Oh the weather outside is frightful....

Okay, so it's not frightful exactly, but it is SNOWING!!! It snowed hard all morning yesterday and then the sun came out and everything melted. I guess we'll see what happens this afternoon.... Oh yeah and my computer says it's 25 degrees outside! This is early for snow and mid-20s temps. even for Park City!

Yesterday I got up early and braved the weather to go yard sale shopping. I found 3 in the local paper so I went to all of them, and I saw a sign for a fourth while I was driving around so I stopped there as well. What I was really hoping to find was a dresser or a bookcase (or both!!) and I found neither. I know you're probably thinking "Didn't she buy a dresser the other day?" Yes, I did, but it's just a baby dresser as you can see from the photo so I still have to open a suitcase every time I need a shirt or pair of pants, and that's not fun. I did get my closet and suitcases all organized at least, but this is only a temporary solution. I spent all day getting my room in better shape yesterday so that I feel like I actually live here. I still have some more cleaning to do but I made a lot of progress!

I did find 3 things yesterday for a total of $15!! I bought the pretty flowered mirror for $5 at the first yard sale, nothing at the second and the bench with my TV on it for $8 at the third. I would have bought an actual TV stand at the fourth but while I was looking for a person to find out how much it was some loud-mouthed biotch asked and got it for $5. I was so mad I had to leave. I was mad about some other things too by the way and there wasn't really anything else good there.

I also went to that thrift shop I was told about. I actually went twice since when I went the first time they weren't open even though they should have been. I went back later and I was actually impressed with the furniture. The inside of the shop was awful! It was so cluttered and messy I could barely walk around. The furniture was outside which made it easier to look at, but it was still snowing pretty heavily so everything was covered. But there was a lot of decent stuff. The prices were really varied depending on what it was and what condition it was in. I found one coffee table that I liked but it was $60. I asked about a smaller, not as nice, white coffee table and the guy told me he'd sell it to me for $2!! How could I pass that up? It's not much to look at, but I'm on a budget here and it'll get the job done!! So the morning wasn't a total bust. I even got a little tunnel toy thing for Belami that the woman who sold me the bench gave me for free!

I was going to drive to IKEA and Urban Outfitters today for some more stuff for the apartment, but those are all the way in SLC and Draper, which is even further. With this snow I think I'll just lay low- go to the grocery store (I really need to do that!) and maybe watch one of the 2 Netflix I've had for a week now. I've been too busy and too into my book to watch any movies lately.

I'll definitely be too busy to watch any Netflix from January 15-25 since I'll be at Sundance!! I'm in the clear to buy tickets! It's a whole process and first you have to register for a time to buy and then you buy. My time to buy is October 23- see what I mean about it being a similar process to registering for college courses?

As I buy more stuff for the apartment I'll post more pics, but I have a feeling this is going to be a slow process. I snuck in a photo of Belami doing one of his model poses for everyone to enjoy too!

I live in pretty places.

I've had some blog requests so I decided to write a little something before I head off to work today.

Yesterday I experienced the joy of getting something done to my car without knowing anyone in the area. I had to spend the 2 1/2 hours it took to change my oil and fix something with my brakes sitting in the waiting room. Luckily I started a really good book yesterday called The Monster of Florence which is about Italy's own Jack The Ripper-type killer. Katie, I would recommend this book to you since you lived in Florence for a while. I bet you would recognize a lot of the places where the murders happened.

While I was waiting for my car I grabbed The Park Record (local newspaper) and found 3 yard sales happening this Saturday so I'm going to get up early and see if I can find myself some furniture! Yesterday I bought a small yellow dresser from a consignment shop here in town. It was $53, in a store where everything else was really expensive. When I told the woman who was working that I liked the dresser she asked if I had seen the similar red one in the back of the store, and when I said no she showed me a huge $800 dresser.... why she thought these 2 things were similar in look or price is beyond me but I quickly told her that was way out my price range so she showed me a much more reasonably priced dresser at just $300. WTF?!? I clearly wasn't getting through to this woman so I just told her that I have to furnish an entire apartment so I can't spend a lot on one piece. She told me to check out another consignment shop that I believe she said is connected with a church in the area, so I'll do that this weekend too. Plus, a woman at work will be giving me a few things for the apartment this weekend as well. By Monday we could be furnished! I'll just have to connect with Laura Lee and see what she wants to do because she said that she really hates wasting a Saturday morning with yard sales. I personally really like going to yard sales and I'm excited to do so, although the forecast calls for light snow. Anyway, I think we should go together so that we can decide who will buy what and she also has a much bigger car than I do.

