So, I am almost finished packing. Really all I need to pack now is my make-up and other toiltries, which I still need to use this morning, hence why they are not packed. I have to take my garbage out and clean my dishes and then I will be all set to go. I hope work goes fast today but it will probably drag on. You know how it goes.

So, I won't be posting for the next two days because I'm not taking my laptop with me to Portland. I am proud of myself that I was able to keep with this all month long. Only missing like 2 days! That's amazing for me. Now that I have gotten into the habit of blogging again, I hope that I can keep it up. I can promise you it won't be every day like I tried to this month but it will more regular, I promise. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Well, since the rumor is already out there.

I really should be packing right now but I sat down and I can't get up. *lol* I am so stoked for this weekend! I really wish I could just skip work and just go straight to Portland. But alas, I do. Speaking of work, I guess the cat is out of the bag (is that how that expression goes?) So, for those of you who don't know. I applied for a Assistant Buyer position at B&N's head office. I wanted to keep it on the download just in case nothing came of it but I was asked about twice this week by people so I guess word has already spread. The reason that I wanted to keep it quiet was when I was planning on moving to Chicago a couple of years ago, I basically told everyone that was what I was planning on doing. People would ask me, "Weren't you going to move to Chicago?" and it really got to me. I was kind of embarrassed that after I told everyone I was going to and that it turns out I didn't. I really didn't want to do that this time. If I don't get this position or end up moving to New York, I didn't want to have to explain to people in a year, why I'm still here but I guess that boat has sailed. At least this time around, I can say, hey, I just didn't get the job and there shouldn't be any shame into that. I'm not really sure I am qualified for it and I am pretty positive they prefer someone already living in New York to someone who will have to relocate. I'm really not trying to get my hopes up. About two weeks ago, I did have an initial interview, I guess. The HR representative wanted to ask me a few questions and give a brief overview of the job. She did say that it was early in the job search and that she will contact me whether they want to do a formal interview or not. I'm sure the fact that I haven't heard anything yet is a good thing. It means I still in the running, right? Again, trying not get my hopes up but wouldn't it be so cool to live in New York! You all will have to come and visit me.

Ok, now back to packing. I mean start packing! Go USA!

Oops, I forgot to post something last night. I was going to do it after work but we went out to Old Chicago and when I got home I was just too tired. Yesterday wasn't that busy. I think everyone got all their shopping done on Friday and Saturday and were using yesterday to get ready to go back to work after the long weekend. It's funny. When I wanted it to be busy it wasn't. So, you know, Today will probably be crazy because I don't expect it to be and I have several things I want to get done before this weekend! Yes, this weekend! The most amazing weekend of my life! DAVIS CUP! and KATHARINE! I don't know how Kat feels about coming home but I'm freaking excited! I've really missed her. I have cleaned my apartment in and got out some good dvd's and vhs tapes in anticipation of her staying here. Just one more week!! She did ask me what I wanted for my birthday and really her coming home is the best present I could ask for.

Maybe Christmas doesn't come in a store.

I'm sitting on my floor watching The Holiday (LOVE THIS MOVIE!) and trying to get myself psyched to get out my Christmas Tree. I figure if I don't do it now while I still have some holiday spirit in me then I won't do it. And that is what I hate the most about my job. Christmas used to be my favorite holiday of the year and now I just wish it get over with and done. Working in retail has really shown how materialistic the holiday has become. It is no longer about Good Will Towards Your Fellow Man but more of what can I give them to impress them. It's no longer about enjoying your time with your friends and family but worrying and stressing out about spending time with your friends and family. I really do feel like a Grinch but my goal is not to get caught up with other people's drama. Not to get to upset with customers who are rude or coworkers who complain. I want to enjoy the season for all it's worth. So, today I am going to put up my Christmas Tree and my singing penguins and later put on the Muppet's Christmas Carol and get into the Holiday Spirit!

In other news, today is my last day off before what will hopefully be a really great Week! Thursday, Mom, Dad and I are going to Portland for the Davis Cup Finals! USA vs. Russia! It's a tennis thing if you don't know. We are actually leaving Wednesday after work and driving to Chicago and leaving from there. This wasn't the original plan but it works out quite nicely because the Monday we come back, Katharine is meeting us there and we are going home TOGETHER! And then Tuesday, we all go back to work! My birthday is the Thursday after we come back (December 6, for those who want to know) And then that Sunday is my bday party with Jackie, who is also a December birthday! So now that I think about it. I have too many great things to look forward to be buried down in all this holiday no-spirit non sense. It's going to be a great Holiday Season! I can feel it.

