Man vs. nature...

When I was in high school I remember learning about the types of conflict. In any story, there must be some form of conflict. As I recall, these are neatly categorized into 3 types: man (or woman) vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. nature. Well, after spending the last 8 hours attempting to assemble shelving at the lobby of hobbies, I propose a new category: (wo)man vs. the poorly constructed shelving unit. No matter what I did, the different pieces of the puzzle just wouldn't come together. I think the saddest part was when my manager told me to go get the 36" shelves, so I went to the back and got shelves that looked approx. a yard tall. I came back and he informed me those were the wrong ones--I needed ones about as tall as me. I had to then inform him that there was no way a shelf 36" tall was as tall as me-- that would make me 3' tall. I know I'm short, but if a 36" shelf was "about as tall as me," I would qualify as a little person. I am now going to bed and dreaming of the end of this week when I no longer have to try to force long pieces of glass to fit into little metal pieces that have been banged around one too many times.

Resident Cranky Pants...

I sometimes get a little too involved in my work. By this, I mean that I feel the need to right all the wrongs in corporate America by simply complaining with my co-workers. Here's a little known fact about me- I love to gossip, and even more than gossiping, I love to complain. Yep- it's the truth. The downside of complaining though is it just makes you even more mad and annoyed and therefore leads you to be even more upset than you were before you started... oh the cycle... So I found myself just being a completely miserable person at work today. I was annoyed with my boss, I was annoyed with one of my co-workers, and I was annoyed with customers that were difficult. All of these annoyances were somewhat justified, but that doesn't really change anything, does it? As I sat behind the fabric counter (yep- I ended up back in the fabric department for part of the night due to some poor scheduling) contemplating what a horrible person I was, something hit me--this was my choice. My world will, most likely, be constantly filled with situations and people that aren't exactly what I want to deal with. And my emotions will always fluctuate and run crazy. But--at the end of it all-- it's my choice to either embrace feelings and situations and let them control who I am, or I can choose who I want to be and force the rest of me to agree. Today, I chose to be happy. I chose to just enjoy where I was. It was amazing to watch how my day changed with this decision. I almost instantly felt better. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. I heard a guy at a Bible study the other day say something really profound. He said that throughout the Bible we see a pattern that looks like this:

1. God states reality.
2. Circumstances and situations contradict God's fact.
3. We choose.

I think that's what was happening today. God has stated that he only allows those things in my life that somehow work out for good (not necessarily my dream life- but my good). Today I had to choose between believing that my situation was for the good or believing that things were really as stinky as they seemed. I'm not saying that tomorrow I won't face this same choice, but at least today I made my choice. :)

On a random side note- I have recently been watching some daytime television since I work during prime time. This has caused me to develop a strange affection for Magnum PI. Despite its complete 80's-ness, I somehow still get drawn in every day from 12-1. Sad, but true.

Moving on....

So I've been a slacker blogger lately. I apologize to anyone still reading this. As with most things, I started out with real gusto and then just kind of pooped out. Anyway, I have lots of exciting things to report.

1. I gave my two weeks notice, so soon I will no longer be the hobby lobbyist. I will attempt to continue to blog though- I promised a friend I would blog about my teaching experiences (I'm going to be teaching high school in the fall). Anyway- I'll probably set up a new blog for that--I'll let ya know.

2. I've been moved from fabrics to seasonal. So I can still help you pick out just the right material for your dining room chairs, but now I can also assist you in finding just the right pumpkin for your house or just the right Christmas ornaments.

3. Due to my new assignment, I now spend much more time towards the front of the store, so I see the sun a lot more. This makes me happy.

4. My new assignment also means I get to design stuff. For example, I spent last night setting up two tables of fall decorations. It's fun to decorate when you have a whole store of resources to choose from. My manager would tell me what needed to go on the table and then set me free to make it pretty. I think I took too long, but, let me tell you, it looks nice. I now have to watch it, or I judge all the ugly tables full of boring stuff like art paper or Christmas lights. Earlier tonight I kind of stuck my foot in my mouth when my manager told me we were going to redo a table in the back that was full of Christmas lights. I made some comment about it being ugly, and one of my co-workers said, "Thanks, I did that!" I immediately began to apologize profusely, but she said she really didn't care--one of the other managers told her to do it that way.

So there you have it- lots of changes in my little world.

Speculations about ceramics...

