Two Days In A Row

My off days are usually never in a row but somehow ended up that way this week. A girl could get used to this.

I think my manager who does the schedule felt sorry for me this past week. He scheduled me for seven shifts and two of them were doubles. To add insult to injury both double shifts were after I was scheduled to close the night before. The first double wasn't so hard although both shifts turned out to be complete duds.

I closed on Wednesday night and didn't get off until well after midnight. I had to be back the next morning and went in at eleven. I got off after midnight and while I made more money than I ever have, was totally exhausted and my feet were screaming. They still hurt when they touched the floor the next morning.

On Friday night I (nicely) told my manager I was simply too old to work double shifts anymore and certainly not two in one week. He apologized for having to do it, just needed extra servers that one week.

The USTA opened a huge facility here in Orlando (five minutes from Chroma) recently and has made for great business at the restaurant, located directly next door (literally steps away) to the Marriott where most of the players stay.

People come from all over the world to play in tournaments here. I've waited on people from literally everywhere; from all across the United States, New Zealand, Germany, England, Italy and even Australia.

They also held the ground breaking ceremony on Monday for the shopping and retail district being built directly in front of our restaurant. There will also be a movie theater, bowling alley and a few more restaurants and specialty shops.

In a couple of years it's going to be one huge Cash Cow for everyone involved, which luckily includes me.

I've already doubled my income in less than a years' time and look forward to making "Airport" money again, without the hassle of working at an airport.





Once again, am glad I listened to my brother, who told me to apply for the job with Chroma after my job transfer fell through last year when we moved to Orlando.

He's a pretty sharp guy with an even sharper wit. He makes me seem dull.

And look how much he loves me!!!

Totally kidding.

He does  give me quite a bit of grief and always makes fun of my horrible southern drawl. Especially the way I pronounce my husbands' name with two syllables. "Tea-um."

This journey Tea-um and I have been through has turned out to be quite the blessing, mostly and mainly because of these two.

They always had my back when I was a little kid and they've always had my back as a (still little) adult.

When life overwhelms you, sometimes it helps to take a step back and look around. You'll discover blessings you never thought about having before and learn to be more grateful for them.

My problems this past week were two hard double shifts which as we say in the south, wore me slap out.

My blessings were the redunkulous amount of money I made, with my only problem being sore feet.

 For the first time in over a year, am finally paying all my bills early again and socking money away into savings. Granted Tim pays most all the bills, I only pay the Verizon bill (which ain't cheap) and my car note. I buy most of the groceries and staples but Tim also buys some groceries too. We're a work in progress but is a total 'Team Cotton' effort.

I'm slowly gaining weight again and feels good to be tipping the scales at three digits without having to have rocks in both pockets.

I still miss our old home, but feel better knowing that my nephew and his wife are taking excellent care of and hopefully enjoying it.


We are twenty weeks away from moving out of our tiny rental and into our new permanent home.

It's served us well and have a pretty great landlord. Still seems crazy to me how much more rent is than mortgage. We had a fifteen year loan on our pretty big house in Newnan for $1500. We're paying $1235 to rent a tiny cracker box here in Orlando.

On a side note, hung another one of my mother in laws' paintings today on the wall in our tiny living room.

She always said this was her vision of what God would look like. Now He's watching over us as well.



So life has turned out pretty good for us after all. We're making strides and moving ahead. Our previous problems are behind us, and while we'll certainly have problems in front of us in the future, at least know we can make it...through any thing, and will.

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

And I will.

I will crush life, just watch me.

So we moved to the Sunshine State.

Here comes the sun!

That's alright.

Till next time...COTTON

Irma Gerd!!

I'm tired of hearing about it, to be completely honest. It's zapping what few brain cells I actually have left. We thought about evacuating and certainly would have if we lived any closer to the ocean. We gave Massey the option of going back to Georgia if she felt uncomfortable about staying here but she declined.

I work with a lot of life long Orlando peeps and none of them are leaving, so why should I?

 I've never been one to run from a fight. Why start now? If the past ten years didn't kill us, I doubt a big ole bag of wind can.

I (we) may live (or not live) to regret it but feel like we have invested so much in preparation, asking for (and heeding) every one's advice and getting our affairs in order, that think we have a pretty good shot at survival.

Yes it is a major storm and the biggest one Orlando has ever seen, not to mention the eye is headed straight for us but feel we are safe in our cement rental. They did a complete renovation before we moved in and know for a fact that it wouldn't have passed inspection if not up to code standards.


