Working retail has opened my eyes to a whole new breed of people. The kind of people that you simply can never please. The kind that will ask you questions that have clearly obvious answers. Clearly obvious. Then there are those that you can simply never understand what is going through their minds. You physically have to just shake your head and forget that the interaction even happened.
This entry is to share with you a few of those encounters. About the people that come into our stores solely to baffle me.
The first customer that I can really remember is really strange man. The front of our store is a wall of huge windows. Between the windows and the sidewalk is a large landscaped garden that is approximately 10-12 feet wide. That being said you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw a man walking within inches of our front windows. He then stomped through the bushes at the end and back onto the sidewalk right in front of the door. I thought that was strange and that this would be one of those shake it off and forget about it moments. However, when he came in I realized that he looked like he came straight out of the woods. He had on work boots, a hat that had a brim all the way around it, a back pack that was stuffed to the max and tall wool socks that his sweat pants were tucked into. He went about his way, did his shopping and then came back down to check out. When he left we all sort of watched to see if he would take his preferred route through the garden. And to our surprise... he did! Back along the windows he went. We all sort of giggled because we just couldn't figure out why you wouldn't use the more than spacious sidewalk that most people took.
He was almost out of sight, but then I saw him tuck into a corner. This intrigued me and I adjusted my position so I could see what he was doing. In the corner he had hid his other belongings that he didn't want to tote around the store. And can I just tell you that he had the largest walking stick I have ever seen! It must have been 6 foot high and no lie, 5-6 inches thick! I was blown away! A ridiculously huge walking stick? In Rochester, NY? Why on earth would he need such a thing?
Another customer that sticks out in my mind is a man who spent a lot of time around the swimsuits. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then he walked up to me with two, one piece swimsuits in hand and asked, "How do you tell if this is mens or womens"? My jaw hit. the. floor. Seriously? Had the man never been to a pool? I answered him as calmly as I could, trying desperately not to burst out laughing, as I knew that I had to be on candid camera.
"Anything that looks like this is going to be for women, but I can show you the suits that are for men." Yikes.
Lastly, this story comes from working at the cash register in Rochester, NY. There were no customers in my line. A man walked straight up to me and threw two items on the counter. A speedo. And Circus Peanuts. What in the world? What could possibly possess a person to come into the store and walk out with that combination of items? How completely random.
You never know what you will come across while working retail.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
.One of the Drafts.
Like I said earlier, I have not done this in next to forever. Being that I already had quite a few drafts in the 'vault' I figured I would just share one of those with you today to catch you up a little....
.A Blog So Faithful.
Unbelievable! I haven't posted in over a year! Though it feels like 20. So much has happened over the last year. How does this blog even exist? Where to start.
As I said in the last post Ethan and I moved in with a couple from Columbia Heights, MN on April 1st, 2009. We moved to Minnesota so that Ethan could pursue campus ministry full time at the University of Minnesota. An older couple from our church, the Jensen's, were more than kind enough to let us live in their spare bedroom as we searched for a place of our own. We had intended to be there for 2 maybe 3 months and thought that was more than enough time to find a house! (We were looking to buy because after doing some research, we had found that it would actually be cheaper for us to buy rather than rent! And we would then be able to have plenty of room to be comfortable and have people over once the ministry got going that fall).
However, after all of these plans that we had made, God did not have the same time frame as we did! We ended up living in that little 10 by 10 bedroom with half a closet and 4 dresser drawers as storage for 6 whole months! Looking back I don't know how we did it! (Actually I do, we left everything we owned in storage in NY and only brought our clothes, but that's beside the point). It was definitely a trying time for us. And the people that opened up their home to us as well. We both had entirely different lifestyles and to make them 'mesh' was rather complicated. Though in the end it all worked out and we did gain a set of wonderful loving grandparents out of the deal! After those 6 months were over we still did not have a place of our own, but we knew it was time to move on.
On October 1st, 2009 we moved in with the Olsen's! This time we were living on the St. Paul side of the twin cities, or as Sandy calls it "God's country". They have a beautiful home and 2 Golden Retrievers, Lexis and Gretta. At their home we had our own bedroom, a full sized dresser, closet and our own bathroom! We could not believe how spacious this felt. Don't get me wrong, we were and are more than appreciative for everything that we had with the Jensen's but it just felt like we upgraded to a mansion! (Not to mention the indoor pool!) We quickly became comfortable at our second home in Minnesota as the search continued to find one of our own. All this time we were meeting with our Realtor, looking at houses and even putting offers in on many of them. Time after time our offers were rejected. Our Realtor could not believe how many offers we had been turned down, outbid or just flat out ignored! We knew that the right house would come along in God's time. It was an extremely frustrating time for us. We so desperately wanted a place of our own. We wanted to be able to move all of our belongings from NY and be surrounded by things that were familiar to us. To truly make this feel like 'home'.
