Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday and...A Challenge.

Top Ten Tuesday is something kind of fun that is done over at The Broke and the Bookish that I really like to participate in when I can. Lucky for me, this week works pretty nicely and I am going to give it a whirl. This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about fall reading, and the top ten books that are on that list. I'm in a bit of a reading slump, so I'm going to pick some that I really want to read soon and hope to get a good portion of them read this fall. Still adjusting to this schedule with my new job, but I am going to get some reading done too! So, here we go...

Currently reading this. Loving it, and really need to take the time to REALLY read more of it. I'm sure this means that the next book will be added to this list as well, but I figured I just wouldn't include it quite yet. 

I just am so excited that he is writing a children's book with someone else, and I really want to read it because I think it could be all kinds of awesome.

I loved loved loved the first one. Flavia is one of the coolest 11 year olds ever (notice Mr. Harry Potter, I said one of the coolest, not THE coolest). I can't wait to keep reading these books.

This book series has become a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. It's an interesting take on a dystopian-type world and yea, I just gotta keep reading it.

I've been on the request list for this one since it came out, and I'm still pretty far into the list but I am excited to read this one. Sounds really interesting.

This one is on my nook and I am super excited for it. I really liked Silver Linings Playbook (totally different than the movie, but a good different). It was a book that was simple, funny, and a nice fast read. This plot to this one sounds interesting.

Ok, so this is something I've been wanting to read for AGES, but haven't gotten around to yet. I own it too, which is awesome. Sadly, I would have to find out which box it's in since most of our books just aren't quite unpacked yet.

I have had this book for at least a year and just keep getting distracted from reading it. I really have gotten into fantasy-type books lately (hence my LOVE for the Throne of Glass series) and have heard really good things about this book.

I loved the first book in this series, and I have a friend that is constantly telling me I have to get back into it and catch up with this series. It seems I get too easily distracted because I really do have a lot of series I need to finish. I guess after the ending of books like Mockingjay, where I was in love with the series but hated the ending, I've been scared to really finish a series and be let down again.

I've read this before, but it was in high school. With the movies wrapping up I really think I want to try to read this again. I realize there are lots of people who would go on and on about how the movies don't stay true to the book and yadda yadda (seriously, it's an adaptation. There are so many things that are better left up to the imagination and I think people would just be upset with how they were shown on screen anyway) but I really love the movies and want to read it again.

So, there it is. 10 books that I would like to read this fall. Sadly, I may not get to a lot of them but I hope to at least knock a few of them off the list and tell you all about how much I love the books. I think my reading has just not been the same since Rainbow Rowell. Oh well.

SO now, I get to the challenge part, which is totally unrelated to reading. I've been struggling a little bit with where I'm at in life. I mean I have had lots of ups and downs (lots of downs) and I am trying to really figure things out for myself. Sadly, this means that even though I can see that God is here with me and that He is providing I still tend to be a bit negative about things. So this week, for the whole week, I have decided to try to find one positive each day while I am at work. I don't hate my jobs, I don't necessarily love it either (seriously, people treat retail works pretty crappy). I have been struggling lately because there is that one co-worker that I work with pretty regularly who literally hates her job and everyone she works with. She refuses to talk to anyone but the managers, and kind of has them wrapped around her finger. She has talked to me once, and it was not nice. She spends a lot of time giving me dirty looks mostly because lately I haven't been doing so well with rewards sign-ups so then I have not been main and kind of work the floor more instead. So anyway, I have decided to challenge myself to one positive thing a day. So here is my positive from yesterday:

So obviously yesterday was kind of rough. A lot of the stuff I mentioned above happened just yesterday. So I was annoyed and a bit upset about it all. Lucky for me, I was about to have two awesome encounters with customers. My first one nearly broke me. She was a woman fighting breast cancer. She had just finished up chemo for the day and was in the store to find new shoes. She had a ton of other health problems going on, not at all related to breast cancer, and she was tired and needing to sit while I ran around the store trying to find a shoe she was looking for. Sadly, we did not find what she was looking for but she seemed happy about it. We gave her all her options and she told me she would be back to look again. She kept telling me it was ok that we found nothing, but kept telling me all about herself. She was proud to show off the socks that she makes herself and was just such a joy. I've never been so sad to not find shoes for someone. The second customer I worked with was my last one for the day, and I didn't necessarily even work with her. She was surrounded by boxes of shoes and explained to me how the arthritis in her feet made it so that it took awhile for her to pick and choose shoes. She didn't necessarily need help, but she just wanted someone to chat to. So I talked with her and then told her to let me know if she needed anything. I came back to check on her 3 different times, and each time was different and yet the same. She just basically talked through her various shoe selections that were surrounding her. She kept asking me if it was close to closing and if she needed to hurry up and I kept telling her to take her time (we aren't allowed to kick anyone out, and honestly as long as they find shoes and leave it's not the worst thing in the world). She left at 9:05, just after the store was closed, with 5 pairs of shoes that worked perfect for her. And she kept telling the guy working at the register about me and then she got contact information to call the company to tell them how wonderful I was. It really made my night, and yet it made me kind of sad. Because I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, just being nice and making sure she was doing ok. The fact that she brought up how odd it is to find someone like that kind of sucks. It's not that hard to put a smile on your face and be nice to someone while you are working. 

But that's it. Those are my positives from yesterday. Those two ladies really made my night, and it made me feel like even though I work retail and may feel like it's a bit of a failure on my part I am still helping people and doing something good for them. 

And now I must go and get ready for another shift, and I hope to have something positive to share about my shift when I wake up tomorrow (I have to close, and pretty much anticipate going to bed once I get home...). If anyone ended up reading this, I hope you have a fantastic day.












2 comments:

  1. I LOVED Those Who Save Us soooo much! Get to that one!! I really need to get to Scarlet too! I read & loved Cinder but idk why I haven't picked up Scarlet! SO MUCH TO REAAAAD.

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    1. I am trying to find it that one! Still packed in boxes from moving (because I have NO shelf space, which is KILLING ME!). Scarlet is literally sitting at my bedside table and yet I have not touched it. I think I have anxiety when it comes to series books! Ah!

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