The questions remains....

How did the inital meeting go between Nadine and me?

Was it awkward?

Are we having fun together?

You tell me:

I am like a little kid!!!!!

I'm downright giddy!!!!

I have a wonderful friend that I met online years ago when we were both pregnant. Her son is a week younger than Zack. We've gotten to be extremely close and I consider her to be one of my best friends. I have told her things that I wouldn't dare tell my other friends and she's always been there for me. She means the world to me.

She's had struggles with money over the years, but she's always worked her ass off and tried her best. I love that about her. She's determined, smart, and never gives up. I think she's a lot stronger person than I am.

So anyways, let me quit gushing and get to the point. Coldplay. It all comes back to Coldplay.

She loves them. I love them. She lives in Idaho. Who the fuck lives in Idaho, right? Well, she does. Coldplay never goes there. Because who the fuck lives in Idaho, right?

She has remotely been to all three shows with me. The first two, I called her several times during the concert to let her listen in. The most recent one, I recorded In My Place (her favorite song) on my camera and showed her the video.

After the last concert, we made a pact that she would go and see Coldplay with me the next time they came around.

We had no idea they would come back on Halloween :) So, Nadine decides that she's going to come out, no matter what. And as we all know, life happens. She's planning on when she can get the cash together to buy her plane ticket and I go ahead and buy the concert tickets.

Several weeks go by and things just aren't coming together for her plane ticket. I'm thinking to myself that if we don't get that ticket bought, something else is going to go wrong and she's never going to make it out. Around that time, David got a bonus at work - convenient, no?

I offer to buy Nadine the ticket out here. She says she will pay me back. I know she will, but she really doesn't have to. I want to do this. It benefits me just as much as her ;)

So she lets me buy the ticket.

This was 6 weeks ago.

We have been counting down the weeks, and now the days.

SHE WILL BE HERE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have 2 full days of jam-packed activities and she flies back on Saturday morning.

Check this out, it's going to be awesome:

I'm working open to close on Wednesday and then I will head to the airport to pick her up. Dave and I both took off on Thursday, so we can all hang out. I'm not sure what we will do during the day, perhaps a movie? Anyways...come 5pm...

Nadine and I will be dining at The Pot, complete with a lot of wine. Dave's already said he will drop us off and pick us back up (we live all of one mile away from the restaurant). Nadine's wanted to eat at The Melting Pot forever, but has never gotten a chance. I get to eat for free, so HELLS YEAH we're going!!!!! Great bonding time :)

Friday morning, she's coming to work with me because I have to open, so I can have off in the evening. It's going to be so much friggin' fun. She'll help me with prep, we'll dance around the kitchen, everyone will think we're insane and I don't care.

Come 5 or 6pm, I should be able to leave work. We'll do one of two things: Go back to the house and chill with the kids for a bit, or head right down to DC for the concert. If we get down there before 7:30ish, we'll have dinner. If not, we'll just hit the show.

Neither one of us cares about the opening act. The show starts at 7:30, so as long as we're in the venue by 8:30, we'll be golden.

COLDPLAY LIVE WITH NADINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I might pee my pants.

Oh and get this - after? We have to go back to the restaurant and do inventory because it's the last day of the month. I'm wondering how accurate it will be when I start drinking again once we are there hahahaha.

Only time will tell.

Wow, 72 hours and she'll be here. This is going to be SO cool....

Found another..

see below :)

Singin'

Dave and I were giggling the other day about how Chris Martin likes to say the word "singin'" in his songs. As in an introduction to a chorus. Let's take Clocks for example.

He says:

"Singin - you are...you are..."

You know, the chorus part? Don't get what I'm saying? How about Trouble?

"Singin' - I never meant to cause you trouble, I never meant to do you wrong"

So, we're in the car the other day and Everything's Not Lost comes on. We're talking, then Dave starts cracking up.

I realized that I just sang along and sang:

"Singin' oh oh oh yeah, come on yeah" etc etc. But yeah, he said singin' again. I died laughing.

