This is my last week at FYE.
This is my last week working in music retail. Selling music and movies has been my business for the last twelve years.
How come it doesn't feel like it?
It doesn't feel any different today than it did a month ago.
Am I really leaving? At the end of this week, my locker will be cleaned out, my certificates/awards will be removed from the wall, my desk cleaned off, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber will no longer hang on the handle of the file cabinet, and I will leave the backroom for the very last time on Friday.
I will not be employed there anymore. It will no longer be "my store". It's gonna be over.
How come it doesn't feel like it?
Literally, it doesn't feel like anything has changed.
Have I already accepted this life change? Or, has it just not hit yet?
Monday, November 13, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
All I Need Is...
ONE PANTY HO!
LOL
That was what Katie was exclaiming as she scoured the house looking for a match to the three knee highs she had, none of which matched each other.
She said "if 1 sock doesn't have an 's', then 1 panty ho doesn't have an 's' either".
It bloggles the mind!
LOL
That was what Katie was exclaiming as she scoured the house looking for a match to the three knee highs she had, none of which matched each other.
She said "if 1 sock doesn't have an 's', then 1 panty ho doesn't have an 's' either".
It bloggles the mind!
Obsession
| This is one of the scariest things I have ever viewed. It is even worse than a movie with an evil clown. www.ObsessionTheMovie.com | |
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Shopping
I hate shopping.
My mom has always thought it strange that I chose a career in retail.
A few minutes ago my friend Katie called to see if I wanted anything from Walmart. I said "Can I come?"
She said "Only if you won't bother me." LOL
I said "Well, what are you going to get?"
She said "See, you are already bothering me." LOL
She's at Walmart. I'm posting on this blog.
My mom has always thought it strange that I chose a career in retail.
A few minutes ago my friend Katie called to see if I wanted anything from Walmart. I said "Can I come?"
She said "Only if you won't bother me." LOL
I said "Well, what are you going to get?"
She said "See, you are already bothering me." LOL
She's at Walmart. I'm posting on this blog.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The Big Life Changing News
Out with the guitar pic...
In with the rubberband ball...
I think the rubberband ball is cute!
I notified my staff tonight that I was no longer going to be their manager. Reactions were as expected...kind of a mixture, but an overall "sorry to see you go" thing. I was sad. I will still have about 10 more days with them.
This has been a decision weighing on my mind for a couple of years. FYE was good to me, but I am ready to move to a different type of environment. I look forward to learning new things and being challenged professionally as a manager at Office Max.
It also didn't help that the EMI Music CEO said last week "The CD is dead."
Music retail has been my business now for almost 12 years. I am going to miss it. In some ways I already do...one way is because "The CD is dead" and the other way is I have moved away from pop culture because I am getting older and also because as a Christian, I am appalled at a lot of the depravity in the recording industry these days, both in audio and visual media, as well as print media. I struggled with that daily and it will be nice not to have that struggle anymore.
I think back to high school when my record collection was just starting. I loved the big vinyl LP album covers and would devour every word on the jacket and sleeve as I'd sit in front of the stereo for hours on end. It was my sanctuary! I always wanted to work in a record store.
In college, pursuing a music degree, I was always applying at the local record stores. No one would hire me. Never even got called for an interview.
Earned my degree...started teaching, moved to MI and landed a summer job at Camelot Music. It was such a great experience! And I always wanted to work in a record store...which was now a CD store. I had found my niche! Basically stopped seeking teaching positions, because I was working in a record store!
Worked my way up the ladder, relocated a few times, and have been managing an FYE store for the last five years in TN. Life changes, and now the time has come for this chapter to end.
I'm feeling a lot of different emotions right now. Excited about the new possibilities. Disbelief that I'm ending my "dream" to work in a record store. Sad to leave my staff and my store. Happy to just get on with things. Rejoicing that I got the job! Bumming that I'll miss my old boss...yet, excited about working for my new one.
