Thanksgiving Day Parade 2011

The EricDStokes.com Thanksgiving Day Parade is back! Since I have been MIA on the blog for the past few months this will be an ideal time for you to get caught up on all my hot news. Leading the way to start this year’s parade is a large pineapple balloon celebrating the 6^th season of Psych. Psych is currently my favorite show on television. I enjoy the quick humor and overall clean episodes. Yes I’m still missing the TV show LOST something fierce... But Psych has brought some joy back into my TV viewing. Next we have a balloon celebrating the new Job I started earlier in 2011. I now work at Allen Communications in downtown Salt Lake City as a “Design Lead”. I love working at Allen, the people are great, and the job is very fast paced and fun. As a Design Lead I have the opportunity to create training (both computer based and instructor lead) for a wide variety of clients. Working at Allen has also given me the opportunity to meet a number of great individuals around the country and go on several business trips to Rhode Island.

Next it’s Duffy the Disney Bear. This year during our annual trip to Disneyland we met Duffy for the first time… Duffy is a big hit in Japan, but Americans as a whole haven’t been as accepting of Duffy (much to the dismay of Disney Stockholders and Disney board members). Nevertheless and notwithstanding the trip to California was great. It's always wonderful to chill in California with the family.Up next is something I’ve been waiting almost a full year for… P90X 2 is coming out this December. For the past year or two I have been obsessed with P90X. It has totally changed the way I exercise (i.e. I now include weights in my workout routine instead of just constantly running for excise). No I don't have giant muscles... Yet... But I do find it fun that I can do more push-ups and pull-ups than your average 5'9" guy.Here comes the Captain America shield I used as part of my Halloween costume. I had to make it myself out of a pizza pan because all the shields available were for either super obsessed fans (i.e. a real shield for $200) or for little kids (i.e. 12 inches wide… thus not protecting me at all.) And one additional side note... I really enjoyed the movie Captain America. Something about a small skinny guy with a good heart getting large muscles speaks to me.

I don't have a picture to represent one of the most meaningful things that I’ve been involved with for the past year or so... At church I've been able to work closely with many of the guys in the Elders Quorum (the men’s organization for my church). In two different wards, (aka congregations) the University 32nd Ward and in the Deer Hollow Ward. Because of this I've been able to meet, work with, serve, and be served by an endless array of studs.And last but not least... As with every year you know that Christmas has arrived on EricDStokes.com when the Christmas fedora makes it's appearance. So that should update you on the past few months of my life.

Hope ya'll have had a great Thanksgiving! And please keep me posted on any Hot news in your life.

A first time for everything...

Whenever I go shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch I always come out shaking my head because of the interaction I have with the employees in the store. (In all truth I think they like the title “store model” and not “employee”.) It’s no secret that A&F is rather selective in their hiring process, they hire individuals that portray their brand/image/style. This equates to really good looking college aged individuals who possibly could be models if they weren’t gainfully employed at Abercrombie and Fitch. Sadly I have found a negative side effect to this hiring policy. (No… Not all the negative press that comes from only hiring individuals that have a specific body type/build.) On a regular basis I’m stuck waiting in a long line because the good looking individual at the cash register can’t seem to figure out how to complete the order or process a return. So then another good looking individual comes over to help, that person presses a few buttons on the screen, scans their employee card, presses a few more buttons and then asks a third good looking individual to help out. Usually the third person is able to save the day and complete the sale.

(A typical A&F Model from the abercrombie website.)

If you know me very well, you know that I don’t like blanket statements or painting people with a broad brush. So I slightly cringe at the thought of inferring that all A&F employees in the Salt Lake Valley aren’t too savvy with their in-store computer system. Perhaps there is more to the story… like they have never received appropriate training on the system, or the system really is overly cumbersome and difficult to use. Whatever the case may be, my personal experiences at the A&F cash register have been less than enjoyable.

That’s why I was so delighted by my most recent experience at A&F. I went in to buy a new shirt. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t going in to pay full price, the SLC store was having a 30% off sale and I had an additional 25% code.) I picked out my shirt, tried it on, checked myself out in the dressing room mirror from multiple angles, took it off, and got in line to check-out. When I got to the cash register I was prepared to explain the 30% off deal, and the 25% off deal… Yet the guy working at the cash register entered both discounts in before I could say anything. He had the credit card reader ready to go so I didn’t even have to tell him to select credit, and he had my shirt nicely folded in the bag before the receipt had finished printing. I was so in shock at this level of service that I found myself saying things like “Thank you… Wow you entered the discounts without me having to tell you about them… Thanks for being so fast.” I’d like to send an email to A&F headquarters or at least tell the SLC manager about the exceptional service… But since store models don’t wear name tags I’m not sure if my description of a good looking employee wearing an A&F shirt, pants, and flip-flops would be very helpful. So here’s to the cashier working at register #1 that actually knew how to efficiently use the computer system.

(And to all those "store models" that aren't too good with the computer system... No hard feelings, you still fold shirts much better than I can.)

White Glove Dinner

I know I haven't shared any hot news over the past two months... And in all truth I won't be sharing any right now. But know that life is good.

But I am quickly posting some of the pictures from last nights "White Glove Dinner". The Elders quorum served dinner to the Sisters of the University 32nd Ward. It was a rather enjoyable evening. Here are a few pictures showing some of the fun.








Looking at those pictures it's clear some tables were having more fun than others... Sadly not pictured is the "Man" table James, Jason, David and me sat at... But just know it was manly...

And due to popular demand... Here is the video shown and created for the event.

Much Love,
Eric D.