Where to Start?

It's been, what? Two weeks since I've posted? The benefit for Hank really chewed up a lot more time than I thought it would. Seriously, I was originally thinking a few bands, a few fun people, and a nice time. It became this amazing (and luckily undercontrol) huge monster event! I have no idea exactly what the head count was, but Grumpy's NE was wall to wall and that included the back patio. There was grilling, live music from Baby Grant Johnson, Little Irvy (the hub's band) and Kruddler. A silent auction (yay for LJ for the aprons that sold for $40 each), a raffle for a stunning boot sculpture by local artist Aldo, and people throwing money everywhere!



We raised enough money not only for the downpayment on his new leg, but also enough to pay off the leg that was being replaced. Hank had been paying off the credit card still for the 10 year old yuck leg at a gross interest rate. But that's all over now, he's starting from scratch, free and clear!


That's Hank and me with the boot sculpture. To look at all the amazing photographs that Michal Daniel took of the event, go here!

What else? The job is still going well. P is well. I'm holding tight with everything, except I did bail out of work today due to coming down with a little something. Not sure what, could be sheer exhaustion. When I got home from my 20 minutes at work, I crashed out fully and awoke about 5 hours later. Still a little wonky, but better. So much still going on. Guess I'm having a little bit of "being grown up" blues and kind of wishing to be a kid again for a week. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that sometime soon. As in vacation... Someday.....

T G (tomorrow's) Friday

TIRED! Today's bus ride home took me over an hour!!! I'm SO GLAD I didn't get sent to the MOA location for every day work. Holy cats! I also overslept today and P had to get up and drive me to work - bless his crabby old heart.

I have never in my life worked for a job where all the details about it are so hermetically sealed within the office. Basically, all I can talk about is that I'm in mortgage refinancing. Helping with the Obama program. Tomorrow is a half day though, (OH, THE JOY) and it's payday. Life does not totally suck. I plan on having a few strong drinks after work tomorrow...

Slacking seriously on zazen. I'm not getting up early enough, and before I crash out, I'm too tired. I'm thinking of really forcing myself this weekend, especially since I start my regular hours of one pm to nine pm on Monday and I've been stressed beyond belief. Monday, they are also throwing us to the sharks, so I really have to have my wits about me all next week so I don't mess anything up. Yikes!

This is dad as a baby with his dad. I love love love the old photos with the fake added color. The other day, my memory of him was when I was in college, he was staying at a flop house. He would buy the old rip out food stamps from the winos and give them to me for food. He probably could have used them (or the money) himself, but my brother and I always came first.

Decluttering has been at a standstill. It's almost something of a Cadmean victory, where in the process of getting rid of so much stuff, I've made a bigger mess. Back to work on it this weekend. P has to work Saturday, so I'll have time by myself to do it. Wish me energy and luck!

5 Swears In This Post

Exhausted. Feeling a little less ciceronian than usual today, so please bear with me and my aimless ramblings.

For some reason, riding home on the bus yesterday, I was struck by this huge feeling of just simple weepyness. I didn't have this urge to cry or sob, just felt weepy and it was really difficult for me to hold back tears. What makes it even more bizarre, is that there wasn't one single thing that I could put my finger on to make me feel that way. I had had a perfectly fine day at work, nothing was upsetting me, I have not a complaint in the world. Just this overwhelming urge to silently weep on the damn bus. I'm blaming early menopause, for lack of a better reason. I have had times where I just need to sob uncontrollably for about 10 minutes, just to get some random pent up emotion to an event, but I chalk that up to being a girl.

*lightbulb suddenly appears above head*
Well, shit. My dad's deathaversary is coming up in about 2 weeks. I totally forgot that this happens to me around this time every year. Dare you to tell me that my father was NOT a good looking guy (and I swear I'll kick your ass from here to Texas if you do)! He was seriously flawed, but boy, did he love the HELL out of my brother and me. I'll save more Daddy stories when it gets closer to the day. Or maybe everytime I blog I'll post another one... I like that idea!

Enough of the maudlin ramblings.

Completely out of left field, The Biggest Loser tonight is making my stomach roll over...

Work is still good, but am worried about this Thursday and Friday. I have to be at the Mall of America location those days at 8 am. Not a big deal...IF I COULD DRIVE! My eyes are still shot to hell, so I get to take the bus and transfer to the LightRail. Again, not a big deal. BUT, I will probably have to leave around 6 am to get there on time! Yikes! Which means if I want my 1/2 hour "wake up time" (meaning have a cuppa joe, a smoke (yeah yeah yeah), and some breakfast, I have to get up around 4:30 am. Holy cats! So I'm taking it easy tonight and even easier tomorrow night. On a good note, payday is Friday, so maybe I'll treat myself to brunch on Sunday. I like that idea...

Speaking of Thursday and Friday, I'd better get cracking and check the schedules, so I know what the hell I'm doing those days...

It Made Women in Black and White Look HOT

Riding the bus is interesting. I can totally zap out and dwell on things for 40 minutes and not have to discuss or chat about it with anyone. Here are my thoughts from yesterday morning's bus ride. Please forgive me if I use words that are incorrect for the blasting of thoughts that I was going through.

