Ponderings about Autumn

This is a picture I found of the Wasatch mountains. It doesn't have the awesome trees but it is an idea of what I look at when I look to the east.

I was walking home today by way of the tennis courts at BYU. Behind the courts there are these big and gorgeous trees. Trees that make me feel like I am actually not living in a desert type environment that maybe I am someplace like the creek by my old house...or Tennessee. Ok, they're not THAT luscious of trees. Anyway.

As I was walking by these trees I noticed two small sunflowers. I don't remember what these flowers are called but they are beautiful. They look just like mini sunflowers. As I looked at these flowers blowing around in the wind, the thought struck me that these are probably some of the last flowers I will see for a very long time. Why you may ask? Because winter is right around the corner. I said a mental goodbye to these flowers which to me represent happiness in a cheesy way. I continued to walk by these trees and I began thinking about how bittersweet autumn is.

Think about it, winter, while snow can be beautiful, pretty much all the trees and flowers are dead/dormant. That is not very happy for someone who adores plant life. Autumn is like nature's way of saying goodbye.

Summer is green and beautiful, but the colors that fall bring in are vibrant, and calming in a way with warm tones of orange, red, and yellow. Nature is saying, "Hey, I know winter can be kind of long so let me go out with a bang! Let me be extra beautiful for you before the world turns white and grey."

So, thank you autumn! It wouldn't be the same if the world went from green straight to white. It is nice to have this transitional period to say goodbye and adjust to life indoors and under blankets. (which I do love blankets).

As I walked the rest of the way home I looked all around me drinking in every last bit of color, every last leaf, and every last petal. I will continue to do this until the snow comes.

Bitter because winter is coming. Sweet because autumn is beautiful.

That is my cheesy, and rather dramatic take on Fall. Like it?

*side note: Obviously, I am an avid appreciator of nature. One reason is that it is beautiful to look at. Another reason is, in a way, observing nature is a way of feeling closer to my Heavenly Father. But that is another post for another time.

Fall in Love with Fall

HAPPY AUTUMN!!

I love this season. All the colors, so marvelous.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO MY BLOG!!!!!

Well, this blog is a year old as of yesterday. So a belated happy birthday to my blog. Maybe this year I will do better at writing interesting posts and more often. We'll see.

Drip Drop Drip Drop

I am absolutely loving the weather today!

It rained like crazy for a little bit with some fantastic thunder and then it was cloudy and cool and then it has been a light rain the rest of the day/night.

Danny and I both enjoy rainy weather and clouds. Especially when we start to get fall color, I love the clouds. The bright sunlight washes out the colors and there are some beautiful reddish orange spots of color popping out all over the mountains. Today with the clouds it was simply stunning.

My super awesome aunt, uncle, and cousins are in town. My cousin Hayden goes into the MTC on Wednesday. I can not believe he is old enough for that!! He's 19? A missionary? Already??? Time sure does fly.

I am using headphones to listen to my iPod rather loudly. My Disney playlist is on and I am being an uber dork and rocking out to Disney songs. You know, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, etc. This music is just so good. Most of it has good morals or stories to the music and it makes me feel little kiddish I guess. I finally noticed that The Wonderful Thing about Tigger song actually has a spring noise in the background. I found myself bouncing up and down to it. How could you not?? It's such a bouncy song.

Anyway, I need to stop listening to my music and go to bed but I am having too much fun.

Three posts in one day??

Can this be real? Yes it can! My third post in ONE day! Maybe it is over kill now but something happened at work that I felt like mentioning here.

I have believed for quite a while that if you want to see how inconsiderate, rude, and lazy people can be; work retail. I have so many stories and examples of people at possibly their worst every day I work!

For the most part I feel that I do a very good job at dealing with rudeness with patience and good customer service. But every now and then it is too much and I have to admit, I get frustrated. Noticeably frustrated. Today was one of those days.

Today at work, it was busier than it has been for several weeks. First of all, it is a pet peeve of mine when customers think they are the ONLY ones there. I do my best to help everyone and for the most part people see that it is busy and realize they can not monopolize me. Every now and then someone thinks they deserve all the help. Anyway, this lady and her daughter came in today looking for ties for the daughter's wedding. Of course I help them. Here are some problems with wedding ties that it is important to realize, and relatively common sense, if you are looking for a color that is not in season you WILL have a difficult time finding that color. If you are not willing to be creative or flexible you WILL not find ties. If you procrastinate you WILL not find ties. So these people were looking for SAGE green ties, the spring type sage green, and the wedding is on this Saturday!! I understand that they were stressed but that is absolutely no excuse for how they were talking to me and how rude they were! They were incredibly demanding, incredibly rude, and expected me to stand there while they debated what to do in case they think of a question. Well, I dealt with all that relatively well. But it was busy and a lot of people were needing help that were not getting help. So I am starting to get frustrated.

