Man, I sure hope that means it's gonna get warmer, I'd even be happy with the high 50's!! At least it's SUNNY today!!
Kat & Benji's kids, the twins I always write about (not identical though...one has a penis & the other doesn't!) are gonna be 5 tomorrow!! I just cannot believe that! Already?? Kevin & Tiff went out last night and got presents for them.
And...my dad was taken Sunday afternoon, and admitted to the hospital...and, did ANYONE call me & tell me? Uhhhh, no. No, I can't drive out there, but he's my dad!! Sorry...I know some families have a 'black sheep'? Well, I've progressed beyond that. To the GRAY SHEEP!! My mom never calls me, anyway...she calls Tiff on her cell phone...sorry, I'm just a little bitter. Why?? Well, they only live about, well, I don't know, but it's way less than maybe 1/4 of a mile across town. In the same town! Yes, I know all the stuff I wrote before about when I was in school & older...but, as far as I knew, we made our peace with that, and we still talked...before I got ms. Now, it's WAY different. Mom or Dad will call Tiff (on her cell) and ask her & Zach over for Sunday dinner. Which is great, I love it that Tiff's still close to my mom, she's not really with my dad. Anyway, my mom finally called here Sunday a little before noon, & Kevin got the phone (I wasn't up yet!). She told Kevin about my dad, but mostly she told him about my uncle & his wife that came down for dinner Saturday night with her after Dad was in the hospital, and what a good time they had..To me, & Kevin, that's just plain weird! I know my dad's 88 years old, and of course, Mom's going to expect health problems. But I don't think one oughtta become quite so 'blase' about it! Dad's blood pressure was over 200 Saturday when he went to the hospital! I called Mom Saturday after Kev woke me up, talked to her for a little bit (again, mostly about her brother & his wife!), then I called Dad at the hospital & talked to him, then he said someone would call me Monday, after someone looked at the cat scan. No, nobody ever called. So I called their house today, Dad answered the phone...yadayadayada...what else is there to say? Hmmmmm...
All right. At least I got that shit off my chest. Usually I'm writing stuff that's funny on here...not today...
Droops... Libby
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
continued...feb 27
After I quit the job with the asshole manager (remember? UFW!!), well, actually, I interviewed for my new job before I quit. It was an interview like none I'd ever seen before! It was in a hotel room here in town..I thought that was almost too weird, cuz it seemed almost like a telemarketing interview being in a hotel room! But it was the normal questions/answers for the departments. When I was called up to talk to the produce supv from Lima, he acted like we were old buddies or something! Then he asked if I recognized him. Because he had been in my department in Bucyrus checking it out a couple days before! So I got hired...but the produce supv had really fucked up before he interviewed me. He had already promised the produce mgr job to the produce mgr at another one of the company's stores! But that was okay, he told me that, and I said ok, then he told me I'd be making a lot more than the mgr of the dept, and he wanted me to do most of the ordering, paperwork, etc..that was gonna take some tact on my part (& all the supvs!) to deal with the guy who thought he was gonna be the boss. Oh well, it was ok till a few weeks later when he found out I made more than him...
So I gave a week's notice at my job with shithead boss, (and, yes, I did get my week vacation pay mailed to me before I left!), and my last day there was 1 year & 1 day after I'd started there! And the new store here had a store meeting the night before I quit my old job, but I went to it too. The new store wouldn't open for a week or two, but they wanted us to meet each other, and get the store set up! The meeting ended, I went over to the stairs, to clock out and go home, I heard somebody call my name. Turned around and looked, and it was the 'ex-girlfriend from hell'! She'd be working there too, but, luckily, she wasn't in my dept!! But, she did tell me she'd do anything she could to get me fired...haha, like I was worried! We co-existed in that store till it closed in 1993...and avoided each other like the plague!
This was the Indian ghost store....
Lots of fun stuff happened there, but right now, I remember one of the first hilarious things that happened, and made me really good friends with the customer svc girl at the front. She was in charge of renting the videos out and taking care of everything up front. One time, this really pretty woman came in and was looking at the movies, and M (my friend) was putting returned movies back. The woman looked over at M, and held a popular movie up, and asked if she knew if it was good. M looked at it, and said "My kids just got that the other night & watched it. They liked it, but there was a white woman with a black man in it, & I don't like that too much." (BTW, M's kids were 13 & 15).The woman said "Mmmm...", looked at some other movies, got the first one, and left. About an hour later, the manager came downstairs & told M that woman had called back & wasn't happy, cuz she is married to a black man! I laughed my ASS off at M for that!! So, see? My big mouth isn't the worst one in the world!! Even the store manager made fun of M for that!~! Nobody was making fun of the woman & her husband, just of M's customer svc skills!! But we were great friends after that (I wonder why..). She & I even took Tiff and her kids to Cedar Point the next summer. And after we got home we read a story in the paper the next day that explained why the big roller coaster was closed while we were there...a guy had been fucking around on it, and lost his arm...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
BTW....>>> a great website!!! http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com/home/
So I gave a week's notice at my job with shithead boss, (and, yes, I did get my week vacation pay mailed to me before I left!), and my last day there was 1 year & 1 day after I'd started there! And the new store here had a store meeting the night before I quit my old job, but I went to it too. The new store wouldn't open for a week or two, but they wanted us to meet each other, and get the store set up! The meeting ended, I went over to the stairs, to clock out and go home, I heard somebody call my name. Turned around and looked, and it was the 'ex-girlfriend from hell'! She'd be working there too, but, luckily, she wasn't in my dept!! But, she did tell me she'd do anything she could to get me fired...haha, like I was worried! We co-existed in that store till it closed in 1993...and avoided each other like the plague!
This was the Indian ghost store....
Lots of fun stuff happened there, but right now, I remember one of the first hilarious things that happened, and made me really good friends with the customer svc girl at the front. She was in charge of renting the videos out and taking care of everything up front. One time, this really pretty woman came in and was looking at the movies, and M (my friend) was putting returned movies back. The woman looked over at M, and held a popular movie up, and asked if she knew if it was good. M looked at it, and said "My kids just got that the other night & watched it. They liked it, but there was a white woman with a black man in it, & I don't like that too much." (BTW, M's kids were 13 & 15).The woman said "Mmmm...", looked at some other movies, got the first one, and left. About an hour later, the manager came downstairs & told M that woman had called back & wasn't happy, cuz she is married to a black man! I laughed my ASS off at M for that!! So, see? My big mouth isn't the worst one in the world!! Even the store manager made fun of M for that!~! Nobody was making fun of the woman & her husband, just of M's customer svc skills!! But we were great friends after that (I wonder why..). She & I even took Tiff and her kids to Cedar Point the next summer. And after we got home we read a story in the paper the next day that explained why the big roller coaster was closed while we were there...a guy had been fucking around on it, and lost his arm...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
BTW....>>> a great website!!! http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com/home/
Friday, February 24, 2006
Friday!!
When I left that new produce market, I got the new job in a town about 1/2 hour north of here. It was a pretty nice store that was in a rich area of town (I think...they acted like it, anyway!).The other department mgrs were pretty nice, and the cashiers were too. In a very short time, I realized why the place seemed like a prison on 24-hour lockdown!!
It was pretty much a store where the manager was, well, a little fucking prick to all his employees! He wanted all of his department managers to always act professional, and walk around like they have a stick up their ass or something! Which, because of the money, we did...however, I think that's probably the reason we all got along so well. Example: he was a short little fat Italian guy that thought he was the best manager in the world. He always parked his car right outside my produce door, which had a window in it, so we were always checking to see for sure if he was there. The girl/lady in charge of receiving looked out one day, noticed his license plate, and it started out with UFW... she looked over at me, and said, "I always remember that by...you fuckin' wop." ROTFLMAO!! He had the habit of always taking a cart around the 'perimeter' of the store (a manager's job/habit,whatever), and I had to be there at 7 am every day, (well, Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat.). And I'd try to get my dept looking good enough that he didn't stop and say shit!! Because he WAS very picky, and if he thought something was in the wrong place, he had no problem telling you you should come in on your day off (w/out pay!!) and fix it!