Black Friday!

The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday in the retail world because it is the biggest sales day of the year. Or at least it has been in the past. Today is going to be hella busy but I think the biggest sales day of the year now falls on the Saturday before Christmas. You know, the final weekend for all those procrastinators to shop. Yeah. Anyway, Today is Black Friday and I am currently mentally preparing myself to go to work. I still have another 3 hours before I have to report to work and every minute that goes by makes me more anxious. To be perfectly honest it's not as bad as people think it is. Yes, it is busy and crazy and there is a lot of people walking around asking stupid questions but this is only the beginning. I mean it's still early. People will have some of the Thanksgiving glow on them and will be a little bit more patient and nice but as the season goes on, they start to get cranky and well, just plain mean. I rather work today then that last Saturday before Christmas or even Christmas Eve. Nothing says, Good will towards all men then have have a book thrown at you on Christmas Eve. See, what I mean, people get me. But enough about that. I'm sure I will have more rants later in the season so I will save those for later. Today is Black Friday. Our store has been open since 6am. The openers have been there since 4:30am! and will be long gone by the time the closers (me) comes in at 3pm. Now I much rather close on a day like this then open because I think it's better to be incredibly busy when I first get there and it be slow at night then the other way around. To me it just makes the day go faster. Plus, there is always the possibility of going out for beer after! I think I'm supposed to be a line supervisor, which is the worst job in the world because you have to stand at the front of the line, ask the customers if they have a membership card, if they need gift cards and gift receipts and so on and so on. I feel like I am really wasted here. It should be someone new or at least someone who is slow on the registers and info. I should be out there on the floor helping customers. Not only do I work 40 hours a week and know what displays are up and where they and what is on most of them I AM A LEAD! If they don't want me to be at info, then put me on a register. I know I can ring faster then all of the new hires! I think this makes sense. On one of our busiest days of the year, we should be highlighting our best people and not just throw anyone anywhere to fill up space. I know schedules are difficult to make but to me this is just common sense. Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it now but do the best I can in whatever role they give me. And to all of you still planning on going shopping today DON'T! Or at least wait until later tonight when it isn't so crazy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving. I'm sure you all know that but it was a good opening. I guess John, Kat's boyfriend, fiance or roommate (whatever he is for this week) has gone around telling his friends in Wales that Thanksgiving is "Like Christmas but without the presents". Well I guess that is true in some sense right? But Katharine has been trying to set them right but once she gets the the pilgrims and the Indians, the Welsh ask why we, Americans, would have a holiday celebrating the slaughter of the American Indians. And that's not true. That is not what Thanksgiving is about. Yes, if you know our history, we haven't always been fair or gracious to the American Indians and we will have to deal with that and really I wish that the story of the Pilgrims and the Indians was never introduced in the holiday because it has only really distracted from the true meaning of the holiday. Thanksgiving is about being thankful. Thankful for the friends and family in your life and getting together and celebrating those unions and relationships. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for the gifts in one life. Most of us are not living the lives that we have hoped but for most of us we have so many other great things going on in lives to be thankful for. Thanksgiving gives us a chance to stop and look around. Most of us are so busy with jobs, family, and friends that we often lose track of what is most important in life. Of course there is irony in having Thanksgiving being the kick-off for the Holiday shopping season and all that good will and thankfulness will go out the window come tomorrow morning but let's leave that for another time.

So in the spirit of the holiday, please indulge me this little tradition of going around the table and telling each other what we are thankful for. I'll go first. :-)

I am thankful for my family. My parents and my sister Katharine. They are my rocks and my strength. They have support me and love me. I truly enjoy spending time with them whether it is going shopping with me, watching boxing or other sports with dad or just hanging out with Katharine laughing and doing something silly. I love them and I am grateful everyday for them. Thank You

I am thankful for my friends. I am blessed to have them in my life. They make going to work worth it. They make every day things seem fun and make me laugh. They are amazing and I love them! Thank You

I am thankful for my job. Yes at times it is frustrating and I am really underpaid but it also allows me to pay my bills and live a comfortable life. I may not have a lot of extra cash at the end of the month but I do not have to worry about if I am going to have enough cash to pay my bills every month. It has also introduce me to some of the most important and amazing people in my life. The friendships that I have developed through my job makes all the cranky customers, corporate bill shit, and annoying coworkers worth it. And for that I am really thankful.

