Yay God!

True story, I found God today.

So, in a moment of my day today when I wasn't sleeping, cooking, taking a shower, cleaning, helping with homework, eating, watching tv, doing homework, going to the bathroom, playing on the computer, but was in fact, at the hospital with Jon.

(He injured his arm at work, he will be fine eventually when they figure out how he got that thing stuck there in the first place...)

So, we are sitting in the waiting room. Wait, let me back up...

Brew City Music. Karaoke. Wisconsin.
Love Nemo.



Sings Honkytonk Badonkadonk by Trace Adkins every week he's there.

Love that song. Probably because Nemo is cute.




Anyway...back to Tennessee and the waiting room.
Geeze, did you have to get lost in Wisconsin for so long?



I mean really, how much time do you need to think about Nemo and his really cute butt?



Okay, so we are sitting in...dagnabit, you are still thinking about Nemo's butt, aren't you???




AHEM!



Focus.










Tennessee, waiting room.

We had been there the day before, but we needed to see the actual doctor because this is a workman's comp case. The doctor isn't there on Wednesday's. Thursday is his surgery day, so we don't know how long our wait is going to be. It could be five minutes, it could be 3 hours, who knows at this point.

Country Music Television (CMT) is on the waiting room TV. They play country music videos. Jon does not like country music. I LOVE country music. Jon is rolling his eyes and making comments about the station. I say to him in a sassy voice (like I'd use a different one at this point...) "If there is a God, Honkytonk Badonkadonk will come on."

Now, you'd think that it would come on now like a lightening bolt or something. It doesn't. We are talking and chit-chatting the time away. I pull out my moisturizer because my face was so dry and just as I am putting it in my purse, I hear "left, left, left, right, left..." Honkytonk Badonkadonk's video starts playing.

I almost peed myself right there and then. I was hitting him and laughing so hard. He kept telling me to stop hitting him or people would think that I was the one that caused his accident.

You know he was secretly laughing hysterically, but he couldn't show that to me.

So, there is a God. His name is Bob.
He likes Honkytonk Badonkadonk.
He likes Nemo, too.
Yay God!

In Memory

Sadly on Wednesday, December 20th our littlest one, Captain Jack was hit by a car and died.

We had a small family gathering at the site where he came into our lives, under our front room window. We all put a handful of dirt on his little grave and sang his favorite Christmas song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

We marked the grave with a large rock from our home.

He gave us all much joy and will be missed.

Hawk Lady

"Here Hawkie Hawkie, Here Hawkie Hawkie!"

I will never forget my grandma and grandpa's relationship. It is the first really silly, fun relationship that I witnessed. They have been married for 65 years this past May, still silly and fun and still very much in love.

Every year we would go up to old "family camp" at Owassippe Boy Scout Camp. We'd all get together and stay in the old cabins that smelled musty and had bunks in them. God I loved that place. I wish we still went.

Well, we are taking a nature walk and Grandma says, "Hey, look at those birds, what are they?"

My grandpa says, "They are hawks."

Gram says, "They must be hungry."

Gramps says, "Probably. Why don't you feed them?"

Gram looks over at him to see if he's kidding, I swear I don't know how he managed to keep a straight face. "Put some bread on your arms and stand really still in the middle of the road and keeping your arms up and out say, 'Here hawkie hawkie. Here hawkie hawkie.' They will swoop down and get the bread, they won't hurt you."

Well, needless to say Gram won't live down the Hawk Lady story. Ever.

"Here hawkie, hawkie. Here hawkie, hawkie."

Grandpa went over to her and laughed and made her take her arms down. It was so funny. There were tears streaming down our faces. Gramps was hugging her so hard. It was great. I have pictures somewhere.

Remind me to tell you the bear track story.

Originally started on 07/05/2005

Moments

Over the past few days there have been some interesting moments in TN.

First, the kids in Caetie's class (she's in 7th grade) are calling her "Yankee" because we are from "up north". So, it's bothered her, but not too much. Apparently on Friday she'd had enough because she said, "Yeah, well, we won the war." and the kid next to her says, "you did?"

The weather has been so beautiful to this Chicago girl. I LOVE it here. The weatherman confuses me, though.

