Thanksgiving Story

In each family, there is always one person who does the Thanksgiving cooking. In my family, it’s always been my dad. But this one year, my mother wanted to help out and make the mashed potatoes. Now, let me tell you, my mom can only cook toast. Maybe cereal, if you’re lucky. So when she said this, we all stopped and laughed. But my dad, to our horror, allowed her to make the potatoes. I couldn’t help but sit right in front of her and watch. She peeled the potatoes with ease, which was a relief because if you can’t peel the potatoes then you need to step away from the table. Mom filled the pot with water and began cutting up the potatoes with no problems. Deciding that she had it under control, I spent the rest of the day doing homework until dinner was ready.

Finally, at around 4pm, my dad called us for dinner. My brother and sister and I came to the table with hungry eyes, not have eaten all day. Everything looked delicious. The turkey was roasted to perfection, the stuffing was so hot it was still steaming, the green bean casserole looked disgusting, as always to me. The last thing I saw was the mashed potatoes. They looked alright. So after so thanks to God for all we have, I grabbed the mashed potatoes and dug my spoon into them. Usually, mashed potatoes are soft. But when my spoon went in, the whole bowl of potatoes came out with it. I stopped dead and looked up at my family. It was silent for a moment and then we all cracked up laughing. Even my mom thought it was hilarious. Let’s just say, that from now on, my dad will forever do the cooking on Thanksgiving. Especially the mashed potatoes!

School overdose

I’m so sick of school and all its bullshit. College is so overrated and all of us stupid Americans feed into it. Yeah, pay eighty grand to get the “college experience”. What experience? Doing your own wash? Cooking? Partying till you throw up? What kind of experience is that? Sounds like a huge waste of money to me! I’m almost done school (two weeks left) and I’m disgusted with my fifteen grand debt. How can people waste so much money just to live away from home for four years. Especially when most college kids end up living back at home after they graduate because they are too damn broke. I just don’t see why we need college. I haven’t learned anything new from these two and half years. Passing a class is all based on the teacher. How the teacher teaches is what passes you.  You either get the easy teachers who tell you exactly what is on the test, or you get the teachers who ramble on about their family problems during your class and the say “Oh by the way, test next week on six chapters.” It’s just not worth it to me. I feel like I waste my time there. I like working so much better. And I cant wait to start full time!

I need a personal driver.

My dad is a great man. But with every great man, there are still annoying factors about each of them. My dad is ALWAYS looking for something wrong with one of our cars. Usually mine.  Every year over my Thanksgiving break, my dad finds something wrong with my car and takes it to the shop and it is there all week. And I’m stuck at home during my only week off of school. It is such a bad time too, because at work I never know how late I’ll be there. For example, Wednesday night, my boyfriend was waiting for three hours for me outside. All because I didn’t have a car and he was my ride home. That’s ridiculous! I know damn well, I would not have been happy about waiting for him that long! But my parents always look at it the old fashioned way. “He’s the boy, he can wait.” No, its not fucking about that anymore! Wake up! Its 2011! I wouldn’t ever ask someone to wait three fucking hours for me! I’m just tired of relying on other people and need to move out so I can do things around my own schedule. I know he is paying for the repairs, but it is also my car. That I bought. So you need to consider my plans when you are taking it to the shop. But he never does. I just hate not having my car!

Christmas Gifts

This year I did some Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving. Shopping online is sometimes way better than going into the store and dealing with that! I got a white Pea coat and a new black one. My old one is very shaggy looking and too big. They were each only $50 which is cheap. I also bought a pair of black boots and brown ones for when it snows and I have to come to work. Then I won’t get my Uggs dirty. I got myself some winter clothes, but I still have no idea what to get everyone else this year. My dad wants wine, which is fine and it is cheap. Well, cheaper than other people’s gifts. My sister I might get a gift card to American Eagle since she loves shopping there. I think giving people gift cards is nice because you allow them to pick out whatever they want to get. But I do know that some people take it as “just throwing money at someone”. I never understood that. I guess because I always enjoyed getting money or gift cards to places. My brother and mom, I don’t even want to get them anything! Don’t get along with them. Why waste the money? But you gotta do what you gotta do. Ugh, and now there is my boyfriend’s parents too. I hate that we started this. I don’t want to get them anything! Guess I should do some brainstorming.

