Chaos on the job!

I've been in the new department at work for a week now! I was told that I would be given five hours of training. I got about an hour! I was put there during the craziest time of the year! I have concluded that the customers that call in are the ones that are training me. They basically call in and ask millions of questions about our products and I'm supposed to know it all. The pressure is immense at times. It's one 5'1 girl (me) dealing with 10+ calls. Somehow I manage to keep my composure! Fortunately I have Raul who has been answering all my computer questions. He is such the genius when it comes to computers. In addition I've been taking initiative and going on the BB website and learning more about what we have and how everything works.

I am the type of person who plans, organizes, thinks out, and prepares for everything. In order for me to be disciplined, I plan things out. BUT in this position planning is thrown out the window. I have to act on the spot and be on my toes 110%! We have to sell to customers and that is something that is foreign to me! The dollar amount that I bring in daily is looked at by the managers every day. Anyway as with everything I try to look at the positive side of things, NEVER THE NEGATIVE! So I have been thinking about this one, and I have concluded that I better take advantage of this. I am getting paid to explore a side of me that I thought I would never be exposed to. I have discovered that I always tend to prepare for the expected, but I tend not to deal well with the unexpected. Well, actually I have known that for a while, this new job didn't make me realize that. But now it's being put into practice, and I intend to learn from this!

I was talking to Raul about how I felt on the new job and what he said was true. We have to have an open mind about things and be willing to learn a little bit of everything. I guess I just felt overwhelmed because it is just the beginning. I must say that I am feeling comfortable as each day passes. I like the fact that the managers make it a point to tell us (personally) that we are doing a great job. That brings up morale and you don't get that often in the work force. And I also have to admit that every time I bring in sales and the customer actually comes in to buy something, I find myself pulling off the "YES" deal!!!! LOL! Anyway I'll keep taking things day by day and hopefully after the holidays things will cool down!

My two year journey Part III!!!

At this point it is late 2007! I am starting to get used to my new job, and studying like a mad women! I had NO LIFE! Seven months had past since Raul and I reconciled and we still had not seen each other due to financial constraints. The holidays came and went and I was just wishing things could be different. It almost seems as though I am bringing up all the bad things, but that was my reality! Raul and I had our hopes up that he would make it out here sometime early January of 2008, it almost seemed like a done deal, but at the last minute things didn't work out. I remember getting his call saying he wouldn't be able to make it. I remember I was walking to my class when he broke the news! I remember hanging up with him after the news, walking into class, sitting down at the desk and the tears rolling down my face. An array of emotions came over me because I felt so overwhelmed with everything. I just couldn't see the the positive side of things, I couldn't understand why things had become so difficult.

I concluded that I just had to take things day by day and do the best I could. Raul and I had to work extremely hard to make it this far. We never gave up on each other and we gave each other strength. January of 2008 crept up before I knew it and things at school were still tough. I was taking all my upper division classes! Writing loooong ass papers, doing research, spending endless hours in the library, and taking math classes (which I hated). The funny thing about it was that every time something challenging came up in my classes, I would get motivated and I would just sike myself out and think, "oh this is easy, I can do this", when in reality a side of me didn't know where to start. But I felt driven to figure it out, and do the best I could. IT WORKED!

My b-day was on 1/17 it fell on a Thursday. I will never forget that day! I tell you some things have just made me humble. :) It was one of my long days at school and I had to work late that night. All of a sudden the boss comes up to me and says, "can you please help clean up, because the guy in charge of cleaning is by himself and he can use the help." Uhhh that meant I had to sweep the floors in the student union. Well, how can I say NO to the boss. There is not even a nice way to do such a thing. So I say, "sure." I started helping him and as I am sweeping the floors I'm thinking why is this happening. It's my b-day, I'm at work when I rather be home or partying, and I'm SWEEPING AND MOPPING. I rarely do that in my own house. If I didn't start laughing about the whole thing, I knew I would start crying!!! I couldn't believe it!! I just laughed it off and kept going. Things couldn't get any worse!

May of 2008 came around and GUESS WHAT????? Yes, Raul and I finally got to see each other!!!! :):):) It was the happiest moment ever once we finalized everything! The simple act of being able to hug him and see him was the best feeling ever. We had the best time ever and nothing could ruin how happy we felt. :) When he came in May we told my parent's that we were planning on getting married sometime in 2009, we just weren't sure on the date.

