Sorry for the delay...and we continue our tale...

Thanksgiving Day

My alarm goes off at 7am but I stay in bed til 7:30. Too tired from the day before. As I slowly make my way into the living room I sit down with the news and watch Alton Brown's videos one more time. After some groggy math I know I have to put the turkey in around 9:30am so we can leave around 12:30 or 1, depending on the cook time. I check on the bucket 'o brine and make sure it's still chilled then I decide to fix a bagel while I wait.

Interesting fact: this Thanksgiving was the first time I caught the beginning of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I always watch it but I'm also notorious for getting sleep that morning and I wake up right when Santa is making his way down the street.

Well the time came for me to wash off the bird and get it ready to roast. There is nothing like handling icy, briny, water and a slimy turkey to start your day. I quickly move to the sink and put the sprayer to use, rinsing all that brine off. Surprisingly it smells pretty good even though it hasn't been cooked. With Mr. Brown's directions nearby I tuck the turkey's wings back as instructed, get the aromatics ready, and give the turkey a veggie oil coating. The oven is a searing hot 500 degrees and in goes the bird for thirty minutes. In the meantime I head back to the parade and can't help but laugh at the fake enthusiasm that Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer have when describing the various floats and balloons.

My timer goes off and I pull out the rack in the oven so I can place the "turkey triangle" (a piece of tin foil custom fit to the turkey breast) then yell to my husband to take down the smoke detector since the intense heat set it off. After bestowing the turkey with its new tin foil accessory, I push it back into the oven and turn the heat down to 350 degrees.

*~*two hours later*~*

The wonderful aroma of a roasted turkey has filled the apartment which is a fantastic (and promising) sign. As I finish up making the stuffing and get the pumpkin bars ready to go I take a moment and realize that I have successfully cooked a turkey. It smells fantastic, I didn't burn the kitchen down, and it cooked in the exact amount of time needed. I felt so accomplished.

While the roasting pan was cooling I packed everything up to take to my in-laws house. Sadly my husband was feeling under the weather and I had to drive. Although it's probably for the best considering I would have cut into that turkey and started eating it on the way up there. Oh, such torture!

Upon our arrival we were greeted with a kitchen of delicious food. I placed the turkey on the stovetop and was given the distinct honor of carving it. Luckily I had watched another Alton Brown's how-to videos and knew exactly how to do it. It was a shame that I didn't have a longer knife, although the one I had did the job pretty well.

All in all my dinner was a complete success! I couldn't have been happier.

Here's to next year!

A number of weeks ago preparations for Fall/Thanksgiving began at my store as one might assume. Aside form the usual pumpkin and cinnamon flavored goodies themed to the season we also received a simple roasting pan. Sure it was just a roasting pan for $9.99 but as I looked it over I thought to myself..."With this pan I could probably cook a great turkey this year." And as soon as that thought escaped I realized that I might not be the one cooking and I would hate to see a roasting pan of such value sell out. So I took a box and set it in the office, telling fellow co-workers that I would get it once I figured out our Thanksgiving plans. Mind you, this was in early October, somewhat early to be thinking about roasting a bird (not something I do on a regular basis.)

A couple of more weeks pass...

Now it's official. I'm cooking the turkey and most of the trimmings. Thinking back to a past experience with the traditional fowl I realized I had no idea what I was doing. At that time I pretty much unwrapped a semi-frozen bird, set the oven to what the bag directed and waited. And waited. And waited. Hoping I wouldn't kill my in-laws with some food borne illness thanks to my ineptitude. Note to self: THAW FROZEN TURKEY BEFORE COOKING. Luckily the turkey cooked and no one had to repeatedly excuse themselves from the table. With that experiment behind me I had to focus on this year's dinner. How the hell was I going to pull this off? I had only planned on making pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. It was then that I turned to the internet...

