The Sample Sale Suicide
CHAPTER ONE
Mirae
I was as at the edge of a cliff, and I had no choice but to jump. So I did.
At first, my instinct for survival kicked in and I could feel myself grabbing on to the rocks and boulders on my way down, the rough edges of the life I had built.
The fall wasn’t painless like I’d thought it would be.
As I descended, each level hurt worse than the previous. I could feel the pain of my legs breaking as I collided with every obstacle. It seemed as if every point of contact was strategically placed to knock the fight out of me for good—to make me give up or give in. What I’d imagined happening quickly was long and drawn out. In fact, my fall took much longer than anticipated. Long enough for the new pain to make me question the old pain.
I started thinking then that maybe I had made a mistake. But my fate had been already set in motion, so there was no turning back.
Everything in me knew this wasn’t a mistake, but my old
pain was familiar while this pain was not. They both paralyzed me the same.
My new fear, though, was that my fall would end with no release. That this jump would be unsuccessful. I would reach the end of my fall and not be dead. Then I would have to live as the walking dead, even worse than I had begun.
I needed to die.
I managed to master the direction of my fall and the pain became easier for me to channel. But the problem was, I couldn’t stop falling. Why is this taking so long? I concentrated harder on channeling the pain even more this time, in an effort to gain speed.
It worked, and my fall hastened but not fast enough. It still wasn’t over.
*
I should’ve just stayed in bed, I thought as I stared out my office window at the LBJ freeway. I focused on the constant flow of vehicles, some faster than others, but all always on the go. I imagined them driving to somewhere meaningful. I longed to do the same—to go anywhere other than this meeting.
It was Friday, my favorite day of the week, and I couldn’t wait to go home and cuddle up with my TV remote control and a glass of white wine. After turning thirty-two, my social life had taken a major nosedive, and I was no longer interested in reviving it. I spent one half of my weekend just happy to not be at work and the other half dreading coming back.
I could hear their fake laughter seeping through the walls into my office, making me nauseous. The people in the next room put such effort into getting along with one another when everyone was looking, but none of them actually liked each other. I sighed. The thought of them cracking their old, leathery faces in phony camaraderie made me angry. And the more I thought about it, the more anxious I felt.
I attempted to talk some sense into myself. Your job is wonderful, Rae. People would kill to work at Freeman Taylor and you know it. Now pull yourself together and get ready for this meeting.
As difficult as it was, I really needed to prepare for this presentation. Our annual Sample Sale was a huge deal for the company. Every year on Black Friday, customers would scramble into the store as the doors opened with the anticipation of finding last season’s designer samples at obscenely low prices. Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada, Gucci, Balenciaga, Chanel, and Tom Ford, just to name a few, would provide their past season’s samples after months of courting and negotiating with our buyers. Some women would ditch their families and miss Thanksgiving altogether to fly in from all over the world in order to camp out the night before and be first in line when the doors opened Friday morning. Others would diet all year to fit into the perfect sample size and walk away triumphant with one year’s worth of designer treasures for a fraction of the original cost.
Yes, the Freeman Taylor annual Sample Sale was a big to-do. It brought in millions of dollars in revenue each year, with the weeks leading up to the sale always creating major advertising and social buzz for the store.
Incidentally, those weeks leading up to the sale were always the most stressful for the employees. From September through Thanksgiving sleep was not an option for anyone. Every designer we featured was very strict and specific about how the brand was to be displayed, making it hell on earth for the visual merchandising team.
Once the planogram was developed, all of the accompanying fixtures, props, and decor for each designer had to be ordered, shipped, and set in place before the merchandise arrived. A secret location had to be scouted out and reserved, emphasizing the exclusivity of the event even more. Each designer’s section dawned a separate theme, weaving together an intricate yet simplistic fairy tale that evoked romance, adventure, culture, and elegance.
The PR department temporarily turned into a special ops team whose only duty was to keep any unauthorized media reports from leaking to the public. The visual merchandising team would painstakingly conjure up all of the magical elements for the event. They spent months building, painting, assembling, and, if all else, failed, even stealing whatever “must-have” element a display could not go without.
