My how time flys

I realized the other day it's been quite a while since I last blog ed, but what exactly have I been doing that I haven't been able to take a half hour a week just to jot something down. I can't even say I've been working on my scrapbook of my trip, or organizing my pictures, because I haven't. I know it took me a good week to get back into the swing of things. I was pretty much useless at work for that whole first week I was back. That weekend I had some funny bug thing and wasn't feeling well and last week, well last week just flew by me apparently.
So what has happened in the last three weeks, well I did get my scrapbook started, got to see my parents and siblings, my mom also came down to KW to visit me and we did some shopping and I also got to visit some friends.
I have also had to deal with a lot of soccer crap, we thought we had the team settled then the "captain" changed everything that had been discussed so we've now decided to create our own team and that way we get to play with who we want to which will be good. It's really been more of a hassle for Andrew then for me but I have had to deal with a bit of it to so it has taken up my time also.
This past weekend I went out in London for the first time since I moved to KW a year and a half ago. I went to a pub to watch my friend play in his band and ran into some people I used to work with so that was fun. My friend Steph, her boyfriend Jer (the people who came with me to the bar) also went to check out Jer's old band in downtown London. Steph and I used to go to the same bar every Friday night to watch the guys play. It was fun to see them again! We didn't get back to Steph and Jer's house till about 3 which both Steph and I were amazed at since we are such old ladies and used to going to bed at about 10 at night. We had a really good time though!!
In work news I'm switching departments again, and going to the Housewares side of the world as of April 1st. I'm a little nervous because it's a much bigger department then my tiny bath one but also all the stock that comes in to the department is VERY heavy, but at least I'll be getting good work out.
Some more exciting news, Andrew won tickets from work to a Raptors game tomorrow night. We have to rush after he's done work (I'm off for the day) to get to the game on time but we get to sit in the Manulife VIP box seats which will be and interesting experience for sure, even thought neither of us are really in t Basketball. I'm sure we'll have a good time though!!
I'll update you all on the excitement of the game on the weekend!!

Coming back... to a big storm!

I'm back, I made it safe and sound!
It was a very good trip but it was nice to be home and sleep in my own bed, use my own shower and have clean clothes!!!!
It was very different atmosphere at the Gatwick Airport as compared to Pearson. It could have been the simple fact that we left Toronto at 11pm and I was tring to leave London at 10 in the morning, but there was a half hour line up to get thought the pre-boarding screening. The Duty Free Shop is pretty different too though. It was like a huge mall in London where as in Toronto it was a bunch of little stores and they were all seperated and you had a ways to walk between them. One constistant thing is how over priced everything is in the airport. I paid one pound 35 pence for a 750ml bottle of water that in the city cost me one pound and in some small towns I could pick it up for 75p!
I had a small scare just before I got on the plane, as I was walking, taking my time and enjoying the scenery, to board my plane, i looked up at one of the screens and somehow it had already got to last boarding call even thought it was 45 min away. Of course I don't know how it works and figured they could easily leave without me which would so not be cool. I tried to rush but of course at that time all the old people in the world decided they should be walking slowly in front of me. I made it on to the plane and didn't have to rush at all becase we even held up for 10 extra minutes, waiting for other passengers.
I ended up sharing a 3 seat section with just one other lady so we both had alot of space. It was a very comfortable flight and i got some sleep in between watching "Stranger then Fiction" the first inflight movie. I even ended up crying at it and felt like a big losser but anyway.
When we landed the weather looked like CRAP. There was snow all over the terminal, from what I could see anyway, I was hunching myself over and trying to plug my ears because i get really bad pain when landing because of the air pressure.
I was out of customs and everything by 2 and give my friend Caity a call cus she was picking me up at the air port. She had Andrew with her and they had left Kitchener at 1:15 and when I talked to them they were just in Guelph, it took them an hour and a half to get out of the city!!
I spent the next four hours just waiting at the airport. It was interesting for the first bit, but them people started geting on my nerves. I tried to move around a bit so I could get annoyed by different people every 5 min instead of listening to the same person over and over again.
They finally made it at 6 and we headed back on to the 401. We took a break at Dixie road and almost decied to stay over night because we didn't want another 5 hour drive but after our stop it was much better.
It was very weird to come back to all this snow... this is what my car looked like.
Not fun after not having to deal with snow for two weeks... aw well welcome to CANADA!

