So next month my baby boy turns three. Hard to believe it's been three years. So of course we are planning his birthday party. This is always a stressful chore. What should be fun becomes my nightmare. If it was left up to me I would have the whole thing planned and ready to go, on a date that I selected. But I happen to have the mythical beast rarely seen. In my house lives the husband who is "involved". I originally planned for the party to be on the 24th which is the week before Jacob's birthday (I have to work the following Saturday). But since we finally have chosen the location, a local farm with petting zoo and hayrides, he now has decided that the third week in October is be too dicey with the weather. So now the date has been pushed up two weeks. That gives me 12 days to get this party together. I will have to get invitations, figure out the theme, bake a cake, two actually (allergies), make sure there are sufficient things to entertain, put togeter goody bags, etc. Did I mention that I work full time? Hopefully people will be able to attend, since I've been prepping people for the later date. What my darling hubby doesn't understand is that a lot of people plan ahead especially this time of year.
If we had decided on the location earlier this might not be such an issue but he likes to have "input" this usually leads to procrastination and last minute decisions, because most places are deemed insuffiecient, this forces us to throw things together. For example the last two birthdays, our wedding (which turned out beautifully). I figured this year we were on top of things. It's a almost a whole month in advance, until the date was jumped up 2 weeks.
So, I think we are going to go with Disney's Cars theme even though we are going to be at farm. Well keep your fingers crossed that people will attend and that the weather will hold. All I really want is for Jacob to have a great time. I think the location will be a lot of fun, Jacob loves animals and anything outside is always a winning situation.
Well I've got to go. I need to figure out the cake situation.
Talk to you later.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Age is a state of mind,
Every so often I start to feel my age. I'm not saying I'm old. Though tonight with my wrist bugging me coupled with the new pain in my right shoulder that showed up today I'm feeling every bit of 37. Most of the time there is no conscious thought to my age. As a matter of fact I only gave up comics a little over three years ago and that was a purely financial decision not an age related one.
I was having a conversation last night with one of my very best friends and realized that we have been friends for 22 years. Thanks to Facebook, I'm in contact with people from even further back in my past. The oldest friendship dates back to the late 70's. It doesn't seem possible that its been that long even though the math is right. It's true what the grown-ups told me as a child that time goes faster as you age. I remember waiting for holidays to arrive, thinking that they were never going to arrive. Now I can't believe how fast they arrive.
Most of the time I don't even feel like a qualified grown-up. So when is it that a person becomes old? I've seen people younger than me with old decrepit personalities, and older people with way more youth and energy than you would imagine possible. I do truly believe that age is a state of mind. So why is it the body has to remind the mind about my age? Well that's enough pondering tonight. This somewhat old lady has knitting to do.
Talk to you later.
I was having a conversation last night with one of my very best friends and realized that we have been friends for 22 years. Thanks to Facebook, I'm in contact with people from even further back in my past. The oldest friendship dates back to the late 70's. It doesn't seem possible that its been that long even though the math is right. It's true what the grown-ups told me as a child that time goes faster as you age. I remember waiting for holidays to arrive, thinking that they were never going to arrive. Now I can't believe how fast they arrive.
Most of the time I don't even feel like a qualified grown-up. So when is it that a person becomes old? I've seen people younger than me with old decrepit personalities, and older people with way more youth and energy than you would imagine possible. I do truly believe that age is a state of mind. So why is it the body has to remind the mind about my age? Well that's enough pondering tonight. This somewhat old lady has knitting to do.
Talk to you later.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The alpaca farm fantasy
I recently started to knit. So far I’ve finished two scarves and am about 2/3rds of the way through the one that I started for the hubby. Not too bad. The afghan I started for my father-in-law is at a standstill, I’m rethinking the project. I’ll most likely start fresh. In the meantime I’m trying to teach myself new things, like how to read knitting patterns and how to knit a cable pattern. Learning to crochet has been put on the back burner, but an attempt is made at least once a week.
Talk to you later.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sometimes you see a darker side to humanity. The retail perspective.
In the course of my job periodically, I have to deal with the public. For those of you who work in retail you will understand when I say that you meet the best and worst of humanity. The best customers will make you want to move heaven and earth to help them achieve their goals. Then there are the other customers that you wish would disappear. In the last 15 years of dealing with the general public I've had the following occur.
I've been at Denny's at 3:00 am after a night at the clubs when a customer came up to me wanting to discuss her ceiling fan order. I sobered up enough to tell her we could discuss this on Monday morning.