Last week he was giving the seven day forecast and said it will be in the mid-70's all week. Then he said, "Well, I guess it's time to put away the shorts." Put away the shorts? If we had a pool, we'd still be swimming! I don't know if we are going to put away the shorts this year for quite awhile.

Jon said that this past week they have gone through a TON of chili at work. Now that the temperature is "put away the shorts weather" he is selling a lot of chili. So, he's talking to his co-manager and says, "Make sure that we have enough chili meat, we don't want the Tennessean's to get frostbite."

Shawn said, "Do I have to say "purty" instead of pretty? I don't want to say "purty"..."

The vice-principal at the high school is frequently overheard saying things like, "What are you all carryin' on about, this ain't no hootenanny!"

The elementary school called me, but I missed the phone. So, I hit redial on the caller id. It said that it couldn't connect me, so I found the direct number and called. Here's part of the conversation before I poked my ears out.

Kim: "Well, I am not sure who just called me because I missed the phone and there wasn't a message. Is it possible for you to find out if all of the children are okay? I have three there?"

Secretary: "Do you have any children at this school?"

Kim: "Yes, three; James, Shawn, and Megan."

Secretary: "Oh, well I don't think they called you."

Kim: "I understand, can you call to their rooms to make sure that someone didn't need me to pick them up, or had a medical issue?"

Secretary: "I don't know, will you hold a moment?"
Secretary: "Ma'am, I don't know who could have called you, did you say you have children at this school?"

I finally got ahold of somebody else that could answer my questions and everyone was fine. There apparently was a line in the morning at breakfast and James didn't make it to his classroom before attendance and he was marked absent. When someone is absent, the "automated" system calls home and lets you know that someone is missing from school.

If there was a kid or kids home from school, wouldn't I already know?!

Shouldn't the message say something like, "Because you're probably cleaning up puke or comforting a feverish child or possibly sick yourself and you are all in one room in the "sick bed", we understand that you didn't call us to inform us of that. We would appreciate that in the future, after you clean up that you give us a call. Thanks!"

I got my first political solicitation call EVER in my 35 years. I have never received a call from anyone asking if I would support a particular candidate.

Walmart in TN is the same as Walmart anywhere else, it is a space/time vortex and you lose time in proportion to how much money you spend.

Lisa likes school, it's harder than she thought it would be. If there is a message in there it is this, go to school first, go when you have no responsibilities but yourself.

I saw a quote on my friend Janeen's email today that I liked.
It says,
"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car."

I missed the season premier of Criminal Minds, the premier of CSI: Miami only taped 15 minutes of the end, and the 650th episode of Cops was a rerun. Out of all of that, I love that I am more concerned that Hal Sparks made it to the finals on "Celebrity Duets" than I am about any of the other shows.

All in all, today was a good day. I was productive today. Oh, and I may already have won 2.1 million dollars...
(Loud noises, bells, whistles, yelling and screaming in the background, clanging...)

Well, that was a couple of moments in my life.

Tell me yours.
Was today a bad day? Was today a good day? Was today the BEST day?

Pass it on...

My mom told me to check out this website because I would really enjoy reading Aimee's words.

http://www.askaboutaimee.com/index.html

I did. Then I got angry.

I kept thinking about Aimee's words to her daughter about her neurons being likened to mailmen retiring to Florida to go to Disney World.

Couldn't stem cell research help with ALS? Isn't this something that we should be voting on in the upcoming election year? Lo and behold it is.

It's crazy the controversy about stem cells. There shouldn't be any question about using them in the studies of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, spinal cord injuries, etc. Why are there questions?

If I threw away a desk and my neighbor needed a desk, it's not against the law for her to come and get it from the curb.

Why isn't it the same with stem cells that are being thrown away? If they are at the curb and my neighbor has a need for them, why not?

I'm angry that I will most likely outlive Aimee. I'm angry that I can't "do" anything to help her. I am angry that I feel small reading about her fight to do things that I take totally for granted.

I am also thankful that Aimee has her website, so that I can see that ALS isn't just a disease, it's a family and it's personal and it doesn't just affect Aimee, but her husband and children and family and her community. Now it affects me and mine.

I know that my opinion is only one in the vastness of cyberspace, but check out Aimee's website.

While, I might not be able to help Aimee personally or specifically, I can help to raise awareness of ALS and voting folks who would like to see more stem cell research into office is free and my right and priviledge.