I've also uploaded some of my pictures on to Flickr but haven't really taken time to organize them or anything yet... but it's a preview for you.
I'm not sure how to have the link set up but here is the website if you want to take a peek
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7144587@N02/

My Trip Comes to an End

It's already my last day here in England, I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. With only 10 days to see a whole lot of stuff, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging. Fortunately I’ve been able to check my e-mail every few days and keep up with stuff to a certain extent but I haven't really had time to sit down and write a post. Today however, it's bitterly cold in Liverpool and raining off and on. The wind is what is really the kicker thought so we've decided to come inside to warm up for an hour or so. And since the library offers free internet access, what the hell!
We've been really lucky with the weather. It's only really rained for 3 days of our trip. We had two maybe even three days of sun and the rest of the time it's been like spring back in Canada. We've stayed at some very interesting hostels, from a scummy only vet centre to a gorgeous Victorian house that was beautifully re-modelled, to a fairly new conference centre offering all sorts of amenities. I've taken pictures of them all and will post some when I get home.
We've also seem some really cool sites, from the big cities of London and Liverpool (which is quite a bit larger then you think, I could easily have filled 3 days here) To the great outdoors of Wales and their two biggest national parks, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons and all kinds of little towns in between.
I'm pretty sure I’ve also heard every possible variation of the English accent during the last few days. The London accent, we had a Scottish tour guide on our 3 day tour of Wales where we obviously heard some welsh accents as well as the ancient Celtic language itself. Also on that tour were quite a few Australians and Americans which gives another wide spectrum of the language and now the Liverpoolan which ties with Welsh for the most difficult to understand!
I've also noticed some other differences between Canadian Culture and the British culture but I’ve made a whole list of them and plan to do a separate post all together.
Well till I get back home,
Cheers

Waiting it out

So it's 6:30 on Monday Feb 19th and I'm about to leave for the airport on my trip to England. It's been a really long day. I tend to be very impatient, especially when I have something really exciting to look forward to. I've kept myself busy for the day so I'm pretty impressed with my self and my house is clean for when I come back, what a treat.
I would like to say thanks to everyone for all your well wishes on my trip and I'll try to write a post while I'm gone but for sure when I come back with pictures and all!!
I would also just like to mention how AWESOME my brother Rob is. He committed to driving Dianne and I to the airport as of Saturday, such short notice and didn't even hesitate. He is an awesome brother for sure. I would also like to say that my friend Catiy is also awesome because she offered to come pick me up at the airport.
Alright well my brother and Dianne should be here any minute so I'm off...

My First Real Vacation is Almost Here!!

My first real vacation is just around the corner. I can't believe how fast it has come. My last post I wrote about finally finding a backpack I could use for my trip and I had to pay for it. Boo to that I say. The next day i was talking to a lady and work and she said her daughters both had a bigger backpack they had used when they went to England so I could borrow one if I wanted. Since that was a way cheaper option, I was all over it, just think of how many pints I can have with that saved 120 dollars!
My most recent challenge has involved finding a carry on bag that can double as a day pack but also be carried with the backpack. Who knew this would be so darn difficult, but I think i found one that will suffice. It's not the most comfortable when combined with the backpack but it will do. There is plenty of room for all my stuff that I would need for day trips which is very exciting!
I've also been exploring options on how to get to the airport. I was all set to drive myself when my friend Caity, offered to pick me up when I get back.... mmm again saving myself 80 bucks... more Pints!!! So now I'm calling in some favors to see if i can get a ride there. My bro has said he could probably do it and my parents are still a possibility but they are out of the country until the day before I leave so it's a little sketchy but we'll see.
I've now even have all my stuff packed and taken my bags for a trial run to see how heavy they are. Andrew has been pestering me to do this forever now it seems and I'm really glad I didn't listen to him before now because I feel like i should be going to get on the plane tomorrow!!! I'm afraid the next 3 days are going to go so slowly that it will be painfully. I feel the worst could be tomorrow as it is my last day of work before 2 whole weeks off!

And the countdown is on!

