Tag Archives: lrlm

Nov17

A Retail Free Holiday Season

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A Retail Free Holiday Season

Helloooo everyone and happy Tuesday! Most of you guys know that before I started school I worked hella retail. My days were spent slaving away in PacSun, The Body Shop, Claire’s, Piercing Pagoda, and Next for what seemed like an eternity. This year, however, I’m so excited to not work a holiday season in the mall. After working five Black Fridays in a row – I am officially free from the evil clutches of the mall during the holidays! SCORE!

On Saturday, my sister and I took a trip to the mall so she could make a few returns and do some shopping. As soon as we entered the premises, we were greeted by Christmas music, decorations, and a mall that was jam packed for an early November evening. Seriously, just being in that environment gave me anxiety and as far as I was concerned, we couldn’t leave soon enough.

Being in the mall among all of the really early holiday shoppers who seemed to be just as crazy as the last minute gift grabbers reminded me how thankful I am that I can finally have a holiday season to enjoy with my friends and family. When I worked retail I can’t remember one holiday season that I genuinely enjoyed because I was too wrapped up in working crazy hours and dealing with insane customers. This year, I don’t have to worry about going into the mall on Thanksgiving day to work a thirteen hour Black Friday shift. I also don’t have to be at the mall late on Christmas Eve to tend to everyone’s final holiday needs and clean the trashed store to perfection. *sigh of relief*

When you’re working every minute of the months of November through January, you simply forget that those times are meant to be for your loved ones. The thing that I’m most looking forward to is actually having a Thanksgiving. For the past five years my Thanksgivings were spent counting down the hours till my Black Friday shift and trying to cram in some power naps before the insanity unfolded. This year I’ll be able to help cook, prepare the table, and spend quality time with my family and boyfriend. It’s going to feel so good but SO strange because I’m completely not used to relaxing during a holiday – what does that even mean?!

I’m so thankful for everything that my years of hard work provided me with before I started college. I was able to buy my car (Little Red Love Machine!), buy clothes, purchase gifts for others, and put money towards my tuition. But this year, I am so ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy a glorious Retail Free Holiday Season! I hope everyone is having a fabulous week so far! Have any of you worked retail during the holidays? Do you have any funny/traumatic moments to share? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

PS: My traumatic story to share from a very retail holiday season doesn’t deal so much with me as it does an unfortunate Victoria’s Secret employee who got punched THREE YEARS IN A ROW during Black Friday. #threepeat

Oct5

Monday Update: Lazy Weekend Edition

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Monday Update: Lazy Weekend Edition

Helloooo everyone and Happy Monday!! Thanks to a fantastically lazy weekend, I’m feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go! My week days are always so crazy now so this weekend I finally got to do exactly what I wanted…nothing! There were lots of things that made my weekend great, like not having to drive, catching up on leisure reading, and lots and lots of sleep! Take a listen to the Bruno Mars theme song to my weekend and then let’s discuss:

During the week I’m constantly on the run in the Little Red Love Machine, driving siblings, driving to school, driving to boyfriend, meeting clients, and running errands. So needless to say, one of the best parts of this weekend was that I didn’t have to get behind the wheel of my car one time! It. Was. AWESOME!! My parents handled all of the driving this weekend and I handled the laying in my bed doing nothing this weekend. 😉

But seriously, you never really realize how nice it is to have someone else drive you until your tucked away in the backseat of one of your parent’s cars. For example, we went to see the new Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro movie, The Intern, and the movie theater was less than five minutes away but even the smallest amount of chauffeuring was great! The movie was so cute and funny, too – I just love Anne Hathaway and her and De Niro made a great pair. The Intern was kind of like a more lighthearted version of The Devil Wears Prada and I really enjoyed it.

My favorite part of the weekend, however, was finally catching up on my pleasure reading! During the past few weeks I’ve been so exhausted before bed that I could barely finish two or three chapters in my book, Night Film, before falling asleep. Usually I’m a ridiculously fast reader – I can finish a five hundred page book in three days flat easily, so the whole “reading barely one hundred pages in one week” thing killed me!

