Happy New Year

I must apologize as it has been quite some time since I have posted to my blog. To all my faithful readers...and I know you are a select few...I am sorry for disappointing you. Much has happened too, but alas, I find it difficult to sit down and put my thoughts together to communicate effectively. That is what a sales postion does to a person...you spend so much time talking and communicating, you don't want to do it in your off time! :)

Cheers to a new year! Of course it is not quite midnight yet here on the West Coast, but I am ready for bed and have little care for ringing in the new year. I suppose it would be fun if I were at some great party, but I find that I can be somewhat of a party pooper and unsociable at times. So here I am during yet another New Year's Eve and spending it in the comfort of my own home, where I don't have to dodge the crazies on the freeways or wonder how I myself am going to get home after a long night of....ahem. Just kidding. I prefer sticking close to home. I think I am getting old.

No resolutions this year. I am continuing the tradition. I don't think I have ever really made a new year's resolution. Why do people have to wait until the new year to resolve something? That's a sure sign of the failure that is to come. I mean, if they couldn't resolve to do it the minute they thought of it, then do they actually think that they will be effective at adhering to their own rules after the new year? I don't think so! And I've said enough about that because Lord knows we have all read way too many editorials about new year's resolutions gone awry, so I will spare you the agony of yet another.

Here's to hoping that you all have a wonderul evening surrounded by friends and family! Here's to a safe holiday! And God bless us...everyone!

The Cowgirl

High School diploma not required

When you're driving long distances, any fast food sounds like good food. Yesterday I was driving home from northern california and about 2pm my stomach did not hesitate to let me know that I had not stopped for a proper lunch 2 hours previous. For some odd reason, and this doesn't happen very often, McDonald's seemed to be the fast food restaurant of choice. I was being lazy and did not want to get out of the car and I wanted a menu that I knew. I wanted chicken mcnuggets. So I got in the long line at the drive through and waited. The guy in front of me ordered "chicken selects." Not knowing what those were, I looked at the large menu screen looming in front of my vehicle and quickly scanned it for "selects" vs. "nuggets." Hmmm...looked like selects were a step up from nuggets in that they were more like "chicken strips" and had what looked like a spicy-seasoned breading on the outside. They looked good. So I decided to order them. Now anyone who knows McDonalds knows that nuggets have always come in the following increments: 6, 9, and 20. These "selects," however, come in 3, 5, and 10. Rather confusing for those of us who have grown up with the traditional nugget ordering system. Nevertheless, I made a quick mental note of it and drove up to the order window. I ordered "6 chicken selects, no fried, and a med drink, light ice." (My mom taught me the "light ice" part because these fast food joints are famous for giving us a little drink with our ice) They gave me the total and I proceeded towards the first window to pay. It sounded as if they had undercharged me, so I clarified my order at the window, only then realizing that I mixed up the increments with my "selects." I could not believe the reaction from the cashier. He acted as if the world had come to a screeching halt! He slammed his fists onto the register drawer in exasperation, and replied with an extremely over-dramatic, "Oh MAN!" Then he turns around and yells to the order taker that "She wants the 5 piece selects now!" This is where I got perturbed. This was the biggest, most blatant display of customer UN-service I had ever seen! He was making it MY FAULT that the order was incorrect. So I proceeded to correct him and yelled out that it wasn't that I wanted them NOW, but that they had not taken the order correctly the first time and clarified what I had wanted. They hadn't repeated my order back to me, nor had it shown up on the screen that they placed by the order window for the very purpose of "order accuracy!" Another waste of corporate dollars. I'm so glad they put the screen there so that I have something to look at while waiting in line at the drive through. I can repeatedly read, "Please read screen to verify order accuracy."

The cashier finally takes my money, but says that they will correct the order and the amount due at the next window. Once there, they girl asks me for $0.55 more and hands me my little bag and drink. I pull into the parking lot and arrange my food so that I can safely eat and drive. I open my little box of selects and am horrified to find....3 CHICKEN SELECTS!!! And very measily ones, at that. It wasn't even enough for a meal! it was like the CRUMB of a meal! That was it. I turned the car around, found the closest parking spot and marched into the McDonald's, incorrect order in hand. They guy at the register listens to my sad story and goes to get me the corrected order, but is stopped midway by the manager who has to put her nose into everything....isn't there anything called "empowerment???" After a brief interchange, she agrees to give me the 5-piece order and I happily walk out with my food. And it was oh, so good! But I couldn't help but to think about those sad people at the McDonald's. Do they not know how to do anything else but punch buttons on a register and spit out rehearsed lines like "do you want fries with that?" And then I couldn't help but to wonder why McDonald's would fill their restaurants with mindless workers, such as these. Then I remembered...they must not pay very much. I could not help but to get angry. Maybe if monster, corporations like McDonalds would pay their employees better, the employees would have a sense of purpose at their job and would desire to raise their standards of work ethic and go beyond the call of duty, even daring to do something without having to check with a manager!

And then I remembered....it is McDonald's.