I have another movie recommendation for everyone! If you haven't seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you need to! It's really funny and sweet! Beware of full frontal male nudity- it happens a few times! It's a pretty raunchy film all around, but I loved it!

There was a list on Yahoo.com yesterday of the prettiest towns in America. Park City and Portsmouth, NH were both on the list!! I'm certainly doing well in terms of living in beautiful places! There were a lot of other New England towns on the list and many more in other parts of the country. I thought it was cool that I have lived in 2 of them!

Time for work!

I wish I caught SNL last night!

Why, you ask?

Because maybe I would have recognized The Killers' drummer, Ronnie Vannucci, when he came into J. Crew today and bought a ton of stuff!!!

One of our other customers knew who he was and started asking him what it was like to play Saturday Night Live this weekend and what he was doing in Park City. Turns out he has a house here and apparently he didn't pack any clothes for the trip. So where did he decide to buy a new wardrobe? That's right, J. Crew! He was super friendly and nice and he even opened up a credit card with us!

Before today I wouldn't have known the drummer for The Killers if I'd tripped on him. I know this isn't quite the celebrity status you were all hoping I'd wait on here in Park City, but come on, that's a really famous band! He's no Carol Burnett, but I still thought it was cool.

*He's the one with his arms crossed in the photo- although he was sans handelbar mustache today. Looks a little like Jason Lee in that pic, huh?

Home, home on the (driving?) range.

Greetings from my new apartment! My new, empty apartment with the big hole in the window from the golf ball that came flying through it the day I moved in. Actually the ball must have bounced back out because we can't find it anywhere!

For those of you who may not know, my apartment is directly behind the driving range of the Park City golf course. My landlord told us that a window is broken a couple times a year. I would have thought it would be the higher windows because there are a bunch of trees and a fence right in front of our windows. There are also nets over most of the house, but this particular golfer must have been a really good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) shot. They have already made arrangements to have it fixed, but it hasn't happened yet. I hope they repair the window soon since we are supposed to get a couple of inches of snow tomorrow!

It has been an interesting past few days at work. Yesterday one of the lights in our stockroom caught on fire!!! One of our associates, Jared, was moving around boxes of hangers and one of them bumped the light and it began smoking, sparking and there was even a flame! I was eating my dinner and working on some stuff in the office when I heard Jared's worried voice.

"Uhhh.... Heather.... there's something wrong with one of the lights."

As soon as I got near it I could smell the burning and when I saw the sparks and fire I quickly turned off the lights and we called an electrician to come fix it. I am scared of our stock room when I am back there by myself and last night it was especially awful because with the lights off it is pitch black until you get to the office! I'm so glad we noticed the problem when we did, otherwise there would have been a real fire!

Then today we had our first celebrity shopper! Leslie Bibb, of Talledega Nights, Ironman, and for the Paul Walker fans- The Skulls, came into J. Crew today! She was quiet, nice and for the most part kept to herself. I talked to her a few times and helped her out- however, when asked who assisted her at the register she said no one did!!! I was, of course, the only person that knew who she was, but when the cashier, Matt, didn't recognize her zip code and asked where she was from she said L.A. and he could tell what her signature said. It was pretty cool, to me anyway, although the people I've told so far have been less than impressed. I'm sorry, when was the last time you told a famous person that you don't sell cashmere V-neck sweaters?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Just you all wait until Sundance, I'll have more celebrity sightings under my belt than you can shake a stick at! I may not have used that expression correctly.....

