I Did It! I Really Did It!

For the second year in a row, I fulfilled the National Novel Writing Month challenge of writing a "novel" of 50,000 words or more. The deadline for it is midnight tonight, but I was able to fulifill the challenge with roughly three hours and forty-five minutes to spare. It was a good thing that I decided not to go out today. My dad was involved in this challenge too, but the last time I talked to him, he said that he didn't see himself making the 50k in time. I was a bit behind myself, but I told him I could see myself making the 50k in time if I pushed myself, and I did.

Granted, it meant writing over 7000 words (something I don't normally do in a day), but I got it done nonetheless.

Now is the actual story finished? I wish. But that was not a requirement for the challenge. I'm going to see what I can do about wrapping the story up this next month and then see about editing it in the next year.

Thursday, I'll do the out and about stuff that I normally would've done today. But as of next week, I will be back to being out and about on Tuesdays and doing my home stuff on Thursdays.

Switching Around Town Tuesday And HomeGirl Thursday This Week

Last week, I cancelled Around Town Tuesday in order to do things I wouldn't be able to do on Thursday on account of Thanksgiving. This week I'm going to be at home and do my laundry on Tuesday and do my "out and about" stuff on Thursday. This is because Tuesday is the last day of National Novel Writing Month, and I will be making whatever last ditch efforts are needed to get my word count to 50,000 or higher. (With my schedule tomorrow consisting of Doggie Bag in the day and circumstances permitting, the annual Christmas parade at night, computer time will be very limited.) I was able to fulfill this challenge last year, and I'd like to fulfill it again this year. When I do editing and how long it takes me remains to be seen.

I just thought I'd let you all know what all's going on with me this week. I'll let you know how the "last ditch" turns out.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 49, or My First Black Friday On The Working End

The Doggie Bag opened at eight today. My day started off with getting some stuff put out and/or moved around. The rest of the day was spent tagging and hanging up clothes. I was the only person in the back room all day. I think I was able to make somewhat of a dent in the clothes, but there's still a lot to go.

Supposedly, we got some business, but not as much as one would expect on Black Friday. (I was in the back room most of the time, so I wasn't fully aware of what was going on up front.) Supposedly, a lot of people went shopping in another town.

We do have Christmas stuff. Hopefully we'll sell a lot of that in December.

My Thanksgiving Today

Normally, my mom, stepdad and I would go to my sister's for Thanksgiving. However, my stepdad has to get up extra tomorrow as he works at Home Depot, and they are one of many stores participating in Black Friday tomorrow. (Doggie Bag will be participating as well. I don't know if we'll be doing anything different sale-wise, as we have some discounts going in hopes that it will free up some space on the racks and thus allow us to bring in more stuff in the back to make it less crowded. However, whereas we normally open at ten in the morning, we'll be opening at eight. It'll be my first Black Friday, at least on the working end. I'll let you know how that turns out tomorrow.) So, we spent Thanksgiving at home this year.

For breakfast, I had some breakfast casserole and coffee. Throughout the day, I jumped back and forth between watching TV (including watching movies like Beauty and the Beast, something I hadn't seen in a LONG time), poking around on my novel for National Novel Writing Month, and the Internet (including Facebook).

Our "dinner" happened during afternoon hours. We had turkey, stuffing, regular potatoes (small ones), sweet potatoes with marshmellows on top, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, and cranberry sauce. None of us were all that hungry for supper in the evening (which would've just been whatever we felt like having). However, we did have some chocolate meringue pie. (I had to consult the Yahoo search engine on the spelling of "meringue".)

As for my evening, I will probably watch whatever I can find on TV, do more Facebook and/or writing, and maybe have a shower. (I might hold off on that last one until the morning given that my stepdad has to go to work far earlier than I do. Besides, since someone else will be running the register and I will likely be in and out of the back room, I probably won't be dealing with customers so much, so it might be forgivable for me to pass on the shower if that's what I end up doing.) Tomorrow, I make extra sure not to get off to a late start as I'm going in for an early day at the Doggie Bag.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 48

My day started out with clothes to put on display. We have gotten so overwhelmed with donations lately that the manager requested that I hold off on hanging up any more short-sleeved shirts for now. (The other day, someone else on duty referred to the back as "a hoarder's dream come true".)

Much of my day was spent tagging and hanging up stuff. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, there was barely a dent made in the back. (The cashier on duty, who later volunteered to give me a ride home in light of the weather, said that despite the substantial amount of clothing she sold, it doesn't look like much got sold.)

We're going to be one of the stores participating in Black Friday. (For those of you from outside the US, it's the name for the Friday after our Thanksgiving, which will be this week, when a lot of shopping is supposed to happen in retail stores and put them "in the black" as opposed to "in the red". This will be my first year working a Black Friday though I will likely be in the back at the time.) Hopefully, we'll sell enough then to create more room for stuff waiting to be put out.

