The One on Friday the 23rd

Tory is getting promoted. I'm kinda happy for him. He's not getting a pay raise, something that he is quick to point out to me, but he is gonna be getting more responsibilities, which means that he should be up in line soon for some promotion. Not that this would affect me as an MIT, but if Tory gets promoted, that means that Joe will probably get that too, if in responsibilities and nothing more since he is also quick to point out that he is MIT, which means that I would be too. Thats kinda heading in the right direction.

The store was thrashed yesterday. Jenna said they were going to start having me close some nights next week by myself, and I think the very first time I do it is going to be the night before my DM does her weekly visits... Of all the luck I have...

The One on Thursday the 22nd

I love hooking my friends up with my discounts. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling...

I'm sorry I got the wrong coloured shirt... I hope you like the white one.

I asked Tory to critique me yesterday since he was the one in the best position to do it since I work with both him and Joe the most, and Tory is higher ranked than Joe, and I think more professional abt his job. And he said he thought I was doing pretty well, but I did best when I was left on the floor by myself. He said that I seemed to be more laxed when the other managers were around, and that was something that I didn't even realise I did. I think he felt kinda bad when he told me that, but I told him not to worry about it because I wanted to know. At least now I know what to work on.

I really want to go to this concert on Saturday. I hope MaryKay (store manager at VS) gets back to me about whether she'll let Edith (new girl whom I have never met before but was a darling cause she was willing to help me out) cover my shift or not. I can see from a scheduling POV why it would be important for her to approve the schedule, but it really bites cause I have to wait or keep following up on it.

I haven't finished "Mirror Mirror" yet cause I haven't been reading at lunch break recently. I'm always having dinner appointments (which I absolutely love like nothing else in the world ) or I'm shopping for people so I don't have time anyway... not that I'm complaining, but I was just thinking abt it and it occurred to me that I don't usually take this long to finish a book....

Cheerios!!!

The One on Wednesday the 21st

So its been a almost a week since my last blog, and I thought I would evaluate Bev's comment that my blog has now shifted from school to work... that kinda bites when I think abt it. I mean, I would so much rather be in school.... Oh, and Bev, its 30%

Anyway... I didn't end up quitting VS cause I was talking with the store manager and she said that she could schedule me once every two weeks and that was a pretty nice schedule cause that means I won't be working all the time, which means I won't be completely burnt out, and it also means that I still get my discount . Yes, I know... I'm easy to please..... sometimes...

I haven't really been preparing for grad school like I should have been, like I haven't registered to take any of the exams, and I haven't started studying for anything. I really still want to pursue the acting bit but I don't have time for anything right now and I feel like I want to crawl in a hole with shame on how badly I've been pursueing my dream...

Poo...

I got a server set up for me. Thanks B! Can't wait to try my CSS bit.

The One on Thursday the 15th

Yesterday was a disaster. When I got to Hollister, Tory was already there and he seemed to be really busy and since he was the one running around giving everyone projects, I assumed that he was floor supervising, not that there really was anyone to floor supervise since we only had 3 kids - 1 in each front room and 1 in the fitting room. Joe was helping Ali(son) redline stuff and so I helped with Register and I was folding stuff in the lounge too. There was also Orientation yesterday, which Tory took care off. But so here I am, minding the register and folding clothes, and then Tory leaves for Orientation, and I assumed he told Joe what was going on since Joe is of a slightly higher rank than me (we're both MITs, but Joe has been a brand rep before, and he also has been in the programme longer, which basically means that he is practically a manager already and is only MIT in name. He always claims that he is a MIT, but everyone treats him as a full fledged manager already). After Tory has been gone for like 15 mins, Joe turns to me and asks if I'm floor supervising, and I look at him weird and I said no, and then he said he's not cause he's redlining a stack of clothes. And so all of a sudden, I'm floor supervising. It is also 4.30pm and I have 3 kids who were suppose to be done at 4, and the 3 kids I was suppose to get at 3 did not show up. And this whole time, I thought Tory had it under control and so I'm freaking out. I went to track him down at Orientation and I asked him if he had called anyone, and he said he didn't, and he looked shocked when I told him the 3 o'clocks didn't come. And so now I had to run my butt back to the office and start calling everyone who was on-call. We had already told them that they didn't need to come, and so if they had appointments and stuff, we couldn't do anything about it. So I started just randomly calling kids from our associate listing to see if they could come into work. I got 2 kids to come in, and one said he would come later to help us close. I thought it was super sweet of them because they were not even scheduled and they came when we needed help.

Long story short, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been so stressful if I had been more on top of things. I mean, I could have started calling people earlier if I knew that we had no-shows. I guess it all boils down to me not assuming what is going on and actually getting the facts. I seem to floor supervise alot now, which is great... when I'm on top of things...