All that shit went on, month after month, and I was going nuts, checking the want ads every day, whining to Kevin, blah blah blah! I did have some fun at that job, mostly because we had a few times we had to go to the warehouse in Fort Wayne, and I liked that, because I drove by myself. I even took Tiff once and we went to the mall over there, and spent a couple hours watching the people at the ice skating rink in the middle. And I got to introduce Tiff to the people that I talked to every day to give my order to. Now that was fun!
A few weeks later, the store mgr was walking down the produce aisle one morning, and looked at me and said, "Hi Blondie.", but in a totally shitty, snotty way, just trying to piss me off. I got totally pissed, but just grinned at him and said hi. Yes, I held my attitude in check (for once), and thought about what to do. When I saw him go up to his office, I followed him in, and told him I had to talk to him for a minute. He said sure, and shut the door, and I just said, "Don't call me Blondie anymore...I don't call you 'short, fat, Italian', do I?" So that talk only took like 2 minutes...but it was truly the best 2 minutes of my life (well, almost...).
After that is when I read about the store that was going to open here in my town, you know, the one with the Indian ghost...so, I waited to quit so that my last day was the day after I'd been there 1 year exactly, so I'd get my week paid vacation, which I had called the woman at their main office and told her I'd be leaving in a couple weeks, would she mail the check for that to my house, cuz I didn't want the manager to do anything with it, like, it might get 'lost', or something.
I was SO friggin' happy to get the hell outta there!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
It was pretty much a store where the manager was, well, a little fucking prick to all his employees! He wanted all of his department managers to always act professional, and walk around like they have a stick up their ass or something! Which, because of the money, we did...however, I think that's probably the reason we all got along so well. Example: he was a short little fat Italian guy that thought he was the best manager in the world. He always parked his car right outside my produce door, which had a window in it, so we were always checking to see for sure if he was there. The girl/lady in charge of receiving looked out one day, noticed his license plate, and it started out with UFW... she looked over at me, and said, "I always remember that by...you fuckin' wop." ROTFLMAO!! He had the habit of always taking a cart around the 'perimeter' of the store (a manager's job/habit,whatever), and I had to be there at 7 am every day, (well, Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat.). And I'd try to get my dept looking good enough that he didn't stop and say shit!! Because he WAS very picky, and if he thought something was in the wrong place, he had no problem telling you you should come in on your day off (w/out pay!!) and fix it!
All that shit went on, month after month, and I was going nuts, checking the want ads every day, whining to Kevin, blah blah blah! I did have some fun at that job, mostly because we had a few times we had to go to the warehouse in Fort Wayne, and I liked that, because I drove by myself. I even took Tiff once and we went to the mall over there, and spent a couple hours watching the people at the ice skating rink in the middle. And I got to introduce Tiff to the people that I talked to every day to give my order to. Now that was fun!
A few weeks later, the store mgr was walking down the produce aisle one morning, and looked at me and said, "Hi Blondie.", but in a totally shitty, snotty way, just trying to piss me off. I got totally pissed, but just grinned at him and said hi. Yes, I held my attitude in check (for once), and thought about what to do. When I saw him go up to his office, I followed him in, and told him I had to talk to him for a minute. He said sure, and shut the door, and I just said, "Don't call me Blondie anymore...I don't call you 'short, fat, Italian', do I?" So that talk only took like 2 minutes...but it was truly the best 2 minutes of my life (well, almost...).
After that is when I read about the store that was going to open here in my town, you know, the one with the Indian ghost...so, I waited to quit so that my last day was the day after I'd been there 1 year exactly, so I'd get my week paid vacation, which I had called the woman at their main office and told her I'd be leaving in a couple weeks, would she mail the check for that to my house, cuz I didn't want the manager to do anything with it, like, it might get 'lost', or something.
I was SO friggin' happy to get the hell outta there!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Thursday Feb 23
I really miss some of the people I used to work with, when I worked in produce...I know, you're tired of hearing about it...so what? Quit reading then.
After Kevin and I got married, the people up in the main office didn't seem to like it...we think maybe a lot of it was because our jobs weren't all-consuming to us anymore (you all KNOW WTF was!!), and we had stuff to do after work, instead of stay at work & try to figure out ways to make our sales numbers better...sales per customer, % of the store's business that was our department, shit like that...so, about a month after we got married, Kevin took a job at a different store as meat manager, with more money than our store paid him. He liked it, but it wasn't the best store to work at. The owner was, like, one of the biggest crooks this town's ever seen! But, no, he didn't rip off Kev, he was paid well...
After Kevin was outta there, all of a sudden...it was boring to show up at work, cuz I wasn't seeing Kevin be-boppin' around the corner through my department to say hi on his way to his department. :-( . Even though the store here in town had moved to a different location, & I loved my new produce dept, the fun wore off, ya know?
So, my brother, who has a construction company, was remodeling a building on the other side of town for a man from Lima, Ohio, who wanted to open an all produce market, cuz that's the kind of warehouse he owned in Lima. When my brother told me about it, I thought "Well, shit, I'll try!" And, keep in mind, the absolute only company I had EVER worked at in my life was the one I worked at then...starting as cashier! My next day off I told Kevin I was gonna go try to get hired there, and he said 'Good luck!'
I drove to that building, and it was deserted looking except for a big 'old man looking' car in the parking lot. I parked my car & walked around the building, looking in the windows, and then,* 'bingo! there's the old man that belongs to the car!'* I went up to the front door, which was glass, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Walked toward him with my right hand out to shake his hand, and said 'Hi, are you JD? I'm Libby X, and my brother is XXXX, he's been telling me about this place! It looks like it's going to be great!" He's all smiley and friendly, and telling me what he wants to do with this room, that room, etc. And I stood there smiling & nodding, then said, "Wow! It sounds like you're in need of a produce manager, aren't you!?" And he said, "Well, matter of fact I am!" And he said come on in the office, we'll talk about money." Then he asked where I worked now, why I'm leaving, etc...then asked how much I made an hour..I told him, he said okay, he'd give me xx more, I said ok, we agreed I'd start next week, cuz I wanted to give a week's notice. And, bam, I had a new job! How easy was that shit?? That place wasn't open yet, but it only took about a month to open it...unfortunately, it only took about 8 months to go out of business...(which was NOTHING to do with me!! I wasn't there anymore! Had been called by a 'headhunter' to interview for another job in a different town, which I took, cuz I saw how business was going). But, man, do I miss working there! J was a big old gruff, scary guy to most people. But, really, he was nice...as long as you stood up to him.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
After Kevin and I got married, the people up in the main office didn't seem to like it...we think maybe a lot of it was because our jobs weren't all-consuming to us anymore (you all KNOW WTF was!!), and we had stuff to do after work, instead of stay at work & try to figure out ways to make our sales numbers better...sales per customer, % of the store's business that was our department, shit like that...so, about a month after we got married, Kevin took a job at a different store as meat manager, with more money than our store paid him. He liked it, but it wasn't the best store to work at. The owner was, like, one of the biggest crooks this town's ever seen! But, no, he didn't rip off Kev, he was paid well...
After Kevin was outta there, all of a sudden...it was boring to show up at work, cuz I wasn't seeing Kevin be-boppin' around the corner through my department to say hi on his way to his department. :-( . Even though the store here in town had moved to a different location, & I loved my new produce dept, the fun wore off, ya know?
So, my brother, who has a construction company, was remodeling a building on the other side of town for a man from Lima, Ohio, who wanted to open an all produce market, cuz that's the kind of warehouse he owned in Lima. When my brother told me about it, I thought "Well, shit, I'll try!" And, keep in mind, the absolute only company I had EVER worked at in my life was the one I worked at then...starting as cashier! My next day off I told Kevin I was gonna go try to get hired there, and he said 'Good luck!'
I drove to that building, and it was deserted looking except for a big 'old man looking' car in the parking lot. I parked my car & walked around the building, looking in the windows, and then,* 'bingo! there's the old man that belongs to the car!'* I went up to the front door, which was glass, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Walked toward him with my right hand out to shake his hand, and said 'Hi, are you JD? I'm Libby X, and my brother is XXXX, he's been telling me about this place! It looks like it's going to be great!" He's all smiley and friendly, and telling me what he wants to do with this room, that room, etc. And I stood there smiling & nodding, then said, "Wow! It sounds like you're in need of a produce manager, aren't you!?" And he said, "Well, matter of fact I am!" And he said come on in the office, we'll talk about money." Then he asked where I worked now, why I'm leaving, etc...then asked how much I made an hour..I told him, he said okay, he'd give me xx more, I said ok, we agreed I'd start next week, cuz I wanted to give a week's notice. And, bam, I had a new job! How easy was that shit?? That place wasn't open yet, but it only took about a month to open it...unfortunately, it only took about 8 months to go out of business...(which was NOTHING to do with me!! I wasn't there anymore! Had been called by a 'headhunter' to interview for another job in a different town, which I took, cuz I saw how business was going). But, man, do I miss working there! J was a big old gruff, scary guy to most people. But, really, he was nice...as long as you stood up to him.