Mondays are "Truck Days." This basically means the store is full of boxes full of stuff to be put away. So when I got to work on Monday the fabric department was overloaded with all kinds of ribbon and buttons and thread. One thing stuck out though--the male half of a wedding cake topper. Evidently the woman had run for the hills. We (me and my fellow fabric-cutters) decided the man must have been a bad kisser and the woman just couldn't face kissing him for the rest of her life. Our evidence- the couple was clearly in mid-kiss when she hit the road. They might have looked like this:


Side note--while looking for that image, I found a surprising number of cake toppers involving the bride, the groom, and multiple cats. Is that weird to anyone else? Are cats traditionally part of wedding ceremonies?

Something in the water...

The other morning in the fabric section, I looked around and realized that every other person in the fabric section (all customers of course) was pregnant. I was the only one not great with child. Is that weird to anyone else?

The difference between the frugal and the cheap...

Saturday was a strange day. I think I noted that before. But one lady made the day particularly memorable. She came to the register with four items in her hand. We are currently putting all kinds of things on sale so we can put up a million Christmas ornaments, so she had collected three of these four items from the aisles of things currently 80% off. She handed me the first item (a cheap basket) and asked me what the price was. I tried not to be too obvious when I turned the basket to the side and read the price to her. She then asked me a question I hear all the time: "Is that on sale?" I looked at the sales flier and said, "No." She then just looked at me. I followed up with, "Do you still want it?" "No." She said, in the kind of tone you use when people ask you silly questions. She put the basket to the side. I assumed she would hand me the remaining three items so I could ring them up. Well, you know what assuming does... She then handed me the next item. It was some cat figure with a messed up ear. The cat was two dollars. She asked me if it was on sale. I said, "Yes. It's marked as 80% off." She asked if there was a bigger discount because it was broken. I explained that by the time things are marked at 80% off, there's not a whole lot more we can take off. I asked her if she wanted this item and she said, "Not in that condition for that price." So that went with the basket. When the third of her four items was presented, can you guess what she asked? If you guessed, "Is this on sale?" You win. Of course this item was also in the clearance aisle so we had a brief conversation to refresh her memory. When the final item came into my possession and we discussed what was and was not on sale, I really thought it was possible that she would leave all four of these items with me and take nothing home. I was shocked when she actually wanted the item despite its full-price status. So there you have it--the longest checkout time for a single item.

On looking busy...

Today was a big day for me. I normally am confined to the fabric department, but today we had so many people assigned to work in the fabric department that I got to get out for a while. I got the put up returns. This consists of pushing around a buggy full of stuff people don't want. I like this job because it allows me to cruise the entire store looking for places to put stuff. It's a bit like a reverse scavenger hunt. It also makes me look extremely busy and important. After I had emptied my cart, I thought about something. It seems likely that you could spend the entire day doing nothing but pushing around a shopping cart. You would look busy, so people would probably leave you alone and "let you work." In the pilot episode of Scrubs (my favorite show), Dr. Cox gives JD some advice about surviving in a hospital--he tells him that if you push around a "stiff" all day, people will leave you alone. I think a similar thing might be true at my store--if you push around enough random stuff all day, people pretty much leave you alone. So there you have it.

Oh the things you'll find...

I am continually surprised by all the random things you can find at Hobby Lobby. Need a clock that looks like a giant steering wheel and has a John Deer tractor on it? We have that. Need a big piece of wallpaper that looks like a dog? We also have that. Today while I was putting up returns, I found out we have a whole aisle dedicated to chickens. How did I find this you might ask. I asked one of my fellow employees where I should put a dry erase board with a rooster on it. She responded, "Oh- that goes on the chicken aisle." So there you have it.

Who let the dogs out?

The first week I was at work, I encountered 3 dogs in the store. And these weren't like strays that had entered the building--these were dogs being wheeled around in shopping carts by their owners. I found this very odd. I understand taking your dog to PetSmart or some other animal-centered place, but since when did it become acceptable to take your pet from store to store? I asked one of the other employees about the dogs, and she simply said, "Well some people just think their dogs are their kids." That may be true- but people normally aren't really allergic to babies are they?

Queen's Five-Year-Old Following...

Of all the things I thought I would hear the other day at work, a Queen cover was not one of them. As I was walking by the floral section on my way to the front of the store, I passed a mom and her two boys. As I passed them, I heard one of the little boys singing. I expected to hear some little VBS song or something. Instead I heard, "You got mud on your face, you big disgrace..." and then I had passed them.