This next one might sound superficial at first but I am thankful for the Internet. It has allowed me to talk to my friends and family faster and easier then before. I mean how else would I in Iowa be able to ask my sister in Katharine to get Jeremiah's address in California if it wasn't for the Internet? It keeps me connected with my friends and my favorites sports, entertainment and news. It is a lot of things but I see only the positives!

I am thankful for being me. I know I don't have a lot but I know I have more then a lot of people in the world. I need to learn to be happy with what I have not to wish for things that are out of my control. I am thankful for all the people in my life. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope today is a nice relaxing day. And remember all the things you have to be thankful tomorrow when you are out doing your Christmas shopping!

Over the River and Through the Woods

It's snowing outside. The first of the season and just in time for Thanksgiving. I'm not a huge fan of snow. Snow means cold and cold means an unhappy Beth. It's also not the best timing either for driving. Driving to our friend Annie's house can be treacherous enough when the weather is nice so I'm really not looking forward to the possibility of driving tomorrow if it's still going to be snowing or possibly icy. She lives basically in the middle of nowhere and the road twists and turns and there is always the possibility of wildlife to come out no where and attack! Ok, may not attack but run out in front of my car. It's even scarier at night when you can't see what's coming your way. So, that's not cool but I'm sure everything will be fine. I just have to drive carefully and hope all the animals are having their Thanksgiving dinners away from the main road.

So, right now I am typing on my new laptop, while I am copying files off of my old laptop so I can put it on this one. How cool is that? It's not going as fast as I like because one laptop is super fast and the other is super slow. But when it's done it will be so worth it!

Lost in Your Eyes

On my day off today, I decided to get my annual eye exam. Yippee! So, the good news is that my eyesight has not got any worse but there's always a but. Apparently, I have this fluid of puffiness in the back of my retina nerve or something like that. You would think that I would have paid better attention to what exactly it is but alas, I did not. It had a very fancy and long medical sounding name so it's somewhat serious. Dr. E, said that it effects the vision in about 1 in out of 10 patients who have it. So, I really I have a 90% chance that I will never know anything is wrong with my eyes. Other then that, my eyes are completely healthy and my contact prescription hasn't changed from last year so I just had to reordered my contacts and I was done. Oh, and because whatever I have is a medical condition, they had to bill my medical insurance and not my eye so a.) I have wiped out my deductible for this year, so really I should be making appointments to see every doctor I can think of until the rest of the year and b.) I still have all my benefits left in my vision insurance so I can get some really nice glasses! I haven't bought new glasses since high school, I think. I only wear my glasses at home and then really only from my bed to my bathroom in the morning and then from my bathroom to my bed at night but I do think if I had glasses that I liked and were my prescriptions then I would wear them more. Probably not to work or anything but on my days off and stuff like that. I'm pretty excited about it.

In other news, This will be the last post with my old laptop. After my eye exam, I bought a new laptop! Right now, the good people at Best Buy's Geek Squad is cleaning it up, installing anti-virus and taking off all the promotion crap that I don't need or want. I only have another 2 more hours before I can pick it up! Woohoo!

Heroes

I have problem remembering to tape Heroes on Monday night. I usually work Mondays so that is what makes it difficult. I remembered 2 weeks ago, I forgot last week but I just programmed my vcr just now, So go me!! After tonight I will be 3 episodes behind but I figure if the writer's strike goes on forever like predicted, I'll have something to watch in the fall.

Why would you do that?

Tonight, as we were closing the mall gate at work, a father yelled out to us "My kids are in there". Jackie replied, "alone? well, kids should not be left unattended in the store" The father responded, "they're 12. Even if they are 12?" Jackie came up with really the best answer because it really wasn't one that he could argue with and doesn't make us the bad guy. "Mall security that kids are never left unattended." It was the right response but what she really wanted to say was, "what? You don't think 12 year's old don't get abducted?" For those of you who don't know, our store is a mall store next to I-80, one of the busiest interstates in the country. We don't have the time or the capabilities to watch every child that comes into the store. We have no idea which child belongs to which parent. WE ARE NOT BABYSITTERS! It would be so easy for someone to lure a child away and get in there car and they would be gone. They could get on I-80, I-380, Hwy 965, 6, or 1 and that's just the major road ways or they could be taken to one of the many houses or apartments in the area. So, it's really troubling when a parent leaves their child in our kids department and then go off into the mall to shop. Why risk it? Why risk losing your child so you can have a hour to shop. and you know that if we are ever unfortunate to have a child kidnapped from our store we are totally going to be sued and most likely we would lose. So, next time we are with your child, niece, nephew or your friend's child, don't leave them in the store thinking that they will be safe because there is no one there watching them.