Pass it on.

Driving the hills in TN...

So today starts out slow. I get a phone call that one of the children isn't at school today. Freak out and call and ask if they found them or if I should go out looking. All is well, kid went to the bathroom during attendance and forgot to let someone know.

Then I decide that I am going to try to find my new grocery store, Prichard's. I get a flier in the mail every week. The headline always shows the dates of the sale and under it it says, "Jesus Saves!"

Now, I had a couple of thoughts when I saw that. Does Jesus only save for that week? Does Jesus save, but everyone else pays full price? No, it is just a nice little grocery store that loves Jesus. There is gospel music playing and everyone is friendly and helpful. It was a nice grocery, where Jesus Saves! It is smaller than Walmart but larger than the little grocery in town. It's down the road a ways in the other direction that I am most familiar with.

So, instead of blindly driving there today, I decide to call. I have looked for this grocery twice and have gotten a little turned around each time. I call the store and explain that I am new to the area and I would like to know where they are located. Here's part of the conversation:

"Well, go down Sparta toward Smithville..."

Wait! I am new to the area, I don't know where Smithville is! I've just moved here from Wisconsin. I'm coming from Watertown.

"Well, go out onto the street and come toward Alexandria and just keep going past the old store..."

I don't know where the old store is.

"Oh, well, go down Sparta toward Alexandria and look for the Dollar General, then turn left and you can't miss us."

Needless to say, I needed better directions. So, I thought well, I have to go into town to go to the post office and to the bank, so I will stop in and say hi to Jim at the antique shop and he'll be able to give me directions.

So, I get into my car and think, do I want to take a right into town or go around town? I decide to go around town. Then I realize that the post office and the bank are IN town. I just crack myself up sometimes, at least I am never bored having me around.

Well, get the duties done, crack Jim up at the antique shop, and get directions to the grocery.

I start on my way and I am pretty confident that with Jim's directions, I won't get too lost this time. I also know that if I go missing for too long, Jim knows where I am lost at.

The grocery store is opposite the way to Lebanon which is the direction to go to Walmart and such where I took all of the beautiful pictures. The road to Alexandria is even more beautiful, if you can believe it.

There are curves and hills in the road and there is one curve that goes up the hill and when you get to the top and start to curve back down the trees break open and as far as my eyes could see there were trees and hills and green and it was so beautiful and I was so happy to be in Tennessee and I put my hand up and out of the car like I was on a roller coaster and started to whoop for joy at living where it is so beautiful, that I can go to the grocery store and see this splendor all of the time and all of a sudden my car door swings wide open into oncoming traffic!!!!

The latch wasn't working properly on my door. I'm almost to the grocery store, so I figured I'd take a look at it when I got there. I get there and it looks like the latch spring is gone, so I fiddled with it and got it to close.

Go shopping. I am in the grocery store for about an hour. When I come out, it is POURING!! My seats are wet, I am wet, I get loaded up and head home, with my flannel jacket wrapped through the handle of my door and sitting on it so the door won't fling open again, but I have to leave the windows open because I have to be able to catch the door if it moves again and it is now a sauna in Tennessee.

Ahhh, the hills and stories of Tennessee!

Some things I've learned about Tennessee in a week...

If you want to get things done, do it before 7AM or after 10PM cuz it's just too darn hot.

If you want to get things done on Monday, start on the Tuesday before...

If you have to go somewhere during the day, that will be the time the cable installers will be out.

If you have errands to run, they are at least 15 minutes away.

The police station answers the water department's phone when they are at lunch.

Nextel/Sprint won't work at home, but it will work a block away. If you are driving you will lose signal because of the mountains. How come??? Aren't the satellite's in space? How are mountains interferring with that???

Tennessee is pretty no matter where you look.

From the air it looks like fields of broccoli, from the ground it feels like a roller coaster--up, down, up, down, sideways, in, out, up, down...

If you want to unpack boxes of books, the bookshelves will be wobbly and you will have packed your hammer elsewhere...

If you want to cook something, you will realize that either you don't have it, or you forgot to pick it up, or that the utensil or pan is packed somewhere and you have no idea where it is.

If you want to watch a movie, you will open all of your boxes that are labeled DVD'S and discover that you did not pack all of your movies in one of those boxes marked DVD'S, in fact you packed DVD's all over the place, apparently whatever room you found the dvd in that is where you packed it. AND, it's the DVD you want to watch that is missing...

