Lots Going On...

Last week was a busy week. I was preparing for my final training project presentation which was on Friday, where I had to present my assortment strategy to a Sr. Buyer from another division who was acting as my divisional. Also, most of my Buyer team was in LA for a good part of the week, so my mentor left me a number of projects to work on to keep me busy during the week (actually, the presentation would have kept me busy enough, but I did get around to most of the projects). The presentation itself went well. My assessor gave me a lot of feedback, which is always helpful. Afterward, the buyer on my team who had attended in my mentor's absence told me that my assessor asked her if I had previous buying experience. She told her that I didn't, just that I had interned and my assessor said she was extremely impressed. So that gave me a good feeling. Quite honestly, I was just happy it was over - so much prep work had gone into a single 30 minute presentation. Friday afternoon everyone was in celebration mode (well, actually all day Friday folks had been in celebration mode - for our weekly team breakfast, our entire team went to eat at this restaurant at the W hotel called Keyes). I had lunch on Friday with the other interns to celebrate successfully getting through our presentations. Then, my team left the office around 3, for an early happy hour to celebrate two business analysts on our team who were recently promoted to senior business analysts. We ended up at Rock Bottom Brewery, and it was a lot of fun. I left around 5, b/c I was supposed to go another happy hour with the interns, but I was also supposed to be going to the ballet that night so I decided to go home instead and take a quick nap. On my way home, I got a text from Jjais saying she wasn't going to be able to make the ballet b/c she was sick. Mind you, the ballet was supposed to start at 8, and I got her text at some point b/w 5 and 6. I really didn't want to waste the ticket (plus the ballet isn't really as much fun if you go by yourself), so I started to text a few folks to see if they might be interested. Then I thought of one of my coworkers who also has a dance background. I called her and luckily she didn't have any plans and wanted to come. So the two of us went to see a ballet called "Extreme Odyssey" courtesy of my Sr. Buyer whose husband is on the board of the Minnesota Dance Theatre. It was a really good performance - there were 5 different ballets (I'm not even sure the last one qualified as ballet since no one was on pointe) and it was a good mix of slow and uptempo. One of the ballets was an act from Swan Lake performed by the two principals. It was nice, but I liked some of the other ballets better. At the ballet, my coworker mentioned that she makes weekly trips to the Salvation Army here in downtown Minneapolis b/ c they are the lucky recipients of all the samples that Target donates to charity. They have an entire level full of brand new merchandise sold dirt cheap. So I decided to go visit Saturday morning to see if it was worth the hype, and since I had clothes I needed to donate, I figured I'd kill two birds in one stone. When I got there, all I could think was "she was not joking." The place is basically a discount Target store...and Target is already discounted. I could talk about this store for days (don't worry, I won't) but I will say this. I paid $5.o0 each for several button down dress shirts that are currently being sold in the stores for $16.99. And it's no secret that I'm a handbag junkie, so I bought several Merona handbags from b/w $3.00 and $5.00 each - all brand new. I bought a ton of other stuff, but my bill at checkout was only $45.00 so just use your imagination. They put the SA in Philly to shame. Needless to say, I will be establishing a twice monthly trip to the SA.
