Stupid Is As Stupid Does

On a daily basis I encounter a few bicyclists on my way to work. They are easy to spot. Most of them wear reflective clothing or have flashers on their bikes. They tend to stay over in the parking lane and some ride on the sidewalks. It's still dark when I'm driving in. This morning was the worst exception of a cyclist I have ever seen. This guy is riding in the right lane and wearing pretty much all black except for the white on his shoes. No helmet, no reflectors and just tooling along like he owns the road. He's heading west on Watertown Plank Road and crosses over Highway 100 through the light. Am I wrong or are cyclists supposed to obey traffic signals? He almost gets clipped at that point. I happen to turn onto Watertown Plank and end up right behind him. I think I may have been the only driver that saw him. Guy on the left whipped by as I slowed down and attempted to change lanes to pass cycle man. Car in back of me slows down and as I change lanes just about clips the guy. I moved around him and back into the right lane and see another car just about clip him. Drivers were changing lanes at the last minute to avoid hitting him. It's one thing to drive in the parking lane and have drivers move over a little, but don't bike in the right lane if there is a parking lane. I wonder if he ever made it to his destination.
I saw buds this morning. On the trees. This is the beginning of my favorite season. Baseball and when everything starts to turn green. Not that green is my favorite color but it is a true sign that the long dreary winter may soon be over. It is a sign of outdoor activities beginning to take hold and a sure sign that camping is right around the corner. I also saw a fly, which I can do without. I know we have a few weeks to go yet but I sure am ready for the warmer weather and all that it brings with it.

7

Still a bit queasy and it's now day 7. I'm not quite sure if I've kicked the diet coke habit because I am craving one. Sprite has become my new friend. Sprite and Tums.
The good thing is my food is staying put but with the queasy feeling I have a feeling it's putting up a fight. The thought of certain foods can cause some nausea yet. My husbands offer to fry up some eggs Sunday morning sent me running and I tried to throw out the Swedish meatballs yesterday but he had a fit. They better be gone today by the time I get home or they're hitting the garbage.

Day 5 & Things I've Learned

As I enter day 5 of having this wonderful virus I starting to wonder when this little visitor of mine will decide to leave me. I've spent a lot of time laying either in bed or on the couch. This is not a norm for me therefore I felt my mind wandering to a zillion other things. Maybe I was trying the mind over matter method of healing. At this point I think the matter is winning. I have not been out of the house since Wednesday night and quite frankly I don't think I'm ready to head out anywhere as of yet.
This laying around has given me a lot of time to discover things and to think a lot.
Things I've discovered :

• I do not like the tile on my bathroom floor.
• My shower curtain does not match my bathroom
• The screw that is missing on the cabinet door handle has been missing for nearly 5 years. I know I asked my husband to fix it.
• My daughters cat loves hiding in the bathtub.
• Sprite has become my savior. 7 up just didn't work as well.
• A saltine cracker as small and dry as it may be can taste mighty good after 3 days of not eating.
• A bagel is not made to be eaten dry.
• When you have a stomach flu the thought of the last thing you ate will make you want to hurl all over again.
• The smell of someone heating up that certain food will send you running.
• The Urgent Care Nurses at the local hospital are all males.
• An IV can make you feel a little better.
• I think I'm going to need a refill on the anti-nausea medicine
• A baked potato with no butter is tolerable. I must really be sick.
• A sick person should not cook dinner for the rest of the family. What's wrong with that picture.
• My husband has done a fairly good job of making sure I'm ok, but I don't think he could ever be a full time caregiver.
• If there are 6 commercials on tv-at least 4 of them will be about food.
• Of the 4 food commercials shown only 1 may be of a remotely healthy food.
• Hunger will subside after 2 days. I'm wondering how long I can rely upon my stored up fat because I now have no urge to eat. (you don't have to answer this one, I already know it would be a long time)
• My stomach flu hit full cramping force on my son's birthday. If it was labor pains they'd be over by now and I'd have something wonderful to show for it.
• I'm almost out of bathroom cleaner.
• The Golden Girls can be funny when you are bored.
• Lifetime movies are all basically the same.
• I wonder how much of the Judy Garland movie was true.
• There sure are some goofy cartoons on now days.
• My left over cat loves me.
• I'm glad I had those coupons for the cushy toilet paper.

