Good thing I lost some weight! Otherwise I’d have exploded out of my pants yesterday after lunch! Y’see the Chapmans here have Thanksgiving lunch, so we sat down to stuff ourselves at 11:30 or so. Much to early to be eating that much food, but we’d been up since 7am and hadn’t eaten anything, so I was hungry!

We were back home and snoozing by 1:30 in the afternoon. I fell asleep on the couch watching Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood. That’s my favourite version. I think the old ones are the best. The newer remakes just don’t work quite as well for some reason.

Today at work was insane, and tomorrow will be even worse. We have 31 appointments on the book, which according to Dawn, my co-worker, has never been done before! If everyone shows up who has an appointment, we won’t have a break all day, there won’t be time. We’ll be there from 9am til 8pm or later just taking pictures. I almost didn’t get a lunch break today, but I HAD to dash out because we’re out of dog food, and there was no way my dogs were going to go hungry because we were busy :-p

My toes are numb. I wish I could find a REALLY comfortable pair of shoes. And a comfortable bra. I honestly don’t think either exists, cuz I’ve been looking for over 20 years now. Just like “the perfect purse”. There’s no such thing. But I shall keep searching. Like Jake and Elwood Blues, I’m on a mission from God. Although, considering my mission, its more likely the Goddess.

Someone let me know if its possible to find such beasties as comfortable shoes, bras and the perfect purse eh? On this world or in Never Land I don’t care. I’d find a way to get there. I’m sure I could find Johnny Depp’s phone number somehow ;-)

I’m going to go lie on my heating pad now, and watch Most Haunted for a laugh. That lot cracks me up, they’re so phony!

Hope y’all had a great holiday!  ¶ 9:07 PM 0 Comments

  Wow, what is that smell? Remember last week, we had the dogs groomed and they came out smelling like vanilla sugar cookies? Well, its raining today, and of course I had to work, so the dogs were out in the mud all day long. Now they, and my entire house, smell like vanilla sugar cookies that have been rolling in mud and playing in the rain all day! Its really quite strange.

I have an unexpected day off tomorrow. I was supposed to work, but thankfully my co-worker thought it would be unfair for her to have 2 days off, and me have none (other than the holiday, which doesn’t count because it was supposed to be my day off anyway), so I worked today, and she’s working tomorrow. Then we’re both working Wednesday and Friday, 9am to 8pm :-o At least I won’t have time to spend any money at the holiday sales eh? ;-)

I will either spend my day mopping the kitchen floor, it’s a mess! Or running errands catching up on stuff. I’m sure James’ Mom will need a few things picked up for Thanksgiving dinner. We’re going to her house to cook. She’s too ill to do it herself, but won’t come to our house to eat here, so we’re doing the cooking, only at her house. Or rather James was invited to go over to cook, I’m guessing that I’ll be expected to tag along, my name apparently didn’t come up in conversation.

The other day I found a Snoopy and Woodstock Halloween pirates stuffed toys on sale for half price. We like Snoopy, and we like Pirates, so of course I had to get them. Plus I got 2 more Peanuts character Halloween key rings to add to the collection. Now we have Snoopy witch, Snoopy in a pumpkin, Snoopy with a witch hat on, and a pumpkin bowl in his mouth, Charlie Brown as a Pirate and Lucy as a princess. Maybe next year we’ll find something with Linus or maybe Peppermint Patty. They come attached to a pumpkin shaped box of Whitman’s peanut butter cup candies. The candy isn’t all that great really, but the toys are fun J (she says as she unwraps another candy and pops it into her mouth…bleah…really not all that good :-p ).

