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Monday, September 16, 2013

Little o' this, little o' that....

Today, a better supermarket trip than last week.  All the smaller groovy black metal carts were disappeared, and it was 15 minutes at checkout, but on the AW side, nice chats with my line neighbors, and the deaf employee who was collecting carts in the parking lot gave me a hug just because I thanked him and we kinda chatted.  (I think nobody really talks to him, and he's a very dedicated worker.)  There's a lot of agreement in line that the place needs to hire more employees.  Seriously.

W:  another fireplacing mass shooting.  I saw a video clip of the chief medical officer at the trauma center, and she said, "this has to stop happening."  Truer words never said.

AW:  Daughter slept last night, up early and cheerful and off to her volunteer job on time, with no maternal prodding whatsoever.  Yay.

What's new in your neighborhood?

37 comments:

esperanza said...

I have heard mamas complaining about making school lunches. An announcement: I will make all your kids' school lunches, if you will just get mine ready for school--dressed, breakfast in tummies.

kathy a. said...

Ah. Not morning girls. xoxo

esperanza said...

They come from a long line of Not Morning People. But still, teh nagging, it is wearying.

JenR said...

Esperanza - I have had some luck occasionally putting mine to bed in their school clothes. Then you only have to have the breakfast fight in the morning. Clearly the wrinkles don't bother me much at this age - but most of their clothes don't wrinkle much anyway. :-)

Sue said...

I love that idea JenR!

Yay for daughter kathy a!

W: yes, another shooting. I was really troubled by the news coverage. Within minutes the shooting had an official Name and a special graphic to put on the screen at commercial break time. Worse yet, the announcer at one point said "Stay tuned for more gripping coverage..."

Really? Gripping? It just didn't sit right with me.

W: I am, once again, dizzy with the bizzy. Not enough hours in the day + vertigo = Bleh! I took half an anti-nausea medication and I'm hoping some coffee will counteract its sleepy side effects. I seriously do not have time for this.

AW: I love autumn.

kathy a. said...

by the time mine were school age, i put little tables by their beds and brought them cereal in bed. which i know sounds kind of insane, but it was easier than trying to drag them to the real table, and once they had eaten they were more awake and cooperative.

yes, sue, about news coverage. 9/11 was pretty much the last time i watched TV news; at least the computer lets me click around when something is offensive.

sue, hope you're feeling better!

AW: the mammo is out of the way. i feel so accomplished!

Liz said...

So a co-worker just told me that a former co-worker of HERS was at the site of the shooting yesterday and my co-worker said that the woman who sat in the cube just in front of her former co-worker (and where my co-worker used to sit) was shot and killed. While they were sitting in their cubes.


kathy a. said...

dear lord, liz. i don't have words. xoxo

don't have words for this happening again. it is so upsetting to see a faction so entrenched and so heavily financed that even common-sense measures (in response to a great many horrifying events) are shot down, again and again.

kathy a. said...

damn, broke the blog again.

esperanza said...

W: Tuesdays are kicking my butt.

AW: but my blood pressure is excellent (annual checkup with doctor today)

Queen of West Procrastination said...

So many hugs for liz and her co-worker. There really are no words for things as awful as this.

My own whines are small and selfish:
- Beginning of the school year = full swimming pool during public swim times at the university. We had the whole summer of quiet swims with seniors, and now our workout involves navigating around dudes using the diving board. Countdown to midterms, when undergrads remember that they have to study.
- Mr.Q goes away on a camping trip today, and will be gone for two nights. E and I will stay with my parents, just to prevent any further separation anxiety issues, and so that I don't go crazy. This may end up being a cause for whining in itself.
- Department stores that have their women's section around the perfume section. I had to send Mr. Q with E out of S3@rs yesterday, while I was buying a bathing suit, because E's eyes turned red and she kept coughing.

AW: New! Inexpensive! Bathing suit! And meant for swimming instead of lounging on the beach!

Liz said...

W: State party doesn't give a shit that my (inexpensive) race is winnable and another (very pricy) race isn't. They've decided who they're giving money to, and they're not changing. So there. ...d:
(that's them blowing a raspberry).

AW: It's not like I can't raise the money without them. They just would have made it easier.

Sue said...

Liz, I'm so sorry about all of the repercussions of the shooting for everyone. How awful for your co-worker and for you. ~sigh~ When will it stop?

Yay for good mammos and healthy bp!!! Also for swimming, despite the crowds. We have a healthy bunch of Pixies this week!!

QWP - that store makes my head esplode. Seriously, they stopped the perfume snipers, but the entire department is still noxious.

AW: Not spinny today! WooHoo!

esperanza said...

I say we arm this week's Cluestick Posse with perfume.

kathy a. said...

Esperanza -- yay for surviving tuesday, and with good BP, even.

QWP -- yuck on the perfumery!

Liz -- show 'em how it's done, sister!

AW: very enjoyable coffee and chat with a colleague I hadn't met before. Need to do that sort of thing more often.

esperanza said...

Gave someone from out of town really bad directions today. I told him to turn left at the second light, when I should have said the fourth light. I then realized I haven't given anyone directions since we moved here 4 years ago.

kathy a. said...

Eh, you tried. Did you mention the street name or any landmarks?

I think it's good to try to help, even if some of the specifics get a little messed up.

esperanza said...

street name: yes.

Sweet, out of the blue: "Thanks, Mommy. Thanks for helping me grow up." I'm melting, I tell you, melting.

kathy a. said...

Sweet continues to live up to her nickname.

kathy a. said...

Incoming son -- ate all the leftovers, took dad's tablesaw, and poof! Off to night school after work.

