. Again.

He does this once in a while. Right now, he says it's because of his health and he's not getting much work here. If we moved to NC, pretty much we'd all be working in the family restaurant. Wonder if I can transfer to the store there ...

I'm kinda torn in between wanting to move there, and wanting to stay here in LA. Mostly, I don't want to move. There isn't an AF church where my family lives. Plenty of every kind of Baptist and every other church there. There's even a Mormon one. LOL. All I've got there is family. Everything else I have is here. If we were to move there, it would be like starting all over.

Another downside ... no more Dodger games. No more Dodger dogs. And fat chance my dad will let me to see the Dodgers play in Atlanta against the Braves, or in Washington DC against the Nationals. There's always the Florida Marlins or even better ... the New York Mets.

Man I don't want to move. I was thinking about it while I was driving home, and I just wanted try cry. Especially as I was driving past Stadium Way. I don't want to move.

But like I said, don't freak out. My dad has talked on and off for years about moving to North Carolina. At least once every year since I was a senior in high school. Hopefully this too will pass.

I want to know...

... who has my cell phone?

Tonight, we went to Rally's and as we were leaving, Sherisse goes: Linda, why did you text me "do you know who this is?" I told her, I didn't. She said, yes I did. At 11:16. Then at 11:25, I called her. I said, no I did not. because I was sitting across from her at those times. We get in the car and I look in my purse for my phone. Not there. My phone is missing. MY PHONE IS MISSING. Obviously, someone has my phone because they texted Sherisse and tried to call her. Whoever it is, they turned it off because when she called my phone, it went straight to voice mail.

It would be nice if I had my cell phone. Guess what then? Until I get it back, I will be unreachable. Ha ha ha.