We went to the Renaissance Faire the other weekend, and finally found James a pair of boots he could live with. They were a bit expensive, but well worth it, if we can just get to the Faire more than just once every 2 years here. And maybe sometime we’ll get up to the Maryland Faire and see all the displaced players from the Ontario Faire. I was sad to hear that it closed up shop, but I’d probably not have been able to get there again anyway, what with James not allowed to enter Canada. Stupid immigration :-p The North Carolina Fair is alright, but really not as much fun as the Ontario Faire. And because the Ontario Faire and Maryland Faire are the same group, I assume Maryland would be just as much fun. But then again, maybe not. I think the fun of the Ontario faire is the outdoor Taverns and the Pub sing, but because here in the US the drinking laws are a bit different for amusement parks and such like, they don’t have the taverns and pub sing, at least not at NC Faire. Nor do they have the Tartan Terrors. I checked their schedule, they come to all the surrounding states, but for some reason, never get here to NC. I really must write to them and ask why!

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie on Saturday night. We caught the 10pm show here in town, and even on the second night, in this little conservative bible belt town, the line up was out the door, and the theatre was packed! Luckily, mostly with adult fans, not screaming wee ones with pointy hats and lightning bolt stickers on their foreheads. I did that once in Toronto on opening night, ACK! That was crazy, never again. You think Trekkies are scary? Nuh uh!

Anyhow, the movie was pretty good, even tho it was cut down from a 700+ page book to less than 150 page script. The superfluous stuff was cut out, like Hermione trying to free the house elves. I missed Dobby, but really can live without SPEW. The Tri-Wizard tournament was the focus, and was done very well. All except the too long Harry vs. the dragon chase scene. Reminiscent of the Harry vs. Draco chase scene in movie #2…or was it #3? But all in all it was done well enough that I figure I’ll see it again a couple of times before its released on dvd. I wonder tho, how quickly will they start shooting #5? Those kids are getting almost too old to play those roles now, they’d better start thinking about doing these back to back, a la Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean #2 & 3. PoTC 2 release date is July 7 by the way. J

We also saw Derailed with Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston last week. Not bad, tho I’d figured it out long before it was actually revealed. It wasn’t a total waste of money. Which is saying something, considering a lot of the drek that is out there.

Well, its about bedtime. To those reading in the US, have a great thanksgiving holiday. Everybody else, good day eh!  ¶ 11:45 PM 3 Comments

  Scratch n sniff Yesterday I had the day off from work, and we had scheduled an appointment to have our pictures taken with the dogs. So rather than have dirty stinky dogs in the portrait, we took them to the PetSmart groomer first. We got the Holiday Top Dog upgrade, and now our dogs smell like vanilla sugar cookies. Just scratch n sniff. Ha ha ha! *snarf* They’re all shiney too, and George is no longer orange from the Carolina dirt. Of course that won’t last long, and in no time they’ll both smell like dog again, and will be full of mud.

We got to the studio, which is in the back of a K-Mart, and the people at the front of the store looked at us in horror just because the sheer size of our dogs. A few kids of course just ran up and wanted to pet them “look, Beethoven!” It’s a good thing we’ve socialized our dogs with children, because parents sure don’t always socialize their kids with dogs, or teach them that you really should ask before you run up and stick your hand in front of a dog’s nose!

Anyhow, someone in the studio had also scheduled a family with a little boxer to have their picture done at the same time, so we were kind of rushed, because Bruno and George kept scaring the bejeebers out of the boxer! Poor thing, she had just been rescued about a month ago, and she is a rather nervous little dog to begin with. Then she gets barked at by 2 ginormous Saint Bernards! They just wanted to play, but even to other dogs, their size is intimidating.

I’ve transferred over to the Morganton studio, which is nice in only one way. I’m spending much less on gas to get there. Other than that, I really don’t like it much. Its way too small, about 5 times smaller than the Conover studio I was in before. Plus, with the nearly non-existant training I’ve had, I had a really difficult time trying to set up pictures, especially for the family of 6. I was embarrassed to even show their photos to them, and very surprised she bothered to buy any. I won’t be surprised tho if when she gets them back if she refuses them and wants a re-shoot. They’re really crap :-( I was left completely alone on Tuesday, and each and every sitting I had up until 6:30 pm had a screaming infant and/or toddler to be photographed. I did 9 total sittings on Tuesday, plus 2 walk-ins and a scheduled appointment who I never got even one shot of, because they couldn’t get the baby to stop screaming long enough. I got so far behind in schedule that I didn’t get my full hour of lunch, and then didn’t get to clock out til nearly 8:30. And I officially close at 7! I was completely exhausted, and so disappointed with myself, and quite frankly, with the company in general, that its going to be difficult to get out of bed tomorrow and go back there.

