"You are mathematical. You don't have to do math; you are math." -Thylias Moss

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Here's a little math I can get with:

“A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.” --Terry Pratchett

Also, I may consider a side-gig in thaumaturgy.

Yes. I think I may.

“I believe anything is possible.
Research into quantum physics
proves that a system changes
simply by someone observing it.
Therefore, all you have to do is be
awake and aware of your environment,
and that enables you to
transform everything around you.
It sounds like hocus pocus, but
scientists are coming to realize that
just thinking about something can
make it happen. Turns out maybe
faith can move mountains.”
--Christine Anderson

It's all about the details ...

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If you feel like your Vera Bradley Store is unique, that's because it really is! They still carry the same products, of course, but the wallpaper, furniture, and other details are all especially coordinated to match the personality and character of the region in which it is located. I was able to see this last week when I attended the Beachwood Place store opening in Cleveland. Our Visual Merchandising team put together, as always, an outstanding display!

One tradition is the presence of an Ira Yeager painting behind the checkout counter. It all started when Co-founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard lent one of the paintings from her personal collection to the Fort Wayne store at Jefferson Pointe. Ever since, the paintings have been a staple for each location's decor, and they are each hand selected by Barb and Anne, the Senior Visual Merchandising Creative Director.

The Ira Yeager at Beachwood ... absolutely gorgeous!

Each Vera Bradley Store is also designed to look like someone's home, hence the comfy furniture, beautiful light fixtures and foyer. I found myself surprised by how effortless it all looked in person, especially knowing each store has it's own personality. The hope is that guests will walk in, feel comfortable and have a great experience.

This ottoman is my absolute favorite piece in the store, hands down.

This loveseat is perfect for husbands to relax on as their wives shop around ...

What a beautiful vanity, and I love the flowered wallpaper - such a nice touch!

The foyer, complete with red doors and a chandelier.

This stack of books and bunny lamp are in the middle of a display of Boysenberry bags, but they make it look just like it all belongs in someone's home!

The coffered ceiling, crown molding, and chandelier look amazing altogether ...

A hidden treasure that you can always find at Vera Bradley Stores is a beautiful restroom. I'm used to our impeccably decorated bathrooms in the Fort Wayne offices, but this was something I was pleasantly surprised by when I went to the Beachwood store, because I didn't expect it to be this cheery and adorable.

This lamp is just too cute for words ...

Surfing the Web ... It's all in a day's work.

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My main project for the summer is basically the dream of any soon-to-be job-seeking college student (like myself). I am working with Human Resources to research and develop a social media strategy for recruiting, observing what kind of cool new methods other companies are implementing. The best part of this job is that my research consists of looking at company websites, twitter accounts, LinkedIn profiles, facebook pages and YouTube accounts all day long. Lately, I’ve been too busy to keep up with my research, but now that our presentations are going to be here oh so soon (exactly two weeks from now) I have to make time so I can be fully prepared to explain what’s going on in the exciting world of recruitment.

Here is a little peek of what I’ve been working on …

twitter – Lots of companies are using their twitter feeds to publicize job openings in addition to sharing information about their culture or their employees, so I follow anyone and everyone from our main competitors to companies like Starbucks and Google. One thing I’ve learned: Recruiters love to tweet … all the time.

So many tweets, so little time ...

YouTube – Some companies are using YouTube to promote their company culture and the organization by posting videos of company events and employee profiles showcasing what they love about their jobs. (How cool is that?!)

Since I’m a marketing major, all of this research is showing me how many different ways social media can be used for one company. Also, I will begin looking for my first post-grad job rather soon, and I’m learning how to be as thorough as possible when preparing for an interview. Most people long for the time to invest in this kind of research, and I’m lucky enough to have it be my job!

I couldn’t end this post without a shameless plug for Vera’s company culture or our open jobs … so check out the official Vera Bradley blog, Inside Stitch, for some fabulous posts about life at Vera Bradley, and be sure to stop by our Careers page to see what openings we have at our home office and in our retail stores!

