MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and got lots of things.

What I got:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD
3 scarf/glove sets (they're all different and I like 'em all! One set came with a hat)
Canon scanner (a NICE one! It can scan 35mm film, also)
Blue fleece bath robe
Baby blue silk blouse
Another type of sweater blouse
lots of decorative socks
Beads!
Blue fishy flannel sheets!! (they're CUTE!)
Painted Horse statue
REALLY soft horse stuffed animal
One of those 3-day image crystals with a light stand (a unicorn with moon)
Mulan doll
Snow White doll

I think that's all. I did very well.

Oh...as for my birthday. It went well, also.

For that I got...
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended DVD gift set)
A frame with a picture of my friend, Becky, her friend, Colin, and I taken at the Boardwalk during the summer
Painted horse statue (one I REALLY wanted)
Hair straightener that can be used on wet hair!
Lord of the Rings (Gandalf the White on Shadowfax) figurines
Hair barettes and other hair things
Candy
Thermal pjs and slippers

I'm SO glad Christmas is over with because of all the crazy shoppers at Borders, lately. Though it'll be slow on the purchases tomorrow, I bet it's still going to be crazy tomorrow because of the "after Christmas" sales and all the returns we're gonna get.

Days till my 19th birthday: 2 (!!!!)
Days till Christmas: 6

YAY! It's official...I got an A in calc I!! Good start for the college years, especially since I wasn't sure if I was gonna pull an A in the class at midterm.

Okay...Here's the ONLY really interesting, or creepy, story from work lately...

This older guy (balding, gray, thining hair, etc) comes up and wants to order a book. I'm all "okay, what book is it?" I look at him and he's just STARING at me. And it's not just a stare, it's a CREEPY close-up staring...Any ways, I didn't think much of it at first. So I find the book and, again, look-up at him and he's STILL staring at me in that SAME way. So I ask him if he's ordered anything with us before and he's says, "no," but with that SAME avid stare...I mean, I don't think he even LOOKED away from me or really thought about it when I asked him. So...I'm entering his info into the computer and glance up at him and he's CREEPING me out! I almost stuttered on something because he was unnerving me. So I give him his order confirmation and he FINALLY looks away from me. I stood there for a few and just shuddered. The guy creeped me out! One of our temp employees noticed it too. I said "ugh, creepy customer!" So, yeah, that was my most "memorable" thing for the week, so far, at least.

Oh, that and I'm beginning to know customers last names to their face...Is that scary? Plus the type of things certain customers will purchase. This one guy every week comes in and buys anywhere from $8-$16 worth of papers. There's this lady Ms. O'Hara who comes in and buys or puts on hold box sets of classic DVDs. Mr. Merle Smith is the Stephen King fanatic. Comes in once a week, REALLY (he's said it himself), and orders a bunch of books. Usually, around $100 worth. *shakes head* I tell ya, most of the "normals" know us by face! It's hard to go into the store to NOT work when there's regulars. It's HARD!

All for now!

Oh...as for grumpy customers?

1) I had a lady that did NOT like our return policy of CDs since it was HER fault she didn't read the small print after each song on this Christmas CD that said (remix) after each song. She said it was a HORRIBLE CD and she wanted to return it. I told her we couldn't when the CD is already open. She stomped off and was grumbling about what a stupid policy and such. *rolls eyes* We have LISTESNING stations that play a clip of the songs on about 3/4 of ALL our CDs!

2) I had this guy call in and want to find this book. The books were by an author he THINKS the last name was "Gibbons" and they were a military series. He THINKS one of the book titles had "corps" in it. He was on the phone for MAYBE 2 minutes after he gave me all that splendid info and said, "Just call me back when you find it." *rolls eyes* He said it in a RUDE way is what got me. Most customers will say that, but they say it in a NICE way.

3) I found a CD that was opened, CD was missing and the booklet was gone too. It was shoved into another book in our lit. crit. section. *shakes head* We found two "stolen" CDs.

