Author: elsims

Black Friday, which does not even start on Friday anymore, is only a few days away. There will be deals that you may not be able to get throughout the year. This may be a tradition in your house to patronize these sales by waiting in line and being one of the first in the store. Or if you are like me, you will go online to grab a couple of items. I like the deals but I don’t like waiting in line or the crowds. I have no real tips on how to shop on this particular day/weekend. I do however have a few tips for this day and the rest of the holiday season.

I worked for 7 years at Target. Seven holiday seasons. If you have ever worked in retail you know that it can be rough. No vacation days off from mid November to after the first of the year. Mandatory to work on Thursday/Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. Longer store hours. Less family time. Not really exciting for the workers. And yes we realize what we signed up for by working in retail. We even realize that customers are going to be a little rude. What we don’t sign up for is to be disrespected. So with all my ex-team members in mind, here are a few tips.

1. Team members, cashiers, sales associates, whatever you want to call them, are people. People with feelings.

2. Majority of the people you will encounter are probably working for minimum wage or a little more. They don’t get paid enough to put up with your shit. If you have an issue, ask for a manager. But they are also still people with feelings.

3. If an item that you want is not in stock, it is not the employee’s fault. We think that it is stupid as well to have items in the ad that we do not have. The ads are the same for all stores in the area but all stores don’t get the same stock.

4. If you waited to the week before or a few days before Christmas and the store will not have an item until after Christmas, your fault. That does not give you the right to cuss at or be mean to anyone who is working in the store.

5. Yes I know that you have stood in line, probably in the cold, waiting for that one special item. Once the doors open, please no pushing, fighting or running. It is not that serious. Let’s us be courteous and considerate.

6. This is a statement that doesn’t just apply in the holiday season but each and every day. We do not get paid to clean up after you. When you leave stuff laying around the store or a table of shirts totally trashed, we do have to clean that up. But cleaning up grown people’s messes hinders us from coming to the registers when the lines get long. Or keeping areas stocked with the items you want because we can’t put the product out due to you having shoved a bunch of items you didn’t want in that location. If you decide that you no longer want an item, just give it to the cashier at the register. Do not leave it laying all around the register. We have carts that are sorted out to go back to the departments where they belong. When you hand it to us, we can put it in those carts. Makes sense right? Yes damn good sense.

I don’t know when the holidays became strictly about buying things. And at this point I don’t care. What I do care about is how the holidays have become a time to be rude and disrespectful to workers and others. We should be treating everyone with the spirit of the season not the just the people we know and love. I always say you don’t know what that person is going through or how their day has been going. To acknowledge them with a smile and a kind greeting could mean so much to them. As workers, we are not asking for special treatment. We are just asking to be treated like human beings.

Let’s be better. Better people. Better customers. Better representatives for others to follow in our footsteps. You don’t get a pass because you are stressed due to overloading your holiday season. Or because the store doesn’t have what you are looking for. Don’t go to people’s jobs acting a fool. For the people who have worked in retail, share your stories. Have you encounter any rude and disrespectful customers? Do you have any uplifting stories of proper customer behavior? Please leave a comment in the box or feel free to email me at elsims27@yahoo.com.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I have enjoyed a three day weekend with not a single post created. I thought of plenty of stuff but not one that would create a full page. More like a Facebook sized post. Then I thought about doing a post that contains a few smaller ones. And it does sound like a good idea. So that will be something I will work on for the future. The only worth while thing I did this weekend was crochet. I have at least two projects that I want done by December 20th and I just started on them. I am not a person that is always in the mood for crocheting so it takes me a while to finish a project. I only like to crochet blankets, don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I will maybe make a scarf and rarely a hat. Never clothes or any items that I consider complicated. I use crochet to relax and none of those things are relaxing to me.

I won’t bore you with all the intricacies of crocheting but I will bless you with some pictures of blankets that I have completed. This will be my third year at my job and I have crocheted a blanket each year for our gift exchange. This year will be the same gift but different design. Here are the two previous blankets.

Of course this is the blanket that I made for the MS walk this year. I will be doing another one for the walk in 2018 as well.

I have made blankets for babies, kids and grown ups.

Here is my masterpiece that I created for myself. I have another that I will make but it is a little intricate so I am being lazy about it. Got all 170 plus squares made but not put together yet. One of these days.

I used to be a part of a crochet ministry at my church. We made blankets for the sick and shut-in, our pastor, and for the pastor of individuals who were in our ministry but didn’t attend our church.

Ok my mom made this last one but she did it as part of the crochet ministry. I believe the funds from the sale was used to purchase more yarn for the ministry.

The one thing that I want to do but have not started is creating blankets for the homeless. That will be my main focus next year once I finish my MS walk blanket. I have put it off long enough. I am even thinking about starting a ministry to teach others to crochet and have them help to make blankets. Or squares to combine together to make blankets. The squares are usually a challenge because everyone crochets a little different, but we can make it work.

With that being said, anyone interested in learning to crochet? I will provide the yarn and the crochet tools to get you started. Like all posts, feel free to leave a comment or email me at elsims27@yahoo.com. If you are interested in learning to crochet, you can text me at 419-213-9391. I didn’t usually answer numbers I don’t know so that is why I didn’t suggest calling.

I had started to create a totally different post to talk about my 40th birthday but it made me sad. I have decided to acknowledge the great parts of my birthday weekend instead. I had two of my closet friends come to celebrate with me. Patty from Virginia and Delanea from Texas. We went to a nice restaurant called Live Edge. They had a live band, which I can’t remember the name of, who gave an awesome performance.

We left there and meet up with my family at Club Opium.

My cousin Kermit and his band gave a great live performance and had everyone dancing. The band’s name is Quinn & Jukebox. Check them out next time you are in Atlanta.

The next day was a little different. Pretty much rained the whole day. I had wanted to climb Stone Mountain but I guess not. We did finally get ourselves to moving and rode around the city. My cousins Kehana and Lamia live in Atlanta so they were our tour guides. That evening we went to Suite Lounge.

Still toasting to my 40 years on this planet.

Nice bar and restaurant. Rode around some more and took a few great night pictures.

Also, we saw a really disturbing sight. A homeless young man laying in the street. Initially, my cousin thought he had been hit but he was actually laying by the vent. He had no blankets or coverings of any kind. He was getting heat from the vent. Kehana had a blanket and a sheet in her trunk. We drove back around and she gave him those items. Very heartbreaking.

Sunday, it was like I was in Toledo. The temperature was in the forties. Very cold and windy. I was able to meet up with Patty for breakfast before her flight was due. It was a nice little cafe with a french theme.

Sadly, Delanea’s flight left out early so I didn’t get to see her before she left. One valuable lesson I did learn from this. I will not plan a trip with friends and family again. It is either one or the other. My family was definitely trying to hog me. I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time with my friends. And I was so looking forward to really hanging with them. After breakfast, we just stayed in the room and watched movies.

Let’s just say that my weekend did not turn out as expected. And 40 is not exactly off to a good start. I am trying to not have a bad attitude about it. But I think I’m still holding a grudge. Lol. Well a year is a long time to hold a grudge. I’ll be over it before 41.

For all who shared this milestone birthday with me before and after the day, I thank you. I am grateful and appreciative for each and every one of you. My circle is so small but it is filled with love, understanding and acceptance. What more could a girl ask for? I would have liked for a different outcome but we sometimes have to make the most of what we get. I had purchased this shirt from Target because I felt that this was my time and I am not giving up on this tag line. These next years I am going to make them my best years. Let The Adventure Begin!