New traditions...

Every night this week I have called my sister at college before I went to sleep, just to annoy her and remind her how sick I was (she gave me an awful cold then took all the medicine back with her to school). 

"Hey Erin.  Just wanted to tell you I am going to bed now..."

"Ok?......."

Now I tell her it's a tradition.  Pretty sure it takes more than one person for something to count as a tradition.  Another example of too much time on my hands.

Til next time...

Rock bottom(s)...

Since completing college in four years only to move back in with my parents, I thought I hit rock bottom many times.

Friday night threatened a new low as my mother conducted a science experiment found in my 7-year-old cousin's science book involving her creating a water vortex out of two empty soda bottles.  Me, my three cousins, aunt, boyfriend and sister sat and chanted "Ann, Ann, Ann, Ann" as my mom's experiment turned successful.  Let me mention again...this was a Friday...NIGHT.

Turns out, Friday's low was only the beginning.  Tonight I was watching Modern Family downstairs with my dad, he told me he was going to shower, then I hear him upstairs laughing at the same times I am.  Turns out he went upstairs only to watch the show alone.

New low...reached.

Til next time...

Good day for retail...

Working in retail for the past five years has taught me alot of lessons.  Walk away when you are about to go bananas on an impossible customer, always sanitize your hands after kids with goopy eyes are near you, never come into work with less than a cup of coffee in your bloodstream...  But mostly it has taught me to never let the good days go by unnoticed.

Today was one of those days.

It was a Sunday at Build-A-Bear and that meant kids were out of school, birthday parties were sure to be booked, and the day was going to be pretty busy. 

One woman and her young daughter came in at about 3, when we were pretty busy.  As the little girl was getting ready to stuff her Hello Kitty she told me, "Daddy isn't here anymore."  (Another lesson I learned in retail....DONT EVER ASK CHILDREN ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMIC UNLESS YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE THAN YOU INTEND TO!)  As I just nodded to her proclamation and helped the little girl around the store, her mother told me the little girl's father had just left for Afghanistian...yesterday.  Poor little girl, it really broke my heart watching her mother scramble around the store to find things to keep her daughter's mind off her dad :(

On a more upbeat note, a very excited little girl came in with her father later on in the day.  Her father was totally clueless (as most dads are in Build-A-Bear) to most of the requests the little girl was making and helpless asked me for assistance.  As I was stuffing her bear the little girl said to me, with the biggest smile on her face, "Today is Daddy Daughter day!"  So adorable! Melted my heart.  Not to mention the dad was so appreciative he told me "Thank you" about twenty times.

It's so nice to leave the mall with good stories about customers, I wish there were more to share!

Til next time...

Facebook blunders...

Working 23 hours a week in retail has given me alot of time to sit down, reflect, and look at life.  And by that I mean, it's given me alot of time to log onto Facebook mindlessly for hours at a time and learn the life story of everyone on my friends list (sometimes even their friends lists if I am feeling extra ambitious).  Since graduating I have noticed many different things about the FB and the way myself and those around me use it:

-Once I have met you once, I feel like I have the grounds to friend request you.
-After I gain a new friend, I spend about 5 minutes thoroughly reading (stalking) their page then I don't visit their page for a long while.
-My mother tells me she doesn't have a default on her page because she "doesn't want anyone knowing her business."  My question...why have a Facebook?
-My father's page is just out of control, claiming himself as "employee of the month" (he has his own business where he works alone...).
-My grandmother has recently become addicted to FB, taking her ventures in CityVille very seriously and almost ending a lifelong friendship with her real life neighbor because the woman was being an awful police officer in her faux city.
- I find myself starting conversations at the bar based on a person's recent status update, most recently congratulating someone on her new car (which was her status earlier that day).
-I can't stand when profiles are private.  If we have at least one mutual friend I feel as if I should have access to your life, share the love!
-I hate when people spell things wrong in statuses.
-I am not shy about deleting comments, no one makes me look dumb on my own page.
-When people fill their profile picture album mostly with pictures of other people, I feel it should be prohibited.
-I love it when college freshman post their Thursday night pictures, it makes me LOL.
- I can never come up with witty picture captions but admire those who can.
-For a while I had an obsession with the "kissy face" pose in pictures.  I have recently detoxed myself from it.

And for everyone who says they are thinking about deleting their Facebook accounts, stop lying. You love it.

Til next time...

This is how I feel...

Hopefully my blog never gets to be like this, although I cant stop saying "blog" with a pretend stuffy nose. JK SMILE

Cooking up a mess...

When my mother referred to the clerk at the package store as her friend, two bottles of Pinot in hand, and a huge smile across her face, I began to realize my moving back home after college was affecting her.

Both my parents started to get sick of coming home from their full-time jobs around dinner time to find me sprawled around the living room watching taped episodes of the latest Real Housewives (of any city...I don't discriminate) and complaining "WHATS FOR DINNNERRRRRRR," around the third week of September. 

To make sure I continued my rent free living, I offered my cooking services to the fam.  Last Wednesday's menu included a skillet dinner of chicken, rice, cheese, tomato and then I piled it all on top of tortillas.  Lesson learned: When you add more rice to the recipe, maybe you should add more of something else too so it doesn't turn into a meal of pure rice.

When Friday rolled around, I thought I would try my hand in the kitchen once again and forced my beautiful family into another carbohydrate coma, this time with a pasta dish that included chicken (again...whatever), peppers, pasta (again...whatever) and Philly Cooking Creme. 
Lesson learned: When the recipe calls for 2 cups pasta, you can't add one pound of pasta without throwing something off.

My 17-year-old sister was home from college for Friday's meal and was quick to suggest another go round the university circuit....this time at Johnson and Wales. 

I really hope my future husband likes at least one of the following meals: eggs and toast, frozen tortellini, or chicken on the George Foreman...because these are the only dishes I can cook with confidence I have recently come to realize.  At least I can strike CHEF off my possible career paths now so maybe this past week was a blessing from a higher being!

As we speak, a jar of sauce is on the stove, some frozen torts are boiling away and I just pulled some freshly baked (frozen, breakable) chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Bon Appetit! 


Til next time...

Here's to new beginnings...

Greetings...from my childhood home.  The place I have lived the majority of my life and, according to my "5 Goals in Life" in my high school scrapbook, I vowed to be out of by my 22nd birthday.  Well 4 years have come and gone since the completion of that scrapbook and after graduating college I am still here, jobless and referring to my parents as my "roomies."

If that's not bad enough, my part-time job in retail gives me barely enough money to suffice in a world where I don't even have to pay rent (..yet. I am sure that's coming soon...) and my nights are filled with a mixture of fruitless job site scouring and crying (literally...sniffling, sobbing and bawling) to my boyfriend two hours away about how I will NEVER find a job.

With the extra time I have been dealt these past months since graduation I have come to find myself pondering topics I have never thought about before: family, friends, careers, pet peeves, impossible customers in the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru and everything else in between. 

I feel as if this is the best place to combine two of my loves in life, writing and venting.  I hope you will join me on my journey navigating the waters of a bad economy to find a career I love all while dodging everything else life has to throw my way.

Til next time..