Lucky for me, this weekend I had no school work to worry about so I was a free woman! I got to spend my afternoons snuggled under my blankets for hours on end and was able to complete over one hundred pages each sitting, which is definitely more like it! Reading is one of my favorite past times so the fact that I got to have entire afternoons dedicated to relaxing and flipping through the pages of a book that I love so much made my lazy days perfect. (If you haven’t read Night Film, give it a try! It’s wonderful…so wonderful that one of my tattoos is a quote from the book!)

Last but not least, I got to sleep, sleep, sleep this weekend! If there’s one thing that I love, it’s not having to set an alarm in the morning. These past two days, I got to sleep in to my hearts desire without the incessant buzzing of my phone and iPod to wake me up. On Saturday I slept until 11:15 and it was absolutely amazing! I woke up around seven and nine that morning and it was so nice to be able to look at the time and realize that I could continue sleeping for as much as I wanted. By the time I woke up on Saturday, I decided that it was too late to bother with makeup so I’ve spent both of my weekend days au natural! I definitely could get used to this homebody thing!

nothing

So there you have it, this week’s Monday Update: Lazy Weekend Edition! Now that I’m well rested, I’m ready to take on another crazy week! How was everyone’s weekend? Was it lazy like mine or jam packed with cool stuff? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sep24

I Can’t Even – A White Girl Memoir

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I Can’t Even – A White Girl Memoir

Helloooo everyone and happy Thursday! So as you guys know, my car AKA the Little Red Love Machine AKA LRLM is my pride and joy. I love my 2012 Mazda 2 hatchback more than I’ve ever loved anything in my life, so when it’s in a dangerous situation I turn into a fierce mother bear. With this disclaimer in mind, you’ll see why I just couldn’t even while driving to school yesterday – ESPECIALLY in regards to senior citizen drivers. Do I sound bitchy yet? Don’t care, so get ready for the rant of a lifetime in “I Can’t Even – A White Girl Memoir”.

First things first, I am ALL for old people driving for as long as they can but there comes a point when they are a straight up danger to themselves and everyone else on the road. During my drive to Cleveland for class on Wednesday I encountered two problematic situations – one that was uber annoying and one that was one hundred and three percent dangerous. Let’s discuss:

Annoyed & Angsty: I started my drive on Wednesday feeling really good. I had a nice full tank of gas, a fresh coffee, and I had plenty of time to get to school with at least twenty minutes to spare to study for my French test. Everything was smooth sailing until I got on the road I take to get on the highway. For a long stretch of the street, the speed limit is 45, so other drivers and myself included are usually going a solid five to seven MPH over. Unfortunately, this common vehicular courtesy did not apply to the old timer in front of me who was going at least fifteen MPH under the speed limit, traveling at roughly thirty MPH. I. Was. LIVID.

So I’m driving along, still trying to put the pedal to the metal to get this geezer moving and he literally wouldn’t budge. Thanks to my bad luck of getting stuck behind this guy, a road that usually takes me ten minutes to drive on took me an extra five to seven minutes, dwindling my study refresher session time lower and lower. Now some of you guys are probably thinking “big deal” and in the long run, it isn’t that huge of a deal. But what if it was you who was potentially going to run late for work, class, or a date? Wouldn’t you be pissed too? I can see someone driving at the speed limit exactly but fifteen under?? Jesus.

Irritated & Endangered: Finally, I lost my senior citizen friend once he turned down the street and I was back in business. I made it to the traffic light before the highway and would be the first to drive off to the Tri-C sunset as soon as it turned green. “Yes!” I thought to myself, “what could possibly go wrong now?” ….Apparently a lot.

The light changed to green and I fired up the LRLM engine for a highway adventure. I got onto the entrance ramp and began to pick up speed when all of a sudden BAM, I slammed on my breaks hard. Everything in my passenger seat went flying to the floor and my heart was racing a gazillion miles a minute…I was stuck behind another old timer. This is no exaggeration when I say that this driver was going at approximately twenty MPH on a highway entrance ramp.

I am SO thankful that I have extremely fast reflexes and could hit my breaks in time because there was no way I could have seen this vehicle from farther away. The car was beyond the curve of the ramp, so it was out of my line of vision – but when I  made the curve coming in hot at close to fifty MPH the car was right fucking there. Not only am I thankful that my breaks were functional and efficient enough to bring my car to a full stop from such a high speed but I’m so lucky that there was no one behind me either. If there was another traveler behind me, there is a very good chance he would have rear ended me, slamming me into the slow poke, and totaling my car completely.