Downtown

Every year on the second Saturday in December, my mom’s family goes downtown to Philly to see all of the attractions they have for the holiday season. We have been doing it since all of us cousins have been little. And no one hated each other. But it is still a fun thing to do and now I can bring Jul with me so I finally have someone to walk with! But he has never been downtown and last year’s was all mixed up. So he didn’t get to see everything that we normally would do.  Normally, we meet up at Macy’s and have breakfast and wait for everyone to get there. My family is always late. Then when everyone arrives, we go upstairs and walk through the Charles Dickinson Christmas Carol. Then we watch the light show and go eat. We used to go to Bertucci’s every year, but the one downtown closed down. So now we go to Maggiano’s- a little bit more high class and expensive.  After we eat, we take a walk over to the “huge” Christmas tree. Now that I’m older, it is not huge at all. But being a young kid, you think it is the tallest tree in the world. We go to some other places too, but those ones hold the best memories. Not as many people go anymore, but it’s always my favorite part of the holiday season. And sometimes less people is more fun.

Break

This Thanksgiving holiday was just similar to any other one I’ve had. All we do is stay home and chill out, which is a nice change up considering that the week of Thanksgiving is always a week from hell at my job. Wednesday night we were at the store until midnight. Sometimes I do not understand my any of my bosses. I like Nicole a lot but she did everything backwards that night and it caused us to be there so late. She didn’t put any of the Black Friday Ad items out until when we were closed. And the store still needed to be cleaned. So all in all, it was very late night but I had my friend Ashley with me as well, so it was still semi-fun. That is why Thanksgiving is always a nice day to stay home. But it is hardly a “break”. So many teachers give us homework over the week that we spend it doing work! Yeah, while they sit on their asses fat, dumb, and happy all week! Can’t wait to be done with school and start my full-time job! However, my dad is already getting a little too excited about all this. He keeps telling me what I’ll be paying for when I go full-time. Get excited all you want….I’m still living with you!!

#FamilyProblems

I swear to God, my mom’s whole family is a bunch of loonies! Everyone is now not talking to my Aunt Theresa because she is so crazy. So this holiday season should be so much fun. And apparently she is four months behind on her mortgage payment. And my dad says that after six month of no payment, they put the house up for foreclosure. Then where will she go? I hope she doesn’t decide to come to my house because there is no way my dad would ever let her stay with us! And that would be an awkward conversation to have.  My Aunt Mill is pretty much the only adult in the family and has tried talking to her about her attitude but she just hangs up the phone. It just sucks because she has seven kids and their dad died eight years ago from Melanoma cancer and they are all messed up because of my aunt’s depression and the death of their father. I think my aunt is just really lonely and has no one to go home to at night. And now even her kids are turning against her and saying “Let her fall on her face and maybe then she will learn.” But how could they say that about their own mother? It just sounds really harsh. I mean the person she loved died way too young, she obviously is still depressed over it and needs to talk to someone. But she is too proud. Pride will kill ya, Aunt Theresa.

Black Friday

Black Friday is coming up! This year, I’m really trying to get some good deals. Since my boyfriend’s iPod touch was stolen when he was robbed, I’m going to get him a new one; one of the white ones. And I’ve been looking for the best deal and so far that seems to be a free fifty dollar gift card at best buy when you buy an eight GB one. But I’m not sure if I’ll use a fifty dollar gift card to best buy. Target is having a similar deal, only a forty dollar gift card instead. But I go to Target all the time! And it might be more worth it. Also, Wal-Mart is having a three dollar waffle maker sale! And I want to go there, too because I broke my family’s waffle maker and this is a very cheap replacement!  I want to try to get my boyfriend a couple seasons of Super Natural as part of his gift, too. And usually TV series go on sale for cheap! I can’t believe it’s that time of year again! I requested to work an afternoon shift because I do not want to close because I know who will be closing and I don’t want to be there all night! But now it seems like I might be the one closing!!! :/ Which sucks!