One year a Visual Merchandising Director went as far as to steal a golden orb from the top of a historical lighthouse to add to the “Lost in a Sea of Romance” theme for Balmain Paris. While attempting to steal the orb she lost her balance and fell to the scaffolding left behind by construction workers who’d been doing repairs the day before. The fall broke the director’s hip, and she was caught and arrested, but not before handing off the undamaged bounty to her assistant, who got away. She was found guilty of vandalizing public property and placed on probation for one year.
The PR department wasted no time defusing the public scandal by taking a clear stance on the company’s disapproval of the employee’s actions as well as its commitment to preserving the community’s historic landmarks. Freeman Taylor donated funds for the restoration of the lighthouse, and all was right with the world.
The Balmain Paris display got rave reviews that year, and after a few years of waiting for the heat to die down from the scandal, that director was placed on the executive board of Freeman Taylor as the chief merchandising officer. A public slap on the wrist, but a wink and a nod behind closed doors, propelled her to the top of her career.
Each year’s sale was bigger than the previous year, and it was a well-known fact that promotion from store level to the corporate office was determined by Sample Sale contributions. Top employees from each store would compete all year to be selected to work on a Sample Sale team. The company would fly the chosen army of sales associates, shipping and receiving clerks, visual merchandisers, and operations specialists to the undisclosed location after they signed special confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements. It was truly a covert operation that made the dreams come true for many fashion-obsessed shop girls and boys around the world.
Lately, I had found myself missing my days at ground zero. The countless days and nights spent on the frontline physically executing the plans contrived by the powers-that-be in the corporate office had a certain satisfaction to them. I remember how I’d referred to corporate as “Heaven” because of the way the decisions always felt like they came from the Freeman Taylor gods—if we didn’t like them or we disagreed with anything, there was nothing we could do about it. That felt especially true when I first started with the company after college. I’d majored in fashion merchandising and was hired as a visual merchandising assistant before moving over to the operations department. I had only physically worked five Sample Sales during my twelve years with the company.
By my second year at the store, I had been promoted to an operations specialist and then selected for the Sample Sale operations team the following year. After that, I was selected every year for the next four years, making me the envy as well as the enemy of many coworkers.
I attributed all of my success to my boss and mentor, Julie Sanders. We met when I’d interviewed with her for my first position, and we soon became friends. She became sort of a mother figure for me and had made sure that as she rose to the top in the company that I was never far behind. She gave me advice on who to make friends with and who to stay away from. She always made sure I was exposed to the correct executives for the right opportunities. I was her prototype, and everyone knew it.
After Julie made it to the corporate office, I remained at store level for one year. One day I received a call from Human Resources asking me if I was interested in interviewing for an Assistant Buyer position at our corporate office. Once I was offered the position, my corporate career took off at full speed, with me always succeeding Julie whenever she snagged a new promotion.
Once our promotional pattern was discovered, there were many protestors against my rise through the ranks, but Julie was a force to be reckoned with. She was one of the few women able to seemingly schmooze her way into the “good old boys’ club,” and anyone that came against her found themselves either demoted, stuck in the same position permanently, or out on the street altogether.
I admired her tenacity but secretly wondered if I really had that same stop-at-nothing bravado that she possessed. I appeared to have what it took, but I never felt like I belonged in the same way that she did.
Outside of my relationship with Julie, I pretty much kept to myself. Julie was always shaking hands and kissing babies. I never could tell if this was business or pleasure for her. Most of the employees loved her, and she loved them, until someone became jealous and had to be dealt with.
Most people would say that I was one of the lucky ones, because I was able to climb the Freeman Taylor success ladder so fast. Most store level employees took decades to make it to corporate, if they ever made it at all. But Julie loved her career here, and I appreciated mine. That was a big difference.
Why aren’t I happy?
I shook myself out of my daydreaming, reminding myself of what I needed to focus on. I began to recite some key points I didn’t want to forget during my presentation: “Benchmarking Analysis, check; New Designer Initiatives, check; Marketing and Promotions Rollout, check.”
Julie poked her head through my office door. “We’re ready for you, Rae,” she said.
I gave her a nod and stood from my desk, ready to transform from Rae, the avid daydreamer, to Mirae E. Morgan, VP of Operations at Freeman Taylor. I picked up my reports and headed to the boardroom for my meeting.
