GRE practice essay

The argument that luxury retailers should refocus their attention to lower-priced markets due to the high unemployment rate and consumer fears is not entirely logically convincing since it ignores certain crucial assumptions. First, the argument assumes that all socio-economic levels buy luxury items. Second, the argument never states where the the geography of the statistical analysis was sampled. Finally, there are other reasons that could possibly explain the decline of the luxury goods industry.

In order to assume that the high unemployment rate directly influences the decline in luxury retailer's profits, you have to show that their clientele is the population that is affected by the unemployment rise. If this percent of the population has a particularly low unemployment rate, then their expendable income will most likely not be affected. Thus, allowing them to spend the same amount of money on luxury and essential items. Therefore, these retailers do not need to refocus their attention to lower-priced markets.

Also, if the demographic of the economy being hit the most with job lay offs, was the only sample that was taken to determine the unemployment rate your statistics will be skewed. Never letting the reader know sample size and demographic will automatically make for a faulty argument leaving the reader uneasy about the conclusion.

Lastly, there are many reasons for a decline in luxury goods and it doesn't necessarily have to correlate with a high unemployment rate. For instance, the values of the consumer might have change and they find themselves spending more money on other goods. For example recently there has been a huge growth in "green friendly" items which could result in less money being spent on luxury items.

Thus, this argument is not completely sound. It could have been strengthened by including the socio-economic background of the luxury item consumer in comparison to that of the increased unemployment rate to convince the reader that these two groups are representatives of each other. It also needs to include the demographics of their statistical analysis, also allowing the reader to see the correlation between these two groups. Finally, this author of this argument needed to rule out other possibilities for the decline in the luxury goods industry. By touching briefly on these three simple items, the argument would have been exponentially more valid.

I'm obsessed with sewing

This is how I spent my weekend....

After three hours of sewing and realizing the usefullness of seam rippers, my baby shoes are finished! I'm pretty proud of these little guys, and might even give them to one of my mom friends.

Martha will you be my friend

I don't know what has come over me but over the last 6 months I've become miss crafty. Its turning in to an obsession. It started out with my christmas sewing projects (which are coming along very SLOWLY), and has turned in to all things home made. Every where I go I'm constantly thinking of how I can make things. Such as holiday decorations at Crate and Barrell. They're so expensive but look relatively easy to make.

My most recent craft you ask? My wreath for my door. Growing up I watched my mom make wreaths every year for our house. I was always so amazed with her, but was too much of a tom boy to ever show interest. She also made her own bows for presents, our garage doors during Christmas, and her wreaths. I am proud to say that I have mastered the art of making bows, and secretely (well not too secretly) love wrapping gifts so much so that I jump at the opportunity to wrap my dad's and my bf's gifts. I'm going off on a tangent now back to the wreaths....

It started when I convinced the bf to buy a tree (not for my house but for his). They were selling wreaths at Menards for $12 and they weren't that great. I picked one up and went in search of a wreath hanger, but got annoyed when I couldn't find one, so I nixed the wreath idea. Well we ended up having to cut off the bottom branches of our tree and I had the brilliant idea that I should use those to make the wreath. Off to Joanns (my new favorite store that I spend way too much time at) to buy a wreath form, and ribbon of course for the bow. The whole thing took about 10 minutes to do. Tada! Here's the finished product and it was all less than $5 to make.

"its an adventure!"

