Grooming Awesomeness

I'm in a writing and posting mood, so here it goes.

Here are some pictures of my dogs, my friend's dog, and some that I've groomed.

before

after

Kitty!

Airedale cut

Kitty supports the Bengals

Maya!

Maya and Rubie

Mickey

Indecision

Well indecision seems to be sticking around... I love grooming. I've been with PetSmart far too long, and I'm working with dogs and I thoroughly enjoy what I do. But I'm also a student at UC majoring in communication, minoring in psychology, and getting a certificate in Arabic. I love school, let's face it I've been a nerd since I can remember but I also love animals (I wanted to be a vet most of my childhood). Hence, the indecision...

I've come to the conclusion, that for the first time in my life I have no idea what the hell I want. It's a scary thought to admit that, but it's true. I changed my major a couple of times, knowing that I wanted to work with people. And I feel that I still really want that, but there is another thing that plays into it. My boyfriend has a certain medical issue, and when we starting getting more serious that's when my outlook changed. No longer is it just me watching out for myself, it's also me doing what's best for my family. The relationship I'm in now isn't just another relationship, this man truly is the one. Something was telling me from when we first started dating, and now after everything we've been through I realized... him and I were meant for each other.

I guess that's why I'm also scared. I'm so happy how everything is going, but as I said before I'm no longer just looking out for myself. I just want to be sure I'm doing what's in our best interest and I want to be sure that I'm also going to be doing something that I love and makes me happy.

New Directions

So I just transferred stores. I've been with PetSmart for over 5 years now and I'm finally starting to do things on my own. I stayed with the store I started at for about 3 years. I loved Bridgewater. It was an awesome location, the customers were nice, and the drama wasn't crazy.... until the end. The drama wasn't what made me leave though, it was the wonderful world of college. I decided that it was time for me to maybe try something new, so I landed at job at Teller's of Hyde Park as a hostess. Holy snobbsville... the people who dined there and the people who worked there were an absolute nightmare. Needless to say I lasted three months before quitting and coming back to PetSmart.

Before I continue, I should probably mention that during all of this I was a bather. In other words, I was doing all the bitch work for near minimum wage. So when I decided to go back to PetSmart, I talked to my best friend, a groomer I had worked with at Bridgewater. Come to find out she became the salon manager at Western Hills, a store actually pretty damn close to campus. That was an easy decision. Work for my best friend and a store manager I knew. Done and done. That's when things started rolling.

I was a bather for all of a few months at this store before she convinced me to go to groom school. This ended up being a double edged sword. It was an awesome opportunity to earn more money but bad in the sense that now I love it to the point where I'm willing to take a break from school. I guess we'll see how this turns out...

Let me just say that PetSmart in an inadvertent trap. You might go in thinking it's a temporary job, but then it ends up turning into a career. Yikes.

Anyways... back to the whole title of this blog. After about a year and a half at the Western Hills location, I decided to transfer. My motives behind this decision, will be explained at a later time. But for now...I'll tell you this. Going to a new location where you know absolutely no one, can give any confident groomer the jitters. I'm now at West Chester. This location is the exact opposite of where I was working. I'll simplify this a little:

Western Hills (ghetto)---------Bridgewater Falls (middle class)----------West Chester VOA (wealthy).

I just went from complete trashy, ghetto customers to complete snobby, too good to be here, customers. In other words, two different worlds, two very similar attitudes.

Now that I'm at this new location, dealing with equally shitty customers, who are even less willing to spoil their prized pooches, and I'm dealing with the fact that I know no one here. I'm not in friendly company, the management is questionable at this point, and I'm just hoping things turn out for the best. That's all anyone wants really, is for things to just be okay.

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day, and things get better from here.