4) The Kids section of the store this morning was REALLY messy. It took me a solid hour to fix it up to a presentable state. It still wasn't completely done after the hour too.

5) This lady called in and asked if we had any fake books that you could hide things in them. Kind of like a fake rock where you can hide a key of your house in, but this was a fake book you could stick onto a bookshelf and you could hide more than a key into it. We got to talking and she thinks she's gonna go make one for herself. Isn't that a cool idea, though?

--I forgot to mention this the other day--
Monday I had a customer that asked Stephen and I if we had a book on DOG names. I tell ya...He was dead serious too. Stephen and I looked at each other and gave these bemused looks to each other. I quickly looked and said "nope" to the customer. When he left Stephen and I busted out laughing. It was funny. I know there are BABY names, but DOG names? Come now...Mom says I should write one.

Days till my 19th birthday: 5
Days till Christmas: 9

YAY!!!! I got a 96/100 on my calc final!! I'm SO excited! I must have gotten everything else right on the final except that one problem I didn't complete. He must have given me half credit on that one problem since I DID do half of it, except just figure out the final answer. The class average was a 73.56. I'm just SO excited!! That means I MIGHT get an A in the class. I won't know till January the verdict of my FYS class, but I'm pretty sure I'll get at least an A in the class. I passed my CST class, so...it may have been a good first semester. Now, let's just see how calc II goes and I MIGHT just go for calc III!

Oh the funny thing at work? I got my birthday off at work, and I didn't ask for it or anything. That means I have to plan something for my birthday...But what?

Days till my 19th Birthday: 6
Days till Christmas: 10

Okay...breath me, breath...So...the state of my calc final you ask?! Well...I don't think I'd like to answer that question... It went okay...I did something REALLY stupid though. I started this word problem, and I looked at it and it didn't look right so I erased it and spent 30 MINUTES trying to figure it out. Well...I finally gave up and turned my final in with only doing half of the problem. I leave and look at my notes...and...guess what?! I had done the problem RIGHT when I first tried it! How STUPID did I feel?! REALLY stupid! But yeah, if I get everything else right in my final, hopefully, I'll get a high B or low A, but we'll see...

The meeting with my FYS teacher was okay. It was short. My teacher just basically said that if I get a good grade on my last paper I turned in (memoir paper) than I'll get an A+ in the class. I figured that was good enough for me!!

Work is going okay. I'm working full-time now (or as many hours that a "listed" part-time employee can get, without overtime). I'm just GLAD I ain't closing for the store! I had this lady call in the other day and ask what time we closed. I said "midnight" and she's all "midnight?" I'm all "yup, 12am" than she says, "You poor, poor souls..." It was kind of funny. The people coming in have been pretty good. No REALLY cranky people. I've had a few minor grumpy people, but *shrugs*

Rate of unpleasant customers:
Yelling Mad (you'd be amazed how many "yelling" customers we get...)
Mad
Cranky
Grumpy
Upset
Dirty look

There's this one customer I deal with almost everytime he comes in (he's even said it) and he gives me a LOT Of dirty looks and sometimes on the verge of being upset. I don't like dealing with him...There hasn't been yelling customers in a while. There have been product-throwing-customers though. They get mad and throw whatever it is back at us. THAT'S not fun. All-in-all it's goin' okay though. Oh! Our holiday bonus from the Borders Incorp. are...APPLES! Gala apples to be exact. Apparently last year it was oranges AND apples. We're all trying to figure out what we've done wrong since then... We're doing secret santa at work too. I have this guy...and I'm gonna get him a gift certificate to one of our malls. Why you ask? BECAUSE...he buys everything he likes for himself FIRST! So...I figured this was a safe bet. I'm gonna make it all pretty and such with candy and nice wrapping. It's a shame I don't personally know his g/f or her name. She goes to CSUMB, is all I know and I've passed her once while she was walking out of the store and I was walking in.

