An Open Letter to a Customer

Dear Sir-or-Madam,

Might I start by saying, I'm a very positive person.  I'm very kind, and as I'm sure many people would tell you, I always seek out the best in people and believe that people are generally kind when given a chance.

But you sir-or-madam, are a douchebag.  (And no, this is not a term I use often or lightly!)

When you failed to leave me a tip last week after pouring you a beer, I chose to overlook it.  Sure I was annoyed, offended, and when I saw you coming to one of my tables tonight, I grimaced; but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt.  Perhaps you'd had a bad day?  Perhaps you are merely showing your age and had moment of forgetfulness last week.

After tonight I am fairly certain that you are just an ass.

After occupying one of my tables with your "buddies" for FOUR hours, during my dinner rush, my ONLY rush, might I add, it was really all I could do not to come back and stuff the $2.50 "tip" you so generously left me, down your shirt. 

Yes, $2.50.

A bit of advice sir-or-madam, should you find yourself in a similar situation in a restaurant with a server not as pleasant as myself, when your bill comes to $47.50, and you hand him or her $50.00 and say "Keep the change," you might want to be prepared for a pitcher of ice dumped on top of your head, or perhaps a fist fight in the parking lot.

I would have liked to take your change back to you, tell you that you obviously need the money more than I do, just to see what you would say, but I'm fairly certain you would have just pocketed it, not getting my point, not learning a lesson.  I would have liked to have explained to you that while yes, I am a waitress in a bar, I am NOT actually desperate for your $2.50.  I'm married.  We have two incomes.  I have a college degree.  I am working on a second college degree.  I am waitressing so I can be home during the day with my amazing son, and because I enjoy it.

Except waiting on you.  I do not enjoy that.

Someday, sir-or-madam, I hope you have that server that dumps a pitcher of ice on your head when you leave a 5% tip on a busy Friday night.  Because despite wanting to do that to you, the next time you come in I will most likely greet you with a smile, bring you your food and drinks and be equally as attentive a server to you as I am to all my other customers.  Why?  Because you don't actually matter to me.  And neither does your $2.50.

Sincerely,

Me

**I actually wrote this a few months ago.  I don't think any of the customers from the bar read my blog, but just in case, I thought I would give it some time for anonymity's sake.**

Catastrophe!

Despite being an overall productive day, yesterday was also one of "those" days where it seemed every time I turned around disaster was striking!

I got up and made a batch of ricotta scones for breakfast.  I was almost out of cinnamon so I ended up making them "chai spiced" with a little ginger, cardamom and vanilla.  They were very yummy.  Unfortunately, I left them on the stove to cool and completely forgot about them until I was about half way through my shower.  Which, coincidentally, was roughly the same time that the dog remembered I made a batch of scones and left them on the stove.  When I finally ran downstairs to check, Max was mid-bite and there was only one left on the pan.  Bummer.

Later in the morning I sat down to work on homework.  I was able to get all of my assignments finished for next week and even wrote my speech due next Saturday.  Success!  Until I walked away from the computer for a minute to fold laundry and the cat took a flying leap onto the computer table knocking my tea all across the laptop keyboard.

I quickly grabbed the laptop and shut it down and dumped all the tea off the keyboard (it's never a fun sight to see water pouring out of your computer).  I dried it with a towel as best I could and then went straight to the bathroom where I gently used my hair dryer to dry the keys.  (FYI: After I did this Don googled what to do when you get water on your laptop...you're not supposed to blow dry it...oops.)  We let it sit overnight to finish air drying and (fortunately) it appears to be working fine today.  The keys are a bit sticky (good thing it was tea not soda!) but it seems to be functioning fine, which is both a blessing and a curse.  It's good that we don't have to shell out money for a new laptop right now...but I HATE this laptop with a passion and would have loved the excuse to buy a new one!

Needless to say, I'm glad today was a bit of an improvement.  No major catastrophes...aside from a two year old that keeps "forgetting" to pee on the potty.  Unfortunately I'm back to work tomorrow, long weekends I guess aren't in the cards for me anytime soon.  Oh well, at least at work I won't have to deal with pee!  Hopefully...

Friday Fun!

Peek-a-Boo!

I took Ben to the Peek-a-Boo Center in Westbrook today.  Which was pretty kind of me since he decided to wake me up at 5:30 this morning because he "took two napses" and was "done napping."  Which makes even less sense at 5:30 in the morning than it does right now, trust me.  I had been planning on taking him all week since the rest of his daycare was going there today for a field trip, so it worked out well.  We got there at 9:30, his friends showed up around 10 and he played with them, with me, and by himself until about 12:30.