So here we are down to 12 days till i leave for England and i've finally gotten my act together. I know what shoes i'm bringing with me. We have hostels booked, our trip basically maped out, our bus tour booked, picked up my plane ticket today, get my passport on Friday and after 3 hours of driving all over Kitchener/ Waterloo and Cambridge, I finally found an affordable, travel backpack. Leave it to me to procrastinate for so long, but it's taken care of. I've been looking around for the last few months to see if i could find anything but decided yesterday, being my day off would be the day to take care of it. I spent some time surfing on the net trying to find some good luggage stores, to no avail, and hiking stores for the right kind of equipment. I went to about 4 stores yesterday with no luck and went to, I swear, every other possible place I could think of today until I made it to the Hiking store just down the road from me tonight at 7ish and found a decent pack for 120 bucks. After researching on the net last night I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find anything for less then 200 which I couldn't justify spending on something I would probably only use once. So luckily I found this pack and think it will work and I’ll be able to use it in the future also.
My parents gave me some extra money so I decided that I would splurge and buy a digital camera. After two weeks of looking around and researching on the internet to see what I actually wanted I found one tonight too. So needless to say my brand new credit card was very well used today. Next on the trip list is figuring out what all I need to bring and to make sure I can handle carrying it all on my back. That's Friday's project!

And the votes are finally in, the 6 weird things about me are...

I was tagged at the beginning of December to write 6 weird things about myself. I was very excited to post it because it seems very fun. I started writing my reply right away and now I've finally come up with the 6th and final (at least for this list) weird thing about me. Here it goes...

1) when I was younger, I assumed there were little people (kinda like the Fragels from that show in the 80's) that were living inside electronic devices like computers and TV's. They would make the decisions on what would go on inside these devices and when they got made at each other, there would be fuzz on your tv. Very elaborate I know, I was a creative kid.

2) When I'm doing something monotonous, like unpacking boxes at work, or cutting up food, I count the number of steps it takes me to complete the task. Like all four stokes of cutting a box open, how many steps it takes to get the merchandise out of the box or how many cuts I make in the food. I don't keep track of these numbers or use them to try to improve. It's just something for my brain to do.

3) I hate smoking, I think it's disgusting habit and was so happy when the cities in Ontario passed bylaws to omit smoking from public places. It meant I could go to the bar and come home and not have to have a shower before going to bed because I smelt like an ashtray. However, recently, I've noticed that when someone lights up a fresh cigarette, I really enjoy the smell. It brings back childhood memories or something and makes me think of my dad, who has smoked my whole life. Whenever I smell it, I think of him. Even though I believe he really should quit!!

4) I love to eat!! Food is sooo good to me. But I hate cooking, cleaning up after cooking and grocery shopping to get food. I also don't enjoy eating out all that much because the food is never just the way you want it. So I'm really not sure how IÂ’m supposed to get food into me to eat. I also like things neat and tidy but don't want to be the one to clean them up, even though I live alone and I'm the one who made the mess...Maybee it's really that I'm just lazy

5) This one was pointed out to me by Andrew recently. The more I do, the more energy I have, the less I do, the more lethargic I get. ItÂ’s typically bad when I have a day or even worse a weekend off and I end up hanging out with Andrew where we really donÂ’t do anything all weekend. I still feel incredibly tired and lethargic on Monday when I go back to work. ItÂ’s a really bad routine to get into. You would think a nice lazy day or two would give way to a refreshed person, but no, not I.

6)When I make hot chocolate, I boil water and pour my mug 3/4 of the way full with boiling water, then add the chocolate powder, then fill the mug the last 1/4 with cold milk. I do this for 2 reasons, one to cool the drink down because I'm a big wimp and don't like really hot drinks and two, because with just water it's really thin, and I like me hot chocolate to have more supstance, like when you buy it at Starbucks or Second Cup.

Since most of my friends have already been tagged, and the rest either don't read my blog, or blog themselves very often, I'm going to tag, Matt; www.vernhout.net, Tasha; huladreams.blogspot.com and Rachel; koetsier-gang.blogspot.com
and we'll see what happens

I hate it when...

I hate it when your driving by yourself and some lady walks by wearing a light Pink faux fur coat that looks like it belogs on a 4 year old. Stuff like that is just not as funny when there is no one else to laugh about it with you.
I also hate it when you realize you were wearing your warm up pants backwards when you walked into a sports store... Yeah me :)

