NaBloPoMo # 17
So these past two weeks are what we call a floorset in retail world. It’s back to school and soon all the bratty teenagers will be in here demanding all the new clothes while their stressed out mothers pick up the tab. This floorset involves practically rearranging the whole store moving the old to the back and the new to the front. We have had shipment almost every day (opposed to 3 times a week), oh, and did I mention there is a deadline to get it done. So it’s safe to say everyone is pretty stressed out. Add that to the crazy customers we got in there today, makes for a good post. (Well at least I think so).
Today topped the cake. There is so much to do and all of our regular crazies came in today. So I decided to make a list of things NOT to do when you go into a retail store. Please, take my advice. Imp practically begging at this point. As a matter of fact, after this post, I might just go and write down the web address on every receipt so all the customers can read it too. Also, I am sorry if I sound mean. Ask Mom; once you get me started on work, I can’t shut up.
•This is a junior store. I know that you might want to fit into the clothes here, but in reality, you probably can’t. No, it’s not because everything runs small. No, it’s not because it must be the way it’s made. It is because it is made for 12-23 year olds. (23 is even pushing it but we do have some clubby tops and sexy lingerie that I can’t see 12 year olds using.) When you ask me why you can’t fit into your small top, I will try my best to be nice and say “well, it is a junior store”. Please save the awkwardness and don’t even ask. This is also a GIRLS junior store. No, we don’t sell men’s clothing.
•I know that you really really need that shirt ten minutes AFTER we close, but I am really not going to let you in. No matter how hard you beg. So please stop banging on the window.
•As a matter of fact, I do have a life outside of work so when you arrive at the door, look at the time we close, realize that that time is 1.5 minutes away, please walk away. Do not come in.
•Just because I work in retail, does not mean I am stupid. Again, I’m a math major. Please don’t come up to the register with a “50% off NOW 3.99” sticker you ripped off and stuck on the brand new $40 dress. I can do math.
•When you see that I am reworking an area, this does not mean that new merchandise is going out. So please stop standing right where I need to put the giant stack of shoes, and then knock them down when you start to look at them because you think they are new.
•If the first 4 doors you try in the fitting room are locked, there is no need to continue checking. They are all probably locked.
•Speaking of the fitting room, once you realize the bell goes off when you stand under it, please don’t stop in the doorway. This will not make me come to you any faster. Also, there is a sign there that says “6 items allowed” so when I ask you how many you have please don’t tell me “a lot” and expect me to open the room for you, this will not save you from counting your 100 items.
•I am very sorry to tell you that retail is out to confuse you. But by now, I hope that you will have already figured this out. Maybe not. Please, do not come up to me and tell me that your $20 shoes are $7.99 because you found it on the “$7.99 rack” my answer to you will automatically be “and up”. Every sign says it. Somewhere.
•No, there are no coupons out right now for you. Even if there were, why should I give you one? Please stop asking me.
•My wonderful retail store pays me. I do not get extra for babysitting, nor do you pay me for babysitting. Please watch your kids. It is not in my job description.
•I have a name. You might not know it but you may certainly not call me by any of the following:
o “Psst”
o “Baby”
o “Yoo hoo”
o “Hello??”
o “Lady”
•Last but not least, before you ask; yes I work here. What gave it away? My bright blue neck lanyard? My smiling face? The fact that you just saw me behind the register?
Ughh.
NaBloPoMo # 16
So, it was my 26th birthday yesterday, and the weather was absolutely perfect!!! My sister and I headed down to the Jersey Shore at 8:30 am, we still hit a bit of traffic. A little before 10 a.m. we arrive to Long Branch Beach, love that beach; it's close clean perfect for a day at the shore. We didn't want to sit near the boardwalk since the beach is more crowded on that side, so we went to the more residential area of the beach and we found a nice man waving us down to give us his parking spot, Nice Guy. I took this a sign of a great day/ and year ahead. The lovely green yucky water was decent and the tides were pretty low so it was seriously a perfect day!! My sister, who loves the beach went back and forth to the water. I on the other hand love to sleep, so I took about 3 naps and read a book. WOW, me read, I haven't read a book in months. I probably read two books a year, so I guess I'm on track LOL.
OK so lets get to the meaty stuff, around 3pm we leave the beach and head back home. My mother, whom I don't live with (parents are divorced) kept calling me throughout the day, asking if I was going to come visit her. So I go, and I'm immensely disappointed. It's like frikin tradition to have a cake on your bday WHERE WAS MINE!!! NO CAKE, NO FOOD, NO CARD, NOTHING!!!!! Why was I there, did I mention I'm PMSING!!! so I'm PO'd and turned into a birthday brat!! I didn't get a cake, NO CAKE. I try to act calm and collected and for my mothers defense, she spent the day at a funeral. Sorry ma, but a cake takes 5 mins to buy. ( maybe I'll get one today, but it's not by birthday) I know I'm being a Brat :)
It's now Officially Night time "PARTY TIME" my sister, was nice enough to stay home (dads house) and cook some dinner so we wouldn't party on an empty stomach, or the fast food stomach, never have good results from that. Boy oh boy we Pre-gamed at home, we were ready to party (of course we had our DD, one of my bff's). So we go to crash a friends That party was seriously poppin. The music was great, the lights went out, everyone screamed the music came back on, I did some crazy Irish looking dance with some old guy. A really short guy danced with my sister. It was great, we had a blast, but must I say I'm getting old and this is no longer my scene. An hour and half after we're through with dancing, we all look at each do a head nod is perfect sync and head out laughing, can't hear a thing since the music was so loud met up with our other friends at the boring party took pics in the parking lot, like we were in high school, and had a blast, laughing, cracking jokes, it was great. I had a great night.