On a good note, my DM had talked to HR and basically what needs to happen for Hollister to apply a work visa for me is that the RM, which is my DM's boss, has to interview me, see what my intentions are, and then they are going to start applying for the visa for me. They were quick to tell me that it is not a gaurantee, but at least the process would have started. The DM and the RM would be travelling around the different stores in about 3 weeks, which means the interview us gonna be soon since time seems to be flying by so quickly lately. I don't want time to go so fast... don't want it to move at all...

The One on Tuesday the 13th

Bleh.

Chocolate covered apples are good.

Bath and Body has a funky peppermint lipbalm gloss something. I want.

Wonder where I'll get transferred if I get promoted at Hollister.

The One on Monday the 12th

So the weekend was good. I spent most of Sunday sleeping and I amazed myself that I could sleep so much, but it was so awesome to be so lazy.

Work was alright this weekend. I'm turning in my 2 week notice at Victoria's Secret, so hopefully that means that I will have more time to relax and stuff... actually, I'll probably only do that on Saturday night. On Tuesday night I somehow foresee myself spending more time at Agel getting my hours in...

Anyway... nothing much else happened this weekend. My baby brother got baptised, but I've been a complete ass and I haven't called home yet. I'd make excuses at this point about how I have no time and that I'm so damn lazy when I do have time, but I really can't cause it was my baby brother's special day so I'm just an ass.

Oh... here's something exciting that happened... two things actually now that I think about it... I got a pumice stone, which means I can now scrub my feet raw, and one of my Hollister shirts got ruined. Somehow, bleach got into the wash and my green shirt is now orange and green. And its bad enough that you can totally see that the shirt had a bleach encounter so I have no guts to wear it to work now. Good thing I have 6 Hollister tops so though that one is destroyed, I still have something to wear everyday I work...

I'm trying to get promoted and I want to get sent to a GM/Elite store, and the places that I'm hoping to go to are Cali and HI. Vegas seems to be a more viable option for me cause I know there are new stores opening there, but I want to go to open markets like HI cause I already know that groundwork has been done and all I have to do is make sure I don't burn the store down. I hope I can get promoted soon. I've already mentioned to my DM that I wanna go places so I hope she considers me...

I watched "Constantine" yesterday. Now that I think about it, it sounds sacreligious... I think I spelt that wrong... but I like the idea of the movie, so I give it a thumbs up, and I hope I don't go to hell for it.

In "Mirror Mirror," one of the phrases that Bianca uses is "Don't leave me." And I got to thinking about it. She says that because she doesn't want her father to leave her, which he does because he's kinda the mayor of the city and he leaves on trips to smooth over any politcal issues that might involve his little town. You can't say that Bianca is selfish asking her father to stay because she is in no position to follow him. If she can follow him on his trips, then she would be selfish to say, "Don't leave me." She also loves him very much and its understandable that she wants him around since when he is home, she is around him constantly. Yet at the same time, you cannot say her father is selfish because even though he is in a position to stay with Bianca, he has to leave for the greater good. By leaving her and making her "suffer" for that period of absence, he helps not only himself and Bianca, but the entire town too. It sucks when there is no black and white in the world. Please don't ask my why I am analyzing this... I know I'm weird.

The One on Friday the 9th

I got trained by another totally amazing trainer yesterday afternoon. Her name is Beth and she is the impact manager at the Provo store. Our store borrowed her for 2 weeks because we had to run updates and Ali(son) was on vacation. I didn't really get to talk to her the 1st day she was here. On the second day, she and Joe were walking through the store detailing so I was floor supervising, and when the kids were doing their thing and Joe and Beth were done, I asked her if she could explain some of the write ups for me. She also showed me visuals, and she gave me a ton of advise about how to keep the store in one piece. I didn't realise how CRAPPY our store looked until I was done talking to her. Now I want to cry cause I think it looks so bad. I close with Jenna tonight, and she is probably going to get the kids to fill. I think I'm going to have them work on detailing and I'll do a walk around the store for visuals.

OK, not that any of that had to make sense to you, I know I was using Hollister lingo there. But anyway, I kinda didn't really like Joe in the beginning, but now that I've closed with him for one night, I like him so much more. Now that I know Beth is the one who trained him, I can see where he gets his intensity from. I mean, he really knows a ton more than I do so I give him kudoes for that. And I know I spelt that wrong but that is a word I can only say, and not really spell.

The day before yesterday, Me and Tory went up to the University of Utah campus to go recruiting. It was the first time I had ever walked around their campus. It is FREAKIN HUGE!!!! I couldn't believe how big it is. I kinda felt bad for Tory cause I don't think I was very good company. I was too busy trying not to look like I was massively out of shape. And I was starving, so I was whining about food like every 5 mins. It wasn't the most successful thing to happen to us. I mean, the campus was dead cause it was almost 5pm. Also, most of the kids there are still going to school and the recruits we were looking for were ideally seniors in the last semester. So Tory approached one girl, and I approached another girl. And then we went to the career services office to inquire about their career fair.