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
closing the store in town at night before i transferred up north...
I know I'm bouncing around on subjects lately, but...I get distracted, for heaven's sake!! And I always think of the most brilliant, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking thing to write right before I fall asleep every night. And it's gone when I wake up...just think of all the pearls of wisdom you've missed!
I must have been trustworthy to the store back when I was still just a cashier (not that I'm NOT trustworthy, you understand!). Actually, think about it...it's kind of amazing that MORE employees of that store weren't thieves (we had some)...a lot were single, trying to raise their kid or kids, and we were paid $3.35/hour, until minimum was raised to $3.50/hour! Okay at the time for an after-school job, but, for raising even ONE kid, + renting an apartment!! Lots of people asked me, "Couldn't you get more if you stayed home and got on welfare?" Like that is something to aspire to?? Jesu*!! What an example that would have set for Tiffany!! Kevin and I even told Tiff when she was looking for a job, we dont care if you're a stripper, as long as you don't grow up to be a welfare bum!! ('bum' is the operative word here, some people are on welfare without wanting to be!). I told Mom that...she didn't find any humor in it...
So after I had worked at that store for about 6 or 8 months, I started working with the head cashier between customers, learning how to do the books, and once I knew that, and they knew they could trust me (BTW..the manager used to put $50.00 extra in the safe once in a while, just to make sure we were honest enough to say that the safe had too much money!), I got to be in charge of the store here from 3 or 4 to 9 pm.Now THAT was fun!! We always (well, okay, usually...) had to make sure the whole store was cleaned up & the trash was taken out (hey Jill! ask Ken about the time he DIDN'T!!). And then, of course, had to do the turning off of the lights & everything. One night, one of the high school stockboys (Phil...I talked about him before), went back to get the lights turned off. Well, okay, a cashier & I were standing there waiting for him to do it, & come back up front, so we could lock up & go home. Hmmm....tap, tap, tap, call him on the intercom "PHIL!! UP FRONT!!" Nuthin'! So, I went huffing & stomping back to that back room to look for him...and he was in it, all right...swinging around on the big pipes up by the ceiling, going, "Oooooh-Oooooh, Eeeee-Eeeeee, look at me, I'm Curious George!" Oh my God, that was hilarious!! Too funny to yell at him for fucking around!
After I got the deposit ready to go, it was pretty much like it would be at the other store, the cashier went home, and I took the deposit to the bank and dropped it off. One night when we were closing, Phil asked if I could take him home. Turned out, he lived with his mom & dad in a great big house right across the street from mine & Tiff's apt. So that was really good, that way I had a great big "bodyguard" when I took the money to the bank at night (it was DARK, ya know?) After we dropped the deposit off, we'd go pick up Tiff at her babysitter's, about 3 blocks away, and go home. Oh, and that was also the bank that Kev & Ken's mom worked at, a couple blocks from ny apt!
After we got Tiff & we all got out of the car to go in our houses, Phil would walk across the street, singing real loud, "weeeyeeeeheeeheee..." blah, blah,blah, 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight...". I will NEVER, EVER, hear that song without thinking of Phil...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
I must have been trustworthy to the store back when I was still just a cashier (not that I'm NOT trustworthy, you understand!). Actually, think about it...it's kind of amazing that MORE employees of that store weren't thieves (we had some)...a lot were single, trying to raise their kid or kids, and we were paid $3.35/hour, until minimum was raised to $3.50/hour! Okay at the time for an after-school job, but, for raising even ONE kid, + renting an apartment!! Lots of people asked me, "Couldn't you get more if you stayed home and got on welfare?" Like that is something to aspire to?? Jesu*!! What an example that would have set for Tiffany!! Kevin and I even told Tiff when she was looking for a job, we dont care if you're a stripper, as long as you don't grow up to be a welfare bum!! ('bum' is the operative word here, some people are on welfare without wanting to be!). I told Mom that...she didn't find any humor in it...
So after I had worked at that store for about 6 or 8 months, I started working with the head cashier between customers, learning how to do the books, and once I knew that, and they knew they could trust me (BTW..the manager used to put $50.00 extra in the safe once in a while, just to make sure we were honest enough to say that the safe had too much money!), I got to be in charge of the store here from 3 or 4 to 9 pm.Now THAT was fun!! We always (well, okay, usually...) had to make sure the whole store was cleaned up & the trash was taken out (hey Jill! ask Ken about the time he DIDN'T!!). And then, of course, had to do the turning off of the lights & everything. One night, one of the high school stockboys (Phil...I talked about him before), went back to get the lights turned off. Well, okay, a cashier & I were standing there waiting for him to do it, & come back up front, so we could lock up & go home. Hmmm....tap, tap, tap, call him on the intercom "PHIL!! UP FRONT!!" Nuthin'! So, I went huffing & stomping back to that back room to look for him...and he was in it, all right...swinging around on the big pipes up by the ceiling, going, "Oooooh-Oooooh, Eeeee-Eeeeee, look at me, I'm Curious George!" Oh my God, that was hilarious!! Too funny to yell at him for fucking around!
After I got the deposit ready to go, it was pretty much like it would be at the other store, the cashier went home, and I took the deposit to the bank and dropped it off. One night when we were closing, Phil asked if I could take him home. Turned out, he lived with his mom & dad in a great big house right across the street from mine & Tiff's apt. So that was really good, that way I had a great big "bodyguard" when I took the money to the bank at night (it was DARK, ya know?) After we dropped the deposit off, we'd go pick up Tiff at her babysitter's, about 3 blocks away, and go home. Oh, and that was also the bank that Kev & Ken's mom worked at, a couple blocks from ny apt!
After we got Tiff & we all got out of the car to go in our houses, Phil would walk across the street, singing real loud, "weeeyeeeeheeeheee..." blah, blah,blah, 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight...". I will NEVER, EVER, hear that song without thinking of Phil...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Monday, February 20, 2006
Monday, Monday...
Well, my email friend in Australia instant messaged me from work last night, (she works for the Australian government in Canberra), and she has to come to Washington DC at the end of March, so she wants to try to get up here then for a couple days too! Yeah, I know it's her, we've been writing & talking for about 5 years! She has ms too, and she sent me a tv clip of her testifying to her govt about ms! Really cool!
Other than that...
When it was just me & Tiffany, & I worked in the store an hour north of here, all the department managers had to trade working on Sundays, cuz nobody EVER wanted to work on Sunday!! So, since I was, like, greedy, and needed the money (at least I had the Honda Civic, and gas was only .98 a gallon...remember those days??), I volunteered to work every other Sunday. And absolutely nobody ever had any kind of problem with THAT!!! Especially since I took the last half of the day, 3 pm to 9 pm. And that was because I liked to drink (beer & tequila!) and always went out to a bunch of bars with all my friends, to Findlay, Tiffin, Bowling Green, Toledo....(hence, I haven't been drunk since, ummm, 1989...I think I must've drunk my fill), and we always went out on Saturday nights and stayed out all night. Tiffany always stayed with my mom & dad overnight that night. They would pick her up at the babysitter's house Saturday afternoon, and I'd pick her up at their house Sunday, ummm, after I woke up? No, it was usually before noon. Then Tiffany and I would usually play with her puzzles, and other toys Sunday. But when I had to work at 3 pm, Mom & Dad babysat her again, cuz her regular babysitter didn't do Sundays (don't blame her.........would you?). But she did watch her Monday thru Saturday. I'd leave for work at 2 pm Sunday afternoon, work from 3 to 9, and I was the one in charge. Had the safe combination, the store keys, and 1 cashier to run register. We would get everything done in the store, get the money counted, and in a deposit bag, and the cashier would go home, I'd take the bag of money (like, $30,000!), and drop it off in the bank's deposit thingy on my way out of town, cuz it WAS right on my way out of town. At that time, it really wasn't a big deal to me, it was "nuttin' but a thing". I was about 22 & 23! Now when I look back at it, I'n like "Holy Shit!!". I remember there was a bar across the street that mostly Mexicans went to...a big sign in the window said "Cerveza". I think that's Mexican for beer? I dunno, I thought so, anyway. Then I'd drive back here, & pick Tiffany up, go back to the apartment, read with her, and put her to bed. By then it was usually 10:30 pm, and I'd go sit on the couch and make all the new price signs for the next week in produce. I always had the tv on VH1, listening to, maybe 'The Soul of VH1'? When I'd get done with the signs, I'd go tuck Tiff in again, grab one of my Stephen King books, put everything that I needed to take back to work leaning against the door so I didn't forget it, then I'd go to bed too. And read for an hour or two. And then get up and go back to work Monday morning, leaving at 6:45 am. Which meant I was up at, ummmm, 5:30 am !! How did I do it??? No wonder I sleep a lot now! Got a lot to catch up on! Anyway, it worked well. Lots of fun, but lots of bullshit with one of the guys I dated, but...live & learn, right?
