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People Scare Me

May 5, 2006 By

Not because I’m a freak who’s afraid of everything. I outgrew that by age 6. No, it’s how many intellectually challenged people there are in the world that scare me. There are so many people out and about, walking amongst us, who cannot grasp the simple concepts that get us through our daily lives.

In my work, one of the projects I manage requires people to visit my office at scheduled times. This is kept separate from the other work I do, and it includes having a separate entrance. I have signs on the doors to let people know which door to use, but they’re no help – regular business people go in the door for project people and vice versa. Also, for the project people there is a sign indicating that the office opens 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment time, and if it’s not within that time, I have the door locked so I can get regular business work done. I can’t even begin to count how many people try to go through the door, find it locked, peek in the window, try the door again, peek in the window again, and walk away. The 15 minute sign is at eye level right on the door, so it’s not like I’m trying to trick anyone. BTW, this project deals with people who hope to be on the front lines of national security – that’s the scariest part.

I used to work in a supermarket. I never fully realized how many intellectually challenged people there are in the world until I started working there in high school. There were people who couldn’t figure out how much money to give you, people with a $20 budget who came through the checkout with a full carriage and couldn’t figure out how much they had to take off, little old ladies who insisted a bag with a single item was too heavy (I actually had a lady do this to me with a 5lb bag of sugar), and my favorite, the little old ladies who wanted to get the exact change for you, pulled out a change purse that weighed more than they did, rummaged around in it for about 5 minutes, then announced that the did not have the change they were looking for, when there was probably around $40 in loose change in their purse. All this in the express line. And I can’t even mention the supermarket with a shout out to Coupon Claire. You know the type – 40 coupons, 3 items. Items from the reduced rack for which the face value of the coupon was higher than the price of the item. Always trying to make you pay her for shopping there. Was in 4 times a week and never gave up trying. Oh yeah, customer service is fun.

In my current retail job (job #2, that is) at the shoe store, I get a lot of overseas tourists, so usually it’s only cultural and language barriers that frustrate me and not sheer stupidity. And since I’ve been there awhile, it’s easy to predict what they will want. The Germans and those of African descent will want shoes just above the sizes that we carry. The Asian ladies will want shoes in sizes just below our normal range. And of course the Asians (men and women), when shopping for handbags, will tear the store apart for an hour making their selection, then they’ll want a handbag from the back room that is still in the packaging and has been untouched by human hands. Being an outlet store with a lot of clearance merchandise, this is only possible about half the time, but since they don’t understand much English and/or the whole outlet/clearance concept, I spend about 10 minutes trying to explain this to them before they figure it out and spend another half hour tearing the store apart trying to find one on our shelves that is good enough for them. By this point the store has closed for the evening and I want to leave, so they’d better be buying a LOT – for a big sale I can leave the store a mess, but if they tear through and walk out well after closing without purchasing anything, well, if I were Catholic I’d need to go to confession for the things I’m thinking about these people.

I used to have a similar customer at the supermarket, at least as far as disregard for store hours went. She’d come in about 3 hours before the store closed, sit herself on one of the Handi-carts, and get on with her shopping. Sort of. About 10 minutes after the store closed, she’d finally make her way to the checkout with a list of things she couldn’t find. We’d run around getting it for her because we wanted to leave before the store opened for business the next day. And she loved to buy multiples of the same item – try this one on for size: 150 cans of Fancy Feast cat food (the tiny cans) and she’d want them not only scanned but bagged by flavor. There was to be total flavor segregation – if she had 2 cans of a particular flavor, they went in a separate bag. Double bagged, actually. Caitlin, if you’re reading this, be so glad you never worked in the Salem store! The only reason I’m glad she always came through after the store closed was that I didn’t have to deal with the customers who might end up in line behind her – it happened once, and I do believe they were having homicidal thoughts after having to wait behind her! I did get huge praises for keeping my cool with her (by that point I knew her though, and once you got used to her she was easy to deal with).

