Thursday Thirteen, I love 'ya.
I am cook book obsessed. I can not stop collecting them! Even if I never use them (Nigella Fresh). I never buy them new but score them at used book stores, yard sales, flea markets, given to me, and once in an abandoned barn. That one is my favorite and my main go to when I must find out how to do something. So, these are 13 of my random favorite book books .
1) Recipes from the Trustees House Daily Fare - We Make You Kindly Welcome! With a name like that it better be good. This is the thin little cook book that could that I wrote about yesterday from Shakertown, as us locals call Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Filled with the most simple basic food stuff that is out of this world. Of course they have the advantage of growing most the vegetables on the land outside the Side Porch Dining Room! Some additional favorites are the Peanut Butter cookies (I can make these in my sleep! They are so good and so easy) and candied baby carrots.
2) The Complete Book of Oriental Cooking by Myra Waldo. I bought this cookbook when I was playing house a long long time ago. I had no idea how to cook but I knew I loved Chinese food. This is one of those little paperbacks that cost $1.75. That is how long ago and how old this little beauty truly is. I have made the fried rice recipe forever since discovering it among the different ethnic culinary chapters. When Bridget was a child and would bring home her school age friends they would beg me to whip this up for them! Imagine that!
3) What's Cooking In Kentucky - This is one of those spiral cookbooks that is put out yearly by the Ladies in the "group". Be it a church or a Junior League, the pages are filled with family secret recipes by Mrs. Ralph Moonglow (I'm richer than you) and Miss Edwina Cooter (old maid) and many other ladies who's identities are always attached to their husband or lack of one. This particular book was given to me by the family of a guy I was dating way back when. I will be the first to admit I knew nothing about cooking. My Mom was a scholar not interested in spending much time in the kitchen. Her culinary skills were limited to the Home Economics class she took during the 1940's. I have an idea she struggled with that elective. I used the banana bread recipe in this book for years and years. It took a long time to find a better one.
4) To Market To Market - The Junior League of Owensboro, Ky Inc. I love the graphics of this cook book! I can't remember if I have actually used a recipe from this collection of family favorites, but I always enjoy the looking at the little piggies.
5) The Green Thumb Preserving Guide - Another jewel from the 1970's when I dove head first into teaching myself how to cook. For some reason I fancied myself as some sort of live off the land hippie back then. I really thought I would grow a garden and can my own food. What a joke! But the book is jam packed with marvelous recipes.
6) Union Square Cafe Cook Book - I believe I found this book on the shelves of the Goodwill on Ft. Campbell Blvd. I was lucky to nab this fantastic culinary masterpiece! The Ribollia Soup??? To die for! I made it, after spending about $100 on the ingredients, because everything was required to be FRESH, and almost ate the entire huge pot at one sitting! Joe even said "Hmmmm pretty good."
7) Keep it Simple - Ruth Brent 1972. Another Goodwill find that I picked up because I could not resist the picture of Ms. Brent and her beehive hair do on the back cover.
8) Farm Journal County Cookbook - The banana bread in this book is made with a cup of crushed up bran flakes. OMG. It was so delicious and dark that it blew my mind.
9) Our Daily Bread - Stella Standard - I taught myself how to make pancakes from this cook book along with yet another banana bread recipe! The cinnamon yeast rolls I tried for the first time, once again this is a 1970's attempt at domesticating myself, were good. I have never been successful at getting dough to rise. This is a common topic of conversation I have with anyone who tells me they bake bread. Even my BIL is good at making dough rise! Putting a pan of hot water in the oven under the bowl. I suck at this.
10) The Whole Earth Cook Book - I have a large collection from the 1970's - lol.
11) Farmhouse Cook Book - Susan Herman Loomis - This is one of those floppy big paper backs that has a primitive American painting theme on the front cover. I am a sucker for this type of marketing ploy. This lady traveled the US in search of the best family farm recipes. She found them by pulling up at some town square rolling down the window and asking those old codgers sitting on the Court House benches "who is the best cook in town?". It's a wonderful cook book filled with scrumptious ingredients and mouth watering concoctions. Some of my fav's have been the Herbed Summer Veggies - who knew a mess of fresh vegetables all mixed up together could be THE BOMB. Oh yea, fresh scrape off the cob corn put it over the top. Winner winner chicken dinner. And the granola recipe? Oh baby.
