Chix Chat

Before I begin, could you stop what you’re doing right now and please say a prayer that Nora will act okay with me today?  I have to go into work at 1 and I don’t know how she is going to act with me.  I know I’m in the right, still I can’t help from worrying!

I’m still trying to understand what happened.  Do you know what really makes me upset and angry?  She must have some kind of sick twisted power trip doing that to me.  You know those kind of people who let other people push them around so they get thier power by pushing around people who are weaker than them?  That’s Nora.  God, I feel so terrible writing this, but I’m just so hurt and angry.  That would be like you e-mailing me and saying "I don’t want to be your friend anymore.  You’re a jerk, Michele."  Or if I said something like that to you.  You would probably be flabbergasted, hurt and angry.  Well, that’s how I feel.  I know one thing, if Nora brings it up again, this time I will defend myself.  What’s the worst that can happen?  I lose my job?  Well, big deal!  I’m sure God doesn’t want me to take any kind of abuse from anyone!

I know my time there is limited.  Not even because of that.  I’ve been toying with the idea of leaving for several months now.  Lets just say that I’m overworked and underpaid.  About trying to get a job at the bank, do you know anyone who’s ever worked at one?  If you do, do you know exactly what being a teller entails?  I just would like some info because as you know, "knowing is half the battle."  I have a plan.  To make it look like I’m leaving on good terms, so it doesn’t look like I was "driven" out.  I want to get back on Nora’s good graces, and make her see that I’m one of the best employess she’s ever had!  And then I’ll quit.  I’m serious!  I need to move on.  I was stuck at ***** for five years because I was so afraid to move on.  I’m not going to make the same mistake at *****.

When I was thinking of Imhotep making all hell break loose, I was thinking of him in his oh-so-sexy human form.  Sure, it’s not as scary as his decayed, decrepit form, but it’s a bonus treat for me.  I imagine him lifting his hand and Nora rising to the ceiling, freaking out and he demands, "Now, apologize to Michele"  Nora chokes out "I’m sorry Michele!  I didn’t know what I was saying!  You are the best employee this store has ever had."  I smile wickedly and say, "And you’re going to give me a ten dollar raise, right?"  "Y…yes, ten dollars!" "And give me every other weekend off, right?"  Nora pauses but when she meets Imhotep’s evil glare she nodds and says "Yes, you can have every other weekend off!"  With that, Imhotep lowers his arm and Nora crashes to the ground, panting and crying.  Imhotep turns to me and we kiss passionately.  I turn to Nora and sweetly say, "I’m taking the day off.  Of course I’ll get paid for it."  Imhotep and I walk out to find a place to be alone and ….. well, what would you do if you were alone with Imhotep? (wicked grin)

Am I such a terrible person to be thinking such things?  I mean, here I am a Christian.  I’m supposed to be loving and kind and forgiving but I can’t help but think these little "revenge" fantasies when I think about the people who have hurt me, Nora being the most recent.  I’m truly hoping that tomorrow Nora will apologize saying that she was too hard on me.  I’m not holding my breath, though.  And besides, the damage is already done.

I started crying tonight and I wrote in my prayer journal and I also wrote in my journal to my future husband, I just kept on writing over and over "Where are you?  I really need you right now!  Pray for me!  I’m going through such a tough time right now!"

I haven’t told my parents about this.  I don’t know why but I haven’t.  I don’t think they need to know.  I know they would most likely (especially my mom) want to march right over to the store and give Nora what for and I don’t need that.  I need to fight my own battles. However if my boyfriend or husband came to my defense, that would be a different story all together!

Thank God about how you act around the guys you have crushes on.  I thought I was the only one!  Anne, sometimes I feel like such a freak for my lack of expirence with the opposite sex!  I mean, in my fantasies I’m this great expirenced lover, but In real life I’m this stuttering, bulshing idiot!  You know how unnatural it is for twelve year olds to go out and get pregnant?  Well sometimes I feel that being twenty eight and never been kissed is just as unatural.  These are times when I really need my future husband’s prayers.  I need to know that saving everything I have for one man isn’t just a waste of time!