If you have little kids and haven't been there, you really should consider checking it out for a few hours.  It's clean, it's big, and there are TONS of toys, none of which resemble a Chuck E Cheese game.

We spent a lot of time at the train table (shocking, right?) but also played a couple games of memory, did a puzzle, painted, drew some pictures and bounced (and bounced, and bounced) on a mini trampoline.

It was fun, it was different, and I got to spend some quality time doing what my kid likes best...playing!

And now I'm looking forward to a weekend at home with the little goober.  Weather looks nice so it looks like we're going to be playing outside!  Nice!  He can help me put up the Christmas lights.  And I'm sure it will go nothing like last year.....

Muffins

I'm tired.  That kind of tired that had me almost asleep on the couch while Ben was still playing.  I'm even questioning whether or not I want to have a piece of cake, or just go crash in bed. 

(Obviously I'm going to eat the cake.  I don't think it's possible to be too tired for cake.)

Since I'm so tired, I'm just going to leave you with a pretty adorable Ben moment:

We picked out mittens to wear to daycare.

"Mom, can you put my muffins on?"

"Your what??"

"My muffins.  Can you put them on my hands?"

He's just about the cutest thing ever.

Ok.  Cake.  Bed.

I Voted!

Well, I voted today.  To do my civic duty I had to get up at 5am to make it to the polls and then work.  Yikes!  But I'm glad I went.  I'm not a political person.  Not at all.  But voting for the president, and other issues that I feel strongly about, will get me out to vote.

Despite not being political, I will say this: I do feel very strongly that Question One should pass.  The last time this was up for vote I was pregnant.  It was a bit of an eye opener for me that the child I was carrying could be born into a society that might deny him rights for being who he is.  With raging Mommy hormones, I voted to keep gay marriage legal.  It was heart breaking when the law was overturned.  As a result, my son WAS born into a society that would deny him rights should he be gay. 

I wasn't very happy about that and am very glad to see it back on the ballot once again.  I voted Yes on One today.  And if it doesn't pass this year, I will go back and vote the next time it is on the ballot, and the next, and the next, until it passes.

Gay or straight, I want my son, my stepsons, my family, my friends and complete strangers to be able to marry whomever they love.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 29th birthday.  The last year of my twenties has begun.  I'm not really upset about turning 30 next year, it just seems a little unreal.  How on earth did I get this old?  I swear High School was just a few years ago.  But then I think about it...and it seems like college was just a few years ago...and wasn't IVF a few years ago....and I'm pretty sure I gave birth a few years ago too.  I guess some time has passed since High School, some very busy time.

It's been a quiet birthday and because of my hard work over the weekend, I don't have any homework to do tonight.  So I think I'm going to curl up with a big ol' piece of homemade applesauce cake (with cream cheese frosting) and the book I'm reading on my Kindle (The Gunseller by Hugh Laurie) and just relax. 

I'm going to enjoy being 29, because once I turn thirty I think I'm going to have start exercising.  And buying wrinkle cream.  And taking more vitamins.

Thank goodness I've got one more year!

A 180

Marcus brought home a progress report this weekend and it was practically jaw dropping.  Is it straight A's.  Nope.  Honor Roll.  Nope.  But he is passing all his classes.  And he's doing really well in almost all of them.

This may not seem like a great achievement.  Lots of kids do pretty well in their classes.  Lots do really well in their classes.  But we're not talking about any kid.  We're talking about Marcus.

Nearly a year ago we were hitting a wall with Marcus.  He had zero interest in school.  None.  His grades were miserable.  His teachers couldn't get him to take things seriously.  He really just didn't care.

Have you ever tried to tell a teenager to take school seriously?  It's a bit like talking to a wall.  A wall that can roll its eyes.

Last winter, when we were at our wits end, we caught Marcus making some very foolish decisions.  As a result, we grounded him.  From everything.  For a long time.  And we lectured him.  About everything.  For a long time.

I don't know if that worked, or if it was something else, but I'm telling you, it's been a complete 180 with this kid.  And it's pretty damn amazing.

By the end of last year he just missed honor roll by one class by a few points.  We were flabbergasted.  He signed up for a college course at York County Community College.  We were speechless.  He found a job and has been actively helping out around the house more and watching his younger siblings more.

I'm not going to say that we're parents of the year or anything, but apparently something finally got through to him, and it's been pretty amazing.

So with a progress report with above average grades, positive teacher comments and even a report from his professor at YCCC of a B average, we couldn't be more proud!

And who wouldn't be happy to overhear this little conversation between two brothers:

"Marcus.  Marcus.  Will you play with me?"

"Sure Bud."

"ALRIGHT!  Let's GO!!"