12) Lunch Upon a Time - Simple favorites from the Strawberry Patch. The Strawberry Patch was a restaurant once upon a time in fair Louisville. This little bitty home made book with its red cover and green binding complete with staples has a simple but satisfying Hot Brown tutorial that no one can mess up. Not even me. We licked the plates if I remember correctly. Then I could do it from memory!
13) Prudence Penny -Binding of the American Woman Cook Book San Francisco -
This is the Mac Daddy of my collection. This is the one that I found in an abandoned barn on a piece of property we were renting long ago in a far away land in another life time. Everything I have actually learned about cooking and preparing meals is in this book, spelled out for the dumbest of the culinary challenged. Want to know how to cook corn on the cob? It's in there. Want to know how to chop up a whole chicken? It's in there? The perfect pie crust? It's in there. This cook book even takes the time to tell you the do's and dont's, the why's and why not's...in other words, you will have to remove this old green cracked and aged 1954 cook book out of my clenched hands if you ever try to even borrow it! It's my TOP SECRET to success as a cook. Some may argue that point, some may not. That is if they know what's good for them.
Thank you Thursday 13 for anther hour whiled away and pleasantly happy doing so.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Confessions of a Cook Book Junkie
The first cookbook I ever owned was given to me by my Mama as a Christmas present. She inscribed it with this cheery note, "To remember your summer at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village." I came across the stained and dog eared book while cleaning the book case that houses my collection of a 1001 such books. But this one is special. This one is filled not only with delicious simple Shaker fare but also with those memories of 30 years ago.
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the world did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 360) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
I was fresh from my first year at college and for the summer waited tables at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. I not only served the simple Shaker culinary delights, I dressed as a Shaker. A long yellow gingham dress with a white apron with the cutest little white bonnet perched upon the top of my head. The servers and bus boys and kitchen staff were mostly young high school and college age kids from around the area. We were a motley crew underneath our Shaker camouflage. We were practically living history for the many tourist that found the Village, somewhere south west of Lexington, over the river and up beyond the Palisades of the muddy Kentucky sitting on some of the most fertile ground in the bluegrass. The Shakers sought out a solitary place way back in the 1800's, far away from the maddening crowd. They tried to live their philosophy without interference from the outside world, but the world did knock on their door many times most notably during the civil war.
We cared nothing about that, dressed in our 1800 outfits. Their politics (pacifists) and their religious views(celibacy) meant nothing to us. We just wanted our pay checks and our free food!
That was the summer I gained five pounds.
Why? The food was marvelous. And it was abundant! We had many tasks to take up the lull time between lunch and dinner. One of my favorites was making the butter balls. This required the use of two paddles that formed the yellow delicacies as you massaged the wad of vein clogging wonderfulness into perfect tiny balls which you flipped into ice water to await the moment they were slung on a bread plate for human consumption.
Another task was to cut, as thinly as possible, lemons, rinds and all, for the coveted Lemon Pie (pg.18) which was so frequently ordered that we would run out to every ones disappointment because all we had left was Chess pie.(page 360) "What's that?" "Well, it's like pecan pie only without pecans."
The corn bread, baked in tiny heavy iron molds to resemble an ear of corn, were exquisite. I ate a lot of those with the rejected butter balls.
The baked eggplant (page 47) was the first time I ever allowed that strange looking vegetable to enter my mouth. My mother and eggplant!! Get out of here! But once I tasted the Shaker version, I could not get enough.
Squash casserole? Well I never knew sunshine could be eaten! (page 48).
Every time I see the small cookbook with the torn corner it brings back all these sights and sounds, aroma's and the tastes. It transports me back to a time when I was so young that I could fit in the dumb waiter and take a ride to the basement.
I wonder if any of the Shakers did that?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
INVISIBLE
Congratulations to Sunday Scribbling on their 250th post!
This Sunday's Scribbling is titled Invisible
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
This Sunday's Scribbling is titled Invisible
I picked up the telephone and silently cursed the Operations Secretary for taking some time off. Granted it was some much needed time off, but in our small four person office the job of filling in lands right here.
"May I help you?" I ask after identifying myself to the caller.
"I want to file a complaint!" the high pitched whiny voice began, "I am watching TV and these Victoria Secret commercials are disgusting!"
"Oh brother" I think to myself, "A crazy person!"
"Well I think you are calling the wrong place. Perhaps you should be calling the television station and voice your concerns"
"No" he/she began screaming, "I want to talk to YOU about this garbage they are showing on the television so that any person can see!"