One house in particular caught our eye (mostly mine, but Ethan loves me!) :) So we put in an offer around mid October 2009. However, we were quickly informed that they had gone with a higher bid. So our search continued.
A couple months later we found that this particular house had gone back on the market! We quickly put in our same bid and waited some more. Again, we found out that they chose a higher bid.
This was really tearing at the heart strings at this point. We could more than see ourselves living in that neighborhood and in that house! We really could not see that God really had a plan for us to find a house at all.
That January we went home to spend "Christmas" with our families. It was a wonderful relaxing time and they all reassured us that the right place would come along. But I was feeling as though it had, and left. Twice. After our week at home we returned to Minnesota and for a THIRD time received a call from our Realtor. The house was back on that market!! I wanted to be excited, I really did. But there were two accepted offers that did not go through. Why was that? What was wrong with our dream house? This time before putting an offer on it, we had our Realtor do some checking into these different situations.
After we found out that both of the previous offers backed out due to insufficient funds we were quick to slap a third offer on this house that we loved! But at this point we pretty much put offers out there knowing that they weren't going to be accepted. After all, this was our 9th offer! So we waited, prayed and waited some more.
The day finally came. Our Realtor called us with the wonderful news that our offer had been accepted! The house was ours based on an inspection and our funds coming through. Ethan and I could not believe our ears! We wanted to know what the catch was. But that was really it. It was out house for the taking!
After 9 offers and looking at over 60 houses, we closed on our house in the beginning of April 2010 (a year and a week after we had moved to MN). It just goes to show that it is not in our time and not our plans, but God's!
.A Blog So Faithful.
Unbelievable! I haven't posted in over a year! Though it feels like 20. So much has happened over the last year. How does this blog even exist? Where to start.
As I said in the last post Ethan and I moved in with a couple from Columbia Heights, MN on April 1st, 2009. We moved to Minnesota so that Ethan could pursue campus ministry full time at the University of Minnesota. An older couple from our church, the Jensen's, were more than kind enough to let us live in their spare bedroom as we searched for a place of our own. We had intended to be there for 2 maybe 3 months and thought that was more than enough time to find a house! (We were looking to buy because after doing some research, we had found that it would actually be cheaper for us to buy rather than rent! And we would then be able to have plenty of room to be comfortable and have people over once the ministry got going that fall).
However, after all of these plans that we had made, God did not have the same time frame as we did! We ended up living in that little 10 by 10 bedroom with half a closet and 4 dresser drawers as storage for 6 whole months! Looking back I don't know how we did it! (Actually I do, we left everything we owned in storage in NY and only brought our clothes, but that's beside the point). It was definitely a trying time for us. And the people that opened up their home to us as well. We both had entirely different lifestyles and to make them 'mesh' was rather complicated. Though in the end it all worked out and we did gain a set of wonderful loving grandparents out of the deal! After those 6 months were over we still did not have a place of our own, but we knew it was time to move on.
On October 1st, 2009 we moved in with the Olsen's! This time we were living on the St. Paul side of the twin cities, or as Sandy calls it "God's country". They have a beautiful home and 2 Golden Retrievers, Lexis and Gretta. At their home we had our own bedroom, a full sized dresser, closet and our own bathroom! We could not believe how spacious this felt. Don't get me wrong, we were and are more than appreciative for everything that we had with the Jensen's but it just felt like we upgraded to a mansion! (Not to mention the indoor pool!) We quickly became comfortable at our second home in Minnesota as the search continued to find one of our own. All this time we were meeting with our Realtor, looking at houses and even putting offers in on many of them. Time after time our offers were rejected. Our Realtor could not believe how many offers we had been turned down, outbid or just flat out ignored! We knew that the right house would come along in God's time. It was an extremely frustrating time for us. We so desperately wanted a place of our own. We wanted to be able to move all of our belongings from NY and be surrounded by things that were familiar to us. To truly make this feel like 'home'.
One house in particular caught our eye (mostly mine, but Ethan loves me!) :) So we put in an offer around mid October 2009. However, we were quickly informed that they had gone with a higher bid. So our search continued.
A couple months later we found that this particular house had gone back on the market! We quickly put in our same bid and waited some more. Again, we found out that they chose a higher bid.
This was really tearing at the heart strings at this point. We could more than see ourselves living in that neighborhood and in that house! We really could not see that God really had a plan for us to find a house at all.
