a birthday buffet

my mom's birthday is today.
we took her out for an awesome
brunch buffet yesterday
and gave her a 75.00 gift certificate
to our local amazing gardening supplies
and nursery...along with a catalogue
so she can browse and plan...

the card:


the temporary gift certificate (until the mail brings the real one):

the final package presentation:

and again,
my usual apologies about dark pictures...
they can be clicked on and seen a little better.

poetry thursday, the essay.

Why I love poetry...in 153 words or less
by [a geeky girl]

i'm wordy,
whirly,
giggly and girly...
lost in awe,
in space
and in time...
you take me away
with your rhythms and rhyme.

you beat
and i follow.

you are subtle and soft,
you are just out of my reach...
you are wily and sly,
impossible to teach
myself to just let go,
to follow your flow,
to allow myself to feel
without always having to know

(what you mean)

and then there you are
again in my ear
crude and obnoxious
spouting things i don't want to hear
and yet, i can't force myself to look away
because you have caught me
in your rhythm, you have caught me
in your sway.

and so
in one hundred and
twenty two words,
i stay.

the strangest job i have ever had.

when i finished my first year university
at the age of 23,
i had already worked in retail for about 4 years.

during the summer break,
i wanted to try something other than retail.

there was a job advertised at mcdonald's
for hostess manager...
in charge of birthday parties.

so i thought,
hey...i could do that.

i got the job and found out i was replacing
a woman who was on maternity leave,
a woman who had been employed there
for many years and had been hostess manager
for quite awhile.

however, on hiring me, i was told that
"management" wanted to change the duties
of the hostess manager a bit...

i was given a different uniform than anyone else.
i was 100% flammable in a 100% polyester stewardess outfit.
i was told that unlike all other staff (including all management)
i was not going to be trained on any of the kitchen areas
nor was i allowed to touch them.
i could operate the cash, but only to ring in my birthday parties.
i could wipe tables, but i could not change the garbage, mop
the floor or sweep.
i was to check to see if the bathroom needed to be cleaned,
but i was not to clean it.

my main job was to schedule birthday parties and
then hold them in the "caboose" just outside
the restaurant.

when not doing a party,
my main job (and i kid you not about this)
was to go around and ask customers
if they would like more ketchup?
or a free pop refill? or some ketchup?
heh.

oh. and if anyone had been waiting for their food
for a long time, and were left forgotten
sitting at a seat steaming...or in their car, cursing...
i got to take their food to them...
and smooth things over with some free coupons...
and some ketchup...and maybe a free refill of pop?

so...perhaps this is why
one day the owner's wife came in for a big family
breakfast and decided that my skirt
should be shorter.
i was sent to the seamstress employed by
the owner at the laundromat he owned
to get her to hem my skirt...
i said i would like it shortened this much,
they said no...we were told this much.

hmmmmm.
whatever.

so the next sunday comes with the big family
breakfast again...and the owner's wife shows
up on monday to take me shopping for a new
uniform...she decided she didn't like the
shortened
stewardess uniform.

so, she took me downtown and i tried on
sundresses and shorts and she spent
about 350 on my new uniform,
which consisted of a Mexx sundress,
shorts, and two shirts.

so.
you can imagine how well liked i was
at this point...new girl, looking like
she was the same age as the 16 year olds
working there but was actually much older,
not allowed to touch the fryer even if
she was practically right on top of it
while it beeped incessantly...not allowed
to touch the garbages...wearing sundresses
and passing out ketchup.

eventually, though, they warmed up to me.

so.
the elephant.
one day, the circus came to town.
my job was to be in the parking lot
while we had some circus people there
with two elephants that the kids could feed.
as i held bananas out for the elephants
to take, one of the men said "don't be scared
of them, you're going to be riding one later"

yeah. ok. whatever.

or so i thought.

sure enough, i was hoisted onto the back
of the elephant who had no, um, saddle?
just me, sitting up there on the elephant's neck
swaying with each lumbering step,
the only thing holding me on was the coarse
elephant hairs digging painfully into my bare legs
as i went through the drive-thru and ordered
a strawberry milkshake.

by far, the strangest job i ever had.

and i didn't even touch on the spitting kid story.

getting to know you (part two) (for me)


i'm late, i'm late for a very important date....

1. What's the best place you ever lived? the worst?

the best place i have ever lived
is the house i live in
right now
because it is ours.

my parent's house is not included in this
for me because it would be too hard
for me to choose between
this home
and that one.

the worst place i ever lived was
an apartment behind a convenience store
in which the heat was constantly kept too high,
the walls were too thin for privacy,
tempers flared,
and a gun was kept in the storage closet.

2. What's the best place you ever visited on holiday/vacation? the worst?

i am going to have to say a three girl road trip to south carolina
in a little blue izuzu truck immediately following a horrible break-up
was my best vacation.

my worst...none really,
i don't travel much
and every place i have gone has
more good memories than bad
even the camping trip when i
forgot the tent.

3. What's the best job you ever had? the worst?

i have had so many jobs that i have loved...
manager of a record store (earning me the name "radioland girl"
at all the bars), manager of a bookstore in which you could
sign out books to read, assistant photographer at a photo studio

worst? well...the hell job at mcdonalds in which i was "hostess
manager" and had to ride an elephant through the drive through
(i am so going to tell this story someday)(this job also earned
me the name "mcdonald's girl" at all the bars which i did not
like so much as "radioland girl")
the assistant photographer had some rough stressful moments.

4. What's your best talent or ability? your worst?

i think i am generally open minded with a good sense of humor
and i live more on the optimistic side rather than pessimistic.
i have alot of ideas.

my worst....i suck at follow through.

5. What's the best decision you ever made? the worst?

to wait for my husband...to beleive in him and what he
was telling me...things were rough for awhile when we first
met and there was a period of time while i was pregnant
that he was gone (he had no choice in this) and i waited for
him even though so many people were skeptical...and now,
it's been 12 years that we have been together and no one
could imagine it any other way.

the worst....to take the early childhood education course
instead of the higher paying dental assistant....(i'm sort
of kidding)(but not really)

Bonus (so we can end on a positive note!): What's one good thing about you that isn't covered in the questions above, but that you'd like to share with the world?

i love cartoons.