*
I pulled up to my garage and noticed that the perennials my mother had planted were dead via the scorching Texas sun. Another plant bites the dust.
I had told her that I didn’t have time for gardening. Nor did I have any interest in hiring a gardener for the three patches of landscape I owned. But my mother, being my mother, insisted, saying that any woman without a pet or a plant would give a man the impression that she couldn’t take care of anything, including him. My mother didn’t hide the fact that she was more than disappointed that neither my baby sister Myra nor I had yet closed the deal on the sanctified union of marriage.
My cell phone started buzzing as soon as I parked my car. As if my thoughts had conjured her, it was my mother. I pressed the button that sent her to voicemail. I didn’t have the time or the desire for conversation. I had been looking forward to a night of doing nothing, followed by a morning of doing the same.
I walked through the door, grabbed a protein bar off the counter, then headed up the stairs to my bedroom to de-robe. “Club comforter” had a VIP section exclusively for me.
People assumed that my position automatically came with an exciting social life, but that was definitely not the case—at least for me. During the week I was a savvy, fashion-forward female exec with the world at my feet, but on the weekends I was a well-dressed cat lady without the cats. And in either scenario, I was always starving.
When I’d first started working at the store, I wore a size ten and couldn’t fit any of the clothes from the Sample Sales. But after months of being tortured by designer pieces I couldn’t wear, I began to watch my diet more closely. What was the point of being around all of those beautiful garments if I couldn’t wear any of them? By the time I was selected to work my second Sample Sale, I was a hungry size four, and my closet looked like the fashion closet at Vogue magazine.
I admired myself in my oversized, antique silver-leaf floor mirror. I bit my bottom lip and sucked in my stomach as I turned to the side for a better view of my physique.
I stared in this mirror often. I had to constantly make sure that I not only maintained my weight, but my image as well. I was always under a microscope, and people expected a certain level of style and elegance from me. I was proud of my image and was committed to keeping it at the status quo. My image had gotten me far as Julie’s protégé.
I often questioned if any of this was worth it, but the answer was always the same: It was all I had. I had the career I’d wanted at the expense of every other aspect of my life and couldn’t let all of those years of hard work go to waste.
I released my abdominal muscles, letting out the air I was holding in. My stomach was flat, but there was still room for improvement. My hips were a little big in comparison to the rest of my body, occasionally deeming it necessary for me to scrounge for a size six on the rare occasion that one was available. Managing the expectations placed on me from everyone required a lot of strength and discipline. It was often difficult, but it was the key to my success at work, and I had mastered it.
I untied the belt of the floral Diane Von Furstenberg dress I’d worn to the office and slipped out of the day’s expectations.
I put on my robe and turned the faucet over the tub before I ran down to the kitchen to pour myself a glass of Chardonnay. I grabbed my purple-monogramed journal from my nightstand and walked back into the bathroom. Just as I placed the wine and the journal, what I like to call my “turn-down kit,” in my bamboo and chrome bathtub caddy, I received another call.
I snatched my phone from the counter, expecting it to be my persistent mother calling back, but I saw it was an incoming FaceTime call from a phone number I didn’t recognize.
“Yes,” I answered.On the other end, I saw a very handsome, chocolate man, with commanding eyes and a dark goatee.
He appeared startled to see me. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “I must have called the wrong number.”
“Oh, that’s okay. It happens,” I fumbled out, shocked at his good looks.
“Right. Well…” he trailed off, a hesitant smile on his face, “Forgive me if this comes off weird, but with how stunning you are, I’d feel like an idiot if I didn’t at least introduce myself now—wrong number and all. Hi, I’m Bryson Whitman.” I can’t believe this is happening right now! I thought. It was a bit weird, if I was honest, but he was so handsome I didn’t really care. Besides it wasn’t that different from online dating – this time it was just by accident.
Nice to meet you, Bryson. My name is Rae.”
“Rae,” he repeated. “Sounds kinda masculine for someone so beautiful.”
“Ha. Well, my name is Mirae . . . Mirae Morgan, but I go by Rae.”
“Now that name is beautiful, and it definitely fits you,” he said.
“Thank you.”
The silence settled for a moment as we looked at each other. “Are you in Dallas Rae?”
Do you want to meet me for coffee tonight? I mean, if there isn’t a Mr. Morgan that would kill me.
