1) Those larger than life, wiser than wise, funny, strong, sassy divas that can "take you to church" with just one look out of the corner of their eye.

2) Innovative marketing strategies.




"On the chest of a barmaid from Sale
Was tatooed all the prices of ale
Whilst on her behind
For the sake of the blind
Was precisely the same but in braille"

-Captain Peacock "Our Figures are Slipping"

Well, we took the dogs to the store with us today, so they could see their new digs. Rex doesn't travel well. He loves when we say "Let's go fer car ride!" and he jumps in the back of the SUV like a crazy boy, but when the car starts moving, he freezes and freaks out a little. Anyway, we got there before he started panicking too much...it's a short ride...10 minutes. I have a 10 minute commute now! Hell yes! Don't get me started on Atlanta traffic.

The dogs set out exploring the place, Gracie immediately took a nervous giant dump on the paper we have covering the hardwood floor at the front, Marc continued working on the sound system, and I retired to my little cell in the stockroom pricing stuff. (Note to self...about time to start thinking about employees, dumb ass)

One of our sales reps, and one of our biggest angels and friends, Robyn came by to visit to see how things were going. She brought toys for the dogs and treats for Marc and me. I'm still battling this crappy bug, so she brought some herbal medicines for me as well.

Here's what she did, which I thought was sorta interesting and "woo-woo". (Woo-woo is what my friend Tim calls anything witchy and new-agey)

She had two concoctions...one was a brew for viral infections and one was a brew for bacterial infections. She made me hold one at a time in my hand with my elbow resting on my stomach. Then she waved a threaded needle over my hand. From the way the needle moved, she said it was bacterial and gave me the tincture for bacterial infections. It has a bunch of essential oils from enhinacea and other stuff in it and it tastes nas-tay. I'm taking it...we'll see.

I made my final draft for music for the store tonight. Bangin' hot selection, ifn I do say so myself. The song playing is by my favs, Thievery Corporation.

CHILL/PROGRESSIVE LOUNGE

"Hotel D'Amour" (various artists)
"Hotel Costes 8" (various)
"Hotel Costes 9" (various)
"Best of Hotel Costes" (various)
"Cafe de Flore: Rendezvous a Saint Germain 1" (various)
"Cafe de Flore: Rendezvous a Saint Germain 2" (various)
"Mirror Conspiracy" (Thievery Corporation)
"Cosmic Game" (Thievery Corporation)
"Versions" (Thievery Corporation)
"The Garden" (Zero 7)
"Simple Things" (Zero 7)
"Dirty Martini" (various)
"Rendezvous Lounge 1" (various)
"Rendezvous Lounge 2" (various)

WORLD BEAT

"Tanto Tempo" (Bebel Gilberto)
"Mar Azul" (Ceasaria Evora)
"Hang on Little Tomato" (Pink Martini)

STANDARDS/DIVAS

"20th Century Master: Etta James"
"Verve Remixed 1" (various)
"Sirens of Song" (various)
"Cocktails With Cole Porter"

WOO-WOO (for my beautiful gay girls...uh hello, Decatur is the lesbian capital of the world after all)

"Wintersong" (Sarah McLachlen)
"Nuages Du Monde" (Delerium)

HOUSE/ELECTRO (for Friday and Saturday nights)

"Southport Weekender 3" (various)
"David Waxman's Ultra Electro" (various)

****Peace and Love, T

Marc installed the sound system at the store today. After some adjustment and tweaking...it kicks! I've been obssessing over the music assortment for the CDs we are going to carry and play in the store to compliment all the other merchandise. I think I've come up with 24 amazing titles to offer. Buying the lifestyle music to sell and play in-store for the chain I worked for was always one of my favorite things to do, naturally.

I like a good mix of new cutting edge downtempo chill, acid jazz, world beats, house, standards and divas, and blues. There's a new house style coming out of London from this summer called "ultra electro"...and DJ David Waxman has distilled the essence of it on his new compilation. I can't freakin wait for it to be playing and selling in the store. It is amazing and HOT. If you can listen to it and not shake your junk, well then...ya must be dead!

So anyway...Marc installed the sound system. I priced all this shit that wasn't actually supposed to be arriving until Monday. Some crazy ass vendors ignored our ship date and sent stuff early...but that's cool. He pointed out that this was the first day we have officially worked together at the store. The first of many. Shit...plenty of people are in business with their spouse and live to tell about it. Right? Right????

Ok, so anyway. John sent us some pics of the smudging.