Well, today, I'm driving around and I almost crashed into a car in the parking lot, because I'm listening to In My Place (quite possibly my favorite Coldplay song evah) and I sing along to:

"Singin' please, please come on and sing to me"

BAH HAHAHAHAHAHA

That's four.

**edited on Saturday the 25th**

Cemeteries of London on the new album.

"singin la la la la la la hey" This is awesome.

My weird self

I'm driving around this morning, running errands and such, and I wondered something.

Is there a person that drives around and looks for traffic lights that have a light out? I mean, we all have to change light bulbs around the house and all and we KNOW that traffic light lights go out from time to time. So, I'm just wondering - is it someone's JOB to go around and find lights that are out?

If not, who reports it and how? I don't think there's a "Traffic light replacement" company listed in the yellow pages. I really, REALLY want to know the process for this. Oh, and I don't mean that the whole intersection or light is out, I mean a light bulb in it - so the red, yellow, or green is not showing up.

Man, I'm a freak.

Now I Feel Like it's "Safe"

Or rather that I'm not jinxing it anymore.

This is a new parenting forum that my friends created. I'm admin there and we're hoping to turn it into the community that the other place we left could never be.

So please, come and join us. You don't have to have been a member of the other place, we don't care if you are or if you aren't. You can belong to as many online communities as you like - we won't ban you for it :)

www.themamasonline.com

I can't make the link clickable - I think blogger's having some issues right now.

Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Program

I honestly don't have anything stellar or super-exciting to talk about, but I feel like I've neglected my blog. I'm getting used to my new work schedule and, honestly, I'm feeling kind of guilty about it. I mean, I get three nights off in a row (two of those are full days off) every week. I don't have to work on Saturdays. I got a really good raise (which showed up in my check today). I have to remind myself that, honestly, I'm really worth it. I work hard and now that I have an easier schedule, I'm going in a lot more during my time off to get little things done and I know they appreciate that.

Speaking of work. Well, let's talk about this insane situation that happened on Sunday, because I'm still in shock about it and grossed out. There's this one girl taht works there (I will call her a girl because she's 22 and I'm not), who is kind of the restaurant 'pet'. She has it in good with the owners, babysits for them, etc. She has a lost of responsibility as a host, but she only works one day a week. It's kind of annoying because she has a huge ego at work and she really shouldn't. I still have to monitor her when she's running the books to make sure she doesn't mess up and she honestly shouldn't, with as long as she's been doing it.

ANYWAY - last Sunday, she and a server did this outreach thing where they were dipping strawberries in chocolate and giving them out to people at this event-thing (yeah, I know what I'm talking about lol). She and said server showed up around 8pm at the restaurant totally tanked. Now, there are always wine vendors at these things and we are allowed to drink, to a degree, at these events. Not to get completely wasted.

I'll spare all the details of how I spoke to the owner, who then talked to this girl, who then spoke to me again in shock about how drunk she was. Duh, I told you that. So, a little while passes and my closing server coming into the office, very serious, and says "you need to go into the men's room right now". I'm thinking, awesome, there's shit all over the floor (literally). "Why, do I have to go in there?"

Let me quote this one exactly. He says:

"Because your host is fucking some guy on the counter in the men's room."

Are you fucking kidding me with this shit? I go into the men's room and said girl and guy (who, by the way, she picked up at the outreach and had never met before - awesome) are standing up, making out, by the counter. Without hesitation, I said "You need to get out of my restaurant and you need to get out of here NOW."

She giggled and was all "oh, honey, we should leave" - yeah, "HONEY" get the fuck out. We were STILL OPEN AND HAD GUESTS IN THE RESTAURANT!!!!!!!!!!! She (and we, honestly) is lucky that it was a server that walked in on them and not a guest. Ugh, the idea of that happening makes me have a panic attack.

How this girl still has a job, I have no idea. I wanted to fire her, but the owners just suspended her a for a week. If I were her, I wouldn't even show my face at work again - I'd be WAY too embarrassed. Seriously - I couldn't go back. I hope she doesn't, honestly.