So, the posted pics are the only ones Ive taken of the new place so far. More to come soon, once we start getting some furniture in here. I didn't take a photo of my bedroom only because it is covered in all of my stuff right now since I haven't had time to organize anything.

I guess I jumped the gun on thanking everyone for participating in my CD... way to make me feel loved out here ALL BY MYSELF! Colin, I appreciate your prompt response, and good song choice. For anyone who would like to redeem themselves and actually play along, I'll extend the deadline to next weekend. It can be your favorite song of all time, or your favorite song of the moment. Katie, to answer your question I prefer upbeat to slow, but anything will do! Between everyone ignoring me about this and the fact that I am scheduled to close practically EVERY FLIPPIN' DAY so I miss DWTS each week and the damn player won't work on my computer even after I sent abc.com a desperate plea for help- I could use a little cheering up!

New address!

I move into the new place tomorrow so here is my address:

1980 Three Kings Dr.
Park City, UT 84060

I just have to find out if there will be a unit or apartment number since it is at a family's house- I'll ask about that tomorrow when I see Suzettte or Laura Lee to make sure.

Okay that's all. Sorry this is such a short blog, I have to do some more packing before I go to work. I do have a favor to ask everyone, however....

As many of you know I love to make mix CD's (Tricia, yours is DONE! I'll mail it tomorrow) and since I'm up here in the mountains the radio stations don't come in very well so I've been making mixes for myself. I had an idea for a mix with the favorite songs of all of YOU!! So can everyone tell me their favorite song- or if you can't pick an absolute favorite, just tell me one that you REALLY LOVE. If you don't know how to leave a comment you can send it to me via email hjparisi@yahoo.com please. Once everyone has given me their choices, I'll make a list for you all to see everyone's favorite! So think about it and get it to me by the weekend. I also figure this will be a nice little reminder of everyone far away from me, because every time I hear the songs, I'll think of you!

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING!!

Spoiler alert!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE OFFICE SEASON PREMIERE!!!

More on that later.....

Well folks, today I received my key to the new apartment! True to form, by the time I drove the 5 minutes it takes me to get back to my current apartment, I forgot that I had this new key and accidentally tried to unlock the door with it since it looks just like the key I use for this place, freaking out when it didn't work. Nice one, Heath. I brought over a few things that Belami likes to sleep on so that Laura Lee's kitties can smell him before we move in on Tuesday. I let Laura Lee have the bigger room because I seriously don't care, they are both nice with big closets (YES!!) and their own bathrooms. So other than the futon that is in my room I'll have to buy all new furniture. Any tips on furniture purchasing? There's an IKEA nearby, which I'll have to hit up, and I have a gift card to Pottery Barn, so I should be able to get a few things without spending TOO much money. As soon as I move in I'll take and post photos and figure out exactly how the mail works so you can all send me cards, goodies or whatever you like.... hint, hint :)

Back to the title of my blog: How excited are we that Jim proposed!?! At the same time I feel like things have been going a bit too smoothly for our lovebirds and wonder if something will happen to mess things up. That worries me! I thought the premiere of The Office was great and funny, love that show, glad to have it back!

Last night I went out for sushi on Main Street with Stacie and Kim at a place called The Flying Sumo. It was delicious and when Stacie was dropping me off we saw the funniest thing! It was about 9pm and my neighbors came out of their garage on a tandem bike! And there was a person holding onto the rider on the back! Nothing like a late night, 3-person-to-a-bike ride. Seriously, who does that???

Today was my first official day off where I had nothing to do with J. Crew. Or so I thought.... I guess Stacie called one of our employees and instead of calling the store or calling Stacie, he called me, claiming mine was the only number he had. Okaaaay? Why didn't he just call the number that showed on his phone? Anyway, we'll try again tomorrow, maybe I'll have a truly J.Crew-free day!

Don't forget to watch Wayne Pacelle on Ellen tomorrow where he'll talk about Prop 2. Click on his blog to the right to read all about it!