Ah yes, customer service. Those of us who do that job know that it should be one of the highest paying jobs there is. If I had a nickel for every time I said, “They don’t pay me enough to put up with this shit,” then I’d be on the Forbes list with Oprah and Mr. Bill from that computer company. What can I do about it (besides trying to avoid those kinds of jobs altogether)? Just grit my teeth, smile, and enjoy the employee discount.

Filed Under: Work

Spring Cleaning

May 4, 2006 By

How many of you out there have a “Favorites” file on your browser that is completely unorganized? Show of hands? That’s what I thought. Mine are somewhat organized, but all the categories I have aren’t adequate for what I’m doing now. For example, I’ve really gotten into blogging lately. Right now all the favorites I have saved are in a “To Be Filed” folder. Ok, sort of organized, but it’s a bit too large for its purpose. I think it’s about time I went and made a few new folders for the things in there. While I’m at it, I should quickly go through the many many sites I have saved to 1. see if they still are there and 2. see if I still want it saved. A lot of the stuff is from when I first started using the internet, sometime in the late 90s, so who knows if it’s any good anymore. Also, since I’ve been online I’ve discovered the power of Google, and I know how to use it very well so a lot of the information I’ve saved can easily be found again and again. Yes, it’s time to clean up my favorites.

Those of you who read my blog know that I will be moving in a few weeks. Moving is a great way to do some spring cleaning. I’ll be moving to a studio apartment, so there are a few things I won’t need anymore. The ginormous entertainment center I have will be sold, most likely to my roommate, so that will give me a bit of cash and I won’t have to move such a huge piece of furniture that isn’t going to fit in my one room apartment. I’ll also sell my dining room table and a stereo set. Both things are duplicates – I have a cute patio set that I’ll use for bistro-style dining (though not al fresco, since I won’t have a patio), and the stereo I only got to listen to music in my bedroom since my main stereo set is in the living room. No need for 2 stereo sets in one room. So good for me, extra cash in hand and fewer things to move.

There are some things I may want to get rid of that won’t be worth the time to sell them. For these, I’ll most likely bring them to the local donation shops. I’m not too decided on what to get rid of, if anything, so I’ll probably make those decisions as I get more settled.

I do frequent a number of websites dedicated to organizing, so I have lots of good ideas, and I’ve always been pretty well organized (my desks at home and work being the exception). I love a good, invigorating organizing session, so this move will be the perfect catalyst for that.

Filed Under: On the Internet

Finding Your Way Around My Blog

May 4, 2006 By

I’ve really been getting into having an online presence lately. I love blogging, and I don’t know why because usually I’m very against drawing any sort of attention to myself. But I’m enjoying this.

I’ve added some content to my sidebar. The “Stuff I’ve Mentioned” section contains links to stuff I’ve mentioned in my previous posts (duh). I’m not putting everything in there, just the things I feel like. Then I have a “Blogs I Like” section. I’ll add to this as I find more that I like. Browsing through the recently updated blogs on Blogger’s main page is fun – except when I see a blog title that may look interesting, then I get to the blog and it’s either a SpamBlog or it’s not in English or any other language I can understand. Bah.

I just added a “Find Me on the Internet” section to the sidebar. Here I will include links to other places I can be found on the internet – most of it will be forums and message boards, and occasionally you’ll find a page of mine from another website. There’s only 2 things in there as of this writing, but when I have more time (that is, when I’m not at work) I’ll find the rest of them and put them in.

The “Old Posts” and “Even Older Posts” sections are just that – stuff I wrote and posted already. It’s all archived here on my blog, so go ahead and peruse through it. You never know, you might find something interesting.

I may or may not be adding more content to my blog – content besides my posts, that is. I basically add stuff when I think of something I would like on here and (since I’m not too up on code) when I can figure out out how to get it on there and look like I know what I’m doing with html.

I hope you enjoy my blog and the offerings of my sidebar!

Updated 8/19/10: This post refers to my old Blogspot blog. Some of it may not be relevant anymore.