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Other than that...
When it was just me & Tiffany, & I worked in the store an hour north of here, all the department managers had to trade working on Sundays, cuz nobody EVER wanted to work on Sunday!! So, since I was, like, greedy, and needed the money (at least I had the Honda Civic, and gas was only .98 a gallon...remember those days??), I volunteered to work every other Sunday. And absolutely nobody ever had any kind of problem with THAT!!! Especially since I took the last half of the day, 3 pm to 9 pm. And that was because I liked to drink (beer & tequila!) and always went out to a bunch of bars with all my friends, to Findlay, Tiffin, Bowling Green, Toledo....(hence, I haven't been drunk since, ummm, 1989...I think I must've drunk my fill), and we always went out on Saturday nights and stayed out all night. Tiffany always stayed with my mom & dad overnight that night. They would pick her up at the babysitter's house Saturday afternoon, and I'd pick her up at their house Sunday, ummm, after I woke up? No, it was usually before noon. Then Tiffany and I would usually play with her puzzles, and other toys Sunday. But when I had to work at 3 pm, Mom & Dad babysat her again, cuz her regular babysitter didn't do Sundays (don't blame her.........would you?). But she did watch her Monday thru Saturday. I'd leave for work at 2 pm Sunday afternoon, work from 3 to 9, and I was the one in charge. Had the safe combination, the store keys, and 1 cashier to run register. We would get everything done in the store, get the money counted, and in a deposit bag, and the cashier would go home, I'd take the bag of money (like, $30,000!), and drop it off in the bank's deposit thingy on my way out of town, cuz it WAS right on my way out of town. At that time, it really wasn't a big deal to me, it was "nuttin' but a thing". I was about 22 & 23! Now when I look back at it, I'n like "Holy Shit!!". I remember there was a bar across the street that mostly Mexicans went to...a big sign in the window said "Cerveza". I think that's Mexican for beer? I dunno, I thought so, anyway. Then I'd drive back here, & pick Tiffany up, go back to the apartment, read with her, and put her to bed. By then it was usually 10:30 pm, and I'd go sit on the couch and make all the new price signs for the next week in produce. I always had the tv on VH1, listening to, maybe 'The Soul of VH1'? When I'd get done with the signs, I'd go tuck Tiff in again, grab one of my Stephen King books, put everything that I needed to take back to work leaning against the door so I didn't forget it, then I'd go to bed too. And read for an hour or two. And then get up and go back to work Monday morning, leaving at 6:45 am. Which meant I was up at, ummmm, 5:30 am !! How did I do it??? No wonder I sleep a lot now! Got a lot to catch up on! Anyway, it worked well. Lots of fun, but lots of bullshit with one of the guys I dated, but...live & learn, right?
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Friday, February 17, 2006
cold...
Damn, it is too cold today!! Okay...yesterday it was 60 degrees & sunny...today it's...well, right now it's 30 degrees! And last night overnight, it was SO fuckin' windy...I was sitting in here at the computer around 3 or 4 am, all of a sudden, I heard something on the front porch banging around. Turned out, it was all the brooms, shovels, + anything else that wasn't "nailed down", flying against the wall, the railing, OMG, you can imagine picking a snow shovel up and just hitting a wall with it as hard as you can! At 3 am, when people are supposed to be sleeping! (not me, of course...rules don't apply to me!) I think the winds last night were like, well, I dunno, but I do know we were under a high wind warning, and if you looked at a map, there was a tornado 'watch box' in Indiana!!
But, before all that, it was a really nice day. Kevin took the day off for our anniversary, and we just kinda loafed around all day. He always describes his part in that as "gonna hang out with my wang out" or "gonna rock out with my cock out".
We got together with his whole family and went out for dinner, like we always do on our anniversary, because his mom & dad's 42nd anniversary was Feb 15th. We actually just went to Bob Evans restaurant, whose food I totally love. They thought about going to Applebee's, but I'm really kinda glad we didn't, I'm not really a big fan of their food.
At 6:30 pm, Kevin and I pulled up to the side of the restaurant, and Ken motioned out the window for us to wait a second...then he came out to the car carrying an umbrella (Mary Poppins?), and he and Kevin got my walker (well, it's actually a 'roller'!) out of the backseat, and I got out of the car...we're all heading to the door in the rain (that was when the weather started to suck!), Ken first, then me and my walker, then Kevin behind me. He always walks behind me, cuz he always has his finger through my belt loop, in case I fall. And Ken was carrying the umbrella over my head. That's very sweet & careful, but...I've told him if I ever DO fall, that'll rip me in two!! And probably make a total mess... :-( . We're just trudging toward the door, and maybe I slowed down or something, but all of a sudden I see Ken and the umbrella walking on ahead of us to the door. I just started dying laughing, cuz here he had come out with the umbrella to be a gentleman (!) (brothers-in-law aren't s'pozed to do that!), and he didn't even think again after we started walking! Funny as hell!! We get inside, and had to wait around for a table, cuz there were 11 of us!! When we were getting ready to leave, Kevin's mom gave me & Kevin a heart-shaped box of candy, and we were laughing about the fact that she had gone and gotten it half-price the day after Valentine's Day. Then she said 'Remenmber when...' and that got it started. We joked about the fact that back in 1990, when we got married, she was like everybody else (including me), and was totally surprised when we had been on the news, & Kevin told central Ohio we were getting married for Valentine's Day! When we got back to town after we were on the news that night, Kevin stopped at his apt first, checked his messages on the answering machine while I waited in the car, and then he came tearing out to the car saying 'You take your car & go pick up Tiffany, I'll meet you at your apartment. I've got to go see my parents for a minute.' Turns out that she had left a message , with her sounding all upset & crying, and everything, but she only did that as a joke. But it worried the SHIT out of Kevin!! I even remember when we first started dating, I woke up one morning and rolled over in bed to get up. I looked out the window, like always, and Kev's mom was driving past my house to go to work (the bank she worked at was only maybe 4 blocks down that main street in town, and my apartment was on a corner). And Kev's car was parked right under my window next to where the main street was! That was back in December, way before the wedding! She told me later that she saw his car there every morning for a long time, before he even told her we were dating!
And, Tiffany got hired at another salon yesterday! She is SO gone from Fiesta!! She starts at Fantastic Sam's tomorrow!! She's been having to close at night all the time...by herself!! And go deposit the money and everything! I did that at the grocery store all the time, but that was back TWENTY YEARS AGO!! You just don't make your employees do that now!! Especially when it's a young girl! Sam's never will have only one employee working! Wee-Haaw!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
But, before all that, it was a really nice day. Kevin took the day off for our anniversary, and we just kinda loafed around all day. He always describes his part in that as "gonna hang out with my wang out" or "gonna rock out with my cock out".
We got together with his whole family and went out for dinner, like we always do on our anniversary, because his mom & dad's 42nd anniversary was Feb 15th. We actually just went to Bob Evans restaurant, whose food I totally love. They thought about going to Applebee's, but I'm really kinda glad we didn't, I'm not really a big fan of their food.