Summer of 2008 was here and like they say things will get worse before they get better!!!!!! Stay tuned for the grand finale!!!! :)

Too much going on!

OMG I have been away for a few days now. I can't even begin to put all my thoughts together, therefore this one will be short. I am super busy with work and preparing for upcoming finals. I am super excited that there are only roughly 16 to 17 days left until the BIG DAY. MY GRADUATION! The day I've been waiting for-for two years is finally just around the corner, and I couldn't even begin to explain how happy I am.

I feel absolutely confident that we will pass this exam, and that all of our endless evening and weekend study sessions will pay off. It is not over, but we are almost at the finish line. I'll be back with more blogs, I'm sure I will feel inspired to write by the end of this week.

Reflection!

Those that know me, know that I don't have the best relationship with my Mother. I can list a great amount of positive things about my mom, she has a lot of good qualities. But with that come a lot of other issues, as we all have, no one is perfect! And well, I'm not perfect either.

My Mother and I are really opinionated and we disagree a lot of times on a lot of things. Sometimes I feel like she is just so unfair! But I've noticed through out the years that it doesn't take too much to get her to be happy after a brief argument.

The other day I was on one of my normal study sessions with Lupe! And in between all the studying we got lost and started talking about our personal lives. Well, actually she started telling me about her life. I was just listening! I have this thing, where most of the time I enjoy listening to other's life stories and learn something from it, rather than talk about my myself.

I am not going to divulge everything she told me, because I don't feel that I'm in the position to reveal someone else's business. Unless of course she gives me the OKAY! But I won't even bother getting permission. Let me just say that I was in shock by what she revealed about her life. I couldn't believe half of the things she has been through. But it was true!!! Most of it was about the relationship between her and her Mother. All I can say is that her Mother is a really mean spirited person! :( After hearing her story it made me reflect on the relationship that I have with my own Mother. And I thought about it, I thought my mom wasn't that bad. Although it's tough with her sometimes (okay most of the time) it doesn't compare with Lupe's mom. I've always been close to my Father, and I would do anything for him, for both of them for that matter!

Anyway Lupe is not your everyday American girl! She was born in Mexico, and I admire her for how far she has gotten! People look down on her because if you see her you think "oh just just another Mexican girl in America." It sounds cruel, but it's true! Sometimes the truth hurts. I have never been one to care too much about what class you are in upper, lower, middle I don't give a damn. As long as you are genuine, and sincere with me, I'll be your friend forever. Money or status doesn't mean much to me! And that is one of the major reasons why I value and appreciate the friends that I do have. All because I actually found some genuine quality in all them. Otherwise, believe me I wouldn't be associating with them! Lupe is not into the latest fashion, doesn't drive the best car, she is humble beyond compare, and she possesses what SOME people struggle to have, A GENUINE HEART AND COMPASSION!

It's kind of weird talking about her, I didn't think I would, but after finding out about her life story, it made me reflect on my own. And I must say that I have it fairly easy. Without a doubt Lupe times 6 billion people = A better world!

A mess!

I used to be a faithful customer at Ziba Beauty in Victoria Gardens. I love the way they always made my eyebrows look close to perfection. :) BUT unfortunately everything is so far from MV that I had to search for a place closer to me. So I found a place inside the MV mall one day. And I thought great, I'll just come here from now on. I've been going there for a few months now. Weather you want to admit it or not, we all care for great customer service. But these people have none. I mean they don't even talk! I can't conclude that it's because of their culture, because I've met others that are super nice.

So this is the normal routine every week and a half or two!

Me: I walk in and smile!
Them: "EYEBROWS?"
Me: Yes!
Them: They point to the chair! (That means sit down!) As if I am about to sit in the electrical chair. :(

***They finish their job, give me the mirror***

Them:"you like?"
Me: uh huh! (What's the point in that, what if I DON'T LIKE, you can't give me new eyebrows!!!!)
Them: okay pay!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh the torture is unreal! All so that I don't have to drive 60 +/- to get my eyebrows down some where else.

Sooooooooo the other day I found another eyebrow place on the other side of the MV mall and I was very happy. So I go in there to check out the place and they have great customer service. They gave me a card and said please come in anytime. I didn't stay because I decided that I would let my eyebrows grow out a bit more. Hopefully they can reshape them and make them look 10 times better. But I feel a mess because my eyebrows are in major need of immediate work!!! But I'm going to TRY to tough it out and wait until my Graduation day which is on 12/13! Whewww let's see if I can do that, it's awful having crazy looking eyebrows!!!

