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If you read the About page of this blog, you know that I was co-owner of a fashion clothing store for many years. While that may seem like a fun and glamorous career, it included a lot more work and stress than it did fun and glamour.
Most of my time there was spent in the back room doing paper work. And I do not enjoy that.
When I chatted with customers, it sure seemed like they had a lot more fun in their lives because they had weekends off to do fun stuff.
I heard about their Caribbean vacations, cruises and frequent trips to Las Vegas and envied them.
Since our store was open on Saturdays, my only day off was Sunday….unless I was on a buying trip. And if you love to shop, you’re probably thinking how much fun that would be.
While I enjoyed seeing the new fashions, it meant making lots of decisions about what my customers would like and what sizes to buy. Not to mention…what colors?
So I took tons of notes on as much as I could each day. I never saw any other buyers take so many notes, but I knew it helped insure that I received what I ordered….not what the manufacturer chose to substitute.
Then at night in my hotel room, as I fought trying to stay awake, I reviewed the notes, struggling to remember all the clothes I’d seen that day.
Which ones should I eliminate?
For the next 2 to 4 days I followed that routine. Then upon returning back home, I went through the numerous pages of notes to decide which items to buy.
Too much paperwork!
I had to work within a budget, too, so that was challenging. Our livelihood depended on selling what I bought for women, and on what my husband bought for men.
Since I did the bookkeeping and bill-paying for the store, I had to catch up on that before and after the buying trips. My life was revolving around those trips….five of them a year. It seemed that as soon as I was about to get caught up, it was time to prepare for another trip.
Can you feel the stress?
I sure could, so when we had the rare chance to take a vacation for a few days, we headed to the Caribbean. There in the Caribbean our stress floated away in the clean air and the clear turquoise and blue waters as we sailed and snorkeled.
We had fun dancing to the happy tunes and lyrics and beats of the native bands… And eating….delicious native fruits and fresh seafood and tasty Caribbean style dishes.
Walking on the white sand alongside the ocean was delightful. And watching the sun gradually disappear into the Caribbean Sea was such a treat.
Being there was so relaxing that we would completely forget about our business back home. It was truly a way to relieve our stress and to rejuvenate ourselves.
And that’s just what you need, isn’t it?