Had several cranky old men come up to me and ask to speak to a man. This is when I worked at a lumber yard/hardware store. This was my cue to go locate Buddy, not the sharpest crayon in the box. They just said a man, they never specified intelligence. I would then assist Buddy with whatever needed to be accomplished.
Upon arrival at work there would often be customers who would meet me at my car before I even had a chance to get out and start questioning me about their orders. I'm a bit of a crank and need a little time to myself before I can start dealing with others.
I had one customer who informed me that he was the owner's wife's Dr. and he expected special treatment. Truth was that at one time he did take care of her but that she hadn't seen him in several years because she couldn't stand him.
Along the same lines are the ladies who would expect preferential treatment based on their marriages, ie. "Don't you know who my husband is?" Usually those were Dr's wives. Apparently entitlement were included in the marriage vows. Small towns are so much fun.
One time I greeted a couple of people with a cheerful "Hi there! What are you guys doing here?" The response was a snide "Paying your salary." Since they were using another salesperson I informed them that unfortunately that wasn't exactly true. That was a family member who made that remark and I pretty much stopped speaking to them.
This weekend I had a couple of people who arrived 20 minutes to closing and informed me that I was "going to have to work." After looking around for 30 minutes they decided to purchase a clearance fixture. The wife had told me she was a designer and wanted a discount on the already marked way down fixture. The husband went to pay, when the total was stated he balked and said it was supposed to be another price. When informed the difference was the tax he grumbled that he didn't want to pay the tax. Finally he paid then told us that he and his wife received $60,000 back on taxes this year. I felt that it was in bad taste to say something like that. Am I wrong?
I think the part that upset me the most is that they knew we were closed and decided to just wander around even after they had purchased the product. He especially found it funny that he was holding us up. The thing is that I will give my all during the work hours. But after work I have things to do and places to be and people who rely on me. I don't understand why people feel the need to treat others without respect. He didn't just keep me from leaving others were affected, the receptionist/cashier, the manager who had to close up the store, someone in the warehouse who might be needed to pack up the fixture.
Now for the record there are some fantastic customers who everytime I see or think about them I smile. Most of the clients I work with are really neat people.
Well I've talked way too much tonight, I'll stop babbling.
Talk to you later.
I've been at Denny's at 3:00 am after a night at the clubs when a customer came up to me wanting to discuss her ceiling fan order. I sobered up enough to tell her we could discuss this on Monday morning.
Had several cranky old men come up to me and ask to speak to a man. This is when I worked at a lumber yard/hardware store. This was my cue to go locate Buddy, not the sharpest crayon in the box. They just said a man, they never specified intelligence. I would then assist Buddy with whatever needed to be accomplished.
Upon arrival at work there would often be customers who would meet me at my car before I even had a chance to get out and start questioning me about their orders. I'm a bit of a crank and need a little time to myself before I can start dealing with others.
I had one customer who informed me that he was the owner's wife's Dr. and he expected special treatment. Truth was that at one time he did take care of her but that she hadn't seen him in several years because she couldn't stand him.
Along the same lines are the ladies who would expect preferential treatment based on their marriages, ie. "Don't you know who my husband is?" Usually those were Dr's wives. Apparently entitlement were included in the marriage vows. Small towns are so much fun.
One time I greeted a couple of people with a cheerful "Hi there! What are you guys doing here?" The response was a snide "Paying your salary." Since they were using another salesperson I informed them that unfortunately that wasn't exactly true. That was a family member who made that remark and I pretty much stopped speaking to them.
This weekend I had a couple of people who arrived 20 minutes to closing and informed me that I was "going to have to work." After looking around for 30 minutes they decided to purchase a clearance fixture. The wife had told me she was a designer and wanted a discount on the already marked way down fixture. The husband went to pay, when the total was stated he balked and said it was supposed to be another price. When informed the difference was the tax he grumbled that he didn't want to pay the tax. Finally he paid then told us that he and his wife received $60,000 back on taxes this year. I felt that it was in bad taste to say something like that. Am I wrong?
I think the part that upset me the most is that they knew we were closed and decided to just wander around even after they had purchased the product. He especially found it funny that he was holding us up. The thing is that I will give my all during the work hours. But after work I have things to do and places to be and people who rely on me. I don't understand why people feel the need to treat others without respect. He didn't just keep me from leaving others were affected, the receptionist/cashier, the manager who had to close up the store, someone in the warehouse who might be needed to pack up the fixture.
Now for the record there are some fantastic customers who everytime I see or think about them I smile. Most of the clients I work with are really neat people.
Well I've talked way too much tonight, I'll stop babbling.
Talk to you later.
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