Why I prefer to shop online

Cheryl and I went to the mall yesterday, and I swear I thought I was going to suffocate before we got out of there. What is the deal with salespeople getting all up in your face the entire time you're in a store?

At Nordstrom, at least three people asked if they could start a fitting room for me. I kept saying, "No, thank you." One lady tried to argue with me. "You're not going to try that on?" NO, I'm NOT. I'm not going to buy it, either, if you don't get out of my face. Then there were the ones who would look at what I'd picked out and say, "Oh, if you like that, you need to get this, too," and try to drag me over to another rack of clothing. Maybe some people appreciate that sort of "help" while they're shopping, but I do not. I want to be able to shop in peace and quiet and don't appreciate having pushy salespeople trying to strong arm me into buying things I don't want or need.

At Sephora, I was asked at least five times whether I had a "Beauty Insider" card, and at least three times whether I was "finding everything okay."

I won't set foot in a Victoria's Secret store after being accosted no less than six times in the span of five minutes there several years ago by salespeople imploring me to open a Victoria's Secret credit card account and refusing to take "no" for an answer. All I wanted was to buy some friggin' panties, but they wouldn't stop interrupting me. I walked out in disgust, came home, and ordered my undies online.

My favorite (and, by "favorite," I mean "least favorite") tactic is when you go to the cash register to check out, and the cashier asks if you'd like to open a credit card account. You say, "no." They ask you, "Why not?" Then they stand there and argue with you when you tell them that you simply are not interested.

Look, I know salespeople have a job to do, but do they need to hover so much? And do they need to attempt to bully you into buying things or signing up for a credit card that you don't want? They should be available to help if needed, but if I need help, I'll ask for it. Really, I will.

The return of the pain

Sorry for the dearth of posts here lately. Not only have I been incredibly busy for the past few months, but I've also been struggling with some health issues. First I had a nasty cold/respiratory infection/whatever for over a week. As soon as that cleared up, I was struck by a ridiculous flare-up of my rheumatoid arthritis. It started in my jaws and rapidly spread all over the place. It's affecting joints I didn't even know I had, and it's growing progressively worse.

Ordinarily, I do a pretty good job of hiding it when I'm in a lot of pain, but apparently that's not working this time. I ran into one of the attorneys at work in the file room today, and the first thing she said was, "Are you hobbling?" Later, as I passed a girl from accounting in the hallway, she said, "Are you okay?" Dammit. My knees and hips are so sore that I just can't walk normally no matter how hard I try. My right shoulder is so sore that my arm gets stuck out at an awkward angle when I walk. It must look like I'm lurching around like a zombie from Dawn of the Dead. My hands are so sore that I couldn't turn on the cold water faucet in the shower this morning.

I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that I stopped taking the methotrexate back in November. My rheumatologist told me I could stay off of it as long as I stayed on the Enbrel and as long as my condition didn't start to deteriorate. I'm afraid if I go to see him in this condition, he'll put me right back on it. I don't want to get back on it. My next scheduled appointment with him isn't til September. I'm going to try to hold out for awhile and see if things improve in the meantime.

Make mine a Boca Burger, please.

Your Score: Cheezburger cat

65% Affectionate, 60% Excitable, 51% Hungry

Sure, you deserve one. You helped popularized lolcats from a running gag to an online sensation. Now mainstream media writes asinine columns on this 'phenomenon', students write theses on the topic, programming languages adopt the grammar, and losers write tests about them on dating sites. Now take your cheezburger and never touch the internets again.



To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Well, I'll be darned.

I found my first gray hair on my 20th birthday. By the time I was 30, I had enough gray that I had to start coloring my hair regularly to cover it up. I never really thought much about it, but I just read an article which says that "women who start going gray before the age of 30 should be checked for a variety of auto-immune disorders...juvenile (Type 1) diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, colitis and hypothyroidism are all conditions that may track with premature graying." Who knew?