Money/Privilege/Trends

The cigarette tax went up. Like a dollar a pack. Yes, I know I should quit, etc etc etc (I HAVE gotten much better). But that's not my point. I was thinking about trends and coolness and money. How the Haves influence the Have Nots. How moncy changes everything. In college we talked about Peter Paul Rubens and his portrayal of (in today's standards) "larger" women. The professor touched on the fact that since only the rich could afford to eat well, being "larger" for both men AND women was a sign of wealth. Then there was the trend of pale skin. Peasants working the field were subjected to the sun - the rich could afford to avoid the sun, therefore light skin was something to attain. This went totally the other way in the 1970's/80's. Only the rich could afford to laze around in the sun all day while us drones were stuck in dank cubicles. Then the invention of tanning beds/booths/spray on tans evened the playing field. The wealthy sect of the Chinese could grow long nails, showing their riches because manual labor would break nails. And so on...

Is this moving on to cigarettes in our era? For years, it was only the poor smoked, due to cheap tobacco prices and addiction. They couldn't afford to see doctors to work on quitting. Nicorette and other options to quit are just as expensive as the habit. Now that prices have gone up to (in Minneapolis) around $7 a pack, can only the rich afford to smoke and make it trendy? They can afford the cost of the habit AND afford medical care when it destroys their bodies.

Something else I was thinking about was the social aspect. Smokers congregate. Through my bad bad habit, I have made friends at my new job spending that 10 minutes that it takes to suck down a smoke meeting people I probably wouldn't in my office. You can't smoke in silence, it's a total social meet/greet thing. You share a common habit, and from there friendship grows.

Maybe a 40 minute bus ride is too long for me...

Tuck-Er'd = ME

Okay, from now on, you shall know the word/s of the day/s as I shall just put them in bold. I may have to do catch up, as I'm not able to blog every day... If you cannot figure out the meaning by the way I use them in a sentence, LOOK THEM UP, you silly lazy people!

Today was my first Friday at work. In the past, Fridays were very much more my Mondays. It's completely awkward for me to have a regular 9-5 type job after all these years. It's still going to be strange when my hours change to 1 - 9:30. What an odd adjustment from my 20 year (mostly) habit of working 4 - barclose. 1 - 9:30 means I can sleep in AND go out (if I so wish). The sad thing is I miss the prime time tv that I so have learned to love. Which is fine, as less tv equals more home type stuff I can do.

When I started here, I honestly thought I was going to be "old lady bartender" on training. What I have learned is that I have many coetaneous co-workers, even though I'm still the rogue bartender. Even better, today's training for what our jobs are going to be on Monday were very pellucid. Because of a few things going on, we are to be message takers and are expected to handle a huge amount of calls. I kind of giggled to myself at that and someone said to me, "Oh, you have NO IDEA of how many calls come in that you are going to have to take"! I laughed outright at that and asked them if they had ever worked a blizzard Friday night or a Monday Night Football night at a pizza delivery place. He answered no, and I just had to cackle. You want diplomacy and patience with upset ppl on the job, honey, I GOT IT DOWN. Esp since I believe that many of the ppl that I will be talking to will not be hammered trying to get me to put pepperoni on two slices of their pizza and get it to them in 10 minutes. This is going to be cake. Watch this statement bite me on the ass.... I'm terribly excited for this new challenge. Bring. It. On. (okay, obviously I'm making a statement there, you don't have to look that up...)

Duties for the weekend:
1. OMG - LAUNDRY
2. Re-vamp clothes for work that need sewing fixes
3. Finalize grocery list - P is going for a major shopping for us on Monday BY HIMSELF, and as much as I love him, for the past 7 years, I've been doing it for both of us and I don't want him to mess this up.
4. Work more on the Hank's bennie. LJ, I got the aprons and they are GREAT! I'm setting starting bids at $20 with $5 increases. I kind of have a hard on for the Heart one...I'm going to have to bid on it myself!!!! Originally I was wanting the "eat me" one, but I need the pocket, and well, to be honest, I think that one is going to bring in a ton of bids!

Today's Verbal Vomit: In the training for what we have to do Monday, one of my co-trainee's asked if anyone was sitting in the open chair next to me. I answered "Only you...Sailor". Luckily, that drew laughs, rather than a reprimand, or (shudder) silence.

Learner's Can Take the Old Heave HO

Learner's Word of the Day: Prank

When I read today's Word of the Day, I thought it was a prank because it was so lame. Who does these? I'm calling bullshit on Learner's and have dumped it. I now subscribe to A.Word.A.Day which turns out to be much better and doesn't have 5th grade reading level words like prank, for heaven's sake...

On that note, I'm very much challenged by today's word from A.Word.A.Day: Acarpous

When I look upon the snow cleared front lawn every early spring, I'm always astounded as to how acarpous it looks. Wow. A word where I actually had to think about how to put in a sentence! The joy!

Another good day at work, but I underestimated to cold and didn't bring a hat or gloves. FREEZING. Today sat with C, who at first came off a little standoffish, but we warmed up to each other really fast. I really like her. It's crazy how everyone is nice and friendly.

P and I had planned to pull an April Fool's joke on our friend Fred today which included his bicycle and a lot of shrinkwrap, but because I had to work, no one was around to be the distraction. Oh well, next year maybe? I was unscathed by any prank today, short of the damn SNOW. Mother Nature really pulled a fast one today. NOT FUNNY. Other than that, now that I'm working again, I have less and less to report. Kind of sad. But who am I to complain about having a JOB finally???