Oh...LotR...I'm DROOLING over the LotR: Return of the King (extended edition COLLECTOR's gift set). It comes with a Minas Tirith sculpture keepsake box...AND...an additonal DVD entitled _Lord of the Rings Symphony_. I LOVE the soundtracks to LotR, so yeah...that's what I want... We'll see how Christmas turns out in the money/gift certificate area. The Tuesday (14th of Dec) Foxtrot comic strip described me PERFECTLY!

Foxtrot comic strip that was me!

Should all look at that.

Any ways, gotta go. Write more later!

What do you all think of a LotR extended DVD MARATHON day? That's about 13 hours of movie! You'd have to start at 8am to get done by 11pm (bathroom breaks, food breaks, stretch breaks is what makes up for the 2 extra hours). Is that insane or what? And yet, I'm actually considering it...or maybe just the theatre versions...*thinks* I'll have to discuss that with my coworkers and friends.

OH!!

Days till LotR: Return of the King (extended DVD) comes out: TWO (2)!!!!!!

(btw, I hear that closing at Borders sucks...I guess leaving work at 12:30am, isn't much fun...*snickers* I haven't had to close yet, and I don't this week.)

Days till the end of the semester: ONE, ONE, ONE!!! (1)!!!
Days till my 19th birthday: 9
Days till Christmas: 13

*sings* Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way! Christmas is COMING!! It always seems like time SLOWs down when you have two weeks before Christmas...Oh well.

Tomorrow is my LAST, I say, LAST day of school!! *jumps for joy* I should be studying, atm, but I'm taking a MUCH needed break after 30 minutes of studying...*snickers* The thing I LOVE about math is that if you keep up for the whole semester it's not hard to study than for the final because the stuff you last learned you built up the whole semester. I'm just basically reviewing so I have all the theorems correct and making sure I have various derivatives and such correct.

So...my hectic day tomorrow. Wanna hear?

10am-12pm: Calc final
12:30pm-9pm: Work
9:40pm-10pm: meeting with one of my professors (my final for that class)

So...I have to have ALL my stuff for my meeting with my professor ready to go BEFORE tomorrow (this lovely portfolio, paper, and cover letter, is what's due), or before I leave for my calc final. Isn't that fun? After tomorrow, though, I'm going to be a FREE lady and I won't care WHAT happens! A blessed 5 weeks off! Well, almost 6, actually. Whatever, I'm gonna enjoy my time off. I'm gonna practice my ASL so I can get up to speed and relax, and work.

What that, I just remembered something else I have to fix for my meeting with my professor. MUST go study some more and work on whatever else.

Hasta

Days till the end of the semester: 3
Days till my 19th birthday: 11
Days till Christmas: 15

DUDES! I've got ABOUT an 83% in calc, at current standings...How TERRIBLE! I have to get a sold B on the final to even CONSIDER pulling an A in the class...*shudders* Not to mention I have to get a C or better, any ways, on the final to pass the class. He says we can't pass the class unless we get a C or better. That makes complete sense and it's not like I'm HOPING to get a C, but..l'm NERVOUS! What happens if I fail? If I get a B in this class...it's gonna be PAINFUL! Oh well, guess it's better than getting a C, but still! Any ways, I've had enough of ranting about my possible B in math.

Must go study!

Days till the end of the semester:4
Days till my 19th birthday: 12
Days till Christmas: 16

Did you know most of the songs on my iTunes are from movie soundtracks? Those are the only types of CDs I've bought lately. They're all from movies...

I'm getting NERVOUS about my calc final!! >.< Any ways, all for now!

Good luck to all those with finals next week!

Days till the end of the semester: 8
Days till my 19th birthday: 16
Days till Christmas: 20

ALMOST done!!

Did you know there's such thing as eggnog bread and eggnog ice cream? How weird is that?! And REAL eggnog has either rum or brandy in it.