At first I was shaken up…I could have been in a potentially life threatening accident. But then, I was infuriated. I was enraged that this senior citizen who clearly couldn’t use the entrance ramp properly was even there. Everyone knows that those ramps are there to get you close to highway speed before getting on one so how can that happen if someone is going at twenty MPH??

Everyone thinks that it’s the fast drivers that cause the most damage and that’s probably true but slow drivers are just as dangerous. I’m not writing this post to be mean or say that all old people can’t drive, but my god, there should come a point when they shouldn’t be on the road anymore. I am a firm believer that everyone beyond a certain age should have to take some sort of driving test to keep their license to prevent the situations that I encountered yesterday. I’m so happy I got to school safe and sound but I’m still so fired up about the whole thing and I really just CAN’T EVEN.

even

So there you have it, I Can’t Even – A White Girl Memoir. This rant was something I really needed to get off of my chest, so thanks for letting me ramble! Has anyone had a situation similar to mine while driving? How do you feel about mandatory driving tests after a certain age? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sep10

One Of Those Days

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One Of Those Days

Helloooo everyone and happy Thursday! I, for one, am so glad for a fresh start today, because my Wednesday was stressful as all get out!! Enjoy this terrific song by The Raconteurs to sum up my feelings about yesterday and then let’s discuss:

SO, on Tuesday night, I discovered that the battery to the Little Red Love Machine was completely shot. Thankfully, my dad was able to call AAA to give my baby a jump and got her to the nearest repair shop in time to fix her up. However, this meant that I had literally no gas in my tank to make my drive to Cleveland for school possible. My dear old dad notified me that a gas station that was close to the highway had a decent price, so I decided to go there to fill up. My breath was held the entire time because I was literally running on fumes. I had the LRLM ready to turn left into the station and breathed a big ol’ sigh of relief that I had made it. But, unfortunately, I should have held my breath just a little bit longer.

Halfway through turning into the station, I saw that there was a sign prohibiting left hand turns. “Well shit,” I thought, “good thing there’s no cops around!” But lo and behold, a minute later, a cop pulled in behind the LRLM to tell me what I already knew…That I suck at driving and made an illegal left hand turn. LUCKILY, this cop was AWESOME! The first thing out of my mouth when he approached me was that I knew what I did wrong as soon as I made the turn. I then explained to him my situation of almost being completely out of gas and how I needed to be in Cleveland for school very shortly. I also made sure to call him “sir” a lot! The kind officer checked my license and record and told me that because it was almost flawless (only one speeding ticket, baby!), that he would let me off with a warning and that he hopes I make it to class on time. I was so incredibly thankful to him for being so understanding…But I didn’t make it to school on time. -___-

My French class at Tri-C began at one today and I made it to campus at about 12:45. I hurried into the building that I assumed the class was in and figured that I had enough time to refund a book at the campus bookstore before class started. WRONG! With the influx of students making their purchases and returns, things took longer than anticipated – but I was just too damn far in the process to leave and come back!! By the time I got my refund, I realized that I was in the complete wrong building, a whopping two minutes before class started. Lord have mercy on me…

I power walked my sweet tookus to the right building in the heat, in my all black ensemble, and with a handful of supplies and a full cup of coffee to juggle. I had never been in the building that my French class was in before and I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. EVERY HALLWAY LOOKED THE SAME! At this point, I was shweatzing my ass off, my coffee had spilled at least three different times, and my frustration levels were through the roof – the roof, I tell you! I finally made it to class fifteen minutes late looking a hot and sweaty mess. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!!!

billyy

As I mentioned in previous posts this week, I have completely lost my voice and it refuses to come back. Because of this unfortunate medical malfunction I sounded like a boy who is trapped in the evil clutches of the puberty monster. I was hoarse, squeaky, sweaty, miserable, coughy, shameful, and annoyed – those are the names of the seven dwarfs, right? Anyways, the entire class I felt like a total goon and my throat hurt like the dickens. Can my voice come back now, or? #PLEASE

So obviously, my Wednesday can only be described as One Of Those Days! Lol, it’s whatever! Has anyone had a rough day similar to mine? How is everyone’s week going so far? I wanna hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah