Old Navy Update

Hey Everyone!

So today I decided to take a trip to Livingston Mall and while there, I went to Old Navy to see if there were any changes made with the fitting rooms from the last time I was there. Now, the last time I visited this Old Navy, there were a few issues with their fitting rooms considering accessibility. You can see that experience here.

As you see when you read my last post about Old Navy, they replied on Twitter saying that they would share the feedback with the store's leaders so I wanted to see if there was anything done. I am glad to say that there were a couple positive changes.

Positive changes:

The accessibility fitting room is clear of anything in the way. So as you see there is no rack of clothes blocking the door and on the inside of the room, there are no clothes and it wasn't locked. That means I was able to go in to try on some clothes. 

So this store is definitely heading in the direction, HOWEVER, there were still things that could've been brought up and here I am, bringing them up here. 

Even though, the room was clear of clothes and it was unlocked. There was someone inside to try on clothes and yes, I waited because that's the right thing to do. Right? I understand that there are others who need to try on the clothes and I expected this person either to have a disability or stroller, needing the room but nope, it was someone who probably could've used the other room.

I'm not completely blaming the person because there were racks of clothes blocking a few of the regular fitting rooms (I took a picture but it wasn't that clear). Makes you wonder where those racks of clothes would've been if I didn't complain. Probably right back in the accessible fitting room. 

So anyways I also found out that the other accessible room was unlocked BUT it was full of clothes. I mean, really?? Can't you put these clothes somewhere else? In other stores, the racks where the customers put clothes they don't want, are on the outside of the fitting rooms, not inside the rooms or blocking the doorways. It's not accessible for people in chairs or even those who can walk. 

Also what if there were more than one person in a wheelchair that needed to use a fitting room?? It does happen, you know? More than one person in a wheelchair at the same store at the same time. I know, it's shocking really (sarcasm). Both accessible rooms need to be clear and accessible for those who NEED to use them. I would never be able to use the other rooms, especially the ones at Old Navy (Don't get me wrong. I love Old Navy just the things need to be discussed.) 

Another thing that I complained about in the fitting rooms was the placement of the mirror. Where they have the mirror in every accessible fitting room in their stores are not very useful for someone who is in a wheelchair. I mean, just look at this picture that my mom took of me in the one I was in today. 

I can't even turn to look at the whole outfit. I'm only able to see really what it looks like on half of my body and I have a regular sized wheelchair. How about someone who has a bigger chair? Or even a power chair? There would be no way they can honestly see what they look like in the clothes.

You call these the accessibility fitting rooms when they are anything but accessible.

Now, I did do some more shopping after I left Old Navy (with three new shirts). I went to a few different stores and then ended up at the Gap. I wanted to try a shirt on and I have to say that their fittings rooms are a lot better and more accessible. Here's a picture of me in that one:

I'm able to turn around (probably even do a 360), look at myself in the mirror, and there's a bar in the right spot if I want to transfer to the bench. I also looked into the regular fitting rooms and I have to say, I even would be able to fit in those comfortably if I had to.

As you can see, there's a difference between the two stores' fitting rooms and one was better overall than the other. 

So what I'm asking is to Old Navy, please take in consideration of all your customers and the needs of many of them. There needs to be a better system for the fitting room situation. The Livingston Mall's store isn't the only one that has a fitting room problem so again, I'm asking for you to look into detail on how you can better your store. 

Thank you.

Let me know what you all think and feel free to comment and share this post! We need to have this discussion with all stores and have all people have the ability to enjoy the fun of shopping. 

Until Next Time

CGoerlich <3 

Movie of the Week? Song of the Week?

Hey everyone!

So, if you follow me on Twitter or LIKE my public Facebook page - you will know that I have postponed the first movie of the week post. I will explain more in depth at why I decided that. I was ready to have a movie of the week post done but the movie(s) that I was planning to do it on was going to lead to a very long post and for some reason nothing was coming to my mind at how to start the post. I posted on Friday on my twitter and public Facebook page that I was going to do it on Saturday but some where along the way, Saturday came and gone, and I still wasn't happy with the post that I was writing. So I decided that I would not post it for week one. I am planning on using the same movie(s) for this week so I am going to try my hardest to have a movie of the week done for this week, it's either going to be Friday or Saturday (most like Saturday as Friday is usually part two of my family's Thanksgiving festivities). I hope you all understand. I explained to you when I first came up with this idea that there would be a couple times where there won't be a post that day.