Danielle and I saw the movie Riding In Cars With Boys tonight.  It was pretty good.  I tried to concentrate on the movie but I just have so much on my mind right now (gee, can you guess what?) I was only half interested.  Thank God we werein a dark, nearly empty theatre because I started crying, as quietly as I could, so as to not to draw attention to myself.  Damn her for doing this to me!  And Damn me for letting her get to me!

Parisian sounds like our Kaufmanns and Lazuraus department stores.  I haven’t been in a store like that for awhile.  I usually go to the cheapo places or order my clothes by mail.  I really like BLAIR because their medium sizes are 12-14 which is perfect for me.  Usually the size is 10-12, which is too small or 14-16 which is too big!  I feel like Goldilocks trying out the Three Bears beds before finding the one that’s "just right!"

Well, on that note I’ll say goodbye for now.  Til next time, take care and God bless!  God bless the USA!

PRAY FOR ME!!

Michele

Hi, Michele!

I absolutely could not believe what I was reading about the experience with Nora! I had to re-read it several times and I am just so angry!! I know just from what you’ve written in previous letters that you worry about that store, and that you do indeed do your work! The nerve of her!! And to top it all, she ambushes you with those accusations right before the store opens; yeah, there’s the way to insure that you’ll be providing customer satisfaction. (Mean-spirited sarcasm here!) Every sentence I read about the incident made me gasp out loud all over again. I was glad to read that your co-workers were backing you up; they’re the ones who really see what’s going on! And how nice was Brian to give you a Sylvester? (Sufferin’ succotash!)

And I can so relate to not being able to do anything but cry then thinking of the ideal thing to say days later. That would especially be the case if someone was accusing me like Nora did you, and is totally disregarding what you’re saying. Don’t be hard on yourself for not having anything to say; it seems she wouldn’t have listened anyway! I think you have the right attitude: try to forgive and forget, but if it happens again: bye bye bye! Like you said, it *could* be the health problems that are making her smoke crack .. er .. be irritable. Seriously that is a real possibility. But if that isn’t it, I’ve had bosses before that were impossible like that and, like the song says, "Don’t try to change ‘em, just leave ‘em! Leave ‘em!" You know that I’m a big believer in anyone can do anything - job wise. So, if/when you feel like you need to leave there, go with confidence that God will guide you to the right job! I will definitely pray for you in this situation!

How cool would it have been for Imhotep to be there - in his decrepit form so it’s scarier - to kick Nora’s a$$ and say, in that charming accent, "Look, you smoker of toxic-waste-contaminated crack, my darling Michele works harder than anyone in this store, and you will never, ever say anything to the contrary or I will remove your tongue and eyes." Or maybe he’d just do that cool thing that he does and she would disappear forever into a sandstorm. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Wicked maniacal laugh there.)

Looking at the previous paragraph, I think "decomposed" would have been the word to use, but I like the word "decrepit" and I hardly ever have the chance to work it into every day conversation, so I’m leaving it in.

In happier news - November 7th is our six-month epal anniversary? I forget, is that the Paper or the Plastic anniversary? I think I already used that "joke" but it’s the only one I have for anniversaries.

Ahh, Dr. Tutanji … went and got his hair cut short, think buzzcut but not exactly. You asked if I can barely talk to him; I don’t think I’ve said a direct word to him since my crush surfaced, but I know if I tried that I’d be blushing because I’d feel like he’d know about my silly crush. With the Big Recent Crush on Randy, I behaved as I usually do under the influence of "love," I can’t even hardly look at the guy - forget about trying to form an actual sentence. It’s like I unintentionally(?) do that coy glance-at-them-then-glance-away thing. Note: that has never worked for me to attract a guy.

Anyway. Parisian is a department store - obviously a Southern department store. They sell products like Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel, etc. (Not that I shop there much, I’m just saying …)

That was an encouraging story about the mystery guy-on-the-street that you’ve seen while walking. You never know what’ll develop from something like that; it’s what makes life so interesting. And, yes, it is fun to imagine where those good feelings will lead!

