Long post of rambley thoughts!!!
So, I have been feeling "contemplative" the last little while, whenever at work. I watch the people walking through the mall and my head gets filled with all kinds of thoughts.... I'm going to try to share some of those thoughts, but some of them really are just questions that I ask myself and then set aside to think about later LOL
Such as.... do some people out there, truly... not own a mirror? It sounds incredibly bitchy or perhaps very judgemental, but you can visually see the individuals who simply "don't care" about themselves -- Or maybe they don't own a mirror. There's no way that looking like that can be chalked up to "Comfortable with their appearance" because if they were comfortable with themselves and had self confidence, they would be looking a whole lot better than they do, on an overall scale. And while "looks aren't everything" they certainly do account for a big part of first impressions, and they say more about a person than simply what their wardrobe is. Looks account for "Does this person bathe on a regular basis?" and "Does this person have self confidence?" and "Does this person know their body type well enough to dress it properly?" and countless other things. And yet daily, I see so many people walking through the mall, looking dejected, looking sad, looking ....unkempt and ...unemployed... and I want to just shake them, and shower them, and dress them in a fashion which befits their "look" -- There is obviously no single one "look" that will look great on everyone but for gods sake ppl, take the time to look at yourself each morning & think to yourself "Do I really want to look like this?"
And children.... It saddens me to watch the kids younger than 10 running around purchasing things, its become nearly an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, amongst today's youth. (Consumerism, that is) -- Watching these young girls, talking about hair appointments, and the latest fashions, and this and that, it makes me sad. It makes me sad to see kids being adults before their time. For fucks sake who cares about highlights, I never thought I'd say this but go buy some CANDY like a NORMAL CHILD WOULD!! And then when you've got your candy, go play OUTSIDE in that bright light otherwise known as the SUNSHINE!!! Its sickening, and we will be headed for rampant inflation and another Great Depression at this rate. There has to be a better way, ugh!
And babies.... (and parents) -- I have concluded that ultimately, there is no cross universal momentus "change" that happens when one becomes a parent. Other than the obvious presence of an infant, there either may or may not be a change. Watching parents and babies, in the setting of a shopping mall, it rapidly becomes obvious (to me at least) that there are good parents and bad parents... and while this may seem obvious, it chalks up to there are parents who care about where their children are, what their children are doing and how their children are behaving.... and then there are parents who really couldn't care any less, whether they had a child or not. A mother walked past me the other day with her 2...2.5 yr old son standing up in his stroller facing her. She kept on walking and kept on saying "Sit down" "Sit down right now!" "SIT DOWN!" -- Why not STOP your mission of getting to the next store, for the 2 minutes that it would take for you to stop walking, and find out WHY your son is standng up in his stroller facing you???? Kids that age have NOT developed their FULL vocabulary for gods sake, so when you're saying "Sit down" and he's saying "no" -- Take the time to find out WHY!!!! Seems pretty obvious to me that he wants something but doesn't know how to express it and/or get your attention any other way!
I gotta say, it is interesting, working in a boutique in the middle of the mall hallways. I actually thought when I first started that it was going to be difficult, and on some levels it has been but there have been a number of occasions where it has been very enlightening. I love watching the people that walk through the mall on a regular basis. There are of course the usual mall rats, the kids who come to the mall, never buy anything and are only there to hang out with their employed friends. There are the career shoplifters who walk 10 laps around the mall on a daily basis, and 'think' that they look unassuming and indistinguishable from the rest.... (until they speed walk past you with sunglasses over their regular glasses and stuffing something in that wide open bag they're always carrying over their shoulder) There are the parents who tell their kids "wait here" and then watch their kids walk away, don't do anything about their kids walking away, and then shrug and say "Well, I guess i might as well leave too" and then walk in the opposite direction from their 4 yr olds...
