BLACK FRIDAY

I am at a loss to find the words to describe today. Anyone who has worked in retail will understand when the words Black Friday are said. Usually the retail veterans smile and give knowing nods while exchanging looks of comfort and understanding. This was a huge.....wait, i didn't quite make myself clear. This was a HUGE!!!! Day for best buy. This is a day that we start training for and planning for months in advance. Our General Manager calls it controlled chaos. This is my third Black Friday with best buy and I can tell you after this one I decided that I am ready to throw in my blue shirt and khakis before the next one comes around.

Did we have huge sales on plasmas and LCDs? Yes. Were we giving away cameras and GPS systems? Of course! But come one people! I start to wonder what this world is coming to when the people in it take camping out side of best buy over eating THANKSGIVING DINNER! On one of the most amazing days out of the whole year.....when you can eat until you are ill and it is socially okay, people were starting to line up out side best buy before noon! By 8 pm thanksgiving night the end of the line was two stores down and by the time I arrived at work at ten to 4am on Black friday morning the line had wrapped around the shopping center and had about 2/4th of the way until it met it's self.

Every black Friday we as Best Buy employees walk in the door at 2:30 am, 3 am, and I was the lucky one who got 4 am and are required to drink a red bull, soda, or anything of our choice that will get us going. Then we finish up on any last minute challenges that present themselves, have a little meeting, and man our battle stations! When the doors open the customers come in and can smell fear, so you have to be on your game. I worked straight from 4 am to 4 pm doing the job of about three people. I was lucky enough to stop for a 30 minute lunche catered from a company best buy hired and grabbed a 15 minute nap behind the refrigerator where I would not be disturbed. I was exhausted by the time I got home and wanted to curl up and cry. In fact I did, as soon as I got home and sat by my sweet Tressa. I laid my head down and shed a few tears of exhaustion and well......slept.

Here are a few videos to illustrate the event that we have been training for the WHOLE YEAR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZJVZ2p223o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnby-kDb0iE

The theater

I've decided I need to update this thing more. LOL This last week I had the pleasure of seeing Tressa give a thrilling performance of Wendy in Peter Pan for her high school play. Tressa is an amazing actress but unfortunately has been over looked by her drama teacher for the "Safer choices." Finally after the other stars of Wilde Lake High School graduated Tress got the lead in the play. she did wonderful! I am not just saying that because I am bias. People were gushing about her as they filed out of the theater after the curtains closed. You truly could see the emotion in her face as she let go of her childhood and peter pan with it. It was great!!


(At the ward trunk or treat)

I went to the show 3 out of the 4 performances. On the very last night I saw the joy and accomplishment in Tressa's face as she and the rest of the cast were taking their final bow and I about burst into tears! I was so happy for that wonderful girl. A girl who means so much to me and I love tons and tons. I knew how much she had wanted this and dreamed of this and prayed for this and she had finally got it! I love that girl and I am so happy for her and proud of her amazing talents!

"Wow." That is all i can say right now. I am so blown away about so many different things. I just got off the phone with the ex boyfriend of my Absolute best friend. I more fondly call him Beast Man. It was the first time I can remember getting off the phone with him after a very long conversation and not feeling DRAINED! Wow, I learned so much! It was great. So now I am sitting here franticly trying to so hard to grab the many thoughts speeding by in my head. There are so many and they are all so good. Like how much personal perspective REALLY creates fact and the truth of experiences. I learned that people who are positive are so much more fun to talk to then victims. (the thoughts are going around so fast I can't type them fast enough) I was reminded how wonderful it is that I do not have to worry or figure things out on my own. The Lord really will lead and guide me if I ask. Things will work out great! Heavenly Father is amazing how he works and knows so much and is so incredibly wise!!

The hand of the lord today

(Catherine and Me at temple square)


So President Eyring spoke in conference about recording how you saw the lords hand everyday. Today I was pretty down and I was wishing that I could Talk to my best friend because I knew that would make me feel better. She is one of the only people I can tell anything to and she will understand. And if she doesn't understand she will just listen. (with out any Deborah you are retarded comments)This was one of those stories meant for just your best friend. So I had faith that the lord would take care of things and help lift my mood. I thought it would be by sending me a letter from Catherine (my BFF) in the mail. I ran out to the mail box and there was nothing there. I guess I really don't know the mind of the lord. My whole family had gone to the temple for baptisms for the dead with the youth and I was chilling at home by myself. I was planning to sit at home and mope but then something made me get up and get in the car and drive to institute. No, I didn't have any huge revelations or spiritual experiences but I was out around friends which helped a lot. I even met a new friend that I am excited to get to know! Then I headed home. On the drive I started to think about my other best friend Jared and how I hadn't talked to him in FOREVER! Right as I walked in the door my dad told me Jared had called right before I came in! I immediately called him back and after catching up with him for about an hour I hung up the phone so up lifted and happy.