So now we are onto week two. As you see in the title of this post, there is a question mark after song of the week meaning I do not think there will be a new song of the week for this week because well I'm having a hard time to pick one..lol..I have over 1,000 songs on my iPod. But that's not the only reason - another reason is because I want to continue from last week which was "The Heart Wants What It Wants" by Selena Gomez.

I'm not really going to discuss too much more about the song (see song of the week post for more) but I want to talk about Selena's performance at the AMAs last night (November 21, 2014). Have you seen it? If not, here is the video from her Vevo page:

I was looking forward to this performance ever since I first heard the song because I knew it would be an emotional one. There were critics that said she can't sing live, she will ruin the song, etc. But, I have to say yes she's not the best singer but she holds her own and I enjoyed this performance. It was very real. You could feel the emotion coming through the television/computer screen. The background was perfect. It went right with the song. The whole performance was simple but emotional. She also at one point near the end of the song whispered to herself "Thank you Jesus." Yes, beliebers, it was "Thank you Jesus," not "thank you Justin," or "I love you Justin." Please....be real here.

I have read some of the comments under performance video and there were many supporters and of course many critics. I was disappointed at some of those critics. Some were saying that Selena should just get over him. "Stop singing about him." "We're tired of it." Well excuse me, how come it was ok for Justin to write a whole album about Selena but it's not ok for her to sing one? Do you know what she went through? Do you know what they went through? No. None of us truly do. But her. But him. But their friends and family. Stop judging someone who you personally don't know. She is using this song to bring peace back into her life as she has said that sharing this song has already slowly but surely is helping her.

It has been said that it is important to let things out, rather than keeping it hidden away. Like I have said, in the first post about this song, she kept this to herself for a year. It was probably not helping her to keep it just to herself so she decided to share it. Why can't you let her have this one thing? Let her use music to help her move on, help her heal, help her bring peace to her life. She is just like the rest of us. She is human. Let her be.

I am proud of Selena for being brave and sharing with us, the rest of the world, this song that is so personal to her. I am also happy that she has friends like Taylor Swift who can be there for her before and after her performance; and through what caused the pain.

I will always support her, no matter what happens and I'm glad that she has other fans/supporters that do the same.

Also before I end this: as of right now - the single is now #2 on the iTunes chart and the music video for the song is #1.

Well, I think that's it for now. I will leave you with one more thought. We all go through things. We all have our own different ways to move pass those things. Do not judge someone's different way if they aren't the way you believe is right.

Thank you and that is all for tonight.

Until Next Time!

CGoerlich <3

New Weekly Plan!

Hey Everyone!

I have been trying to figure out a way to update my blog more often! I tweeted out yesterday asking my followers, other tweeters, and bloggers if they had any ideas for what I can post but unfortunately, I received no feedback...HOWEVER, once I tweeted that tweet - ideas just started coming to my mind. I thought about writing about music, movies, and shows. but I realized that one post would not be enough for either of those subjects so I have thought about a way how I can write a lot without writing a lot.

This brings me to the title of this blog post - New Weekly Plan! - and I will explain exactly what that is or what it could be. I was thinking about doing a weekly thing where I write a post about a particular song, movie, or show. The title of these posts would be - Song of the Week; Movie of the Week; Show of the week. These will be of my favorite music, movies, and shows. Now, I'm not sure if I'll do all three every week but that is an option that I am thinking about doing.

I, of course, will still be writing other posts if and when anything else comes up in my life but I thought this would be something exciting to try and a great way for you, my readers, to be involved! You can share your input on what I choose at the song/show/movie of the week.

I am still figuring out the exact details of with me doing this but I am excited for this plan of mine and I'm hoping that you will be too! I am also hoping that I will stick with this because I'm not sure if I'll have as many shows/movies as I do with songs, but we will see what happens as the time goes on.

Please let me know what you think in the comments below. (I am going to try and get started this weekend with my first weekly posts) Have a great day and week!

Until Next Time

CGoerlich <3

Kanye West...

Hey everyone!

It's that time where I bring out the passionate side of me back out.

So as you can tell with the title, who this is going to be about. "Victim" Kanye West...