I searched turkey recipes on foodnetwork.com for something easy but with some flavor. Then I found it! In a small text box on the right side of the page was a title reading "Best Thanksgiving Turkey. Period." Turns out it was a recipe from one of my favorite shows on the channel: Good Eats. The positive reviews and comments on this ranged over 2,000 so I knew I found exactly what I was looking for. Alton Brown is simply a food deity. His recipes can be fairly easy with simplistic instructions, and this one was no different. Basically it was a turkey brine recipe, something which I had never thought to do. It's not as time intensive as I thought, mostly a soak overnight. and the ingredients were real easy to find.

Okay, it's the week before Thanksgiving and my husband and I go to find us a turkey. We didn't need to get a large one since there weren't going to be a lot of people at his parent's house. We ventured to Target to grab a few more of the ingredients and saw that they had a frozen turkey for $.88 a pound. That sounded fine to me so we picked it up, put it in the freezer and I watched and re-watched the video that accompanied the recipe. I was determined to make this to the letter.

It's now the day before...

I spent the whole day at work making sure I had every single thing I needed. Stuffing? check. Gravy? check. Spices for the brine? check. Aromatics (apple, onion, cinnamon)? check. Celery salt for mom's deviled eggs? damn. it. I left work right at 7 and zipped over to Target and grabbed a jar of the the blasted salt and made my way home. Once I got in I had to sit down and come down off the work day. I didn't want to be frazzled while I was trying to cook. I decided I was going to make the pumpkin bars and deviled eggs ahead of time since they could relax in the fridge overnight. In the meantime I got the turkey brine started. Peppercorns, salt, brown sugar, juniper berries, ginger, and four boxes of vegetable stock finally came to a boil. I knew it had to be refrigerated once it cooled but that was taking too long so I put the stockpot in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the process. After things cooled down it was time to unwrap the bird (heh heh.)

Not having cut open the bag on the turkey before I was not prepared for the amount of juice that tried to escape. Whoops. Quickly moving to the sink I continued and grabbed some tongs to take out the nasty bits. Sorry but I wasn't going to touch those. After a thorough rinse It was time to add the main course to the brine concoction I had in a plastic bucket. Oh yes, it was a bright green plastic bucket from Wal-Mart. I moved it over to the corner of the kitchen and began dumping ice cubes in to keep it frosty overnight. After washing my hands of the turkey nastiness and warming them up from all the ice, I covered the bucket up for the night. I checked on the finished deviled eggs happily sitting in the fridge and covered the pumpkin bars with plastic wrap. Good night wonderful treats...tomorrow is the big day.

Thanksgiving morning...

My alarm goes off at 7am but I stay in bed til 7:30. Too tired from the day before. As I slowly make my way into the living room I sit down with the news and watch Alton Brown's videos one more time. After some groggy math I know I have to put the turkey in around 9:30am so we can leave around 12:30 or 1, depending on the cook time....

But I will now pause my story because I just noticed the time and I need to be up at 4am tomm morning to be at work by 5:30. Stupid Black Friday marketing. I will continue this fantastic tale tomm! Stay tuned!

red⋅neck
  /ˈrɛdˌnɛk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [red-nek] Show IPA Informal: Often Disparaging.
–noun
1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
–adjective
3. Also, red-necked. narrow, prejudiced, or reactionary: a redneck attitude.
Also, red-neck.

Origin:
1820–30, Americanism; red 1 + neck

*~*~*~*

The other day my husband was telling me about a conversation he was having with a German friend of his. Funny enough it revolved around American Idol and it's German equivalent and the fact that the singers can be just as bad in other countries. As I listened to his story I got to thinking about how other countries might refer to things like "rednecks" or "hicks" and so forth.

Colloquialisms can be entertaining. I remember when I was studying French we learned various expressions that, when translated into English, didn't make a damn bit of sense. As is true for most languages. But I wonder how someone living in metropolitan London refers to someone from the country...are they similar to what some of us in the States call "rednecks?"

I have always been fascinated by other languages as well as local customs so little things like this intrigue me. I don't mean any offense, it's more of an innocent query.

So I'm going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight tonight.  There will be performers and much participation.  I can't wait!

