The End of an Era: Borders

Monday was my final day for working for Borders. It was sad, but it was definitely time since our store (along with the company) is simply dying. As Chris says, I'm envied and hated by everyone at work. :P Envied because I got to leave; hated because I left. This week we've had a team from another store come in to help us get through our pallets of books we have sitting in our back warehouse (12 pallets?). Also, there's no incentive for me to transfer to another store too. The company doesn't care, why should I? On top of it, I really don't want to work my first two quarters (probably the year). Everyone recommends you not do that, if you can. I have enough loans to cover me through the years, so I am. Course, that means I am jobless! It feels weird since I'm also on leave from the aquarium too. I'll be going to school full-time and, by the way it sounds, I'll need all that time! I will miss my employee discount (33% off books/CDs, 20% DVDs, 10% mags), the ability to check out books from the store (hardcover and large paperbacks), and keeping up with the latest and newest books (almost every book I own I bought from Borders during my time there). I will also miss my co-workers who I got along with and had fun with. But, for all of that, I don't regret leaving or really miss it. It was definitely time.

For kicks and giggles, I thought I'd relive some of my more "memorable" customers/job requests from the past 5 years.

Customer #1: Adoption Lady - This Asian lady came into work to look up books about infanticide (think genocide, but for infants). First off, I've never been asked that at work before and I told her we didn't have anything in store. Then she started to tell me why she wanted it. Basically, because China has the population issue and only one child thing, there's been a lot of infant killings and all that. She was reading about it. She then asked me for another book, which we had in store. She said it was about these girls being adopted from China. I told her it sounded interesting because I'm adopted - WRONG thing to say! She immediately wanted to know where I was adopted from (I told her) and the next thing I know, I'm getting a lecture about how adopted children have suppressed rage and anger issues. I tried to tell her I don't think this is true and I get an ear full about how she adopted two kids from China (her daughter was found along the road) and she proceeds to tell me all about her two kids and their lives. (I feel like I know her kids problems really well...) She goes back to the anger issue and says, "I think I have some authority in this matter, considering I adopted two kids." I'm standing there thinking, "no." I tried to loose her 3 times too, but she'd find me after I helped a customer. FINALLY I got rid of her because I said, "I really need to work." And she said, "yeah, I have to go." *rolls eyes*

Customer #2: Fence Phone Lady - One of the funniest phone conversations I've had. Went something like this.

Me: Thank you for calling Borders in Sand City. This is Bethany. How may I help you?
Customer: Hi. What kind of borders do you have?
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: I'm looking for some borders for my backyard. Like a small fence.
Me: Uh...you called Borders. We're a bookstore.
Customer: Oh! I'm sorry! I'm new in town and I didn't know.

She must have lived somewhere where Borders didn't exist. :P

Customer #3: Phone Complaint Guy - Working at a bookstore, you get a lot of complaints and some of them are off the wall and some of them are valid. In this case, it was completely stupid and happened my 2nd to last day at work. We were busy and the phone was ringing off the hook (pretty normal these days) and I was walking by a customer to help another customer and paged over our walkie talkies for someone to please answer the phone. The customer I walked by said, "Yeah, that phone is really annoying. Turn it off." I said, "I'm sorry sir, we're really busy." He said, "Well, it has the most annoying ring tone I've ever heard." As I'm walking away from him, I say, "I'm sorry, but the other ring tone option we have is even more annoying than this one, if you can believe it." I heard him mumble something, but I ignored it. Really? A phone ring tone? You're going to complain about that?! Especially when you're reading a book in a retail store, for free. Uh-huh...

Customer #4: Needy Customers - There are some instances where I think I work in a information center rather than a bookstore. Here a few examples:

Interior Designer: This guy comes into work saying he's moving into a new place and wants some ideas on what colors go together. His bedspread is a dark red color and he wanted to know what looked good with it. So I take him to the interior design section and pointed out some books for him (paint books). It's pretty standard that when you get something vague like that, you help the customer find a book that suits them or enough of an idea of what to look for that they can continue to shop on their own. Well, this guy was "helpless." He stood there and let ME flip through the books, asked ME what I thought, and when I told him THIS was a good book, he wouldn't take it! So, basically, I was a 15 minute interior designer. Told the guy which colors looked good together (what books were good also) and he walked out of the store not touching a book. *grumble, grumble*

Legal Advice: We get this phone call from this gentleman and he wants to know what the current bankruptcy law is. I have no clue (am I supposed to know everything?!) and I'm trying to find books that'll help him, but, in the mean time, he's getting mad. I come back saying, "I have no clue" and he asks for the manager. Uh-huh, swell. Luckily, the supervisor who talked to him actually DID know the new bankruptcy law. Can't win them all.

