Sciurus Vulgaris...

...or also known as red squirrel or devil rodent here in the sticks. and vulgaris is so appropriate here. i mean, check out the picture of the one with "hair horns."

yesterday night, pete and i found one of these suckers in a storage container that held some of our winter clothing. i was in the process of moving it to another location and had not done so yet. i imagined it got in, since the lid was not put on top yet.

over the past few days, we saw our cat (chunky) digging around in this box and trying to pull stuff out. we thought he was just being silly, but turns out he was hunting. so...yeah. this devil rodent was in there for the past few days, nesting and making the sweaters look like they were alive. like alien or something. and probably doing #1 AND #2 on my sweaters! so last night, pete and i (mostly pete) caught it and put it in a little squirrel trap to take out of the house. btw, the squirrel trap is useless. we've had it for over a year and never caught any of the lil' buggers that have been hanging out in our roof scratching around doing goodness knows what.

anyway, we did not kill him. we drove him down the street to a safe lil' area that had beautiful trees and a lake view. unfortunately, squirrels can be territorial. i hoped that with his ferocious biting of our towel that he would be able to fend for himself and be the new king of his domain.

*i do not hate squirrels, per se. i actually enjoy them when i see them, usually. especially the albino one that lives in our trees. i just dislike their use of my facilities without proper welcome.

oh. you know. just some culture and stuff.

today i went to the walker art center with my 2 sisters-in-law, saleit and maggie. lahave (saleit's new bebe) was there too, and he was actually very good. some of the paintings he liked, and some of them actually freaked him out. smart kid. some of it was pretty "bleh" to me too.

saleit had tons of fun, since she studied art in florence. i had fun when lahave screamed in the big room with the smashed car thingie. maggie had fun when we ate food later. there was a lot to see, so we will have to go back. however, the infamous minnesota state fair is coming this weekend. and...sorry pablo. your art doesn't beat cheese curds or food on a stick.

*i forgot my camera, so i didn't take any pictures of us. i wish i had, cuz maggie had on white shorts that were unbelievably see-through and too small for her. "spandex--it's a privilege, not a right."

so dreamy

yesterday, i saw "becoming jane" downtown with some friends from work. it was entertaining, despite all the giggling and sighs emanating from the rest of the theatre-goers. i'm usually not one for victorian age movies, mostly because it takes me a little while to understand what is being said. but...this one was pretty good. and i say this because james mcavoy who plays tom lefroy (jane's actual romantic interest) actually made me swoon. when he said, "don't you love me?" to jane and she didn't reply, i wanted to scream "i do! i love you mr. lefroy!"

yup. me. i didn't do it, but i'm afraid i would have if i wasn't already married and wasn't afraid of inciting a scratch fest.

new beginnings

so i decided i would take my name out of the running for the gm position. with much thought and more prayers and lots of long talks with family, i realized it is best for me to pursue other opportunities in my career and school and family.

i want to be more available for my husband and the young women i serve in my calling. i want to be motivated to clean my house and work on a project that i've put off for 3 months. i want to sleep a full night and not wake up in the middle of the day, because i did a 12 hour shift the day before. i want to help my husband pay for significant portions of our monthly bills, and i want to be of assistance to him when he goes to school. i want to mentally and spiritually prepare myself for a child, and i want to learn more about being self-sufficient. i want to go back to school and teach and help people adapt and function in our society. and...so much more.

although i will greatly miss my job, i think this is for the best. i already feel relieved, and i know i will find something better suited for my needs and my life pursuit. meanwhile, the next 2 weeks are going to be quite challenging. with my gm transferring to another store, i will have a new gm very soon. i hope that the person who takes over his place will be just as great as he was to me. as much as i complained about his micro-management, he really was a great leader and mentor. he will be missed.

need some advice

okay friends. i am having a job decision crisis. i've prayed about this, and i've thought long and hard. i've discussed it several times with several people. and yet, i am still at a loss. here's the situation:

currently, i am a sales manager at borders books. i make a very decent wage, get great benefits, love the product that i sell, and i like a lot of the people that i work with (there are a few here and there that i have an immense amount of disdain for). i was originally going to be stepping down to concentrate on going back to school full-time in the fall for my masters. however, some certification logistics with the program have prevented me from being considered for the full-time program (gotta finish one more certificate class...which happens to be in fall...until i can apply to the program). so...i figured i would just continue to work. at borders. at a school district. somewhere. just working, finishing up that one class, and then get into the program.

yet (again), i had some realizations even after that first decision. after much prodding on my part, i convinced pete that it would be a great idea for him to go back to school. he had already been talking about it, but skipped his lsat test back in february. we decided together, that he should at least give it a shot again and see what happens. plus, our overall goal would be for him to be able to make more money than he is now in case i will not be able to work (family/baby planning). obviously, a graduating law student has more earning potential than a graduating teacher.

so...i went into my district manager's office and spoke with her about general manager opportunities. i figured i would make the most out of it, if i was planning to stay with the company full-time. interestingly enough, there were 2 general manager positions that opened up that same day! i was excited and freaked out, because i was definitely not expecting that at all. anyway, i went home and spoke with pete about the opportunity. i spoke with my family. i spoke with some close friends, and i made the decision that it would be a good idea to go for it.

so i interviewed almost 2 weeks ago now. quite a few other people have interviewed along with me in the district, and i had some stiff competition and then some lackluster. i was pretty psyched at first about the idea of being the boss over the whole store, and then all these future events and plans and the idea of working another retail holiday and all the crumbums that we sometimes have to hire...it was just all so overwhelming.

i've been feeling really down and sort of sick to my stomach about it over the past week, and i don't know what to do. i've prayed about it, but i don't know if i am too stressed or distracted cuz i can't seem to get a straight answer for myself. pete won't tell me what to do, because he wants me to be happy and make my own decisions (easy way out--makes me hate him and love him at the same time). i'm gonna have a family counsel about it soon, but i would love your feedback friends! help me! what do i do?! here, i will break it down again:

take gm position (if offered): potentially make up to 15k more a year, work with books (which i love), have an interactive job, make quarterly bonuses, be able to afford a little bit more than i can now, great benefits, support pete thru school (i would go later)

DO NOT take gm position (if offered): would have to find another job (which sucks), new job could bring new career development, benefits (?), bonuses unlikely unless i work in a sales job, support pete thru school, work in the city with other cool city folk, possibly make what i make now (which is still pretty darn good), possible cool new co-workers or lame ones (all jobs have lame people)...basically lots of uncertainty

please respond, if you can. i would love any feedback you can give.

so scary

today, at work, one of our regulars came in and told us that one of the bridges over the mississippi river collapsed a few minutes ago. a few other people came in and talked about it, and i went around and spoke with all my employees to make sure that they could call their loved ones if they needed to to make sure they were safe. i didn't see any pictures until i got home at 10:30, and the goosebumps i got earlier turned into a stomach ache.

my heart and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved one in this horrific accident. i am also grateful to the many heroes that risked their lives to save those who went down with the bridge.

what the...

so this guy who looked sort of like quasimodo came up to me today and wanted my district manager's phone number. normally, we do not give out her # unless it is something that we cannot handle at the store level. i kept trying to explain that her # was private, and asked if i could help him. he wouldn't say anything but he would stare me down...perhaps trying to stare me into submission? i don't know. it was weird and kind of creepy. i wasn't really buying the scare tactic though.

he continued to ask for the number, and i continued to say "no" and asked if i could help. he said something about hiding things and corporate b.s. and politics...and some more staring. i stared back and waited for him to tell me what i could do to help. then, he left.

ah, the joys of retail.