At 6:30 pm, Kevin and I pulled up to the side of the restaurant, and Ken motioned out the window for us to wait a second...then he came out to the car carrying an umbrella (Mary Poppins?), and he and Kevin got my walker (well, it's actually a 'roller'!) out of the backseat, and I got out of the car...we're all heading to the door in the rain (that was when the weather started to suck!), Ken first, then me and my walker, then Kevin behind me. He always walks behind me, cuz he always has his finger through my belt loop, in case I fall. And Ken was carrying the umbrella over my head. That's very sweet & careful, but...I've told him if I ever DO fall, that'll rip me in two!! And probably make a total mess... :-( . We're just trudging toward the door, and maybe I slowed down or something, but all of a sudden I see Ken and the umbrella walking on ahead of us to the door. I just started dying laughing, cuz here he had come out with the umbrella to be a gentleman (!) (brothers-in-law aren't s'pozed to do that!), and he didn't even think again after we started walking! Funny as hell!! We get inside, and had to wait around for a table, cuz there were 11 of us!! When we were getting ready to leave, Kevin's mom gave me & Kevin a heart-shaped box of candy, and we were laughing about the fact that she had gone and gotten it half-price the day after Valentine's Day. Then she said 'Remenmber when...' and that got it started. We joked about the fact that back in 1990, when we got married, she was like everybody else (including me), and was totally surprised when we had been on the news, & Kevin told central Ohio we were getting married for Valentine's Day! When we got back to town after we were on the news that night, Kevin stopped at his apt first, checked his messages on the answering machine while I waited in the car, and then he came tearing out to the car saying 'You take your car & go pick up Tiffany, I'll meet you at your apartment. I've got to go see my parents for a minute.' Turns out that she had left a message , with her sounding all upset & crying, and everything, but she only did that as a joke. But it worried the SHIT out of Kevin!! I even remember when we first started dating, I woke up one morning and rolled over in bed to get up. I looked out the window, like always, and Kev's mom was driving past my house to go to work (the bank she worked at was only maybe 4 blocks down that main street in town, and my apartment was on a corner). And Kev's car was parked right under my window next to where the main street was! That was back in December, way before the wedding! She told me later that she saw his car there every morning for a long time, before he even told her we were dating!
And, Tiffany got hired at another salon yesterday! She is SO gone from Fiesta!! She starts at Fantastic Sam's tomorrow!! She's been having to close at night all the time...by herself!! And go deposit the money and everything! I did that at the grocery store all the time, but that was back TWENTY YEARS AGO!! You just don't make your employees do that now!! Especially when it's a young girl! Sam's never will have only one employee working! Wee-Haaw!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
story i got in email today
Yup...I'm a customer...
http://www.wketchup.com/news/060216.php
Wow. This kinda floored me. I thought the only 'newsworthy' thing that happened over the last 2 or 3 weeks was an accidental hunting shooting in Texas. Huh...who knew?
Libby
http://www.wketchup.com/news/060216.php
Wow. This kinda floored me. I thought the only 'newsworthy' thing that happened over the last 2 or 3 weeks was an accidental hunting shooting in Texas. Huh...who knew?
Libby
Monday, February 13, 2006
ghost stories, etc...
Okay, everyone...I think maybe she might be part of the continuing interest on my behalf in ghosts. This is one of the most famous pictures of a ghost you can find. She's in a castle in England (of course...aren't they all?), but, most importantly, she is an ancestor of Kev's mom!! And yes, I did put time into finding that out, by researching it (c'mon! I don't have a job!! Gotta do SOMETHING!!). I'm gonna write about another 'encounter' I had with a ghost? creepy feeling? I dunno what it was, but the whole thing weirded me out! But first, I hafta write about yesterday. Kev & I were doing the whole whatta you want for Valentine's Day? Whatta you want for our anniversary? I said I truly don't want anything but a card...I don't wanna spend a bunch of money we really don't have. We already did that for Christmas.. :-)
So finally I said...well...chocolate covered raisins & chocolate covered peanuts. And he said ok...Then we decided to get one thing together for our anniversary. One of the Tempur-pedic beds! I'm excited!! So that's anniversary. I still accuse him every year of us getting married 2 days after Valentine's Day, so all he ever had to do for our anniversary was go to the dumpsters of all the flower shops, and get the stuff they threw away after Valentine's....makes sense to me! No, he asked me on Wednesday the 14th, we decided to do it Friday the 16th, because we worked at the same store & took vacation together that week, just to hang out. But we got married for Valentine's Day instead! Took the weekend for a honeymoon (Tiff stayed with my mom), and went back to work Monday! :-/
Okay, here's one of my other stories about "ghosts I know personally".
In about 1991, I was working in Bucyrus, Ohio (produce, at a grocery store), and saw an ad for a new grocery store that was being built in our town. So, that was only gonna be in a plaza about 1/4 mile from my house. I went & applied, interviewed, & got the job (yup...produce mgr...). I totally LOVED that store! Everything was big & new, for anyone who is familiar, it looked like a Cub Foods. After a few weeks, I was in the back room of produce, with about 2 of my assistants, and we were just loafing, and bullshitting because we were running ahead of schedule. So, instead of going up to the front of the store and upstairs to the breakroom, we just lit cigarettes in the back room, we're leaning against the wall and ice machine, when all of a sudden, I felt like somebody grabbed the hand I was smoking with. Nobody did, but I got that cold chill people always talk about. Dave & Steve weren't even looking at me, they were still talking. I dropped my smoke on the concrete floor and stepped on it and went back to the table where I was trimming some stuff (I used to be GOOD with knives!)(actually, I guess Kev's better, he had to cut up pigs, cows, chickens...eeewww). About 30 seconds after I did that, one of the top bosses from Lima walked in through the cooler (it went through from my back room and there was a 'back door' to the cooler that went through to the long hall that went to the other side of the store), and Dave & Steve were standing there talking, laughing, smoking..and I was over at the table, minding my own fuckin' business, chopping away. John (boss) just stood there looking at them with his arms behind his back...to make a long story short, they got to hear about it, but kept their jobs.
Then, a few months later, I was by myself working in the backroom, around 8 pm. I was cutting all kinds of melons & kiwi & stuff for fruit salads. I got about halfway through, then got a really creepy feeling, like someone was staring at me. I just glanced over to my left, and I felt like there was someone standing there, but nobody was! I went back to chopping, then looked over again, and I saw an Indian standing there, with his arms crossed over his chest, and I do remember that he had no shirt on, something like shorts on, very long black hair, with a band around his head (no, no feathers!), and he really wasn't looking at me, but he was standing there staring straight ahead, not moving. But it probably was only 10 seconds or so. Still, creeped me out! I went up front, upstairs, to my office, and just sat for awhile.
Okay, fast forward...I found out a few years after that, that part of the plaza had been built over Grave Creek, which had been filled in and covered up for the construction. Grave Creek? Hmmmmm....that was an ancient Indian burial ground...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Friday, February 10, 2006
eBay shopping today...
I was "browsing" (shopping) on eBay today, and, damn I really WISH this would've been around 20 years ago!! Do you realize how cheap baby stuff would've been??
Anyway, I've been reading a book of people's true ghost stories from all over the United States, they were collected by USA Today. And, okay, they might be true (a lot of 'em), but there were also a few of 'em that I could've written. So I was sittin' on the couch this morning reading & remembering what used to happen at mine & Tiffany's second apartment.
We lived there for about 4 1/2 years, and it was the BEST apartment anyone could ever imagine! First of all, it was just the upstairs of a plain old house, which I like SO much better than an apartment complex...those have no character!! The downstairs was already rented to a guy who had been in there for years!! He was about 40 or so, & as we were moving in, he came running up the stairs & said "Hey, I'm Henry, the landlord said you're divorced & you have a baby girl...so, if you ever have any trouble with him coming over & causing trouble, I'm right underneath you, so jump, yell, scream, if you need help!" OMG!! I'll never forget how great that was!! The stairs to that apartment were outside all the way up the side of the house, but nothing covered them, so they got rained & snowed on all the time!! Didn't matter...was still worth it. There were probly about 10 or 15 steps, but real solid, with a big banister. The apartment was...a big living room that the door opened into; straight through was my huge bedroom with a closet; from the living room to the left was Tiffany's room (she was still in her CRIB!!), and the big front window that looked out at the main street in town was in there; and, if you went to the left when you came in the door, there was a little hallway, with a big bathroom and clawfoot bathtub & shower, then if you went straight down the hall, there was a HUGE kitchen that had a stove, refrigerator, big pantry at the end, 2 big windows, a china cabinet...keep in mind, this apartment cost me $160.00 a month!! My God, was that place great!! (a little bit haunted, but great!).
