Picking My Brain

I’m returning to you to today live from the Ocean County Mall Summer Festival in NJ.  I wish that was half as much fun as it sounded.

My Mother-In-Law Sue has started her own importing and retail website.  To test the market and create interest in the site, we’ve signed up for a few “festivals” and “street fairs.”  I say we, because I have been helping her with the business since I’m not doing much else with myself.

We’ve imported some pretty pottery from Mexico, some cute pig bake wear from Chile, jewelry from Peru and a bunch of different handicrafts from Africa.

So I’ve been sitting in the Ocean County Mall for 12 hours a day waiting for people to be interested in our products and buy some.  Yeah, that hasn’t gone so well.  I think we are very out of our demographic here, but it is serving as a learning experience.  Our other shows aren’t until October, so we’ll have more products in by then and we’ll be in a bunch of different areas, so hopefully we’ll fare better there.  We’ve been here since Wednesday, and have only made four sales.  We still have today (Saturday) and tomorrow, but the weather is gorgeous ourside, so I’m afraid most people have gone to the beach.

But we are getting some interest, we have people taking our business cards, and we’re hoping that things will go better on the website.  (Shameless plug alert: Aslan’s Pride)

In the meantime, I’ve been pretty busy.  I started those volunteer opportunities I talked about in my last post.  I’ve been working at the Pet Adoption Center at PetSmart for the past three weeks.  I go in on Monday mornings and do the morning cleaning, feeding and playing.  The cats are all so friendly, and there’s one who seems to really have taken to me.  Unfortunatley he can’t come home with me, but I’m sure he’ll find a good home.  I’ve really enjoyed playing with the different litters of kittens that have come through.  I haven’t had a kitten in years, so it’s been fun playing with them and watching them grow up.

I’ve also been very busy at Ten Thousand Villages.  Despite my reluctance at going into retail again, this is different and I’ve found that I’m actually enjoying myself.  First of all, it’s a non-profit.  All of the proceeds goes back to the countries we imported from.  It’s nice to know that buy selling their products, I’m helping to feed families and send children to school.  Everything in the store is fair trade, so the artisans all over the world are making fair-market value on their products instead of being taken advantage of by “middle men.”  They have a new store opening in Greenville, DE.  It’s only about 20 mins away from me, and the manager I’m working with now it really pushing for me to apply for a paying position there.  At first I really was hesitant, the pay is hardly above minimum wage and would not be enough to help Ben and I reach our goals of buying a house.

So I have formulated a plan.  I have finally found a website who is interested in my writing skills.  They have sent me a project to do as a sort of “audition.”  I’m hoping that they like it and want to hire me.  Again, I think it’s not going to be a high paying job, but if I combine that with the Villages position, plus my percentage of profits from Aslan’s Pride, I might do okay.

If I can’t find anything before my unemployemnt runs out, I have two plans.  Since the government has just extended unemployement benefits, I will hopefully be elligible for that and can keep looking.  If not, then I’m probably going to head over to Commerce Bank and see what kind of a position I can get there.  It won’t be much, but at least it will be something until I can find a good career.

So that’s my life right now.  While I’m sitting here watching people go by, I’m going to finish up that project and get that sent off, plus I’m hoping to make a post over at Enlitened Life, and do some more updating to Aslan’s Pride.

Life has been pretty boring lately.   I’m still hunting down jobs with no luck.  I’m beginning to wonder if it’s something about me that employers don’t like.  I know the economy is bad, but there are jobs being posted online.  It’s so frustrating to not even get called in for any interviews.  I’m starting to get panicky.  My unemployment is going to run out, and then what?  I’m deathly afraid that I’m going to be stuck getting some retail job making nothing again.  I know how well that worked out with the Wawa store - it didn’t!  Things are not looking good.

I have decided however, to be of some use to society again.  I’ve decided to do some volunteer work.  The first gig that I’ve been accepted to is the Animal Coalition of Delaware County.  They do rescue and adoption work for every kind of animal you can think of.  I’ve been asked to help out with a special event this Saturday, though I might be going to Sue’s on Saturday so I might not make it.  During the week I hope to get on the schedule to work at the Pet Adoption Center at the PetSmart close to me. I’ll get to take care of the kitties while they wait for new homes.

The other gig I’m waiting to hear from is with a cool store in Media called Ten Thousand Villages. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing there, but the store sells all sorts of imported items from around the world. Everything they sell is bought “Fair Trade,” meaning that the artisans are paid fair market price for their products instead of being taken advantage of by the big corporations.