In the mean time (or if you're un-initiated) check Rocky Horror performed by Bunnies. http://www.angryalien.com/0705/rhpsbuns.asp

Didn't realize it had been two weeks since I last wrote a little tidbit in my LJ.  Let's see what's been going on....

New apartment is all settled
Work proves that people in this town are still just as stupid as ever. (i.e. "Do you sell a shoe stretcher?" o_Owtf)
I am so hell bent on cooking more at home
Planning what to make/bring for Thanksgiving dinner
Already have Christmas gifts planned out
Have been playing: Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Uncharted, NHL 10, and will start Bioshock
Can't wait for Halloween (dressing up at work and Rocky Horror LIVE at midnight!)

And that's about it!

Not overly happy at my job right now.  I don't mind the people I work with but I can't stand working retail any longer.  Although I have decided to switch jobs COMPLETELY and enter the medical field, a nurse to be specific eventually working as an X-Ray tech  I don't know if it's my "dream job" but I think it might be a good fit for me.  I already have a B.A. but I feel very stunted and want to gain new skills and experience.  All of my current job searches have hit dead ends, which is a shame and I feel like I"m wasting my education behind a counter.  

Hopefully next year I'll be able to start classes and get on the path to having a new career! 

Well I'm not on the East Side but I am in a new apartment. 

After three days of late-nights, multiple trips up and down stairs, driving to and from the parking lots, and living with the horrible smell of cardboard...we are finally moved in.  We still have a few boxes to go through but at least we have the furniture set up and the cable working. ^_^

The funny thing is the new apartment has the exact same layout as our old one.  We were lucky and it made planning where to put things a hell of a lot easier.  We decided that this place will try not to resemble the one we left, mainly because it was kinda thrown together haphazardly.  I am so looking forward to finishing up hanging pictures and really making a statement with all of our stuff. 

Also I've come to discover that our new building smells MUCH better than the other one...a friend of ours hypothesized that people had been buried in the walls and frankly I don't discount it.  There was some crazy shit that happened in that building and I'm scared to think about what happened before we moved in.  

Oh lord how I had an epiphany just a few hours ago...funny how that happens.  Want details? Contact me directly ^_^ 

Go to this website...

peopleofwalmart.com

Something about tonight managed to piss me off. 

I was having an off day to begin with, which I think was the result of having an awesome, productive day yesterday.  The realization that I'd probably be dealing with hoards of people shopping for Labor Day sales put me in a funk even before I left the apartment.  Well as it turns out I was not confronted with throngs of shoppers but instead I was met with stubbornness.

Lately I've been getting a lot of shit about my customer service.  I always thought I was a friendly, easy-going person who an communicate effectively and find what you're looking for.  Well according to the management and staff of my store, this is not necessarily true.  This is also why I hate performance reviews.  They show the true colors of your fellow co-workers as they are poised to answer questions regarding your performance in the store.  Thanks everybody! -_-  Back to the topic at hand...apparently I need to step up the leadership role as well as this whole customer service program we've got going on.  I don't know if I give off an intimidating air when I approach people or what but lately I've been unsuccessful in helping customers.  It's not like I'm brash or obnoxious or short when I'm addressing them...I'm very polite (at least it seems that way to me) even more so than I should be.

I think what makes me truly question how much longer I can do this is the more I think about how fake I have to be at work.  Sure, in sales you almost have to lie through your teeth on a daily basis, and I can do that to a certain degree.  However, when it comes to interacting with people I can only fake it so much.  It's taken me years to develop the person I've become and to add a level of something that I'm not on that development is not something I like doing on a day to day basis.  Now it's not guilt that's making me think this way...that little voice has been silenced long ago.  For me, I hate being something that I'm not.  I know that's what separates me from people that I work with and places that I"ve worked for in the past.  I can't cheat myself.  I don't feel like I'm being fair to "me" in acting this way.

C'est la vie I suppose...

I just need to work for myself.  Or at east get paid for writing about life (and the retail industries) little large foibles. 

Why is it that in retail, it's perfectly fine for someone to ignore another person who just asked them if they needed any help?  