J. Crew & Park City: A Match Made in Cashmere Heaven.

Well opening day has come and gone and what success we had! I can't display exact numbers, but we were up 800% to our planned volume by the end of the day!! I was TUCKERED OUT by the time I went home, but it was a great opening! People in the area were psyched about J. Crew's official arrival to Park City. They are used to shopping retail so the promotions were quite appealing. The best seller today was our women's cashmere cardigans which are a great deal at the moment! Mom and Dad sent flowers to me and my wonderful staff for good luck on our first day, and clearly, it worked! Thanks from Team Park City :) Tomorrow will probably be just as busy, actually, I'm pretty sure that we are going to be slammin' for the first week at least- maybe more. I'll keep you all up to date on the happenings! Oh! And I asked Jackie about my earrings (as I noticed her 2 earrings per ear) and she said that she is not concerned with it as long as I look nice and put together. Which, by the way, I thought I did today! My opening outfit was a new tweed pencil skirt and a haberdashery shirt (button-up) with flats and a pretty beaded necklace- I was comfortable, which is super important, and I felt like I looked good too! I was glad that I decided not to wear a warmer outfit because we had a problem with the thermostats today. It was so hot in the store that we had to go buy ice and bottles of water to hand out to the customers!! We should have that fixed soon- thank goodness!!

Okay, so is anyone else a DWTS fanatic like me? Ever since I first started watching this show I have wondered why I like it so much and I think it is a combination of things:

1. It's LIVE! I love the fact that anything can happen, and it does! From injuries and swearing to wardrobe malfunctions and technical difficulties you just never know what to expect! Live television is exciting television!

2. Tom Bergeron is phenomenal! He does live TV so well because he's quick and not afraid to look silly. He always has a funny comment for everything and he gets right back into the swing of things if anything goes wrong.

3. Dancing is FUN TO WATCH!! Especially when one half of the dancing team doesn't really know what he or she is doing- it just makes things more interesting and entertaining. Those professionals are amazing. They not only dance, they choreograph the routines themselves! I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into the show each week.

4. The costumes! From the dancers to Samantha Harris, the wardrobe is beautiful and outrageous and I love it!

5. The suspense. Each week on elimination night I get all nervous about who is going home! I always hope it's not my favorite couple, but up until tonight I have never voted. I decided to be proactive this season and fight to keep the best dancers out on the floor!

6. For the most part it is actually a dance competition as opposed to a popularity contest, especially in the later weeks. Usually the best dancer wins, and if the rest of America is like me, the more we watch the show, the better dance critics we become. I can actually tell the different dances from one another just by watching them and pick out the talented couples.

I've learned one thing about this show: funny guys don't last. The first couple voted off was Jeffrey Ross and Edyta Sliwinksa, much like last season's early exit by Adam Carolla. Apparently comedians and dancing don't go together. It doesn't matter how good your partner is and how witty you are, if you can talk the talk, but not walk the walk, you're going home.

So here are my early favorites...

Brooke Burke seems to have the most natural talent so far. She seems very grateful for praise she receives from the judges and it looks like she's having fun and really trying. Derek is kind of annoying (especially after his pairing with Shannon Elizabeth last season) but he knows his stuff.

Toni Braxton also looks good out there in terms of natural ability. She also seems to be working hard and is very appreciative of the judges' comments. She has a good partner too- a former DWTS champ!

Misty May-Treanor and Maksim Chmerkovskiy aren't bad and I'm biased towards Maks since I've always had a little crush on him and think he was robbed of the trophy when he danced with Mel B.

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer are like a little punk rock couple and I'm loving it! She's a new pro this season and she's got spunk and flexibility, plus Lance isn't bad either. This competition has been good to N'Sync in the past.

Oh my goodness, are you all bored to death? Maybe not, but I'm tired and tomorrow is sure to be another long day, but luckily it's the end to my 8 straight FULL days of work. It will be nice to have a couple of days off in a row to relax and get some stuff done.

Good night and have a happy hump day :)