How Crazy Is This?

So I'm working on Saturday night at the restaurant. It's hopping and so am I. I started off with a bachelorette  party of fourteen at four and keep running all through the dinner shift. I had four older folks sit at one of my tables around seven.  Two married couples most probably in their late sixties. One of the men looked familiar but when you've been waiting tables in the same general area for over thirty years that's usually it. I asked him where he worked and replied he was retired from the GBI (that would be the Georgia Bureau of Investigation) but also said he has eaten in our restaurant often.

So begins another crazy server story...

I asked if he had worked for them in the early eighties? Yep, he did.

So this is me talking to my customer:

"I know this sounds crazy but there was a restaurant back in the seventies and eighties called "Steak and Ale." I worked at the one on Virginia Ave by the old Atlanta airport in 1980. We wore short plaid skirts with low cut peasant blouses and black tights. I was on the way to work one day and had a flat tire on the ramp of the interstate. I was only twenty at the time so thought nothing about getting out of the car in my uniform to change a tire, or at least attempt to. Cars whizzed by but finally a dark sedan pulled over behind me. A black man in suit and tie got out. He told me to move over out of the way and proceeded to change my tire for me. He was such a nice guy but chastised me for getting out of the car in my current attire. When  finished with the tire he handed me his business card and said if I ever needed help to call him. Sounds crazy but after thirty four years still remember his name, maybe you knew him. His name was Moses Ector."

My customer looked quite surprised and said "In fact I do know him, he's the reason my wife and I are married. He introduced us over thirty five years ago."

Number one, how crazy is it I remember a GBI agent's name after all this time and number two, how crazy is it I would be waiting on his friend thirty four years later and this conversation come up?

His wife had gone to the restroom but when she came back was just as shocked as us!

She even gave me more enlightenment about my flat tire hero. Yes, they were still friends with him. He had grown up in the small town of Hogansville about ten miles south of where we live. He was raised by a white couple who had literally found him abandoned in a wicker basket. They name him Moses, Touche'!

How ironic that our paths crossed yet again tonight, thirty four years later. I asked if he still stayed in touch with Moses and he does. I told him to ask Moses if he remembered helping a fair young maiden on the interstate one day in 1980!

I have a lot of aches and pains but the one good thing I have left is an excellent memory.

It is truly a small, small world. It's a world full of rage , dishonesty and despair but if you try hard enough can always find a silver lining...I found one tonight. I hope this couple comes back in to eat one night along with their friend; my flat tire hero, Moses. Wouldn't that be really cool?

Til next time... COTTON

Pink Hearts Started the Week... A Full Moon Ends It

Valentine's Day started out the week (or Valentimes Day if you believe the sign in a store window in our small town.)

A gorgeous full moon is ending the week and the last few days have been an absolute weather delight.

I never liked Winter when I weighed 120 pounds, and I HATE it weighing in at 100 pounds fully dressed and in combat boots.

I don't like my feet being cold and my hands always seem to be cold. The only warmth I get it from hot flashes and they are temporary (so I am told.)

My Jonquils have poked their heads out of the dirt searching for warmth and I don't blame them. The sun has felt fabulous the past few days and at least the dogs aren't soaking wet and covered with mud every time I let them in the house...they are just covered with stink and I don't have to mop that up, I just stick in a new Glade plug in and rub them down with a dryer sheet.

We have had a run of illness stampeding through the house. Massey got sick about ten days ago and for about five days she hacked like she had a five pack a day habit. Luckily no fever was involved so I put her through the routine my Mom did when we were little. Soup, juice and since she hates oranges I introduced her to Clementines. She has eaten an entire bag full and after switching her to Delsym she sounds and feels much better.

Then my husband got sick and my sympathy simply ran out. Number one he is a terrible patient and the minute he becomes ill, turns into the biggest sissy on the planet. He comes home from work in the morning and never takes medicine but goes into the den and shuts the door to sleep until he has to get up to go to work again. I guess I should make him soup and a glass of juice and carry it to him on a tray but if he is happy going to sleep sick and waking up sick, who am I to argue with him?

It took him five days of being sick to finally listen to me and take something for it.

He's not well but better... who's fault is that?

He is at least now taking medicine and complaining a little less when one of us will listen.

Today Zach called me from the school office..."It's my turn" is all I heard when he asked me to come check him out.

Brought him home, felt his head and sent him to bed with some throat spray and a 500 mg Advil.

Three hours later he was in the back yard with a BB gun hitting (hopefully only) trees in the woods and I scratched him off my nursing list as well.

Men and women are so polar opposite when it comes to being sick. I was sick for three weeks before I broke down and went to a Doc in the Box. I never missed one shift at work and only went to the doctor when the owner's sent me home and said sweetly "You look like sh#t. Go to the doctor." They even offered to pay for my visit.