On that happy note, I’ll say goodbye for now. Talk to you soon! God bless!

Anne

God bless the USA!

Hi Anne!

Should I start with the good news or the bad news.  Well, I’ll get the yucky stuff out of the way first.  You know, like swallowing a spoonful of nasty tasting cough medicne really fast.

Friday morning when I came into work, Nora said to me, "Will you come in the back?  I need to talk to you."  So I did, completely oblivious to what was about to happen.  Now, since this happened two days ago, I can’t remember exactly word for word what was said so I’ll try my best.  Nora said that she was still upset over what happened Tuesday (you know how I didn’t get finished with the ornaments and Kristin and Shelly only priced the Glass Baron ….) and she said to me "You couldn’t have worked on those ornaments for more than half an hour."  I said, "I worked on them until at least 7" (which was about three hours) and Nora said, "No you didn’t."  Anne, I don’t know about you, but when I know I’m right about something and someone argues with me about it, I get so upset I can barely speak!  Well, that’s what happened.  I just started crying and once I start, I can’t stop!  Oh, wait, the fun doesn’t stop there!  Then she proceeded to tell me how I do the least amount of work  out of everyone there!  Well, with the exception of Wendy.  She said, "Even Audrey does more work than you."  Let me tell you about Audrey.  She’s been there for at least two months and she still doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing on the registers!  Our figures have been off for the longest time because of her!  So here I am crying and weakly saying, "Yes, I do do my work!"  And Nora says, "No you don’t.  Look at how hard everyone else works.  ANd it isn’t fair that they have to do all the work.  Look at Mary.  Look at how much she gets done."  Well, Mary is Nora’s "pet" and whatever she does is gold in Nora’s eyes.  Anne, I BUST MY ASS there!  You don’t know how many times I’ve nearly made myself sick worrying about that stupid store and getting things done!  ANd the final insult to injury, Nora wrote me up and told me "If you’re not going to do your work, I’m going to have to find someone else who will."  I can’t believe I came thisclose to losing my job!  I mean, what the fu*$?!  It took everything I could not to grab my purse and walk right out of there and never come back!  And why the piss did she do that to me ten minutes before the store opened?  Did she really think I would want to deal with customers then?  It took awhile for me to calm down.  It just got to the point that I was so exhausted from crying and my body had enough. Needless to say, I didn’t talk to Nora much for the rest of the day.  I just talked to her when I had to, when it was work related.  I didn’t "chat" with her like I usually do.  When I got home, I bravely wrote her an e-mail.  I saved it.  I’ll send it to you so you can read what I wrote.  I haven’t seen her yet since I wrote it. I will on Tuesday.  I’m a little nervous, but I dont think I said anything wrong!

Frankly, Anne, maybe this is a blessing in disguise.  Maybe this is God’s way of telling me that it’s time to move on.  Not now, I would like to work out the year, but I honestly don’t see myself there this time next year.  I’ve thought a few times about trying to get a job at the bank.  I’m pretty good with money and it just seems like a nice change of pace from retail.  I’m still trying to understand what happened on Friday.  I’m not only angry at Nora, I’m also angry at myself for not defending myself.  For blubbering like an idiot!  It’s just that when I’m put on the spot like that, I can’t think of anything to say!  Oh, I can think of a comeback …. two days later!

I told some of my co-workers about it: Shelly, Kristin, and Ed and they were all flabbergasted.  Ed said, "Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing an excellent job."  And Kristin said, "She doesn’t know what she’s talking about."   Shelly said, "You do more work than most of the people here!" I feel a lot better.  Nora was in the wrong.  When I told Ed and Kristin about it (that’s who I worked with today) they both said that Nora was clearly not herself and that’s true.  Nora usually isn’t like that.  Ed said that maybe it’s the fact that she has all those physical problems and she’s more irrritable than usual.  Well, I’m sorry that Nora is sick, but she had no right to take it out on me!  I will try to forgive and forget this, but if it happens again, I will quit sooner than later.  I am not someone’s punching bag.