A lot of my thoughts are melancholy these days. I'm remembering past jobs I've left and different people I've worked with. Some now on with other things, some still in the CD business, some deceased, some just a faint memory. I've been so blessed to have worked with so many great people. You know...it's not so much the job...it's the people.
Thank you to all of you that have prayed for me that I would get an opportunity like this. Everyone has been so wonderful.
So there you have it...the big life changing news! Instead a passion for music that I once had, I now have a "passion for printers and paperclips!" as was suggested to me by someone when I stopped by the church the other day and announced my news.
In with the rubberband ball...
I think the rubberband ball is cute!I notified my staff tonight that I was no longer going to be their manager. Reactions were as expected...kind of a mixture, but an overall "sorry to see you go" thing. I was sad. I will still have about 10 more days with them.
This has been a decision weighing on my mind for a couple of years. FYE was good to me, but I am ready to move to a different type of environment. I look forward to learning new things and being challenged professionally as a manager at Office Max.
It also didn't help that the EMI Music CEO said last week "The CD is dead."
Music retail has been my business now for almost 12 years. I am going to miss it. In some ways I already do...one way is because "The CD is dead" and the other way is I have moved away from pop culture because I am getting older and also because as a Christian, I am appalled at a lot of the depravity in the recording industry these days, both in audio and visual media, as well as print media. I struggled with that daily and it will be nice not to have that struggle anymore.
I think back to high school when my record collection was just starting. I loved the big vinyl LP album covers and would devour every word on the jacket and sleeve as I'd sit in front of the stereo for hours on end. It was my sanctuary! I always wanted to work in a record store.
In college, pursuing a music degree, I was always applying at the local record stores. No one would hire me. Never even got called for an interview.
Earned my degree...started teaching, moved to MI and landed a summer job at Camelot Music. It was such a great experience! And I always wanted to work in a record store...which was now a CD store. I had found my niche! Basically stopped seeking teaching positions, because I was working in a record store!
Worked my way up the ladder, relocated a few times, and have been managing an FYE store for the last five years in TN. Life changes, and now the time has come for this chapter to end.
I'm feeling a lot of different emotions right now. Excited about the new possibilities. Disbelief that I'm ending my "dream" to work in a record store. Sad to leave my staff and my store. Happy to just get on with things. Rejoicing that I got the job! Bumming that I'll miss my old boss...yet, excited about working for my new one.
A lot of my thoughts are melancholy these days. I'm remembering past jobs I've left and different people I've worked with. Some now on with other things, some still in the CD business, some deceased, some just a faint memory. I've been so blessed to have worked with so many great people. You know...it's not so much the job...it's the people.
Thank you to all of you that have prayed for me that I would get an opportunity like this. Everyone has been so wonderful.
So there you have it...the big life changing news! Instead a passion for music that I once had, I now have a "passion for printers and paperclips!" as was suggested to me by someone when I stopped by the church the other day and announced my news.
God Loves Me
(This is still on the subject of the post below. The information is "sensitive" so I can not disclose the news just yet, but I will be able to later this evening when all the people involved are notified.)
At church today, after having missed it for a good month due to work, I was reminded about how Jesus loves us through others. The people in my SaLT group have been praying incessantly for me, for a good year, and most intensely during the past few months.
One particular sister in Christ is Miss Katherine. She is a frail, elderly woman who we have all grown attached to, and watch over her as best we can. She hobbles around with her cane and requires help with opening doors, climbing the three steps to our SaLT group gathering, and could use a warm campfire in The Gathering Place (our house of worship) when the AC is blowing like a blizzard and keeping a chill in the air...which, for the rest of us, is usually welcome in the warm climate of Tennessee. She is a sweetheart, and very soft-spoken. She sits quietly during our discussions in SaLT group, and rarely has anything to add. (Let me tell you though...the few times she has spoken up have been profound!)