That January we went home to spend "Christmas" with our families. It was a wonderful relaxing time and they all reassured us that the right place would come along. But I was feeling as though it had, and left. Twice. After our week at home we returned to Minnesota and for a THIRD time received a call from our Realtor. The house was back on that market!! I wanted to be excited, I really did. But there were two accepted offers that did not go through. Why was that? What was wrong with our dream house? This time before putting an offer on it, we had our Realtor do some checking into these different situations.
After we found out that both of the previous offers backed out due to insufficient funds we were quick to slap a third offer on this house that we loved! But at this point we pretty much put offers out there knowing that they weren't going to be accepted. After all, this was our 9th offer! So we waited, prayed and waited some more.
The day finally came. Our Realtor called us with the wonderful news that our offer had been accepted! The house was ours based on an inspection and our funds coming through. Ethan and I could not believe our ears! We wanted to know what the catch was. But that was really it. It was out house for the taking!
After 9 offers and looking at over 60 houses, we closed on our house in the beginning of April 2010 (a year and a week after we had moved to MN). It just goes to show that it is not in our time and not our plans, but God's!
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
.Reid.
I would like you to meet my puppy, Reid. We got him last June from an animal shelter in Golden Valley. He is an Australian Shepherd/Collie mix and a complete spaz. He turned one on January 21st and hated every minute of wearing that party hat!He does not really have devil eyes, but they are gold so it is completely impossible to get a picture that looks like he is not seeing directly through your soul!
.Hello World.Did you miss me.
I have to admit- I have wanted to write several times. I even have FOUR drafts just sitting here ready to go. But then I decided that they were not entertaining enough and logged off. However, I have realized that I do not need to entertain any of you. This blog is not for you - it is for me! It is so that I can remember the highs, lows and randomness of life.
So, that being said - I'll take another try at this whole blog thing. Back to writing stories, jotting randomness and maybe someday you will just get a picture tour of my house, who knows?!
Well, here goes.
.Take Two.
Friday, April 3, 2009
.The Pressure is Agony.
Ok, yes I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything. But can we just talk about how much pressure this is. Ethan and I currently moved in with a couple in Columbia Heights, MN. This couple does not have wireless internet. They actually still have dial up! I have decided not to try and even fight that battle. Therefore the only time I can actually get on the computer is when Ethan and I venture off to a Caribou Coffee (Tundra version of Starbucks) or a Panera Bread (where I currently happen to be!) So when I am here, internet redilly available, I just can't do it! I freeze! Its like writers block! I want to get on here and tell you all how we are doing. That we made it here safe and we only almost killed each other a few times along the way. However, I do not want it to be dull and boring. What a drag that would be.
As soon as we decide that we are going to go somewhere and be able to get on the internet my mind starts racing. I semi-panic! I know that as soon as I walk through that door I'm going to want to be witty and I just can't! It's so much pressure! :-X So this is just a little tease. It's not a real blog entry at all. Just a note to let you know that we're alive! Hope that suffices for now!
As soon as we decide that we are going to go somewhere and be able to get on the internet my mind starts racing. I semi-panic! I know that as soon as I walk through that door I'm going to want to be witty and I just can't! It's so much pressure! :-X So this is just a little tease. It's not a real blog entry at all. Just a note to let you know that we're alive! Hope that suffices for now!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
.Pet Peeves: In Broken English.
For the last month Ethan and I have had a roommate. I know that may sound weird, being that we are married and no longer in college. But, Ethan's uncle was hospitalized at the end of January and is still in the hospital here in Rochester. When we learned that he was in the hospital we also learned that he had a wife! That, not being strange enough, we also learned that she was from Mexico and could barely speak English! She had the money to stay in a hotel for a few nights, but that money quickly ran out. Since his uncle would not be out of the hospital any time soon, we knew we should offer our guest room, as we lived the closest of anyone to the hospital.
So, not only did we find ourselves in for the big challenge- learning to live with a room mate. But we were also faced with the challenge of the language barrier! She has been catching on pretty quickly and asking lots of questions. However, I still catch Ethan, his parents and even myself digressing in our own speech. Which brings me to pet peeve #1. For instance, I can longer say that "I don't like" something. My sentences now morph into phrases such as "I no like..." or "Me ask doctor...". I know this is happening because we are trying to "dumb it down", if you will, but she will never learn to properly speak English if everyone around her continues to speak grammatically incorrect. But, at the same time, I simply can not help it! I continuously think, on my drives home from work, that today - I will not do it! Then as soon as I walk through that door it's "Me no hungry", "I tired" and "Me go to sleep". It has become instant!