I actually had a woman ignore me twice as I did my job in asking if she was finding things alright.  There was actually another guy crouched down looking at candy bars and he glanced over his shoulder, but still didn't say anything to me.  Even a simple hand-up with a grin and a nod would have been fine by me.  It's not like I was clear across the store and bellowed to this lady.  I was within reasonable speaking distance and was very polite.  The Catch-22 in this is if you don't ask if they need help, the person can report bad customer service or be a potential secret shopper.  But if you do provide good customer service, you have the potential for being blown-off completely. o_0?

I just don't understand people sometimes.

When you go through the books and books and videos upon videos of customer service training they don't really "prepare" you for dealing with sheer stupidity.  And sadly, there are numerous moments when I'm on the floor and I just don't want to help people because my chipper retail persona had been rapidly deflated by a pin of stupidity.  Case in point -- this evening alone I had two people one right after the other, when asked if they had an ID for their alcohol purchase, tell me that they left it in their car.  Really?  And these are the same type of people who are unbelievably paranoid about identity theft.  One of the customers told me that "well, when you come into a store and you know what you need to get..."  I'm sorry...this is not a valid justification for leaving an identification card in your car especially if you are buying something that could potentially be sold to a minor.  And my store is not the only one who has this "We check IDs" policy.  Ever been to a 7-11 or a grocery store?  Same deal.  

One last scenario before I end this post --

The first customer I had today (that actually spoke to me) asked about the floor size candle holders we had in our window display.  I walked her over the the candle section and pointed them out.  She asked me if those were the only two.  I said yes, these as well as the ones in the window.  Then she asked the price.  I started to read it off and before I could get to the cents she waved me off and said "Oh, you can stop right there!"  So I paused and she was like, fanning herself and raving about how she couldn't afford it and blah, blah, blah.  I just kinda shook my head, smiled, placed the candle holder back, and left her to her own devices.  The trick is knowing when to leave a confusing/ignorant customer behind.  I try to answer their question as best I can, but if I'm walking into a diatribe or other such nonsense I slowly start to back away.  I always say: "If you need anything else feel free to ask" or "I'll let you browse around for a little while. Go ahead and take your time."

I'll wait and see what this weekend will bring.        

  

*sigh*  Well I did it.  I created a Twitter account.  I'm not sure I'll use it (though that's exactly what I said about this LJ account and look where I am now!) but only time will tell I suppose.  The only reason I did it was to enter myself in a drawing to win a free iPod touch packed full of RiffTrax stuff.  The husband and I seeing their live show on Thurs and figured "what the hell."  The awesome thing is everyone in the theater that wins gets free stuff too!

If you interested in potentially following what crazy antics I may or may not be up to, I'm using the same username.  Follow me!  If you dare...  Oh hell, if anything I'll be a conformist and see what celebrities are up to. ^_^   

This has got to be my favorite thing on YouTube so far.  When I first watched it, this little video turned what was a complete waste of day into something just a little bit better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsf_QlFNGYg

For added enjoyment, here's a second version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpT8l94CKcs

P.S. I am having trouble embedding videos lately...and I'm not sure why...

Today's Fresh Prince moment is brought to you by...dancing!

For the past two days I have been inundated with phone calls regarding this Fandango promo my company started.  Luckily it ended tonight.  The real ass-kicker has been three separate phone conversations I had with a college student who has a whole slew of questions.  And now for your reading pleasure, I give you some of those details...

1st Conversation Highlights

College Girl: "Um, so I got this email about a free movie ticket.  Do you guys still have them?"
Me: "Well, we don't give them out.  The website that you need to go to is printed on the bottom of the receipt."
College Girl: "So I just have to make a purchase?"
Me: "Yup, that's all you have to do."
College Girl: "Can it be on anything?  Is there a certain amount?"
Me: "Yes, anything you want.  It can be for any amount.  What you need is on the receipt."
College Girl: "Do I need to bring in the email to confirm the ticket?"
Me: "No, just need to come in and make a purchase."