I’m really rather reticent to say a whole lot more about my abhorrent treatment and experience with this company, for fear someone will read it and notify them, and then I’ll lose my job. I may not want to keep it much past the holidays, but until then, we really could use the money to catch up on bills and pay for presents and whatnot. I really don’t know what I should do here. The District Manager, who, IMO, should be the one to take control and make sure that her employees are being adequately trained, seems to think its just a matter of my self confidence. In other words, its not her problem, its mine! Once she sees the pictures I took the other day tho, she may change her mind :-p I’ve had jobs before where I’ve been given the “baptism by fire” method of training, but I tell ya, this is by far the worst. I’m really not enjoying much of this at all. I really thought I could like this job, but so far, it just makes me want to cry and yell and quit. And I hate quitting. The perfectionist Virgo in me makes me want to keep trying. But then the logical Virgo in me says “pfffffffffft, its really not worth the stress”. Some people may read this and say “oh fer chrissakes Reba, you’re taking pictures, how hard can it be?” well, its not an easy job, its not very easy to get a family of 6 squished into a room about the size of a closet, and then get them all into the frame without getting the walls in the shot as well. And they’ve got a screaming toddler sitting on Mommy’s lap who just wants to go play with the toy dog it can see sitting on the shelf behind me. Add in a not easily dealt with case of claustrophobia, complete lack of air conditioning, standing under hot lights, and a really long bad day, and it’s a hard job. I’m so frustrated with it, I don’t know what to do.

Plus, I gave them a form and a void check to have them automatic deposit my pay check. Twice now is been sent to me in the mail, and when I asked the District Manager if she could check with Pay roll whether they have my form, all she said was “well they should have it by now”. Bleah…..

Next week I even get cheated out of my day off. All employees MUST work Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Isn’t that nice?

Well, I have today off too, so I will just sit and relax. And do laundry of course.

I was watching my LOST dvds, and all the extras and stuff. Ya know the guy who plays Sayid, Naveen Andrews, is actually English, and has a London accent. I knew he wasn’t Iraqi, his character accent is off a bit, but when I watched the interview segments with him and heard is real accent, it threw me off a bit. Of course, it doesn’t make him any less sexy ;-) I’d never seen him in anything other than LOST, so it was a surprise to hear an English accent. I figured he was American for some reason :-o

Evangeline Lilly, who plays Kate, is from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta and has never had a speaking part before she landed the role on LOST. It took the producers a while to convince USCIS authorities to give her the work visa tho, so she was a day late getting to the shoot than other main line characters. Figures eh?

Which leads me to a question about “The Others” on the Island. How come they all seem to be from Canada!? Do the writers have something against Canada, or will it turn out later that it was an Air Canada flight that crashed and they’re the survivors? Last night’s episode, that showed us how the other survivors of Flight 815 have fared since the crash, showed Nathan may or may not have been one of the Others. And he was from Canada, just as Ethan said he was, when Hurley was doing his census. I’m confused tho if Nathan actually was a survivor, or an Other.

Poor Sayid, just built his lady a house, and then she got shot. He really isn’t having much luck with women is he? Although, I am sure there are thousands of women worldwide who would jump at the chance to console him! LOL!  ¶ 11:52 AM 0 Comments

  As the laundry piles up Wow, I need to read the news more often! I checked thestar.com this morning, and see that there’s been riots in Paris France since October 27th, and that’s the first I’d heard of it! I just don’t have time to read newspapers since I started working, and I don’t listen to the radio when I’m driving to work, because the reception is very poor and all staticky, I usually listen to CDs. So Paris has been burning for 11 days, and I didn’t even know about it. Weird.

