Retail Rants

Yes two blogs in one day! They aren't related so they get separate posts. I now give you a new segment on this little corner I have carved out on the internet: RETAIL RANTS. I have been in the mall world for nearly 12 years and whew lawd has it been a time. I have more stories about humans and their disgusting ways than you will ever fathom and all true, even if they sound far-fetched...trust me I wish some were! So for the introduction to this ongoing series I will prepare you and my brethren in sales for the holiday season.

It is almost Halloween and I could not be more excited. However in the retail world this means that the ramp-up to the holiday spending season has begun. Pumpkins share space on shelves with reindeer and pilgrims. Everything is overwhelming, everything is super colorful (but like only in various shades of red, gold, silver, black & green), everything is somehow covered in glitter, it's a lot. I feel bad for Thanksgiving honestly, it's a big friends & family holiday on it's own but it's completely overshadowed by both Halloween and Christmas in the stores. Christmas is already in full force and it is only October 19th....settle down Santa. Like when you think about it Easter has it the best: After Easter has passed the next major decorating holiday is the Fourth of July, which is two to three months away, you don't get gifts and your main concern is where you are going to light off all your fireworks. The long lull of summer gives way afterwards and everyone just chills out until October 1st when, in seasonally appropriate climates, Autumn has arrived and literally I'm pretty sure everyone loses their damn minds. I already know that I will actually be off on Thanksgiving because A) I work for a nice company and B) This is how flipping early we need to start preparing for Black Friday. Now, like yesterday, I'm 85% sure our schedule is mocked up somewhere in the office because this is how important retail has made shopping and the holidays. I love the holidays, don't get me wrong, I really love how cozy the nights are around the bonfire with my friends and how everyone's families get together and come to town, it's wonderful. Working during this time is a shenanigan show of complete unpredictability.  The people I have met/helped over the years have run the gamut from sweet as pie to the actual devil spawn. You never know exactly what you will get, I had my very first customer one Black Friday afternoon yell at me for the pricing that was out of my control. She was SO mad about the fact that we had advertised certain pricing for the early birds and then didn't carry that over to the people strolling in at 3pm....Ma'am I didn't choose this. I've also had an amazing customer that I helped find all their Office Christmas party gifts (he was the CEO) in one swoop.

My main rant for today is a focus of pure human decency. I understand that the holiday season is stressful, I understand that so many people are pressed for time, I understand that money is tight in most cases. I GET IT, I'M WITH YOU. So in turn....very simply....Please don't treat sales people like shit. Honestly. We all have families and friends that we want to be with, that we are also shopping for when we are able and when we are on the clock we are there to help you 100%. I have zero control over any of my companies signs/promotions/pricing/item allotments. I do not make any decisions about what they put out into the world. I just work there. I can help you in only the perimeters of which are set forth by a team of people who work very far from where you and I stand. Please try and remember this when you cop an attitude with a cashier because the price that rang up was the price on the item and not whatever you assumed it might be. Ask us a million questions, that is what I am there for! I can provide so much information, I can get you any size, I can offer opinions on what to wear to the event and if this matches these shoes you have. I love doing that! I will personal shop for you all day. At the end of the day we are all humans just trying to get through this weird and wild world, the easiest thing to do is Just Be Kind.

The rants will continue through this crazy 2K16 holiday jam we are about to dive into...so stay tuned for all the storytimes!

Keep on, Keepin' on,

M.

Night Blogs

I feel that when I don't keep up with this blog, I'm doing a disservice to my soul. Like I want to be a writer. I want to put out the next great American novel. I have no clue what it will be about and I'm pretty sure I won't know until that idea hits me a 3AM on an idle Tuesday.

I will be 30 in less than 6 months and right now, today, as I type this, that is the 2nd most terrifying thought in my brain. The 1st one is for another night.

How do you know when it all starts falling into place? Do you ever know? Or do you just tell yourself that lie of complacency that you've been taught. This is halfway where I thought I'd be 5 years ago. I'd like to be fullway where I thought I'd be a year ago, but I'm just better sometimes at coasting through than actually making hard, uncomfortable choices and leaping off that cliff.