I worked a day shift today and was a ghost town at work. Only two tables came in. A party of two and a party of seven. Lucky me got the party of seven...I took that as a good sign! They left me almost thirty bucks so took the money and ran. I finally found a kiddie pool for my dogs to poop in during the height of the storm. I couldn't find any sod squares to put in it but while looking, ran into a man who raises champion beagles. He said for some reason dogs are drawn to the smell of the ink on newspaper and that should work just as good. Bonus points the kiddie pool was sixty percent off and only cost me six bucks. We have plenty of water, food, batteries, baby wipes for bathing, solar powered floodlights charging in the front yard for use in the house at night, a first aid kit, and about ten gallon size baggies of water in the freezer. We have three cases of water bottles, and are filling up three huge plastic tubs of water to keep in the garage. Both bath tubs will be filled with water as well and have all our important papers locked up in the trunk of the car which will reside in the garage.

Will it be a bad storm?

Most certainly.

Will we survive?

Pretty sure we will.

There is sure to be damage, and a lot of it...just hoping we dodge most of it.

I have been glued to local news radio and somewhat relieved to learn that Orlando was the second best city to go to for evacuation from the storm.

So we are hunkering down here, in our tiny temp rental which is fortunately built of cinder blocks, with two bathrooms that don't have windows.

We will spend the crucial hours of the storm hunkered down with our pups in both.

I know it sounds crazy  (I am) but told someone at work today, "After all this hype, if Irma doesn't at least show a little sump'um sump'um when she gets here, she owes me a lot of money.

Yep, I'm worried..I think all of Orlando is. Welcome to Florida! It's part of the price to pay for living in the Sunshine State but I like living here so if hurricanes are are part of that price, I'd better get used to it.

We've gone through so many hurricanes of our own over this past decade, what's one more?

We have done every thing we could possibly do and then some. Now it is just time to wait and see what happens next. If this storm is my demise...just remember I love you...it'll be alright.

Till (hopefully) next time...COTTON

Taking Charge!

I was at work on Sunday when one of the bartenders who was off came in to eat at  the bar. She sat next to a regular that comes in several times a week and does work on his lap top. He's a pretty sharp guy and seems to know a lot about a lot of things. Granted my tiny mind is easily impressed but you can tell he is a pretty savvy guy. He has been helping the bartender get her financial affairs in order and helping her learn to budget her money.

As I watched them hunched together over his lap top I commented to a close co worker friend of mine that maybe I should ask him to help me too. I mean,  I have $2.12 that's just been sitting in my checking account for weeks doing nothing. Just think if I took half of it and put a dollar six cents into mutual bonds and took the other half and invested it in a CD?  Or I could diversify my portfolio and go in three different directions ... put part into mutual bonds, part into a CD and part into carefully chosen real estate options. I've heard swamp land is cheap in Las Vegas and going for next  to nothing.

My  friend laughed and said she had actually thought about asking him to help with her money too, then realized she didn't have any for him to help her work with. I told her maybe we should approach him together and he would just give us some money and THEN tell us what to do with it! It's not so bad for my friend, she is only thirty and starting a family. Tim and I were broke when we were thirty and got married.

We rose through the Blue Collar ranks slowly and hit the six figure mark in our forties. Right before I hit fifty the bottom fell out but at least we haven't always been poor.

I was chatting with a table at  work the same day. Super nice family with three boys. Massey went to elementary school with the oldest boy. He goes to a private school now and his mom was asking me what Massey's plans were?  I told her she was college bound in less than a year and seemed on  track with all her grades. She asked me what Massey wanted to do and I told her it seems she wants to be another starving artist.

She  survived being a starving Cotton for over three years so at least she is mentally prepared. Photography is another passion and the one I tend to nudge her towards. She has a keen eye and captures incredible moments with her camera. She also wants to do some type of therapy with kids and can easily incorporate the art and photography, plus she is amazing with young kids.

Of course as usual I am just trying to put a funny spin on my problems,  but it works best for me. Why cry over spilt milk?

I can still laugh because my family and many many friends helped us over the hurdles when I couldn't. They cheered me on as I worked day after day after day and kept me going with gifts of money, food and love. It was embarrassing at times but a humbling experience.

You get what you  give. You reap what you sow. I am not a perfect person but simply one who always tries to do the right thing...and if you do God will take care of you.

It's getting better, and even I am amazed at how far we have come. There are no guarantees in life and if you think there are, you are a mis guided human being.

Life is kinda like marriage vows. It's for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...and definitely til death do you part!

I'm just trying to hang in there like millions of others. I am one of the lucky ones..I have a house, not  a grand one but one with a roof. I have a husband who loves me and three kids who have given me many fits but a hundred times more joy. I have three pups who make me laugh at least ten times a day. I have friends that I could call any time at any hour and they would be there for me. I have a sister and brother that haven't blocked my number and still love this ole gal.