2nd Conversation Highlights

College Girl: "Do you have anything in the store for like, fifty cents?  I just want something cheap."
Me: "We have candy near the registers that's pretty cheap."
College Girl: "Well see I'm sending my father in and I need specific instructions for him.  And I don't want to have to make like a twenty dollar purchase for movie tickets."
Me: **pause**
College Girl: "I know I sound cheap but I don't want to pay nine dollars to go see Harry Potter.  I mean, I'm a college student!"

3rd Conversation Highlights (from today)

Me: "Did you call yesterday?"
College Girl: "Yeah, I did."
Me: "Ah, I think I spoke to you.  Well everything I told you yesterday hasn't changed."
College Girl: "Well I saw in the fine print in my email that there are only going to be 10,000 of these tickets and I need ot know if you're sold out."
Me: "We have absolutely no way tracking that.  It's a company wide promotion and we have stores across the country."
College Girl: "Well I live in Harrisburg, PA and there are no stores near me.  I called a store in Louisiana where my aunt lives and they didn't know anything about it.  I just wanted to make sure you were still giving the tickets away."
Me: "Yeah we're still doing the promo but we have no idea of knowing how many people have registered that passcode."
College Girl: "Let me ask you a question...say hypothetically you do three seperate transactions giving you three seperate receipts.  Can those seperate receipts be used to get threee movie tickets?  I mean is there like a restriction on how many receipts you can have per address..."
Me: **I cut her off** "Technically I'm sure you could do it that way, but tell you what...whoever you send to the store, just have them go online as soon as they get home or have them give you the passcode off the reciept.  The longer you wait to do this you might not get the tickets."
College Girl: "Oh okay!"

So, the girl's dad did make his way to the store.  And sure enough he did three seperate transactions...for three Lindt truffles....worth a whopping 49 cents each.  And he paid in pocket change for each one.  All this because some girl was too f'ing cheap to go see a matinee of Harry Potter and needed to get tickets for herself and her friends from a store that doesn't exist in her area.  Though it shocking how many people think we had a huge stack of movie tickets just hanging out at the register that we would "give away."  

I really don't know what the hell the company was thinking when they decided to do this promo.  I have a feeling a lot of pot was envolved at that meeting... 

 
 

I actually managed to get back on that wretched contraption yesterday, as well as this evening and I have to say it didn't kick my ass like I thought it would.  Actually, I split up my 30 minutes between the treadmill and the recumbent bike.  Man those sprint intervals really did anumber on my thighs.  Which is exactly what I want!  The main reason I haven't been as active is because the community sucked at getting their equipment fixed and I'm too poor to get a gym membership.  The good thing is I can still rely on the heavy labor at my everyday job...

Oh and to really drive the fitness point home, I totally screwed my workout by polishing of a slice of devil's food cake and guzzling a sweet, delicious Dr. Pepper.  Wheee!! 

I suck at this "being healthy" thing XD

P.S. Completely unrelated to anything in the the above post...I have recovered the hilarious commercials and bumps from the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite.  Through the courtesy of YouTube of course.  These visual threads wove together the fabric of my childhood and early teen years. I think they played a hand in making me the nerd you have come to know and love.  ^_^

Sure, the title may be a little harsh but if you've ever visited your local mall or especially a strip mall/shopping center you can't help but notice the strange crowd of people that decide to go shopping an hour before everything closes.

One of my other manager informed me that a lady this evening asked what the hole in her outdoor table was for.  o_O?  Seriously?  She needed to be told an outdoor umbrella is supposed to fit in the hole for her outdoor table that is to be used outdoors.  To which I replied: "Didn't she know that's the hole for her beer bong?"

Now, Friday nights are odd in nature.  It's the last day of work, it's the start of the weekend, and some people can get off work early.  Also the fact that it's summer means that Fridays tend to be the first day of travel for people leaving town.  Case in point, I was out back waiting to load up some furniture and the traffic southbound on 95 was crawling, almost dead stopped.  I for one have never liked closing on Fridays, I think it harkens back to memories of working in the mall...*shudder*  the mall...I don't miss working there. 