Thanks for Sharing?

Some things are just not meant to share. Take for example the stomach flu. Last week one of the twins had a two day bout with the stomach flu. I tried to keep my distance but living in the same house as a sick one can be a little tricky. I had the Lysol out and really tried to stay away. Then Dylan had it last week but was over Saturday & Sunday. On Sunday my stomach was feeling a bit queasy but I was still doing okay. Monday same thing. I took a couple of Tums through out the day and was careful to stay away from any dairy products.
It hit about mid-day Tuesday. Just a very sick feeling and a nice headache to accompany it. I was a good wife and went home and made dinner. Swedish meatballs and egg noodles. I took a few bites and then called it quits. Headed to bed early just to be interrupted by the effects of the flu. Never got much sleep and called in to work. It just wasn't going to happen. The work thing was out of the question.
I spent the next 24 hours very close to the toilet. Couldn't seem to find anything that would stop the pain in my stomach. Tums and 7 up were not doing it. I thought I was done with the bulk of it by yesterday afternoon and ate a cracker. Not so lucky there.
Around 9 last night the pain was just too bad and I opted to make a trip to Urgent Care. I had called my doctor and she suggested doing this rather than waiting until the next day to come in.
Several anti-nausea shots later and an IV for fluids I was on my way home. Scripts were written for more medicine. This is a type of stomach virus that has been going around.
Here we are a day later now. The pills are helping the pain but I'm still a little gurgly. The dry toast I ate an hour ago seems to be raising a ruckus. Right now I'm so hungry I could spit and I just go a whiff of the leftover meatballs my husband is heating up. Instant nausea feeling. Two days of work down the chute. This better clear up soon. I don't think Stb's cure will work for this. Haven't had a diet coke since Tuesday.

Not Working For Free

Time flies when you're having fun? It's been a year since I took the QC job and yes, I'll admit the time has gone by fast. The position keeps me busy which can make for a fast paced day. There are the days that drag by but something always comes up to keep things rolling along. I don't miss the days as an operator and can only hope that I will never need to take a position as one again.
So, as I said one year in this position. At my final interview when we went over all the terms and conditions of the position I was told that I was moving into a salaried position. The terms were I would be making the same amount of money but paid twice a month. I would no longer have a paid lunch and would need to work 1/2 hour extra a day. I was also told that if I worked in excess of 40 hours a week I would be compensated by either comp time off or over-time pay. I had accumulated 10 hours of comp time over the past few weeks and took some hours last week. I turned in my slip Thursday. Yesterday my boss tells me that word of the comp time has hit his boss and he needed to tell me that I was in a salaried position therefore do not receive comp time. I jogged his memory back to the final interview which he sat in on and he did seem to recall the conversation. Conversations went back and forth yesterday, but only between him & I and him and his boss (who is the one who set the conditions in the first place). I asked what I'm supposed to do when I'm in excess of 40 hours. I was told that as a salaried person I am expected to sometimes work in excess. Really?? because my salary is based upon a 40 hour week. So does that mean if I work 45 hours one week that the following week I can work 35? No answer.
The next subject that came up was lunch. I seem to be the only salaried person working 1/2 hour more per day for a lunch. I watch other salaried people walk in the door at 7 and are leaving at 3. I see them in the lunch room. Today we have a meeting. One I'm sure I'm not going to enjoy. I asked for the meeting so I know what I'm supposed to be doing. If my salary is based upon a 45 hour week am I wrong to ask to be paid for 45 hours. All they did when the change was made was take my prior years salary and spread it out over 24 pay periods.
I'm finding this all so very unorganized and having the feeling that this did not come about by him getting my comp time slip. I'm pretty certain that one of the cry babies I work with whose salary is based upon 45 hours a week and sits in a bar with this guy has whined.
I'm going into this meeting with a throbbing jaw from a root canal yesterday. I have the "bring it on attitude" going on right now.

