A longer blog post will follow later, with my thoughts on why I'm still (at almost 40 years of age) a wimp about standing up for myself. It's been on my mind a lot this week.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
Declaration
Today I head back to the torture chamber dentist for another filling. And I swear by all things holy, if that jerk hurts me again like last time, I will find a new dentist! Crossing my fingers (and taking a Zanax) and hoping for the best.
A longer blog post will follow later, with my thoughts on why I'm still (at almost 40 years of age) a wimp about standing up for myself. It's been on my mind a lot this week.
A longer blog post will follow later, with my thoughts on why I'm still (at almost 40 years of age) a wimp about standing up for myself. It's been on my mind a lot this week.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Little neighborhood gang
Last week our mail carriers were collecting food for the local food bank. They leave a couple of plastic bags in your mail box early in the week, with a note announcing the food drive, and anyone that wants to donate can fill the bags with non perishable foods to be picked up on the designated day.
It's a very worthy cause.
Food banks really struggle this time of year. Donations pour in during the holidays, but then take a nosedive in the spring. For families struggling with hunger, this is an especially difficult time. School will be out for the summer soon, which means that kids from low income families that rely on the free breakfasts and lunches provided there are at a much greater risk for going hungry. I think it's wonderful that the postal service does a food drive in May for this reason. I always fill up a couple of bags to donate and leave them, as instructed, beside the street for the mail carriers to take.
On the day of this year's pickup, Gregg was at home reading a book when he heard the doorbell ring. He answered the door to find two little neighbor girls (aged about 8 or 9) and their mom standing there. The mom explained that her daughters had been going around our neighborhood peeking into all the bags, and they had deemed ours "the best" and then....they stole it!!!!
Gregg had to bite his lip not to laugh. The mom kept saying how embarrassed she was, and she made the girls apologize. She asked him if anything was missing from the bags (so she could replace it). He of course had no idea, since I'm the one that takes care of those types of things. He couldn't really think of anything to say to the kids, except "You shouldn't embarrass your mom!" and of course he accepted their apology and told the mom to think no more of it. He got a huge kick out of the whole thing, and so did I when he told me about it later. I decided it must have been the box of brownie mix I had included that tempted the kids.
We had forgotten the incident until last night. When I went out to check our mail, I found a package of brownie mix in the box with this note taped to it:
Turns out there was a little gang of kids complicit in the Great Brownie Heist of '13!! Haha!
This seriously made my day!
It's a very worthy cause.
Food banks really struggle this time of year. Donations pour in during the holidays, but then take a nosedive in the spring. For families struggling with hunger, this is an especially difficult time. School will be out for the summer soon, which means that kids from low income families that rely on the free breakfasts and lunches provided there are at a much greater risk for going hungry. I think it's wonderful that the postal service does a food drive in May for this reason. I always fill up a couple of bags to donate and leave them, as instructed, beside the street for the mail carriers to take.
On the day of this year's pickup, Gregg was at home reading a book when he heard the doorbell ring. He answered the door to find two little neighbor girls (aged about 8 or 9) and their mom standing there. The mom explained that her daughters had been going around our neighborhood peeking into all the bags, and they had deemed ours "the best" and then....they stole it!!!!
Gregg had to bite his lip not to laugh. The mom kept saying how embarrassed she was, and she made the girls apologize. She asked him if anything was missing from the bags (so she could replace it). He of course had no idea, since I'm the one that takes care of those types of things. He couldn't really think of anything to say to the kids, except "You shouldn't embarrass your mom!" and of course he accepted their apology and told the mom to think no more of it. He got a huge kick out of the whole thing, and so did I when he told me about it later. I decided it must have been the box of brownie mix I had included that tempted the kids.
We had forgotten the incident until last night. When I went out to check our mail, I found a package of brownie mix in the box with this note taped to it:
Dear neighbors at 1900...
It has come to my attention that my 5-year old son was a partner-in-crime in the theft of a box of brownie mix. I apologize on his behalf. While he isn't old enough to understand what the food was for, he was certainly old enough to know that he shouldn't take something that is not his.