So much for posting every day. Oh well, I did a lot better then I thought I would do. The reason why I didn't get around to posting something yesterday was I got sick. I knew I was coming down with something and as much as I tried to deny it, I still got sick. It really sucked because mom and I went to the Mall of America and I have been looking for it for like a month! On Thursday, when we got there, I was freezing! I think mom wanted to turn around right then and go home but I stuck it out. Yesterday morning, my throat killed me but I took some painkillers and I was good to go. I was fine for most of the morning but by the afternoon I was fading fast. I don't know how much actual Christmas shopping we did but we did have fun despite the sickness. I decided to call out sick from work today because I didn't think I would be able to make it through a whole day and as much as I hated given up a whole day of zone time I wouldn't have got that much done the way I felt last night and this morning. It was the right decision. Especially with Thanksgiving coming up and the Holiay season, I need to be at my best. I really needed the day off to sleep and rest. I spent the night at my parents house. Mittens, our cat, slept with me while we were watching movies. I really miss that. I'm still not a 100% but I feel a lot better now then I did this morning and a whole lot better then yesterday! I'm not really looking forward to going to work tomorrow but at least I won't be hacking and coughing all over the place. So, that's good.

Shopping!

I wouldn't normally be up this early on my day off but today and tomorrow are going to be busy days. In a little over an hour, I'm going to get my hair cut. Just a trim, you know to clean-up the ends and reshape my layers. It's amazing how fast hair grows. Mom is getting her hair highlighted after me and when she is done we are going Christmas shopping at the Mall of America. We are going to shop today and tomorrow and come home tomorrow night because I have to work on Saturday. We usually do our Christmas shopping at the beginning of November because it's a little less crowded then the week before Thanksgiving but pushed back out trip for someone we love, who ended not coming. That's ok. It's still be a lot of fun.

Yesterday, when I woke up, I had a sore throat and today is still hurts but not to bad. I really don't want to be sick. This is not the time to be sick. So, I have been stock piling on the vitamin C, so hopefully I won't get worse. *crosses fingers*

A Good Cause

Every year, each B&N store picks a local charity to donate to during our Holiday Book Drive. This year, our store is the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. It's an institution that everyone in our community knows it so it is easy to play on people's emotions and say, don't you want to give a book to a sick child who is going to be in the hospital over the holidays? Most of the time it works. Our store goal was 1,200 books but we passed that days ago and we still have like 8 weeks to go. We have, with the help of our customers, donated more books then the last three years combine! It's truly an amazing stat. To think that this year, we are truly going to make a difference in a child's life is really enough to bring a smile to your face. Of course there are a few scrooges out there. I don't have a problem with people who want to only donate in their local store or if they have already given to the UICH through other channels. It's the people who pay for a $20 book with a $100 bill and are not interested in donating a book. Clearly, they have the money because I am going to give them back $80! But what am I supposed to do, call them out on their stinginess? Embarrass them in front of everyone? I guess that would be just wrong as them not donating in the first place. I think what is different about this year then in the past is a.) we have a charity that everyone recognizes and knows exactly what they do and is for a really good cause. In the past, our charity had been something that I had never heard of and I can't even now tell you what they are called. and b.) Rachel, our CRM, has split us into teams and whatever teams wins, everyone on that team gets a dozen cookies and for the leads, Rachel will work in our zone! So far, Tony's and mine team is not doing so good but we have plans. We have a whole strategy to catch up! So, don't you worry we are going to get back into the race! So, where ever you are, go to local B&N and support your local book drive.

Rant Stupid Cleaning lady!

