Retail Lessons

          Here are a few lessons I have learned in my 15 years of retail experience.

1. Some customers are so crazy it's easier to give them what they want and get them to leave.
2. Customers think everything should be on sale all the time or that they can haggle to get a discount.
3. If it's not tied down it will be stolen. Even if it's tied down it MIGHT be stolen.
4. Grapes have no value and can be eaten freely while shopping.
5. All electric carts will suddenly run out of power on the back aisle of the store or at the bottom of the parking lot.
6. Some coworkers are aware they are paid by the hour and will do as little as possible in that hour.
7. Thanksgiving deals are not worth the chaos in stores. Stay home and shop online.
8. Nothing ever goes back into a box as neatly as it came out of a box. Customers will want you to open a box to verify it contains all the parts but will want to purchase a closed box.
9. If you see something you want, buy it right then. When you come back it will be out of stock or discontinued.
10. Stay in your original checkout line. If you change to one that seems faster, it will have an issue that makes it take forever.
11. People get turned on by weird stuff. Some will touch or expose themselves in public.
12. If bathrooms are unavailable, people will go anywhere that is available.
13. Customers will swear that you moved items for the sole purpose of confusing them.
14. Apparel sizes mean nothing. The only way to tell if an item will fit, whether it be a t-shirt or prepackaged underwear, is to unfold it and hold it up to your body.
15. If you decide you aren't get enough stuff to bother with a cart, you will be dropping items all the way back to the front to go get a cart or check out.
16. Customers will make any mess or cause you any inconvenience and justify it by saying it's job security for you.
17. Nothing is actually non-refundable. It just requires a big enough manager's approval.
18. Blizzards, loss of power, bomb threats, and child labor all are meaningless when a customer "has to get" their items. They will refuse to evacuate the store. They will refuse to go to the register until they have everything they "need." They will even give birth in the store for fear of not being able to purchase Newborn diapers before they go to the hospital.

          These are just a few retail lessons I have learned. Feel free to discuss your experiences with them or other lessons learned in the comments below.

I'm Literally Terrified to Watch Thrones

           Game of Thrones is somehow one of those shows that has captured my heart! I know that the books and the show are known for brutally killing characters and doing the unthinkable. Still I can't wait for each new episode. It's like a horror movie with lots of gore, you know the horror to come but can't look away!
          How do they trap you into liking characters that you know are going to be wiped out?  Why is it that some of our favorite characters are the ones we hate? How is it that you can overlook the worst flaw and decisions of the characters you like the most?
          So tonight with half the nation or more, I will be on the edge of my seat to see what happens with Jon Snow and Daenerys. But I fear the worst. I foresee see death, stolen babies, and lots of tears! With just a couple of episodes left in this last season, I foresee beloved characters dropping like flies. If anyone makes it out alive to take the throne, we will be lucky. Theories all over the internet guess who will live and who they will love. But in the fight against the white walkers I am unsure if any will live. We may see a white walker king. There maybe be no physical throne left for anyone to sit upon. One internet theorist, matpat from Film theory, says that humanity doesn't deserve to live. He says we have fought petty battles instead of coming together to face a threat. In a sense he is correct. Although it is hard to think that about characters we have come to love as unworthy of life. 
          I plan to have lots of tissue and my hubby to cling to for tonight's episode. I just wonder if when the show ends if I will be a sad, pessimistic, and depressed mess. If everyone I love dies will I regret watching the show in the first place? In a way watching these characters die will be like mourning the loss of an actual loved one. I just hope I am comforted by the time we got to spend together.
          Either way, however the show ends, Games of Thrones will be talked about for years to come. George R.R. Martin has certainly left a legacy in this world!     

I believe life begins...

         Well I believe that there is potential life anytime an egg is fertilized. But that is not technically life. Still I have heard people say that IVF, in vitro fertilization, wastes life because each unused embryo has unique DNA. I don't think that embryos should be wasted. They all have the potential for life and that is precious and amazing. But they are not life yet. Also fertilized eggs in women do not always lead to a pregnancy. Some pass through the body. Some are unfortunately attached in the Fallopian tubes instead of the uterus. I believe these fertilized eggs were potential life. If my beliefs on life were purely science based, I would be very upset about the loss of these potential lives. However, instead I see them as disappointing and their loss as a shame but not as death or murder. This view is because I have a religious view of life. Although it is not the typical pro-life view that life starts at conception.

          I believe that life actually starts at implantation. You see I believe that God gifts a mother with a child. I believe that he has a divine purpose for everyone that lives. I believe that implantation is how God indicates that this is now life; that he has now bestowed a soul upon the baby growing in your womb. 

          You see embryos with unique DNA, that is something man has managed to figure out a way to engineer. But even after you put embryos in a woman with IVF, only God can cause them to implant and grow. He is still the only giver of life! Those tubal births and passed eggs, those seem like mistakes, and I don't believe God makes mistakes! 

          Some people who I tell my beliefs, ask me how I feel about miscarriages. Are those mistakes? Were they alive? Were they a child sent by God? No child is ever a mistake! Yes they were sent by God! We may not understand why they were only with us for a short time, and only in the womb, but they still were here for a divine purpose. They were still a gift to the mother!

          Thus like all the other pro-life people I believe that abortion is murder. You can't allow even a 6 week abortion. In most cases by the time a woman knows she is pregnant, implantation has already occurred. That pregnancy is no longer just a fertilized egg. It is now a growing baby. In most cases by the time that the woman goes for her first doctor visit the baby has a beating heart. 

           I can't stand to hear ladies say that babies are parasites who feed off of a mother! They argue that their inability to live out of the womb makes them non-living and eligible for termination. The relationship of mother and child is a nurturing one. The mother is supposed to nurture and care for the child. The return of love from the child is evident even while the child is in the womb. Unborn children know their mothers voice and respond to it. It is not like the child is an alien sucking the life force out of the mother! 

          Pro-choice people always give the example of a raped women being forced to carry the child of her attacker. The reason this is so hard for these women is because of a lack of relationship with the Lord. You see God has this amazing way of taking the evil and foul deeds that the devil has committed and turning them into something amazing! That is His grace, His glory. God can take any situation that sin or evil has brought about and turn it into something inspiring! But for Him to do that you have to know Him. You have to let Him work in your life. Children born of rape should not be spit upon! They should be celebrated! People say that because their father was a bad person, and they share the same DNA, that they will also be a bad person. But DNA does not determine the righteousness or sinfulness of a soul. Believing that DNA dictates the type of person that child will become is another instance where we believe in man over God! But if a woman absolutely cannot bring herself to raise that child, there are families all over that are desperate to adopt! If she can't value that life, there are lots of families that would cherish it!

          Pro-choice people are always saying that women should use contraception. They argue that a woman should have the right to choose if she is ready to become a mother. What they forget is that at the point a woman becomes pregnant, she has already made that choice. When you choose to be sexually active you are agreeing to risk getting pregnant. No contraception is fool proof. By being sexually active you  are agreeing to take that risk. Abortion should not be a back up plan B form of contraception. 

          I don't believe that we should teach our youth that you can have sex without consequences. Everything you do in life has consequences! We should be teaching are youth to be responsible, to understand the consequences of their actions, and to value all life!