Extra hours

Work these last few weeks has been a bit crazy and has resulted in a lot of extra hours for me. Our store manager has been out on emergency medical leave for nearly two weeks and is expected to be gone for another 3 or 4 weeks. In the meantime myself, our other assistant manager, and the assistants from our sister store are covering all of the shifts and getting some extra decent paychecks.

Last week I heard back from two different jobs I had applied to, requesting first-round interviews. Since these were the first jobs I had heard from in months I was pretty excited. I did a phone interview with one of the jobs last Thursday. Unfortunately I was not selected for an on-site interview, but it was good practice. Tomorrow morning I do a first-round with a local government in Colorado. It will by far be the oddest first interview I have ever done. Myself and the rest of the candidates are going to be emailed the same two short-answer essay questions at the same time and we'll have 45 minutes to respond. I understand the concept of testing our knowledge and ability to respond quickly and professionally but it's still the weirdest first round of interviews I've ever been through. :)

In other news, my car, which I have now owned for one year and 5 days, rolled over 100,000 miles today. That was fun for me, but I am a dork.

I have now gone more than 6 months without drinking any soda. I find it is actually harder now to resist than it was when I first gave it up. I am sure I will push through this phase of abstinence but I am also sure I will be drinking a lot of iced tea and water flavored with Crystal Light packages since plain old water just doesn't seem to be cutting it right now.

Today is the first day I have really felt like fall is coming. I love the late-summer days when things cool down and the air gets a bit more crisp. The Honey Crisp apples will be coming into season soon, which are my favorite after Granny Smith. The sweet corn is done, but Grandma Mabon and I froze nearly 60 quarts again this year. Doing so much in one shot makes for a long day, but come January I am always glad we put in the time and effort.

I think this is the end of my brain dump post.

Love!

~g

Creative Baking

For my birthday I received from my Colorado parents a book on how to creatively decorate cupcakes. Along with the book, I also got an entire kit of cupcake decorating paraphernalia (it is really quite impressive). Tonight I decided to make my first batch of cupcakes. They are triple chocolate fudge with cream cheese frosting and decorations made from the various items that came in my kit.

I have a lot to learn yet, but for just messing around and getting a feel for things I think they came out pretty good!

Love!

~g

Post interrupted

I started a post several weeks ago while I was on vacation and I never finished it. I am going to go ahead and finish and post it now....

I am (was) on vacation!!!! In Michigan!!! Thanks to some schedule finagling at work and Mom needing to burn some vacation time so that she can accrue more, I found myself with 5 days off and no plans. Mom looked at what would be in a 12-hour driving radius from us and then narrowed that search down to places we hadn't already been. Our choices came down to Michigan or Arkansas. We chose to go with the cooler, less buggy destination.

We left yesterday morning (Thursday, July 29) and drove to Chicago, where we stopped and had dinner with a good friend of mine. We stayed a bit longer in Chicago than we had planned, which meant getting back on the expressway right around rush hour. We decided to get on the Chicago Skywalk (a toll road) and that ended up being a fantastic decision. We were out of Chicago and into Indiana inside of half an hour. We crossed into Michigan and the Eastern Time Zone an hour and ten minutes after getting in the car in Chicago. We made amazing time!

Last night (again, Thursday, July 29) we stayed at a KOA near Covert, MI. It was a fairly new KOA with very nice amenities, but it did have some pretty glaring issues. One of the most annoying things was the lack of screen door on our kamping kabin. Our cabin was insanely warm when we got there, but with no screen door and lots of bugs we couldn't leave the door open to move out the warm air.

Our solution was to head up to the main lodge and sit out on the deck. We asked that the citronella torches be lit and we had a citronella candle on our table. Both are good preventative measures for mosquitoes but I was not thinking about my feet and the fact that I was wearing flip flops. 14 bites later..... well... that was the not fun part of the trip.

Friday, July 30th found us in the car, working our way up the West coastline of Michigan. Our first stop was in South Haven, where we found a great bakery on main street and both indulged in strawberry cream cheese things for breakfast. I'm not totally sure how to describe it, other than to say it was an almond log or roll or something, except it was filled with a cream cheese mixture. Whatever it was, it was fantastic. We sat at a two-person table in front of the bakery to eat our breakfast and watch the happenings on the street. Both Mom and I got a brownie to go as well. Mine was rocky road. I ate it for breakfast the following morning. :)

A good portion of Friday was spent exploring towns and, if I liked the feel of a place, stopping by city hall to leave a resume with the city manager. Really, I gave the resumes to the city manager's secretaries, but that was expected. While I didn't really expect anything to come of me dropping off a resume with any of the cities I did, it was a way to get my name out there. The longer I am looking for a position the more creative I am getting.

