Read Reid's Blog

July 25, 2004

I woke up at 8:30 and immedietely realized I was supposed to be at Express at 9AM.  As a result, I took a 30 second shower, and got dressed for work (nice pants, button up shirt and tie) in ten minutes.  I then went speeding down Old Warson to get to the highway.  In the process, I ran a stoplight at a large intersection and a few stopsigns and managed to get there at 9AM, in the middle of the stream of people coming in.  Thank goodness no other cars are on the road on Sunday morning! 

Anyway, the meeting was about the new return policy.  Basically, Express has outsourced returns to an independent company that has already hooked up with other stores like Target, Old Navy, and the GAP, and they keep track of who returns clothes and what type of clothes through obtaining driver’s license numbers that are kept in a secure database.  Therefore, when someone comes to make a return, we swipe their I.D. and then we can immedietely know if they are approved for a return or not.  If they aren’t, it means something has been flagged on them – we’re not told specifically, but they are given a receipt that says ‘rejected’ and has a phone number they can call to settle their case with the independent company.  It’s cool, because it should definitely cut down on shrink and keep people from stealing clothes and taking it back again and again.  Holly also talked about how we need to be really professional on Thursday when Lily, the regional manager comes to visit the store.  Between now and then she wanted the people working when Lily visits, myself included, so memorize specifics about the men’s and women’s side, along with specific numbers like conversion, plan, and UPT for the week, etc.  That concluded the meeting.

Since it was 10 and I was scheduled to work at 10:45 and since I hadn’t eaten, I went to St. Louis Break Co. to pick up some breakfast.  I got a bagel and a chocolate chip muffie.  Sheena was a cashier so it was cool to see her.  I noticed that Bread. Co. was hiring and thought about picking up an application and filling it out, but I’m content with keeping my Express job for the rest of the summer and not having to wake up insanely early to work a morning shift at Bread Co.  I also got gas and then returned to work.

Back at work I helped put some of the Express Essential Women’s shirts on hangers.  Jeff worked alongside me, and I found out that he also is a “secret shopper” type person for real estate.  Apparently he’s a part of some program that sends ‘families’ to go look at homes to see if there’s any discrimination and sketchy activity with real estate.  It was funny to hear his fake identity – he’s a 300,000 a year businessman who started his own software company.  He also has a wife, who would be going to the house with him that afternoon and two children.  Everyone at Express found that part funny, because Jeff’s gay.  But, since Jeff’s been doing this for awhile, I guess he can assume his supposed identity. 

Jeans and polos in the denim room went on sale, so most of the time I folded clothes and straightened everything people who closed last night failed to fix.  I always find something wrong – maybe it means I’m too nit-picky or that the people closing don’t really care or know what they’re doing.  Unfortunately, it might be all of the above.  Luckily, all of the mundane folding and straigtening isn’t that bad.  Personally, those types of tasks don’t bore me much, and it’s a lot better than standing around and looking stupid when a customer walks in because then they know that the only thing you’re good for is saying hello to them.  I worked until 3PM, and there were only a few noteworthy stories from work. 

– One guy wanted to purchase a 1MX shirt to go with a black suit he’d be wearing to some formal occasion with his girlfriend, and tried on a few shirts.  He later decided that he’d call his girlfriend to see what color dress she’d be wearing.  I thought he was getting bad reception because he kept looking down at his cell phone.  I asked him if he wanted to use our telephone to make the call if it was local – he smiled and told me “No, she’s in Ecuador right now.”  Even though he wasn’t able to connect, he bought a shirt.
– I remembered this event from working last week:  When I showed a gentleman in his 20′s the sterling silver men’s rings we carried, he exclaimed “Bling!” when he tried one on.  I really hope that exclamation never catches on.

When work was finished I picked up my pay check and also got a bunch of hangers from the back room to take home.  Since Design Studio has new wooden hangers, we’re able to take a bunch of the old plastic ones.  I visited Andrea for a bit at Janie & Jack.  She was busy, so I was only able to say hello briefly in between customers. 

I think whenever it rains I feel a little more inactive and lazy.  I want to stay in the house and not go outside and do things, which is exactly what I did.  For the rest of the afternoon I sat around the house and watched baseball and ESPN.  I wasted more of my life away by playing Rollercoaster Tycoon and then watching the Yankees/Red Sox game.  Even though the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry is one of the best in baseball, I feel like the Cardinal’s/Cubs rivalry is better.  The fans are more into it in a less violent way and the games are equally, if not more, exciting because both ball clubs have similar players and respect for one another, leading to higher quality games won on skill rather than errors.  For dinner I made myself a teriyaki burger with grilled onions, lettuce, and cheese.  I used the George Foreman grill again.  That thing is easy to use, but it doesn’t seem to cook the burger as well as a grill and it’s not as easy to clean up as it makes itself to be.  I also made myself a smoothie.

I sat around for the rest of the evening, in front of the computer and TV.  I also hung up all my button-down shirts with the hangers I got from Express.  I’ve never realized how many shirts I’ve had until now, so I decided to take a picture of it:

To not make the evening go to waste, I looked up the directions on how to tie a half-winsor and four-in-hand tie.  I tie a left-handed winsor knot, and after doing the half-winsor and four-in-hand, the winsor is still the best knot in my opinion.  I also took a few of those political ideology tests.  I discovered that:

1) On http://www.politicalcompass.org/, I am Economic Left: -4.62 and Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.77.  I basically knew I was defined as a libertarian already – and this test showed me I am with the likes of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and The Dalai Lama.  Hell yeah.
2) On http://www.selectsmart.com/PRESIDENT/president.php, I was a 2% match with George Bush.  Surprise surprise.

So that’s it for this Sunday.  Before I conclude, I must ask for an opinion.  Does this pink striped yarndye go with the suit and most importantly, the tie?