Glad I'm not closing tomorrow...Saturday nights are worse...



 

Dear Irate Tote Bag Customer,

I implore you to accept the fact that when we run out of a complimentary tote bag, said tote bag is not coming back.  We are not lying to you about it being sold out.  There is no reason for us to do so.  The company mandated that the bag was to be given out WITHOUT a purchase.  It is not the store's fault that people walk through the door, ask for the bag and then leave.  Also let it be known that it is simply a bag made of recycled materials that will probably end up sitting atop your fridge or end up buried in a second floor closet.  If you are running in for the sheer "thrill" of getting it, then might I suggest heading to a local theme park and riding a roller coaster or doing something else that provides a real thrill.  

Furthermore, do not get terse with myself of my cashier because you received your Sunday paper with the ad when the giveaway began on Saturday.  I have no control of the newspaper delivery service.  If I did, I sure wouldn't be working in retail.  I would find other ways to use my newly discovered powers of information control.  

In summary, I ask once again that you, Irate Tote Bag Customer please take "no" for an answer and move on.  The store is not trying to cheat you out of something that 50+ other people got before you.  I thank you for being a loyal customer who misses out on every special event and hope that you will continue to fill our store with angry grumbles and complaints that fall on deaf ears at the corporate office. 



 

It's amazing how important the concept of conversion has become lately.  The concept is like this: turn lookers into buyers.  Its really as simple as that.  Or is it?

We have a handy little spreadsheet  that comes to the store's email, every day at around 11:30am.  This spreadsheet lists hour by hour the amount of people who walked in the store, how many transactions took place, and compares these numbers to last years numbers.  Now these numbers are obviously from the day before since the data can't be tallied until after the store is closed.  I also think it's because the corporate headquarters is four time zones away in California.  And we all know how stores can't breathe on their own without HQ supplying the air from over 1,000 miles away.

So we are to take this conversion data, contrast it to who was managing the floor for what hour and proceed to scrutinize how that manager could have done a better job...or that's at least what HQ wants us to do.  Luckily I work with intelligent women who don't agree with the idiotic system.  We had a Saturday where all three of us were working on the floor.  So who's responsibility is it to watch how the conversion is going?  I'd think it would be on all three of us.  We don't have one single floor manager.  The store is too big and customers will ask anyone for help even if you're not wearing a nametag and apron.  We as managers have to assist everyone, including the associates.  

Another factor in our conversion data is the unpredictability of OPC's, or Other People's Children.  OPC's are notorious for running back and forth and in and out of the automatic door.  Luckily most of them are too short to affect the infared sensor that counts you as you walk through the threashold.  Now, teenage OPC's are another matter.  Case in point, this very evening I watch a teenager walk in and out of my store four times.  He darted outside looking for someone then came back inside.  Then he ran to the front again, crossing the threshold, and came back in.  Eventually he left the store completely and didn't come back.  Unfortunately this shows that four seperate people walked in, left, and didn't buy anything four different times.  I'm a little afraid to see how my data turns out tomorrow.  

I agree with the fact that conversion should be "turning lookers into buyers" but I don't agree with how the numbers read.  It doesn't reflect what really happens within those hours.  You could have 5 people walk in at 6:15pm and not leave until 8pm.  Two of them could leave, walk down to another store, come back in to meet the rest of their group, and only one out of the five makes a purchase.  Situations like that make it had to look at conversion numbers from an hourly standpoint.  It makes sense to look at it from the end of the day totals.      

At our recent meeting we talked about things you can control within the parameters of the store.  Sure, you can keep employees from breaking the infared sensor by limbo-ing or ducking underneath it when going in and out on break.  Will they do it every time?  Probably not.  And sometimes no matter how hard you try you just might not get a sale out of anyone.  This can be a result of not having what the customer is looking for, being out of stock of a popular item (a topic I'll discuss later in the week), or someone changing their mind and leaving the store.  We can only persuade people so much to buy items.  And nowadays thats getting harder by the minute. 

Stupid economy.