I can't help it!!!!!!

This may be getting old, but I can't help but share the latest on my Stats. drama. So like I said before there was a brief study session at Starbucks on Tuesday, this time with all three of us. So today as I am standing by our class waiting for the professor to show up, I happened to turn around and notice that "the one girl" (LOL) is standing behind me. But she doesn't notice that I turn around and see her there. So I quickly turn back around and go about my business. So I'm thinking well she obviously saw me, and we just met about two days ago and she hasn't even said hello or something. So I'm thinking, WHATEVER! So we go into the class and it's business as usual, all goes well. Lupe arrives and manages to sit next to me in the front row.

So after about an 1 hour and 1/2 the class comes to an end and Lupe and I are discussing our next study session. And as I'm telling her that I think we should meet tonight, I notice from the corner of my eye that the one girl is standing next to me, but I proceed with my suggestions. :) So we finalize everything and Lupe and the other girl walk away together. But I think nothing of it and I go to my next class!!!

So after my last class I get a call from Lupe. She just wanted to set a time for us to meet. And she says, "Oh and I have something to tell you, but I'll wait until I see you tonight." So we meet up and she tells me that as her and the other girl were walking to the car, the other girl tells her that she thinks I am a SANGRONA! JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA! I started laughing just like that when Lupe told me. For those who don't know what sangrona is, it pretty much means that I'm stuck up or something. And Lupe tells me she gets a bad vibe from her because she has been noticing that the other girl has been parking right next to her the last two days. STALKER! So she says, "I don't care, I get the formulas now, I don't care if Belen doesn't want to meet up with me." Jajajaja again!! So the other girl tells Lupe if they can meet on Saturday, but Lupe makes up a story and says she can't. She is meeting with me instead!!!! Poor Lupe she can't seem to get her off her back. She is just too nice, and can't find the way to say NO! But I understand.

So once again I am a 29 year old woman, and I feel like I'm dealing with a bunch of 19 year olds, (with the exception of Lupe) I'm not in HS, I don't have time for this BS. So anyway God help the other girl, she is a genius and has figured everything out in a matter of days. :) Some people I tell ya!!!!

I hope this is the end of my Stats. drama. Less than 3 weeks to go, can't wait! :)

Change sooner than I thought!!

As I mentioned before I started a new job at Best Buy. I was initially assigned to the Geek Squad. :) A couple of days into the new job, the work reminded me of INS. Customers have a problem with their laptop, camera, Ipod, etc. etc. and we check it out and if we find that there is a major problem we send it our service center. So we are constantly receiving calls from the customers asking about the status of their product. OR we are having to call them to keep them updated. We have to look up the status on the computer, and whole bunch of other good stuff.

So anyway I notice that there is a paper hanging on the wall in the break room. It read, "If you see your name on this paper, please see admin." Okay so I briefly look over it, and my name is on there. So I go see the lady in admin. Pretty much it was only to provide my availability. So okay I'll log into the computer and do so. As I was walking away she says, "oh did you know that you are going to be transferred to another department?" I say, "no. " And she replies, "oh yes, well now you know." By the way she is way cool! And then she says, "no worries, your new department is not bad, you'll get use to it." I'm thinking okay should I take the comment in a bad way or a good way. Alright I'll go with the good. Hmm so now I'm curious!!!!

A few hours later, the Geek Squad manager calls me into his office. And I'm thinking okay well I'm SEMI prepared for this. He confirms the transfer!!!!!!!! He says "we are cutting down hours in the Geek Squad, and being that you just started we don't want to have to cut your hours also, and it so happens that this opening was available so we want to put you there." Wow, okay how nice of you!!!! So I officially start on Sunday! I am actually looking forward to it! I got some training today and it doesn't seem too bad. But they really emphasize the fact that we have to "sell to the customers." I'm not good at doing that, because I don't have retail experience, but hey whatever, always open to learn something new. I'll pretty much be answering all the incoming calls for the store, and checking if we have certain items and offering to put things on hold. There is more to it, but if I keep typing my fingers are going to fall off.

So I have a full schedule and nice and hefty hours for next week. I have three whole days to prepare for next week, both mentally and physically. :) Mentally because I have a lot of new things to learn on the job, and physically because I will be spending long hours at work due to the holidays. I'll have to step it up at the gym, so I can have energy to make it through my days at school and work. I have found that excercise is the best medicine!! :)

Until next time!!!