Month: June 2013

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I Never Played I Never

I love it when I see movies and TV shows where the characters either are young or they get all nostalgic about their youth and they mention games they played at parties. These games consisted of ways to get, uh, close and personal, with the opposite sex. I often wonder who was fooling whom, or who thought the games were little innocent games, but I have to think at least the guys knew what was happening. But I would have to take everyone’s word for it because I never played any of those games.

The Games

Twister – This one looks hilarious on the box, with someone’s leg over someone else’s arm, a twisted torso here, an elbow swinging out wide there. What the game does is gets people close enough to kiss if they were so inclined, the physical proximity possibly dizzying for the kid who never got in too much close contact with the opposite sex. Continue reading “I Never Played I Never”

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Phone Reservations

My seven-year old daughter gets phone calls from boys. Uh oh. And I guess I thought this would happen so far down the line that I hadn’t really considered how to react to it. Luckily I’m not alone, and my more down-to-earth wife is my partner in figuring these things out, even though she too hadn’t thought about it prior to it actually happening. I think we were so concerned about her actually making friends that we didn’t realize what would happen when she did. And she has, the best of which just happens to be a boy.

First off, this kid is just as talkative as she is, which is quite a feat indeed, something I never thought existed in nature. When he calls here, they could go on for hours; and that brings me to the first rule we had to enact. When it was a school night we would only give them 20 minutes to talk, or however they wanted to spend the time. I say this last part because they will often make strange noises on the phone to each other. I have no idea if these noises have more meaning than simply noises, if they’re speaking Japanese to each other, or if something else is going on. But I have accepted it as a part of the conversation, and as such, part of the 20 minutes. Continue reading “Phone Reservations”

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Keeping it Brand, Part 10

*I work at Target. You know, the store. And I’ve worked at Target for the past ten years, on and off. During my experience at Target I’ve learned so many different things about the store, about people who work there, about people who shop there, and how it is so much different from all the other retail stores out there. We aren’t employees; we are all team members. And we don’t serve customers; we serve guests. The biggest difference is the culture, the language, and the atmosphere of the store, which I’ve expounded about in this series. It’s all about Keeping it Brand.

I told someone about the coupon faeries the other day at work, and they looked at me like I had just grown three additional heads. Then a new team member asked me to help her with a guest who needed to find something. Later on that same day I had a rousing discussion about the new signing we had gotten in to highlight the summer experience (even though we’re setting Back to School within the next couple of weeks). Those are the discussions I love to have, with guests, with fellow (and female) team members, and with other people about the experiences I have. Continue reading “Keeping it Brand, Part 10”

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Water Cooler Musings: Pretty/Hot

Hilary Swank. Pretty/hot?

Yesterday we had a rousing discussion around the water cooler about being pretty and being hot, and how they’re distinctly not the same thing. It reminded me of this episode of The Office where the employees were split on whether or not Hilary Swank is hot. Great actress sure. But is she HOT? And what makes someone hot vs. pretty and vice versa?

This one guy, we’ll call him Phil, said that girls are pretty when they are naturally attractive, and girls are hot when they wear something “skanky.” Which of course got all the girls who were also around the water cooler up in arms. They questioned whether or not skanks can truly be called hot, and more importantly, do ALL guys think that way? Then he clarified, that it wasn’t really skanky he was referencing, but something that showed off a girl’s body. Pretty girls, he said, didn’t need to show off their bodies, because they have this essence, this girl-next-doorness that attracts people to them in the “good” way. I think that did enough to call off the lynch mob, but just barely. Continue reading “Water Cooler Musings: Pretty/Hot”

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Sam’s Friday Top 5: Tidbits of Advice

From the time we are born, we hear advice everywhere, from our parents, to our siblings, to other adults, and everyone in-between. Eventually our peers also give us advice, and we tend to call that peer pressure. Funny how when it’s people our age it’s “pressure,” but when it’s from older folks, it’s “wise,” and “sage” advice. Even if they say the exact same thing.

But the point is that everyone has an opinion of how we should live our lives, but the only opinion that should matter is our own. We listen to those others, though, because we trust that somehow they know what they’re talking about; however, we need to filter what will work for us, what we subscribe to, and what won’t, what we don’t. Here are my top 5 tidbits of advice I’ve gleaned throughout the years and made my own: Continue reading “Sam’s Friday Top 5: Tidbits of Advice”