         

I never thought that after nine years I'd still be working in retail.  Four of those years have been spent as management, but the fact remains I am still serving the public and operating a cash register. 

So what's the big deal?

Well after spending four years in college working my ass off to get a degree... I am certainly not using it.  Yes, I could have had an internship before I graduated but I actually was more concerned with passing all of my classes and making sure I had enough credit hours to even graduate in the first place.  And now that I think about it, I don't know if an internship would have even helped me at all...

When I think back to what I wanted to be when I grew up, retail management was definitely not on that list.  The top choice actually was a marine biologist followed closely by photographer for National Geographic.  These were decisions I had made at the age of eleven and I was very set on doing one of the two.  By the time I reached high school I had thought about the entertainment business.  Not necessarily and actor or anything lofty like that, but rather a entertainment reporter like on E! or even Access Hollywood (before it got all tabloid-y.)  I wanted to be involved with the world of celebrities but from a behind-the-scenes point of view.  I also discovered in high school that I enjoyed writing.  As cliche as it sounds it's the God's honest truth.  I liked writing conversationally and figured that would transfer over well to the world of entertainment and the media.  Before I graduated high school I knew I wanted to do journalism.  The sad thing is I didn't involve myself in the school paper or yearbook, which I know probably hurt me a little in the long run.  But I suppose I figured, "Okay.  I get a clean slate in college and I'll start something there."  Yeah -- that's certainly what I told myself freshman year.

Having passed through four years of college without a single involvement in the campus media (outside of my journalism classes) I knew I was probably screwed for getting a lucrative media job right out of the gate.  But I guess it goes back to the old saying: "It's not what you know, but who you know."  That couldn't be more true...

Not having a bright, shiny beacon to signal prospective employers I stuck with what I (unfortunately) knew and that was retail.  I needed to make money before I moved out of the house and continued with my adult life.  I had a knack for getting hired on the spot once I got an interview so I was a litle blase about my job hunt.  I had hoped that I would only be for the summer and then I'd land an office job.

Oh yes, I am that sick individual who actually wants an office job.  The idea of having my own desk, work five days a week with a set schedule, actual weekends, and (gasp) holidays off sends a disgusting, happy smirk across my face.  Sure, along with that crazy rat-race dream I'd have to content with office politics, commuting, and traffic amongst other things.  But I think I like the idea of stability and consistency.  I don't know how much longer I can take getting a mini-guilt trip when I miss out on a birthday or holiday because I have to close the store that night, or I have to work all weekend.  I would love to have weekends off and be home around 6 or 7 in the evening to have dinner with my husband instead of rolling in around 10pm, seeing him for three hours, then getting ready for bed.

What is it going to take for me to find another career path?  Apparently I'm not qualified to be a receptionist or even an administrative assistant.  Not qualified?  You found someone else who background matches your needs?  I'm sorry but I respectfully disagree.  Not to sound cocky but you didn't even interview me. How would you know that I'm not as qualified or even more so than this supposed applicant you have decided to hire?   I can answer phones, use a fax machine, send and receive emails, use Excel, talk with clients, talk with upper level management, work with executives, produce logical thought patterns, walk upright....okay, those last two were out of frustration.  Even though I hate to admit it, but working retail this long has taught me how to interact with people in ways I had never imagined.  Nothing compares to the abject stupidity I deal with on an everyday basis.  It truly is amazing how dumb people can be once they set foot out of their own house.  But I'm going to leave that rant for another post...    

All in all, I'm looking for a change of environment.  A place where I can finally get my career started.  I'm 26 years old.  I want to find stability in my work-life.  Luckily I'm happily married and that's really what gets me through everyday, the realization that I have someone to come home to.  I just hate feeling like I have potential talent that is going to waste.  I didn't stay with dance, I didn't stay with music, and I'm not really good at art.  I'd like to think I write reasonably well.  Maybe well enough to get a job doing it.  

*sigh*

I guess I'll just keep applying and keep trying to market my skills and hope that someone will pick up the phone and call, or sit down and send me an email....I'll be waiting...