I laughed at his politeness. It had been so long since anyone had showed interest beyond a catcall or an inappropriate grope.
“No. I mean yes, I mean”
What the heck did I mean? I was so nervous that my answers got all jumbled up in my head.
“I mean No, I am not married, and yes, we can meet. Do you live here in Dallas? Your phone number isn’t local.”
He smiled, revealing a left dimple and a row of straight white teeth. “No, I live in Baltimore. I’m staying at the Joule downtown.”
“Nice hotel! I said remembering just exactly how nice it was. We can meet at The Weekend Coffee Shop. It’s not far from there.”
Well alright then, Miss Morgan, turns out today is my lucky day! I will text you in an hour if that’s okay.”
“That’s fine. I’ll see you then!”
We ended the call, and I placed my cell on the countertop. Today was my lucky day, not his. Had he called a few minutes later, he would’ve been face to face with my gold radiant facial mask and my hair tied up in a scarf like Aunt Jemima.
Now that I had plans for the evening my nightly beauty routine would have to wait. I pinned my hair up and let my silk kimono robe fall to the floor. I had managed to meet a seemingly nice guy without so much as leaving my house. Things were definitely looking up.
MAC’s Velvet Teddy
I finally found a nude lip color that looks great on my shade of brown!
I have fallen in love with Mac Cosmetic’s Velvet Teddy. It is a matte lipstick, which seems to be the only lipsticks I wear now, and it has a slight peach tone to it. I especially like the fact that I only have to use a tiny amount to get the coverage that I like. I pair Velvet Teddy with the Boldly Bare lip pencil and my lips are set!
Spicy Crab and Crawfish Quiche
Ingredients
1 pie shell
3 tbsp. butter
1 bunch green onions, minced
1 sm. onion, minced
1 tbsp. flour
1/4 lb. Swiss cheese, shredded
1/2 lb. peeled crawfish tails, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb. pound fresh lump or jumbo crabmeat
5 eggs
2 1/2 c. milk
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
1 tsp. salt
Generous sprinkling of nutmeg
Line a 10 inch pie plate or quiche dish with the pastry, fluting the edge and pricking the bottom with a fork. Place a piece of foil within the pastry and fill with dried beans or raw rice. Bake shell in a preheated 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. Discard foil and beans and bake 2 or 3 minutes longer. Remove and set aside.
Meanwhile saute onions in butter until slightly browned. Add flour and cook, stirring a few minutes. Remove from heat. Sprinkle cheese, crawfish and sauteed onions evenly over the bottom of the crust.
Beat eggs thoroughly with milk and seasonings then pour over ingredients in shell. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until mixture is set and the top nicely browned. Let stand a few minutes before cutting into wedges. Serves 6-8.
Sriracha Poke Bowl
This quick dish is another go to meal for me when I get the chance to take a break from cooking for my family. (Unfortunately my love for sushi is not shared with anyone else in my family) You can usually find Sushi grade ahi tuna or prepared poke at your local grocery store.
I simply add the tuna with diced avocado, red onions , Sriracha, mirin, and liquid aminos. The combination of sauces gives you a spicy sweet combo that I personally love. This dish is light enough to be a snack but sometimes I may fry up some wonton wrappers and make it a light dinner. Either way it doesn’t get any better than these 6 simple ingredients that together make a delicious team!
Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer
So my new favorite lip balms are the Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers in Cocoa (left) and Caramel (right). This brand has always been the go to for moisturizing benefits but the addition of these metallic shimmer colors it was makes them stand out. The colors I love are neutral enough to wear at any time but still give me a little glam. On top of the shimmer there is also a menthol feeling once you apply these to your lips. It was a great surprise after my first application. Now I don’t go anywhere without these babies in m y arsenal. Winter is coming and my lips will be shimmer ready!
4 Tips for Fitness Motivation from Jerra Simmons
Need some motivation to help you get back into exercising? Check out these 4 tips:
1) Start off with short workout sessions. You don’t need to start off with 45 mins to 1 hour workouts; you don’t want overexert yourself too soon. Try a 10 or 15 minute workout every other day. Make sure you switch it up: do some kind of cardio one day, and body weight exercises the next time you work out. Eventually you can work yourself up to 30 minute to 1 hour workouts.