Personal Shopper: We love phone calls that go like this, "Hi, I'm looking for books on gemstones. Do you have any?" We say, "yes, we do. Is there one in particular you're looking for?" "No, but I'm looking for a book with this gem in it, can you go tell me which books have it?" So we go, check them out, get them all, tell them every title and the price and they go, "Great! Can you put <blank # of books> on hold for me? I'll come pick them up later." Honestly, can't YOU come into the store and look at them yourself?!

Personal Reader: Do you realize how many customers come to Borders (a bookstore) and then ask us to look something up or read something because they forgot their reading glasses? Honestly, I can't tell you how often it happens. "Will you, please? I forgot my glasses at home. *small chuckle*"

Customer #5: Need help, but not for books - Funny how it works, but working at Borders, you really have to have a general understanding of just about everything.

Directions: I can't tell you how many times I've had to give directions to people to Best Buy, the Aquarium, one particular building at CSUMB, Carmel, etc. It's amazing. We get a lot of people asking us to give directions on how to get to us (that's fine), but people will stop in our store to specifically ask for directions on how to get somewhere. Luckily for us, we sell maps! Not that we sell that many that way, but it helps.

Where to buy something: If we don't carry something in particular (like a game, globe, video game, dvd, cd, etc), we have to have back-up locations on where customers may find something like that - games: Target, globe: Target, video games: Best Buy, DVD/CD: Borders.com/Amazon.com, on-line, book weights: office supply store, etc.

The Kindle: We sell the Sony e-Reader at work. The Kindle is an exclusive amazon.com product (as they made it). I have to know the difference between the two, the pluses/minuses, about how much the books on-line cost, etc, etc, etc.

Customer #6: Germ Lady: I actually haven't seen her in a year or so, but she used to be a frequent customer at Borders. She has a phobia of germs. So she'd have you take her credit card out of a plastic bag, while she held the bag; she'd have us barely touch the bags/books when we handled them; she'd wipe down any chair she sat in and then leave her wipe in the crack of the chair for us to pick up. Oh yes, she was a joy to have in the store...

Customer #7: Russian Dictionary Guy: He got this name because he was first known for buying and returning Russian Dictionaries. He's since then moved on to other things, but we're pretty sure he was scamming us with the dictionaries at first. Now, we're all VERY wary of him and he STILL frequents the store a lot (I saw him last Sat). He also likes to take advantage of any new cashier. He'll purposefully try and get them to ring him up and then try to confuse them into giving him some discount or whatever. I've caught him a few times trying this and I get to walk over (the employee usually gives a "huh?" to him) and tell him the store policy, once again. He never pushes it when an oldie tells him what's-what too.

Well, I guess for now that's where I will leave it. Maybe I'll reminisce again about Borders another time, but - for now - that'll do. :)

Biiikkkeee!

I bought my bike today! I've been looking for sometime, but haven't found anything either within my price range or something I really liked. I finally found a hybrid bike I liked by Gary Fisher (the Tiburon, ironic since that's the model name of Chris's car!), but the cheapest I could find was $400, not within my price limit. Last night I finally decided to just bite the bullet and buy a bike I liked since it'll be my main mode of transportation in Santa Barbara and Gary Fisher is a good name brand. Chris said we'd go to Bobcat Bikes in Salinas today to check them out since they carried bikes and it was the last place around here we hadn't checked (we checked Aquarian - expensive, some other one in Monterey - expensive-ish, and REI - expensive).

They were nice, I liked them. They let me ride 3 bikes (with Chris staying at the place as collateral - LoL) around the neighborhood. (I think I saw 8 cops on my 3 rides around the block - one pulled over a car too.) I tried a Specialized (the brand name) 17" women's mountain bike, a 15" Specialized men's mountain bike ($50 cheaper than the women's one), and a Trek 16" men's road bike. I originally was going to get a mountain bike, then decided on a hybrid, then was going to get a mountain bike on Amazon.com because it was cheaper, and then decided to go back to a hybrid once I found the Tiburon, and went to Bobcat Bikes with the idea of getting a hybrid. As luck would have it, I ended up leaving with the Specialized 17" women's mountain bike. LoL It's a $400 bike with a front suspension and, I think, 21 speeds. It has v-brakes (normal bike brakes, not disc). Chris likes disc brakes better (and they are supposed to be better), but they cost more and, I tell you, it's not easy to find a bike with disc brakes. It was my original intention to get them and that went out the door (along with my original price range of $150 for a bike...) once I realized how hard it was to get them. I also decided to go with the mountain bike because once I got into shape (boy, oh boy, do I need to get into shape), I can go mountain biking with Chris. :) Granted, my butt will hurt a lot (having no back suspension - called a hardtail bike), but it'll be fun. Chris isn't impressed with the shock I have (urban...soemthing...), which is about the lowest brand of shock you can have, but Chris asked the guy why they don't use rock shocks on the bike. The guy told him it made the bike cheap. :P Chris was concerned about how long the shock would actually last me and the guy said if I went biking in Fort Ord 5-days a week, it'd be a problem, but since I'm mostly using it as a road bike, it'll be okay.

