Grocery Store Rage

You've heard of road rage? Well, I'm here to tell you about its lesser known cousin, grocery store rage.

As my friends and family know, I only tried to evacuate for Hurricane Rita. After 14 hours and only 50 miles away from home, I decided to take my chances at home. As my friends and family also know, I weathered the storm remarkably well. I have a lot of downed limbs and one huge limb dangling from a tree but considering the damage other people have, that is nothing!

But, in preparation for Rita, people emptied the grocery stores, stocking up on supplies. I made no such trek because, after all, I was leaving town. So when I was forced back, I had nothing in my house.

I made do with bread, peanut butter and water for a couple of days. I even broke down and cooked one day (because I was one of the few people in the area with electricity...did I mention I was lucky in the way of damage from Rita?).

I should mention here that I drink Diet Coke. I used to limit it to one a day until I was placed in my current job assignment. Someone attributed it to the added stress I'm under in this assignment that I drink two a day now. During the storm I had none. I had one regular Coke on Friday because I stayed with a friend. But nothing on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Monday I had gone in search of ANYTHING carbonated.

It was the first day anything was open for business and Walmart had a line down the side of the building waiting to get in. I decided to pass.

You couldn't find a parking spot at Krogers to save your life. I moved on.

I decided to drive thru Wendys...the line was out into the street. I didn't care. I wanted a Coke. I waited in line for 20 minutes to see a sign posted "Sorry, No Cokes. We have water, tea and frostys."

I wanted to cry.

Since I needed dog food, I went to Walmart after work on Tuesday. The shelves were still pretty empty but they did have carbonated drinks on the shelves. When I got to that aisle I was behind a lady who was stocking up. Her cart was full of Cokes, Root Beer, Sprite, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper and the like.

I waited patiently behind her for one Diet Coke...that's all I needed. She started to move on and then stopped. She squatted down and pulled out ALL the Diet Cokes and loaded them into her basket and then moved on.

That day was the one and only day of my life that I had to seriously fight the urge to reach in someone's grocery basket, grab out an item, SLAP THEM SILLY with said item, put item in MY basket and move on. That's what I wanted to do but I refrained.

Who said I don't have willpower?

Leaving Home

I'm about ready to load up my car for the long drive to Arkansas.

I found the deed to my house, the flood insurance policy and one out of two photo albums. While I was looking for something else, I found the papers related to a small claims suit I have pending. I packed those along with everything else.

I have my jewelry, my mother's coin collection, almost all of my clothes - clean and dirty. Toiletries, dog accessories - food, medicine, bowls, toys, etc.

Cameras, books (I have a ton I haven't read and I packed the ones I was most likely to want to read - 3/4 of a ton), DVDs, CDs and a few video tapes.

I took out the trash (in a bag rather than the cans because I won't be here to bring in the cans), I brought in everything from the yard that I could.

I know I'm forgetting something.

I have a chest that my father had brought back from Korea for my mother. I don't think I will have room for it in my car. Perhaps I can put some of the smaller boxes in it so that not as much space will be taken up. I thought about moving it into a closet or bathroom so that it will be out of the line of flying glass but that will be pointless if my house floods. I think I'll give taking it a try.

I'm so tired and I need to leave early.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day.

Shall we Dance?

I'm watching Dancing with the Stars tonight and it brought back memories for me.

You see, a few years ago I signed my nephew and myself up to take two dancing classes...country and western and swing dancing. I had taken some country and western classes a few years before that and David (my nephew) had gotten some instruction in C&W in school. He was 16, almost 17, and not too keen on being seen dancing with his aunt. He loved me, and I knew that, but with teenagers there is that fine line.

Somehow I was able to persuade him to join me.

The first class I told him what time I would be picking him up - I was coming straight from work. I got to his house and he wasn't ready. I was pissed.

He got ready quickly (he knew I was pissed) and we drove through Jack in the Box, scarfed it down in the car as we raced to my house so I could let my dog out and change clothes before we had to race to make it to the class.

We get to class - swing dancing was first. David notes the pretty young girls (18 and 19). Already his enthusiasm for the class was improving.

Then the instructor showed us our first learned steps. David looked up at me and said with a lot of enthusiasm "I'm going to like this class!"

With every dance class I have taken, there has never been a balance of men and women. There is always more of one gender than the other. For this reason, and so you can learn to dance with different partners, you switch partners often. Also, if you're the gender that has fewer students, you have to dance alone some.

Okay, so David liked the way the class was going the first night. I know he liked dancing with me but he was loving getting to dance with these young women.

On the second night of class, David was ready when I arrived to pick him up. Again we drove through Jack in the Box, raced to my house to tend to my dog and change clothes.

By the third class, David was waiting outside for me when I pulled up in the driveway. We drove through Jack in the Box, raced to my house and HE let my dog out while I changed clothes, to save time.

There was one night when I was running late that my nephew with the bottomless pit for a stomach said we didn’t have time to drive through Jack in the Box because he couldn’t be late. THAT was a deal breaker for him.

We compromised. We stopped at a Jack in the Box that was closer to the dance class and scarfed our dinner like we’d never scarfed before.

I really enjoyed dancing with David. He was a strong lead and he was a favorite among the ladies, young and old. He had a natural talent for dance - even the instructor said so.

We only had two deals. One was he had to start with me. He could move on afterwards but he had to start the night dancing with me.

The other was when the Las Vegas song came on, he had to dance it with me - period.