Some of the times, I'd be in bed, getting ready to fall asleep, and I'd hear somebody walking up the steps outside, & then just stopping outside the door. But I'd get up real quick & look outside, and.....nuttin'! There was also a teeny little square, like an opening to an attic in the living room, but, it couldn't be an opening for any person to go upstairs, cuz it was maybe a 12" X 12" square!! Even I couldn't do that!! Every once in a while I'd hear something like light, Tiffany-size footsteps running around up there! But I'd go around the corner & look, and she was just in her new 'big bed', snoring away! Besides, the square was like 9 feet up, on the ceiling!! So, back to bed for me...
Still, to this day, Tiffany says her bed used to shake a lot in the middle of night, and wake her up!! I know that she used to wake me up crying in the middle of the night every couple weeks, screaming, "Mommy!!! My bed's shaking!!!" So I'd wake up and go in her room & we'd sit there hugging on her bed, & saying prayers for her, so her bed would stop shaking! (no, I never felt it, but...would a 3 or 4 year old lie about this?). The big kitchen was always kinda creepy, too. There were always big shadowy places that the overhead lights couldn't get to.
Oh, hey, I forgot to mention one of the most hilarious things I used to do with Tiff when we first moved in there, before she walked perfect, and if you set her down to keep her occupied with something, it'd actually work! The best thing to do to keep a single, bored baby busy is...make a roll of scotch tape, and then stick it to her hands!! Funnee!! Okay, and I think that came back to bite me in the ass. Cuz, of course, I had a Rubik's cube, like everyone did then, and once, when Tiff was 3 or 4, she brought it to me, and it was totally done, one color on each of the 6 sides!! "Mommy, look, I did it!!"..yeah...she told me when she was about 12, that she had a lot of fun with that thing...peeling each color off, and sticking each color on a different side!!!
It's so lucky I didn't have ms (that I knew of, anyway) back then. I never could've kept working or living there with the steps. Once in about 1986, I lost all my peripheral vision...which really isn't good if you're driving an hour a day to work, and an hour home at night. But I went to an eye doctor, he checked my eyes, completely, nothing wrong, he said it's probly stress...at that time, who was I to argue? So it went away in about a week, so I forgot about it...till 1994, when I learned that that's one of the first symptoms of ms!
Kevin & I got married Feb 16, 1990 (holy shit!!~ anniversary's coming up!!), & we all lived there till August that summer when we bought this house. I still miss that apartrment, though...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Anyway, I've been reading a book of people's true ghost stories from all over the United States, they were collected by USA Today. And, okay, they might be true (a lot of 'em), but there were also a few of 'em that I could've written. So I was sittin' on the couch this morning reading & remembering what used to happen at mine & Tiffany's second apartment.
We lived there for about 4 1/2 years, and it was the BEST apartment anyone could ever imagine! First of all, it was just the upstairs of a plain old house, which I like SO much better than an apartment complex...those have no character!! The downstairs was already rented to a guy who had been in there for years!! He was about 40 or so, & as we were moving in, he came running up the stairs & said "Hey, I'm Henry, the landlord said you're divorced & you have a baby girl...so, if you ever have any trouble with him coming over & causing trouble, I'm right underneath you, so jump, yell, scream, if you need help!" OMG!! I'll never forget how great that was!! The stairs to that apartment were outside all the way up the side of the house, but nothing covered them, so they got rained & snowed on all the time!! Didn't matter...was still worth it. There were probly about 10 or 15 steps, but real solid, with a big banister. The apartment was...a big living room that the door opened into; straight through was my huge bedroom with a closet; from the living room to the left was Tiffany's room (she was still in her CRIB!!), and the big front window that looked out at the main street in town was in there; and, if you went to the left when you came in the door, there was a little hallway, with a big bathroom and clawfoot bathtub & shower, then if you went straight down the hall, there was a HUGE kitchen that had a stove, refrigerator, big pantry at the end, 2 big windows, a china cabinet...keep in mind, this apartment cost me $160.00 a month!! My God, was that place great!! (a little bit haunted, but great!).
Some of the times, I'd be in bed, getting ready to fall asleep, and I'd hear somebody walking up the steps outside, & then just stopping outside the door. But I'd get up real quick & look outside, and.....nuttin'! There was also a teeny little square, like an opening to an attic in the living room, but, it couldn't be an opening for any person to go upstairs, cuz it was maybe a 12" X 12" square!! Even I couldn't do that!! Every once in a while I'd hear something like light, Tiffany-size footsteps running around up there! But I'd go around the corner & look, and she was just in her new 'big bed', snoring away! Besides, the square was like 9 feet up, on the ceiling!! So, back to bed for me...
Still, to this day, Tiffany says her bed used to shake a lot in the middle of night, and wake her up!! I know that she used to wake me up crying in the middle of the night every couple weeks, screaming, "Mommy!!! My bed's shaking!!!" So I'd wake up and go in her room & we'd sit there hugging on her bed, & saying prayers for her, so her bed would stop shaking! (no, I never felt it, but...would a 3 or 4 year old lie about this?). The big kitchen was always kinda creepy, too. There were always big shadowy places that the overhead lights couldn't get to.
Oh, hey, I forgot to mention one of the most hilarious things I used to do with Tiff when we first moved in there, before she walked perfect, and if you set her down to keep her occupied with something, it'd actually work! The best thing to do to keep a single, bored baby busy is...make a roll of scotch tape, and then stick it to her hands!! Funnee!! Okay, and I think that came back to bite me in the ass. Cuz, of course, I had a Rubik's cube, like everyone did then, and once, when Tiff was 3 or 4, she brought it to me, and it was totally done, one color on each of the 6 sides!! "Mommy, look, I did it!!"..yeah...she told me when she was about 12, that she had a lot of fun with that thing...peeling each color off, and sticking each color on a different side!!!
It's so lucky I didn't have ms (that I knew of, anyway) back then. I never could've kept working or living there with the steps. Once in about 1986, I lost all my peripheral vision...which really isn't good if you're driving an hour a day to work, and an hour home at night. But I went to an eye doctor, he checked my eyes, completely, nothing wrong, he said it's probly stress...at that time, who was I to argue? So it went away in about a week, so I forgot about it...till 1994, when I learned that that's one of the first symptoms of ms!
Kevin & I got married Feb 16, 1990 (holy shit!!~ anniversary's coming up!!), & we all lived there till August that summer when we bought this house. I still miss that apartrment, though...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
i dunno...
Does everybody beLIEVE this shit?? This is a TRIM,, that Kathy gave me today!! Tiffany was at work all day today, and said before she left that she didn't care if Kat did my hair today, so I called Kathy, and she said she & the twins would come over this afternoon for it, and look at all the hair she had to take off. Just to trim it!! I've even tried to donate my hair to 'Locks of Love', which makes wigs for little kids that have cancer, and have lost their hair. But, they only can take it if it's 12 inches long!! And I really can't do that. It does grow long, but it mostly grows too thick, (out!) and I always have to have it thinned before I can live with it!!
Has everybody done something really stupid (albeit funny) with someone's car?
The first thing that was done involving my car, was when I worked as a cashier at the first store. My former best friend, Joe, knew exactly which parking place I parked in, and one day when I was off, he went to the store, and drew an outline of a person in that place, like somebody had been murdered there. So I came in the next day, and wondered what happened. But, there were no "crime scene" tapes over it, so I parked there anyway! And when I walked in the door, everybody was laughing, cuz Joe had been at work that day earlier, and told everyone about it. And it was really strange, cuz it was only drawn with white shoe polish, which always comes off with water (so it's also great to "soap" someone's car windows with, if anybody needs that helpful information). But that 'dead body' outline was there for MONTHS!!
Then there was my friend, the cashier that found the guy trying to steal cigarettes. She drove a WAY teeny car, even smaller than my Honda Civic. The guys that worked as stockboys at the store picked her car UP and lifted it and set it down on the sidewalk, which was about 6 inches higher than the parking lot! She couldn't figure out how it got there!