Now, before I explain why our dear friend, Kanye is getting his own "special" post - the 5th anniversary of the MTV VMAs where Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift as she was getting her first VMA for Best Female Video. If you want a recap, here is the video of it.

Now, moving onto this year, actually this week. If you haven't heard what happened, here we go. During one of his concerts, in Sydney, Australia - Kanye stopped his concert to tell everyone to "Stand up!" His direct quote is "I can't do this show until everybody stand up. Unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and s**t." That's not all but I want to stop here for a moment. How can you say that? Especially when there are fans of yours who are disabled and need that "special parking". Also, when he mentioned "special parking and s**t, his whole audience started laughing. Great role model there.....

Now, let us continue. Shall we? Kanye then goes on and finds two people still sitting and he looks at them and starts basically "taunting" (Don't like the word...too bad) them. Everyone even started booing and chanting "Stand up! Stand up!" at the two who couldn't. Kanye also said "Do you all want the show to continue or boo the people won't stand up." He spent four minutes, halting his show, just because people wouldn't but couldn't stand up, or even those who didn't want to stand up. He kept saying "If he's a wheelchair, then it's fine." but he wouldn't stop there. He had his security guard CONFIRM that he was in a wheelchair. Would you like to see the video? Here it is:

You can take the video however you want but watch it closely because everything I said above is what really happened.

Now. I'm not done. There are people out there who defend Kanye saying it was all just a "misunderstanding" and that he "apologized." Well newsflash, saying "It's fine" and then continuing the show is not apologizing. Also, it was NOT a misunderstanding. I watched the same video everyone else did. First, if I pay to see a show and if I was able to stand up, but didn't want to stand up then I wouldn't stand up just because someone who I PAYED to see, wanted me to stand up.

If you are to pay your own money to see someone "entertain" you, would you really stand up if you didn't want to? Like I said, if I could, I wouldn't. If I was everyone at the concert, I would've either sat down or walked out - not booing and making Kanye's ego even bigger.

Now, let's get back to the apologizing situation. Here's a hit about how to apologize. "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry for humiliating you in front of thousands of people." "I'm sorry to the audience for stopping my concert for stupid reasons." and so on. That's how you apologize. Sincerely apologize. Now say "It's fine" and then just continue on the show like nothing happened.

Now I know you are probably wondering why I put "victim" before Kanye West above before I started talking about everything. It's because Mr. Kanye "perfect" Kanye thinks he's the victim here. He thinks the media targets him. Well another newsflash - if you don't want the media to "target" you then stop opening your mouth and having these unnecessary rants.

A few days after the Sydney incident, he is now at another one of his shows where once again he stops his show midway so that he can rant about the media. This time it's for about five minutes. He claims "I'm a married Christian man with a family." Yeah, I can tell with your rants and your music. Idiot.  Here is another video that you can watch which is the video where he "defends" himself and calls himself a target and tell the media to pick another one:

As you can see, he never apologizes about the incident. It's all about "me, me, me, me" and never once "I'm sorry that I did what I did." And he never does. Ok, he "apologized" for the Taylor Swift situation but we all know how that was...Not only was he defending himself, but so was his wife. Kim Kardashian-West (she deserves her own "special" post but that's for another time) tweeted "Its frustrating that something so awesome could be clouded by lies. Kanye never asked anyone in a wheel chair to stand up & the audience videos show that. He asked everyone to stand up & dance UNLESS they were in a wheel chair." Well then, she and I must not be watching the same videos and once again he never said "unless they were in a wheel chair," he said " Unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and s**t," which is a HUGE difference.

There is more that I can say about this situation but I believe someone else had written a great thing to this and that was Harshada Rajani who wrote an open letter to Kanye. Everyone should read it and share it!

Now, I think that's all so far I can say about this. Like I said, there is more that I can say to this but for right now, this is all I have.

If you have defended Kanye, I hope you rethink who you are defending because you should be defending the fans, not the "artist" who claims that he's the greatest thing that God has created, which he isn't at all. "Genius," "Jesus," "God," "President," and whatever else he calls himself is not who Kanye is. He is a narcissist, idiot, moron and is self-absorbed and I can tell you that you will never see me buy anything that has something to do with him. (Also, I rarely call people names so you know that I'm serious about this)

I hope others follow lead because that is the only way you can prove to someone that enough is enough.