We both looked forward to our Friday night dancing - him so much so that he offered to pay for the second session of classes we took. I didn’t take him up on it but it told me how serious he was about it. We had a good time.

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been dancing since we stopped taking classes some five years ago. I miss it.

And watching the movie Shall We Dance and watching Dancing with the Stars has made me want to dig out and dust off my dancing shoes.

May I have this dance?

Easy Sale

I was doing my daily morning internet surfing and decided to check out what is going on with Larissa's ebay auction. I have my eye on Jennifer O'Connell's critique. I don't have anything written but if I did, I like the way she writes and would love to have her critique it. In the description was a link to her webpage, so I went. I checked out her weblog and she blogged about Natalie R. Collins' Wives and Sisters. It didn't read like a recommendation or a "don't read this", it was more of a "there's a book out there" sort of thing. I took it as a recommendation though because why else would she blog about it?

So then I go back to ebay and check out Julie Kenner's critique. I've never read her so I can't say if I could appreciate her critique (it's already out of my price range though so the point is moot) but I know a lot of people enjoy her work and her stories sound fun. She also had a link to her webpage. I checked out HER blog and she also is blogging about Natalie's book.

Sensing a pattern, it was at this point that I checked out Natalie's home page. I went looking for a blurb or something on the story. All I could find was the first chapter (http://www.nataliercollins.com/books/wives-and-sisters-ch.php).

It hooked me. I want to read it.

THEN I went to HER blog. In her blog is a link to someone else's blog wherein she tells the backstory to how she came up with the story idea for Wives and Sisters. (http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/backstory/2005/09/natalie_r_colli.html).

Next thing I know, I'm on Amazon.com, ordering her book. It should be good.

Playing Hooky

I got an email a week or so ago from a friend who was coordinating a "girls matinee out". We've done this a couple of times before and I really enjoy it. I get to go play with people I don't normally get to see because our lives are so different. This group of women are all writers, most of which are full time writers. I envy them that, but I digress.

The movie we were to see was The Constant Gardner. I'd never heard about it. Didn't know anything about it - nothing.

Once the "guest list" was determined, a date and time was scheduled. The 12:45 showing on September 15 was decided on. Since both of my attorneys were in Paris (we won't get into how I feel about them going without me!) on business, it seemed the perfect opportunity to play hooky from work. I accepted.

Again, not knowing anything about the movie, I was going for the company. I had no expectations of the movie.

It was good. Very good.

A political statement was made in the movie. Some may be offended by that statement but it made me stop and think. As Americans, we often forget how good we have it. We take things for granted. We don't appreciate what we have.

But the movie had another element as well. It had a compelling love story. Justin's journey to discover the truth about Tessa's death revealed more than her political activites - it revealed how much they truly loved each other.

It was a great story, it was well told and, I'm told, it stayed true to the book it was based on.

Personally, I'm a comedy movie sort of person. Had I not been invited to join my friends, I probably wouldn't have seen this movie - it wasn't on my radar.

It was a good movie, and I'm glad I got to see it, with friends.

Now I just have to put my hands on a copy of the book!

Alphabet Soup

I recently became a part of a group labeled "The Alphabet Girls". ( http://thealphabetgirls.blogspot.com/) We get together a couple of times a week to help plot out each other's manuscripts. The first time we meet, we throw ideas at the hapless soul whose turn it happens to be that week. The second time we meet, a few days later, is to see what ideas they decided to keep, or if necessary, throw more ideas at them.

Somewhere in between they have to sit and write for 25 minutes, without interruption, and then send the new work to each of the other members before the next gathering.

Tomorrow is Sam's turn. I'm looking forward to her discussion. She sent us an outline of her first five chapters and it sounds like a good story. I couldn't wait though, I emailed her and gave her my thoughts immediately. Her story spoke to me. I could see it playing out in my head. My email resulted in an updated email to the group. I can hardly wait for tomorrow.

As for me, I've avoided the hot seat so far. It's a goal of mine, to see how long I can go without feeling the pressure of the bright lights and torture. It's working so far...I'm going to try to hold out until the turn of the century. ;o)

Competition

Like most people, I guess I have a competitive side but it doesn't rule to the point that I can't be happy for other people winning or having things. Yes, I like to win but most of my competitions these days is with myself. Did I do my best? Was there something I missed that would have made it better? That sort of thing.

I don't have to be the best, I just have to give my best because frankly, that's all I can do.

Unfortunately, lately in both my personal and professional worlds I'm having to deal with people that it's not good enough for them to be good, you have to look bad. And they're willing to do whatever it takes to have that combo happening.

I don't take criticisms badly. Even if I don't agree with someone, I take into consideration their comments because even if they're off base with their thoughts/feelings, I need to respect that and I try to make adjustments in my behavior accordingly where that individual is concerned.

But what do you do when, no matter what you do, it's not good enough. You give them exactly what they ask for and something will be wrong with it because, they may have said they wanted "this" but you were supposed to know they really wanted "that". It makes me crazy and I'm tired of always being the one to turn the other cheek.

I'd like to vote these people off my island but unfortunately, that isn't always an option.

Huh?

Okay, this will be interesting.

I tried to set up a blog with this name but it told me it wasn't available. Okay, fine.

Then I tried to pull the blog up to see what that blog looked like. It said it was not a valid blog. Um, okay.

And finally, when I pulled up all my blogs, it was listed as one of mine. HUH?

Alrighty then. Welcome to my new blog, I think?