At this point, I had no idea if this was a man or a woman. The pitch of his/her voice was becoming higher and higher as he/she truly began to get into their rage about Victoria Secret. I did not know how to address the caller, so I just blurted out, "Mam or Sir, with the way you are yelling at me I can not distinguish which one, you can change the channel you know".
This really set him/her off some more.
"I want to speak to someone at Victoria Secret! Connect me to the store right away! This is disgusting filth and we all need to stand up and revolt against this depravity that is shoved down our throats day after day! Someone has to be held accountable for this pornography being flaunted in our face day after day! It's an out range and I going tell them just how I feel about half naked woman walking around my living room!"
"Sir! sir, you must calm down, if you call the television station carrying on like this they will think you are a NUT CASE!"
"Just give me the number to Victoria Secret if you won't connect me, I'm going to tell them a thing or two".
I just took the 50-50 guess this was a man. "Sir, I will not give you the number. The people working there are just trying to earn a living. They are not trying to corrupt our society!"
"You go to hell" and they hung up.
Good Lord. Being on the other end of a telephone gives you a certain bravado and courage to be a total Loony Tune if you do not have to face, or make eye contact with the person you are trying to intimidate with harsh impactful forceful rhetoric.
But actually you are just a whiny invisible person attached to a whiny invisible voice buzzing around my ear like a pesky gnat. I wish I could slap you.
Being invisible gives people an extra dose of courage and outrage.
Monday, November 22, 2010
You think you're Cooler Than Me
I can not get that song out of my head!! I heard it once! Just once and picked up the melody immediately and it just loops in my head until I feel I might go insane!
Then Dan snapped me out of it with this challenge THE Fifteen Album Game. And it goes like this ...THE RULES: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.
It took me seven minutes to make this list -
1) Abbey Road - the Beatles
2) Eat a Peach -Allman Brothers Band
3) Tres Hombres - ZZ Topp. This album brings back memories of the year we road around in Terry's Pinto (early 1970's) smoking doobies the size of cigars and listening to this on his 8 Track!! I recently found out Terry passed away in the early '80's in a car accident. Hopefully, he's up in the sky rolling them up for when the rest of us catch up with him.
4) Home Free - Dan Fogelberg
5) Modern Times - Bob Dylan (love this album! and most all Dylan albums)
6) The Foundation - Zac Brown. Wow - talk about tunes getting in your head!
7) Neil Young's Greatest Hits - Neil Young (too many great albums to consider, so this trumps them all. I recall hearing Harvest and After the Gold Rush being played over and over and over in my brothers room!)
8) Once - Soundtrack
9) Buena Vista Social Club - this album blew me away. Blows me away every time I listen!
10) Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt
11) White Album - the Beatles
12) Nevermind - Nirvana
13) Pump - Aerosmith (I just love this album!)
14) Let it Bleed - Rolling Stones
15) Exile on Main Street - Stones
This might not really be all my favorites - but these are the ones that popped into my bored head this beautiful sunny afternoon as I sit at a computer listening to the Sound Track of my life play in my head.
Then Dan snapped me out of it with this challenge THE Fifteen Album Game. And it goes like this ...THE RULES: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you've heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.
It took me seven minutes to make this list -
1) Abbey Road - the Beatles
2) Eat a Peach -Allman Brothers Band
3) Tres Hombres - ZZ Topp. This album brings back memories of the year we road around in Terry's Pinto (early 1970's) smoking doobies the size of cigars and listening to this on his 8 Track!! I recently found out Terry passed away in the early '80's in a car accident. Hopefully, he's up in the sky rolling them up for when the rest of us catch up with him.
4) Home Free - Dan Fogelberg
5) Modern Times - Bob Dylan (love this album! and most all Dylan albums)
6) The Foundation - Zac Brown. Wow - talk about tunes getting in your head!
7) Neil Young's Greatest Hits - Neil Young (too many great albums to consider, so this trumps them all. I recall hearing Harvest and After the Gold Rush being played over and over and over in my brothers room!)
8) Once - Soundtrack
9) Buena Vista Social Club - this album blew me away. Blows me away every time I listen!
10) Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt
11) White Album - the Beatles
12) Nevermind - Nirvana
13) Pump - Aerosmith (I just love this album!)
14) Let it Bleed - Rolling Stones
15) Exile on Main Street - Stones
This might not really be all my favorites - but these are the ones that popped into my bored head this beautiful sunny afternoon as I sit at a computer listening to the Sound Track of my life play in my head.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Rules
Recently I have not had the opportunity to read. I dearly miss curling up with a good book. So I decided to venture down to the local-ish public library and pick up some audio CD's to enjoy when I am driving.