Still NO CAKE though :)
Out of order ( Sorry mom)
-Beena
100th Post! Hooray!
When I get back, I'll have an awesome giveaway, and a few 100 lists!
Stay tuned. And hope a bear doesn't eat me!
NaBloPoMo #15- Guest Post! Spencer and Lola
NaBloPoMo # 14 – Dreamin
Hey there. SS23 here, guest blogging for Mamasoo. Ever since she asked me to post a day for her, I’ve been wracking my brain for what to write about. See, I’ve got my own blog and all, but I’ve been seriously lax in updating it lately (as she was kind enough to remind me of when I asked if I could link my own blog). I’ve been sidetracked with life and a wife and fun neighbors and not-so-fun neighbors and a stupid soap opera I’ve become a little scarily obsessed with, so I haven’t really been writing all that much. So yeah, I’ve been apprehensive about what to write about. Alas, I needn’t have worried because my inspiration came to me, literally, in a dream.
So, I had kind of a crappy day yesterday and I hadn’t been sleeping all that well earlier in the week, (Thanks, Not-so-fun neighbors!) and I just wanted to go to sleep early. So I did. 9:45 and I’m in my bed. Sweet, right? Well, it was, for a time. I slept pretty soundly, but I had one of those dreams. You know the kind. The ones that feel SO absolutely real that you are 100% convinced that it actually happened. Yeah, that kind.
So my dream started out with me in a tattoo shop. Par for the course, considering Mamasoo’s recent topics. Now to give a little background that’s required to understand what happened in my dream, I have two fairly large tattoos on my back. The smaller of the two is in the traditional ‘tramp-stamp’ location and is a claddagh design with my late grandmothers’ initials in the center of the heart. The larger of the two is an Amy Brown fairy design called Fire Dance and is located between my shoulder blades. It comes in at about 8” x 8” so its kinda big. However, I got this one three years ago and I wanted it without a black outline to maintain the feminine look of it. Little did I know, tattoos without a proper black outline will eventually seep out and sort of blend the colors together. My father now jokes at what a nice wine stain I have on my back. So, I am going to get the whole thing redone in the proper way while the design is still visible enough to fix. Hence, why I’m dreaming about tattoos. Now, background all set, back to the dream.
So, I’m in the shop and I’m showing the guy my tattoo and a picture of the real design and telling him what I want it to look like and we’re all in agreement. He understands me, I understand him. We’re all set. I get in the chair and the pain begins. I’m lucky enough to block out however long it actually takes him to do the tattoo and magically, I’m all done and he’s asking me if I’m ready to see it. I’m all sorts of excited and I go over to the full length mirror and I turn around and…..HORROR. From the bottom of my neck to the very top of my butt, he has crafted a humongous Egyptian style Dog-Pharaoh like THING, done entirely in blocks of red and black ink, done in Picasso’s cubism style, effectively covering both of my preexisting tattoos. The tattoo guy sees the look of utter disgust on my face and goes on the defensive, “What? You don’t like it?”
I must give him my bestest look of death ever, cause he backs up a step. Then I proceed to yell at him like I’ve never yelled at anyone in my life before. I’m just in complete and utter disbelief. I ask him if he was conscious when we had our pre-tattoo conversation. I don’t understand how on earth he thought that “make my fairy pretty again” meant “do whatever the hell you want with my ENTIRE freaking back”!!! At this point, I break down crying and sobbing and how much is the tattoo removal services for this going to cost me?? He’s still insisting that I pay for this atrocity, so I basically slap him upside his head and leave.
(Disclaimer: The entire section above beginning from the “What? You don’t like it?” until now was worded much more strongly and colorfully in my dream, cause that’s me. But since this is Mamasoo’s site, I’ll refrain from posting all the profanities that came out of me during this time. Thank you.)
So, when I actually wake up out of this nightmare, I actually run to the bathroom, whip off my shirt and make sure that there is no huge red and black pharaoh-dog on my back. Thank god there wasn’t. However, me not really being a chipper morning person, my wife realized the speed with which I got out of bed and asked what had gotten into me. I told her all about the dream and she started laughing. I wasn’t really finding anything funny at the moment, but she explained to me that she had come to bed around midnight. I was already asleep, but she said I was kind of twitching about and making generally angry sounding noises so she figured that I was having a bad dream. The only recognizable word I had uttered in my sleep was a resounding “DAMMIT”, which I found comical, considering all the other possible words that could have come out. I suppose I censor myself better in sleep than I do during the day!