We are still looking at some of them and rubbing our eyes. See those orbs around my sweater? There are some other odd light formations in a lot of them. I dunno.

To say this morning felt like the first day on a new job is an understatement. The contractors are all but done at the space. One more skim-coat on the sales floor and a bit of exterior paint around the door frame tomorrow, and they are out of there.  

 

I officially moved my little operational dog and pony show into the stockroom this morning.  I’ve been working out of our house for the past five weeks since I left my old 9 to 7 job.  I know some people love working from home and function really well.  Not me…my whole schedule went topsy turvy.  My sleeping and waking hours went crazy.  Being out of a regiment got weird.  I started feeling sorta isolated after not being around a core of co-workers.  By week 2 and 1/2, I was trying to engage Gracie and Rex in idle office gossip and yelling at them because they refused to file or fax with any aplomb.

 

Me, my boom box, my Holmes Twin Ceramic space heater, and MY first 86 boxes of freight.  Strangely extremely invigorating and strangely extremely Zen.

 

Bored yet?   

 

The Smudging

 

Yall know me.  I’d rather spend my time crackin’ and shmackin’ rather than talk about religion.  I register 90% traditional in that respect...my faith in the Lord is solid…with a side of Buddhism. I do; however, have a pedestrian knowledge of, and a respect for Wicca, and have had many friends who practice it. I feel that my curiosity and acceptance of another’s faith in no way compromises my Christian beliefs.

 

So one of our Wiccan friends offered to lead us in a sage smudging for the new store and we were excited and of course agreed. I had never experienced a smudging and it was extremely interesting…and actually very spiritual. We began the ceremony at 7pm Friday night.

 

Here’s how it went….I am going to keep all this in terms I understand.

 

She asked for dimensions of the interior space and the entire building.

 

She asked for the names and birth dates of the principle players in the business and the date of incorporation.  She did the numerology of the business based in these dates. Very cool. Then she went even further...she shared some information about the herbal and spiritual properties of the Heliotrope plant. We knew some, but we actually sorta picked the name for the store because we thought it sounded intriguing and different. Very very cool.

 

She asked that as many people as possible that were to be involved in the business show up for the smudging.  We had 7 people gathered.

 

First, we all spread salt along the four corners of the outside of the building for cleansing.

 

Then she did a “grounding” exercise for herself, Marc, and I.  You close your eyes with your feet placed solidly on the ground.  You meditate and visualize the energy of the earth rising through the bottoms of your feet, then visualize the light above you descending through the top of your head.  You visualize the point on your body where these meet, and you sense your center.

 

Then we lit the sage sticks.  She had us face the north walls first.  She read the healing aspects and attributes of the north and had us wave the sticks against the north wall. She repeated this for the east, south, and west walls of the space…then the center.

 

(Marc and I noticed that we kept having to blow on the sticks to keep the embers glowing.  S told us that this is intentional…as you blow, you are releasing your energy into the sticks….I thought that was very cool)

 

After we had covered the entire space, she gathered us all in the middle and she led a prayer for peace, prosperity, and love…not just for the 7 of us gathered there, but for everyone that will pass through the doors to our new space.

 

I gotta say…whatever your faith may be…..her kind of sentiment, affirmation, love, and keen grasp is remarkable and honorable.  

 

Thank you S.

 

P.S. Marc and I didn't know if it was respectful to bring cameras. S said it was cool, so Chanda and John got some interesting shots of the ceremony. I'll put some up tomorrow.

...all I really need is what I can gather from my porch.

The sound of crickets and raindrops. Four dogs rustling about in earnest pursuit of their four agendas on the porch and front lawn. The band of errant chipmonks, duly noted by the dogs beyond the gate, scurrying across the backyard, setting up shop for the winter in our shed.

The smell on a dog's coat after she has lounged in the Rosemary hedge in the waning sun of an autumn afternoon. Four pairs of big, beautiful brown eyes at feeding time. Love unconditional, life aware and flowing...peace and progress at the Dog House tonight.



Gracie and Rex soaking up the last long rays of sun of the year. Gracie loves to rub up against the giant Rosemary shrubs in the front. She runs in the house and always makes sure we smell her perfume. She is definitely haute couture. That's my girl.



Our guests for the week...Jasmine (yaz-meeeeen) and Beauregard (bo-bo). We get to keep them a few times a year when their daddy Eric runs off to points around the globe. They love getting out of their tony Virginia Highlands digs and spending time with their cousins here in the ghetto.

T