Well, we go back to the desk and I look up stock on these ties, etc. No luck. She then proceeded to act like it was my fault that we did not have more ties.

When the ties they wanted were coming to a dead end she decided it would be a good time to do a return of these two shirts that we have had in our store for quite some time now. Of course there is a line gathering behind them and people are just getting generally frustrated, including me. Well, she did not have a receipt for these shirts. Our policy is that we can still do the return but they only get the lowest sale price in the past 30 days and it has to go on a merchandise voucher (a gift card basically). I explain this policy to her and she looked annoyed but asked to see the value she would get for the shirts. So I start the process and tell her that she will be getting 21.99 for each shirt. (they are usually on sale for about 24.99 so not a huge difference). Wow. Boy was she annoyed at the 21.99 price!! She insisted that she had bought these shirts for 48.00!! I told her in a professional, but frustrated manner, that I have never seen these shirts full price and even if they were full price the price would only be 45.00. And she gets upset and tells me she will take the shirts back and try to find her receipt. Oh, and she wanted cash back. Ridiculous. Anyway, I say that's fine and give her her shirts back and she leaves.

Well, one of my coworkers over in the Men's dept comes over to me later and asks me what happened with this lady. So I tell him the story. I guess this lady and gone to that desk and complained about me saying that I had called her a liar. I have to admit. I laughed. Is that horrible of me? I did not call her a liar. I IMPLIED she was lying. Which people do. That is why we had to make our return policy stricter. Anywho- my coworker got a kick out of it too.

What really upset me though is later I was helping another customer and trying to explain some things to some complicated questions. Well this lady comes back and butts into the middle of our conversation and demands to know my name even reaching to grab my name badge! So I tell her very briskly that my name is Cali. She storms off. I think she made a complaint about me. I am not really concerned about this. Maybe it is cocky of me. But I have so many compliments and good things said by customers that it is no big deal.

The whole point of this is that all this lady accomplished is looking like a rude word I shouldn't say not only to me but to a few of my coworkers who witnessed the scene and who found out about it. Yes I was in the wrong too because I got frustrated but everyone has a breaking point.

So please pleas please, don't be idiots when you shop. Realize that for the most part the associates want to help you and will do what they can to help you but if it is busy then wait your turn and they can only do things with in store policy. Common courtesy people. Common courtesy.


That is my rant/puplic service announcement for the night. ;)

Hi, I forgot something...

August 25th was our 2 year anniversary!!!

That's right folks, Danny and I have been married for two whole years! We have loved every minute of it.



I love him. I could go on and on and be all mushy but suffice it to say that he is truly wonderful and is perfect for me. I feel blessed every day and I love our small and simple life we have established over the last two years.

Here's to eternity!

I skipped the entire month of August...

Let's see, Let's see. I really should do better at updating the ol' blog.

Danny and I went to Texas in early August. It was a short and sweet trip. I spent a good deal of time swimming which was completely fantastic. I love love love water.

Oh and we went to Six Flags. I had not been to Six Flags for about 4 years. We road most of the big rides and it was not too busy so the lines all went very quickly which was happy for me because I hate lines.




I am sad to say that the shoes I am wearing in this picture died at Six Flags. They had been getting worn around the soles. Considering I have had these shoes for 5-6 years they lived a good long shoe life. And what a place for a shoe to die, right? The hard part of the sole ended up falling off so I was walking around on the cushy part.



My sister-in-law is at Toni and Guy hair school. She cut and highlighted my hair while I was there. I went with a color very close to my natural color because I did not want to mess with the upkeep and it looking funny when it grows out. So, it is just a little brighter and a little redder.

School is back in full swing. Danny is taking his first group of masters level courses. So far he seems to be enjoying them.

I am taking four psychology classes. Two will be challenging but worth it, I hope. The other two will be fun and interesting.

I threw my friend a baby shower this last weekend! I had so much fun planning it and I have to say I think I did a good job considering I have never thrown a baby shower before. Or any kind of shower really. The guests seemed to enjoy themselves and most importantly the mommy-to-be enjoyed herself. I would have to say that my favorite part was decorating the onesies. People came up with some really cute designs!

Danny is currently on his way to Rexburg, ID to drop his brother off at BYU:Idaho. Erick stayed with us for the weekend and it was lots of fun. Hopefully Erick will be able to visit us semi often. Danny and I decided to rent a car to drive him up. Our car is too fragile to drive that far. We figured renting a car would be a good idea because: first, it is sometimes cheapest to fly into SLC airport and then drive the rest of the way to Rexburg. Second: since Erick would be in a car instead of a bus we were able to take him around town down here and get set up with food in bulk from Sam's and some pots/pans, etc. I would love to have gone with them but I have to work today. Labor day.

Oh, so Happy Labor Day everyone!

And that is just about it.