Okay so we haven't even left yet and we're already having glitches in our trip to Belize (we're leaving tomorrow at 9am)....
Just now I received this email from Black Rock Lodge, which is where we're supposed to stay tomorrow night:

Hi Karrie,This is Estelle from Black Rock Lodge with a Little bad news. We have been having a lot of rain for the past few days due to the Tropical Depression that just passed us by and our roads are flooded and impassable at the moment. We are trying to avoid any harm coming to our guest on their vacation and telling you that you wont be able to make it to Black Rock tomorrow.We are hoping the water goes down by Sunday and the roads should be fine but we will definitely be in touch to let you know.I have to tell you that the same situation exists for Placencia as of right now. We will have our driver meet you at the airport tomorrow because we don’t want you to be stranded there. I have looked into couple places for you to stay the night and hopefully be able to come to us on Sunday. There is Martha’s Guest House in San Ignacio. They have a standard room with a fan that goes for USD $43.60 a night tax included and an air conditioned room that goes for USD $54.50 a night tax included. There is also this place by the river that’s called Table Rock which is very nice. Their rates are a bit more higher. You can actually look them up on the internet and see what it looks like. Their website is www.tablerockbelize.com. I am so sorry for the inconvenience but will definitely keep you informed about the flooding situation. If you have an international cell phone that you will be using can you let me have the number so that we will be able to be in touch over the weekend. All My Best,Estelle Martinez Black Rock Lodge

I would say impassible flooded roads is a little more than "a little bad news." Thanks to their super customer service we are staying at www.tablerockbelize.com Saturday night, which looks equally as wonderful as black rock lodge. Phew, I had a little panic attack, and the BF is stuck at work tonight so I'm left to make the decision as to where we'll stay tomorrow. Of course I have great taste, so I picked the more extravagant one :)

Unfortunately the whole reason we are staying in the rain forest is to go hiking at the ATM cave http://belizex.com/tunichil_muknal.htm but it is flooded as well! Hopefully by Sunday or Monday the storm will have passed and we'll still be able to make our trip to the cave. If not, its off to Placencia for some quality beach time. As my mother always said when things went awry "its an adventure" and I have a feeling, just by the way things are starting out, that I'm going to keep repeating that to myself throughout this trip. it will be interesting to see how the BF and I get along under some unplanned, possibly stressfull circumstances....

Never offer help unless you're willing to give it

I, being the nice gf that I am offered the bf help tearing down his deck on Sunday. I've been offerring to help for a few weeks, and every time he has turned me down, thank god. Except for this last time, I offerred expecting for him to say no, but to my surprise he said "yeah I think I do need it." Because of his awesome planning, and busy schedule, he left it to the day before it needed to be down so that the roofers could re-roof their building. So, for about 4hrs I made about a million trips up and down two flights of stairs, carrying pieces of the deck to the dumpster. All the while I was thinking, I really need to go sleep (because I was working a 12 hour shift that night from 7:30pm-8am. Now every time I walk, my calves scream in pain from all the stair climbing on Sunday. Moral of the story, don't offer help unless you really are up for the task....

sewing sewing

I'm not the most creative person in the world, but this year I decided to make Christmas presents. I can't say what I'm making but it has to do with sewing. The last time I sewed something, I was in elementary school I think. My oldest friend and I decided to take a sewing class at a local store. I never finished my shirt and shorts, I think I got bored. So what made me decide to try to sew something now? I have no idea. I started out writing a list of all the people I wanted to make something for, and its a pretty long list. Good thing its October. Last Monday night I sat down with my first pattern, cut it out, and started HAND sewing my project. It took about 5 hours to complete. My hand literally hurt for two days afterwards, I think I should have started this project last December as it takes 3 days to complete one them (including hand recovery time) Maybe I should cut down my list, as this is a hefty task and my sewing skills would make June Cleaver blush.

My first finished project looks great from far away but VERY homemade when up close. This one will be for my own personal use, I'm too embarassed to give it away. New idea, let's try a sewing machine. Luckily I have some very crafty friends who own sewing machines and that were willing to let me borrow one. I finally got it to my house on Thursday night and was really excited to start whipping through my projects. I sat down and realized, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO USE A SEWING MACHINE! I don't even know how to thread it. What's this bobbin thing? How does it work? Thanks to you tube I found instructional videos that taught me how to thread the machine and use the bobbin. For part of the project I need a zigzag stitch and I have now realized that this is a little too advanced for me, the sewing machine wont cooperate. Sorry people, you'll have to settle with chain stitches for now!