To say the least, I bought a nicer bike instead of a Huffy or Schwinn because this bike will last me. Also, Chris is a biker and knows stuff about bikes and he probably wouldn't go near me and my bike with a 10' pole if I bought a Huffy or Schwinn. :P I also bought the bike in-store rather than on-line because I actually got to TEST the bike and check the height and all that. That was, I must admit, a lot of value right there for me. I'm kind of in a funky range for height of bikes and not all bikes are quite the same, so it was nice to know this bike worked for me. On top of it, Specialized on-line sells the bike for about $450 and some other places sell it for a bit more. So Bobcat Bikes really did have the best price. It's also the 2010 model.

Earlier today I was laughing because I told Chris, "Goodness. You got me into gaming; I know stuff about cars now; and now I know about bikes!" Chris says, "You're moving up in the world!" *rolls eyes* I told him I'll have to teach him stuff about horses and he says no because I'll eventually need to buy a car and I'm biking now so I need to know about bikes. I guess he has a point. LoL (He did read the first 4 Harry Potter books for me, though. :P ) From what I learned from Chris in regards to brands, it goes Huffy, Schwinn, Mongoose, Trek, Specialized, then Gary Fisher. Huffy/Schwinn being close and Trek/Specialized also being close.

I now need to buy a bike light, bike seat cover, bike mini pump, and bike lock. *sigh* I'm bleeding money. Why in the world did I think I could quit Borders on the 14th? LoL

My bike on Specialized's webpage. I have the brown stripe one. I think the picture is of the 15" one because the bar on my bike doesn't bend at all. It's perfectly straight. Chris and I found out there's a bend in some of the bikes to enable them to be "lower," but still support you when you stand.

Grad school roomie and apartment

I got my room assignment and roommate last week! My roommate is also a first year MESM student, which I'm very thankful for. It'll be nice to know someone immediately and understand a little of what I'm going through. I've found from CSUMB that rommates in different majors didn't always understand what ESSP students were going through with their workload and all that. So this will be nice.

I have my address for my apartment now and it's kind of weird, but I have one address for USPS mail and another for UPS, DHL, FedEx, and other independent carriers. Kind of weird...Must be how the city lines are drawn. My USPS address is in Santa Barbara, whereas my independent carrier address is in Goleta. The street number and apartment number are the same, just the cities and zips are different.

Other than that, there's a lot of e-mails bouncing around between MESM students, which is kind of nice. It seems like we're all going to get along really well. So I'm glad and excited about that.

My first registration pass starts at 3:45pm on Sept the 3rd. So I have to register ASAP to get the class times I want (we all get into the classes we want, just the times are different for labs). Most importantly, other than the times I want (I've already mapped out the times I want...LoL), I can't get my financial aid till I register for classes! My apartment fees and first rent is due the 15th of Sept and, though I'll get the money back, I'd rather get it deducted immediately from my financial aid rather than my pocket and then have to wait to get reimbursed.

I'm starting to look at textbooks on-line (the recommended ones to look over and one class's required texts) and I'm also going to need to start some writing exercises or something. My writing has deteriorated over the last year and the last thing I really want to do in the winter quarter is the writing workshop (I'm doing the no-credit calc and statistics workshops this fall quarter ON TOP of my 15 class units...).

My last day at Borders is the 31st of August. My last day at the Aquarium is the 30 of August. My shift is going to go out to dinner after shift on the 30th to have a "going away" dinner for me and for another shiftmate who is leaving for St. Andrews in Scotland for college! No clue about work, but I have another week before I leave to hang out with them.