2) Find a “Motivation-Dress” or some “Motivation-jeans”. I tell my clients this all the time. If your goal is to lose weight, buy a dress or pair of jeans that are a size or two smaller than what you wear, and work to get in that dress or those pants. Make sure the jeans or dress has a zipper: Remember: zippers don’t lie! Lol
3) If your goal is to lose inches off your waist or tone belly fat, do crunches, sit-ups, or some other type of ab exercise while you’re watching tv (if you watch tv). The tv will take you mind away from exercising and you usually end up doing a whole lot more, because you mind is distracted.
4) TBT pics. Go look through your old pics and look at yourself. Sometimes looking back at your old pics can give you that push to start working out again. When looking at those pics, ask yourself: Do I want to look that way again? Or do I never want to look that way again?
Kielbasa and Sauerkraut
This low carb dish is my go to meal when I am in the mood for something quick and easy.
I only use 4 ingredients. Kielbasa sausage, chopped onions,vegetable oil, and sauerkraut.
Simply coat a frying pan with a little vegetable oil, brown the sausage and onions, then add the sauerkraut. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of brown sugar (optional) as desired.
September’s Woman of Purpose: Jerra Simmons, Mind Over Matter.
After a long day of work, walk into the OKC Planet Fitness gym to squeeze in a workout and you just might find the extra motivation that you needed. As you begrudgingly find your way to the treadmills, it would be difficult not to focus on the 5’5″ lean yet muscular Jerra Simmons as she guides a client through some heavy squatting. Watching from afar, the transformation of not only the client’s physical body but witnessing something much greater happening. You are witnessing the building of a woman’s confidence and that power through Jerra’s unique style of instruction, motivates you to crank up the speed on your treadmill a little more.
Observing Jerra, you might think to yourself, “Man she’s lucky! I wish I looked like that? How can I get a body like that?” But this body wasn’t built over night. And for the same reason she concentrates on the mental aspect of training her clients, she too has a story of transformation.
Melanie Verdell: I can’t believe how far you have come! I am so proud of you for following your calling. It takes a lot of courage to do that.
Jerra Simmons: Thank you! Yes it does, and a lot of prayer!
MV: But how did you get here? When did you discover your purpose?
JS: It was about a year ago, I was in the shower, because thats where I pray and talk to God, and I asked him what my purpose was.
MV: Was this the first time that you’d asked him?
JS: Yes and No, I had been praying about it before, but this was the first time that I really wanted an answer. I heard him say that my purpose was to help people reach their fitness goals with mental and physical confidence. He told me I needed to get certified so that people would take me seriously.
MV: Wow, When you get detailed instructions like that from God, it’s time to take action. That must of been exciting for you to finally get the answer you were praying for.
JS: It was exciting but it was very scary. I had never had a message from God so clear.
MV: When you began praying for your purpose, how did you know that the job you had at the time was not what you were called to do?
JS: I never felt comfortable doing it. I never had a passion for it. One day day I realized that it was just a job. I didn’t enjoy it and it was only a way for me to make money.
MV: Yeah, people living that type of existence have always been close to my heart. I never want anyone to have to live like that. Working a job that you have no passion or excitement about is torturous and draining. And it’s so unnecessary when God put a purpose in each and every one of us. Why would anyone want to live like that?
JS: Because you don’t know. You just know you need a job, and money to support yourself. And that is what becomes your priority.
MV: You are absolutely right. Most of the time we have made commitments and have responsibilities that we must follow through on. What did you do when God spoke to you and gave you your purpose? I’m sure you didn’t just go into work the next day and quit your job did you?
JS: No, I did a lot of praying after that. A lot of praying to confirm that I had heard God correctly. I talked to people I trusted like you, and some other people in my life that have a heart for God and their purpose, people I respected.
MV: Surrounding yourself with like minded people is very important. Was there anyone that told you not to do it?
JS: Yes, when God first spoke to me I went to dinner with my boyfriend that night. I told him what I thought God had said to me and that I was going to pursue becoming a personal trainer. He told me that he didn’t think that was a good idea, and said that he didn’t think that I was a “people person”.