Feel free to leave a comment to this, whether you agree or disagree.

Until Next Time,

CGoerlich <3

Rutgers Bus Driver Fired Controversy

Warning - Here is my first of many very opinionated posts!

So in the past week, there has been a controversy about the firing of Pastor Stan McNeil, a "beloved" bus driver at Rutgers University in NJ.

Stan McNeil claims that Rutgers only fired him because he touched a disabled girl on the head, praying for her to heal.  He has done it before and was asked not to do it again.  But in reality, people, there is more to the story which many just have skipped right over.  Even journalists skipped over it!  Which makes me even more mad but let's get to the bottom line shall we?

Here's some background if you don't know what's happening.  Stan McNeil was a popular Rutgers University bus driver who is also a Pastor and every day on the bus, McNeil always had inspirational speeches.  I never experienced these speeches personally, well because I don't go to Rutgers but that's the not reason of this post.  Many students say that always looked forward to getting on the bus because he would always lift up their spirits if they are having a bad day.

Well good for them, but what about the students who are in wheelchairs that are bouncing around on the bus because he didn't tie them down?  Because that's the REAL reason why he got fired.  Not because he was praying on a girl who was in a wheelchair, to be healed.  Yes, that may play some role since well she did complain and he was told not to do it again.  But, he wasn't tying down the chairs which is a big safety hazard!
Sharp turns = student with chair bumping their head on the side of the bus or even they end up at another part of the bus.  A short stop = the chair going harshly forward where the person could land on their front and/or banging their head.  And if the person doesn't get a seat belt put on and they don't have a seat belt on their chair (because not everyone has one!), the person could be knocked out of their chair if any of the previous things happen.

All of the above could have happened if McNeil kept on with the job because he wasn't tying down the chairs and you want to know why?  Here is a quote from a newscast NBC did on him:

"Personally I was a little concerned about the time because you're spending time putting them on the bus and getting them hooked up so you're losing time," says Stan McNeil when asked about tying down the chairs.

Like really? Did he really say that? I have been saying that since the moment I heard him say that.  Right after he did, my mom and I looked at each other and just asked at the same time, "Did he really just say that?" So, of course I was expecting many people to talk about it and do a report of what he said but it's been two days now and nothing.  Many people are still supporting him and there are already over 6,800 signatures on a change.org petition to bring him back.  You know why?  Because they think he was just fired for religious reasons, not because of the safety reasons.

Time? Like really? Time was the reason you couldn't tie someone down? I hope you all realize that it probably doesn't take more than four minutes to get a person with a wheelchair on the bus plus strapping in.  And you're losing time? What time is exactly lost? Four minutes. Wow. That's a lot of time....Not. If you notice in the quote, he does say "them" so meaning he hasn't just not tied down one person, but he has done it numerous time.

As a student with a disability, I am definitely upset.  I rode the school bus throughout all of 13 years of public school and do you think there was once where they didn't tie me down? Nope. And you know how long it took to get me on the bus plus tying me down? I'll say it again - not even more than four minutes. I don't understand how someone can say that time is why they weren't tying down a chair down.  That's like saying you're not going to take a moment to put on your seat belt.

I mean, come on people.  There were more than religious reasons for this man being fired.  But did you research all of the reasons?  Of course not.  Only NBC, that I know of, has gotten something about safety reasons.  Yes, I noticed other news reports that do mention safety reasons were for the reason but you know where in those article that information was?  At the bottom, oh and not to mention, no where in the title of the article which is normally the first thing readers see and remember.

As you can tell, I'm very passionate about people knowing the real reason because I want to make sure that this does NOT happen again and that others learn to read EVERYTHING before they make assumptions.  I know that some already know the real reason and agree what I have said in this blog post but there are still so many who still don't understand the real reason behind this.

I hope you all understand where this is coming from and that you will share this with your friends because this is a very important subject.

Here is the link to the video of where Stan McNeil says the quote above - Video to NBC newscast of Stan McNeil's Firing (It is the top video that auto plays itself)

Feel free to comment on this post what you believe (whether you agree or disagree) and please share this post! :)

Thank you for giving me your time and listening to my opinion about this matter!

Until Next Time

CGoerlich <3