Twitter = MORE LOVE FOR PARANORMAL STATE

I know, I know, blogging WAY too much today. I'm sorry!

But the coolest thing just happened! Chip Coffey, my favorite psychic from my favorite show, Paranormal State, just tweeted at me! And here is the proof!



It made my day. No jokes!

Keep swimming!
Jill

Edit: That's not the whole picture. :( I told him he was my favorite person ever and he said "Ahhhh.... Thanks! <3<3<3" Yeah, three hearts! That's right! :)

"The Ugly Truth" - The Amazing Movie

Tonight I saw the new hit comedy, "The Ugly Truth". Going into it, I had no real expectations, because I would have much rather seen Harry Potter 6. But, I now understand why this movie got such good reviews! It was hilarious and made a few good points about the difference between men and women.

The comedy in the movie was a bit older, so I would not recommend this movie for kids under the age of 14. There was a lot of sexual humor, which I will admit I wasn't sure to think of at first. But, as much as it was slightly... intense, it was absolutely hilarious!

My favorite scene was the one where Abby (Katherine Heigel) was at dinner with the heads of the corporation she worked for and her new boyfriend. She was wearing the vibrating underwear that Mike (Gerard Butler) had bought for her. After kicking over her purse with the remote in it, a boy picks it up and turns the underwear on. Obviously, hilarity ensued.

The show I went to was sold out. It was a 7:15 show on a Tuesday evening. Everyone was laughing, and some even clapped at the end.

I wasn't thrilled with the ending, but then again I don't like cliche endings. Not really much of a twist and completely expected, but cute. Not a terrible way to end the film, but not the greatest either.

All in all, I really enjoyed the movie. It was funny and smart, not to mention very insightful. If you're thinking about going to see it, do! I loved every second of it.

Keep swimming!
Jill

Horror Stories from the Grocery Store Pt 1

I have decided to start blogging about people. But not just any people, customers. And not just any customers, customers at a large chain grocery store who are completely and totally rude and perhaps slightly insane. Does that narrow it down enough?

If you didn't gather it from that wonderful introduction, I work in the clothing department of the Canadian equivalent of Wal-Mart. As part of my job, I run the till, clean, put out stock, run fitting rooms, and do pretty much everything they do in a normal clothing store.

Now, I haven't done the research, but from what I have seen, people who shop at this store are potentially the worst customers you could ask for, and I'm not exaggerating at all. I'm not saying that every customer we get is brutal, there are some very wonderful, polite people who shop there, don't get me wrong. However, some people who shop in this store are downright rude and insane. No jokes here.

In this series, entitled "Horror Stories from the Grocery Store", I will discus the craziness that happens at my store involving customers. Who knows, maybe you are one of these people, but I certainly hope not. This people seem to have no idea what manners and respect are. I learned what those two words were when I was around three. At three years old, I was way better behaved than some of these people. Again, no exaggeration there. And I'm not going to lie and tell you that it's easy to just laugh off like it's no big deal. What some of these people say really takes a toll on you and makes you feel really low. If my job were not in danger, I would give these people some of their own medicine. However, because I can't, I will just write about it here and hope that maybe a few of them will read it and realize how foolish and ignorant they look.

I have found through working there that the worst customers are the ones who don't even see the employees as human beings. Generally, they see us as these silly teens (most of are 19 or older) who have no idea what they are talking about and should not be entrusted with such a precious job like taking care of their clothes. Another misconception they have is that we have to take whatever they say to us and just give them what they want. While this happens to be the case when it comes to the store managers, it is not so much the case with us. If you harass us, we are allowed to refuse the sale or return and send you somewhere else.

Sadly, many of these people do not realize that we respond better to polite people. Instead of yelling at us when we screw up one little thing, politely point out the mistake and we will correct it for you. However, if you yell at us and begin calling us names, we will get flustered, make more mistakes and in the end you will just end up talking to a store manager who will tell you that you are not allowed to treat employees that way and that you should be nicer to us in the future. Can you guess which one will take longer?

So, I will include an example of a crazy customer who created a scene when there was along line for the tills. This scene really frustrated other customers who were in a hurry, and just resulted in more unhappy customers

Example: Crazy Bag Lady

One thing that you should know about clothing stores is that if we get busy and there is a counter we have two people working at, it's going to get a little messy and hard to work through. Another thing you should know is that my store started charging five cents a bag at the beginning of the summer. While some people were not at all happy about this, they have pretty much gotten over it and moved on with their lives except for a few. Here is where our story begins...

So, it was a crazy busy day at our store and the line up for the tills was very long. From what I gathered, this woman brought back something that she wanted to exchange in a bag. During the exchange however, the bag got lost and was thrown into our plastic recycling with all the other bags people leave behind. This recycling bin is not used for anything else besides bags, and we give out bags from there all the time. When this lady found out that her bag was thrown into the recycling, she demanded that we give her a new bag for free. We are not allowed to do this, as it is theft on our part. The girl working the till called over our department manager who also told her that she couldn't give her a new bag, but that we had plenty of clean used bags that she was free to use. Again, this woman refused and demanded that we call store manager over to do it. The store manager came over, and decided that she should just get the bag. Of course, this woman was a perfect angel to the store manager after being a complete jerk to the girls at the counter. This transaction took almost twenty minutes.

