It's that time again. And these are questions I don't mind answering. So, I present to you the Friday Five.
You have just won one million dollars: (Hooray! Thank you very much....oh wait, this isn't real...gotcha)
1. Who do you call first?
My parents I would think. Of course that would be two separate phone calls, which would really mean that I'd be calling one of them first. Though, since neither of them are reachable during the day, maybe I'd have to pick someone else. Hm.... Nevermind, my parents would get voicemail messages. They wouldn't be able to understand them, but they'd get them.
2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?
My mom's house. Seriously, I love living here and don't want to move. So, if I had the money to do it, I would. Yeah, it would eat a chunk out of the money, I should probably invest it all, but whatever. I DO need somewhere to live, may as well be somewhere I like. Right?
The second thing I'd do? Never mind buy, but I'm going to Greece. Of course, I'd have to make sure that it was hot there, but I'd be on my way. And, while I was over there, I'd probably make a few other stops, you know....France....Italy...other gorgeous places like that.
3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?
See above. My mom needs to sell her house, therefore buying it would be helping her as much as it would help me.
Also, I have a friend whom I've promised to kidnap if I ever win the lottery, so I'd also pay for that friend to go to Greece as well.
4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?
Of course I give some away. Don't I owe everyone in the world money? Well, at least, the bank, the government, Chysler Credit, VISA, Mastercard, etc.. etc.. I suppose in essence that's not exactly what they were going for with this question, but there's my answer. Yes, I pay my bills.
As far as charities go? After buying the house, going on a tour of Europe, buying my car and paying off the rest of my bills, there isn't going to be much left. I'd probably give some to my family. You know, thanks for paying for everything I've ever asked you for mom & dad.
So, sorry charity, unless I win multiple millions, you're shit out of luck. That makes me selfish you say? So what?
5. Do you invest any? If so, how?
Yeah, the rest would be invested. Of course, buying a house is an investment too, so that part is good. I don't know how I'd invest it. My dad has a guy that does that sort of thing for him, likely I'd take the money to him and ask him to do it. He's worked well for both my grandfather and my dad, so I think he's to be trusted.
And so, now when I get to work today I'll be buying Super 7 tickets, because the jackpot is 30 million dollars. I never win the lottery, but as has been pointed out to me on a few occasions, I can't win if I don't play...
1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails?
I don't have a signature line for email. When I worked at a place that required that sort of thing I had my name, job title, email address, phone number and the standard privacy disclaimer. Now? I just sign my name. If I even bother with that. When I post on message boards, I have a link to this website in my signature line. Which seems like more than enough to me.
2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven't graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be?
As I recall (and I should remember this in that I edited that section of the yearbook), we didn't even have a space for a quote. There were other factors involved. And since I've never been good at filling crap like that out, mine was fairly limited. Favourite memory was likely our trip to France earlier that year. And the rest? I don't even remember right now. I could go upstairs and dig it out to find it, but really that's too much effort.
3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say?
I don't have them, but have always wanted a set. I don't know exactly what they'd say, but I always wanted some combination that would stand for shellybean. Yeah, cutesy, but whatever. I used to drive a purple car, if that wasn't already cutesy, I don't know what is!
4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say?
I don't think I've ever received a gift with anything engraved on it. Oh, that's a lie. When I was in high school someone gave me a heart shaped keychain that had this guys name engraved on it. My massive crush was a huge joke, so that's why it was done. Much to my chagrin the story went around the school too and the guy was asking everyone if they'd heard this story about a girl getting a bracelet with his name engraved on.
Yeah, ok, so I was a bit of a dork in high school, what can I say?
5. What would you like your epitaph to be?
This is something I don't even want to think about because it implies that eventually I will die. Yeah, duh, of course I'm going to. But it's not something I'd like to think about at this stage in my life. I am going to live to be 103 years old I think, so i've got 70 someodd years to worry about that. :)
I work in a store. As everyone knows, retail does not pay very well, but I am there because I really like my job. Generally the people are nice, they appreciate when you look for something for them. And if you make an alternate suggestion of where to find what we don't have? They thank you.
