Shopping

I tried on over ten tops at TJMaxx yesterday and didn’t like any of them.  This is concerning to me.  I used to be SUCH a TJMaxx girl.  I’ve been thinking about why the tops didn’t work.

One:  Annoyance.  There were annoying loud-talkers in the store.  What I mean is a group of women were talking and laughing loudly.  After a day of work, I tried to escape.  They were bothering me.  Hello!  I’m trying to shop.  Can you please be quiet?  A reasonable request, right?  Then, when I was about half-way through trying on my stuff in the dressing room, I hear them.  The loud-talkers found me in the dressing room.  I had to get out after trying on about 3/4ths of my goods.

Two:  Colors.  One of my ex-co-workers did “Color Analysis” as a side job.  After poking and prodding her for several weeks, I convinced her to give me a mini-Color Analysis.  She was reluctant, since women will normally (get this) pay her to go shopping with them while she tells them which colors do and don’t look good on them.  She gave me a freebie.  Since consulting with her, I’ve gravatated towards “my colors.”  I’m Spring, which means, coral, turquoise, taupe, ivory, NOT black and NOT white.  Those are only for Winters.  Apparently, not beige/tan either.  Because everything I tried on in that color was blah-looking.  I looked up the entire Spring palette yesterday, and there’s more variety/diversity than I thought.  Now, I seem to know now when a color looks bad on me (anything that’s not Spring), when I used to be content with cute and cheap no matter the color.

Three:  Snobbery/Higher Standards.  When I started working professionally,I allowed myself to get some more expensive, higher-end clothes.  (Ok, I went to the mall.)  And its been so nice to have clothes that don’t have holes, aren’t picked, and are just overall well-made.  I just felt like everything I tried on in that store was about to fall apart.

BUT! I did buy a $4 shirt at a thrift store after my trip to TJMaxx was a bust.  I guess snobbery hasn’t totally taken over.

Hey, Shortie

I went into work for training one day last week.  I love my new boss.  He’s one of those people that compliments everybody all the time, even his patients.  He’s very genuine about it (not creepy), and, I must admit, when the compliments turn to me, I soak it up.

I sat in on a meeting during lunch that included the entire office staff: medical, front desk, and therapists.  Something happened to me that has not happened in a long time.  I was hyper-aware of my height.  I’m five-foot-one; the therapists all seemed to be slender, fashionable, and at least six feet tall.  Some were wearing heels, some flats, and I was just walking around the room with a craned neck getting introduced to everyone.  I had flats on, as always, but I was seriously contemplating making a beeline from the meeting to the nearest shoe store to purchase some heels, or at least some wedges.

I’m never the tallest in the room, unless I’m in a fifth grade class room, which I never am.  Gregg is six-foot-three, so I’m used to the neck-craning.  Maybe my awareness was due to the fact that they were all women.  Maybe it was because I was meeting them all for the first time.  It would be one thing if they were tall, ugly, and poorly dress, but, not so.  I have a couple of tall friends, and I’m not thinking about how tall they are the whole time we are together.  But, seriously, it was like I was in a women’s basketball locker room or the first day of high school, as a freshman, gazing up, intimidated by the seniors thinking, I’ll never be that tall.  And, its true, in this case, I will never be as tall as these women.

Thankfully, after the meeting, the one other shortie in the bunch introduced herself to me.  She said that she’d love for me to stop by her office some time, blah, blah, blah.  Very nice.  I said that we shorties need to stick together.  I didn’t really say that, but I felt it.

To top off the day, I went to dinner with my parents who had been in town for the week.  We went to a nice restaurant on a pier in Norfolk.  I went to the bathroom to wash my hands before the meal.  After washing up, I looked up to the mirror (you know, to check myself out real quick), all I could see was the top of my head.  Really?  Seriously?  After a day with giants, I’m not even tall enough to look myself over in the mirror.  I surrender.  I’ll pick up some cheap wedges from Target next week.  My mom said that she found some cute ones on sale.

Advise to a future employer

I think I’m removed enough from my lengthy interview process to post this.  This advise could be very helpful to anyone out there that is in the position of hiring and interviewing.  All of this advise, unfortunately, is from experience.

1. In an interview, ask questions.  And, get this, listen to the answers.

2. Listen.  (Already mentioned, but still important.)  Let your listening be more frequent than your talking.

3. Talk about money.  Don’t make your interviewee bring up the subject of wages.  Be up front, let them know how much you are going to pay them.  They want to know, you know they do.

4. Call.  When you say that you are going to call the interviewee/future employee, give them a time frame.  And, then, call them within that time frame.

5. Make up your mind.  If you say something, stick to it.  Don’t make promises in an interview that you won’t be able to keep later.

6. Don’t give false hope.  If you say “maybe you can take over this company one day,” make sure you actually hire the person.