Kai's Weblog

Remember last week I wrote about that store, Steve and Barry's, that was selling everything in its store, including winter coats, jeans, and polo shirts, for $9.95 or less (see entry)?

Well, Friday I returned to the Carousel Center. It turns out that instead of ending the sale and raising prices to somewhat "normal" levels, they decided to put the entire store on clearance and sell everything at $7.95 or less. Now I feel ripped off for spending $8 more than I would have later in the week!

I emailed my complaint to retail columnist Bob Niedt of the Syracuse Post-Standard, and he mentioned my complaint in his daily retail notebook (see entry):

From ex-Vestalian now current Syracusan Kai Brinker:

"I feel like Steve & Barry's let me down! They opened with a 'Grand Opening Special' of everything priced at $9.95 or less, which I abused, and now, what, like two weeks later, when you'd expect the sale to end, they reduce everything to $7.95 or less because of a 'Clearance Sale!' Seriously, who lowers their prices, let alone clearances-out their items after a 'Grand Opening Sale!?' This playing with my wallet cost me a whole eight dollars! Unbelievable!"

Yow! OK, Kai, you're tapped out. Forget buying me anything. Pressure off? Steve & Barry's is generating some mad business with this crazy pricing. Landing the SU license before opening in Syracuse was a smart move, whatever they paid.

Saturday I got my first haircut since... July!? I don't even remember! Anyway, those loyal readers of my weblog over the past five years know how awkward getting a haircut is for me! I never know what to tell the hairstylist when he or she (it has always been 'she') asks what I'd like done with my hair. On Friday, once again, I just responded that I'd like it "significantly shorter." Then I was asked whether I'd like it cut or clipped. I suggested both, upon which the technical hairstylist talk started, involving the numbers of clippers. The hairstylist suggested a 'number four' to which I consented but then quickly asked if there was something larger. Apparently there's a 'number six,' but I was warned that my hair would still be left pretty short. Since I don't really care what happens to my hair as long as there's some of it left by the end of the session, I said that that would be fine.

Then there's that awkward fifteen minutes or so while my haircut is being undertaken. I just sit there staring at the mirror. This time the hairstylist didn't even try to start some random conversation with me on what I do for a living and didn't even tell me to angle my head differently. I even considered using the weather as an icebreaker. Finally, as my haircut was almost complete, another stylist came by and stared in disbelief as the inches of red hair on the ground and commented on it. I made some random reference to sheering the wool off a sheep or something.

After the haircut, I wandered around the mall aimlessly, trying to find something to do on my first full day of freedom. I thought I'd go watch a movie, so I went to the cinema level and stared at the over a dozen movie titles that would begin within the next 30 minutes. I wasn't interested in any of the ones I recognized, so I went down to the Carousel Newsstand and bought a newspaper so I could read about the others. None of those sounded interesting either, so I gave up and drove home.

Then I wrote this entry (more or less), but lost it due the malfunction of some new plugin I had installed. Since it was already way to late and I had to be at work in the morning, I postponed rewriting again until tonight. I worked a total of 18.5 hours Saturday and Sunday, which was quite exhausting because it was of the busiest weekends of the year.