There is a Christmas tree on top of the new Mara building at Fitchburg State. I noticed this a week or so ago, and thought it was odd. It was October still, and I didn’t understand why it was there so early.
Since then, I’ve been in Macy*s and saw their “Holiday Lane” - all their Christmas trees and such. Also, in CVS, all of there Halloween stuff is gone, and their flyer (and stores) are filled with Christmas items, and red and green colors galore.
On TV, they’re also going Christmas crazy. I just finished watching a 9am viewing of Fresh Prince of Bel Air about Christmas. A few days ago, it was a Christmas episode of Home Improvement. At the gym, I’ve been watching How I Met Your Mother, and I’ve gone through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I would imagine that Valentine’s Day will be coming up soon.
At Macy*s last night, I heard Christmas music. I guess they started playing it in all of their stores on November 2nd. Seriously. I, however, posted on Facebook that I started listening to Christmas music on October 15th. Yup. I love Christmas music. Not the traditional Deck the Halls, or Jingle Bells, but more modern songs (like songs from Love Actually).
I think that this year is going to be a very easy Christmas for me, present wise. I already know what I’m getting my dad, I already bought my mom wine racks from Pier One (she was looking for new ones, and I found nice ones, and she said “Oh, well, this can just be my Christmas present from you”. I’ll get her something else, too. And then Dylan and Megan. That’s it.
I’m kinda excited about working at Macy’s again. Well, I’m torn. I don’t want to work, because I would rather have time to do other things. I’m in charge of looking into books for the library, we’re going to buy $1200 worth of books for the library off of their Amazon.com wish list. I wanted to price check at Barnes and Noble, because I want us to get the best price possible on the books we buy. Plus, I’m helping to plan the library fundraiser Brew Years Eve (Beer for Books). But anyway, I’ll only be part time at Macy*s, and I still know a lot of people that work there, so that’s good. It should be a lot of fun, and I could use the money. I’m also happy that I’m working at Christmas time, because that’s when it’s the busiest. They do 30% of their business during this time, and I learned last night that in November and December, Macy*s East will make 3 billion dollars. The Herald Square store, on 34th Street in New York City (the one featured in the original Miracle on 34th Street - which I own, and got for free from Macy*s!), is hoping to do one billion dollars on their own. In one store!!!!
But anyway, with it being busy, that will be better, cause I’ll have more things to do. If I’m going to be working 9 hour days, I want to be non stop busy, so the time will go by quickly. Also, with it being Christmas, people are generally pretty happy because of the season. I also love looking at all the decorations and the trees, because they’re beautiful. I’ve also heard some pretty good Christmas music, and discovered one of my favorite songs there, The Holly and the Ivy by Roger Whittaker. I heard it two Christmases ago, and loved it. It played over and over again, and it took me forever to find on iTunes. But I found it, and love it! Also the song Mistletoe and Holly by Frank Sinatra (Oh by gosh, by golly! . . . . Oh by gosh, by jingle!) How can you not like a song that has the words “by golly” in it?
I’m just hoping that I’m not going to regret my decision to go back. I don’t mind working during the day, during the week, cause I’m not doing much else with that time. I don’t want to give up any more of my nights, however, because Mondays are for class, and Thurs, Friday and Saturday I’m at work! That only leaves me Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do anything at night. I know that I said I wanted to work Sundays, and the store manager has me scheduled for every Sunday (yay for time and a half!). He put me on the later shift, cause he knows I’ll be out late Saturday night, which is nice of him (kinda, I’d rather do 11-8) or 10 -7). But then I’ll be closing the store, usually 1-10. So there goes Sunday nights! I’m left with Tuesday and Wednesday. That blows. I don’t mind working Black Friday, because it’s always an exciting day, and usually the store does fun things for us managers (free lunch!) Plus, the crowds themselves are insane, and fun to deal with. But with Megan coming home, I don’t want to be forced to work when she’s around.
However, the super nice thing about my job at Macy*s, is that I’m not a sales person. My job is to walk around and help people that need help. We were told last night in training that when we see a line of people at the register, we’re not suppose to just walk by! We must do something! But we’re not suppose to jump on the register. We find either another associate to jump on, or we move the customers to another area where there isn’t a line. They said if we jump on the register, we will get stuck there, and then we won’t be able to do the other stuff that we’re suppose to be doing! How great is that? I don’t have to ring! I get to walk around and tell other people what to do, and look important! Sweeeeet.
