OliveSF's Profile

Display Name: OliveSF
Member Since: 10/4/12

Latest Comments...

I want it all! I like both urban and rural.

Growing up my childhood home in the suburbs was located in a place where a 30 minute drive north and we'd be in downtown San Francisco, or a 30 minute drive west and we'd be at a vegetable stand at a coastal farm. Now, those same drives take closer to 1 hour due to traffic.


Urban vs Rural: What's in Your Blood?
1/4/13 4:42 PM

One thing I do to help streamline things when I'm buying multiple gifts, especially at candy or flower shops, is to write out lists specifically for the shopclerk of what I need.

Instead of walking in and saying I need 5 boxes of truffles and 2 bags of hard candies and 3 boxes of assorted chocolates, but one of those must have no raspberry or peanuts (how is anyone but you going to keep all that straight?), I write that all down on a piece of paper that is tailored in a way a clerk can clearly and efficiently box things up. If they are swamped and I have more shopping to do, I let them know that and that I'll be back at a certain time to pick everything up, so to take their time (this is usually accompanied with a sympathetic look while rolling my eyes at the rude customer that is demanding something from the clerk's colleague).

I have never had a complaint from a clerk about doing things this way, and they often remark on how considerate that was. People will appreciate that you value their time just as much as your own.


Surviving Holiday Shopping:
Lessons From a Shopgirl
12/6/12 5:18 PM

If you need household items and are in dire financil straights, wouldn't you talk about these things with your friends rather than send out invitations to everyone in your address book? There's a big difference between sending out an invitation with links to your C and B or W-S registries and confiding in a friend over coffee that you were baking a cake last night only to discover that John had taken the rubber spatulas when he moved out (the jerk doesn't even bake!). One behavior will get you spatulas gifted from me, the other will make me think you are acting kind of entitiled.


Breakup Shower: Would You Throw One?
Would You Want One?
10/4/12 3:17 PM