Its like a study in sociology, working in the mall. The other benefit I find is that I get to know all the mall maintenance people, a great deal of the other vendors, (because they all smile, wave & say hi as they walk past) and the security guards. It's showing me rapidly, that while Nanaimo may be spread out across a long swath up the coast of the island, that in Woodgrove Mall at least there is a sense of "community" in one form or another.... LOL
Further updates: School starts in a short couple of days! Tuesday! Wow has time ever flown by!!! I am SUPER excited for this year, I must say!! Reason being is that while things have been tough since I moved back over here, they are starting to look up now & I finally decided the other day after seeing that work cut back my hours (again, and this time a BIG drop) that I needed to "get with the Nanaimo times" so to speak, the only people who work 1 job and live off that job, are people who are in Salaried positions and NOT students. Everybody else I know in this town has multiple jobs, so .....I picked up a 2nd part time job and I am SO stoked about it. *drumroll*
I WILL BE WORKING AS A STUDENT RESEARCH ASSISTANT FOR MY FAVORITE PROF AT VIU!!!!!!!!!!!
SO fucking excited about that one I could pee!! LOL
I think that opportunity is going to open up a lot of doors and maybe will end up being my ticket out of the Retail Grind while I'm in my upper level courses!
Last night, although I felt social and all my plans with all my ppl fell through, I came home & decided that I really needed some "me" time... I haven't taken any proper "me" time in ... a long time! So, I opened up a lovely bottle of French Gewurtztraminer, drank less than 1 glass of it, lit 6 candles.... turned out the lights in the bathroom, ran myself a luxurious deep bubble bath with essential oil of Rose added to it, and just ....had some "me" time. WOW was it ever relaxing, my limbs (all of them) felt like jello when I got out of the tub. And further to that, since I run hot baths and that bath was no exception, I was hot, and so I opened my window and slept with fresh air coming in right by my head, and I slept for a good 12 hours!!!! I must have needed that "down time" and I am so glad that I got it in before school starts on Tuesday! I've actually only been awake now for less than 3 hours... but because I have today off it means that I am relaxing, and cooking dinner early.... (dinner's actually already ready... lol) and I did some chores, and got some stuff taken care of and just life is good! :)
I also had a phone call about the Black Jeep and have someone coming to take a look at it on Monday hopefully... so I'm going to have to figure something out for that. Might have to swap some plates over... do a midnight run to a car wash :)
Lots of Love!
Namaste!
T
Such as.... do some people out there, truly... not own a mirror? It sounds incredibly bitchy or perhaps very judgemental, but you can visually see the individuals who simply "don't care" about themselves -- Or maybe they don't own a mirror. There's no way that looking like that can be chalked up to "Comfortable with their appearance" because if they were comfortable with themselves and had self confidence, they would be looking a whole lot better than they do, on an overall scale. And while "looks aren't everything" they certainly do account for a big part of first impressions, and they say more about a person than simply what their wardrobe is. Looks account for "Does this person bathe on a regular basis?" and "Does this person have self confidence?" and "Does this person know their body type well enough to dress it properly?" and countless other things. And yet daily, I see so many people walking through the mall, looking dejected, looking sad, looking ....unkempt and ...unemployed... and I want to just shake them, and shower them, and dress them in a fashion which befits their "look" -- There is obviously no single one "look" that will look great on everyone but for gods sake ppl, take the time to look at yourself each morning & think to yourself "Do I really want to look like this?"
And children.... It saddens me to watch the kids younger than 10 running around purchasing things, its become nearly an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, amongst today's youth. (Consumerism, that is) -- Watching these young girls, talking about hair appointments, and the latest fashions, and this and that, it makes me sad. It makes me sad to see kids being adults before their time. For fucks sake who cares about highlights, I never thought I'd say this but go buy some CANDY like a NORMAL CHILD WOULD!! And then when you've got your candy, go play OUTSIDE in that bright light otherwise known as the SUNSHINE!!! Its sickening, and we will be headed for rampant inflation and another Great Depression at this rate. There has to be a better way, ugh!
