Filed under: Emotions, Food, Good day | Tags: friends, Good day, learning, Ricky, shopping
May 23rd, 2008
I had a great day today. In the rankings of great days, maybe today was even a very great day. I am glad and grateful for what transpired and sometimes you have to think in the grand scheme of things how you came to be where you are in your life and who has an affect on you. I was off from work today and although I really needed to focus on my craft today because the time I have for it is so scarce I threw all usual day off schedules to the wind and went out for a play date with my friend Ricky. He is a sweetheart, an all around great guy, the kind of person who is few and far between, true blue special. I love good food and good shopping and he was reeling from a very current break-up and needed to talk, walk and connect. I hope and think that I was an adequate companion, a shoulder, a silly partner in crime and a sounding board. I see so much of myself in him and that makes me happy. I like him and he and I are similar so as logic would have it, I should be pretty pleased with myself. I have been as of late. Feeling proud, accomplished, creative, strong and worthy and the quest for these things knows no boundaries– it is surprising that age, status, sexual orientation, accomplishments and other such things mean nothing when the need for answers, validation and acceptance are sought after.
We ate until we bust, we talked, shopped and enjoyed our afternoon implicitly. Joy comes from the most unexpected places and the most seemingly mundane like sitting in the blistering wind eating a six dollar piece of chocolate cake, not burning your lips on a delicious cup of coffee and knowing that you matter.
Filed under: Good day, Humor, blogging, marriage | Tags: Good day, Mike, power out, zombies
May 22nd, 2008
(written May 23rd, 2008 )
Last night we lost power and the first thing I thought was, “Crap, I can’t blog!” Maybe after the thought of “Crap, I can’t see anything!” came. It was about 8:30 and we had been experiencing wicked winds here all day, it was oddly only about 75 degrees and raining like crazy. So everything just shut off right quick as if someone pulled this giant power cord. The TV even did that funny thing where everything gets sucked into that tiny silver dot into the middle of the screen, I think it even went, “Poof!”
Mike and I just sat there, maybe looking right at each other but unable to see each other’s expressions. Now what? Flashlight.
Me-We have a flashlight? Cool.
Mike-Light some candles.
Me-We only have the smelly kind.
Mike-Okay.
So we did that, put some candles on until the house smelled like potpourri.
Me-Now what?
Mike-This is when the zombies come.
I’m not kidding, that is what he said and that is the topic of discussion into the wee hours. He talked about how it will happen and then went into the bedroom to get his gun. Asked me where his second clip was, I said by the door and we sat and drank wine and waited for our impending doom.
The power did come back on eventually and I guess technically by then I still could have squeezed out a post in time but by then I was drunk, tired from my eyes trying to see in the soft glow of candles and too afraid to be alone.
Filed under: Etsy, Fun, Good day, Music, TV, Work, movies | Tags: American Idol, David Cook, Etsy, george michael, Good day, iTunes, National Treasure, ricky doo, SadieAndLeo.etsy.com
May 21st, 2008
Here are a couple of awesome things about today:
Winner of American Idol:
My friend Ricky:
George Michael will be touring the US this year; first time in 17 years:
And some dude from South Dakota bought a very cool necklace from my shop:
National Treasure- Book of Secrets will be downloading into my iTunes library as I sleep tonight:
What a great day!
May 18th, 2008
Things to be happy about today:
1. Mike coming home from a business weekend in Phoenix… if the van is a-rockin’ don’t come a-knockin’.
2. Making a friend of mine smile by leaving her a comment on The Space, of mutual interest.
3. Knowing that what I’m doing creatively is because of my faith in something greater. This isn’t religious, just spiritual.