Daughter has a phone interview tomorrow; and at her volunteer job (where she is doing all kinds of employable things), the person taking over for her boss turns out to have [a] grown up in my childhood town, [b] gone to college in Oregon, the state of my daughter's college, and [c] done a semester in China (vs. daughter's year in Japan) -- and so far, they seem to have things to talk about.

kathy a. said...

Also, daughter got to see a rescued sea lion released today, at the volunteer job. Yay!

Liz said...

AW: Finally got a specific endorsement I'd been waiting for.

W: Other specific endorsements are taking for bloody ever. Hey 3M1LY'S L1ST! Endorse me!

kathy a. said...

Liz -- yay about the endorsement! I also endorse Liz, though I'm not local -- we just need more people fighting the good fights. WAKE UP, big endorsers!

Sue, hope the week's settled a bit.

QWP, hope the grandparental time is good! It seriously takes a village.

Esperanza, your whine about directions gave me a total flashback to when we lived in Japan for a year, a place where we could read no street signs so the directions were all like: "go exactly 1.7 km and turn right at the street with a bakery on one corner and a fish market on the other -- be sure it's the bakery with a tanuki statue outside." This was way before cell phones and GPS and mapquest. I once drove to a department store off my usual route and got lost -- the landmark that I thought would keep me oriented was [I swear this is true] a tall building with a giant bowling pin on top. That was a bad choice, because it turns out that a giant bowling pin looks exactly the same from all directions. Anyway, my faith in humanity was bolstered by the nice people who pointed me in the right directions.

Sue said...

I'm really terrible at giving directions and even worse at receiving them and ending up in the right place.

kathy a - that is hilarious! "A giant bowling pin looks exactly the same from al directions." Thanks for providing the Funny for the afternoon!!

W: I've spent the day centering big pails under leaks in the roof of the sanctuary. Had to dump out crayon buckets in the Sunday School cupboard when I ran out of other options.

AW: Strategic planning meeting this weekend about what we're going to do about the sad shape of the building. Timing is everything...

Way to go Liz!! Keep up the good work and we'll send gentle cluesticks to the big endorsers to get on board.

esperanza said...

oh, Sue. I've done that more than I want to remember. One memorable Sunday in Retired Military Congregation, someone came running in to inform me there was a leak in the sanctuary. I replied that he should get a bucket. (Thinking to myself, you needed *me* to tell you that? Former enlisted people like to have bosses). He said, "you want a *bucket* in the sanctuary?" Well, yes, in preference to squishy carpet. Sigh. Buildings are burdens. Expensive ones.

Yay Liz!

kathy a. said...

Oh, the posse has a few words for the Strategic Planning Meeting folks. Good thinking, Sue, about the crayon buckets! Sounds like you might need to buy more plastic recepticals....

Esperanza, that is very funny about the guy who couldn't wrap his head around a bucket in the sanctuary.

esperanza said...

Seriously. I've never seen grown ups need more direction and hand-holding than that crew. Wonderful people, just completely accustomed to being told what to do. One wonders how they managed in other arenas. Like putting their clothes on in the morning.

esperanza said...

W: mail order prescription "service." Ugh. Why can I not take my Rx to my local pharmacy, where they greet me by name when I walk in the door? Yes I'm thankful to have prescription insurance, but I deeply resent that they dictate what pharmacy I use. (They won't pay for Rx at local pharmacy, only mail order).

kathy a. said...

Cluesticks, Esperanza.

I wonder if part of the problem with clueless parishioners is that church is (to them) a place of awe where beautiful things happen seamlessly; whereas, to a pastor, the building leaks, the furnace is on its last legs, somebody barfed in the bathroom, and the guy who's supposed to handle X just went on a 2 month vacation?

Regular citizens saw the historic courthouse where I used to work with considerable awe, so they were always pretty shocked when the elevators broke [often], the AC blew out [every summer], and the third floor plumbing leaked into the second floor courtroom [memorable for odor as well as dampness]. The majesty of the law requires a lot in the way of maintenance.

esperanza said...

AW: just heard from College Niece again, in a thank you text for the package I sent. She sounds awesome, studying hard, playing hard. So, so happy for her. I know that college happiness is far from automatic, and she is way far away from home, so I am so relieved.

kathy a. said...

Yay, for college niece!

Queen of West Procrastination said...

College niece is doing a good job of bucking the stereotypes regarding her generation!

W: We are not doing the Go To Grandma's To Avoid Separation Anxiety Thing again. Two straight nights of bad sleeps and anxious baby.

AW: Mr. Q is home! And E went to bed half an hour early!

W:I made an error with shipping instructions and accidentally had the case for my pretty! new! phone! shipped to the old house (sitting empty & slated for demolition). And the courier just left it there. Yesterday. And I found out today.

AW: My parents went there and got it, while running other errands. And it wasn't stolen!

AW: My parents have been wonderfully helpful over the past few days.

Anonymous said...

(w) mouth full of canker sores.

(w) work=stress right now

(aw)) some moments have been awesome

--Neighbor Lady

kathy a. said...

Hi, NL! sorry about the sores and the stressies, but good some things are going great!

QWP, I like your parents.

I'm having a failure of ceremonial inspiration, probably caused by trying to finish this stupid work thing today. So, awards will appear sometime.

Queen of West Procrastination said...

A last minute AW: a wonderful friend of mine (who gave me my previous diaper bag as a present, and heard that it was falling apart already) found me a fancy-schmancy designer diaper bag at a consignment sale for $4! The thing is gorgeous, lightweight, much easier on my back than the old one, and insanely well built. This thing's going to be my purse once E's out of diapers.

My friend and I keep texting each other, high-fiving about her good deal.

Score!

kathy a. said...

ooh, that is a score!

esperanza said...

I love me a good consignment sale deal. I'm headed to one this afternoon, as a matter of fact. Hoping your friend's good juju rubs off on me, QWP!