Pet Peeve #2. I don't mind the occasional nickname, don't get me wrong. However, it does bother me when people just blatantly call me the wrong name. My name is Laura. Has been since birth. It is not Lauren, Lori, Laurel or the most recent Lorena! I had no idea how much this gets under my skin. Every time I hear the name Lorena, I want to do one of two things. One, Ignore it and pretend that maybe she's not talking to me (But it's me or Ethan, so I doubt this will work). Or, two, scream at the top of my lungs "ME NO LORENA! ME LAURA!" But again, this is probably not the best thing for me to do. So I just suck it up and deal.
For now...
So, not only did we find ourselves in for the big challenge- learning to live with a room mate. But we were also faced with the challenge of the language barrier! She has been catching on pretty quickly and asking lots of questions. However, I still catch Ethan, his parents and even myself digressing in our own speech. Which brings me to pet peeve #1. For instance, I can longer say that "I don't like" something. My sentences now morph into phrases such as "I no like..." or "Me ask doctor...". I know this is happening because we are trying to "dumb it down", if you will, but she will never learn to properly speak English if everyone around her continues to speak grammatically incorrect. But, at the same time, I simply can not help it! I continuously think, on my drives home from work, that today - I will not do it! Then as soon as I walk through that door it's "Me no hungry", "I tired" and "Me go to sleep". It has become instant!
Pet Peeve #2. I don't mind the occasional nickname, don't get me wrong. However, it does bother me when people just blatantly call me the wrong name. My name is Laura. Has been since birth. It is not Lauren, Lori, Laurel or the most recent Lorena! I had no idea how much this gets under my skin. Every time I hear the name Lorena, I want to do one of two things. One, Ignore it and pretend that maybe she's not talking to me (But it's me or Ethan, so I doubt this will work). Or, two, scream at the top of my lungs "ME NO LORENA! ME LAURA!" But again, this is probably not the best thing for me to do. So I just suck it up and deal.
For now...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
.Iraq makes me sad.
Today was just my average day. Sleep in. Get sucked into facebook. Work til close. etc, etc. However, one thing threw off my routine today. It was a text message from my sister, Audrey. All it said was"Mike Mayne died over in Iraq...prayers for the family." This stunned me. I went from the pretty good mood I was in, to basically not wanting to talk to anyone. I even found myself wondering why I felt so bad? I didn't really know Mike that well. I mean my school was K-12 and I could probably name anyone I saw in grades 9-12 at any given time, so I knew him, but I didn't really know him. I thought about it the rest of the evening at work.
I remembered that he had gotten married shortly before I did. He had a sister, just a couple years older than he was. He came from a close knit family in our small little town. I kept finding myself saying "I can't imagine... I can't imagine." But that's just what I was doing. I kept putting myself in this situation. I can not even fathom what I would do if I lost Ethan at this point in my life. Our lives are just beginning together. The thought of losing a sibling, it crushes me. And parents should never have to bury their child. Never. This is a devastating event that will affect the town as a whole. While I have all of these thoughts, I also know that God has His plans. This just makes me want to know what they are. I want to know now, what good He will bring of this. Say that Mike did know the Lord and that he is now in heaven and rejoicing. Why now? At 21 years old. Still a child. An entire life ahead of him. I feel selfish questioning God's plans. He ultimately knows what's best for us and just what will come of this situation.
My heart just breaks for this family. All I can do is exactly what the text message said. Pray. Pray for his parents, pray for his sister, pray for his friends, pray for the town. Pray for their peace. Just Pray.
I remembered that he had gotten married shortly before I did. He had a sister, just a couple years older than he was. He came from a close knit family in our small little town. I kept finding myself saying "I can't imagine... I can't imagine." But that's just what I was doing. I kept putting myself in this situation. I can not even fathom what I would do if I lost Ethan at this point in my life. Our lives are just beginning together. The thought of losing a sibling, it crushes me. And parents should never have to bury their child. Never. This is a devastating event that will affect the town as a whole. While I have all of these thoughts, I also know that God has His plans. This just makes me want to know what they are. I want to know now, what good He will bring of this. Say that Mike did know the Lord and that he is now in heaven and rejoicing. Why now? At 21 years old. Still a child. An entire life ahead of him. I feel selfish questioning God's plans. He ultimately knows what's best for us and just what will come of this situation.
My heart just breaks for this family. All I can do is exactly what the text message said. Pray. Pray for his parents, pray for his sister, pray for his friends, pray for the town. Pray for their peace. Just Pray.
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