Here's to August being the month I really write full force and change my life!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Sunday Morning

Hello and welcome to February everyone :)

Update from the last blog: My NOLA report will be live on www.lifebetweenweekends.com Feb 9th! YAY! I am very excited and very grateful and very happy.

In other news, I've kicked around the idea for a few years to start a little business and see if anything happens. So thus I give you Renate Rose Jewelry! I have a shop coming soon to Etsy and of course will keep this blog up to date on all details and pages to see and whatnot.

Ok, shameless self promos over.

This has been a strange and frustrating 2015 so far. Yes New Orleans was amazing. Yes I am excited for new ventures and randomly wonderful opportunities. But despite all that it has already been a hell of a struggle in the back burner personal side of things. Outside everything seems pretty smooth and together but inside certain things are just ripping apart my good nature. I've always been good at squashing things and no letting the bad show, which at some points have made me feel like I have robot parts. Can't let those rust so you can't cry over every little thing.

When you're little you are told that you have the whole world in front of you and you can do anything. When you grow up that stops and suddenly you're painted into a corner and given all these roadblocks that prevent you from just going for it. I think it's time that those walls get steamrolled right down. Live your life at any age still believing that you can do anything. Don't them anyone make it hard. Don't let yourself make it hard. I've spent too long getting painted and now I've come to the conclusion that maybe it was always me holding the brush.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Putting In Work

Ok here I go.

Going to blog everyday. Starting today. Right now.

Technically you might get 2 blogs today since I will probably write after I get back from the work that's paying my bills.

Yep. Doing this. Here's my internet diary.


Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Tuesday Thoughts

Today was a quite easy work day and I had about a million and one thoughts whilst there. Like my brain just kept spinning and thinking of things to do and say and mostly write.

So here I go, writing. I figured I would actually hold tight to one of my goals in this life and blog more. I even set an alarm! And it was an alarm that I couldn't snooze like the one for waking up!

I thought about the dreams I have about really writing a book. And really being published. That would be awesome. Who knows what can happen in a lifetime. I wasn't always bent on being a writer. I wanted to be a marine biologist for the longest, I even went to Eckerd College for a semester. And while there thought I would enjoy anthropology better. Then a threw a wrench in my own plans and ended up back home looking for a job. Found retail and have been in that game for 9 years now. I'm great at it, I can climb up all the ladders within my current company, and only a few years ago did I really consider writing as a career path.
I didn't do anything with my dream for a while and now that I am doing something, (this blog baby) I know that I could be doing more. Thing is I'm still not sure how to really get out and get going.

I know that not everyone knows what to do in the early adult years and so I feel ok in my confusion...but I think I'd be really happy if I stopped doubting myself and just wrote a book, a short story, something! Get that published and see where it takes me.

Until then, I'll write here in my internet diary.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Oh Those Spirits Are Coming 'Round Again!

Hello, Christmas. Welcome back. You came a bit earlier than I had wanted....I saw too many evergreen branches before Halloween had left! But now here in December, now that I've played with ghosties and had my fill of turkey and pumpkin pie, now I find myself hugging trees and drinking eggnog and thinking about gifts! I work in retail so really I get a bit Scroogy during the first days of Christmas rearing its tinseled head. But then I think of the trees and the lights and the family time and the smells of the kitchen......and I, I just get all wrapped up in it. (Ha!)

Today I spent a lovely evening with lovely girls that because of schedules we don't get to hang out as much as we'd like to. We laughed and swapped stories and remembered to motivated ourselves towards our dream lives. I feel like we will grow old and have our families and still laugh and swap stories and it will still be lovely.

I like Christmas and I like that it brings people together. All the parties and gatherings and memories to smile and talk about in future Christmas parties. I suppose, even working in the craziness, you get older and you remember what's important. And you think about how happy it makes you, and well, you just end up loving it.

Keep on keepin' on,

M.