Yep, I'm a sntich!

So finally Mike, our Dm, is coming in on Thursday or Friday to question my stupid assistant manager for possibly stealing money. FINALLY. Almost everyone knows she does it! It is just too coincidental and somebody cannot mess up counting that much. What finally pushed me and my boss over the edge was this weekend. I closed Friday night and one of the drawers was over four dollars. And I am POSITITVE it was over four dollars because I counted it twice, at two separate times. I do not mess up like that. And then the next day, Saturday, me and her opened and she goes, oh the draw was short four dollars. Funny because when I counted her out, it was short six dollars, not four. And I told her that just to let her know, and she got really mad and was like okay it was short four this morning! So that’s only two dollars counted towards me! And I said uh I was just letting you know. I’m sick of her and her shadiness!!! You are stealing you crazy bitch!! We’re gonna catch you! Yep I’m a snitch! I don’t care, stealing is wrong!!  And she’s got another thing coming because Mike sounded pissed and determined when we let him know what was going on! Finally gonna catch you! And I’ll be taking your job, thank you kindly!

Overrated Holiday Item!

It’s amazing how one item can be so overrated! Everyone always raves over the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha coffee. I tried one on Sunday and first half was delicious! But halfway through it was bitter and gross. Definitely is not worth the five bucks. I’ll stick to my caramel frap and my Dunkin Donuts Carmel Latte. It was way better than that. But the Peppermint mocha frap sounds really good! I might try that when I go out to lunch with Ashley on Wednesday. It just amazes me how once Starbucks puts up that Holiday sign, it’s a mad house in there! I went in Sunday for a coffee and the line was out the door! Really, though? Last Sunday it was not like that at all! One change and BAM! Nut house! I’ll stick to the Barnes and Noble Café. We got our new holiday shirts in at work. And I have to say that I am not impressed. Black? BLACK?? For a Christmas season shirt? How lame. I was hoping for green since last year they were red. But it’s still fun to wear new shirts. The new store is so busy! But if you’re the manager on duty, you would have never known it! Monday night I closed and it wasn’t busy at all. I guess it’s just because were larger and don’t notice how many people are in the store now.  Cheers, Five Below! New store!

Holiday Season!

Christmas season is coming up!!! So excited! I’m trying to get my boyfriend and new iPod touch for Christmas since damn Jerome stole his when he was mugged. So Black Friday! I’ll be looking at some ads. I hope they have some good deals! It’d be great to get it for cheaper! I’m also planning on using my changed that I save to help pay for it. I have about $70 in change. I bought a change counter from work and it was one of the best investments of my life! I use it all the time! I was also thinking of getting it engraved on the back. Something JBK. Short and sweet not a big deal. But I don’t know if Things Remembered will be able to engrave an iPod. But it will be worth a try. I can’t believe it’s time to start shopping for Christmas presents already! Tis the season to be broke! It’s okay though, it’s a fun season! I’m thinking of getting my sister a new iHome since hers is pretty old and almost broken. I don’t even want to get my brother anything. We don’t get along and he is so irritating and selfish. Why waste the money? My dad is always tricky! He never says that he wants anything! I really have to rack my brain to figure out a good gift for him. Maybe I’ll get him some more wine! J

Annoying people!

