Me & Mine

Decided to start using my journal again because we are moving to Oregon in a couple of weeks and this would be much easier to keep in touch with everyone and post pics and stuff.

I'm going to update my gallery then I'll post an entry.

Be right back.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In June I committed genocide... Sorry about that, orcatiff (-5000 points). Last Thursday I caught a purse-snatcher who stole antonstrout's purse (30 points). Last month I set wndola's puppy on fire (-66 points). In May I helped butterflycyn see the light (8 points). In August I pulled orcatiff's hair (-5 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-5033 points). For Christmas I deserve a moldy sandwich! Sincerely, pixiemom96

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

I am eveil!!! Muahahahahaha!!

Ok, I remember the holidays being a whole lot funner at some point in my life. Oh wait... I think I was 12... /sigh! I'm sure alot of it has to do with my job... retail middle management should be renamed "hell" for the holidays. I have this feeling people are now looking at those neat electronic gadgets they bought themselves 4 months ago and realizing they now have to somehow afford holiday presents and feasts. The next person who tries to return a 500gb hard drive they bought in April and tells me they "just dont like/need it anymore" is gonna find they dont like me very much. Actually, I think I'm pretty good at finding a reasonable compromise most of the time. It's the ones that dont want to compromise, they want their cash back... now... that makes it hard to stay in a good mood. Oh well...

I'm on my way to Ikea with my mom to shop/get away from the apartment/enjoy some adult time for a little while on my last day off before Thanksgiving.

Have fun!

or is it "My sinus infection and I"? Whatever... I feel like crap either way. I've known it was coming for days now. Starts with that small headache behind and below the eyes... then you can't breathe quite right and the headache creeps up the side of your head. Your eyes become harder and harder to open every time you blink. Ugh. And "home office" is "visiting" tomorrow to make sure we're doing our jobs right (heavy on the sarcasm there). Funny... when I first started with this company it was called "corporate headquarters" then overnight they were "home office". All of a sudden there were no more "issues" or "problems" but "opportunities". They weren't "auditing" us but "visiting" us. And how is it they always know when I'm sick? I swear their "visits" coincide with my colds, sinus infections, and PMS.
Well, despite my temporarily declining health I did have fun today. We visited the Rose Bowl Flea Market. You can find ANYTHING there. Even if you dont have alot of money to spend on stuff it's a blast to see all the old toys, pictures, postcards, and misc. knick knacks. I even saw an old Mickey Mouse wall clock that I swear they stole off the wall from my childhood and an old Aquaman doll (or were they "action figures" back then too? haha) that I texted a pic to my husband and he said was a decent condition "mego" figure but didn't want me to try buying without him there. I brought my camera but for some reason I only took 2 pictures and only 1 was really worth posting...



That's my dad on the right and my nephew in his usual state of hyper-activity. I was walking at the time, hence the bluriness... sorry.

Anyways, that's it. Have fun!

Yeah, it's been a long, long time since I've posted anything. Actually it's been a long, long time since I've actually sat in front of my own puter. I dunno... I love my puter and all but I guess I needed a "technology break". I've been reading alot of books when I have some time to myself. I've always been an avid reader, of anything really... sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction and non-fiction, anything that sparks my interest (like gemology), newspapers and magazines. My relatively new positin at work puts me in front of a lot of people with complaints about their own puters, high-tech gizmos and shiny things so lately I've been coming home and grabbing anything in the house I haven't read yet... that stack is dwindling fast so I may have to make a trip to the local book store soon... or I may just end up here on my LJ page more and visiting my friends and families LJ pages. Ok, so I'm rambling...

Some much needed cuteness...

I'm testing a new layout my sister helped me find. I like it but there seem to be a few glitches I can't seem to figure out how to fix. She seems to view the page fine from her puter but parts of my journal entries tend to poof when my curser hovers over a link. Thought I should test out the journal posting though. I hope that works fine... we'll see. If you're reading this than... yay!

So today was my birthday (well, still is for about another hour). My parents gave me a gift certificate for the mall (yay! shopping!). I was very excited because I've been wanting to get a new suit for work and I hate spending my own money on myself (my daughter has a better wardrobe than I do!). After 4 stores (it's a small mall) I finally found a decent looking suit. It was sitting under a nice big sign saying 40% off, which would put it just within the value of the gift certificate. I spent the last 1/2 hour of the mall's open time looking for the right size and trying on several different sizes (it's a process!) then rushed to the cashier, gift certificate in hand. The cashier quotes me the full price! "There must be some mistake. It was under a sign, along with a rack full of the same suits, saying it was 40% off!" Long story short... after talking to four different people I finally got the suit for the price it was advertised... after asking the lady for her card and a phone number I can call in the morning. Her response to that? She turns to the second person I spoke to and says, "Call Cheryl (the store manager), she said she would approve it." Hmmm... All I saw of Cheryl was a rushed looking lady telling person #4 "Take care of the customer." as she quickly walked by. Thank you, Cheryl!

Now, don't get me worng. I'm not normally one of those people trying to squeeze a discount out of every situation. On top of that I'm a customer service sales supervisor at a very popular store. I'm usually the person you're sent to to get that discount on a mis-marked item. I make those same decisions on a daily basis. That means I also know customer rights... very well! And I know all the techniques of trying to persuade or intimidate a customer into thinking they're wrong without ever saying "No!" or "Sorry, we can't do that." The trick? Always keep a very calm, but firm voice and keep it simple. If all else fails very calmly say "Well, that's to bad. May I have your card, the name of your manager and a phone number for your home office?" I don't use this technique unless I truly feel I was mislead into thinking I would get the items for that price. In this case the sign had the name of the manufacturer and there were no other suits on that rack. Turns out someone put the wrong model suit from that same manufacturer on that rack after they sold out of the one that was on sale.

So, use this bit of information wisely but don't go nuts!

So I figured I'd better write something because my page is looking awfully bare and it's been up for awhile now. Thought once I got started the words would just flow but I must not be in the mood. Well, it is 8:45 in the morning and I'm facing one very long day at work /sigh. My days off are far too short. Hmmm... la-dee-da. Gee, my life must seem awfully boring. Well, I am looking forward to camping at Yosemite in a couple of weeks. Unless a bear attacks us or something it's going to be a relaxing 3 days. I'll post up a couple of pictures from our last trip earlier in the summer. And my birthday's in a few days... I can't believe I'll be 33! Ugh! Well, I better get going if I'm going to post those pics before getting ready for work.