I just checked my month end statement for Watkins, I should be receiving my check from them this week, for $104 :-) Not bad for just a couple hours of work. Most of that is my downline bonus actually. It’ll come in handy for Christmas gift shopping that’s for sure! Hopefully my November will do just as well or better!

Last night at work, our district manager called to tell me that she’s transferring me to the Morganton studio, and I will be working next week Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues! Sunday off because we had been planning for months and months to go to Renn Faire, and Sunday is the last day. Should be a nice paycheck at least, all that overtime. Then I have Wednesdays and Thursdays off, rather than Mondays and Tuesdays. I’m sad to leave Jane at the Conover studio, she’s very easy to work with, and we got on well and were becoming friends. I only hope I get on as well with Dawn. The only thing a bit nerve wracking, is that I will be working alone on Mondays and Tuesdays now, which means I will be both photographer and sales person! I’ve had all of maybe 3 hours of training on the camera so far, and 2 hours of that was just playing with stuffed animals and toy dolls! I sure hope Dawn has time to train me some more before they leave me to my own devices!

At least I won’t be using over $60 worth of gas per week anymore, the Morganton studio is only 5 minutes away, rather than 30 miles!

I really have to wonder how this company has stayed in business as long as they have, if my experience with them is any indication of how the business is run! It may just be this district of course, but holy cats! One good thing tho is that other than daily browbeating voice messages from management, we’re pretty much left alone in the studios. Both a good and bad thing. Ah well, we all have our faults I guess eh?

James and I are taking the dogs to Jane to have our pictures done on Wednesday 16th. We’re taking them to PetSmart for grooming first tho, they’re both filthy from being outside all the time now. And George has turned orange. The perils of living in North Carolina with the red clay dirt! Not only the dogs turn orange, but so to socks, because no matter how often I vacuum, the floors and rugs are still stained with it. I think I will just go get some new area rugs. Brown or orange, so the dirt doesn’t show. And dye all our socks Carolina dirt colour. ;-)

I’m sitting here rather impatiently for my Watkins order. They had a clearance sale last week and I bought up a bunch of stuff. Most of it is discontinued items that they still had in stock, and some is stuff that the labels have changed so they’re selling the old stuff. I’m looking forward to the warm ginger bath set, the chocolate chai, and the cinnamon cocoa :-) It should be here today I hope, but the FedEx tracker says its still in Charlotte. Its been there for 3 days now :-p

Only 46 shopping days left til Christmas, can you believe it? Where has this year gone? Most everyone will be getting pictures, in case you’re wondering ;-) My Mum keeps bugging me to keep sending pictures, and I figured since I have a 50% discount at Olan Mills, I might as well have some made. Which reminds me, I should see what their on-line coupon is this week and print that. I need a bunch of pictures! I figure Mum will want a big one for home, a small one for her desk at work, and one for her wallet. Sister dear will get one, plus a couple of wallets, one to stick on her fridge so AJ can play with it with his other magnets, and Aunts, and friends and Grandmother, and that’s not even counting the American family here in Morganton yet! Who probably don’t care one way or the other about pictures, but that’s what they’re getting anyway :-p And yes, I know they’re all reading this and now they know what they’re getting for Christmas, but that’s ok. I will also send some other things that they won’t know until they open it! Mum will probably do the same as she did last year, and open it as soon as its delivered. Which I think was 2 weeks before the holiday. You’d think she was 2! LOL!

Ugh…I have so much household stuff to do and catch up on. This working for a living really sucks ya know! Especially those 10 hour days when I get home and can’t do anything but flop! Saturdays and Sundays are particularly busy, with non-stop stream of people, and barely even a chance to breathe, let alone go pee! It’s a bit much, but it’s a paycheck, and will all slow down in January. When I’ll probably be laid off because there’s not enough work to keep us all busy. *groan*

Well, back to doing laundry!  ¶ 12:01 PM 2 Comments