So I figure rather than sitting home and worrying myself about being unemployed, I’ll go out and be useful.  Hopefully I’ll gain some contacts or something to be able to find myself a decent job!

Last Sunday night I had to make my first visit to the emergency room for myself in at least 10 years. It was nothing too major, I was washing dishes and managed to knock my super-sharp kitchen knife off the counter. Of course when it fell, it landed right on my foot and I ended up with a nice big gash on my right foot at the joint where my big toe and foot meet. It was bleeding profusely and we couldn’t get it to stop, so we hopped in the car and went down to the emergency room.

Five stitches and a tetanus shot later, I was hobbling home.  Things have been up and down since.  The first two days my foot ached a little and if I walked too much at one time, I would start bleeding a little.  The worst was Tuesday morning when I reacted to the tetanus shot.  I got light-headed and nauseous twice, and ended up in bed for a good part of the afternoon.

Things are better now, it’s just getting pretty annoying that this one little cut on my foot is keeping me from doing things as usual.  Walking still involves a little hobbling because my toe doesn’t bend very well.  Shoes put pressure right on the cut, so I’m stuck wearing flip-flops.  I normally wouldn’t complain, but you can’t go to the gym in flip-flops!  I’m supposed to get the stitches removed on June 4, I just have to make an appointment with the doctor.  So hopefully I’ll be more mobile then.  Until then, I’m even more bored than usual!

We have returned from DC, more or less in the same condition we left. We were a little tired from all the walking, but this trip we were finally able to sync up metro stops and places we wanted to go, so we were all over the place. Our only calamity was that our car got broken into while we were there. I figured since I have a psuedo-alarm on the car, nobody would even touch it. The only piece of equipment showing was the radar detector, so I never thought twice about it. Sunday morning Ben went out to get our coats and realized that one of the doors was slightly open. I wasn’t too upset over the loss of my radar detector and my GPS. They come in handy, but they are easily replaceable. They weren’t top of line models anyway, so not a huge deal. Everything else was just rummaged through, but I guess the maintenance record for the car wasn’t too exciting. It’s a weird feeling to know that someone you don’t know went through all of your stuff and I was a little mad, but I got over it. Obviously a pseudo-alarm only does any good if you’re there to hear it!

It wasn’t until we were on our way home that I asked Ben to reach into the pocket on the back of his seat and pull out my CD binder. When he started groping and couldn’t find it, we realized that it had been swiped too. Oddly enough, the missing CDs are what really freaked me out. I had my entire collection in there. It’s true I don’t usually listen to my CDs, I’ll listen to my iPod more, but there were CDs in there that I’ve had since high school. The last time I bought a CD was probably like 2 years ago. But there were some that I liked having the actual CD of. It’s weird that I’m so upset over the CDs. I have all the cases in storage, so I can go through and see what I’m missing. I can either download or repurchase whatever I want. I guess it’s just more the fact of, those CDs are pretty much worthless to anybody but me. Nobody’s going to be able to get any money for old CDs without the cases. So now I’ll save up my money and start to slowly rebuild. I think most I’m not going to rebuy, but I’ll probably at least replace my Barenaked Ladies and Jewel since they’re my favorites.

So I ended up taking so many pictures that there was no way I could have them all up and posted as we were going along in DC. We were also too busy doing other stuff for me to sit around and play with postings and pictures. By the time we got home every night it was like 10 pm and we were exhausted. So this week I’ve been going through and doing the sorting and editing needed. I’ve decided that I’m going to be posting in batches. That way I’m not crashing any servers with 50+ pictures. So keep on the lookout over the next few days. Coming attractions are: Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, the Smithsonian, the Tidal Basin and Cherry Blossoms, a few from the Tulip Library and finally the Roosevelt Memorial.

Be on the lookout for some good photo blogging this weekend. I am packing my bags as I type (or at least waiting for the dryer to be done so I have clothes to pack!) and heading down to DC this weekend.

The Cherry Blossoms have bloomed, and we’re off to go see them. Lauren went down last weekend and shared her pictures with me. It was gorgeous! We did go down last year, but they were almost done by then. It looks like Lauren caught them at full bloom. She sent me a text message when she got there last Saturday, and I told her to tell the blossoms to stay that pretty until we got down there this weekend, so we’ll see if they listened!

This afternoon we’ll take a walk around the Tidal Basin to see all the Blossoms. I’m going to try and get on the west side of the basin this year, that’s where the Roosevelt Memorial is. I haven’t been to that one yet and it looks really neat.