And babies.... (and parents) -- I have concluded that ultimately, there is no cross universal momentus "change" that happens when one becomes a parent. Other than the obvious presence of an infant, there either may or may not be a change. Watching parents and babies, in the setting of a shopping mall, it rapidly becomes obvious (to me at least) that there are good parents and bad parents... and while this may seem obvious, it chalks up to there are parents who care about where their children are, what their children are doing and how their children are behaving.... and then there are parents who really couldn't care any less, whether they had a child or not. A mother walked past me the other day with her 2...2.5 yr old son standing up in his stroller facing her. She kept on walking and kept on saying "Sit down" "Sit down right now!" "SIT DOWN!" -- Why not STOP your mission of getting to the next store, for the 2 minutes that it would take for you to stop walking, and find out WHY your son is standng up in his stroller facing you???? Kids that age have NOT developed their FULL vocabulary for gods sake, so when you're saying "Sit down" and he's saying "no" -- Take the time to find out WHY!!!! Seems pretty obvious to me that he wants something but doesn't know how to express it and/or get your attention any other way!
I gotta say, it is interesting, working in a boutique in the middle of the mall hallways. I actually thought when I first started that it was going to be difficult, and on some levels it has been but there have been a number of occasions where it has been very enlightening. I love watching the people that walk through the mall on a regular basis. There are of course the usual mall rats, the kids who come to the mall, never buy anything and are only there to hang out with their employed friends. There are the career shoplifters who walk 10 laps around the mall on a daily basis, and 'think' that they look unassuming and indistinguishable from the rest.... (until they speed walk past you with sunglasses over their regular glasses and stuffing something in that wide open bag they're always carrying over their shoulder) There are the parents who tell their kids "wait here" and then watch their kids walk away, don't do anything about their kids walking away, and then shrug and say "Well, I guess i might as well leave too" and then walk in the opposite direction from their 4 yr olds...
Its like a study in sociology, working in the mall. The other benefit I find is that I get to know all the mall maintenance people, a great deal of the other vendors, (because they all smile, wave & say hi as they walk past) and the security guards. It's showing me rapidly, that while Nanaimo may be spread out across a long swath up the coast of the island, that in Woodgrove Mall at least there is a sense of "community" in one form or another.... LOL
Further updates: School starts in a short couple of days! Tuesday! Wow has time ever flown by!!! I am SUPER excited for this year, I must say!! Reason being is that while things have been tough since I moved back over here, they are starting to look up now & I finally decided the other day after seeing that work cut back my hours (again, and this time a BIG drop) that I needed to "get with the Nanaimo times" so to speak, the only people who work 1 job and live off that job, are people who are in Salaried positions and NOT students. Everybody else I know in this town has multiple jobs, so .....I picked up a 2nd part time job and I am SO stoked about it. *drumroll*
I WILL BE WORKING AS A STUDENT RESEARCH ASSISTANT FOR MY FAVORITE PROF AT VIU!!!!!!!!!!!
SO fucking excited about that one I could pee!! LOL
I think that opportunity is going to open up a lot of doors and maybe will end up being my ticket out of the Retail Grind while I'm in my upper level courses!
Last night, although I felt social and all my plans with all my ppl fell through, I came home & decided that I really needed some "me" time... I haven't taken any proper "me" time in ... a long time! So, I opened up a lovely bottle of French Gewurtztraminer, drank less than 1 glass of it, lit 6 candles.... turned out the lights in the bathroom, ran myself a luxurious deep bubble bath with essential oil of Rose added to it, and just ....had some "me" time. WOW was it ever relaxing, my limbs (all of them) felt like jello when I got out of the tub. And further to that, since I run hot baths and that bath was no exception, I was hot, and so I opened my window and slept with fresh air coming in right by my head, and I slept for a good 12 hours!!!! I must have needed that "down time" and I am so glad that I got it in before school starts on Tuesday! I've actually only been awake now for less than 3 hours... but because I have today off it means that I am relaxing, and cooking dinner early.... (dinner's actually already ready... lol) and I did some chores, and got some stuff taken care of and just life is good! :)
I also had a phone call about the Black Jeep and have someone coming to take a look at it on Monday hopefully... so I'm going to have to figure something out for that. Might have to swap some plates over... do a midnight run to a car wash :)
Lots of Love!
Namaste!
T