Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Today

I want to share my today with you. It was amazing, stressful, fun, touching, and yummy.

This year, our department did quarterly team building meetings. It is hard to attend those types of meetings because the store needs management supervision most of the time. We went to the first one but were unable to go to the next 2. They brought the meeting to our store for the last one. That was today. They were going to all pitch in and help us out where ever we needed it. My boss and I joked about who would get stuck with bathroom cleaning and hanger sorting. Truthfully, I was a little stressed out about how we were going to keep all those people busy.

So yesterday I get a phone call. We have community partnerships with different organizations. One of my contacts from the school district called me. (They send all their donations to us, mostly clothing, and in turn we will give items to kids that need it.) She had an eagle scout who had done a donation drive. He had gathered over 400 coats, a whole heap of blankets, and boxes of food. They were all brought to our store today about an hour before the service project started. YES! We had something to get people to work on. Now, understand that there is always something to work on at the Thrift Store but it takes a lot of creativity to keep 11 people busy for 3 hours without tripping over each other and stealing my volunteers' work spaces. They had those coats all hung and put out so fast. It was amazing and awesome!

During the day, I had a woman from the homeless shelter bring in a voucher for clothing. She was wearing a smith's plastic grocery bag as a belt. She literally could carry all her belongings in a backpack. She was able to get a coat among other needed essentials. Don't worry, she did get a belt. I did tell her that she made the smith's grocery bag look good though. I had all my winter clothing items priced and put out when it was still 90 degrees. We have to get it done soon or it doesn't get done. Anyway, we were low on coats and THIS week it started to finally feel like winter. It was a much needed donation and it was donated at a very perfect time, when I had people to work on them and get them out fast. Within a couple of hours it was all done. I was so grateful that it worked out so well.

Later that night we had a Christmas party at a lovely home. She showed a beautiful Josh Groban video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPDimGnpv4g Then she shared what she was thankful for about each of us. We all then shared something we were thankful for. It was a lovely evening and Staheli catering provided the delicious food.

I'm thankful that all my belongings don't fit inside a backpack. I'm so thankful to be working in a job that I am able to help people like the ones in the video. I'm grateful that the experiences at my job remind me of how much I have. I'm blessed to be able to help someone, somewhere, somehow with every effort I put forth in my job. Helping homeless people with clothing, jobless people with interview attire, abused women with household items, helping someone find a treasure and a smile, and lower income families with affordable COOL needs and wants. This is why I do what I do. It isn't an easy job, and sometimes it can be heartbreaking. I get to work with some amazing volunteers and I see miracles and good every day. This is why I'm generally an upbeat and positive person. I have so much to be grateful for.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Boss quotes

I decided I needed to start writing down some of the things my boss says. He is hilarious!

  • Did you need the thesaurus to look up different ways to say the word sh*t?
  • Just because it's old, doesn't mean it's worth anything.
  • You can't fire slaves, you can only free them.
  • I have 300 PTO hours saved up, I may just take next month off.
  • In response to how his kids are doing "They're still breathing."
  • When I die, I'm going to have my ashes put in a Fedex package and have all these forwarding addresses so I can travel the world.
  • You should have said Nope We have a double dose of discontent. Thanks for calling.
  • I took a management class on employee appreciation. Thanks for all you do. Consider yourself appreciated.
    • He really does appreciate me, he just likes to be funny.
  • Due to the Festivus pole in the store, I need to request the 23rd off. Otherwise I'll go on strike unless I need to use the bathroom.
Festivus Pole hehe
  • I was going to call him spawn of Satan, but that isn't fair to Satan.
  • I'm going to be famous someday and if you make any money on this, I get dibs.
  • Core purpose: To do as little as possible and still get paid for it.
  • Will you read this and tell me if it sounds too mean, I left out the word a$*hole.
  • He has this middle management philosophy. Middle Management are crap filters. We make the the crap that comes up from the bottom look good to the top and the crap from the top look good to the people at the bottom.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Chelsey

I know this amazing girl. She is a high-functioning special needs girl. I don't know the specifics of her disabilities but I do know the specifics of her abilities. She is one of my volunteers where I work. She is 21 and this is her last year in Post High School. That would be scary to think about getting turned out into the big wide world.

This girl loves unconditionally and deeply. She feels emotions a lot more dramatically and she has a really hard time controlling them. She may be unable to. I'm not really sure. I've worked with her for quite a few months and I've learned how to steer her away from negative emotions. I've learned how to interact with her as a boss and a friend at the same time. You can't just tell her what to do and have her be happy to do it. You have to approach it a specific way. I've learned to be kinder and more fun and more tolerant, which has improved a lot of my work relationships. She always asks how I am doing and she always asks me about previous struggles I've been going through. She's made me cookies and brownies to help me feel better when I'm struggling emotionally. She is very in-tune with my moods and sometimes it surprises me how much she thinks about and cares about other people. She is loud, and happy, and joyful, and playful, and loud. :) She is so proud of herself when she accomplishes things and my heart swells for her and with her.

Her mother died about 7 years ago and her grandparents are her legal guardians. She still has times where she cries about a mother that isn't there for her any more. She has had a very hard time dealing with it. Her grandfather is currently dying. He has cancer throughout his body, blood clots in his legs and lung. He is in a lot of pain and it is extremely hard for Chelsey to be around that and see her grandfather hurting and dying. I can't even imagine what she is going through, the girl that feels emotions so dramatically and deeply. The girl that has a lot more hurdles she has to jump over just to do things that come naturally for most people. The girl that always asks how I'm doing and how I'm feeling. I love her and wish I could help her deal with this struggle she is currently going through on top of all her regular struggles that she goes through every    single    day.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Update on my New Year's resolutions


Well...the only one I've actually accomplished is the blog posts. Just not on this blog. I will probably post mostly on this other blog.

donationoftheday.blogspot.com