Holidays part 3

I can't really remember what I was going to write about in my supposed 3rd holiday post. I did work on boxing day which was nutso. I forgot how much shoppers attitudes change in that day they can't be shopping. They go from being normal, all be it a bit demanding and sometimes up tight, but neat and tidy at least. To tearing everything apart, and throwing everything on the floor. Not to mention not willing to pay more then $5 for any one item. The actual week between Christmas and New Years was far more stressful and annoying then the 2 months leading up to Christmas. It's funny to because I really do forget that every year. Luckily that week is a short one, I only ended up working for 3 days, but I think that is part of the problem because you can't get anything accomplished. I should have actually worked 4 days also but was sick on New Years Eve day. I wasn't to worried about calling in sick because we all figured it would be dead at the stores be we were very wrong. Apparently there was something very crutial to the New Years Party at Linens n' Things.
So I spent my New Years Eve Day in bed hoping to allow my self to at least me social for some of the night. It worked to some extent. I had a good time and was able to participate in the Wii playing we did as a group as well as the drinking but I also slept most of New Years Day away and still really don't fell like I've totally kicked the illness... uggg... Very frustrating!

So now that I'm caught up I'll share with you my fun day today. Today was the day I finally got my Passport together. I had gone down to the office last week but meet up with a co-worker and was told that the line was 2 hours long. However if I filled out the form online, I could be rushed to the front of the line and avoid waiting that long. I came home and tried to fill out the form which I wrote about last week but really to no avail. Since the guarantor still has to sign that form and all the people I know who are eligible to do so live near my parents, I opted not to take the drive back and suck up the waiting. I prepared myself today, had my book with me and a bottle of water and got to the office around 11. A lot of people had told me that I should go as early as a good to avoid waiting as much but I really needed to sleep and didn't have much else I needed to do today so I figured I would stick it out. When I got through the pre check they said it would be about an hour to an hour and a half. I was 100 numbers down. I waited patiently, in the same seat, which is amazing for me, for over 2 hours, finally got to the front of the line, to find out that the pictures that I had were no good because you could see my teeth. No, not that I had smiled or even really opened my mouth, but the way my lips were, there was a tiny gap and you could see the tiniest bit of my teeth. So of course I'm a little frustrated with myself. I've been sitting with everything ready since September but just never bother to make it enough of a priority to set something else aside and make sure I had the money to cover it. Now I'm rushing at the last minute to get this taken care of. Another bad stroke for procrastination. So luckily I was given a special paper which allowed me to skip to the front of the line when I came back with new pictures. I went back to my car, where I found a parking ticket! Guess while I was waiting, I should have come down and added money to the meter considering I only had enough change for 20 min. I headed to the mall near by, grabbed some grub and got my second pictures taken. I got back to the passport office, payed an extra 10 bucks and am guaranteed to get my passport delivered there on the 9th of February, 10 days before my flight... thank god.
So the though part is over and now it's back to the fun part of planning. I have the weekend off so I should be able to finish reading my Britain book and decided where I really really want to go. Sunday I'm going to meet with my traveling partner Dianne and were are going to make some decisions and do some booking!!

Holidays... part 2

Working in retail at Christmas time tends to be stressful as you can imagine. It's not very often that you get your days off placed together but this year I got lucky. I ended up with the 23rd, 24th and 25th off, which is pretty darn cool. The only unfortunate part is that I have to work boxing day, which it turns out I would rather have the two days off and not work boxing day, but that just means I have to smarter next year and book it off ahead of time.
Most people in retail find that on the 24th your brain and body take an early leave of absence, because you've been working so fast and hard for so long, you can see then end and you start to give up before it's really here. Well since I didn't work the 24th, mine came a little earlier, around 5 on the 23rd, which isn't bad except that I had to work until 10... opps. I was expecting a really busy day so I was ferociously trying to get things done before the big rush. When it never came, and I realized it wasn't going to come, I pretty much gave up, even though I still had stuff to do. I paid for it on Boxing day but i'm still not convinced that anything I actually would have done would have helped me, but it's one of those live and learn things.
As for my days off they were quite nice, peaceful, laid back and full of good food, fun people and lots of drinks. On the 23rd I meet up with my old high school friends, had a fun 'tacky gift exchange" which kept us laughing for quite some time. Caught up with everyone and had a few to many drinks. Even pass out on the ride home... ahh back to the good old days.
The 24th was much the same, went to mass, hung out with my family at the neighbours place and again had to much to drink, but this time stumbled home instead of riding in a vehicle.