On Saturday we’re going to go to Arlington National Cemetery. We went last year with Lauren, but we managed to not see the whole cemetery. I’m anxious to see the Tomb of the Unknown Solider as well as the rest of the cemetery. I’ll also take a stop by my Great-Uncle Woody’s grave. Since he’s buried there, I don’t think much of the family gets to visit it. I don’t remember if I ever met Woody, but it means a lot to the family that I take a stop by. I think it’s kind of weird to take pictures of family member’s graves, but I took a few last year so that the family who has never seen where he is can see it. I’ll take a few more this year to share with them.

On Sunday we don’t have any specific plans. I’m thinking about looking at the special exhibits at the Smithsonians and see if there’s something that catch our eye. If not, we may go to the American History Museum and see some of the more contemporary exhibits. I went years ago and saw one of the pairs of ruby slipped used in filming the Wizard of Oz and if I remember correctly, there was lots of other neat stuff.

And of course, while we’re there, we’ll eat at some of the great ethnic restaurants found in DC. We’ve been to a Vietnamese restaurant and an Ethiopian restaurant. We loved the Ethiopian, and are definately going back there. I would like to go back the the Vietnamese, but since I’ve already been there, I’m going to see if Meg has any suggestions for something we haven’t had yet.

Well, it sounds like the dryer is done. Let me go pack a bag, get dressed and get sleepy-head (aka Ben) out of bed. Keep your fingers crossed that the bad weather they’re predicting for this weekend will go away!

Yeah, I’ll admit it.  I occasionally shop at K-Mart.  It’s literally three blocks from my apartment and they offer cheap prices on things like cat litter, cleaning supplies and bird food.  As most stores do these days, there’s usually a rent-a-cop standing at the door waiting to check my receipt on my way out.

I’m not really sure what good they do in the first place, they look at the receipt but never actually look at what’s in the bag!  I understand and don’t mind if they ask to see a receipt for an unbagged item, but a recent expereince at our K-Mart has given me a new disdain for these people on a power trip.

To start, did you know that you are NOT required to show your receipt?  Stores are only legally allowed to require a bag or receipt check if they have obtained your signature stating that you are aware of this policy and that you are agreeing to comply (read the fine print!!).  Stores like BJs that require a membership are likely to do this.

However, if a store does not have your signature, they are not legally allowed to require you to submit to a check unless they have probable cause that you are shoplifting.  Once you have paid for the items, they legally become your property and a store has no more right to search that bag than they do to search your purse.   This means you can refuse the check and keep on walking.  If the store detains you, you then have the right to inform the police in your defense.

Occasionally when I’m in a rush, I’ll refuse the check and keep on my way.  Usually the staffer is so dumbfounded by my denial that I’m out the door before it becomes an issue.  However tonight, the rent-a-cop at K-Mart was on such a power trip that our refusal to have our $2 receipt checked resulted in us being harassed and threatened.  Here is a letter that I’ve fired off to K-Mart’s customer service email address.  I’ve also sent the letter to The Consumerist, a blog dedicated to informing consumers of their rights and fighting to defend them. (How ironic that one of their categories on their homepage is “Sears,” the owner of K-Mart!)

Here is the text of the letter:

February 22, 2008

To Whom It May Concern:

I felt that I should inform you of a recent incident in one of your K-Mart stores.  My fiancé and I often shop in your Glenolden, Pa location and have always been satisfied with our experience.  However on the evening of Thursday, February 21^st at approximately 8:30pm, we were treated exceptionally poorly.

After purchasing our single item, we proceeded directly to the exit.  The security guard stationed at the door asked to see our receipt.  We politely refused, as is our right by law, and continued on our way as we had another engagement.

The guard however did not accept our refusal.  He followed us into the parking lot still insisting on seeing our receipt.  Still polite, we continued to refuse and continued to our car.  The guard followed us all the way to our vehicle and then proceeded to right down our license plate number.  When I inquired as to what his course of action would be, he informed me that I could expect a police officer to either pull me over or to arrive at my residence.  I thanked him and got into my car.  The guard started to walk away and then came back to the car to inform me that it is Sears’ policy to check bags and that if we did not want to comply; then we were no longer welcome in the store.

I am appalled that my rights as a consumer were disregarded in this way and I am completely offended that I was told that I am not welcome in your store.  I am also disturbed that the guard was so arrogant as to repeatedly threaten to call the police when we were acting within our rights.

As I am sure you are aware, once we have purchased our items they are legally our property.  The security guard has as much right to check our store bag as he does my purse.  We gave him no reason to suspect us of any wrongdoing; he could see us leave the register, our single item in a K-Mart bag, and watch us proceed directly to the exit without touching anything on our way.