Alright, that’s my little story for the day. Hope you enjoyed!
NaBloPoMo #13- Camp Songs
I loved those songs.
But I can only remember a handful.
And I taught the ones I could remember to the kids at our Soccer Camp trip last year. Now they're on my blog, so I will never forget them!
Like this one, complete with hand motions:
Then there's everyone's favorite repeat-after-me-song:
Up in the woods, oh way up there.
I see you ain't got any gun!
And right behind me came that bear.
A great big tree- Oh Lordy Me!
I'd have to jump and trust my luck.
And missed that branch oh way up there!
I caught that branch on the way back down.
Unless I meet that bear once more.
I sing the first part and everyone else sings the second part. The kids love this! EVERY time I sing it I think of all the good times I had with Mom and the Girl Scouts.
I learned the next song at Girl Scout training. I went on an overnight with GS trainers to learn how to (again) become a certified Camp Leader. Now I can take Zombiegirl's troop camping out to Camp Blue Bay in East Hampton and not lose any of the kids or set them on fire.
It's another repeat-after-me song:
Way oh way oh
Way oh way oh way oh way oh
And Zombiegirl is going to teach us a song she learned at 4H camp:
I gotta get back to my block
with a pizza in my hand
I’m gonna be a pizza man
pizza man
I’m gonna be a pizza man
Hey, Hey, Bo Diddley Bop
I gotta get back to my block
with my car keys in my hand
I’m gonna drive my Chevy van
Chevy van, pizza man,
I’m gonna be a pizza man
Hey, Hey, Bo Diddley Bop
I gotta get back to my block
with a basketball in my hand
I’m gonna be like Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan, Chevy van, pizza man
I’m gonna be a pizza man
Hey, Hey, Bo Diddley Bop
with some noonchucks in my hand
I’m gonna be like Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, Michael Jordan, Chevy van, pizza man
I’m gonna be a pizza man
I’m gonna be... a... piz... za... man !
Each verse gets louder until they're screaming the last verse. Lovely
Two more songs- The Princess Pat and Shark Attack, these kid's will be singing them all year long. They sing them in the car when they all get together, while they're hiking, at soccer practice and once they sang the bear song in Chorus! They all looked at each other and laughed!
Tell me this isn't the stuff memories are made of!
NaBloPoMo #12- Packing!
Some shots of last years camping trip:


Addendum to NaBloPoMo #11
I showed you mine, now show me yours!
Tell me where you got it, and how long you've had it. I'll keep all names anon unless you tell me it's okay to post!
Send 'em in! I can't wait to see old and new friends, I mean tats!
NaBloPoMo #11- Mama/Daughter Day
Hey all you tattoo fans! Check out my most awesomest giveaway! Tell me you came here for the tattoo, win a chance at a $100 gift certificate....
My little brother got his first tattoo after his surgery to remove the first cancerous tumor. He was always little rebellious- he had me bleach and perm his hair once. This was the 80's- hair Bands rocked the day! My parents were totally against his getting a tattoo. They threatened to kick him out or disown him. All the nice things parents say when they don't want you to do something.
We got them last night at Peter Tat2 in West Hempstead on Hempstead Turnpike. John, the Assistant Manager was very patient with us, being virgins and all. Beena chose her inside leg, right above her ankle and I wanted it on my back because if I look at it too much, I'll get sad.
Beena went first, shaking like a leaf. She held my hand and sucked her Jolly Rangers (thanks for the tip, Paula!) It hurt, but my big girl didn't cry! I was so proud of her. I was joking around trying to take her mind off the pain. Halfway through I told her I changed my mind- I wasn't going to get one. She almost jumped out of the chair to strangle me! Twenty minutes later, she was done, wrapped up in a garbage bag (bandage.) My turn. Gulp!
I'm not going to lie and say it didn't hurt. It did and it was like no other pain I ever felt. I gave birth to BIG babies, with no drugs, so I figured I had a high tolerance for pain. Getting this tattoo was like having my skin flayed off. Slowly. With a hot, rusty knife. Well, not rusty- you can't feel rusty, right? I sucked it up and went into my "happy place" (no, Beena, not the hallway, even though the color does make me happy...) While I was concentrating on the wall patterns, I thought to myself that Mom would've been proud of us. As I think this thought, a tiny, pointy oval of light flickers onto the wall. Two or three seconds and it blinks out. It wasn't a reflection from anything- we were in the back room. I thought maybe John had a laser light on his needle machine, but my body and head would've blocked any light from behind where he was sitting. So I'll just take it as my Mom showed up and gave us her approval. I hope we melted her heart in heaven as well.
So bond with your children. If they tell you they want to get a tattoo instead of threatening to throw them out, go with them! lol! Love you, Beena!