Christmas Day is a very exciting day for me, usually one of my favourites of the year. I love going to church and seeing all decorated for the holidays. Relaxing and hanging out with my family all day, and the present thing isn’t so bad either. This year I was very nervous for most of the day. It was the first time I was to meet Andrew’s parents after dating for almost 9 months. He had been feeding me horror stories for the last 3 or 4 months on how his parents would behave. Yelling while guests are present, not necessarily because of anger but this is how they discuss things they’ve even gone as far as throwing dishes at each other while other people were present and of course, my favourite, at some point his mother would take me in a room by ourselves and talk about sex… I still can’t wrap my head around it. I was comforted by the fact that his older brother and his brother’s girlfriend would be present to take some of the tension away from me

Needless to say for the entire drive I was very nervous, probably talking to my self for the whole trip! When I arrived I was visible nervous and even repeated my name twice but that was the worst scenario of the whole evening. Andrew took me on a quick tour of the house so I managed to get myself back together. We had some very interesting conversations, mostly his mother, father and brother all trying to talk to me at the same time. And yes they are really loud and opinionated, but I kind of expected that, because that is how Andrew is. I had to bite my tongue when his father was teasing his brother for being so opinionated, when I know for sure is father is the same way. But we got thought the conversation, Andrew and I even took a nice little walk before dinner to work up an appetite. Dinner was delicious and even managed to not spill on myself!!! We watched a bit of football after we eat, then the weather turned kind of sketchy so I ended up staying the night and leaving for work in the morning. I was very happy to have everything go over so well and I’ll think I’ll be able to handle any odd questions that come my way after getting the worst part over with. Plus I know they like me so life is good.

I will publish yet another Holiday edition with details of New Years later in the week.

As an update for the passport, it’s still not completed, turns out what I did on the internet was just filling out the form so I’ll still have to go to the office and wait in line….blahhh!! Thanks for the reminder Christielli, I’ll remember to bring something to do with me

Passport... what a pain

So as you may have previously read, I am going to England in Febuary. Well who know that my trip is already only 6 weeks away!! I had my passport all filled out and ready to go back in September, but some how I kept putting it off and now it has to be done pronto!!!
I went to the passport office on Wednessday, all ready to get everything set up and ran into a girl I work with who was on her way out and informed me that the line up was about 2 hours long! however, there was a woman who had done all her info on the internet before hand and got to skip over the line. I have tried the internet option before but for some reason, it wouldn't accept my browser or some other crazy thing so I figured I would just do it the old fashion way. I decided it would be worth my while to go back home and try the internet option again, as opposed to waiting in a two hour line up. I've been working on it for an hour now and it has been quite a pain in the a**, however, much less then waiting in line because I at least got caught up on my blog reading. I've now finished all my blog reading and am still running into a few little glitches so I thought I would set up a quick post while I was waiting.
Damn internet... I swear, for something so advanced it can be so retarded!!
Anyway I'm hoping to post tomorrow with another Holiday segment, this one will entail the actually days off for Christmas, including the meeting of the bf's parents... very riviting!!

What good excuse can I come up with this time

So it's obvious that I've been terrible at posting again. This time I choose to blame it on sickness! I would say that I would make a new years resolution to write more but I don't really believe in them and therefore it would really work! I caught some sort of evil cold on Christmas Day (that is one reason it is evil... what kind of sickness shows up on Christmas Day) and I haven't been able to kick it. Usually I'll sleep for a day or so and it will go away but this time I had 2 days off and slept, drank lots of fluids and all around rested but it's now worse then it was Thursday night when I proclaimed to be getting better. So there has been quite a bit of on goings in my life over the last few weeks so I'm going to do some posting in installments.. Basically in chronological order, but just really far behind.
So the first installment will talk about something that I was really afraid of and nervous for for a very long time... Andrew finally meet my parents, and I finally meet his, but that will be another installment. Way back on the 17th my mom and dad had my dad's sister and their kids over for the "McLaughlin family Christmas" We really don't see this part of our family very often and it was strange that asked to get together. They are kind of antisocial and choose not to see us with the exception of once a year.. if that. Since Andrew had been proclaiming illness for about a month and using it as an excuse not to meet my parents we decided that he was going to have to come to their house with me so they didn't develop a complex that he didn't want to meet them or something to that effect. So we got there around 3 sat down and drank some beer and started chatting. The evening went very well. My mom, in the middle of dinner, attempted to "interrogate" Andrew but couldn't really come up with any good questions. She didn't even scare me!! She later claimed it was because my brother had made fun of her so she was afraid to ask any questions ect. But we had a very lovely evening. My siblings, Andrew and I went downstairs and played pool on the newly re-finished pool table and he got to chat with all 3 of them plus get a break from the boring adults.
At then end of the evening we get in the car and before I can even close the car door, he says to me... "Your family is awesome... but your aunt and uncle and their kids... are weird!" I laughed have the way home. This comment is only funny to the people who actually know my aunt and uncle, but none the less, it is funny. Plus it gives you an idea of his overall reaction of the evening...