Unless K-Mart has obtained our signature, which it has not, receipt and bag checks may only be lawfully conducted on a voluntary basis.  This means that we retain the right to refuse the check.

I also have to wonder how many other customers were exiting the store without a bag check while the guard was wasting time following us to our car.  The single item we had purchased that day cost exactly $2, whereas I saw other customers in line with full shopping carts.

I hope that you will look into this matter and better inform your staff of consumers’ rights.  I am disgusted with the treatment we received and will think twice before shopping at any of your establishments again.

Sincerely,

Emily Wray

I’m not looking for anything in return.  I just want to make people aware of their rights and do whatever I can to prevent this from happening to other people.  Those of you who know me personally know that I am the last person you would expect to be reported to the cops!

Our rights are under siege from enough places these days, don’t let the rent-a-cop violate them any more!

I forgot to mention that I’ve started a new blog, Enlitened Life.  Ben and I joined Weight Watchers at the beginning of the year, and this blog tracks our progress.  Ben has lost 20 lbs so far, and I’m up to 14!

I also do postings about great foods that I find or interesting articles I read related to weight loss and eating healthy.  We also post our favorite recipes.  Who knew getting healthy good be so tasty!  We sure didn’t!

So add Enlitened Life to your bookmarks! We post a few times a week and new recipes are always cropping up.

For those keeping score, Ben and I have been engaged for three years now. We postponed the wedding to keep my mother happy. She refused to have anything to do with wedding planning until I had graduated college. I was devastated, but I couldn’t imagine planning my wedding without my mother.  So we put off even discussing the topic of marriage with my family until my mother’s terms were met.
Like I said in my last post, I graduated on Dec. 17. So I waited a while for my mom to bring up the wedding, but of course she didn’t. So on Jan. 19th we went to my mom’s for dinner. I didn’t really want to approach the topic because I knew it would end in disaster. So I kept putting it off and putting it off. Ben kept giving me looks trying to get me to bring it up, but I just wasn’t ready to engage in the battle that I knew was coming.

So I self-sabotaged. I waited until we were getting ready to leave, and decided to mumble to my mother, “We’ve picked a date for the wedding, if you even care.” After she had deciphered what I said, she got a major attitude with me. We got into a screaming match, which made me storm out. So I thought that was it, I was on my own for the wedding.

On Tuesday I decided to stage another attempt. I sent an email to my mom suggesting that we forget about what’s happened in the past and focus on the future. She invited us over for dinner again last weekend.

I still didn’t want to approach the topic. I can’t imagine planning my wedding without my mom (despite all of our differences), and I was terrified that she was going to tell me that she still didn’t want anything to do with it. So I was still putting it off a little.

Surprisingly though, my mom actually brought it up at dinner. My parents are all in for the wedding! We actually had a nice conversation that night about what I already had in mind. She gave me some honest opinions and brought up things that I hadn’t though of. So we’re getting ready to launch a fact-finding mission before we make any definite plans. I actually think she’s starting to get excited about planning a wedding. She called me on Monday to say that she had already found a bridal show for us to go to!

We’re having some difficulty in deciding on a final date, however. Ben and I had been planning a February wedding ever since we got married. We wanted February because we both love the winter and snow, and because February is when our anniversary is. However, my mom has kinda thrown a monkey wrench into the whole works. Since she’s a teacher, she has off during the summer. Since I’m living in Pa and she’s in NJ, it would be easier to plan the wedding if she is free to do any running around that needs to be done at the last minute. She has a hard time taking time off during the year, and she especially can’t take time off backed up to a holiday. She recommends a mid to late June wedding. Ben on the other hand is dead set against a summer wedding. He absolutely hates the summer and doesn’t want to hear anything about a summer wedding.  Plus, he doesn’t want to wait any longer.  He actually would have it this coming November if I said okay. So here I am somewhere in the middle between the two again.

I wanted February at first to be as close as possible to our anniversary, Feb. 13. However, I was convinced that since it falls on a Friday in 2009 (people would have to take off of work) and since it’s so close to Valentine’s Day (I refuse to have a single heart, dove or calla lily anywhere in my wedding) to give up that date. So since I gave up that particular date, I’m not really tied to February anymore. Since I had been thinking about a winter wedding, the colors I had picked out were burgundy and gold. They won’t work in the summer, and I didn’t really have any “inspirations” about theme and decor for a summer wedding.

