Third Adventure. Part Four.

The adventure continued on Friday, 4 June 2010, with the Annual Shareholder's Meeting and the reason why I went to Arkansas.  I don't recall much of the official business that took place, but I do remember the famous people.  Jamie Foxx was our host and the star of the day.  He is a very twitchy performer; it was hard to get a clear picture.  He sang, he joked, he took Darell's jacket, he imitated Ray Charles...

He was absolutely hilarious.  And I loved him on Sesame Street.   

Famous person number two, and I still can't get over this: Enrique Iglesias.

When in my life would I ever actually see him in a live performance?  That's right.  Never.  This may come as a shocker, so prepare yourself, but he's not actually the greatest singer.  He's really very pitchy, but his earpiece-thing came out, so I'll try not to judge too harshly.  Also, he's very pretty, and, he jumped off the stage and came out into the crowd about ten rows in front of us.

It's not the best picture, but he was twitchy too and he can't even blame it on Ray Charles.

Third famous person, she was really kind of awkward for me (don't tell Oprah): Mary J. Blige.

I'm sure she was good, but I'm not really a super fan of her style, and she seems a little old to be prancing around on stage the way she was.  Onward.

Famous person number four: newest American Idol winner, Lee DeWyze. He is absolutely adorable.  I was totally out in the hall when I heard him singing and I practically ran back into the arena.  He was so cute on stage with his little guitar. 

I'm thinking this was a pretty big performance for him.  He'd only won American Idol the week before and there were like 16,000 people at this meeting.  He was really good. 

Next famous person and my absolute least favorite of all (I'm such a jerk): Mariah Carey.

Like she actually shops at Walmart.  Why was she there?  It was the most clothed I think I've ever seen her, but she was so condescending.  It was nine o'clock in the morning and she said she usually doesn't even go to bed until that time.  There was no water for her on stage and she seemed really put off by that.  And then she talked about how difficult the life of a "creative person" is and how nice it was to be with real, "normal" people.  Oh, so I'm not creative because I work at Walmart?  Whatever.  Maybe you wouldn't need to pout for water if your dress wasn't so tight and you could actually breathe when you need to. Like I said before, I'm a jerk.  I do like some of her old songs - she sang "Hero" even though the way she talked made it seem like she really didn't want to - but anything else from her is just not what I want to hear. 

Last and most favorite famous person of all: Josh Groban!

Dear, sweet Joshy-poo, when will you have a new album?  This picture leads me to believe maybe sometime soon, and also, because he sang a new song, "Hidden Away", that he's never performed live before and it was amazing.  I don't always like his vibrato but I absolutely love him.  He's just adorable in his nerdy, musical sort of way.

After the meeting, on our way to the pavilion for lunch, we saw a few associates from Japan. They're so cute!

The dude in front jumped in just as Beth took the picture.  I'm so glad he did; he totally makes the picture.

On Friday afternoon, we took a tour of the Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas.  
I pretty much love the Home Office now and I would totally work there if ever given the chance.  Not that Walmart is necessarily my dream job or lifetime career of choice, but hypothetically speaking, if it gets to that point, it could be fun.

 Especially if I could work in the Restricted Area.
 


A few minutes after I took a picture of this door, a Restricted Man came out and stealthily walked away. I should've asked him what I need to do to work in the Restricted Area.  If he told me, he probably would've had to kill me, so maybe it's better I didn't ask.





We also took a tour of the Visitor's Center which is the same building as Sam Walton's original Five and Dime.

It's not like a really have a testimony of Walmart or anything, but Sam Walton seems like a pretty amazing person and I appreciate that he built a company based on values like respect, service, and excellence.  Obviously, things change over time, but this meeting helped me see that at least the leaders at the top still strive to live those same values today (or they talk like they do).  Of course, most of them have never been an hourly associate in an actual Walmart store, so I will say that they really don't know what it's like, but, at least, they try.