9 shopping days till Christmas

So it's here, that last big weekend before Christmas starts. At my store we're all assuming that next weekend people will have already started celebrating and not doing to much shopping. I have 6 working days left then I'm off for 3 which will be really nice. I haven't had more then two days off in a row in a while so it will be good to enjoy some time off!!
P.S. I got taged this week for a post, six weird things about me, and I'm still working on it. Can't figure out the sixth. Next week for sure!!

GOALLLLLL!!!

So I played forward for the first time in a real soccer game and I scored a goal!!! I almost had 2 other ones too!!! I was so excited it has caused me to blog twice in one day after a very long dry spell!!!
I'm so excited I can't sleep... or maybe it's the fact that I ran for a full hour, hard to say...

By the way, my mom voted for Rheo's over Barrs. We had tried them last year, but I couldn't remember the outcome, good thing I have her around!!

Jingle Bells, batman smells, you know the song.

I haven't thought of that song in a very long time, until it came on over the PA system at work the other day. One of the other mangers and I were complaining about the Christmas music they were playing on the satellite system at the store, and now in every store. It was weird because two weeks ago Friday, I left for the weekend and there was no Christmas music, I came back on the Monday and it was all about Christmas. But not only had we started it but so had everyone else. I guess we passed the day and it was suddenly acceptable, and man was it EVERYWHERE!! So back to my batman version of Jingle Bells, we were complaining because there are no original Christmas songs, it's the same six songs over and over again all day, just different people singing it and adding their own pizzazz if you could call it that. Some of them seriously sound like the singer is on Coke or some crazy thing. It used to be bad in that we would hear the same song day in and day out some times twice in one day, but now it's the same song over and over and over again. Trust me in a 10 hour day you hear Jingle Bells quite a few times. So we were working away and all the sudden the Barenaked Ladies version of Jingle Bells came in and it was the version you used to sing in the playground in elementary school, the whole thing!! Let me tell you, it was a nice break from the sappy slow crap we've been constantly hearing, BLAH!
So truly I am excited about the Christmas season. I really do enjoy Christmas. I take great pride in finding the perfect gift for everyone on my list. I love seeing someone open something they really wanted and never expected to get it, least of all from me. Currently I have 2 people I can not crack and it's driving me nuts. Any unusually gift suggestions would be welcome; I just need Ideas and don't have much time to go shopping, since I hate doing it with to many people around.
I also need opinions from Stratford people, which is better chocolate, Rheo Thompsons or Barrs Chocolates... Got to give the standard chocolate to the chocoholics...
Enjoy your Christmas shopping folks!

You don't know how much you miss it until it is gone

I’ve been in a bloging dry spell for quite some time. I haven’t even been able to keep up with friends’ blogs and see how they are doing. What have I been up to, you ask? Well, that is part of the problem, I don’t know. I haven’t been doing anything different then when I was able to blog once or twice a week. I’m still playing soccer once a week, I’m stil working my crazy 47 and a half hours every week and I’m still making it to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. My schedule is essentially the same as it was all summer, and yet somehow, I have much less time and for a lot of things. My house hasn’t been cleaned in so long I don’t remember what my floor looks like, I haven’t seen much of my friends, my e-mails are piling up and I’m ALWAYS tired! I’m not sure what it is, but every year around this time, I feel like I lose 3 extra hours out of every day. Okay maybe it’s only an hour but still. I don’t understand where those 7 hours a week go. I get up at the same time, I go to bed at the same time and yet they just totally disappear. If anyone has any idea how I could find these hours, could you please let me know!

Days off are just not long enough

Inventory is done and over but I'm still feeling very stressed at work. I was talking to our new manager over the phone today and we both agree that there really isn't a team atphmosphere in the store and I think that is a big part of why I'm so frustrated at work right now. Needless to say I was really looking forward to today as it was my day off, even though I was just off Monday. I was really excited for today because I had decided I was going to reorganize my room! Tu, my roomate since May moved out last week so I had a whole empty room again, so I decied to put my computer back in the room and make it my little office. I finally got ride of my old hunk of junk of a computer and have so much room on my desk now it's fantastic. I'm sure i'll fill it up with junk in no time but at least the space is there. My bedroom is also much roomier now as I don't have the desk in the room taking up all that space. Ya more room to thorough my clothes on the ground!!!