Ever have that one co-worker that you cannot stand!? Yepp, I’ve got one. My Assitant Manager. Sometimes I don’t even understand how she got her job. Oh wait, she has a four year degree. She claims that her four year degree in communications got her her job at Five Below. Well, you just wasted a shit load of money because all of my managers don’t even have college degrees. Hence, why they are working in retail! She thinks too highly of herself. She will explain ever job to us like we are retarded and can’t function properly. She also teaches people how to budget. You know, because that’s something that people don’t ever do. When she told me that, I was like uhhh yeah? I budget all the time. She ignored this and continued to show me how she budgets. First of all, I don’t give a fuck. Second of all, EVERYBODY BUDGETS. No, you did not invent sorry for the breaking news. She doesn’t even ever work. She never gets anything done and will purposely stay at night claiming the drawers are off the get easy overtime. I’m sorry, but isn’t that technically stealing? She is so intimidated by me because she thinks I am going to steal her AM position. Yepp, move over bitch. I’m taking your job ASAP. Because you suck at it!

A writer!

Taking this Creative Writing workshop has certainly opened up a new idea to me about my future. I got good feedback from the story I am writing. And I really enjoy writing it. So I was thinking maybe I’d continue with that next semester and try and get it published. Then it’d be okay to work full time or even part time at my current job. Jimmy says it takes about four or five years to get a book published. What event will be happening in about five years? The 15^th anniversary of 9/11. That’d be perfect timing. It’d get some notice due to the timing. I’m really considering writing this story and maybe sending it to a publisher or however it works. I know it’s a sensitive topic to write about, but its just what Jimmy said. Nobody is writing about it. What if I’m the first and it’s a huge success? Or a complete failure…but that wouldn’t matter because I’d have a job. So it would be like I was wasting my time, not making any money at all. And besides, how many people can say they published a book? When I was writing I was enjoying it. I love writing the story. It was fun and challenging. I had a hard time describing the scene of the planes crashing so I was surprised when Jimmy said it was really good. It’d be awesome if it was published!

Decisions, decisions.

It’s a hard decision to make. Should I find another job, a full time one? Or try and go full time at five below? The last thing I’m doing is going back to school. I can’t take another semester there. It’d be cool to go full time at five below. But I’m not sure if I’ll get it. Who even knows if Mike likes me as a part time manager? I’d be the boss though and get benefits and everything. Yes, working retail sucks sometimes. But every job sucks a little bit. The thought of having to sit down in a desk all day as my JOB is horrifying! I like moving around and having stuff to do all day! It makes the day go quicker. Sitting all day would be awful, the day would go by so slow! It’s funny because Ashley always says “Don’t get stuck here.” But I wouldn’t mind getting stuck at Five below. I like working there. The only time I complain is when I have a lot of school work that has to get done. I’m just tired of school and studying and wasting a whole day with class. I need a job so I can start making money and not owing it to some rich school. The whole college idea is a complete scan in my opinion! But that’s a different matter, for a different post!

Disappointed!

Well, this weekend was it. The big one. The one everyone was waiting for. The Grand re-opening of Five Below!!!!! Awesome, right?? You’d think so. However, I have to say I was not impressed. The way our corporate leaders were talking, you’d think I’d still be there counting out the drawers from the weekend. But nope. Oh, it was certainly busy. But not what I expected. Yes, the store looks amazing! And our customers really seem to be keeping it cleaner! Which means less work for me at the end of the night! Score! We had five cent hotdogs and free t-shirts and give aways. You really get to see how cheap people are when they hear the word “Free”.  I had to argue with an ADULT customer that he could not have two free t-shirts. Seriously? You really need two shirts that say 5 Below: When in doubt, chill out. Grow the fuck up! Lucky for me, the owners were not there that day! Actually, they were not there at all that weekend when I was there. They came Sunday, which I had off. And it was only one of them.  But there were people from corporate popping in and out all weekend, which was fine. I also got to mingle a little bit with our district manager. So maybe I scored some brownie points.  Me and Ashley just thought that it would be a lot busier than it was. But I don't know why I'm complaining about that. :)