I have bought two boxes of brownie mix. One, I am returning to you and the other we are taking to a family in need. Our family works with a homeless/hunger ministry on Saturdays. One of the families that we work with will be blessed by brownies. It is a grandmother raising 6 grandchildren on her own and with very little resources. This little girl below is one of the children.
Again, I apologize and hope this helps to rectify the situation.
The Jordan family at 1889
Turns out there was a little gang of kids complicit in the Great Brownie Heist of '13!! Haha!
This seriously made my day!
Monday, May 13, 2013
Sweet summer afternoon
What a beautiful day! It's still cool outside, but the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and I am off work. There are so many things I want to do this afternoon that I'm having trouble decided what to do first!
I'm reading a good book (The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley), working on a knitting project that I'm anxious to finish (a baby blanket for a friend that's due to give birth in about two weeks), and I need to clean up our back patio and give Ginger a bath in anticipation of the girls' night I have planned for my friends this coming weekend. I also need to go to one of the local u-pick farms and get a couple of baskets of fresh strawberries, since I will be making my special strawberry daiquiris for the party. They are my signature drink in the summertime! Fresh strawberries, frozen, go in the blender along with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, superfine sugar, rum, and sparkling water. The fresh strawberries are the key to making the drinks over the top! Actually, it may be better to wait until the day before the party to pick and freeze the berries, since I will need some left unfrozen for garnishing, and they won't last all week. So berry picking might be one task I put off until Friday (my next day off).
Today is so lovely, I don't even mind that I need to spend part of it cleaning out back and giving Ginger a bath. As long as I'm outside, nothing can spoil my good mood! Everything is so green, and jasmine and roses are blooming in yards all around the neighborhood (it smells like heaven), and the birds are singing and flying back and forth to the feeders and birdbath. It's a pleasure to do chores out there this time of year! And when I finish with the necessary stuff, I'll resume my book and/or knitting from a shady spot in the hammock. What a sweet afternoon it's going to be!
I'm reading a good book (The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley), working on a knitting project that I'm anxious to finish (a baby blanket for a friend that's due to give birth in about two weeks), and I need to clean up our back patio and give Ginger a bath in anticipation of the girls' night I have planned for my friends this coming weekend. I also need to go to one of the local u-pick farms and get a couple of baskets of fresh strawberries, since I will be making my special strawberry daiquiris for the party. They are my signature drink in the summertime! Fresh strawberries, frozen, go in the blender along with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, superfine sugar, rum, and sparkling water. The fresh strawberries are the key to making the drinks over the top! Actually, it may be better to wait until the day before the party to pick and freeze the berries, since I will need some left unfrozen for garnishing, and they won't last all week. So berry picking might be one task I put off until Friday (my next day off).
Today is so lovely, I don't even mind that I need to spend part of it cleaning out back and giving Ginger a bath. As long as I'm outside, nothing can spoil my good mood! Everything is so green, and jasmine and roses are blooming in yards all around the neighborhood (it smells like heaven), and the birds are singing and flying back and forth to the feeders and birdbath. It's a pleasure to do chores out there this time of year! And when I finish with the necessary stuff, I'll resume my book and/or knitting from a shady spot in the hammock. What a sweet afternoon it's going to be!
 |
| I have a soft spot for roses. |
Friday, May 10, 2013
Good parenting
When you work at a retail store in a mall, it's easy to see the results of bad parenting all around you. Since taking a job at a bookstore, I've learned to despise most teenagers. So many of them are rude, loud, vandalizing, foul-mouthed little cretins that I find myself judging their (mostly absent) parents pretty harshly. Especially since so many of them obviously have very little supervision or guidance at home. When school lets out for the summer my coworkers and I will spend about a third of our time dealing with the terrible behavior of packs of unsupervised kids. We all simply dread the end of the school year for that reason.
Occasionally, though, you meet a parent that's doing a good job raising their kids, and it's a refreshing change. I met a great dad last weekend that gets high marks for holding his kid accountable for his actions....and my coworkers and I have gotten a big kick out of what happened!
I was the manager on duty one afternoon, and the girl at the front register called me to come "talk to a dad" who "needed to speak with a manager". Well, of course I was dreading whatever was coming....normally parents side with their kids no matter what crazy stuff they've done, so after a heavy sigh or two I went to see what was going on. There was a man waiting for me by the registers with a thirteen or fourteen year old boy standing beside him, staring at his feet. The girl who had called me whispered a quick explanation: that the dad had caught his son with shoplifted items and had dragged the kid back to the store to confess what he had done, and wanted the manager to "give him a talking to".