We have learned over the years of knowing Miss Katherine, that her spiritual gift is prayer. We are all sure to ask Miss Katherine to pray for us when we need it. She is one of the first I go to when I need prayer. I trust Miss Katherine to go to the Lord on my behalf.
Today when I shared my news...Miss Katherine smiled a huge ear to ear smile through tears of joy and celebration.
She rejoiced and grabbed my hand and offered a short word of encouragement, and at the same time she was giving all the glory to God for answered prayer.
At that moment, when she looked in my eyes, I realized the significance of the love and the attention she had given to my need. She carried my burden and spent countless minutes, hours going to the Lord for me.
It was then that I also realized that what I was seeing in the eyes of Miss Katherine was the love of Christ. Christ also revealed something else. You see, I saw not only Miss Katherine, but my mom and dad too, whom I know to have been in prayer for me as well. (I wish they weren't so far away) It dawned on me that people cared for me, and that they had taken my burden seriously and have been praying for me! I suddenly felt a rush of, oh...it's hard to describe. Let's just say at that moment I felt so loved. I understood in that moment that God has surrounded me with family and with friends who care so deeply for me. I mean, this is stuff that I already know, but what I'm telling you now, is that I FELT that. I felt it right then.
It all happened in only a moment. The time it takes to look into the eyes of someone who said "I've prayed so hard for you."
And...it is not just the fact that the prayers have been answered as I had hoped...as everyone had hoped, but simply that today I was reminded that God loves me. He put people around me that love me. Nothing else really matters.
Even if those prayers had not been answered as I had hoped, God loves me.
At church today, after having missed it for a good month due to work, I was reminded about how Jesus loves us through others. The people in my SaLT group have been praying incessantly for me, for a good year, and most intensely during the past few months.
One particular sister in Christ is Miss Katherine. She is a frail, elderly woman who we have all grown attached to, and watch over her as best we can. She hobbles around with her cane and requires help with opening doors, climbing the three steps to our SaLT group gathering, and could use a warm campfire in The Gathering Place (our house of worship) when the AC is blowing like a blizzard and keeping a chill in the air...which, for the rest of us, is usually welcome in the warm climate of Tennessee. She is a sweetheart, and very soft-spoken. She sits quietly during our discussions in SaLT group, and rarely has anything to add. (Let me tell you though...the few times she has spoken up have been profound!)
We have learned over the years of knowing Miss Katherine, that her spiritual gift is prayer. We are all sure to ask Miss Katherine to pray for us when we need it. She is one of the first I go to when I need prayer. I trust Miss Katherine to go to the Lord on my behalf.
Today when I shared my news...Miss Katherine smiled a huge ear to ear smile through tears of joy and celebration.
She rejoiced and grabbed my hand and offered a short word of encouragement, and at the same time she was giving all the glory to God for answered prayer.
At that moment, when she looked in my eyes, I realized the significance of the love and the attention she had given to my need. She carried my burden and spent countless minutes, hours going to the Lord for me.
It was then that I also realized that what I was seeing in the eyes of Miss Katherine was the love of Christ. Christ also revealed something else. You see, I saw not only Miss Katherine, but my mom and dad too, whom I know to have been in prayer for me as well. (I wish they weren't so far away) It dawned on me that people cared for me, and that they had taken my burden seriously and have been praying for me! I suddenly felt a rush of, oh...it's hard to describe. Let's just say at that moment I felt so loved. I understood in that moment that God has surrounded me with family and with friends who care so deeply for me. I mean, this is stuff that I already know, but what I'm telling you now, is that I FELT that. I felt it right then.
It all happened in only a moment. The time it takes to look into the eyes of someone who said "I've prayed so hard for you."
And...it is not just the fact that the prayers have been answered as I had hoped...as everyone had hoped, but simply that today I was reminded that God loves me. He put people around me that love me. Nothing else really matters.
Even if those prayers had not been answered as I had hoped, God loves me.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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