I'd say I am doing pretty good at managing my affairs...Cotton style!

Til next time...COTTON

Revenge is MINE...Saith the Server

I had a great lunch shift at work today.

It started with a party of 18 women, mostly in their eighties...out for an annual lunch.

One lady immediately sat down and dug her ziploc baggie out of her handbag. She probably had fifty coupons for our restaurant, free deserts, free appetizers, $3 off two entrees, you name it and she had it. I was the bearer of bad news that she could not deal the coupons out like a deck of cards to her other seventeen friends and have them all taken off the bill. It specifically is printed "One coupon per table" and "Not valid with any other offer or discount".

I summoned my manager to the table and we worked out a deal. We would buy them three appetizers and let them use two free dessert coupons.

The lady in charge of this Grand group of Dames, somewhat begrudgingly agreed.

Not to mention that when she had called the day before to make the reservation, my general manager had told her precisely the same thing on the phone. (Good try, Granny)!!

Of course I made sure the lunch went as smooth as silk. Every glass was refilled, every dirty plate removed, salads all came out perfectly on time, and they all received their lunches at the same time (thank you fellow servers)!!

They were a truly pleasant bunch to wait on, and I enjoyed waiting on them.

I had all eighteen separate checks ready for them...all in the order that they sat around the table, and they were very gracious about giving me a few extra minutes to make change for eighteen separate tabs. Most all of them left me more than 15% as a tip, and several commented on my wonderful skills as a server...to which I gave my standard reply "I didn't go to college for Nothing"!!

I should have known that next table was bound to happen (the law of averages).

The host seated my table with a gentleman (I'll be nice and call him that). He asked if I could do something about the A/C vent that was "BLASTING down on him.

I suggested "Another table perhaps"? (With the hot flashes that I am having in my late forties...ain't NOBODY turning the A/C off...at least not from MY request)!!

After changing tables three times, "Captain Sunshine" was ready to order his drink.

When I brought it back to the table, he was already frantic that he needed three more menus (he was expecting joiners and had left at least one menu on every table he had tried).

I told him I would have those right out, and if he needed me before his party arrived, my name was KELLY. He quickly told me in a booming and demanding voice that "I DO need you...I need you to WAIT on me and do it now"! I calmly replied that I thought he was waiting for three others, to which he BOOMED back "CAN I ORDER SOME APPETIZERS"???

I turned around, before I bitch slapped him and spoke to the man I was waiting on at the table next to Capt. Sunshine. My other customer gave not only a pitying look of condolence, but a quite loud comment of "You have been a great server, thanks for the good service and I hope you have a wonderful day". (Thank you unknown customer).

When I saw that the three joiners had arrived, I dreaded going back to the table, but plowed on with my job...avoiding eye contact with the old man and focusing with a smile at the three people who had sat down (all three around my age).

Once I had taken all three drink orders, the ole man said in a huff "My friends aren't as rude as me". To which I replied somewhat loudly, with my arms lifted toward the sky "THANK YOU JESUS"!!!

Actually that got a chuckle out of everyone at the table, and ole grumpy pants said "I've just had a really shitty day".

I started to point out that he was beginning to make mine the same way...but I restrained myself (I CAN do that if I really try).

I made sure their meal was as flawless as my sweet old ladies lunch had been...and almost had the old man wrapped around my finger without him ever knowing it.

After the lunch, he came into the service hallway, barking out that it was the younger man's birthday, and didn't we do something for birthdays? I replied that I could bring him a hot fudge sundae...to which he said "Just make it quick...I gotta be back at the office in ten minutes".

I returned to the table with the birthday sundae and told the younger guy "Happy Birthday"!! My crusty old "friend"(by this point)said "I thought that ya'll used to sing or something".

I said, with a smile on my face and a sweet glint in my eye "We used to...but people just started getting so mean we stopped doing that".

(Actually it was a corporate decision, but one that I was grateful for. It wasn't TOO bad when we used to chant our little birthday limerick ...unless I walked up to a table and it was someone that I went to college with. Then it was just embarrassing).

By this point in the lunch, I had taken great care of this group, given them outstanding service, and I knew that I had made my statement with my server skills.

Ole grumpus gave ME a 20% tip and I had given HIM a subliminal tip.

You don't have to be an ass until something goes devastatingly wrong or someone screws up the service that you expect and deserve when spending hard earned money in today's economy.

Another lesson learned, and another one taught.

Sometimes I really love my job, and today was the perfect example.

Til next time...COTTON