I picked up Tony Robbins talking about something or another. I find I enjoy him much more as an orator than as a writer. Several times I tried to read this book I am listening to and failed. But I'm loving the audio.
I am picking up quite a bit about changing your behavior and little tricks to make yourself a better and happier person. Now you might be asking yourself, "I thought Mary was an extremely happy and well balance person!" And you're right, I am. But everyone could little readjusting now and then.
One interesting section was about rules. Not just any rules, but the rules you make for yourself and thereby inflict them on those around you. I found this "spin" quite easy to apply to real life. Especially if I apply it to other people. I understood at once why Joe is having a difficult time with a certain someone. He does not understand her rules and therefore, breaks them. As much as she dislikes Joe, he must break every single one of her rules. (see how easy this is?)
Is it possible to sit down with some one you are having a conflict with and somehow find out what their rules are? I don't know. But he makes sense and I believe that if you could follow his advice and put into action his behavioral shifts I think you're life might just be less annoying. Better? Happier? If I am less annoyed, I am happier.
Simple.
Take today. I go to Kroger's because I like Kroger. It is a classy supermarket in this town. This area is limited in the supermarket offerings. For some reason the powers that be think that "everyone" just drives into Nashville if they want variety. (I stop here, I learned my lesson in Ft Wayne about city bashing). I pick up the two items I want from the vegetable area and mosey on down the Halloween aisle (1/2 off and tremendous make-down) and pick up some (pukey - but I only find this out later) Kroger brand Indian Corn. The place is packed. Last minute Halloween shopping but it looks like a blizzard might be making a beeline for us with the crowded store and impossible to find a space in the parking lot! So I go to the self check out line and get in the queue. As I stand in the middle area of the two lines a gentleman assumes his place behind me to await his turn after me. Out of nowhere a lady and her husband arrive, just out of church by the way they are dressed to the nines, and get behind the lady at the check out space to the right!
I turn to the guy behind me and say, "Did I miss something about check out etiquette at this store?" He is Mexican and just smiles and nods. Maybe he understands, maybe not.
I realize one of my rules was just broken!!
So life goes on. I understood (not right then but later) that my rules about standing in line at the self check out area is totally different from the people who just left church. They believe in every man/woman for themselves and those who play fair go after them.
The I go to Walmart. Halloween candy is still top dollar. Thank God I stocked up on my Almond Joys at Kroger. I get the items I need and head to the self check out lanes and immediately get one. As I am lifting the 35 pound cat liter out of the basket this woman comes up behind me and gets in my space!! I just ignore her breathing down my neck and swipe my coupon and pay with her shopping cart right up my thigh. As I get ready to leave I see a second lady ignore the queue and rush towards the person next to me and get as close to her as the lady behind me. I look at all the people who obey the rules of etiquette waiting patiently in an orderly line and wonder why some people think they are more important.
And I think that maybe Tony is right.
Right about something.
I picked up Tony Robbins talking about something or another. I find I enjoy him much more as an orator than as a writer. Several times I tried to read this book I am listening to and failed. But I'm loving the audio.
I am picking up quite a bit about changing your behavior and little tricks to make yourself a better and happier person. Now you might be asking yourself, "I thought Mary was an extremely happy and well balance person!" And you're right, I am. But everyone could little readjusting now and then.
One interesting section was about rules. Not just any rules, but the rules you make for yourself and thereby inflict them on those around you. I found this "spin" quite easy to apply to real life. Especially if I apply it to other people. I understood at once why Joe is having a difficult time with a certain someone. He does not understand her rules and therefore, breaks them. As much as she dislikes Joe, he must break every single one of her rules. (see how easy this is?)
Is it possible to sit down with some one you are having a conflict with and somehow find out what their rules are? I don't know. But he makes sense and I believe that if you could follow his advice and put into action his behavioral shifts I think you're life might just be less annoying. Better? Happier? If I am less annoyed, I am happier.
Simple.
Take today. I go to Kroger's because I like Kroger. It is a classy supermarket in this town. This area is limited in the supermarket offerings. For some reason the powers that be think that "everyone" just drives into Nashville if they want variety. (I stop here, I learned my lesson in Ft Wayne about city bashing). I pick up the two items I want from the vegetable area and mosey on down the Halloween aisle (1/2 off and tremendous make-down) and pick up some (pukey - but I only find this out later) Kroger brand Indian Corn. The place is packed. Last minute Halloween shopping but it looks like a blizzard might be making a beeline for us with the crowded store and impossible to find a space in the parking lot! So I go to the self check out line and get in the queue. As I stand in the middle area of the two lines a gentleman assumes his place behind me to await his turn after me. Out of nowhere a lady and her husband arrive, just out of church by the way they are dressed to the nines, and get behind the lady at the check out space to the right!