Filed Under: My Blog

Water, water everywhere

May 2, 2006 By

I saw the title of a blog floating by that had something to do with shoes. I like shoes – in fact, my second job is working is a shoestore. But alas, I cannot buy the shoes I sell. It’s not because I sell men’s or children’s shoes, I do sell ladie’s shoes. It’s because of my skinny feet. Very skinny feet. 8 1/2 AAA to be exact. It’s a slim width – not medium, not narrow, but slim. That’s a pretty hard size to find. And because of that, I do not have a pair of shoes to go with everything that I would like to match footwear to. Yes, my Imelda Marcos aspirations were cut short due to my skinny feet.

Let me tell you what happens when you have skinny feet. Most women’s shoes come in a B width, which is about 4 sizes too wide. When I wear B width shoes, I have a lot of room on the sides of my feet, even though the length is fine. Also, because the bones at the back of my ankle are also extremely skinny, the back of the shoe does not grip enough to keep the shoe on my foot. This is rather annoying, walking when the shoes don’t stay on. If I wear a sandle or something with an open toe, my foot slides a bit too far and my toes hang off the edge of the shoe. Again, very annoying.

One of the solutions that eager (and under educated) salespeople tell me is to go down a size. I don’t think they’re hearing me correctly. I have a TRIPLE A width. That’s not just a little narrow, it’s a lot narrow. Squishing my toes is not the answer to a proper fit. If I do go down sizes to get a shoe to stay on, I’m looking at a 6 or 6 1/2. Don’t forget, I wear a 8 1/2. If I did resort to such tiny shoes simply to keep something stylish on my foot, I’d be in constant pain every time I stand up or try walking. So going down a size (or in my case, many sizes) is not the answer.

I have found some resources online where I can find shoes my size. And I can even go with a Double A width if it’s something I’m likely to wear socks with, though I usually need heel grips for something like that because of my bony heels. I hear people complain of why they have wide feet – going barefoot a lot as a child is a good one. Hey, I went barefoot a lot. In the summer I never wore shoes unless we went to the store, and I never wear shoes in the house. How come my feet haven’t gotten to at least a medium width? I’m doomed to be forever in search of shoes that fit – not only my feet but also my budget. Have you seen the prices on slim shoes? No way I’m gonna find shoes that fit at Payless, even though that’s my budget.

I suppose the man upstairs did have a reason for giving me such skinny feet. It’s to keep me from bankrupting myself buying shoes. That’s gotta be it. I know I’d have a closetful of them if I could fit in them. So I guess there’s a reason for everything.

Filed Under: Shopping, Talking About Myself

K is for Kirsten

May 1, 2006 By

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to finally be getting my very own place. Of course I can’t help thinking back to all those episoses of the Mary Tyler Moore show that I’ve been watching since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to live in a studio apartment, and very soon I will be doing that. When I lived in my condo in New England, it may as well have been a studio, since I very rarely slept in my actual bedroom, but it’s still not the same. This will be one room, one single room, 100% me.

There are quite a few differences between me and MTM. For one, I live in a much warmer climate than she does. Thank goodness I don’t have to wear those early 70s miniskirts in below freezing temps, instead I wear them when the temps approach the boiling point. I don’t work in a newsroom, but I do work with a group of people I consider my family. And my studio is in a cookie cutter apartment complex, because really cool converted Victorian houses don’t exist here in Vegas. Check out the comparisons:

Now Mary’s apartment:

Big difference. Mary had cool architectural features such as the tiny balcony with French doors and the sunken living room with the shelves built into the step. I’ll have an alcove and an old sliding window. My kitchen’s in an alcove off to one side, but I don’t have that way cool stained glass window that would go up and down to close the kitchen off. But I do have a big K for my wall. I had to have that when I saw it in a catalog. It’s whitewashed, not gold, but hey, it’s mine – just like this studio apartment that I’ll move into on Memorial Day weekend.

The biggest thing I’m getting out of all this is that sense of independence I feel like I lost living with people out of financial necessity. My roommate and I are talking and things are back to normal now, which makes this last month much easier, but we both agree that we need to have our own space and that 2 years living under the same roof is more than enough. I’ll be much happier on my own – I was in my dumpy condo in back east (at least as far as my living space went) and I will be here. That happiness will transcend all areas of my life, and I hope it will be the start of a very positive chapter. But I’m determined – I’m gonna make it after all.

Photos courtesy internet search 

Filed Under: House, TV