Moral of the story: if your bag gets lost, a plastic one like hers, and we offer you a completely clean used bag free of charge, just take it. Is it really that different from the other bag you were using?

Anyway, stay tuned for more horror stories from the grocery store.
Keep Swimming!
Jill

Rest in Peace, Sweet Angel

I have said this many, many times before, but I want to make a huge difference in my life. I want to do something amazing with it. Do something that touches the lives of lots of people and makes their lives brighter.

This realization hit me hard today.

Today I had to attend the funeral of a girl that I have known since I was about 11. Her name was Dani. She was hit by a truck almost two weeks ago, and passed away from her injuries last Thursday. I didn't think I would be as upset as I am, but her passing has shattered me. I can't even begin to fathom what her family is going through, and my heart really goes out to them.

Dani had this smile. Her smile could light up any room. That is the one thing I will remember most about her. She could make anyone laugh and would brighten any day no matter the circumstances. She was feisty, beautiful and loving.

She was 16. That is the one thing that really gets to me, she was younger than I am. Listening to what her parents and friends and family had to say about her made me realize her impact on all the people around her. It got me thinking that I want to make an impact.

I don't know how, and I think that my writing and creativity is going to be taking a part in my impact. I want people to smile when I come into their lives. I want to make people happier, leave them smiling even if they are having a bad day. I want to make a difference, a big difference.

I'm going to make this change, I'm not sure when, but it is something that I feel I need to do. It's important to me, and I feel like it's my path in life. If my life were to end today, I don't think I would like the way it was. I don't think I'm the person I want to be. I need to change that. I will change that.

Rest in peace, Dani. You shone here on earth, and now you can shine in Heaven too. Shine on, sweet angel, shine on.

Keep swimming,
Jill

Michael Jackson: The Memorial

Going into this, I was worried that the memorial would be more like a circus. But I have to say I was way more than pleasantly surprised.

When they announced who was going to be preforming at the service, I was worried that they would be doing outrageous remakes of all the most famous Michael Jackson songs. But every performance was breath taking and moved to me to tears.

Mariah Carey performed, and I was a little worried. Her voice was shaky and sounded like maybe she had lost her voice... for good. But she pulled it together by the end and ended the performance on an awesome note. It left me teary eyed.

Stevie Wonder was amazing as always. There isn't much else to say either than he did an awesome job and I was left feeling inspired.

Shaheen Jafargholi, the 12 year old Britain's Got Talent finalist sang "Who's Lovin' You" which was very reminiscent of the Jackson Five days. I'm not going to lie, I pretty much bawled when he thanks Michael for everything he did.

John Mayer made a wonderful contribution to "Human Nature", in which he only played guitar. I thought it was great that he didn't try to remake the song, but just added his own little part to it. It was beautiful.

Jennifer Hudson did an awesome performance as well. There isn't much else to say about the performance, either than she really made it beautiful and I cried.

And my favourite performance of the day was Usher, who got so choked up near the end that he had to stop briefly. My heart broke when he stood next to Michael's casket and sang.

The speeches of the night were amazing. Queen Latifah read a beautiful poem, Brooke Shields talked about fond childhood memories, and Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson talked about memorable moments. But the best speech was the very last one, made by Paris Jackson herself. As many know, Michael had a tendency to hide his children from the media, so many were surprised when Paris stepped up to the microphone to talk about her father's passing. She didn't get much out, but what said said caused me to burst into tears. She said "Since I was born daddy has been the best dad anyone could ever imagine, and I just wanted to say that I love him." She burst into tears and turned to her aunt Janet for comfort. That was perhaps the most powerful moment of the entire ceremony.

All in all the memorial was a memorial fit for a king, which he was. It was not nutsy and even the fans were respectful and kept the screaming to a minimum. It was heart felt, emotional, and tasteful. It was the perfect ending to an amazing, yet tortured, man's life.

I would just like to say that growing up, Michael was a big inspiration to me. His music was infectious. Even though his life was plagued with controversy, he inspired millions and changed pop music. He was the king of pop and for that, he deserves to rest in peace. God bless Michael Jackson. Thanks for giving the world your gift and giving us some of the most influential music of our time. Rest in Peace.

Keep swimming,
Jill

MJ Memorial Prequel

So, as many of you probably know, today is the memorial service for Michael Jackson. It will be broadcasting live on almost every channel.

Many, many, many huge stars are preforming including Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, and John Mayor.

So, I will be writing a story on it after I watch it in about 2 hours.

Be sure to look out for it!

Keep swimming,
Jill

Uninspired.

I have found myself lately to be very uninspired.

It doesn't matter what I'm doing, where I'm going, or who I'm with, I just can't be creative.

Normally I can write anything; stories, songs... anything. But lately, my tap of inspiration seems dry.

I think I need to get out of this place. Go somewhere new and exciting.

I went to Ottawa recently for two days, and that was the happiest I have felt in a while. I wandered that downtown by myself and looked at everything I wanted. I didn't answer to anyone and I did whatever I wanted. I need to go to somewhere beautiful, somewhere so full of creativity you can feel it running through you.

I need a new energy, a new spirit. I feel like I lost my drive and my passion. Who knows, maybe I never had a passion and I've been making this up all along.

Who knows. I hate feeling like this. But it happens and I'll just deal.

Keep swimming,
Jill

PS: Sorry about my inconsistency. I have no excuse. I'm just... run dry... or something.