For those who don't know, I drove a Ford Escape named Susie Q. Homemaker for the longest time. She was a 2001 with 141,616 miles on her with a few bumps and scrapes, but she treated me well enough... until I was tired of bringing her to the shop for the umpteenth time this year. And these little to big fixes have been happening pretty predictably for the past 20,000 miles or so... sadly, last night Susie Q. and I made our last trip from the repair shop in Worcester to the dealership in Leominster, and I traded her in.

...

And while I love/loved that Escape, will miss the 4 wheel drive, roof rack and V6, I am INCREDIBLY excited to say that I was able to get a BRAND NEW Hyundai Accent hatch back for less than the used one would have been! I qualified for a "New Grad" program because I graduated college less than 2 years ago and was able to take advantage of a great rebate on top of that. Up until last night, 10 year warranty wasn't even in my vocabulary! Now it is, and I'm thrilled with all the power that my little 5-speed manual 4-cylinder can muster!

My five year high school reunion started 5 minutes ago...

Black Friday in the world of chocolate started far too early today. I was in the shop at 4:40 this morning to open the doors for the crazy shoppers... They were scary, really. Usually the people walking around the mall in the morning are like the zombies from the first Dawn of the Dead... this morning they were more like the ones from 28 Days Later. They were running around with red, blood shot eyes, fighting over products, and would have probably eaten each other if given the chance. Yikes.

I have a feeling that my manager may be at her wits end... I just got a phone call about a conversation that she had me have with another staff member about the girl's shift TOMORROW night. I remember the conversation; my manager wanted more help on Saturday evening and wanted the staff member to come in early, the staffer was upset about a changing schedule etc etc etc. My manager was upset that the staffer wasn't coming in earlier today... ARGH communication is falling apart, and that's bad. Esp. because there's a seasonal staffer that is coming on this weekend with more experience than I have, and that makes me nervous.

I think that I am an indispensable member of the staff as far as training goes. I can take any little detail that I have recently experienced, learn and master it, then train someone on it on the same day. No big deal. Hopefully this will turn out well... >.

So yeah, I haven't posted in a while. I have been working day-in and day-out, but finally had something BIG pay off. I'm exhausted, but pleased.
Yesterday I hooked a HUGE (huge) corporate gifting account at work, and made the biggest sale that our shop has had in over a year. I was then told (after checking quantities before I processed the order) that the items in question weren't available. I got on the phone again and my District Manager (who Okay'ed the item initially) made it happen.

Sometimes I love my job, and I am very proud that I was able to hook the contract, make the sale, and actually have a satisfied customer.

Now the trick will be getting them into the store to pick it up before the end of the month so that I'll bonus before Christmas...

Today I treated myself to ACMoore before work...

I got 10 skeins (yikes!) of Vanna at 2 for $4. I think I'll be able to power through this blanket and get it on the bed by the end of next week! And I didn't go over my spending budget!! GO ME!

And I said that I'd never use Wheel of Fortune yarn...

I have times when I would rather be at work than home, and there are more times when I would rather be at home than at work... I don't get weekends anymore though. I rarely have two days off in a row. I used to live for the quiet, solitude of weekends... I would take easy walks to the coffee shop (Viva Espresso), or down to the lake (Champlain), and all around town. It was wonderful; I would actually be rested for the next week. Now, I dread the end of any day off, because it only means that I will have another stretch of long days until I can take that "day off." Now my time off is spent doing the domestic/errand type things that I can't get done while I'm working... it's a vicious cycle that doesn't really involve much time to relax anymore.

Maybe that's what being an adult is really about?

Everything that I eat is giving me indigestion or stomach aches lately. It's not fun at all. In fact, it's pretty miserable, and I don't work at a place where large (but gratifying) belches are appropriate. This used to happen to me all the time when I was still in school. The stress of finals or midterms would turn my insides into miserable mush. I blame being under constant scrutiny from corporate over the past couple of weeks. If they are back anytime soon, I suggest that people buy stock in Tums.

In other news: I'm looking at sweater and top patterns. I'm in need of a new hoodie or two, and when it gets warm again I want some cute tops to enjoy the summer sun in.

I know that I am going to try these ones, mostly from this site  : 
http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60210.html?r=1
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=184172.0
http://www.bernat.com/data/pattern/pdf/Bernat_Chunky008_cr_sweatshirt.en_US.pdf
http://web.archive.org/web/20011117182803/http://www.cei.net/~vchisam/groovy/39-80.html (only in one color... I don't like the three-tone)

And maybe this http://www.knitting-crochet.com/crochet/aran.html though I think that it's more my mom's style than mine. I love her dearly, and we do share clothes, but I'm not really liking the turtle neck.

I have a whole bunch of the sleeveless tops saved... too many to be thinking about in October. Many of them I could actually make for work as long as I had something to cover my shoulders. 

At least planning things is making me forget that my tummy hurts... :(

And what does that mean? Groceries, bills, and waging war against the invading dust bunnies... All to a horribly wonderful ABBA club mix.

After all, what fun are domestics if you aren't madly dancing about while doing them?

I am re-watching Super Size Me for about the 20th time. I don't know why I do this to myself, I tend to be a rather healthy consumer. Every few weeks I might treat myself to a small fry and small strawberry shake from Burger King... and then I'll go for a long walk. (I try to get at least 10000 steps every day on my pedometer, that's how conscious I am about having an active day).

Fast Food is so yummy sometimes... but so so so gross.

What the heck people. I am extremely happy that Halloween is over. OVER.