I ended up spending most of the day Saturday searching for furniture. I was looking for a sofa and a dresser. I went to the outlet of a store here called Slumberland Furniture and had a moment. You know, one of those moments when you want to spazz out on someone but then you remember that you're a lady and a child of God, and have to let it go? Yeah, I had a moment. When I got there, this sales rep walked up to me, introduced himself and asked if I needed help. I told him I had come to purchase a dresser that was in their ad, but that I wanted to look at their sofas as well. He let me walk around the store awhile, then approached me again, and I told him I was interested in this one sofa but that I wanted to keep looking and think about it. He walked away then came back and told me the sofa was in stock. Then I asked him if they had any other light wood dressers (when I saw the one on ad, I didn't like the quality) and he showed me a few but I didn't like the quality on any of them so I told him I'd like to keep looking. Then he says to me "well, you know we offer very good financing terms..." and I'm thinking "ok, so I express hesitation on making a purchase and this dude thinks it's b/c I can't afford to make a purchase and need financing???" That just ticked me off. I told him that wasn't the problem and walked away. I ended up getting so ticked off that I decided I was not spending a single penny of my money there but I still remained polite. I walked up to him and told him that I was not going to make a purchase and he handed me his card with the items I had asked about already written down on the back along with the sku numbers. Clearly, he had decided before I ever said anything that I was not going to make a purchase. I just shook my head and left. I checked out a few other places - the Room and Board outlet, Cost Plus World Market, and even Pier 1 (which I was very impressed with even though I almost never think to shop there). Ultimately, I still didn't find anything that I really liked enough to buy so it ended up being a wash. Saturday night, I went to the movies to see "The Secret Life of Bees" (which is a really good "feel good" movie, and worth all the hype in my opinion so go support Gina Prince-Blythewood!) I was invited to go to a screening by a coworker, and there was a group of women invited. Some of them had dinner together earlier but many of us were meeting up with them at the theater. The problem however, was that the theater was in Edina where the parking is ridiculous (I drove through a 6 level parking lot and there were no free spots - cars were lined up waiting to catch people walking back to their cars). That coupled with the fact that they closed the entrance to the freeway by my house meant that I arrived late (after the previews but before the movie started). The movie was sold out but thankfully I had bought my tickets online at movietickets.com (no, this is not a commercial for them....but they did save me). The theater was packed and I could only find a seat in the third row so I didn't bother trying to meet up with the group but then after the movie when I figured I would meet up with them I realized that I only knew two people in the group, and I didn't have their phone numbers on me. So I waited around for a few minutes to try to catch them after the movie and after I didn't see them, I took my behind home. I could have gone to see the movie downtown for all of that, but that was my first time in Edina so I'll consider it an opportunity to get to know the area better.
Sunday I was back at it with furniture shopping. This time I drove out to Maple Grove - a suburb about 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis. Don't tell anybody, but shhhh...I shopped the competition (the big blue and yellow) as a consumer, at that. Lol. I went to see if they had this Sauder dresser that I had seen online (I had just about given up on a dresser) but no such luck. Now I know I'm biased but really, their quality is really poor - even for a discounter. But that's all I'm going to say about that. My next stop was SuperTarget but there was a Slumberland Furniture main store right next to it, so I decided to go in to see how they differed from the outlet, even though I had decided I was spending my money there. I actually liked some of their stuff and it wasn't incredibly overpriced. The sales rep was also really nice although I think he's a pathological liar - he told me he had a law degree, an engineering degree, an MBA (from Stern), and was working on his PhD in healthcare. Ummm, yeah. And he's working at a furniture store so that he has time to focus on his PhD. Forgive me if that sounds a bit unbelievable. I still wasn't spending my money there though. Afterward, I went to Target and found me a creative solution for a dresser which also happens to fit the color scheme of my bedroom - you'll have to come visit me to see what it is :-). I still need a sofa though. Since it was a SuperTarget, I decided to get my groceries as well and of course I also racked up some other items. FYI, there are some really cute shoes in the store right now. If it weren't for my "heeled shoes diet", I would've definitely bought some shoes.
Anyway, that was my weekend. Work is coming along - this week I'm in department most of the week but my calendar is still ridiculously busy with meetings. Today was my only free day and I spent the majority of it at my mentor's desk working on forecasting with her. We took a break and walked the girls section of the downtown store, just to get away from the computer for a while. I also ran into my mentor from last summer today (she just returned last week from maternity leave - we're going to lunch later in the week to catch up which I'm really looking forward to). She looks amazing for someone who just had a baby! I couldn't get over it. This week is also Design Week at work, so they have a number of the design partners coming in to speak, and there are a bunch of other events going on as well. I signed up to go to a few of them, which should be fun. Last Friday, they had a store operations fair, which was also a lot of fun. Each of the teams w/in store ops had a booth where they were showcasing what their teams do. My favorite part was that there were cupcakes, and they were giving out plush Spot dogs. One of the tables showcased their patented pill bottle (it's pretty innovative) and they had an activity where you "fill your prescription" (with Smarties candies, even better!). These are the things I love about working here - the random things that go on during the day.
Anyway, enough for today. I'm tired. I don't have a lot of plans this week - just a community service event on Saturday through the African American business council. We're working at a food shelter. It should be good....later!