MV: Isn’t that crazy? The closest people to you are usually the ones you get the most criticism and negativity from when you share with them your plans to do something different. Many times it is out of love but it’s their fear that leads them to be so concerned. How important do you think it is to guard your heart and the word that God gives you, especially in the beginning stages?
JS: I’m learning to keep God’s word to me to myself until an appropriate time. Sometimes other people can change your mind with their opinions that are purely based on their own lives and past experiences.
MV: Yes, people often try to impart their lack of faith and understanding onto you, but God didn’t give the word to them, he gave it to you, so it’s important to guard your mind and your heart regarding that word until it has had time to take root and develop. God plants a seed in you from day one. You were formed for a purpose and many people don’t quite understand that. They think it’s the other way around. But God created each of us for a purpose.
Now knowing what your purpose is, and looking back on your life, can you now see the seed that God planted in you? The seed that grew this passion for fitness?
JS: Looking back, I remember when I realized that I was a lot thinner than the rest of the kids in my class. I remember it was around the time that I was in the 5th grade and my parents were going through a divorce. I wasn’t dealing with it well and I’d stopped eating. I was already very thin and when I stopped eating I developed Anorexia Nervosa. My mother ended up noticing how unhealthy I started looking and stepped in. I had to have surgery to correct some of the damage that I had done to my body. It was a long recovery for me to get back to a healthy mental state as well as physical.
MV: What did you do to recover from that?
JS: It was very difficult for me to put on weight, even when I ate. I started playing basketball and running track for my school. It was then that I began to build muscle and saw a positive change in my body.
MV: That had to be mentally challenging for you to build confidence through all of this.
JS: It was. That is why the mental state of my clients is so important to me. Confidence starts from within before you lose a single pound or gain an ounce of muscle. It’s about your state of mind.
MV: So with all of this confidence to see you through, have you ran into any obstacles while getting to the point that you are now at?
JS: Of course, there were many. Finding what certification was best for me and which one I could afford at the time was a challenge. Working a full time job and trying to study for my certification was very hard. I finally resigned from my position because I was ready to give 100% of myself to my purpose. It was very scary and still is at times but definitely worth it. I’m on this journey that I know I am meant to be on.
MV: Are you happier now?
JS: Absolutely! It was so scary but I had to plan for in between [financially] and putting all of my attention on my business has changed my life for the better. I am so much happier everyday now.
MV: You enjoy what you do because you were created for it! Go figure! So Ms. Simmons, how do you see the future playing out?
JS: Some days are harder than others but I see myself continuing to build my business and helping as many people as I can. I’m not in this to be a big Instagram star or for fame at all.
MV: What advice would you give to someone who has been searching for their purpose?
JS: Definitely pray about it. Make sure you talk to like minded people and research, research, research. Don’t think too much or talk yourself out of it. Figure out a way to make it happen and do it!
MV: Mind over matter right? The awesome thing about that is, if it’s God, you won’t have to figure it out. He will show you how to make it happen for sure!
What success have you had helping your clients reach their fitness goals?
JS: If you go to my website jasfitclubokc.com, you will see the programs I offer and the progress of some of my clients. I can definitely get those inches off of you!
JS: In a few months I can help you shed inches and really see a difference.
MV: Do you have any workout programs for people who are not in OKC?
JS: Yes if you inbox me on Facebook, or DM me on Instagram. I can get you a great workout wherever you are. I have a 30 minute full body workout video and a 15 minute ab workout available.
MV: And I have that workout video, it is awesome and so are you Jerra! Thank you for being a woman of purpose! I am sure that the world will be seeing a lot more from you in the future.
My Version of Huevos Rancheros
Tuesday morning I decided to use the leftover black beans from the fish tacos I had for dinner the night before and make my version of Huevos Rancheros. The ingredients I used are listed below.
Mission White Corn Tortillas
Seasoned Black Beans (see my Fish Taco Recipe)
Scrambled Eggs
Green Onions
Kraft Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
Taco Sauce
Vegetable Oil
This recipe was very simple to put together. I heated a table spoon or two of vegetable oil in a skillet, then warmed four corn tortillas (I like to double them up) in the oil. After that I scrambled two eggs and spooned the eggs and the seasoned black beans from last night onto the tortilla shells. I then topped them with cheese, green onions, and taco sauce. Easy peasy breakfast, Enjoy!
Mia Verde Woman 