With all of the exploring and all of the stopping and leisurely driving, we did not make it up to the top of Michigan until after 9 pm. We had KOA reservations just over the Mackinac Straits, in the Upper Peninsula. Reaching our KOA meant driving over the Straits on a 4.5 mile long bridge. I love heights. I love water. I most decidedly do not love man-made heights over water. I spent the drive over the bridge breathing slowly and deeply and clenching my hands.

The morning of the 31st we got up a bit later than planned and spent a bit longer than planned getting ready for the day. Both Mom and I have wanted to visit Mackinac Island for years so we spent all day Saturday doing just that. While the island is a bit of a tourist trap it was still a fun experience.

We got back to our KOA in the late afternoon. We spent a few hours resting then Mom went and got us a pastie for dinner. By the time Saturday evening rolled around my feet were full-on itchy and uncomfortable, which made me pretty blah-feeling and not much fun to be around. Mom dealt with it nicely, though. I discovered the wonders of calamine lotion and large doses of Benadryl in relation to dealing with mosquito bites.

Sunday we rose fairly early, getting everything packed up. Starting our drive home was as easy as turning right out of the KOA drive. We following the same two-lane highway all the way across the extreme lower portion of the Upper Peninsula, stopping only once or twice for restrooms and food. We got to central Wisconsin in the middle of the afternoon and had a decision to make. We could have easily continued on and made it all the way home, but it would mean a 12-hour day in the car. Or we could find a place to stop for the day and relax. We chose to stop. We got our first and only hotel room of the trip, had pizza delivered to the room, and spent the evening reading and watching television.

Monday, August 2 was spent sleeping in late, driving the last 6 hours home, and doing laundry and unpacking birthday presents. It was a good, laid-back way to end our trip. One can never argue to coming home to boxes of presents. Heh.

So there you have it. Truly the short version of my mini vacation. And yet somehow this post is still insanely long.

Love!

~g

Pictures!

Norah is visiting again! Below are some pictures from the last few days.

My attempt at using Microsoft Paint to outline just Norah. Not too bad for being free-hand!

Norah likes our whiteboard. I think the draw is not so much the writing on the board as it is erasing things by touching them.

Time to swim! Or look disgruntled.

Love!

~g

What do you do when...

It is raining super hard but you have 10 adults and one baby to feed and your entire menu centers on grilling?

You grill! With modifications, of course.

Love!

~g

Significant Insignificance

I know few people besides me care about this, BUT this past week I swam with my face in the water with only my goggles. I left my nose-plugger-dohicky in my going-to-the-pool bag and swam like a normal person. A lot. 500 yards alone on Friday.

YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a little less than 3 weeks I managed to overcome a life-long paranoia. Not bad.

Now that I've taken care of my swimming problem, what should I tackle next? In three weeks can I find a new job? Meet some new people? Find a church and fully accept God the way I feel I want to?

The possibilities are endless!

Love!

~g

Happenings

So, since my last post I have:

• Worked a two-day stint in another Cedar Rapids store
• Met the regional manager who oversees my district manager who oversees my boss who oversees my store and therefore me
  
• Had the belts on my car replaced
• Applied for several more jobs
• Swam with my face fully in the water thanks to goggles and a not-so-attractive-but-quite-ingenious-nose-squeezer-shutter-thingy-mabob
• Had a customer write to corporate about how awesome I am
• Begun following this man's journey (you should, too... it's fantastic)
• Caught up in my daily journal, although I went on such a break from it there are about 4 days that have nothing written because I can't remember what happened on those days
• Pulled together an event for my store that will take place next Tuesday, June 22
• Made an eHarmony profile even though I don't have a full account because a) I'm not sure if I think online dating is worth it and b) because it's freaking expensive
• Passed the 4-month mark of not drinking any pop/cola/soda/whatever

The above list isn't in the slightest comprehensive, nor is it in chronological order (bullet 2 happened just this morning) but I think those are the highlights.

Love!

~g

Auction

I found myself at an estate auction today. A friend of mine was interested in the car that was to be auctioned off and asked if I would drive him to the auction on the off-chance he ended up buying the car. I had nothing going on so it wasn't a big deal to take him.

We arrived with plenty of time for him to check out the car and get registered as a bidder. We had about half an hour to kill before the car was auctioned, so we split up and walked around and looked at all of the other items for sale.