Days till LotR the Extended DVD come out: 9
Days till Borders stays open to 12am: 4

Yes, yes, yes...LotR comes out SOON...and no, no, no to Borders staying open till 12am! They're trying to KILL us! Oh well...hopefully I work the days the most... Any ways...all for now!

AHAHAHA!!

Days till the end of the semester: 10
Days till my 19th birthday: 18
Days till Christmas: 22

Okay...I'm getting that let's-get-school-over-with-jitters! 10 hours of CLASS left! INCLUDING final hours (which is only 2 hours and 20 minutes). *snickers* Sucks to be you to all those who have a weeks worth of finals. Don't worry, though, I'll be joining you next semester in the lovely final parties...*grumbles* OH! The reason why the counting on the "days till the end of the semester" have changed, drastically, is because my LAST day of having to attend class or meet my professors is on Monday, the 13th, instead of the OFFICIAL last day of classes being Friday, the 17th. So I'm excited!! I'm almost done!!

Other than that...nothing has changed, at all, pretty much. *shrugs* No news can be good news, right?

My next biggest thing on books:
Horse racing books! I wanna get and read _Legacies of the Turf Vol I_ and _Legacies of the Turf Vol II_. They're COOL books! I also wanna get some books on handicapping, which is the word for "horse betting," essentially. I don't want to BET money or anything, but I wanna see how handicappers do try to pick the winners. It's FASINATING!

Any ways, gotta go!

Okay so my counting was off by a day....

Days till the end of the semester: 16
Days till my 19th birthday: 20
Days till Christmas: 24

HAPPY DECEMBER! Tis the season!

I passed my CST exam. So...That's all done. I don't really have a FYS final. It's just a portfolio and a reflection paper. And it was two weeks from yesterday (Monday) to my Calc I final. I can't believe it's only 2 weeks of school left and than I'm DONE with this semester!

Days till the end of the semster: 18
Days till my 19th birthday: 22
Days till Christmas: 26

Hrm...something about the Europeans and pickles...than again, there is some protest, I think, in the US against a pickle factory. *shrugs*

Prince Charles Visits Pickle Factory

This is my last article on pickles, btw.

Calling all British people...Can you PLEASE explain to me the hype over THIS?!

Branston Pickles

This is an interesting article for everyone else... And now, I don't want ANYONE to say that the US has some weird things goin' on...This is just plain...odd...

I Love Pickles

Everyone go there! That is a weird, yet interesting site. DRESS Mr. Pickle! There's a link close to the bottom in the activities section.

How did I come upon this website you ask? I did a search on "pickles" on google. Today at work someone asked for a kid's picture book called _Pickles to Pittsburgh_. I was flipping through it and was talking to two co-workers about pickles and they said something about someone sang a song about pickles, so I wanted to see if I could find it and typed in "pickles" into google and I came upon that website.

Oh my goodness...The beginning for countdown till school is over, my birthday, and Christmas has begun!!

Days left of school (including weekends): 21
Days left till my birthday: 25
Days left till Christmas: 29

The irony? They're all 4 days apart! *laughs* I just realized that right now.

Life is going okay, right now. Work is getting a bit hectic because of the holidays and such. Today, for a Friday, it felt like a Saturday. So I'm kind of scared what Saturday is going to be life? The Thursday before Christmas (Christmas is on a Sat, this year) our store goal for sales in one day from 9am-12am is around $85,000! Which is almost more than we've ever sold in ONE day. We've done $30,000 while I've been there, but this is just INSANE! No really grumpy people today at work, which was nice. One unhappy customer, but it wasn't bad.

Wednesday I had one hour that felt like the hour from hell. I won't explain it all. But to say the least, this lady was just really frantic on the phone for, from my view, NO apparent reason! And this guy had this difficult return. It's been okay, though.

School is goin' all right. I had "fall break" this week. I haven't been to school in a while so it feels weird, but I only have a few more weeks left! It's kind of nice, also, that I only have one final.