5 things I've learned since becoming an RN

1. Men are ALWAYS sicker than women, even if they have the same illness
2. family members always yell at their loved ones when they are sedated, even if they don't have a hearing problem
3. Bed rails really don't keep grandma from leaving the bed, they're just fun obstacles to climb over and fall from
4. Nicotine patches and gum don't really work on the 80 year old who's smoked 2 packs a day for 60 years, she's still going to try to escape to smoke (with the oxygen tank in hand)
5. Retired RNs can be horrible patients.

ma soeur

I told my sister that I wanted some type of retro/vintage hook to hang my mom's old purse collection that we have very democratically divided between us. So she sends me this picture, please sister do not send me this for my birthday....

Its all greek to me

Today was just another typical day at work where we all mess with people's hearts in the effort to make them work more efficiently. I spent four hours today watching doctors thread catheters, wires, stents, balloons in to the arteries of the heart. It was amazing but all I could think of was how bad my feet and back hurt because not only was I standing for the entire time in a room that felt like it was below zero, but i also had a 30 lb lead gown on from neck to knees.

So instead of blindly threading this wire through your femoral artery, they do it under xray and fluoroscopy. Which means they are staring at a camera while manipulating the equipment in the patient. I hope I never have to get this done because you're awake during the whole thing! AND the docs kind of forget you're there (yes I said that) and fight with each other, talk about really inappropriate things, flirt with the cute nurses, and teach the newbies how to do it. I would be so nervous hearing them tell the other what to do, I would kind of want to say "hey aren't' you supposed to know this before you go poking around in my heart!?!" But we're a "teaching hospital" so its expected. Writing this doesn't do it justice, it really is crazy how many interventions can be done to the heart without totally messing things up. Can you tell I totally love my job?

Random thoughts

Random license plate frame of the day:
"Soccer player by day, Michael Jackson by night."
"I'm not spoiled, I'm a Polish princess" on a 1990 nissan sentra

The guest room is up and ready for use!

After 9 months, and 1,235 trips past my second room I finally finished it! This has been a daunting and nagging chore that has been looming over my head since I had moved in last December. Homeownership is hard stuff, especially when making decisions as to how to decorate. The tiniest little decisions turn in to life changing moments. For example, if I were to hang a picture at this point in the wall will I like it. And if I don't what am I going to do to hide the hole that was left by the picture hanger.

So problem numero uno: hanging floating shelves. I have two floating shelves that have been sitting in my hallway waiting to be hung. It took me forever because I needed a drill, which I do not own, and a level which I also do not own. After finally remembering to borrow them from boy toy, I am ready to work. This job probably would have been a lot easier if I were an octopus. Trying to hold the shelf, level, pencil to mark the drill holes, screws, and drill is really tough with only two hands. It took about 15 minutes to get the bracket up for the shelf, and when I went to put the shelf on it I realized it was too close to the adjacent wall. CRAP! there's not only 1 hole but 10 holes that I just drilled which are in the wrong spot! Fortunately I only had to move the brackets over slightly (with 10 more holes in the all) and it fit.

Problem #2 after adjusting the shelf so it would fit, the screws were not in studs. So now the shelf is slightly sagging. So I swiftly went online and ordered wall brackets to help support the shelves, now lets hope the shelf doesn't fall before they come.

Problem #3 I went through the balancing act again to hang the second shelf, and after the first 4 screws were in I realized that the last 6 were in the same spot as the circuit breaker box on the other side of the wall and would not go in far enough to support the shelf. Are you freaking kidding me!?! Now I have four holes that I can't cover with the shelf what the hell am I going to do? Thanks to my crafty dad who recently sent me a bat rack, that he made for my mini bat collection, I was able to hide the holes with that. Phew, crisis averted!

Okay people, the guest room is up and ready for use, so start coming out to visit!