After I transferred to the store up north, the meat manager up there had one of those little cars (I forget what kind it was...) that had a plug that he used to pull in the back door of the produce room, and plugged his car in the outlet over my big sink! So here's Todd's car, with a big orange extension cord stretched up into the back door! I actually think it only needed plugged in in the winter, when it wouldn't start...I dunno. Anyway, I do know that there was snow on the ground & it was really cold outside, cuz I bitched at the store manager when he came back to the produce room for something..."Terry! I'm freezing to death!! My hands are always wet with this job, and they're gonna turn into icicles! If I have to go to the emergency room, this company'll be sorry!!" ha, what a whiner I was! Terry said, "We can take care of this easier...c'mon!" We went outside, and Terry unplugged the car under the hood, but left it plugged into the wall, so if you looked at it inside, you didn't know anything was different. Then we took the car around to the other side of the building, and parked it over there. Came back to the side where it HAD been, and tossed the 'car' end of the cord up to the roof. Then went back inside, dusting our hands (phew! job well done!). And, OMG, you should've seen Todd's face, when he unplugged the car from the wall, and took off out the back door to go home!! "How did my car get on the roof?? What's going on??" I'm STILL laughing about it!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
old stuff that happened at work...
The first time I got a job, (the very first! what a lazy fuckin' bum, huh? no, I was supposed to study!) Anyway, I was 19, had taken Tiff right before she turned one, and left the first guy that got me pregnant in high school, & first I was stupid and married him, then realized what a true bum he was and left him (after all, he WAS 27 & I was 18...all I can realize now is 'he mustve been really immature!').
So after we left, we moved in with Mom & Dad (for like a week, that's all I could take!). One of my friends brought me an application for the place she worked at, which was the grocery store around the corner, and said they really need more cashiers. Filled it out, took it over, took an honesty test, and got hired right then! I was SO happy!! (it was a ticket out, ya know??).
I worked there, and begged for as many hours as I could get. Remember, this was around 1985..minimum wage was $3.35 an hour...try telling your kids that one!! But Tiff & I did ok, with the exception of the devil-worshiping signs painted on the wall in the attic at our first apartment...that always did tend to creep me out. And my bedroom looked straight out at the door. Luckily, it had a sliding latch/lock on it. I never thought to wonder why till now...hmmm...
I got a babysitter, that was back when they had a gov't program to pay the babysitter on a sliding scale for working moms, & that worked well! (God bless Ronald Reagan!!).
I made lots of friends among the other cashiers there. We had a lot in common (we all hated the boss like poison!). That store was not in the worst part of town, but it just seemed like the worst people shopped there! Not because they were minorities, or on food stamps (for heaven's sake I was too, for a few months!). But because a lot of people that came in had one thing on their mind...THEFT!!! And, of course, it was up to us, as cashiers at the front of the store, to catch any shoplifters!
We had the cartons of cigarettes on a pegboard wall in the front of the store, across the store from where the registers were. This place was a shoplifters dream!! Bags of candy hung from the pegboard on the other side of the cartons of cigarettes. One of the girls I worked with (she's younger than me, and we still call & write all the time!) saw a big black guy crouched down in front of the candy when she went down that aisle, she looked a little closer, and realized that he had his arm sticking all the way through to where the cigarettes were. She walked up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder, and when he jumped & turned around to look, all she did was smile and say, "Can I help you, sir?" He just took off running, and we all just about died laughing!
One evening, we were closing (at 9 pm), and I was walking the aisles with the assistant manager to just try to put back misplaced items to straighten the store, and Doug walked down the aisle next to mine. All of as sudden, he yelled "Eeeww, Libby! C'mere, something stinks, and I can't figure out what it is!". Then I'm getting ready to go around the corner, and he yells "Found it!!". Keep in mind, it was August, and the a/c wasn't really good...he'd pulled a pack of sausage out from behind a box of cereal, and I have no clue how long it had been there, but it stunk SO BAD!!! And it had tons of maggots crawling around all over! This is where being a girl is a HUGE advantage!! I could yell, "I can't touch that!!". HAHA!!
One other time when we were closing, we always turned off every other aisle's lights, so customers got the idea that we were closing (even though there was a huge sign on the door...). This one older lady was just leisurely walking along shopping, studying labels, etc...so one of the stock guys went back to the back room and shut off half of the lights that were still on...all of a sudden that lady actually looked up at the lights questioningly, then opened her purse, and took out a penlite flashlight and went back to reading labels!!
...more later...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
So after we left, we moved in with Mom & Dad (for like a week, that's all I could take!). One of my friends brought me an application for the place she worked at, which was the grocery store around the corner, and said they really need more cashiers. Filled it out, took it over, took an honesty test, and got hired right then! I was SO happy!! (it was a ticket out, ya know??).
I worked there, and begged for as many hours as I could get. Remember, this was around 1985..minimum wage was $3.35 an hour...try telling your kids that one!! But Tiff & I did ok, with the exception of the devil-worshiping signs painted on the wall in the attic at our first apartment...that always did tend to creep me out. And my bedroom looked straight out at the door. Luckily, it had a sliding latch/lock on it. I never thought to wonder why till now...hmmm...
I got a babysitter, that was back when they had a gov't program to pay the babysitter on a sliding scale for working moms, & that worked well! (God bless Ronald Reagan!!).
I made lots of friends among the other cashiers there. We had a lot in common (we all hated the boss like poison!). That store was not in the worst part of town, but it just seemed like the worst people shopped there! Not because they were minorities, or on food stamps (for heaven's sake I was too, for a few months!). But because a lot of people that came in had one thing on their mind...THEFT!!! And, of course, it was up to us, as cashiers at the front of the store, to catch any shoplifters!
We had the cartons of cigarettes on a pegboard wall in the front of the store, across the store from where the registers were. This place was a shoplifters dream!! Bags of candy hung from the pegboard on the other side of the cartons of cigarettes. One of the girls I worked with (she's younger than me, and we still call & write all the time!) saw a big black guy crouched down in front of the candy when she went down that aisle, she looked a little closer, and realized that he had his arm sticking all the way through to where the cigarettes were. She walked up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder, and when he jumped & turned around to look, all she did was smile and say, "Can I help you, sir?" He just took off running, and we all just about died laughing!
One evening, we were closing (at 9 pm), and I was walking the aisles with the assistant manager to just try to put back misplaced items to straighten the store, and Doug walked down the aisle next to mine. All of as sudden, he yelled "Eeeww, Libby! C'mere, something stinks, and I can't figure out what it is!". Then I'm getting ready to go around the corner, and he yells "Found it!!". Keep in mind, it was August, and the a/c wasn't really good...he'd pulled a pack of sausage out from behind a box of cereal, and I have no clue how long it had been there, but it stunk SO BAD!!! And it had tons of maggots crawling around all over! This is where being a girl is a HUGE advantage!! I could yell, "I can't touch that!!". HAHA!!
One other time when we were closing, we always turned off every other aisle's lights, so customers got the idea that we were closing (even though there was a huge sign on the door...). This one older lady was just leisurely walking along shopping, studying labels, etc...so one of the stock guys went back to the back room and shut off half of the lights that were still on...all of a sudden that lady actually looked up at the lights questioningly, then opened her purse, and took out a penlite flashlight and went back to reading labels!!
...more later...
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Friday, February 03, 2006
Here are my results!
Advanced Global Personality Test Results
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personality tests by similarminds.com
posted by orders from Kim yesterday...
Kim called me yesterday afternoon, and she had all kinda shit to fill me in on! Some is shitty & sad, but then it went to where we were both laughing so hard we couldn't even breathe!
Kim's grandma (her dad's mom) died at the hospital a couple weeks ago. Kim & her dad were sitting there with her, and talking, and Kim said she just quit breathing and died. It wasn't a surprise to them at all. She had been in a nursing home, because her dr had told Kim's dad that he should move her to a nursing home, instead of her own apartment here in town, because she had kidney problems, breathing problems, and was getting dementia. So she had been at the nursing home, but then got bad enough to go to the hospital, and died there.
