No Floor Fights For Me

I have shared on my blog that working in design is my life,

but have I shared that doing design in the world of retail is hell ?

I am working for a huge design & furniture company in Florida. The company is great, though their technology (computers etc) is like working for The Flintstones. I am not kidding.

The rules in retail are as follows in most showrooms;

When a person walks into a showroom, who ever is in line to greet at the door, that is their 'UP'. An 'UP' is also considered your 'opportunity', and sometimes that is considered a 'joke'.

By A 'Joke' I mean: someone with nothing to do and no intention of buying anything, and stays for hours walks in the door, and if you are unlucky enough, that is your 'up'.

The entire time that person is in the building, the designer or salesperson is not permitted to take another customer or client. ( unless you have a 'be back')

*The goal is to create relationships with potential buyers. If you have been wonderful and knowledgeable, when they (customer-client) return they ask for you. This is considered a 'BE BACK'. And this is a very good thing. This is considered to be your 'following', or your' book.'

Well 2 nights ago I had a big sale. And we have a certifiable male lunatic on our showroom floor.

I am really serious. He alone could have his own sitcom. Do you remember 'JACK' from Will & Grace? There were a few times when Jack was hateful and a bore. That is my lunatic !!

And no, this man is not gay. He acts 'straight'.....but I know somewhere inside himself he is deeply confused about something....or all things.

Anyway,he has a woman friend who has appointed herself his protector. But her motives for doing so are entirely to long to discuss now. Let's just say it is about money. LIKE EVERYTHING in retail.

Back to the lunatic, as soon as he sees I am selling and it is a good 'UP' he starts flipping out and telling his female friend (who we shall refer to as Medusa because she is horribly mean to everyone) that he had spent 1.5 hours with (my client) 2 days ago.

This pic is not an exaggeration of the situation. Wierd huh???

*Remember, we are in a beautiful showroom.....

She is a controlling witch, and he is a wimpy, yet evil aggressive jerk at the same time.

So what does he do ?? He sicks the showroom bully, Medusa on me.

Well, not only did my client-customer not ask for the Lunatic by name, but she had stated that the last man (who she did not know his name) was absolutely horrible and too pushy. She did not want to deal with who ever this man was.

The Lunatic is ranting in the office that he had spent time with the customer, and how dare the customer not ask for him - He is saying all this to Medusa.

This is where Medusa comes in......she starts bugging me to split the sale with the Lunatic.

He gets himself so crazy with his usual histrionics, that he goes home early, only to continually call in to see how much my sale was. HUH? %%#%^&()_@#@!%

Pretty weird if you ask me. I never care what other people are doing.

Until the end of the evening Medusa nastily harassed me.

You would really have to work with her to get my meaning. She becomes really nasty and mean when she is not writing business.

But here is where MY GROWTH comes in.......

I normally would split my sale with the Lunatic to shut her up and keep the peace.

I know some of you can relate....I am a people pleaser.

I hate confrontations.

That is why I spend so much time alone,

if I am alone I am not affected by other people's DRAMA. I hate drama too.

Unless it is on 'Dexter' the TV show

Some of you may know that I am the new at this job, and these two characters (or these two lack of characters) are testing me. Right? Right!

Guess what I did?

I did not give in, I stood my ground. I knew that my side of the street was clean.

I have an extremely loud conscious, I never steal a sale.

I worked very hard for the sale, 4 hours long hard.

And through the harassment I kept my composure.

(that was another accomplishment - I didn't tear up)

And when the process and the sale was finally finished, I knew I had made a long time client.

Someone to add to my 'BOOK'.

What do you think about this ??

AHHH....venting is a beutiful thing.

I feel better already.

first image from:(home-biba.blogspot.com)

Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
Interior Design, Palm Beach, Boca Raton,Design Sources, Window Treatments, Custom Design, Paint, Color Coordination, Online Interior Design, Floor Plans, All Custom

And A Good Time Was Had For All

That is, for anyone who ever has been to Tavern On The Green.

Any time of day or night. It was beautiful and special.

Especially if you were young when you went there.

It was a shiny, glittering fairyland.

Taking a small child (or just about anyone else) there during the Christmas season is sure to get some eye popping giant smiles!!

And a lot of 'OOOHS and AHHHS'.

(www.nycgovparks.org)

I always thought the food was very, very mediocre.

But, it still was always a romantic gesture when a young man asked you to

brunch at Tavern On The Green. :)

(nyclovesnyc.blogspot.com)

(www.tylerhill.net)

Do you remember the Tavern ?

Have you been ?

What was your impression of the place?

(webshots-NYC #2 2004 052)

It seems that the Taverns days are numbered.

This is sooooooo depressing.

The Russian Tea Room Closed.

The Horse Stables on the west side of Central Park closed.

I am feeling really sad and old.

When you start saying things like ' In the old days you could go on horse-back to Tavern On The Green for Champagne and caviar.'

ugh.......I am feeling so old!

Mr. Costa said Sotheby’s appraised the restaurant’s furnishings ranging from deer statues to Tiffany-style windows.

A Queens warehouse and its contents — artifacts from Tavern and Mr. LeRoy’s other restaurants — is to be sold next month, he added.

To read the article in the N.Y.T. click here.

Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
Interior Design, Palm Beach, Boca Raton,Design Sources, Window Treatments, Custom Design, Paint, Color Coordination, Online Interior Design, Floor Plans, All Custom,Tavern On The Green

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Happy (Jewish) New Year !!