Public Enemies

Chris and I saw Public Enemies yesterday. It's a 2.5 hour movie that, really, doesn't need to be 2.5 hours. It could have been fine at 2 hours or maybe even a little less. It is a shoot 'em up movie, so if you don't want to see practically everyone die, don't see it. Then again, it is a 1930's bank robber movie, so I suppose it's a little more expected. The cinematography was interesting. Most movies have that "touched up" feeling and not that "raw" film look to them. This one at times had a raw look to it, like certain parts they didn't want to touch up at all. They also did a lot of following people around with the camera (obviously not on a stand). So it kind of had a weird documentary/film feel to it at times (not often). The shooting scenes were good, though sometimes long. One in particular I started to zone out in the middle of and started thinking, "those are fake guns that have blanks in them. Look at all the light coming out of the end." Christian Bale did a good job, as did Johnny Depp, but depth lacked in this film. Character development was a little short too. Overall, though, it was enjoyable. Glad we went and saw it (especially as a matinee and not night), but it could have been a  DVD rental movie. B

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Continuing my summer movie reviews...

Chris and I saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs the day it opened (last Wednesday). It was really good. I wouldn't say it's much better (or worse) than the previous two, but I laughed and it was a good film. It might have been a bit better than the previous one (the meltdown), but I've thoroughly enjoyed the entire franchise. All the voice actors are back, which was nice. They're just as good as before and Buck (the one-eyed Weasel) is a great new character. The story pace was a good family film and Scrat is still after his acorn. The film could set-up nicely for a 4th film, so it'll be interesting if they decide to a 4th. I liked it enough that I'd see a 4th Ice Age film. B

Chris and I have a good chance of seeing Public Enemies this week.

Summer Movies

My summer movie list, thus far:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Good CG and action, but the storyline is still subpar to most films. I will say, Chris said this too, we found it more memorable than the first one. I enjoyed the first one, but it's one of those borderline films on whether you really liked it or not. This one I enjoyed, still kind of borderline, but I liked it better. I may buy the series in DVD when they come down in price. I like Bumblebee the best in this movie (I was more upset over Bumblebee in the first movie than anyone/thing else...). There are corny parts in the movie (as a Michael Bay film must have) and its 2.5 hours length can be felt sometimes through the last hour (I think it should have been 2 hours), but it did okay for me. B/B-

The Proposal - Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds...who'd of thought they'd be a dynamic duo? Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job of keeping up with Sandra Bullock. The comedic timing and their acting were great (I still chuckle at certain scenes when I think about them). I laughed so hard during some parts I was crying. The theater was hysterical sometimes too. It's a romantic comedy, but it's the type you feel like you want to/can tell everyone about to go see (which I do). Chris even enjoyed it and recommended it to his friends and mom. The storyline isn't anything original (your normal romantic comedy outline), but Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds definitely make this film. So far, it's been my favorite of the summer and I await its release in DVD. A

UP - Is Pixar ever going to make a dump of a film? I hope not (Toy Story 3 2010!!), but their record is amazing. All I knew about UP before I went to see it is it's about an old man, something about balloons lifting his house up and a boy who's stuck on his porch. Pixar, though, has a good enough record that I knew I wanted to see it and/or own it (even if I never saw it first). Chris and I went and saw it and it just touched something sweet and tender in my heart. Chris didn't prefer it and would have been perfectly fine if he never saw it (it is definitely a PG family film), but it was just a sweet film. I think it has something to do with the fact the main character is older and you get a flash through his life in the first 15 minutes of the movie. The overall storyline was well done and the dogs in the movie are hilarious! Chris and I still joke about them. They were definitely the comedians in the movie. The boy in the film is a nice contrast between the other two characters in the movie who are older. He also brings something new to the main character too. For a sweet, tender, sometimes action packed, family movie...this is definitely a go. A-

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - I liked the first one (I own it on DVD), so I wanted to see this second one. Plus, I'm starting on a Amy Adams kick (I really like her in Enchanted and thought she did a really good job in Doubt). It was enjoyable, though somewhat similar to the first one.  I also can't help but keep saying that one line from the Egyptian dude, "I have come BACK to life!" (It was in the trailer.) I liked Amy Adams in the film, some of the costumes annoyed me (plastic for the Egyptian Pharoh), but it kept my attention. Overall good film and you have to like Octavius and Jed. I'd probably buy it on DVD once it drops below $20. B