Then Kim told me about what happened Wednesday afternoon...her other grandma (her mom's mom) has been living with Kim's mom & dad for at least the last year, and she's not in the best of health either. She got admitted to the same hospital Wednesday night, and when Kim & her mom & dad went with the nurses to get her settled in the room she was given, they all realized...it was the same room her dad's mom died in a couple weeks ago!! And it's not like this is some teensy-weensy little hospital, it's regular size, has 4 floors (I know that's not tons, but...big enough for a different room, right?).
Yesterday afternoon, Kim took her dad up to the Cleveland Clinic for a checkup on his kidney transplant he got a few years ago, then to the VA hospital up there for something else. While her dad was in the bathroom, Kim was leaning against the wall in the hall waiting, and she said an old man came up to her and said 'don't I know you? aren't you one of those girls on the news?', and she said she just laughed and said, 'well, i probably oughtta be,as much as I talk! but, no, i'm not....I just talk for free!' :-O ;-)
Kim was driving her mom & dad's Cadillac home. She & her dad were talking, joking, etc. All of a sudden Kim noticed her dad had a weird look on his face. She asked him what was wrong, and he said he thought he was gonna get sick, cuz he'd felt kinda bad all day. Then she pulled over to the side of the road, so he could, like, lean out & puke. He's trying to get the door open, and I couldn't really understand it (cuz we were laughing too hard??), but it was something about how the door wouldn't open unless the car was in park or something, and she was like, Dad, Dad!! And he's saying the door won't open, lemme out! Then he's just trying to get the automatic window open...he's pushing the opener in the right direction, she's pushing the one on her side in the other direction, cuz it is his car, she's not all THAT familiar with it! We finally slowed down on the laughing, and I asked, "So...did your dad just finally have to puke straight AT the window??" Yuk...no, they finally got the doors open (after her dad told her how....)
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Kim's grandma (her dad's mom) died at the hospital a couple weeks ago. Kim & her dad were sitting there with her, and talking, and Kim said she just quit breathing and died. It wasn't a surprise to them at all. She had been in a nursing home, because her dr had told Kim's dad that he should move her to a nursing home, instead of her own apartment here in town, because she had kidney problems, breathing problems, and was getting dementia. So she had been at the nursing home, but then got bad enough to go to the hospital, and died there.
Then Kim told me about what happened Wednesday afternoon...her other grandma (her mom's mom) has been living with Kim's mom & dad for at least the last year, and she's not in the best of health either. She got admitted to the same hospital Wednesday night, and when Kim & her mom & dad went with the nurses to get her settled in the room she was given, they all realized...it was the same room her dad's mom died in a couple weeks ago!! And it's not like this is some teensy-weensy little hospital, it's regular size, has 4 floors (I know that's not tons, but...big enough for a different room, right?).
Yesterday afternoon, Kim took her dad up to the Cleveland Clinic for a checkup on his kidney transplant he got a few years ago, then to the VA hospital up there for something else. While her dad was in the bathroom, Kim was leaning against the wall in the hall waiting, and she said an old man came up to her and said 'don't I know you? aren't you one of those girls on the news?', and she said she just laughed and said, 'well, i probably oughtta be,as much as I talk! but, no, i'm not....I just talk for free!' :-O ;-)
Kim was driving her mom & dad's Cadillac home. She & her dad were talking, joking, etc. All of a sudden Kim noticed her dad had a weird look on his face. She asked him what was wrong, and he said he thought he was gonna get sick, cuz he'd felt kinda bad all day. Then she pulled over to the side of the road, so he could, like, lean out & puke. He's trying to get the door open, and I couldn't really understand it (cuz we were laughing too hard??), but it was something about how the door wouldn't open unless the car was in park or something, and she was like, Dad, Dad!! And he's saying the door won't open, lemme out! Then he's just trying to get the automatic window open...he's pushing the opener in the right direction, she's pushing the one on her side in the other direction, cuz it is his car, she's not all THAT familiar with it! We finally slowed down on the laughing, and I asked, "So...did your dad just finally have to puke straight AT the window??" Yuk...no, they finally got the doors open (after her dad told her how....)
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
blah, blah, blah...
Yesterday Kim said that I had such a better time in my life than she did. Truthfully, I guess she's right. She also got married right out of high school, and she's still married to him, they get along good, but it's a life I could never live. She never worked after she got pregnant, and has never wanted to. She and her family live out in the country, right next door to her mother & father-in-law, on the family's pig farm, and her husband & all his brothers run it & work for it. And, no, before anyone asks, they are not rich! She actually used to bitch about being a 'one-income family of five'! Can anyone except me see the irony in this? We kinda 'grew apart' after high school, mostly because I got pregnant in my senior year and got married in April, & had Tiff in Oct (yes, I did graduate!), and Kim was very, extremely jealous of the fact that I had Tiff. She's told me that since then. But Kim was my maid-of-honor...I wasn't even asked to be in her wedding, I'm still trying to remember if I was even invited...
Be that as it may...since then I tried to tell her it wasn't all heavenly getting married in high school, having to take your baby girl & leave him, and get a job, get an apartment, a babysitter, and then volunteer to work as many hours as you could, just to be able to pay your bills. Yeah it worked for me...but, dammit. only because I made it! One time when she was talking about how broke they were, I said why don't you just go get even a part time job? I got "Well, I could go to Delaware or Bucyrus...". I'm like, WTF are you talking about?? There's places here! Turns out...she didn't want anyone seeing her having to work! I don't know where that shit came from...not me, that's for sure. I think it's because they live out of town (she acts like anyone that lives in any town lives in a ghetto!). And the school her kids go to is the one that all the "rich people's kids & doctor's kids" go to. Aaaaauuuuggghhhh...
Anyway...after I was on my own with Tiffany, we started talking again, and we were back to being on the phone every night. She always wanted "details, Libby, details!" from every date I went out on, every night I went out to a bar partying with my friends from work (every Tuesday & Saturday night). So...I'd call her the next day & give her details. I think she always lived her life vicariously through me! Oh, yeah, she mentioned the time that my mom took the phone pluggy-thing out of my room, cuz we were on the phone after 11 pm. We wanted to call someone at midnight, so I sneaked out to the closet with the ironing board in it, got the phone with its wires, brought it back to my room, & Kim & I sat on the floor trying to figure out how to do this. Finally I looked at the wall and saw there were wires in there too, so I told Kim, "Hey, maybe if you twist that color wire with the same color in the wall...". She said "Okay!" She started messing around, and she was 'oh, I think I've got it!'...all of a sudden, the wire went "ZZZZZZZZZT!" and knocked Kim back on her ass!! Now THAT was funny!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
Be that as it may...since then I tried to tell her it wasn't all heavenly getting married in high school, having to take your baby girl & leave him, and get a job, get an apartment, a babysitter, and then volunteer to work as many hours as you could, just to be able to pay your bills. Yeah it worked for me...but, dammit. only because I made it! One time when she was talking about how broke they were, I said why don't you just go get even a part time job? I got "Well, I could go to Delaware or Bucyrus...". I'm like, WTF are you talking about?? There's places here! Turns out...she didn't want anyone seeing her having to work! I don't know where that shit came from...not me, that's for sure. I think it's because they live out of town (she acts like anyone that lives in any town lives in a ghetto!). And the school her kids go to is the one that all the "rich people's kids & doctor's kids" go to. Aaaaauuuuggghhhh...
Anyway...after I was on my own with Tiffany, we started talking again, and we were back to being on the phone every night. She always wanted "details, Libby, details!" from every date I went out on, every night I went out to a bar partying with my friends from work (every Tuesday & Saturday night). So...I'd call her the next day & give her details. I think she always lived her life vicariously through me! Oh, yeah, she mentioned the time that my mom took the phone pluggy-thing out of my room, cuz we were on the phone after 11 pm. We wanted to call someone at midnight, so I sneaked out to the closet with the ironing board in it, got the phone with its wires, brought it back to my room, & Kim & I sat on the floor trying to figure out how to do this. Finally I looked at the wall and saw there were wires in there too, so I told Kim, "Hey, maybe if you twist that color wire with the same color in the wall...". She said "Okay!" She started messing around, and she was 'oh, I think I've got it!'...all of a sudden, the wire went "ZZZZZZZZZT!" and knocked Kim back on her ass!! Now THAT was funny!!
BoUnCeS!! LibbY!
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