I'm going to be sure to let her know that thanks to her antics, I lost one of my days off this week and will be working 4 nights in a row. Since we don't have a host that can run the books on a Saturday (the other one took the weekend off), I need to go in and do that. I honestly, seriously, don't mind - I even volunteered to do it AND I'm looking forward to it, but she doesn't need to know that. She needs to see that her behavior affects more than just her and her stupid world.

People shock me on a daily basis with their stupidity.

A Quandry...

I had never thought about this before, but one of my servers several weeks ago stated this and I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

Why is that gay men and women go together like chocolate and peanut butter, but you never see lesbians hanging out with straight men? Stop and think about it. Do you know any lesbians who have close male friends that aren't gay?

I lunch with my new friend, Will, this afternoon and I was reminded of that, being that Will is gay.

Weird.

Pointless to think about, but hey, I'm off today, so I don't have to use my brain for important things.

Here I Sit...

I'm back to being alone.

Dave left on Saturday to visit his mom for a week. Because of babysitter issues and switching schedules, I'm actually off 4 days this week. Today, tomorrow, Thursday, and Saturday. I don't know what to do with all this extra time!!! I am chaperoning a field trip on Thursday, so that should be fun.

I'm going to make some lunch dates and some tv dates with some girlfriends (and a gay male friend, but he counts as a girlfriend, right?). I've been going into work a lot to deal with computer upgrades and inventory upgrades, but I'm trying not to do that when the kids are home, too much. I'll head back in tomorrow during the day to help out some more. Female boss is encouraging me to stay away on my days off and relax, but she doesn't undertand that I really don't mind coming in during the day - I can wear jeans, I can leave whenever I want. Plus, it's not like these changes happen often - this is the first time in 4 years and they are huge changes, so I have to know what's going on.

I miss David - probably too much. I feel so co-dependant and I HATE that. It was the worst yesterday, but I'm feeling better about it today. I have something planned each day to keep me busy until he gets back, whether it's work or social, so that helps. Found out today that Cassie's coming home on Friday for the weekend, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I'm going to see Karen tomorrow and I'll talk to her about my co-dependant, freak out nature. Hopefully she will make me feel better. She usually does.

Ex-manager was arrested yesterday. I'm glad to hear it, only because she needs to pay for what she did and realize she can't just kiss up to female boss and have everything be ok. She's delusional and hopefully, this will knock her back down to earth.

Not much else to say...just wanted to update.

Finally, some good change

We had the sit down today at work. The new schedule sit down. In the past, the new schedule sit down has not always boded well for fair Catherine. I've had a hard schedule this past year or so, but hey, them's the breaks right?

First things first, I got a raise. With the promise of another at the end of the year if things are going well. Great - that shows up on the next paycheck.

I now have an AMAZING schedule. Female boss noted that I have been putting out a lot of extra effort and time, hence the raise, but also that's a contributing factor to my new schedule. For the first time in almost 2 years, I will have two days off in a row every week. Mondays and Tuesdays. I'll also be off on Saturdays. Instead of opening on Fridays, I will be closing, which is a LOT easier. I have another opening shift during the week. This means instead of being GONE 4 nights out of the week, I'm HOME 4 nights out of the week. I have many of my days free, which also bodes well for the restaurant because I don't mind coming in during the day to do extra work - I can wear jeans, I can stay as long as I want (or as little as I want). It will work well for everyone.

I'm thrilled. The only down side is that I have to miss a baby shower that I've been planning for a friend. It sucks, but there's just no way around it at this point. Maybe something will change by the end of the month, but I don't know. I feel really bad about that.

Tomorrow is my last open to volume Friday shift. Saturday is my last Saturday close. Boy oh boy - this is awesome. We're definitely gonna go out tonight and celebrate!!

Things That Should Be Illegal

Or at least punishable by a flogging:

1. Phone calls before 8am that aren't "oh my god, there's blood everywhere" or "the house is on fire" in nature.

2. The way the toilet is linked to the shower. Why can't they make it so you flush and it doesn't affect the water temperature? You'd think in this day and age, they could.