Next semester I'm going to be taking Chem I and Lab, Calc II and Lab, The Oceans, The Atmosphere, and ASL 1B for a total of 16 units. It's gonna suck for working. Because of the way my classes fell and I had NO control over making it a nicer schedule too. *shakes head* I have class in the morn M&W from 9am-12pm (Chem-M, Lab-W), TTH from 10-12pm (ASL), MW 4-6pm (Oceans-M, Atmosphere-W), TTH 4-6pm (Calc II), and finally F 10-12pm (Calc II lab). Essentially I can close for work, but it'd suck having to work till midnight and get up 8 hours later to go to school. The real only two days I have is Friday and Saturday. Oh well. *shrugs*

I think that's all for now. Write something later

I just wanna say...

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!

Ohh...*drools* Has anyone heard "Believe" by Josh Groban? Now there's a good song for the Holiday season! Btw, everyone should go see The Polar Express!! It was good, especially if you read the book before hand.

Hello...my name is Bethany and I'm a bookaholic *Applause from audience*

Yes, that's what I'm labeling myself... I like books...I have book withdrawls...it's just...TERRIBLE! Frankly, it never really happened until Borders came into the picture. I mean, I've ALWAYS loved books, but it's just...terrible now!

I'm in love with Sleeping Bear Press Alphabet Books now...They are the COOLEST things. You should type "Sleeping Bear Press Alphabet Books" into Amazon.com and see all the books. Some of the books authors live in Monterey. I got my dad the _H is for Homerun_ and it's autographed. I have _H is for Horse_. Geeze, I wonder why I got that one for myself? They're COOL though! They're NOT just "B is for Bit" or "H is for homerun," but more like a little poem and then on the outside of each page for the letter there's more information on other things concerning "horses" or "baseball." Like on the 'B' it talks the bits for horses and also the bridles and such. It's really cool. The illustrations are great too! I want now...B is for Bluegrass (one on Kentucky) and S is for Star (Christmas book, talks about the history).

So, yeah, that's my latest obsession at Borders... My last one was Tamora Pierce. I bought almost every book she's written... Well, that's not quite true. There's 8 books I haven't bought and won't. She has these series and they over lap! So the first set I read, but didn't buy was _Trickster's Choice_ and _Trickster's Queen_ and realized I was reading the books backwards, so I went and got the other ones and ended up buying the first two I read. It ended up being 14 books... *cough* I got them in mass market size though (smallest size). Didn't spend an arm and a leg either because of my discount.

It's probably a good thing my section of the store isn't Christian Fiction or pets or something...I think I'd be doomed if it was. The kids section is bad enough! Finding all these cool picture books and young adult books... Picture books are EXPENSIVE too. The hard back are rarely ever under $15. More-or-less they're around $16.95.

So far, though, my favorite book has come out to be _Daughter of the Forest_ by Juliet Marillier. I dunno if you can say it's my ALL time favorite, but it's at least, right now, my favorite. It's based off of an Irish folktale about a sister who's brother's turn into swans and only she can return them to being human. The Grimm brother's did a short thing on the same tale. It's a girly book, I will have to say, even though it's in the science fiction section. It's a science fiction romance, I guess. No gross stuff like sex or anything, but it's just one of those type of books, I dunno. I just like it a lot. The folktale is good too.

Another good series I keep trying to tell people about is the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde. Colin actually found those at Borders and now I'm hooked too. Very cleverly written books. It helps if you've read _Jane Eyre_ too, at least for the first book, and _Hamlet_, for the 4th book. Or if you're at least familiar with how the story goes in each one of those, especially the ending in _Jane Eyre_.

Books I'm most looking foreward to coming out: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling, Opal by Lauraine Snelling, and The Eldest by Christopher Paolini (I know the release dates on two of the three! No Harry Potter date, yet...)

DVDs I'm looking foreward to coming out: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (extended special edition), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (they're coming out the end of this year, yay!!)