I turn to the guy behind me and say, "Did I miss something about check out etiquette at this store?" He is Mexican and just smiles and nods. Maybe he understands, maybe not.
I realize one of my rules was just broken!!
So life goes on. I understood (not right then but later) that my rules about standing in line at the self check out area is totally different from the people who just left church. They believe in every man/woman for themselves and those who play fair go after them.
The I go to Walmart. Halloween candy is still top dollar. Thank God I stocked up on my Almond Joys at Kroger. I get the items I need and head to the self check out lanes and immediately get one. As I am lifting the 35 pound cat liter out of the basket this woman comes up behind me and gets in my space!! I just ignore her breathing down my neck and swipe my coupon and pay with her shopping cart right up my thigh. As I get ready to leave I see a second lady ignore the queue and rush towards the person next to me and get as close to her as the lady behind me. I look at all the people who obey the rules of etiquette waiting patiently in an orderly line and wonder why some people think they are more important.
And I think that maybe Tony is right.
Right about something.
Friday, July 30, 2010
My Life as A Mall Rat
My day has been interrupted because I can not get the scanner to work! It works, I just do not have access to the program and my boss has locked her office door! So, my intentions of posting some really old and interesting pictures on FaceBook are ruined.
Being the week end manager means spending lots of boring time in the office doing things that are of no consequence. Like read Time Magazine, post to my other journal my daily grace in small things, have brilliant ideas percolate in my brain (I am working on a big project right now) and listen in to the radio (which only recently I have stopped calling the 'walkie talkie') to all that is going on in the Mall. Stuff like bats flying around the movie theatre, people selling CD's at the Main entrance, lost children and rowdy teenagers. Typical Mall stuff. And every once in awhile I have to respond and make an appearance. Actually, I like to walk around in the evening and experience the night time entertainment. We have 'gangs' of teenagers who congregate here, mainly due to a lack of any where else to go. Sad but true. I once took a telephone call from a concerned mother who asked about a dance off at the Mall.
"A Dance off?" I asked.
"Yes, where one group of kids dance and then the opposing group of kids dance and then they fight."
My fingers immediately took on a life of their own and began snapping a rhythm.
We have West Side Story right here in the South! In the parking lots of C-ville.
Anyway, no dance off, no fighting. Must say I was looking forward to it and slightly disappointed.
There is a tremendous cast of characters at the Mall. Not only the small handful we affectionately call 'the office' but there is Maintenance. Followed by Housekeeping and lastly - the mall cops. We call them Security.
I'm know as MD2 on the walkie talkie, I mean radio. I say "MD2 to Maintenance", they say "Go head" and I say "What's your 20?" and they say, "In the bay" and I say "Do you ever work?" and they say, "Not if we can help it." and then I say, "Well, the eagle has landed" and they say "10-4".
Radio is fun.
Today me and my boss walked to center court to check out if the Maintenance crew had assembled the stage as per directed.
"Oh no, here comes MD1 and MD2". It was funny. Maybe you had to be there.
Everyday I have a rich stew of comical and drama frosted episodes that could be served up as the meat and potatoes of this blog. I just don't have the time nor the cloaking devise to do it justice! Yet it screams for me to tell.
Today a very irate individual came into the front office (of which I continue to occupy due to a variety of reasons) and demanded to see MD1. I knew this guy, as he and his wife had visited last week with a complaint, and I suspected he was back to continue to voice his irritation.
I found MD1 coming down the hall way and told her that she had a visitor.
He landed into her before she could even offer her hand in greeting, "I have a big problem with this gift card program you have. Guess how much my card is worth? it's worth two dollars and fifty cents! I have never used the card, but reading the fine print I see that if I do not use the card with in a year I begin to loose an amount each month. And if I call to check on the balance I loose another $5! This is robbery! Down right robbery! YOU ARE A ROBBER AND A THIEF!"
I was holding my hand over my mouth. I did not know if I should laugh or call for Security! Right then old Mic 1 (Big Guy) emerges from his throne and takes control of the situation telling Mr. Upset about the law and how it was recently changed so that the credit card companies that issue the gift cards were no longer able to charge those type of fees......Everything Mic 1 said Mr. Upset would not accept.