Terminator Salvation - Chris's hero, Christian Bale, starred in this film (like no one knows that considering he had one of his famous rages on set and was called on it). I'm not a big Christian Bale fan, he's not bad, but he's not fantastic in my mind either. Anyway, this was Chris's summer pick so we had to go see it. We went with a bunch of co-workers (like 10?) and it was a good action packed film. I like Marcus in the film (he's the center of the film). It also asked an interesting question about what really makes us human (Marcus is a machine, but he has a human heart and thinks he's a human). So it looked at the parallels between Marcus, humans, and the Terminators. It also touched upon second chances. Christian Bale was a really good John Connor (he has that "rallying" type of personality that'll make anyone go to battle). There is one thing at the very end that everyone at work and I laughed about (it's not possible even if the movie takes place a decade later - everything else is pretty "realistic"). Chris was a little affronted we all laughed about it. Overall, it was a good, clean action film and Chris wants to see it again and I wouldn't mind too. B

Angels and Demons - I don't remember a whole lot of the first one, but having seen Da Vinci Code, I wanted to see what this one was all about. I actually liked this one better than the first one. It was a bit more suspenseful and had a twist ending to it. I like those clue finding type of movies/books (National Treasure anyone?) so I also enjoyed that aspect of the film. It was enjoyable seeing it, but I wouldn't see it again because there's just something about this film that creeps me out when I think about some of the deaths in the film. Though, I will say, I do like Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor in the film. They did a good job. B

Star Trek - Not being a Trekkie or really watching the original TV series, I may not have seen the movie in theaters. It wasn't high on Chris or my movie watching list. We (Dad, Mom, Chris, and I) went on Mother's Day to see this since my Dad had seen it already and liked it. I must say, for summer films I've seen so far, it has the best combo of everything: good acting, costumes, storyline, CG, and action. I enjoyed it a lot, but it gives me the feeling of a "family film." That "content" feeling after seeing it (not a "heart racing" feeling like an action). Even though I liked it, I don't know if I'd ever want to see it again, though. Not sure why, but that's just my feeling. I was content seeing it once and glad I did, but I don't need to see it again. A-

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - What can I say about Wolverine...Other than Hugh Jackman being an excellent Wolverine, I don't know what else to say. It was a good action film, but kind of lame in the line of X-Men. (The X-Men series feels like it's never quite lived up to what it could really be.) There was a bad blue screen moment at the end of the movie and some CG I thought could have been done a little better, but it wasn't totally horrible. It was a good film to watch, but I wouldn't want to see it again. Though, I did have an urge to rewatch the X-Men movies again because I now understand a little more about Wolverine's background. At work, a lot of the guys complained about how horrible they botched some of the characters in the movie, but (for someone who hasn't read/seen the comics) it was fine. B-

Upcoming films I'd like to see: Public Enemies, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (!!!!!!!!!!), Julie and Julia, The Time Traveler's Wife (based on the book)

Arrival Date for UCSB

Not a whole lot is going on. Borders is getting worse by the day as an employee who has been there for 5 years. It's a struggle to get through each day there. Mentally, not just the normal "what a rough day." When you get to the point that you HAVE to drag yourself into work...you know it's time to quit. I need to hold out just a few more months, though. The end of this month I'll know whether I won the scholarship or not too. June 24th is when the winners will be notified. Winners get a letter. Non-winners get an e-mail. So...let's hope I win! $10,000 would be fantastic (covers half my fees or my year rent), but I'll get the $2,500 too. :P I'm not picky! LoL

In other news, my mandatory arrival date for UCSB is September 14th (2.5 weeks before classes start). Classes start on a Thursday...Anyway, it's a 2.5 week long orientation. *rolls eyes* It's literally scheduled from 9am-5pm M-F and one Saturday from 9am-12pm for the Calc review. I was planning to do the calc thing, but I definitely will do it now since it's scheduled into our long days as it is. I also get to take a writing assessment and workshop in those days too. Joy, but a good thing since I've been out of school for a year and have picked up some bad habits. The nice thing about my schedule in the Fall (first year is planned out for you) is I have lectures only from 9:30am to noon, but I have labs/discussions in the afternoon. If I can pull it off (missing colloquia and one stat review class) I can leave at noon on Thursday if I wanted to go home for the weekend. The scary class will be our 2.5 week class. It's taught 4 days a week AND has a lab/discussion for three meetings. To say the least, I'm going to be swamped. Between 16 units, stat review (1 month, twice a week, no credit), career workshop/speakers (twice a week), and colloquia (twice a week), I'm doing something for the program from 9am to 5pm most days of the week. The only plus is it's only M-TH. Nothing on Friday! I'm happy about that. I'm planning to do my lab discussion for that 2.5 week class at 8:30am, but it's only 3 times. I think I can deal with it. :P

With that...I must be off!