Today I had the customer from hell.
This lady was not friendly or overly polite. She came in asking for something that didn't ring any bells for me. It was a diet book, so I went with the lady to the health section and pulled the only book that even looked close to what she was asking for. I said, that I'd go look on the computer to see if I could find anything else that had those keywords in the title.
I didn't find anything.
When I went back and explained it she told me the following:
My response was just that I didn't know what she wanted me to say. I looked in the computer and the only book that came up as being in our store with those keywords in the title was the one in her hands.
She then dismissed me, at which point I tried to walk away. She then asked me what the price was of the book that she had in her hands, so I stopped, turned around and tried to tell her, when she said "No, I'd rather not deal with you, I'll go ask someone else."
Which was fine. I went into the backroom and promptly had my moment of complete and utter disbelief. My manager was sitting there, and asked me what was wrong, because I was visibly upset. And I explained what had happened and what the lady was looking for, and she knew immediately what the book was (and when she told me I knew too, but I really can't remember every book in the store...and it really didn't come up in the computer when I did my search). She told me to go out and give the book to the lady, which I did, and promptly returned to the backroom.
When I eventually went back out the lady was gone, and my co-worker told me that the lady had said that I was unhelpful, and that I'd tried to send her elsewhere simply because I didn't want to help her. Blah, blah, blah. Not true of course. I loved my co-worker so much when she told me that her thoughts were "I know her, and if you're having problems with her, then they're your problems lady!" Then she told me that she remembers dealing with her a while ago when she was pregnant. That encounter left her in tears as well.
I really, really wish I knew why people feel the need to be so abrasive.
First off, I'd like to start this with a disclaimer. I am writing this because I was talked into it. I don't plan to have children, I don't want to have children. Just so that's perfectly clear! ;)
If you could ensure that your children never have one experience that you did, what would it be?
Divorce. Sure I was in my early twenties when my parents divorced, but I don't think that made it any easier. Divorce is a terrible thing.
and
If you could ensure that your children do have one experience you did, what would it be?
I know I go on and on about my cottage. But seriously, it was fantastic being able to spend a month of every summer at the cottage.
I had swimming lessons in a real lake without having to worry about chlorine turning my hair green. I had a boat that I could ride around inside of the bay (after I proved I could row it around I was allowed to have the motor). There was a beach down the way that we'd go to. We'd pack a lunch and walk down there. Our parents could sit on the end of the dock and watch us, but still, we felt as though we were making a long trek to a far away place. For a while, the empty lot between us and our next door neighbours was home to many different clubhouse type places. We all had our own, which we'd hang out in...till we stepped in a bees nest one day and had to burn the last remaining house down.
It's a magical place. Don't believe me? Then you've never been there when the Northen Lights are out in full force.
Today is Friday. Which means that it's my night to close the store. While I don't object to closing the store, I do object to doing it on Friday. For several reasons.
At least I feel comfortable kicking people out. I heard about a Friday evening when some extremely rude ladies came in and didn't leave till well past closing time. The one lady said, "C'mon I think they want to close". The other said "Well that's too bad, isn't it?" Had it been me? At that point I'd have said, "Actually, it's not. We're closed."
I mentioned to my manager how I'd been at Chapters one night when it was closing time. Someone came over the intercom and said, essentially, We're closing, please take your purchases to the cash, else we'll be happy to serve you tomorrow at 10am. I thought it was hilarious. My subtle way of telling people we're closed is to turn off the music in the store. The manager said, I just turn off the lights. (!!) From that statement, I don't feel at all bad about kicking people out.
That's pretty much my argument for why I don't like Friday nights. The override? I am the Assistant Manager, and therefore must be there if the Manager is not when it is busy. Therefore...Friday night is my night.
I have nothing to do with Clean Sweep. It's just a television show that I really enjoy watching because it gives me hope that some day I may be able to be organized myself.
Anyway, because people have recently left comments on that particular entry wondering how they can get on the show. I thought I'd just leave a link here. So...if you're interested in applying to be on Clean Sweep Click Here to go to the page that will let you apply. Good Luck!