He ended up calling Mic 1 a Low Life and left with threats of getting his son to talk to his Council Member to throw as much negative publicity as possible at us.
When the storm left the office we all shrugged and went back to what ever we were doing.
Later on I hear Mic 1 call out from his office to MD1 "You're a robber and a thief!"
"Better than a Low Life!!"
Tomorrow - Star Wars!
Being the week end manager means spending lots of boring time in the office doing things that are of no consequence. Like read Time Magazine, post to my other journal my daily grace in small things, have brilliant ideas percolate in my brain (I am working on a big project right now) and listen in to the radio (which only recently I have stopped calling the 'walkie talkie') to all that is going on in the Mall. Stuff like bats flying around the movie theatre, people selling CD's at the Main entrance, lost children and rowdy teenagers. Typical Mall stuff. And every once in awhile I have to respond and make an appearance. Actually, I like to walk around in the evening and experience the night time entertainment. We have 'gangs' of teenagers who congregate here, mainly due to a lack of any where else to go. Sad but true. I once took a telephone call from a concerned mother who asked about a dance off at the Mall.
"A Dance off?" I asked.
"Yes, where one group of kids dance and then the opposing group of kids dance and then they fight."
My fingers immediately took on a life of their own and began snapping a rhythm.
We have West Side Story right here in the South! In the parking lots of C-ville.
Anyway, no dance off, no fighting. Must say I was looking forward to it and slightly disappointed.
There is a tremendous cast of characters at the Mall. Not only the small handful we affectionately call 'the office' but there is Maintenance. Followed by Housekeeping and lastly - the mall cops. We call them Security.
I'm know as MD2 on the walkie talkie, I mean radio. I say "MD2 to Maintenance", they say "Go head" and I say "What's your 20?" and they say, "In the bay" and I say "Do you ever work?" and they say, "Not if we can help it." and then I say, "Well, the eagle has landed" and they say "10-4".
Radio is fun.
Today me and my boss walked to center court to check out if the Maintenance crew had assembled the stage as per directed.
"Oh no, here comes MD1 and MD2". It was funny. Maybe you had to be there.
Everyday I have a rich stew of comical and drama frosted episodes that could be served up as the meat and potatoes of this blog. I just don't have the time nor the cloaking devise to do it justice! Yet it screams for me to tell.
Today a very irate individual came into the front office (of which I continue to occupy due to a variety of reasons) and demanded to see MD1. I knew this guy, as he and his wife had visited last week with a complaint, and I suspected he was back to continue to voice his irritation.
I found MD1 coming down the hall way and told her that she had a visitor.
He landed into her before she could even offer her hand in greeting, "I have a big problem with this gift card program you have. Guess how much my card is worth? it's worth two dollars and fifty cents! I have never used the card, but reading the fine print I see that if I do not use the card with in a year I begin to loose an amount each month. And if I call to check on the balance I loose another $5! This is robbery! Down right robbery! YOU ARE A ROBBER AND A THIEF!"
I was holding my hand over my mouth. I did not know if I should laugh or call for Security! Right then old Mic 1 (Big Guy) emerges from his throne and takes control of the situation telling Mr. Upset about the law and how it was recently changed so that the credit card companies that issue the gift cards were no longer able to charge those type of fees......Everything Mic 1 said Mr. Upset would not accept.
He ended up calling Mic 1 a Low Life and left with threats of getting his son to talk to his Council Member to throw as much negative publicity as possible at us.
When the storm left the office we all shrugged and went back to what ever we were doing.
Later on I hear Mic 1 call out from his office to MD1 "You're a robber and a thief!"
"Better than a Low Life!!"
Tomorrow - Star Wars!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Previously On Alphawoman......
There's a lot of things you don't know about me Continued
Now I remember the number one thing that triggered this lame post; I really like soccer! I'm so happy when the World Cup is on because then I can watch the matches without having to explain myself.
I really really like soccer because I love the way it goes on and on and there is no stopping, even if some one is hurt and has to be carried off the field! Maybe some added minutes at the end, but otherwise there is none of this going on forever stuff you get in American Football.
Now I remember the number one thing that triggered this lame post; I really like soccer! I'm so happy when the World Cup is on because then I can watch the matches without having to explain myself.
I really really like soccer because I love the way it goes on and on and there is no stopping, even if some one is hurt and has to be carried off the field! Maybe some added minutes at the end, but otherwise there is none of this going on forever stuff you get in American Football.
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