According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5769.

According to the Chinese calendar, the year is 4706.

This means that the Jews

went without Chinese food for 1,063 years!!!

This period was known as the Dark Ages. HA Ha HA!!!

It is tradition to eat sweets on Rosh Hashanah so that the coming year may be sweet as well.

I am Jewish, but I am 'Jewish Lite.'

(mcbooks.com)

So it is difficult for me to truly stick to tradition, rules, and or any regulations.

(that weeds me right out of the ' keeping Kosher' crowd)

I will be eating the sorts of sweets I really love. I will do this to ensure very,very good luck in my new year, along with chubbier thighs.

I have rated my sweets in this post.

#1 is the warm chocolate cookie and milk above.
#2 is warm Peach Cobbler
#3 is Fudge Cake, ice cream and warm chocolate fudge.
#4 is Bananas Foster . Flaming, and the most delicious of all the 'flamers. '
#5 is Banana Split
#6 is Crepe Suzette. Anything that comes to the table in a ball of fire......is for me.
# 7 is Cherries Jubilee. Another flaming desert.

Culturally speaking, my crowd is all about food.

Which is your favorite ?

Happy New Year !!

Rosh Hashanah

(it begins at sundown today)

If you wish to know more click here.

Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
Interior Design, Palm Beach, Boca Raton,Design Sources, Window Treatments, Custom Design, Paint, Color Coordination, Online Interior Design, Floor Plans, All Custom,Happy Rosh Hashanah

Dexter's New Digs

This is a story about a boy growing up in Miami, he was adopted by a cop who found him at a crime scene. The 'crime scene' was a bloody mess where his mother had been killed with a chain saw by an evil man that she had 'informed' on to the police. The officer who's 'RAT' she was, was the very cop who found the boy sitting in his mothers blood for days. So......the cop adopted the little boy. The boy grows up to be DEXTER, the main character in the Showtime series by the same name.
Dexter and his co-star, who plays his sister in the show. (my daughter tells me they were married in real life - but please don't quote me)
Dexter grows up with his new adopted sister, and they both become cops in Miami.
Dexter is a blood splatter analysis expert. Dexter really likes blood.
Did I mention that Dexter is a serial killer , and that he only kills criminals who have murdered and some how escaped the system????

The man above is the man who murdered his mother.

He finally gets him.

This is his love interest. She is adorable, and she got pregnant last season.

This season should open with another killing by Dexter and their wedding.

Lovely.
This is the EVIL B-ZITCH Lila, that Dexter killed last year. (thank g-d)

Everyone was cheering him on for this murder.

She was as sick as they come.

She just needed to go!
This is my darling Dexter's pleasure boat. He uses this boat to dump the bodies.
Not a soul has any idea that he is a killer.

Not one cop.

OOPS! Well, one cop did. But he is gone now.

This is a dream sequence where Dexter dreamt that he was dragging a victim through the Miami police departments offices.

The entire cast by his boat.

Here it is below....A Tribute To The Dexter TV series on Showtime.

Dexter's New Diggs
This is supposed to be his home.
The designer of the apartment/loft wrapped herself in his 'kill room' plastic wrap.
The chairs are supposed represent 'binding' as in 'rope' that he ties his victims up with.

Although, I have never seen him do that. He usually shoots them up with something to knock them out, and the next thing you see is his (well deserved) victim lying flat on a table held in place with saran wrap. And then he shows them pictures of their victims, and yep, you guessed it...it's curtains for them. SO SAD...TOO BAD.
The new season's first episode is this Sunday.

I have included the TV listings at the bottom of this post.
And to think.....some of you thought I was a bleeding heart liberal.

I do believe in capitol punishment. Evil killers getting away with a slap on the wrists and a cell with all the comforts of home? Nope. Doesn't work for me.

And getting a college degree too?

Too bad there isn't a real DEXTER. Think of all the money our government could save.

*just copy & paste the sites in your address bar

http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/schedule.do

http://billwardwriter.com/do-you-take-dexter-morgan-season-3-finale-and-recap/

http://tv.yahoo.com/michael-hall/contributor/477732/photos/6

The Dexter Apartment is from the N.Y.Times.

Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
Interior Design, Palm Beach, Boca Raton,Design Sources, Window Treatments, Custom Design, Paint, Color Coordination, Online Interior Design, Floor Plans, All Custom

Starting Over In 1979

It was 1979 and I was living and working in Manhattan.

My childhood idol was Candice Bergen. (The only person that I wanted to look and be like as a kid)

She was filming a movie with Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh. I was working in the same building that they were filming the movie, and it was a thrill for me to see C.B. over and over for weeks.

BTW, this is a hilarious film, and I believe it is her first comedic role in a movie.

She was brilliant. I am sure that her performance in this movie was a turning point in her career, and why today she is mainly remains a comedic actress.
The building (the movie 'location') was right next to where Ms. Bergen lived as well - on 72ND and Central Park West.

These are some shots of Candice Bergen's home in the city on CPW, as featured in Architectural Digest c.1979.
This view is always "in", with any decor at all.

Don't you agree ?

The leather Mexican chairs are still being sold if you can believe it.

Does the design style of her home take you back ?????

Do you remember what you were doing in 1979 ?

Renee Finberg 'TELLS ALL' in her BLOG.....
Interior Design, Palm Beach, Boca Raton,Design Sources, Window Treatments, Custom Design, Paint, Color Coordination, Online Interior Design, Floor Plans, All Custom