I found myself enamored with a box full of old postcards, many of which were sent in the early 1900s. The addresses were interesting, as most of the oldest postcards simply had a name, a city, and state. There were no house numbers or post office box numbers and no zip codes. Many had one-cent stamps. What intrigued me the most, however, were the messages. Most were simple, "How are you doing?" inquiries. Others were to let a loved one know that they had arrived safely at their destination. One was a check-in with the parents from a child traveling abroad (the writer had sauerkraut for dinner in Germany). One was clearly written by a child to another child, and it didn't take much to imagine that that postcard was probably the first mail each child sent and received in their lifetime, respectively.

Besides the history and the snippets of people's lives those postcards held, what attracted me the most was that the messages we send each other haven't changed much in the past century; only the methods of delivery have evolved. Today, rather than a postcard that takes a week or more to arrive, we send texts, we post on Facebook or Twitter, we shoot off an email, and so forth. Still, what we are letting others know is that we are alright or that we are thinking of them. It's comforting to know that at our core we have not changed much as a species.

The box also had a small, postcard size, handmade, 4-page book that tracked the attendance of the book's owner at Sunday school. The year written on the top of the first page was 1904. For the record, whomever the book belonged to had perfect Sunday attendance 3 months in a row.

When I finally tore myself away from the postcards I turned to the table behind me, only to discover a "Stephenson's Teachers Examination Question and Answer Book" from 1933. The amount of material this book held was phenomenal! I spent 18 years of my life in school and I probably don't know half of the information in that book. It covered everything from physics to penmanship.

Two pages of the book caught my eye, prompting me to take out my cell phone and get a picture of each page. Each held a poem that I wanted to remember. The first reminded me of Grandpa Kole and Aunt Renee. The second I just really liked.


MY TRUST

I am a teacher -
And trusting, childish eyes
Look unto me confidently,
Their little hands in mine,
To follow me, to anywhere.
Be my way high or low or middle ground
They follow.
Oh, let me feel
What mighty trust is mine!
I am a teacher -

And ardent, restless longing youth
Look unto me expectantly,
Fulfillment of their dreams to aid.
As I lead they follow.
Oh, let me take the upper road
Leading to the heights
And they must follow.
A mighty trust is mine!

Once there was
Known throughout the ages
And over all the world -
The Great Teacher,
Who leads forever to the Light.
His name I bear.
Oh, wondrous thought
That challenges my highest, best.
I am a teacher.

~Caroline S. Woodruff


COURAGE

If fate should steal your happiness
And take it far away,
And then return expectantly
To watch you weep and pray;
Just hold your head up well, dear
And face the threatening years;
Drink the bitter cups she gives,
And smile through all your tears.

Fate knows no law, nor justice,
Nor cares what heart she breaks;
To him who hath enough she gives,
From him who hath naught, takes.
So run your race with lifted head,
And take things like a man;
Don't grieve if Fortune fails you,
You've done the best you can.


I must admit, I am a bit angry with myself for not registering for a number and bidding on both the box of postcards and the teacher book. Live and learn, I guess. Still, it was a fun way to spend an hour and a great exercise in imagine.

Love!

~g

My cat is ridiculous

I don't like to exercise. I want to be healthy and toned without having to get all sweaty and hot and gross. If I can't look and feel the way I'd like to naturally (and lets face it, I will forever be fighting my chubby thighs) then I would at least like to get some measure of enjoyment out of whatever exercise I actually do.

Enter swimming. Swimming is an excellent form of exercise, as it combines cardio with resistance. The bonus? I don't fell all hot and gross, and if I get all sweaty I can't tell since I'm immersed in water and therefore wet everywhere. And the best aspect of all? I enjoy being in the water.

Now, admittedly, my swim style is a bit odd. Due, I believe, to a childhood incident involving a hotel pool and an accidental fall into the 5-foot end when I myself stood only about 3 feet tall, I have a paranoia of sorts of putting my face in the water without first plugging my nose. I suppose the greater fear there is drowning, but I don't fear the water itself and I am confident in my abilities to keep myself afloat. There's just something about my face in the water that sends me into a panic. So I swim with correct form - cupped hands, kicking legs, turned body, etc. - but I do it all with my face held out of the water. I'm sure I look a bit funny, but it works for me.

I have been feeling the urge to be active and to live healthier much more lately, which is why yesterday I bought a season pass to the Waverly swimming pool and why I got up today at 6 a.m. to lap swim. Waverly is about 10 miles away and has a decent pool. While Denver does have a pool, it's pretty crappy and, if the rules are the same as what they were when I was a child, you can only swim at the Denver pool 3 times a season unless you are a member of the country club. Elitism exists everywhere I guess, including a small Iowa town with only about 2000 residents.