Anne, will you say a prayer for me reguarding this situation?  I would really appreciate it!

YES, DISNEYWORLD IS LOOKING BETTER AND BETTER!!!

Hi, Michele!

I’m sorry to see that the stress continues! I’m guessing that you’re starting to chant the mantra, "I’m going to Disneyworld." Speaking of which, I really don’t think you should worry about that flight. I just have a good feeling about it; I’m still mentioning that in my prayers, BTW.

Funny you should mention that God brought us together; I was just a day or so ago thinking the same thing. Like you said, no if God would do the same for us and our future husbands …

I can so relate to annoying bosses. My lady boss, I usually use her abbreviation when writing - MA, is very nice, but she does have some quirks to say the least. For one, she is never wrong! Correction, she will never ever admit to being wrong. Plus when I give her some work I’ve done or suggest something she will *always* have some little thing that needs to be changed. I think she learned in some "management class" that she must never accept anything as is, so that she can subconsciously signal that she is the boss. It really irks me when I think that she’s disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. If she has a valid argument, that’s one thing, but saying the opposite just to be different is ridiculous. One more thing: when she is trying to prove her point she will cite some off-the-wall or totally irrelevant "reason" and act as if it proves her point. I often suspect she is making stuff up!

As I said, she is usually very nice. She is going out of town - to New York - probably for the next three months. Her daughter, who is a doctor, is having a baby, and MA is going to help. I have been remembering that situation in my prayers. MA was saying as she headed out the door that she really doesn’t want to see her daughter in so much pain; that’s understandable. I told her that I’ll be thinking about them. (I didn’t figure she would really get "I’m praying for you all.")

To answer your question (poll?) I prefer the clean shaven head like, oh, I don’t know: Arnold Vosloo? Not every bald head is okay though, they have to make it work for them.

No, I haven’t done an inventory at a *****, but I have counted greeting cards at Books-a-Million. The biggest store I’ve ever done would be the two-story Parisian in Birmingham. No, I didn’t do it all by myself. In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, I really like that part-time job. I am such a math-nerd. I often reflect how incompatible I was for the job of waitress, because I’m not really a people person, I’m lousy at selling things, and I take customers’ complaints way too personally. At an inventory, I just count things and there is little to no customer contact because usually the stores close for inventory. Plus, I think that job is really helping my basic math skills; I’m getting really good at quickly adding things in my head.

Re: Avon, thanks for the hearty recommendation! I didn’t that that $4 was that bad for lipstick, although I usually buy the 99 -cent kind. I bought a tube of the kind that they donate to breast cancer research on for my Mom: I bought her the Crusade Pink.

No, there are no real prospects for me in my classes, besides Dr. Tutanji. (Just kidding!!) The cute-ponytailed guy - Nicholas (what a beautiful name!) - was a Computer Science major. I don’t see him anymore. (Sniff! Sniffy! Sniffle!) Everyone else is either too young, married or too young and married! Dr. Tutanji is maybe 35 or so. He wears thick-rimmed glasses and has a slightly receding hairline, but overall his hair is black and slightly curly. He usually wears slacks, a button up dress-shirt - usually patterned - and a sweater vest. He started out this semester wearing a tie, but he’s recently taken to wearing no tie and leaving the top few buttons open. (Count on me to notice!)

About dating and limiting physical activity, I have learned the hard way that it is very important to limit the physical activity. I used to think, shameful, that I really do need a chaperone. But you know what the Bible says about temptation, "Flee from it." In my case it’s because I’m not strong enough to resist it; doesn’t the Bible say that no one is strong enough? Plus, why even put yourself in a situation where you will be tempted? Resisting temptation is hard enough from day to day; forget about jumping right into the fire, so to speak. (Liked the strawberry analogy!)

On the Celtic look for Halloween, go for it! I’d love to see that "medieval looking" dress. What lovely romantic thoughts the word "medieval" conjures up!

That’s it for today. Talk to you soon! God Bless!
Anne

God bless the USA!