Tennessee in the morning and the evening smells like a forest after the rain.

There are a million (I think that's the actual number) of state parks with hiking trails in TN.

Okay, so I am sure that I will have lots and lots of interesting things I learn about TN in the next seven days...

Creepy McCreepville

So I have been a little busy and haven't had time to get this written down, so I am taking a break and getting it on paper--so to speak.

So, we are moving to Tennessee in a few very short days and since I was the only one with a flexible schedule, I flew down to TN for three days in the middle of June.

I had contacted a real estate agent and somehow we lost contact. Lisa found a house she really liked online and I contacted the realtor from that company. We had what we believed was a real estate agent from a reputable company and away we went.

This trip was doomed from the moment we went to bed.

I set my alarm wrong, so we got up a half an hour later than planned. My flight was in O'Hare and I live in Lake Geneva, WI. This trip is about an hour normally, add in rush hour traffic and we were cutting it close.

Well, Jon tells me to jump out, but we are in the third lane of traffic. I get out and go to get my bag and I cannot reach it. The police officer says, "move it or I am giving him a ticket, you do not get out of the car in traffic." Well, everyone else was doing it...

Meanwhile he is driving away with my bag.

So, I ding Jon on my phone that he is driving away with my bag and he is yelling at me about why I did not get my bag when I had the chance. I am thinking, I did not want you to get a ticket, just stop and give me my bag.

Get my bag, run into the airport, get through security, sit for flight. Fly to Nashville. All is fine until I check in at my car rental place. Apparently Travelocity agents are stupid. They said it was fine if someone else made the reservation with their credit card as long as I brought my driver's license and the credit card with me. Well, apparently you have to have YOUR name on the card. I explained to Travelocity that it was someone else's card. NOBODY will rent you a car if you do not have a credit card in your name.

Finally, after going through all the car companies, I got to Enterprise and Victoria there gave me the card of Charlie. He is a life-saver. I cannot thank him enough for renting me a car in cash and driving me from and back to the airport. We are taking him out for Mexican food once we move down to TN.

Well, off to my hotel. I check in at the desk and drive my car around the hotel and there were three drug deals going on. While I was waiting for the realtor, a hooker came in and asked for a "cheap" room without a bathroom or tv. So, I get on the phone with Travelocity and they cannot help me because it is a franchise and they are not connected and I can get my money refunded but not for 30 days. May as well make the most of it and stay in the "crack ho" hotel. I just have to make sure that I get back before dark and don't go anywhere.

I meet up with my realtor, let's call him Creepy, in the lobby. He is totally disorganized. We looked at six houses that first day and we zig-zagged all over town. Now, I had just spent three weeks sending Creepy MLS numbers of homes in our price range. I do not know Tennessee, so I was relying on Creepy a little bit to show me around and get me acclimated to Nashville. I told him I did not want to be within at least 15 mintues of this hotel. I knew that this was probably an area that I did not want to raise my six children in.

The first home we looked at was a lovely home. After looking at six more homes, we still did not find what I was looking for, so we went to lunch. After lunch it was about 4PM.

I was concerned about getting back to my hotel before dark. I suggested to Creepy that we could look in outlying areas as long as they were not further than an hour from TSU (the school Lisa will be attending). Creepy tried to talk me out of looking. He claimed that I would not want to drive that far every day. I didn't think it was his place to not show me properties that I wanted to see.

Since we had about four hours of daylight left, we found a property that had 5 acres attached to it in Lyles. Creepy said that it was about an hour drive and we should do it that day rather than wait.

It seemed to be too good to be true.

It was.

The house was a duplex, so the two floors were not connected. Creepy failed to mention that until we got to the home. He said that our two families could live separately again. The thing is, we LIKE living together and helping each other out and living like a FAMILY and he knew that. So, how can he just made the decision that we should all live separately again? Also, we have six children, two girls and four boys and three adults. I am still trying to figure out how we could have lived separately in two two bedroom apartments.

As we are heading out of Lyles, he says his land is five minutes away, do I mind if he stops and checks it out as he had not been up there in awhile.

Being the heroine of this saga, I said no, I did not mind. I was not going to go anywhere and as long as I made it back to my hotel before it was dark it was fine.