Around Town Tuesday Cancelled This Week

This would normally be the day when I'd be out of the house to pick up/drop off applications, take recycling to campus bins, and/or run some other errand, and Thursdays would be when I do laundry and other "home stuff". However, this Thursday will be Thanksgiving. The last two were spent at my sister's. However, judging by things my mom said, it sounds like I'll be home all day this time. Whatever the case ends up being, doing laundry will be out of the question at the time.

Thus, I'm doing my laundry today so that I don't have to wait until Saturday. However, since my stepdad is scheduled to go to work later today and wants a shower before then, I'm holding off on my laundry until he leaves for work.  The other thing I will be doing is cleaning the inside of our old fridge per his request. (We got a new one yesterday. It's a chrome one to match the stove, microwave, and dishwasher that are also chrome.) I may do a few other things here as well.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 47

Part of my day was spent tagging and hanging up clothes, and part of it was spent getting stuff put out. We have so many pants right now that the manager has opted to make all adult pants a dollar a pair until further notice. (And all clothing in the bargain room is 25 cents for the time being.)

I feel kind of bad about not being in a position to buy some of this stuff in order to free up space. (You don't want to know how much stuff  has yet to be, um, dealt with.) However, one of the bags included a couple of bras in my size. (I'm sure that someone else in my family, such as my mom or my sister, would've just as soon gotten me some new bras themselves rather than hear of me wearing ones that had been worn by someone else. I do still draw the line at used underpants, though.) As we're no longer selling those, they would've been sent to recycling, so I slipped them into my purse. (In case I didn't mention this before, any piece of clothing that is up for elimination is eligible to be taken home by staff members free of charge.)

I'm not sure if we'll ever get caught up or not. The next day I go in is Wednesday.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 46

We got even more clothes priced and put out. Unfortunately, we ran low on space on the racks. For kids' clothes that are in the bargain room, one can fill up a bag of them for a dollar. (We have a LOT of kids' clothes.) It reminds me of earlier this year when we did that with winter clothes we were trying to clear out at the time. Hopefully, we will be able to get more clothes sold so that we can put more out.

I won't be going in on Friday as I'm going to be babysitting my nephew as well as my sister's dog Cosmo as of whatever time in the afternoon she is in to drop them off.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 45

As we had gotten new tags as of Friday, getting clothes tagged and ready to be priced is back to being a high priority, especially since we have a lot that need to be inspected and hung up.

I wasn't able to get anything hung up. However, I did get a lot of the pants tagged (among other things). The manager will have plenty to work with tomorrow depending on what kind of space is available on the sales racks. (We have soooo much stuff right now.)

Hopefully things will pick up a bit more into the season and we can get more caught up.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 44

Much of the day was spent getting stuff put out in order to free up space in the back. Our tags finally came in, so I was able to get some stuff tagged.

Tomorrow the store's having a bit of a "furniture sale". By furniture, I mean chairs, a coat rack, and possibly a tall lamp.

Maybe next week, more stuff can get put out in order to make more room in the back.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 43

My day was mainly spent getting stuff put out onto the floor. This included stuffed animals to be put in the window display. (I was in and out of that a couple of times today. For decorative purposes, we have colorful sheets over the old white carpet in the window. As a precaution, I generally slip my shoes off before stepping onto said sheets. Let's just say it was a good thing I was wearing loafers as opposed to anything with laces.)

Space is still pretty tight in the back. Hopefully, we will get to a point where that will change.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 42

The first order of business was to get clothes that had been priced onto their respective racks. There's still clothing that has been tagged but not priced, but there's not as much of that as there is of clothing that hasn't been tagged. (The tags have yet to make it in.)

The manager was only able to stay until noon for some reason. In the afternoon, I grabbed stuff that was tagged but not priced and put it in the middle room for when/if the manager had the chance to price it. Otherwise, I mostly hung up clothes. (I ran out of time before I got them all hung up, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are more clothes than hangers.)

Hopefully, the tags will be in by Monday so that more tagging can be done and more clothes can be put out.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 41

One of the things that the manager and I did today was box up some of the Halloween stuff (at least in the window anyway) and take it to the attic. After that we put some colorful clothes and stuffed animals in the window. There may be more of the latter going in at some point.

As it turns out, the 25 cent rack that we had outside is no more. Summer stuff is going into storage now. (In fact, part of my time was spent pulling summer clothing from the racks in the back room and boxing it up.)

That's all I have for today. I'm not sure what'll happen on Friday.

Doggie Bag Days Season 2: Day 40

Not a lot of stuff to report this time. The first hour, I was pretty much on register. The rest of the time, I was either putting clothes out, sorting the mens' shirts (in the bargain section) according to size, writing in the sizes on clothing in the bargain room, or washing up some things in the sink.

One guy had come in to do his community service. His task was to clean up and paint the bathroom. (There's a part of it that will be used as a storage area. He was there most of the day, I believe. I don't know when I'll see him again.

That's all I got for now. I'm not sure what will happen on Wednesday.