Our store has the most ridiculous cleaning contract ever. Five days a week, they send a cleaning person in the morning before we open. They take out the trash, clean the bathrooms, mop up the cafe and power aisle and vacuum one zone and two days a week they only take out the trash and clean the bathrooms. We are responsible for vacuuming the other zones and on the those two days that they don't mop, we do. I know this doesn't make sense. Why do we spend the money (and from what I hear, we pay A LOT for) if we have to do most of the work. I appreciate that they clean the bathrooms but I suspect there are some days all they do is empty the trash and change the toilet papers and paper towels. As I mentioned before, I closed last night and I opened this morning. I know the cleaning schedule by heart. I do lot of closing! So, I know that on Monday and Tuesday nights, we vacuum the whole store and mop the cafe and power aisle. Well, the new cleaning lady sucks! Sorry, but it's the truth. Around like 7:30, I hear the vacuum and I'm like what?. This is not the first time that I have seen her vacuum the wrong zone but she wasn't even supposed to vacuum today! I went to the office and told Annie and she was like, hey! I called them already telling them that she is not doing her job, what else can I do. So, I go back out there and to tell the lady that she doesn't have to vacuum today. She said, "Oh, that's right today is Tuesday". She stops and I think everything is OK. Well, then I walk by the cafe and she is mopping! I DID THAT LAST NIGHT! That was when I gave up. I'm not going to complain anymore because it's not going to help but I will say this. It is incredible expensive for our store to pay us to vacuum and mop and then have people come from the outside and the exact same thing the very next morning! If all we had to focus on when we close is recovery, it would take us less then 15 minutes to close the whole store! and I am including on the weekends because on most nights we have all the re shelves done before we close so all we have to do is recover and straighten. The cafe usually takes longer because they have more to do at night and some of their tasks they can't even start until after we have closed but if we are done early in the bookstore we can help the cafe to get done faster. It would save on payroll and maybe mean that we wouldn't have to schedule so tight. I could be wrong about this but I'm sure I'm right!

Day 12. Can you believe it?

It has been unseasonably warm yesterday and today. I think it's been in like the 50's! It's November people! This is great. Today, when I went to Hy-Vee to get lunch I could have left my Hogwarts jacket at home. It's just so weird that I have yet to get my winter coat out and it's almost halfway through November! Of course, you know this mean we are going to be paying for this later. It's going to be one freaking freezing winter but for now I will enjoy it and give thanks where it's due. :D

Last night was our Holiday meeting as I mentioned. It wasn't as bad as I always expect it too but it was still boring. This year, they had all the leads speak first and then did all the miscellanious things last, which was nice because I think it did move a bit quicker and it also meant we got to skip over things that really were not that important. I had to present a few books my zone and of course, I forgot most of what I wanted to say and now I am kind of kicking myself for not because I had the whole store there! Oh well. I will just have to deal with it. After the meeting we went to Old Chicago for a little store bonding. We had a good turn out but it wasn't as many as last year and for the most part it was the same people that always come out. Annie and Rebekah came out. That was surprised. More Annie then Rebekah. No one really all that new came. Lars, our new head cashier came out but he started in like August so he really isn't all that new. It would have been nice if some of the new new people came out. Maybe I might have liked them more. Old Chicago kicked us out early and some of us were not ready to go home. So went to Jackie's place for the some more bonding and played Apples 2 Apples and I think I got home around 3am. It was just Jackie, Kat, Melissa, Scott, Aaron (he doesn't work at the store anymore but we let him hang out with us anyway) and I. It was just really nice to hang out with just them. They have kind of become the core of the store to me with Rachel, Rebekah and mom. I know when I work with them that they are going to do their job so I can do mine and everything is going to great. I wished I had more peace of mind like that.

In a few minutes, I'm going to have to start to get ready for work. I usually close Mondays so that's not a big deal but tomorrow I have to open. So that means, when I get off at 10:30 tonight, I am going to have to rush home and try to make myself go to sleep so I can get to work at 7am tomorrow. You know how much of a morning person I am not so I am less then pleased with arrangements and I really wished I had noticed this earlier because this is going to suck. Of course I want to complain but I know that at least twice in the last two weeks, Tony who makes the schedules, has closed and then opened the next morning too and he lives in Cedar Rapids! So that's an extra half and hour it takes him to get work and back each way but then again he is manager and I am definitely not!