We get on our way and he asks if I mind if he stops for a six pack of beer. Heroine is thinking he wants to stop now so he doesn't have to stop later. That's fine with me.

The heroine was wrong.

He proceeded to open a beer and pour it into a tupperware cup he had in his cup holder and drink it. I believe he finished the entire six pack before we returned to the hotel while driving.

When we arrived at his farm we got to go off roading in his truck on his land. He forgot to mention that it was just that, land. No home, no road, no phone service. We get out into the middle of it and he gets out of his truck and asked me if I wanted to get out and look around.

It's land. It is not like I cannot see out of the windows.

I am thinking to myself, the heroine stays in the car, the heroine stays in the car, the girl who doesn't die in the beginning of the movie half-naked stays in the car.

Then he got back into the truck and drives a little further while turning around. He sees his crick and he has to get out to check it out. He yelled that he can see a huge turtle in the crick.

Lisa asked me later if I had gotten out at the creek to look at the huge turtle. I said, THE HEROINE STAYS IN THE CAR. If I had gotten out, do you know where I would be?

In the crick.

With the huge turtle.

In pieces.

I was an hour away from my hotel and had put my trust in this man and here we are out in the middle of nowhere and I cannot contact anyone and he's drinking and driving.

I was so glad to see the crack ho hotel again.

During this first day, Creepy developed a disgusting habit that drove me crazy. He would spit constantly. He would spit out the window, on other people's property, on the street, all of the time. It was rude and embarrassing behavior from a professional in my opinion. He continued spitting the entire three days I was there.

The next day, I tried to contact the other realtor I had found. Let's call her Glinda, the good realtor. She was not available.

The second day.

I decided to suck it up and drive my own vehicle anywhere I needed to go this second day. Creepy called me at 8:15AM to make arrangements for the day. He asked me to meet him at 11AM at his office. Why do you call someone three hours before you want them to meet you?

We finally got on the way to see homes after 2:30PM. I feel like we wasted 3 hours looking at houses on the computer rather than getting out and actually seeing them and figuring out where they were located in relation to TSU and SE Nashville where Jon is going to be working.

I was frustrated. I kept wanting to leave and go look for a good map. I wanted to explore Nashville a little bit to see exactly what I was looking for and if I could afford it. He just kept making excuses on why I couldn't leave.

Finally we left to look at property.

He couldn't understand why I wanted to drive my own car.

We looked at about 7 homes. The last home was on Brunswick, the same street as the first home we had looked at the day before. As we were leaving the house, Creepy asked me, "Do you mind living with blacks?" I said no, I did not care who lived near me as long as they cared about their homes as much as I cared about my own. Then I realized what he had asked me. I called Lisa and she was in disbelief. Jon said like in the same house, like does he know someone we can rent with?

On my way back to the hotel from there Creepy tells me to get on the expressway and my hotel will be right there. Well, there are what feels like 800 different highways, expressways, & roads that intersect off of 24 and I do not know my way around. And I have no map because Creepy would not direct me to a store to find one.

They have signs that say, Memphis, Knoxville, Chatanooga, etc. Well, after an hour and a half in traffic and passing the same road for the third time, I got off, bought a map, and asked for directions.

Well, I was less than 10 minutes away from my hotel the entire time, and since I had already established with Creepy that I did NOT think that this was a neighborhood I would like to raise my children in, I also felt betrayed that he did not expain how close to the hotel neighborhood this house was. I was so angry and frustrated and homesick by that point that I just went to my hotel and cried.

That night I found out it got worse.

Lisa and Jon had researched the schools in that area. The school district has a 39% graduation rate. That is just not acceptable in our opinions and we needed to find a different area to look in.

I had Lisa look up new MLS numbers in areas that she and Jon had researched the night before based on better schools. I needed to see more homes and I needed to try to find a map and check out what areas we wanted to look in.

The last day.

The last day of looking at homes was just as horrible as the first two. Creepy knew I had a time constraint. He knew I had a flight to catch and I had to return my car first. I got to his office at 11:30AM, because I got lost. We left after 2PM, again I felt like we were just wasting time.