Waverly is much more welcoming, as I didn't even have to prove residency in Waverly to qualify for a season pass. The pool is of the outdoor variety, but I'm fairly certain it's heated. They have lap swim every weekday morning from 6-7:30 a.m., at which I am planning on becoming a regular. This will allow me to stick to an exercise schedule that will never be altered, despite my work schedule. Overall, I think this will be a very good thing for me.

In other news, the job search continues and my current job remains just a job. I am actually quite good at sales and I believe my manager and district manager have been impressed with my performance. Last week was a bit fun and different for me since I worked in several stores that were not my own, including a Cedar Rapids store. Many store managers are taking a week of vacation right around now, and their own staff is not enough to cover all of the shifts, so assistant managers are shared among stores.

I worked in the Cedar Falls store on Sunday and a Cedar Rapids store on Monday. Cedar Falls was nothing new as I have guest managed there several times, but Cedar Rapids was an entirely new experience and really quite fun. I was in a CJ Banks store (the plus line) rather than a Christopher & Banks. My home store carries both lines, although the CJ portion is limited, and I have become the store expert on all things CJ. My day in Cedar Rapids was first and foremost to help out, but it was also training for me since I could finally see all of the CJ merchandise in person. I had a blast, had experiences that will allow me to talk about how versatile and adaptable I am whenever I do get a job interview, and I got paid both mileage and driving time. Overall not a bad day of work.

I am still very happy with my new laptop. I've had it about a month now, which I find hard to believe, and have yet to really personalize it and make it distinctly mine. I am sure that will come in time as I use it. There are a few things I really like and a few things I really don't like, but overall my reaction has been simply satisfaction and familiarity.

I am thoroughly unexciting, as I have not posted in a month and have already run out of news. Oi. I need a life.

Love!

~g

Gone and done it

Oi. I'm a bit ashamed I used Shania Twain lyrics for my post title, but it's what popped into my head as I contemplated the contents of this post.

Anyway, what did I go and do? I went and bought a new laptop! Yes, after a year of thinking about it and complaining about my old laptop and even going a few months without a computer of my own before my old laptop decided it was a zombie, I finally bit the bullet and invested in a new computer.

I did plenty of research on my own and relied heavily on the input of family members who know far more about these things than I, and in the end I decided to stick with the Toshiba brand. I basically got a much newer, much faster, much better version of the laptop I have been using for the last 5+ years. If you are curious, I bought this. Also, in case you are curious, I paid a lot less than what it says it normally costs.

The touch pad is much different than what I am used to. Similarly, so is the keyboard and general layout, but I am sure it won't take me long to get used to. With Justin's help I have already gotten it massive protected with various anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-whatever programs. Surprisingly, the computer was not loaded down with a whole bunch of unnecessary programs, so cleaning up the system did not take that long. From this point forward it is more a matter of figuring out what I don't have versus figuring out what I don't need. I also need to get used to Windows 7 since my old system is running XP Home and I never dealt much with Vista.

So far I'm happy with the purchase. I'm glad I was able to hold out for as long as I did, but I no longer wanted to deal with a computer that would randomly shut down with no warning and that would refuse to boot Windows, if it attempted to boot at all.

Other than the computer there is not much newsworthy going on in my life. I did buy a new set of sheets last week. I was actually pretty proud of that particular transaction, since I got a set of 400 thread count "luxury" sheets for $28, marked down from $110. Talk about being in the right store at the right time looking for the right item. And to top it off they are even pretty!

Work continues to simply be work, although recently I have been given a lot more responsibility over a particular aspect of our store. Our store is only one of 30 in the entire company that carries both the missy and plus lines in the same location. I have been given responsibility of the plus line... everything from coming up with ways to market it to setting sales goals to monitoring new item arrivals online and being the most knowledgeable person in the store about the plus line. It's nice to have my own niche and truly feel like I am a productive and meaningful member of the team and not just someone who puts in the hours to get the paycheck.

It is unbelievable to me how quickly this year seems to be going. I don't update my blog very much lately and feel there are two reasons for it. First, I really don't feel like I have much, if anything, to write about. Second, time passes by so quickly I don't realize three weeks have gone by since I made a new post. I suppose it's better to be busy than not.

On that note, the rest of the week is shaping up to be pretty hectic, which means actually sticking to a somewhat reasonable sleep schedule. I need to head to bed even though it means I can't play with my new laptop any longer tonight. Sad face.

Love!

~g