Meeting Tonight

Tonight is our Holiday Meeting at work. Yippee. After six years, I find these meetings to be boring and redundant. It's not like they are going to tell me something that I don't already know but I guess we don't have this meeting for my benefit but for all the new employees and boy do they need it. I shouldn't be so harsh. I was new once and asked a lot of questions but I don't think I was ever this clueless or lacked discplined. It's like some of them just don't even care if they learn anything. They just rather ask over and over again then listen and learn it for themselves but I guess it's better then the employees that think they already know everything and refuse to look anything up or listen to anyone. AAAHHHH!!!! It's just so frustrating because I know if we fail the next shop and it's because someone recently hired missed something important it reflex badly on all of us and that's not fair. I'm a good employee. Enough about this, it's just making me work up. The good thing about the meeting is what happens after. It has become tradition for us to go out after and have a little store bonding. I just hope a few people I don't want to bond with will be too busy to come tonight. Yep, I'm mean.

Why isn't the sun out yet?

I'm not a morning person. I enjoy my sleep. I like getting up around 9-10 in the morning and going to bed around 1am. That's just me. I really don't like getting up before the sun. To me that is just wrong. The sun should wake up first and then me. It's just the natural order of things or at least it should be. The last two days I have had to open at work. That meant I had to be at work at 7am and that meant I had to get up at 5:30am!!! TWO DAYS IN A ROW!! What a nightmare! It isn't that bad once I get to work but it's just horrible getting there. The only benefit is that I get off work at 3:30pm. It's kind of fun being able to leave while people are still coming in for work. Especially today. It's early November, so we have the early Christmas shoppers and it was a home Iowa football game and that always brings in the crowd and on top of those two things, we had a book fair too. It was for a local high school's art club. They had a couple of students singing in our cafe. I don't mean to be mean but they were kinda bad. Props to them for putting them selves out there but damn, can they hear out of tune they are? They sang for like three hours!! I think all of us were pretty much sick of it like after 30 minutes! Well I hope that the money we raise for them goes to the music department too. Oh, was that snarky? Anyway, we were talking about how I am not a morning person. The first thing I thought this morning when my alarm went off for the first time was how I couldn't wait for work to be over and I can come home and take a nap. *lol* How funny is that? Already planning on taking a nap, while I was still in bed! I'm pretty stoked that tomorrow in Monday, I don't have to set my alarm because I'm going in after 1pm to work!! Yeah Sleep!

What are you reading?

So, the request has it. I am currently reading American Creation by Joseph Ellis. I'm not the far into it but so far it has been very interesting. Ellis is a historian who specializes in the American Revolution and has written a couple of books on our "founding fathers". It's an interesting study on how the Revolution period was the most active and creative political period in our history and why it hasn't been easy to spread US form of Democracy to other places, aka Iraq. I decided to read it because it had been a while since I read a book from a zone, so I thought it would give it a shot. I do like reading about history. Humans are fascinating!

Before that I read His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Which was excellent. I highly recommend it. I wanted to read it because the trailer for the upcoming movie adaption looked amazing! Now, if you have been reading the news then you may have read about how the Catholic League is planning on boycotting the movie because of it's "anti-religion" message. Pullman is a self confessed Atheist and his book is not very friendly to organized religion but Catholic League misses the point of the book. It's about freedom, faith, friendship and courage. Lyra, who is wonderfully strong female character that is not often found in literature, has all those qualities plus loyalty. She didn't set out to change the world, in fact is more motivated to save her friends and family then anything else. Producers and the director have stated that the film has watered down the religious aspect of the books but the Catholic League just states it's just a clever ruse to indoctrinate kids into atheism because if they like the movie, they are going to want to read the books and bam! They will be atheists! Well here's a suggestion, don't buy your kid the book if you are that worried. Silly people. For all you sane and rational people out there, it is definitely worth the read.

So, what are you reading?

I don't know what to say. I really don't think I have anything to talk about. I mean, for the most part today was normal. Work, was fine. I was mostly working on projects all day so time went by fast and then I came home watched Grey's Anatomy and then talked to Sarah. That's it. Oh, well before I talked to Kat about her so-called friend. Fuck Her! but that's another story. I guess I'm only really posting anything at all is to keep this posting thing up. Eight days and counting. So, yeah, I hope everyone else is doing well and stuff. *lol*

Kat Returns!

KAT IS COMING HOME!!!! and this time is for real! After several false alarms it's finally official. Kat will be coming state side on Monday, December 3. She will be home just in time for the holidays! and most importantly, my birthday!!! Today, Kat and I hashed out all the details and made her flight reservations. Yippee! That weekend will begin with mom, dad and I in Portland for the Davis Cup Finals, US vs. Russia!!!! Tennis and Kat all in the same week!!!! Can you tell, I'm excited!