We only looked at 7 homes. I found one I loved, finally. Creepy tried to tell me that it was too small for my family. We raced around looking at the rest. He was so far ahead of me at points that I thought I had lost him. He would call me on my cell phone and ask where I was. I told him that he was too far ahead of me and he would say I know, could you try to keep up? I said I was doing 60 mph in a 40 mph zone already and he needed to wait.

Then when it's time to leave, he would not give me directions to get back to Charlie, the car dealer. He thought it was funny. So, I called Charlie and put him on the phone with Creepy so that I could get good directions and possibly make it to the airport on time.

On my way out of town and at the airport I was able to contact Glinda, the good realtor and she agreed to represent me and mine after talking with her broker to make sure that there were no reasons why she couldn't.

Thankfully, she's representing us now. I now feel like my best interests are at her heart and that she is working FOR me. I am so very grateful to Glinda for not giving up on us and being able to take on the responsibilities of handling this transaction through fax and email.

When I returned home, I found out that Creepy had kept calling my house in Wisconsin instead of calling my cell phone. He woke my sister and the children a number of times.

Then he kept calling my home number on accident to tell me what landmarks we were passing, Lisa would tell him that he had called the house again, but he never called me back on my cell phone to tell me and these were things like schools, grocery stores, things I would need to know to get around.

I did not feel like he listened to what I was looking for. I do not think he understood that we had a financial constraint and wanted to spend as little as possible for as much home as necessary in a nice neighborhood of MY choosing, based on schooling and feeling. I felt disrespected, ashamed of his behavior, and all around discontent to be moving to this new state and city.

If it weren't for people like Glinda, Charlie, and Glen I know I would have a different opinion of Tennessee. Thankfully the universe always balances itself.

I believe that Creepy McCreepville was released him from his team and he might be facing federal charges based on his blatent disregard of the Fair Housing law.

Glinda, the good realtor found us a beautiful home that has passed inspection and we are on our way.

Look out Tennessee, here we come!

Relationships

Did you know that relationships are hard?

They take work.

Everyday.

All relationships require some effort and attention on your part.

Think about all of the relationships you have today.

Parents, children, superiors, subordinates, friends, lovers, aquaintances...

Each and every relationship takes time and effort to keep it going.

It is only through the hardships that you find the integrity and courage to keep going. It is through the struggles that you build character and discover what is most important. It is only with the sour that you appreciate the sweet.

So, work on it.

When was the last time you asked someone else how they were doing and really stayed to listen to the answer?

When was the last time you told someone that you were glad they are in your life?

When was the last time you really hugged someone? Kissed them? Told them that you loved them?

When was the last time you did the dishes, picked up your socks, took the trash out, or any of those little things without being asked?

When was the last time you asked someone if there was something you could do to make things better?

When was the last time you smiled remembering something they said?

Try to do one of those things everyday.

Don't tell anyone, just start doing them.
Watch what happens.

Go on now, work on your relationships...

Published!

So, I got published on Heartwarmers with an old bloggie story "She looks just like you" from April 2005.

Thanks, Mom! (She's the one that suggested I submit my stories to Heartwarmers in the first place.)

Check it out here:

http://archive.mail-list.com/heartwarmers/msg01305.html

Well, I have gotten a number of letters asking me for the infamous "Pizza Fish" recipe.
You have to understand the background of this recipe for it to make you giggle as much as it makes me giggle.

The first time my mom made this recipe was when I was like 13-14, so we are talking 20 years ago when some technologies we have now were brand new.

Microwaves have come a long way since the early 80's, I am pretty sure most would agree.

So, when we had gotten our first microwave it came with a set of microwaveable dishes.
They were really heavy brown plastic dishes with the grooves and such in them to drain grease and juices. (I bet she still has them...) Needless to say, she had to try them out.

I guess there was a little recipe book that came with it and I am not sure who the testing kitchen was, but they should have been fired.

Imagine raw white fish placed on these dishes with canned or jar red sauce poured over it and mozzarella cheese slices placed on top of each piece of fish. Press power and zap it's done, in like 20 minutes.

The microwave does not do good things to fish. Let me just say, it probably wasn't my mom's fault. She was following a recipe that she probably assumed was taste tested.

The fish, sauce, and cheese kind of steamed together into this wet mushy mess and it was really gross and slimy and the cheese never really melted. I don't reccommend this recipe for anyone.

Needless to say we haven't let my mom forget about pizza fish for over twenty years.