This morning though I was doing some looking around at theknot.com. I do like a sage/olive green and had recently seen some spring green ‘maids dressed that I kind of liked. While poking around, I saw the bouquet to the left (click on the picture for a larger image) that did give me the spark I was looking for. I could do a very nice spring green with pale pink accents and white accents.

I think I’m going to take a diplomatic approach.  I’m going to ask Ben to sit down and make a list his pros and cons of a winter wedding and his pros and cons of a summer wedding.  I’m going to do the same.  Then we’ll compare lists and see what we come up with.

Well, I have some work to get done before I am unemployed tomorrow.  In case I said in my post yesterday that today, Thursday, was my last day, my supervisor emailed me late yesterday to tell me that I was on the payroll until tomorrow.  Basically I’ll have a half day tomorrow, I have an eye dr. appt. in the morning then the whole department is going out to lunch to say goodbye to one of the other girls.  Which is interesting…

The job I had applied for and was passed over for was for a Course Designer position.  Unexpectedly, one of the other Course Designers resigned.  So as of this morning, there is another posting for a Course Designer.  I really don’t know if I should post for it or not.  I feel that I have an advantage now that I have worked as a Course Designer for a month and that I have my degree.  But if I wasn’t hired the first time, would I really be hired this time.  I’m going to see if I can talk to the person doing the hiring and ask her for her opinion on whether or not I should post for the new position.  So I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

I’ve been busy with work and other projects, so I haven’t been posting here much about me lately. In the words of Inigo in The Princess Bride: “Let me ’splain…no, that would take too long. Let me sum up:”

My job with Wawa is over as of Friday the 1st. The training part of the job actually ended back in December. I got extended through Feb. 1, I guess in the hopes that another job would come up. Well, it did, and I got passed over. I applied for another position, but I didn’t even get an interview for that one because I didn’t “have the experience they were looking for.” It’s so weird, everyone in corporate keeps suggesting that I go back to the store and wait for something else to come along. It’s really creepy, like they’re brainwashed or something. I feel that I have perfectly good reasons to keep me from going back to the store; I could only make half as much salary in the store as I make now, I would have to give up weekends and holidays off - not to mention I’d have to go back to being available 24/7, I don’t want to waste my time doing menial labor when I have a college degree, and most importantly, I hated it!

So as of 5 pm on Friday, I am officially unemployed. I will be filing for unemployment so hopefully we won’t be completely down my salary altogether. The job hunt is very frustrating. I’ve been sending out tons of resumes, but I haven’t gotten any calls back.

For those keeping track - yes, I did say that I have a college degree. Everything went through and I attended graduation on Sunday, Dec. 17. Even my diploma has arrived, so I am done. I’ll think about grad school in a few years. When I can afford it!

So I think that’s pretty much it. It’s just my typical life, things get going good and I’m finally happy, then everything blows up in my face.

Yeah, that Wednesday was not the greatest day ever. In fact, except for the snow, it was a crappy day. I was tired and anxious all day.

Here’s how it went that Friday:

Step One: Snow. COMPLETED. Yep, it snowed again.

Step Two: Ace my interview and get offered a permanent job. FAILED: Well, I thought I had done well in my interview, but not really. Apparently when I was talking about working for the newspaper and said that I enjoyed writing but didn’t like the “just the facts” and no creativity, she thought I wasn’t right for the job. She was also disappointed when I chose the more creative project to work on last week instead of a more factual one. I also couldn’t compete with the level of experience the other girls had. They’ve been with Wawa for over 10 years each, and I’ve only been here 2 1/2, 2 of which was in the store. I’m disappointed,and actually pretty bitter. I feel a little let down, I knew I wasn’t being promised anything, but it seemed like I was being kept so I could just slide into the new position. I knew it was a long shot, but of course I was still hoping. It also kinda got on my nerves that the two who got the jobs, were the two that already had pending job offers in another department. So now they’re going to turn down those jobs and take this one. I’m happy for them because they’re my friends and they deserve the jobs, but I’m still left out in the cold. I’m sending out resumes like mad now trying to find a new job. So far, as of Jan. 31, I will be unemployed.
Step Three: Find out if I’ve been approved for graduation. COMPLETED! I got a grade higher than I needed in the class to graduate. Graduation was on the 16th of last month. Here’s the pix to prove it! Edit: I seem to be having technical difficulties with the uploads. I’ll post them as soon as Ben fixes it. I’m going to my mom’s today to pick up my diploma. They didn’t have them at graduation, so they mailed them out and for some weird reason, it seems mine ended up at my mom’s house.