The Cracker Girl

On my way home from work yesterday I decided to stop and return some items of clothing that I had purchased at a local Strip Mall Store. I was given an in-store credit for the items. I was able to find a few things but was about $20.00 short of the credit. I had the nagging feeling to spend it but couldn't find any further clothing items I wanted, and I didn't want to carry the credit around with me for another two months. I ventured over to the intimate apparel area and began to browse. It was then that I noticed three AA women enter the store. Hard not to notice as they were a little loud. "Oh, look at those yellow shoes. I need to get those". Not my style, but to each his own.
I was sifting through a pile of underwear which were on sale for 5 for 19.00. This was exactly what I needed to fill the credit. Minding my own business I proceeded to dig around for my size and the colors weren't exactly of my choice but they'd do. I must have been giving off the "help me" vibe because all of a sudden one woman walks over to me and loudly announces "Girl, why you gonna buy those bland ol' panties? Y'all need to look over here at these colorful ones. That's what's wrong with you crackers, y''all don't spice it up enough for your men". I immediately started to laugh. "Cracker???" Seriously??
She went as far as to pick some out for me. Nice purple lacy, cut to high heaven ones. This is not what I was looking for at this store. Then with them hanging from her hand goes over to find a matching bra. She hold up this bra and then looks at my chest and says "Maybe you need to go to a petite section for your bra. I don't think they carry your size here". I nicely told her that those panties were not what I was looking for today. She huffs and tells me she's just trying to help me out , gives me a little pat on the arm and goes back to join her friends.
This ordeal had caught the attention of the cashier who came over very shyly and asked if I was okay. I was still laughing at the "cracker" label I had been given. Should I have been offended? Not to long ago I watched a comedian who had a whole little blurb on a white person being labeled a cracker is equal to an AA being labeled the N word. Something I've never refered to anyone by. I found my new label quite funny.

The Circle

I credit my parents with putting a lot of time and effort into raising their children to work hard, have good morals, stand up for themselves and see the good in people. Of course in my teen years I thought they were a bunch of fuddy duds but eventually what they taught me kicked in.
In fact I can't think of much I would change about the way I was raised. My mom tended to yell a lot but with working full time and raising a bunch of kids I can see why. Dad was the logical "let's talk about this" guy and still is. I've seen him snap a few times but now understand why.
I had friends who's father's were at the local tap every night after work and Mom was expected to hold down the fort and make sure the dinner was warm when he decided to make an appearance. I chuckle when I think of my Mother keeping Dad's dinner warm while he was out tipping a few with his buds. Oh Lord, she would have put us all in the car and went to fetch him right out of there. My Mom had balls.
One of my parents favorite quotes was "YGY" (you'll get yours). Whenever we did something wrong they would curse us. Little did I know that these curses would carry over into my life of raising kids. As my kids grew up I found myself using some of their tatics. I would often try to remember my feelings toward my punishments and what was the most effective. Grounding wasn't always the best thing, plus they'd let me off early because I think I drove them nuts. Writing..that was always the most dreaded. I think I hit the nail on the head when that became my favorite punishment to give out. My son would just cringe. To this day we still hear about the camping trip where he was forced to sit and write 500 sentences. Was it effective? I think so because I don't remember him having to do it after that. Both my kids said we were the rottenest parents in the world for the writing punishment and vowed they would never, ever pass this punishment on to their kids. That is until...the other day when I heard my son tell Dylan that if he kept it up he would be sitting down and writing. My head snapped around so fast and I was able to catch the look on my son's face that said "Don't say anything Mom". But see this didn't just happen once in the past week, it also happened with the twins. I came upon them sitting at my kitchen table writing. It was then that I also noticed the Ipods and phones had been taken away. She must be the rottenest mother in the world.