Estela Fliccs

"Moving the Needle"

Our company is currently working on a project to raise the awareness and internet traffic of our website. Zappos.com is infamous for selling a great variety and collection of dress, casual, and athletic shoes. What a lot of people are not aware of is that we also sell clothing, accessories, electronics, and even cookware. We have been getting alot of exposure from different television programs, most recently, our stint on the Oprah Show.

Management has recently initiated a program called "Moving the Needle" in hopes that all employees take a more personal role in lifting our sales and contributing to our efforts to meet our 1 billion dollar goal for the end of the year. My email inbox has been filled with suggestions and ideas from my coworkers to get our website and service out to the public. Ideas from informing our friends and families of our great deals (free shipping, convenient returns, quick shipping), placing Kiosks throughout malls, online forums, giving out Zappos postcards, marketing our culture, and even giving out dollar off coupons and percentage off coupons to our family, friends and customers.

This is my attempt to do my part in helping my company grow. I have worked here for about 3 years now and it is definitely the best job I have ever had. Our benefits are great, the culture is one of a kind, and there is a lot of opportunities for growth. For my friends and family members and whoever is reading this: COME AND SHOP AT ZAPPOS.COM!!!!! If you need a discount, let me know. If you don't want to shop, at least come check out the website. We have a lot of cool stuff. Thank you!!

Good Weekend!!!

Its been a pretty good weekend so far. On Thursday night, Rosie's friend Karina and her boyfriend Adam and there baby Isaac, came to visit from California. They will be leaving on Sunday. My wife was looking forward to see them all week. All I heard all week was"I can't wait to see Karina and the baby.....blah blah blah"....jk babe. It was good to see Rosemarie happy. They are a pretty cool little family. Pretty mellow like us. Karina and Adam remind me a lot of me and my wife but I complain a lot more, I'm sure. I probably have a lot more flaws. I don't know how my wife deals with me. Yesterday, Rose, Karina, Adam and the babies came by Zappos and I gave them a tour of my job. Then they went to a pumpkin patch where supposedly, they rode ATV's and checked out pumpkins. I was stuck at work-which sucked.

Last night, Jeff barbecued chicken and ribs. We all went over there for dinner. The food was on point.....mucho delicioso!!! The boys then went to South Pointe casino where we played Bingo. I never knew that there were so many hard core Bingo enthusiast. People are religious about Bingo. I saw folks pull out there little Buddhas and Trolls, rubbing there heads before the numbers were being called. That's just crazy. I actually won $150 bucks the last time I played but there was no luck this time. We spent the next hour playing the slots. We won a little then came home. Gambling can be thrilling and depressing at the same time. Bingo can be stressful, when your not winning.

Overall, it's been a nice weekend. What tops it off is that USC just blew out Washington St. 69-0. I hope they make it to the BCS Championship game. It is always a good day when USC wins.

Thank you for the call babe!

About 5 minutes ago, I checked my phone and got a missed call from Rosemarie. I went out the office and called her back thinking something was wrong. She never calls me in the middle of the day. She only calls me at lunch and after she gets off. When I called her back, I asked her what she wanted. She said that she just called to say, "I love you and was thinking about you". I quickly asked her what she wanted thinking she was up to something or had a hidden agenda. She said that she was just thinking of me and wanted to call. That's it. She was thinking about me.
It made me feel good inside. She just called to tell me that she loves me. She has never done anything to make me feel suspicious, yet I question her every time she tells me something. This is one of many character flaws that I have and need to remedy. Despite the arguments and constant attitude I give her, she is still thoughtful and loving. I am so lucky to have a humble and sweet wife. She is so good to me. Whether it is making me dinner every night or cleaning after me, she does it with the least amount of attitude. We have been through so much and we have a happy future ahead of us. I am not the best husband, but I am improving. If you are reading this Rosemarie, I love you too!

Near Death Experience.....

not quite, but pretty frickin scary. Last night, I was driving northbound on the I-15 at about 65 miles an hour, OK maybe 80. I was driving on the far lane about to exit the freeway in a couple of miles. The traffic was mild and it was pretty windy and cold. As I proceeded to drive, I suddenly noticed that there was a full size bath tub in the middle of my lane. The bathtub seemed to have fallen off a truck and was cracked in multiple pieces but the majority of the tub was still in tact. I swerved to the left trying my best to avoid running into it(2-wheeling it) but the front right tire ran over parts of the tub. I then tried to correct the sharp turn by turning sharp to the right. I tried not to over correct the swerve and tried my best to balance the car. The car fishtailed and went out of control spinning twice and sliding sideways nearly hitting the middle divider. I went across four traffic lanes and finally stopped about 4 ft from the middle divider. When the car stopped sliding and spinning, my car was turned facing oncoming traffic. There were at least 3 cars that got into an accident because of this. I started the car and did a U-turn so that I can go the correct direction.

After all of this, I went to the nearest gas station to inspect my car. My car got away from all the spinning and sliding accident free. My tires were all good and there were no leaks or damage to the engine. I couldn't believe it. I feel that I was definitely watched over last night.

WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED:

• I could have DIED...or seriously been hurt/injured. Dying would have resulted in Estela having no father, Rosemarie having no husband, my Mom and Dad having lost a son, and my brothers and sister having lost a brother.....crazy to think about it like that.
• My car could have flipped over and ultimately been a total lost (I'm glad I got full coverage and GAP insurance).
• My wife and baby could have been in the car and all of the scenarios above could have happened. This would have been absolutely devastating.