I am grateful that the lord knows that I needed a kick in the pants to get out the door and friendly banter with a good friend! I'm off to write Catherine a letter.

You loose some...you win some (and then bow out while you're ahead)

This evening I sat down next to my sisters and found myself captured by a popular TV game show. I was tied to the couch and obediently gave all my attention and precious time to the host as he created more and more suspense while the contestant wrestled whether to continue the game and risk loosing it all, or taking the money offered to him and walk away. The safe person would take the money and walk away knowing if he continued he may loose everything. But by always taking the safe route this person may be walking away and loosing out on a prize that could make his life much...richer. (not to mention it doesn't make for great TV)

The American people often thrive on the adventure and adrenaline that comes from chance and big winnings. Just take a look at our TV now a days. It started out with survivor and has lead to a plethora of game shows based solely on chance, such as deal or no deal. Or what about the crowds around the black jack table in Vegas? The Government has benefited from our suspense craving people by putting in slot machines to raise funds.

The point of my blog tonight however is not about gambling on reservations or vicariously getting our suspense fix by watching a single mother debate over making that her final answer. My point is that in life there are opportunities to take chances every single day. we take the chance, learn from them, and regroup as we prepare for the next round. Like when my dear friend (name withheld per our confidentiality agreement) took a chance choosing to eat at an unknown Chinese restaurant. He found himself by the toilet for the next two days. He has considered that experience when making the choice of where to eat since. He took a risk, learned from his experience, regrouped and headed into life one more time.

I recently took a chance on something and lost. I have thought about where my game plan went wrong and I have decided that's where I went wrong. I was sick of making game plans and placed my hand where the other player could see. I've been doing this a lot lately. Sometimes I can salvage it and sometimes I can't. It took me two rounds with this certain challenge to realize that sometimes no matter which way you approach the game, it is best to realize when you are ahead and bow out then. As I make that statement part of me disagrees very much. It amuses me how I many times, due to my unbridled nature, I get ahead of myself and want to jump into the middle of a game before it's started and that would probably be best not to start. I guess I have yet to figure out if the safe "take your money and walk", or the "keep going one more round" is the best route to take. There are other things I have yet to figure out...such as the rubiks cube or the secret to life. I guess I'll keep working on them and get back to you.

Up date

Tonight I was talking on the phone to one of my very good friends, telling him all about my adventures from El Salvador. When I started going I just couldn't stop. I hadn't told any stories in such a long time and I had started to get home sick. Later that night I remembered that I still had not emailed pictures to one of my English students that I promised I would email to her a very long time ago and started looking through the pictures I had of when I ate dinner at her house. This particular student was VERY wealthy and had a very nice home. LOL we were invited by her family to eat at her house two days before I flew back home and it was the first time I sat on a couch in some one's home while I was in El Salvador. It was funny to me when I walked in their home and saw the couch and thought....WOW! These guys are lucky! (especially because my cot on the porch had been deemed our couch during the day time)I don't want to ramble on but I was thinking about how much I have settled back into my life in the states so Quickly. I was reading an earlier post of little quirks I had coming home and I have found that most are gone. IT makes me pretty sad but I am so grateful for the experience I was able to have. I think about it every day and how grateful I am for it. Here are some fun pics from our dinner at Yascy's house.


Making Papusas!


The whole family! Grandma and all!


We sang them the isty bitsy spider in English

(ps. this will be one of the last "I miss el salvador" posts. Promise!)

Those who have known me for a while know of the tragic mistake I made in Middle school. I let my older sister cut my hair (no, that wasn't the tragic part), and in an irrational, spontaneous moment I had her cut my hair pixie short (this was the tragic part). After being mistaken for a boy time after time and soon feeling terribly unfeminine, it took me three years to grow it out again and ever since I would not cut it above my shoulders. It became some what of a security blanket to me. And I'll be honest and admit I felt that my hair was what made me beautiful. I have been thinking lately that I would like to donate my hair and today I decided that now would be as good of time as any. I made an apointment at a salon and cut the ties to my hair. (12 inches!) It is short and it is going to take some getting used to. And Honestly I do feel a bit of insecurity without the long locks I rocked before today.


(The traditional I am sad and miserable and I really need a make over "before picture")

I was filling out the donation form for locks of love, an organization who makes wigs with real human hair for children suffering from cancer, and I was thinking about the little children who would soon be rocking my locks now instead. I wondered if it would be a little boy or girl and how old they might be. I can't donate an organ to them right now or something that really need and could save their life, but I can give them a little of my "security". My heart really does go out to that little child and I feel a strange connection and love for the child I don't know who will soon carry a piece of me with them every day until it becomes theirs. I wish I could do more for them and reach out to them and let them know that everything will be okay. I hope they are able to feel that. As I look in the mirror and feel a tiny bit of sadness over the loss of my hair it is immediately swept away by my hopes that soon a child will be able to look in the mirror and feel a 22 year old girl's love for them.


(the I am so happy and beautiful and really glad I had a make over "after picture")