Like every Saturday, I went to work downtown today at Halperns.  I was excited to be working with Shila, my co-worker, since I haven’t worked with her since she went on vacation in January.  We were having a great time catching up when a gentlemen walked in the store.  Instantly, I recognized him as my customer from last Sunday.  He came in just to drop off a gift for me; a bag with a clear box containing a Sen5es cheesecake.

I remember serving this customer last Sunday.  His name was Mr. See.  I didn’t sell him much, just a $185 belt and a pair of socks that I had to take off a display for him.  It came up in our conversation that he lived just down the street at the Soho Metropolitan Hotel, though he had never visited our store before.  He asked if I had been to the Sen5es Restaurant there, and I told him I hadn’t but often picked up pastries from the Sen5es bakery at Bayview Village before it closed down.  Before he left the store, he reminded me once again that I ought to visit the Sen5es Restaurant.

What do you know, a week later he comes back to give me this lovely cheesecake from Sen5es.

On top of the box was his business card.  It turns out he is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Soho Metropolitan Hotel.  And of course, Shila not only teased me about this incident but also had three bellmen come inquire about this special delivery.

Personally, though, I thought it was a very nice gesture.  As a salesperson, this is the kind of thing you look forward to; a customer’s appreciation of your service and effort to the extent that he remembers you.  It’s like that $4000 customer I had when I worked at Guess and how I ran into him a year later at Chapters to find that he actually recognized and remembered me.

To top off the day, I had a $1070 sale.  If only every day at work could be as happy as this one.

My one and only midterm is OVER!  This nutrition course is more difficult than I had initially expected, and since the course is mainly online I’ve had to spend a lot of time learning everything on my own.  It’s been really interesting learning about the digestive system, especially since I’ve always had a problem with it.  Maybe I’ll share some of what I’ve learned in a later post.

After work on Wednesday, Georgia came with me to buy Tricia’s baby shower gift before we headed down to the Reference Library to study.  I love shopping for baby stuff; everything looks so cute!  I wish I had a niece or nephew to shop for, but being an only child that’s pretty much wishful thinking.

Did I mention Georgia’s a crazy driver?!?!  I discovered that this girl likes to ram her car into things, especially poles!!  (You’re soooo going to kill me for this!  hahaha)  So we got to the library at about 4pm and, in the 3 hours that we were there, I heard the sirens of firetrucks drive by at least 4 times.  Every time I heard the sirens, I’d look out the window and sure enough there’d be two fire trucks either going down the street or coming up the street.  Man, do those firefighters work hard.  Anyway, thanks for being such a great study buddy, Georgia!  (and yes, I expect you to save this as well  hahaha)

My weekend turned out to be much better than I expected.  After a week of tension at home and being sick, I managed to enjoy a nice family dinner Saturday night.  Even though I was feeling sick at work that afternoon, I made an effort to make it to my uncle’s for a New Year’s Eve dinner with a few of my other aunts and uncles.  My cousin and his wife made most of the dishes, which were absolutely delicious!  There was so much food for the 12 of us; steamed chicken, steamed fish, roasted pork, crispy duck, Chinese mushrooms and dried oysters with sea moss and lettuce, some sort of pork skin dish, vermicelli with dried shrimp dish, Chinese sausages, and a sea moss + chicken + dried oyster soup.  And of course, you can’t forget the perks of family dinners…receiving red pockets!

That’s little Vincent, my cousin’s 2 year old son.  He is such a cutie!  I had a good time making him pose in front of the camera :)  heheh

I have never been one to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  I stand by my theory that V-day only exists to drive sales in the retail sector, and if I ever have a boyfriend who makes a big deal over V-day, I vow to instantly cut it with him.  lol  (okay, so maybe I’m over-reacting a little)  :P

This year, though, I felt the need to put my best efforts in enjoying this day.  In two days, I’ll be celebrating my 5th year anniversary of being single, and somehow, I find that terrifying.  Not only am I recognizing the fact that it’s been five years, I also crave being alone so much that I’m beginning to fear the feeling of loneliness.  It’s quite contradicting, actually.

So I spent the day working at Chapters.  That itself is pretty enjoyable, except for the fact that I had to wake up at 5am.  An e-card from a far-away friend, a yummy cupcake (*I love cupcakes!), and dinner with an awesome friend kept me smiling.  Thanks, Norm, for the absolutely delicious cupcake.  It was like I died and went to heaven.  After work, Georgia and I went out for dinner at Sashimi House.  We each got a little heart-shaped sushi AND a chocolate rose (see above picture).  Thanks for being such an awesome sushi buddy, G!

And after everything I’ve been going through in this last week, these people sure made my day.  So that’s V-day ’07 for you all.  And now…time to hit the books!

Here are the photos from Monday’s Winterlicious dinner with the Chapters’ crew, except we seem to be missing Ron in the photos.  I’ll post more later.

I was working downtown yesterday when the hotel fire alarm went off, causing a lot of hype within the hotel.  To make matters worse, the hotel was ultra busy because of all the people checking-in; 4500 people were expected to be at the Gift Gala over at the MTCC.  The Beach Boys were staying in the hotel as well, since they were performing at the gala.  Apparently, they were here with their sons.   Anyway, I was quite surprised by the efficiency of our city’s fire department.  Within minutes, sirens were heard coming down the street and soon, fire trucks pulled up right in front of our store window.  I snapped a picture of it just for fun :)

Just thought I’d put up the following pictures for those who’ve been wondering about my job downtown at the menswear store.  These were taken over the Christmas season and, as you can see, we love colour.

This is the store!  Welcome to H. Halpern Esq.

10:41pm :: I finally get the chance to relax a bit here with a cup of Joy tea, one of my favourite Tazo teas from Starbucks.  I always look forward to times like this, when I can just sit back and relax after a long day, knowing that all that needs to be done is done.

Today was my dad’s birthday.  It’s shameful for me to say that I could have almost forgotton about it; I only remembered 4 days ago.  Instead of scavenging the city for his present, I opted for the better alternative.  Early this morning, I went to develop the photos from his trip to China.  He seemed to appreciate that more than all the other gifts I had bought him in previous years.  I also took him out for lunch since we haven’t gone for dim sum in a long time.

Aside from doing my online quiz and posting to the discussion board for my Nutrition course, I haven’t been very productive this week.  Instead, I used this week to concentrate on myself for once.  It came to my attention that I have a habit of giving out more than I have.  I always give, give, give, but never do I take a minute to give back to myself.  And that’s important in maintaining balance.

I’m letting myself relax this week.  The work can wait until the next.