Long week ahead

Well, its Sunday night and need I say I am not looking forward to tomorrow. I just came back home from northern california and am exhausted! Lots of driving. Then tomorrow, I have to get up at the crack of dawn and head to east county San Diego. What a life I lead. I can't wait til Christmas, although I am completely unprepared for it. I haven't done ANY shopping! It's amazing! Uusally, I am mostly done by now, minus one or two few things, but this year has been the absolute worst. Last year was great. I knew what to get everyone on my list, so I just walked into the stores, grabbed what I needed, and left! This year I don't know what to get anyone, so I actually have to go "shopping..." I do not like shopping. It makes me mad. You have to fight crowds of nasty people who are supposed to be in the holiday spirit, and then you wander around in so many stores and practically faint at the prices of things that you KNOW are way cheap, and you wish you could just buy everything at the after Christmas sales, but that means you would have to battle even bigger crowds that are now even more vicious because they don't have to fake being nice for Christmas because it is...after Christmas!

So I am not looking forward to shopping. Besides that, I think I am getting sick. Not a good time to be sick. Lots of work to do and places to be, etc. I guess its time to turn in and go to bed...maybe I'll feel better in the morning.

Rain, rain...

It is raining. I love the rain. It makes me want to curl up in a ball in my big bed and lie there listening to it under the warm sheets. But then reality strikes and I have to get up and go to work, which consists of a lot of driving. I used to like driving. I don't like the traffic. It makes me mad. But I love the rain....for a short time.

The Greatest Blogger Bloopers

Well, folks, my sister has done it. I didn't think it was possible, but for her, it is. She has been able to stuff her entire foot, ankle and all, into her mouth and down her throat. Amazing. How did she do this, you ask? I will tell you.

Earlier today, I couldn't help but to think that she was, perhaps, the greatest blogger ever! Not that I have read a whole lot of other blogs, but she is really good. If you haven't yet read any of her posts, please feel free to visit her site at www.grackyfroggink.com/froggfiles Earlier today, I found myself doubled over in laughter at her story of getting a job at the Apple Store. I thought that had to be one of her best....and it was...in more than one way!

I, of course, put in my two cents worth comment at the end...but it gets even better. She blogged about her ex-boyfriend, only to find out later, through one of the comments, that her ex-boyfriend READ her blog! How embarrassing! But how beautifully funny! I think it is all rather brilliant, really. I am so happy that someone else in this world likes the taste of their distal limbs.

So I have learned a thing or two about blogging since then....don't write about ex-boyfriends, don't write about current boyfriends, don't write about people you know, don't write about people you don't know.

I think I will stick to writing about Budweiser Clydesdales. I might actually be safe.

Scary Made-up Stories

So some have been bugging me to update my blog, cuz it has been a while. Unfortunately, I am so burned out from a long week at work (its only Thursday!) that my brain is a bit fried to think of stuff to write about. My sister tells me to just make it up. The last time I can remember making something up, it turned out rather scary.

I worked at a summer camp for inner-city children for 2 summers between my first couple years in college. What a great experience! Of course, with any camp, there are all the scary stories to tell around the campfire. This camp, being as it has been around since 1940 or so, had a lot of stories that had carried over from year to year. I was no good at telling them. At least that's what I thought...until one night...

I was in charge of the horse program at camp. During the summer we had six 12-day sessions of kids. Every session, we took a select group of kids out for one overnight campout with the horses. We would ride about 45 minutes outside of the main campgrounds to a small clearing that was called Lost Village. It was a pretty neat spot. The main area was this big flat space with a spot for a campfire and more than enough space for the kids to spread out their sleeping bags and sleep out under the stars. There was a separate clearing where we would tie up all the horses and a nearby spring where we could water them. The camp staff would drive all the food and the kids' sleeping bags up earlier in the day and everything would be waiting for us to set up for a fun night under the stars.

We would start the evening out with an easy hike up to a spot where you could look straight out to the ocean and we would watch the sun set over Ft. Bragg, located on the north coast of California. What a view. Then we would head back down for hot dogs, and later, s'mores. One particular night, over some especially good s'mores, all the kids begged for a scary story. I didn't really like the common stories that are told frequently around the place: Bat Boy, The Ridge Runner, and numerous others, so I decided to make-up my own. I decided to make up a story about how this particular area came to be known as Lost Village.

Mind you, I cannot remember much of anything of that story as it has been about 6 years since I made it up. But what I do remember is that I don't think those kids, nor myself, were ever as scared as that night. It wasn't long before I noticed that they were no longer sitting on the opposite side of the campfire, but rather they were crowding in close around me and my other staff member friend, Liz. But by then it was too late, I was too far into the story to quit. So I kept it going and the kids eyes got wider and wider....then all of a sudden...SNAP! Something behind me made a loud sound and I jumped off the ice chest that served as my bench, and kids jumped to my side, clinging to me fiercely. I turned around and looked and didn't see anything. Much relieved, I sat down again and the kids relaxed. Then an eery quiet settled over the place. I believe my story was done at this point and the kids were about to get ready for bed and clean up the campsite. I sensed something behind me and as I slowly turned, a figure appeared out of the shadows walking towards me. I screamed louder than I ever have before and kids scattered everywhere...I couldn't stop screaming, even AFTER I recognized the figure as being one of the staff members from camp who had snuck up to our campout to scare us all. Well he did a darn good job of it...I was screaming like a mad woman and wouldn't shut up. He had to grab me and shake me out of it.

Looking back, it was pretty darn funny. I guess I succeeded at my mission to tell a scary story. But I don't think the storyteller is supposed to scare themselves. No more making stuff up for me!

Until next time...