6/1-6/5
Monday came and went like it never was. I don’t remember a thing about Monday. The routine remained intact up until Tuesday morning. And that’s when my week really started. Everything was the same until the car started to move. And then she told me she may be going to Arizona. Her dad, my grandfather was in the hospital. Having been rushed to ER sometime around 3am due to unbearable fiery chest pains, I thought for sure he had a heart attack. By looking at him you would think he was frail, and so in my mind this was going to be it. Time stood still. I tried not to think about it but an old band mate and friend of his had just passed a few weeks prior and it only seemed logical that he would not be too far off. My thoughts were far too morbid and so I tried to focus on work, though it did little in the way of distracting me. Toggling between internet, email and excel spreadsheets, I just could not focus. I did something I have never done since I was a child. I called my grandmother. The sound of her voice launched a baseball sized lump of emotion to the back of my throat, and I tried to hide my fear as she maintained her strength. How was it possible? How could she be so calm and even a little humorous when her husband could very well die? As bad as that was it wasn’t the worst part. She proceeded to tell me that she was praying to go first. That she didn’t want to be the one that was left to deal with picking up the pieces. And then the tears began to wet my cheeks. How could she even think such a thing let alone consider now the appropriate time to tell me that she was well ready to pass on. I tried to put a smile in my voice as she told me how much more stressful my aunt was being for her. A known cry baby, she was not the one you wanted to have around in the time of crisis. The upside to all of this, for my granny at least, was that she could run every machine in the house at the same time. She had come home t o shower and change, but before heading back to my popops she would be running the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and A.C. all at the same time. That brought a true smile to my face. She was amazing; could I be as strong as she was? There had to be some trace of her toughness in my genes somewhere. Hopefully I will be able to locate just at the moment I need it most. For now I would rely on her so long as she was willing to share. I told her I loved her before hanging up the phone. I was unsuccessful at trying to focus on work the rest of the day. I had to start over Wednesday already two days behind, during month end. Not good for me. It was easier though since we all got word that not only had my grandfather not had a heart attack but that he was in perfectly good health! How that was possible I have no idea but I was grateful none the less. It was back to comp reports, and top ten’s for me. Markdowns were taken two weeks prior which meant adding an additional report to my deck. It wasn’t such a big deal since by this point my reports were set up to calculate themselves for the most part. It took me half a day to get them all done and ready to be published.
The latter part of my days this week and in the upcoming weeks are being spent in our mock store down stairs. This means 3-4 hours of standing, opening boxes, sorting through samples, merchandising the collection and getting everything entered into what will become my assortment sheet. I am so grateful every time this buy season comes around, that I actually have experience in building assortments that make sense, and merchandise as a collection. Having learned the importance of balancing customer choices, trend relevance, and customer base, this part of my job is the most appealing and the easiest. Merchandise is what I breathe, and it’s not about the single piece that makes me crazy, but the way each piece depends on the next in order to speak a singular, cohesive message of style, and culture to each customer that walks by and in our stores. I’ve learned that people do not shop for tees, or jeans, or shoes, but an image; a sense of style. Customers depend on retailers to tell them what they need, what they want to look like. A retailer who can’t do that won’t succeed – so it’s my job to make sure that the product I selected does just that. Based on the feedback from the men’s and women’s merchandise managers in our design department, I’m on track. A job well done is always gratifying. Now I just have to make sure that my assortment fits into what is usually a very tiny box (for buyers anyway) called an Open To Buy. Buyers always want more than we can afford, luckily I never have a problem cutting unnecessary fat out of a collection. I will deal with that when I get there though.
I have got to get some sleep – though my body seems to have adjusted well to this 4 ½ hours routine thing I’ve got going on. Between my kids, work, blogging, my man and I there just isn’t enough time in the day.
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