Autumn Sky

You can’t imagine how liberating it feels to have a job, even if it’s only part time. Working for your own pay check is simply wonderful. However, I must inform you never to work in retail. I’m sure there are much worse jobs such as being Sunshine Kids’ custodian or maybe the poor soul who scrapes gum off of the bottom of Wal*Mart’s toilets. But short of those jobs; never work in children’s retail if you can help it.

It’s not my co-workers or the environment. My work is more invigorating than most, nay it’s the customers themselves. Not all the customers mind you, some are nice and even fewer are down right pleasant. It’s not even the soccer moms who make a salesperson’s job slightly intolerable, it’s the mom who wants the hoodie in the biggest size (which means it’s in the back of the very top rack) then upon further inspection (and you making yourself look like an idiot using a giant claw to retrieve the hoodie of choice) deciding not to buy it after all. This my friends, has not happened once twice or even three times, it’s happened four just in the two days of my employment at Osh Kosh. My outlet mall Osh Kosh B’Gosh has to be the most well stocked store I have EVER been to. It also has possibly the best customer program in the history of man kind. I’ve never seen a bigger selection, better price, cleaner store, and more friendly salespeople than at this particular children’s outlet store. Still, no matter how hard my co-employees seem to work it doesn’t seem good enough for that very explicit group of parents who want that last pink skirt on the rack but in a size up. Like I said before, it is an excellent place to work please excuse my ability (nay, superpower) to exaggerate. I’m very happy to be working at a place with A/C and nice co-workers.

I’m sure you’re wondering when I’m going to talk about my vacation. My last three or so posts have been horrendous, non-spellchecked, and rushed. I have not had the time or resources to return my beautiful comments as well, again, sorry. My cruise was right before Hurricane Ernesto I haven’t been watching the news so I don’t know how serious it was, but I was in the area that the hurricane attacked. I was suspecting my aunt and uncle taking me on a cruise when they forced me to pack for this surprise vacation, still when we pulled into Galveston’s bay in front of two humongous ships it was still a huge surprise.

We ended up staying on Deck 8 (our cruise had 11 decks). We had our own balcony (I took loads of pictures.) Cramming all of the wonderful activities, people, and food that you encounter on the cruise alone is hard work. First all talk about the food. There were three restaurants, five bars/lounges, and a Ben & Jerry’s on the ship. The Windjammer was the official buffet of the ship. I’m using the term buffet loosely, the food was displayed buffet style but it was so extravagant yet casual. The food was kept hot, everything was clean, and there were so many people in staff just in the one buffet. There was also the Solarium which was an Egyptian style sanctuary with a sun roof, a quiet pool, hot tubs, a smoothie bar, and a fast food area oh I’m sorry did I forget to mention that all food, water, tea, and coffee was free? Then there was Edelweiss, the fancy dining hall with one billion courses and strangers who sat at your table. Oh and 24 hour room service free of charge. Right before I went on the cruise I saw an episode of Montel (love the man) about how evil cruises are. If you vacation with Royal Caribbean, have no worries. Everything was clean, wonderful, and extravagant. There were art seminars, beauty spas, rock walls, a library, a gym, internet cafes, just endless things to do. One midnight there was a chocolate buffet yes; everything was made out of chocolate. There was a casino and one of the biggest things I adored A BROADWAY THEATER. Oh yes, with either Broadway plays or comedy acts every night. There was also a half of a deck that was a mall where you could by clothes, drinks, souvenirs, jewelry, and everything else.

I must not forget to mention the absolute hottie of an art auctioneer. Picture Alan Cumming just not as gay looking. He had a Scottish accent, decked himself in full Scottish garb for formal night, and I fell in love with him when he suggested throwing the screaming children (who were some decks above us in the Centrum during his auction) overboard one by one. I sincerely wanted to take a picture and show him to you (cough Meli). It was seven days of being treated like royalty. What really struck me about the cruise was the marvelous and multi-cultured staff. These people were the most varied people from around the world; they were so polite and courteous. Even the man who cleaned our room was so absolutely wonderful and kind. It wasn’t this one fact that shocks me so much as the fact that nearly everyone on board were so rude to these people for absolutely no reason at all except for the fact that they were either drunk or just plain, worthless snobs.

I’ll touch briefly on our stops on land. We only spent a few hours at these places and I’ll probably go into more detail about them later, but for the sake of time (“and sanity.” - Red Eye) I’ll cut it short. In order we stopped at Key West, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Key West seemed a lot like my hometown area. There were lots of little shops and little places to visit, it also reminded me a bit of San Antonio. Grand Cayman was such a culture shock. You could see through the water, the air was clean, and the shops were so small. I thought my hometown was small, but looking around now at the huge Target, Payless, Home Depot, shops like these makes the destinations in other countries seem very, very small. Grand Cayman was a very sea worthy, pirated town. I never actually thought Islanders said “Hey mon” but they do a LOT. Cozumel was very different from Grand Cayman; there were even smaller shops EVERYWHERE with extremely cheap and almost rampant sterling silver. The salesmen were good, begging for you to visit there stores. Even though I’m not rich (at all), I felt so wealthy compared to the natives in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I know I was supposed to enjoy my trip as a tourist and I did, but I can’t help but be left with the feeling that everything here back in America is so overly extravagant and unnecessary.

I’ll be back full time on Wednesday. Farewell for now, I promise to comment back soon.