My first thought was "oh, shit"....I mean, I don't have kids myself, I have no experience with giving teens lectures for misbehaving, and I'm not exactly an intimidating authority figure, to say the least. I couldn't intimidate a damn mouse! I was wondering what I could possibly say that would have any effect on the boy. Turns out I needn't have worried. That dad had a plan all along to teach the kid a good lesson!
The man introduced himself, and his son, and then said to the boy, "Tell this nice lady what you did."
The kid looked really scared and embarrassed. He stared at the floor and in a voice barely raised above a whisper, said, "I shoplifted from you."
Then the dad completed his son's humiliation. He said, "Now show her what you stole."
Slowly, never once making eye contact with me, he opened a bag and pulled out...........two girlie magazines!!!! Hahahahaha!!!
At that point, all my nervousness vanished. I had to bite my lip not to laugh. If there is anything worse for a thirteen year old boy than having to confess to a woman that he was stealing porn...I don't know what it is! The dad stepped away so I could have a word with him; I merely said that his father was obviously disappointed in him, that he had let both of his parents down, and that shoplifters are always banned permanently from our store. (I wonder if he was ever planning to come back anyway! Ha!) The whole time, I don't think he said more than a tiny, whispered "I'm sorry" and "I understand".
As they were leaving, the dad assured me that the kid would be facing further punishment at home for stealing. I almost felt sorry for the poor kid, to be facing more consequences after such awful humiliation!
What a great dad, though. It's nice to see parents holding their offspring accountable to others when they misbehave and/or break the law. And I'll bet this was one lesson that boy will never, ever forget!
Occasionally, though, you meet a parent that's doing a good job raising their kids, and it's a refreshing change. I met a great dad last weekend that gets high marks for holding his kid accountable for his actions....and my coworkers and I have gotten a big kick out of what happened!
I was the manager on duty one afternoon, and the girl at the front register called me to come "talk to a dad" who "needed to speak with a manager". Well, of course I was dreading whatever was coming....normally parents side with their kids no matter what crazy stuff they've done, so after a heavy sigh or two I went to see what was going on. There was a man waiting for me by the registers with a thirteen or fourteen year old boy standing beside him, staring at his feet. The girl who had called me whispered a quick explanation: that the dad had caught his son with shoplifted items and had dragged the kid back to the store to confess what he had done, and wanted the manager to "give him a talking to".
My first thought was "oh, shit"....I mean, I don't have kids myself, I have no experience with giving teens lectures for misbehaving, and I'm not exactly an intimidating authority figure, to say the least. I couldn't intimidate a damn mouse! I was wondering what I could possibly say that would have any effect on the boy. Turns out I needn't have worried. That dad had a plan all along to teach the kid a good lesson!
The man introduced himself, and his son, and then said to the boy, "Tell this nice lady what you did."
The kid looked really scared and embarrassed. He stared at the floor and in a voice barely raised above a whisper, said, "I shoplifted from you."
Then the dad completed his son's humiliation. He said, "Now show her what you stole."
Slowly, never once making eye contact with me, he opened a bag and pulled out...........two girlie magazines!!!! Hahahahaha!!!
At that point, all my nervousness vanished. I had to bite my lip not to laugh. If there is anything worse for a thirteen year old boy than having to confess to a woman that he was stealing porn...I don't know what it is! The dad stepped away so I could have a word with him; I merely said that his father was obviously disappointed in him, that he had let both of his parents down, and that shoplifters are always banned permanently from our store. (I wonder if he was ever planning to come back anyway! Ha!) The whole time, I don't think he said more than a tiny, whispered "I'm sorry" and "I understand".
As they were leaving, the dad assured me that the kid would be facing further punishment at home for stealing. I almost felt sorry for the poor kid, to be facing more consequences after such awful humiliation!
What a great dad, though. It's nice to see parents holding their offspring accountable to others when they misbehave and/or break the law. And I'll bet this was one lesson that boy will never, ever forget!
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