After I got my rooms all set up, I spent most of my day goofing around. By the end of my shift last night, my feet were killing me so I decided it was time to get some new work shoes, 6 months of 50 hours a week is alot for a pair of shoes. At the gym today I realized I also hadn't bought a new pair of running shoes in almost two years and there were starting to look pretty worn. I spent about 4 hours shopping for new shoes and finally found a pair of runners for both work and the gym at the same place. All and all it was a good day, just not long enough, I didn't really get to relax all that much, and now i'm trying to prepare my christmas list because before you know it.. that will be here too.

And the heat is on!!

So it's 7 days till inventory day and I'm still no where near ready for it.... OH YEAH. The good news is that I'm not nearly as stressed as I was. There are plans in place to get thing rolling and I'm confident I can get my shit together. It also helps that we have 7 people in from other stores helping out and unlimited payroll to make sure we are good to go.
I've meet the new manger this week and I'm very excited to work with her. She has been with the company for quite some time and knows a lot, plus she actually does work!! So we should be able to turn things around really well!!! I'm a little concerned that there is going to be a lot of girlie bitching and bullshit but hopefully I can work past that crap.
We also had a visit from the head honco of the Canadian Operations today and it went pretty well considering. He did permit the junior managers to work up to 60 hours as opposed to only the 47.5 and that we are scheduled to so that will help out a lot with the work load. He also managed to get the truck that was to be delivered to us tomorrow canceled so that is also exciting... Yeah to big dudes with power!!!

I don't know what to do with myself!!!

It's official, I'm stressed!!! I just got back from work and I have so much stuff to do that I can't go to sleep. I had to work and "overnight" shift, which is really more of a late night shift, in order to rearrange one of my rooms. The move itself went well, however I didn't realize how much left over stuff there was going to be that, in theory, isn't susposed to be in my store anymore because it's not on my plans. The more likely situation is that the dumbasses in Jersery, where our head office is, forgot to take it all into account. So after we had finished moving everything around and cleaning up the mess we had created, I left instructions for the girls who were working in the morning. Again the Jackasses in Jersey (that has a real ring to it) are screwing me over and sending us 3 trucks this week so I was trying to help them out with the new merchandise that was coming in. My note when something like this; new quilts, ask Jenn, New bed programs, ask Jenn. Ad merchandise that has to stay off the floor, ask Jenn. So essentially I'm just going to let my manager handle everything because I'm so stressed, I don't know where to start. I was thinking about it on my way home and this is way to early to be stressed out. Usually I feel like this around the middle of November which is understandable because of the time frame and so on, but I'm in for a really tough Christmas season if I'm already freaking out....

This is the song that never ends... it goes on and on my friends

So I had to cut my self short on my title because I really could go on forever. The reason I picked this title is because this has felt like the week that will never end. I had this past weekend off and spent most of it relaxing and being lazy which was very nice. But since tuesday I've been thinking that the next day should be Friday because that is my other day off this week... not that I can afford to be losing that kind of time in my life because there is just soooo much to do, but let me tell you I really need a day off!! We are coming into the 4th quater which is obviously the busyiest time of year in the retail buz. Of course we are getting bombarded with stock. We just got in a new sheet program and I recieved 500 cases of sheets in the last two days that all have to be opened and processed and then I have the fun challenge of finding a home for it all, it a very small store by any standards. In fact, the cases are still filling up the majority of my sales floor space... soo not good. To top it all off, our company has also decied that it would be smart to have physical inventory in the begining of October... yeah, someone should be fired for that decision!!!! So needless to say I'm having my end of the week drink, right now!
We had an interesting chain of events today. The store that i'm now working at, the GM is not a well liked person. He can be very dificult to work with, very self centered and obnoxious but gets nothing done and is in no way supportive. In fact, a few weeks ago when I was staring at a room full of stock, that I had no home for, he said to me... "don't worry, it only gets worse from here!"... mmm thanks for the help Jacka**! Long story short, we were informed today that he is no longer working for the company. We're not sure if he quit or got fired, but really it dosen't matter because he's gone and we should be getting someone to replace him in the next week or so... could be an interesting time!!!