I bet you are giggling now...

So, I am totally my dad...

So, I am totally my dad.

My dad is a tile setter, has been forever. When I was younger anytime we would go into a restaurant where he hadnt laid the tile, he would have something to say about it.

Grout lines are off in the bathrooms.
Did you see the bullnose over there?
They didnt rinse the water well enough, look how cloudy the tile is.
Should have sealed that.
Do you see the crooked cut on that tile?

When I see tile setters using spacers now, I laugh, my dad could get straight as a ruler grout lines by sight and fast.

So, when I was in my twenties, I would see tile jobs that werent my dads and compare them to the way I was taught to sight a good job or a bad job, by my dads standards.

I walk into a public restroom at a fast food restaurant, first thing I notice is the tile job. If the grout is sealed, if the grout lines are straight, did they put a decorative border in the right way?

These are things that nobody else probably even notices, but I notice because my dad loved his job. The way he spoke about someone elses work wasnt as an insult, it was almost as if it hurt his feelings that someone else didnt love the job as much as he did.

So, is it any surprise that after working with Jon for seven months that I have begun to see fast-food restaurants with his eyes and his standards?

One thing that he has gotten me looking at is the first thing you notice about a restaurant. According to Jon, its the parking lot. Is it clean or is it a mess? If it is a mess, your next thought will be is the bathroom a mess and if the bathroom is a mess, what else is?

So, now I find myself looking above eye level and below knee level to see if things are dirty or out of place. I find myself looking under stuff. I look for things cluttering up counters or workspaces. Is the condiment stand clean? Is the ketchup stocked? Is the dining room swept, wiped down, and put to rights? Are the outsides of the garbage cans clean? Are the window ledges clean? Is there garbage outside? Hows the service? Were you greeted as soon as you walked in?

We had a huge discussion about how it seems that other fast food restaurants are moving away from personal service. Their goals are just fast food faster.

I like our philosophy better. The five foot rule says that if you are within five feet of anyone to acknowledge them. Simply saying hello to someone and smiling can change their day. Just be nice, is just a way of offering more personal service when and where you can during the day.

So, imagine my surprise when I stopped into a sister store that is open 24 hours and immediately started looking through my Jon glasses.

First, this is a restaurant that I expect a certain level of service at and I was still wearing my work uniform. Second, when you dont get the level of service, you start looking at other things. Lastly, no matter what, I knew that my food would be great and just what I was looking for.

I waited for two sandwiches, an order of fries, and a drink for over ten minutes. Now, since I work at a similar restaurant and it was midnight and there was a thirty dollar order in front of me, I was willing to cut them some slack and hang in there.

The thing that upset me was that I wasnt greeted. Not once, not by any of the five people I saw that night except for someone saying, next to take my order.

After the first three minutes I started looking around. I started to notice things that probably werent as noticeable to others, but made me uncomfortable to be wearing my uniform.

The dining room was messy. There were four people sitting at one table still eating. There were at least seven tables that were in serious need of clearing.

The condiment stand was horrible. It was sticky as if someone had spilled a soda. The ketchup dispensers looked goopy and a little gross.

The straws were well stocked, so much so I couldnt get one out without pulling ten other straws with mine. No napkins on the stand at all. The garbage can next to me was full and smelled. The door to get behind the counter was broken and hanging on by the bottom hinge. It looked dangerous and a little like nobody cared.

There was garbage all over everything. There were napkin wrappings laying on surfaces. Fries were all over the floor. The fry station, which is directly behind the registers and you can see if you are a customer had lids for various red and yellow containers, fry boxes, salt boxes, and garbage under it.

The staff was talking so loudly that I could hear them. They were talking about how customer service doesnt really matter after midnight, customers expect to have to wait for their food. This statement really upset me, of course customer service matters, it matters at 10AM and it matters at 11:59PM. There is no difference.

Now, after all of this. I wasnt expecting much.

Even after all of this, even after being so disappointed and a little upset that the store wasnt right, because it reflects on me too, standing there in my uniform, even if it isnt my store, because apparently I have inherited my dads and Jons ability to be hurt when it doesnt seem like others care as much as you do.

Even taking all of that into consideration, the selling point was this:

The sandwiches and fries were hot and delicious.

Wednesday

On Wednesday at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06.

Kind of weird and quirky, huh?