Have Faith and You Shall Receive

One day, when I first started managing my store, I performed a locker search on my employees' lockers. First locker, nothing. Second locker, is my own so there was nothing special in there. Third locker, a bible. Whoa, never pegged one of my girls as a bible thumper so serious about the book that she has to keep a copy of it in her locker. Mental note to self, watch mouth and actions around Locker #3. The rest of the search turned up nothing half as interesting as the bible.

A slight while later, like a week or so, Locker #3 and I were talking and I casually mentioned the whole 'saw the bible in your locker' and found out that it was a gift to her from a little old woman customer and that she, Locker #3, having no idea what to do with a bible, threw it into her locker, hoping it would disappear. Even after I suggested some solutions, the bible still sat there for another few months.

This brings us to this past Friday. Locker #3 and I were finishing up the bathroom re-organization project (I have never been so proud of anything in my life as I am in the re-organization of my backroom and bathroom. That room hadn't been cleaned probably since the store opened back in '89). Anyhoo, since the lockers reside in the bathroom and Locker #3 and I were in there, the conversation naturally slid back to the bible hanging out in the locker. Laughing enthused but still I was not being successful in getting Locker #3 to remove the bible from the store. We continued talking/laughing about it as she gathered her stuff and left the store for the day.

As Locker #3 meandered out the door, a customer walked in. I went up to her, greeted her, helped her pick out some lotion and escorted her up to the register. She asks about business, I inquire in return and that's when it happens. I see how I am going to get the bible out of my shop for this customer just told me that she is a Pastor. I look her in the face and say "so I have this bible in the back..."

You never know what you are going to get when you come into a lotion shop.

Wedding Planning

Planning my upcoming nuptials has been one of the hardest, most stressful things I have ever taken on. For those of you who are not invited (at this point I think that is just people I lost touch with in kindergarten (calling all sandbox pals, call me, I'll get you on the list)), J and I's wedding has gone from a small affair in our backyard to a 200+ person extravaganza. And while I do admit that I love seeing people's jaw drop when I say the premier location we have booked, I am just ready for it to be here already.

Lately, it has been all about dresses. It started a week or so ago. My mom came over to drop something off and casually mentioned David's Bridal. We log online, peruse the mom options and I stroll over to bridesmaid section to validate once again what a stunning choice of dresses my gals and I decided on (but want to make sure nothing even more stunning has since arrived). I click on the little terracotta colored square and start scrolling through the options. Hmm didn't see the dress first run through. Maybe I missed it. Go through the Terracotta options again. The dress is gone. THE DRESS IS GONE!!! WTF! I start going ape shit, my poor mother not knowing what to do at this point. I love my bridesmaids but I know that they haven't procured their dresses yet. Then i see it, the little link that says SALE. There they are, in limited sizes, on the clearance rack. I start calming down. I'll just buy their dresses myself. I call bridesmaid A, to confirm her size. Done.

And then I do what i consider to be my most bridezilla moment yet.

I call bridesmaid B, who is my best friend that lives in CA. She answers with this groggy, obviously stressed "Hun, I can't talk I am passing kidney stones right now and am a lot of pain. It even hurts to talk" Now most people would respond with something like "i am so sorry. we'll talk later. love you BF's forever and ever" but not me. My response is more like "that sucks but what size dress do you wear?" Yea, I said that. And before you can ask, yes, she is still in my wedding. I am a horrible person (and btw, a week and a half later my BFF is still in the hospital passing the stones). But the dresses are now in my possession (this is not without a mini meltdown in David's Bridal as well).

And then there was the debacle with the shoes for my mom's dress in Macy's and the whole anticipation of the shipping of the dresses (UPS didn't dare lose them as I think they could feel my wrath building if they so much as looked at my package wrong).

And then we measured me as my grandmother is hand making my dress. I have the most beautiful fabric and lace and picked a pattern very similar to the dress I like at the store. Um, yea...let's just say I somehow need to shed 3 inches from my gut and 7 from my thighs before we start with the sewing. And the Popeye's I had tonight complete with strawberry soda (ahhhh, artificial berry fuzzy bubble love) is not going to help me achieve that.

Now i am finalizing the cake colors. Do you know how much cake costs???!!!!! We are having a moderately priced wedding cake and i am looking at shelling out over $500 for it by the time it is delivered. People better love that damn cake. And take notice of the special server and knife set that we cut it with.

Next week i will be taking my flower girl's dress over to her house for a fitting. Hopefully I won't have to break down how a diet works to a 7 year old.

This Bride shit is STRESSFUL.