4. Finally cleaned out the fridge.
5. Finding out that I like country music. I know! Who knew?
6. Scooping up a bunch of new supplies from Etsy shops late last night; can’t wait to get my hands on them.
7. Learning new functions on my iPod by accident, like the On-the-go function.
8. Clean laundry.
9. Emailed a friend I hadn’t heard from a while this weekend and knowing that he is doing okay makes all the difference.
10. Watch The Full Monty, one of my top ten movies.
March 1st, 2008
I had an unexpectedly great day with Mike today. He is feeling better and so we spent the day together out and about, doing things that married people do who have no particular place to be. We woke up very late and he said let’s go to Ihop and our servers name was actually Flo, no joke. She was by miles the best server I have ever had in an Ihop, the best, and you know she was born sometime around 1935 and that made her authentic. Then we went to Jo-Ann’s where I ran into Bill, one of the nicest people I have ever met and one of the people I have know the longest here in Tucson. So nice to see him. Funny enough, last night he found my Etsy shop and dropped me a note letting me know how much he liked my shop. It was such a wonderful thing to hear and I appreciated it very much. Mike then picked out some little treasures because he wants me to make him a bracelet. I know! He picked out all of the beads and what-not, so I will definitely be expanding my mens section because I really feel that there is a need for it and a demand. I have had some first time buyers in my mens section so I know that the buyers are out there. Designing for men is a real challenge for me because I tend to either be really bold and colorful or romantic and girly with my jewelry in general so doing mens is a different look and feel. I do hope that I don’t fall into mens jewelry traps, like making every thing too brown or too contrived. That is why I go to the source and really listen to what Mike likes or dislikes. What he does dig kind of surprises me sometimes, and that’s good because they are ideas I may not have had the courage to try that particular idea. After that we went to Target to get my prescription, and then to DSW because shoe shopping is like a drug to me. Sadly though, Mike found two pairs of beauts and I found nothing. I know! You would think in the 8 miles of shoes for women I would have found one pair. But I think that was the problem, shoe over load. I just wasn’t feeling it. I think it was because of last night before we went out for dinner I was having a shoe meltdown, I couldn’t decide on what shoes to wear because my shoe collection is all over the place and disorganized. I should take Stacey and Clinton’s advice and stick Polaroids of all of my shoes on the outsides of the boxes so I don’t have to dig through all of my boxed to realize that I’ve lost my red strappy sandals with the little jewels on them. Who really has a Polaroid camera anyway?
It was a lovely day. It ended with us going to Safeway, with some Starbucks, and pushing the cart around not knowing what we were going to make for dinner. It was perfect and now I am going to spend the rest of the day creating. Most of the day we talked about our “kid”. Yup. Because I’m so untraditional in so many ways, and because I don’t believe in fanfare or being the center of attention, I guess just putting that out there on my blog is the best way to announce that, as possible. We’re not going to wait any longer, because what are we waiting for really? Are we waiting for every thing in our lives to be perfect, to be as secure as we want to be, to have a house, to have the perfect jobs. No. It has nothing to do with our ages it just feels like the right time for us. There is no perfect time to have a kid, it is just our perfect time. So my health willing and all of our parts in working order, we’re going to try and make a smaller version of us this year. This didn’t just come all of a sudden, we have been discussing the topic for about 7 or 8 months now, and of course for the length of our relationship, what’s that about ten years now. We just know it’s the right time. Now I’ve got to go get one of those horrid books on pregnancy health and what not. I dread bad advice so if there are any suggestions out there on which one to go with let me know.
I gladly welcome March, so far so good.
We decided on Steak-ums for dinner. Yeah, that’s right, Steak-ums.
Filed under: Commentary, Emotions, Good day, Work, soapbox | Tags: Good day, management, retail, Work
May 28th, 2008
I have to apologize to people who actually had to read my crap yesterday and were kind enough to leave me a comment of encouragement. I’m a big whiny baby sometimes because I lose sight of my backbone, the truth that everyone has bad days and that I’m not actually the center of the universe. I was feeling cranky because of said events, it was bittersweet/long time coming/actually somewhat fulfilling in a twisted wrong way to have to fire my boss (and in all technicality I didn’t fire her, per se, I just had to deliver the news that she would be rightly paid out by the company for the rest of the week and that she need not report to work but to return her store keys) and I did this because my District Manager is shallow, spineless and in all intents and purposes, Lucifer, Ruler of Hell. So was I upset I had to do it, no, just upset that I wasn’t the one who should have done it. I’m old school, there is a process for everything; I’m a stickler for professionalism and I demand it even in my shitty retail world. Why not too? Just because we are the bottom-feeders of the work world doesn’t mean we have to do it without dignity. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one riding my high horse.
But I’m not. Luckily I have three people with me who are supporting a positive change in our store. The three other managers I work with all have a commonality: they want to learn, they are eager to improve and they are open to grow. Thankfully you see, I am not up the proverbial creek. I do have support, the only problem I see is now the responsibility to get them where they need to be lies with me. I know I am fully capable of teaching them everything I know, the truth is they know more than they think they know. But what makes it more challenging is that I have to unteach them bad habits. In their defense, they don’t do anything wrong, they just learned how to do things just to make the ousted manager happy. So it was never a battle to learn and to grow and to obtain the simple tools they needed to be great managers, it was a war to just get by to be good managers.
Why do I care? I care because I can’t have my ninth year with this company be for naught. What started out as a job just to pay my bills so I could do this and that has turned into a life lesson. Judge me if you will, scoff at my decision to put my degree aside while taking the easy road working the grind as a retail manager. It’s not easy and anyone who has been in my shoes knows this and knows this well. Why do you still do it? I do it because I’m good at it, no, I’m great at it. I never have fooled myself into thinking I am perfect at it, there are parts of it that dumbfound even me. I have found that I actually like succeeding and I succeed at a lot of what my job challenges me and those challenges are ever changing. So my challenge right now is to teach those around me what I know. At least now I have the freedom and the support to do just that without having that feeling of taking over someone else’s job, outshining someone else, or the bitter emotions from that someone else for doing what should have been done all along.
For whatever else I bitched about yesterday, I apologize, although I still miss American Idol because I’m a dork.