Constantino's Market Downtown

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It's easy to believe there's no grocery stores in downtown Cleveland if  you don't know what you're looking for, but Constantino's Market is definitely there, at 1278 W 9th St.
On the plus side, they have a lot of local grocery, they're family owned, and the quality of the food is very good. The downside is the price- but what would you expect from a grocery store with no competition? If you want groceries without having to drive out of downtown, you probably have to hit Constantino's.
The popular consensus is that it's good for the prepared foods, but the staples just aren't worth it to buy there.

Mama Santa's - Little Italy

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People in Cleveland think that the Little Italy area is lovely and romantic, but having lived there for three years, I think it's kind of overpriced and bigoted. There's definitely a dark side to Little Italy, including but not limited to a racist mob and some super gentrification going on.

Most of the restaurants in Little Italy are overpriced and vermin-infested. One of the cheaper places to get something to eat is Mama Santa's; and it's where we got pizza from while we were in college.

I went with my friend to Mama Santa's for a walk down memory lane, and both of us being visibly queer, we were treated with some condescension (weird looks, snippy remarks) from the waitress. The food was the same ordinary food we enjoyed during college; nothing special.


Note well that they don't serve pineapple on pizzas here... the waitress made it clear to us that we'd need to go up to Hippie Coventry to get something so outlandish as that.

DJ Adio at Beachwood Place with Phillip Bimstein's Door music reveal some of the Vibrational Ways of Doors in Augmenting [Limited Forked Theory] Configurable Spaces, including idea spaces, and a fondling of ripples of creation —riding some of those wavy portals

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While at Beachwood Place Mall, looking, as usual, for evidence of interaction (such as shadows and reflections), I came upon DJ Adio in a shop window, positioned where both he and his reflection could be seen on two glass planes on which reflections from passersby also temporarily converged, diverged, then converged again on the second plane. A sampling, if you will, of space, of occupancy; a sharing of moment as he spun red discs of music I could not hear.

The sharing of space as reflections converged seemed to be a visual aspect of what the DJ was mixing; persons he did not know, could not see were becoming part of him, walking through his image, enlarging what his image could contain, just as he was enlarging sonic space and sonic meanings.

DJ Adio was functioning as a door, as a bifurcation point, as an entrance and exit point, an access point —and his gestures seemed to be shuffling what was converging, configuring the sonic and visual geometries of the connections. A fantastic door system that I wanted to highlight and explore further with Philip Bimstein's Door music and added vocal tracks expressing and exploring some gist of my observations that were part of the convergence, part of the collaboration.

DJ Adio Door Ways Ghost Relay: an adventure in vibration studies was a poam outcome of an unplanned investigation of a convergence of DJ, reflection, observation, meaning as transit system, the mixing of elements by a DJ in the configuration of a moment.

In this investigation, the movements and gestures took on more context as ripples of experience, shockwaves fanning out from a central event: the DJ's role as an assembler of realities within realities; DJ Adio was acting as a hub into which realities fed, a hub of convergence where he reassembled what converged and transmitted alternate versions, more of the other possibilities for the information that converged in his hub. DJ Adio as relay station, as transformer.

"You are mathematical. You don't have to do math; you are math." -Thylias Moss

To contact us Click HERE
Here's a little math I can get with:

“A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal-sized billiard balls.” --Terry Pratchett

Also, I may consider a side-gig in thaumaturgy.

Yes. I think I may.

“I believe anything is possible.
Research into quantum physics
proves that a system changes
simply by someone observing it.
Therefore, all you have to do is be
awake and aware of your environment,
and that enables you to
transform everything around you.
It sounds like hocus pocus, but
scientists are coming to realize that
just thinking about something can
make it happen. Turns out maybe
faith can move mountains.”
--Christine Anderson