(I just realised when I was done typing my enty that this section here is like a research paper, so feel free to gloss over it if you don't want to read my musings and dissectings of books )

Anyhow... "Mirror Mirror" is interesting. I'm starting to realise that the author always incorporates some political theme into his novels. Like in "Wicked" there was the politics in the land of Oz between the different rulers and the different races of people like the Quadlings and the Animals. In "Confessions," there was the politics between the wealthy merchant families, like Cinderella's father and the other wealthy merchants, and we can see how Iris' mother tried to play the right cards so that her family would be powerful. And now in "Mirror Mirror," again we see that there is the politics of the ruling classes of the land, and how Snow White (her name is Bianca for the beginning of the book) and her father were being manipulated by them.

The thing about the use of politics is that it is not subtle. It always seems to be a central motivation in the book. If you think about how these books are the same, and how they differ from the original fairy tales, it is really nicely woven in because the fairy tales do not have much of a political theme to it. There are the themes of love and hate, and then of magic that are interwoven to create timeless classics, yet almost all the characters in Macguire's novels seem to act because of the political forces around them. And still, we are talking about the same story.

There is still one more of Macguire's books that I have not read. "Son of Witch" comes out in October so I obviously haven't read it yet. But I haven't read "Lost" and I can't even fanthom which classic this is from so I'm a little leary about reading it, but I think when I'm done with "Mirror Mirror," I'll start reading that one cause I'm curious now...

OK, so that was my English Major coming out... MAN I MISS IT!!!!!

The One on Tuesday the 6th

The labor day holiday was just yesterday, and by some fantastic stoke of luck, I didn't have to work Sunday and Monday, which means I actually had two days of almost no responsibilities and I could sleep in and have fun!

I had dinner at my cousin's on Sunday. Mike, one of my friends who just came back from his mission to Russia, and who is a really really good friend of my cousin, Charlie, and his wife, CL, was also there. We had dinner and then we talked, and then we played Risk when the baby was asleep. I sucked at it. I won one game, but that was because CL was not aggressive in completing her mission. I stayed there till way late. I wanted to leave sooner, but everyone was having such a good time that I would have been a party pooper. I finally left at like 3am though. And when I left, Charlie checked up on me again and told me that him, Mike and CL were playing one more round of Risk.

On Monday I had lunch with the family that housed me the first few days I was in UT. I'm really homesick for food now cause CL was cooking Chinese food, and the family was cooking Chinese food too. And they made home-made Chinese food. None of the buying Chinese food thing, so I really enjoyed it. When lunch was over I played Dominoes with them. It was fun. I never knew how to play Dominoes before that and I didn't think it would be that enjoyable.

Anyway, that was my fun weekend. I'm thinking of turning in my two weeks at VS. I love working there. I really, do. But I think now is not the right time for me. Between Hollister and Agel I'm so stretched out for time, and its gonna get worse when Agel moves their office to Provo. I don't want to do it, but I think its the best thing to do.

The One on Friday the 2nd

Hollister was OK today. i just found out that there will be a new MIT. He's been in the programme a little longer than me, but before that he was also a brand rep for like 7 mths so he has a ton more experience than I do. It was really slow yesterday so I thought I'd spend some time looking through paperwork, like the calculations for when we open and stuff. Natalie, the DM was there and she didn't really say anything to me, but Brianne seemed a little snappy with me yesterday. She said I was not suppose to be in the office. Apparantly, I was spending too much time there. Joe, the other MIT, will probably get promoted first since he's already at the stage where he can look after the store by himself, and I am not there yet. Oh well.

I didn't realise Monday is labour day. My schedule at Hollister is gonna be screwed up. If its not Hollisters, than its Victoria's Secret that is gonna be screwed up. Bummer.

I'm gonna start reading my new book today, "Mirror Mirror."

Currently Reading Mirror Mirror : A Novel By Gregory Maguire see related

The One on Thursday the 1st

I closed all by myself at Hollister yesterday. I wasn't along in the store, but my trainer let me do everything myself. She was out with the other kids straightening out the rooms and I was doing all the closing procedures myself... so I was kinda closing all myself. I'll know today if I screwed up or not cause the opening manager can tell me that.

It was really dead at work yesterday too. Like it was slow, and no one had any energy, and I was almost hating being there. I had to do form refreshes and that basically means I go around with a list of what every form should be wearing, and what sizes they should be weaing, and making sure they all have the right size clothes on. I wanted to die. It was so boring, and I can't believe it is so hard trying to get clothes off a form, esp the belts. I was trying to take this belt off one of the forms cause he was wearing the wrong on, and I had to take the thing off the table, put it on the floor, and really lean into the form to take it off. The bad part was that it was a guy dummy, and that his belt was right above his crotch, and I happened to be right on top of it with my face. One of the brand reps who was working in the room didn't see what I was doing because he was folding a pile of shirts and size stickering them, and then he turned around and saw me and the form, and he started busting out laughing and the whole store knows now...

For some reason that sounded alot funnier in my head...