3. Sizes differences in clothing. A 10 should be a 10, no matter the designer. I think it's seriously f'd up that I'm a 14 in some brands and a friggin' 18 in others. That's really disheartening. On the other hand, it's cool when I fit in a size way smaller than I thought, so maybe I take this one back.

4. Pets wearing clothes. End of story.

5. Morons. Seriously. I don't mean people who aren't book smart, or what have you. I mean morons. They invade my life daily.

6. Campaigning more than 1 year before the election. Has this, or has this not, been THE longest election ever?? Can you believe there were debates and such last year? I want this over with, now!!!

7. People that everyone and their mother know are gay, who come out with this huge proclimation, like it's a shock or a surprise. Let's talk Clay Aiken, Ellen DeGeneres (whom I love, don't get me wrong), Lance Bass, etc. Like my friend from high school, Robbie - everyone knew you were gay - you're not shocking or surprising anyone. As the Kids in the Hall put it "you're gay. Homosexual. Your wife knows it, I know, DOGS know it, the only person that doesn't seem to know it is you."

I'm sure I'll come up with some more to add to this list soon.

For CA Liz :)

I have my final picture of the tattoo. I wanted to wait until it was totally healed and the infection commpletely gone.

It's gorgeous. I love it. It was all worth it:



Yes, Liz, that's a 49ers blanket - WOOT!!!!

The Times, They Are A'Changin'

Something weird's been going on at work these last few days.

Started with a vague phone call on Wed morning from female boss. "Do you know any servers who ate at Towson this week? Anyone talk about it?" Nope, I know nothing. I figure someone went up there and acted like an idiot and the manager called her.

Wed night, she's there all night. She's never there all night when another manager is working. She's been crying, it's quite obvious.

She asks me weird questions. When was Candace's last day? What were the manager's schedules before that? After that?

I flat out asked if I did something wrong and what was going on? "No, you didn't do anything, I just needed the info, no worries."

Yeah, sure, no worries.

I get a call on Thursday telling me there's a meeting for the new accounting software on Friday afternoon at 3pm and that other manager will be coming in early for it. Um, ok, why even tell me that? I open on Fridays, I'll be there at 3pm, but that's fine, whatever.

Friday and both bosses (male and female) are there all day. Secret whispering and meetings. I asked male boss to tell me WTF is going on - something is up, I know something is up, and would they please tell me? It's nothing, he says, something with the other business they are selling fell through and female boss is really upset. I walk up front at one point and there's a guy in a suit there. Ok, I figure it's about their other business they are selling.

3:00 hits, other manager comes in. Male boss hands me the phone and says "the phones are ringing way too much, why don't you answer them, we'll go over the stuff with her, and then we'll go over the stuff with you after while she answers the phones." Ok, I think, fine by me.

They go off into their meeting - other manager's 18 month old is there, messing around and then suddenly, he's in her arms and she's storming into the office, grabbing her stuff and leaving. Tears in her eyes. Something is going on.

Male boss comes into the office "give me the phone and go back in the 30's". Oh shit. I go back there. There is female boss, crying. There is scary guy in suit.

"Cathy, this is Tim, my lawyer."

"Ok, what is going on?" I'm seriously thinking at this point that I'm getting fired. They are just getting rid of everyone and starting fresh. Female boss says:

"You know I've been upset this week. First thing I want to say to you is thank you for your integtrity, honesty, and worth ethic. It is obvious that you care about this place. I want you to know that every single one of your shifts is clean and your numbers match up."

Um...ok? You're welcome? WTF?

Then she gets to the nitty gritty. Apparently, other manager has stolen tens of thousands of dollars in gift cards over the last year. So that's what she meant by my shifts being clean - no errors on those nights, it was obviously her.

Wow.

Just wow.

She's fired, obviously. They are pressing charges, obviously. Who the fuck does something like that? If you only knew how much these people did for her - and this is how she repays them? It's disgusting and I'm glad she's gone.

I'm the only manager left.

The only hellish thing I can think of is the week that female boss is out of town, so it's just male boss and I and he has no sitter. Can we say closing 5 nights in a row? Ugh. I'm sure we'll talk about it today when I go in.

Oh, and I'm totally going to get another raise.