Any ways, other than that...there's not much going on. Things are going as they normally do. Calc, FYS, and CST are fine.

Whelps, got hw to do. All for now!

Ohh...about my chatterbox, if you haven't noticed, it's been down for months now. I just won't bother with it anymore. I dun wanna have to keep going back to it to keep my account open, so I gave up on it. Just post comments or e-mail me.

Well then!

About my trip to Yosemite...
Picture link below

We left on Saturday in the morning and it was fine and the weather was nice, but we heard that it was suppose to rain, which sleeping in a tent and sleeping bag this late in the year isn't always a nice thing to hear when you're going to Yosemite!

Saturday we got all set up, our tent, yaddy, yaddy and what did it do?! It RAINED! Yes, it rained...most of that day and through the night. Luckily, our tent survived, though Kristi and I were on the slope going down the darn ground and our egg crates, that we sleep on, got wet. 3 out of 4 of them. Though, our other stuff, besides one small edge of Kristi's pillow stayed dry. Kristi and I came to the conclusion we've been spoiled. Egg crates not only provide comfort, which wasn't TOO bad considering no rocks, just hard, cold earth, but ALSO warmth from the ground! Thank goodness our sleeping bags are GOOD ones. I just bundled up as much as I could onto the egg crate most of the time after that.

Sunday wasn't TOO bad. It rained a bit off and on, but wasn't nearly as bad as Saturday. Kristi and I went bike riding and go our backs splattered a little with mud and stuff, but it was nice. Cold, but nice. I swear it never got warmer than 55 while we were there. Hoods, two layers of jackets/sweatshirts, and gloves was needed on our ride.

Monday was the nice day. Kristi and I rode to the Ahwahnee Hotel and spent hours in a big "great room" where there were couches, tables, fire place and stuff for people to sit in. Kristi and I did our work there. It's a BEAUTIFUL hotel. Ahwanhee Hotel website Should check the link out. There's some pictures spread out through the site when you click on the room rates or whatever else.

The low for Monday night was 34! That's what it was predicted at least...don't know the actual, I tell ya, though, it was COLD! We got a fire going though, which was nice since we didn't get on Sat or Sun. Monday night it started to rain somewhere early in the wee mornings of Tuesday, the day we left (today). It started snowing around 10am...and it wasn't just a little snow, it actually stayed on the ground after it fell. Talk about interesting...

To say the least, it was a nice trip. We ate good, thanks to my mom! But I had enough adventure with the elements after today... I am VERY thankful for being home!


Check out my fotki site for pictures at Yosemite! (No more prom ones)
Yosemite Pictures

OHHH!!! World Thoroughbred Breeder's Cup Championship is COMING UP!! This Saturday at 10am for people on the west coast on NBC! The Breeder's Cup is at Lone Star Park in Texas this year for the first time. I'm QUITE upset about Azeri (a mare) being put into the Classic instead of the Distaff where she'd compete against other mares and fillies instead of the male horses in the Classic. She's almost garaunteed to NOT win in the Classic, whereas in the Distaff she's almost garaunteed to WIN. Oh well...I'll just have to hope for a win by Pleasantly Perfect, and a 2nd or 3rd for Azeri, and a 2nd or 3rd for Funny Cide. I do NOT want Birdstone to be ANYWHERE near the top 4 in the Classic. Azeri and Pleasantly Perfect are going to be retiring after this final day of racing and the Breeder's Cup almost always determines the Eclipse Awards for '04. I want Smarty Jones for 3-year-old male and Azeri for Older Female and Pleasantly Perfect for Horse of the Year and older male. I wouldn't mind having Roman Ruler as 2-year-old male, but I dunno.

Okay, that's my rant about my upset for the day when I came home and found out about Azeri. For those that don't know, I'm really into horse racing as a bystander. OR if you wanna learn more go to bloodhorse.com or ntra.com or breederscup.com!

All for now!