In other news, as many of you know, I have been trying to move out of Iowa City for awhile. Well, today was a big step in achieving that goal but since it's still very early in the process, I'm not going to say anything else. I don't want to jinx it. ;-)

Happy Four Years of Blogging

After I posted yesterday's blog I looked at my sidebar. I was kind of shocked that I have been blogging for four years. FOUR YEARS!!! It's pretty incredible since I don't post all that often, especially lately. I started this blog so I could document my life. I was pretty ashamed that as a student of history that I would have nothing to leave behind for future generations to study about our time. The best information we have about the past have come from journals left behind and I have never been very good at keeping a journal or a diary. All of my diaries in the past have like 5 month gaps in them. Sound familiar. Somehow, I thought since I'm all my computer every single day that it would be easy for me to keep up a blog. I guess not. I'm still pretty impressed that I have been able to keep this up for six days in a row. So, I am rededicating myself to documenting my life and give more insight into what it's like to be a 24 year-old woman in the 21st century. I don't think that this blog will ever be read by anyone in the future but it still a good idea.

I'll start tomorrow with all the insightful posts. Now, I'm going to a movie because I have a coupon!

My laptop

My current laptop is five years old. I know, that is ancient in computer world. We have had a good run together, my laptop and I but it's really time for a new one because I have this sense that my laptop is on it's last legs. I know that I am almost out of memory and despite my best efforts to relieve this problem nothing seems to help. I keep getting these messages about how I need to run a disk clean-up. Well, every time I do, it starts but then turns my computer off midway. It's like it doesn't have enough memory to run it's own clean-up. Bummer.

In a couple of days, I should have enough money to buy a new one but which one? I know next to nothing about computers, except the basics. A couple of months ago, I asked my friend Aaron to computer shopping with me and let me know what I should get. So that was helpful but then I found out that through work I could get a discount on a Dell computer. So should I go with that or just buy another Sony Vaio (my last 2 laptops have been Sony's and I like them) from Best Buy. Well, Dell I could customize what I want and it would be shipped to me but at Best Buy I could buy it and take it home with me right away. What to do? Any suggestions?

Where would you go?

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? If money wasn't an option and you could go drop everything and just go, where would you go? I was thinking this today while I was at work. I think I would go to Australia. I've always wanted to go. It just seems so excited. The other side of the world and such. Kangaroos, Koalas and the hot accent! Perfect!

Mornings

For those of you out that really know me, know I am not a morning person. I am really not a morning person! Today, was my early day at work so that meant I had to be there at 7am. Which meant that I had to get up at 5:30AM!!! That's rough. And it doesn't matter that because of the upcoming holidays, I have been opening more, it doesn't make the mornings any easier. I've basically have given up trying to go to be early because I usually just lay in bed, trying to go to sleep and don't really fall asleep until much later then I would have if I just waited to go to bed at more normal time around 1am. Good news for tomorrow, I get an extra hour of sleep because I don't have to be at work until 8! Oh, wait. Is tonight the night we turn our clocks back? In that case, I get 2 extra hours!!!

Day2

I like having Fridays off because it means I can go home and hang out with the parents and mittens. I know that might sound weird but I really do like hanging out with my parents and even though I do work my mom, I rarely get time to spend with her. She's usually about to leave as I am coming in so Friday's off are a good thing for us. Not that we do much. This summer we saw a lot of movies. Today, we went out to lunch at Red Lobster and then just hung out around the house, hoping to catch Kat online. Sadly we didn't.

The holiday season has officially started at work. Yesterday we started to set up our holiday displays, including all the the holiday signage. In one way it's good because my shelves were getting packed with product meant to be displayed but it's all a little depressing because it means people are going to get crazy and the days are going to get long. I hate that working in retail has made me dislike the holiday season. It used to be one of my favorite times of the year but now I can't wait for them to be over. Well, cross my fingers that I won't have to work another holiday season after this year, at least not on the retail side of things.

National Blogging Month or whatever

So, I said I would join my sister and blog everyday in the month of November. We shall see how long this lasts. I really don't have much to say right now and I'm a little tired. Maybe I'll be in a more chatty mood tomorrow.