Massey didn't miss one day of school. She hacked her way through and probably had hoodlum students offering her a Camel unfiltered as she walked from building to building on campus, thinking "Dang, she sounds like one of us."

Tim was actually pretty sick but refused to listen to me...guess he's become conditioned to that over 23 years. I tried to give him money to go to the Doc in the Box I went to but he refused saying we needed the money for bills. I think it sunk in when I said "Yeah, that hospital stay will be a LOT cheaper."

He has been taking the meds I have bought and eating better. I have tried to help by being nicer but after 23 years of marriage and two years of living in an episode of "Helltown" my sympathy has been stretched so thin you could call it gauze.

Where my kids are concerned I am all over it.

I guess I should save some of that sympathy for Tim, but he's an adult like me (although no one is TRULY like me) and I guess I push him as hard as I push myself. In hindsight, that's probably why he married me.

I bet he's re thinking that strategy!!

We are all on the mend and I haven't woken up to Tim with a noose around my neck (yet.)

Spring has poked it's head out and I have embraced it like a lover on the side. I am pleading with it not to go away or leave me. We all need the healing of it's warmth and sun.

I feel like I have been living in Winter for almost two years.

I am ready and waiting for the Spring.

I have had so many people help me through these horrible Winters and when I emerge again in Spring it will be with a vengeance.

I made it through " The Winter of My Discontent ."

My family is healing and our lives are healing, thanks to the greatest medicine on Earth.

"Take two heaping doses of God, take help from family three times a day and love from your friends as often as they offer it."

It has been the prescription I needed and am beginning to feel whole again.

Before you know it I will be back on my "Johnny Dear" in a pair of hot pants that say "AARP" across the butt and moving on into my fifties feeling like a "Spring Chicken."

Thanks be to everyone that helped me get here!

Til next time...can't wait to be "Hot Cotton"

Usher Said It Best "OMG"

So I may be dragging some of you into the world of my teen age girl with this title. Usher, who for some bizarre reason reminds me of a black Leon (my restaurant's owner's son) has this song out..."OMG."

My husband hates this type of music (he can be such an ole fart) but it has been pounded into my head like "Pow Pow Pow" and although I don't have "Boobies like Wow oh Wow" I like the song and love me some Usher.

I did just what I do best today...crammed all of yesterday into the first three hours of today. I left a little hanging but will scoop that up tomorrow and throw it into the mix to catch myself up to speed.

Took Zach to school today, made sure he walked through the doors and scratched off to the Dept. of Human Resources... a place I hate to go but that has saved my skinny butt and helped me out tremedously. Then I headed to the bank. When I checked online this morning before I left the house I had 48 cents in my account. I was impressed once again with my slick banking skills. I was 49 cents away from a $36.00 overdraft fee and it seemed like an omen to me. "Today is going to be my lucky day."

Tim was hanging his head at the kitchen table before I left for work saying that we were $300 short for the bills he had to write this week. I told him I had 48 cents in my checking account and he was welcome to every penny of it. (God bless him for loving a smart ass.)

Scratched off again...five minutes til I clocked in at work. Made it, had a good lunch and once again scratched out of the parking lot to go back to the DHR to finish paper work and get my review in under the wire.

Never before in my fifty years have I even KNOWN where a DHR office is or what it was even for. Now I am on a name to name basis with them and grateful to God to be so.

Moving on to my kid's insurance...had to fax copies of our pay stubs because their PeachCare was up for review. Today was the last day but "Pow Pow Pow" I had it all ready to fax.

I was feeling so puffed up with pride about getting it all done that my chest probably looked like "Wow oh Wow."

Zoomed back to work...It started with a party of sixteen that turned out to be ten, but it was an extra twenty in my pocket.

We had a wedding rehearsal party of 60 that took up most of the dining room at 8:00. I wasn't on that but took all the extra tables that spilled over.

A wonderful friend of mine (from LHORN) I haven't seen in years got seated at my table with her Dad. I feel a bond with her because she lost her Mother around the same age I was when I lost mine and went own to put herself through Ga. Tech and landed a great job with GT. She travels the world and does all the amazing things I knew she was destined for. We hugged and it was great to see her again.

The first words out of her mouth were "I am a religious reader of your blog." Number one, that means she gets a free dessert or appetizer! They chose dessert and after she left I was BLOWN away by her tip. This precious girl helped me cover the bills we had written checks for and since I am working the rest of the weekend, will put us ahead for the first time in a while.


I felt like telling that 48 cents in my bank account "Take THAT to the bank, Bi- otch."

We still have a LONG way to go. We still have a lot of ground to make up...but with the love that pours out to us from friends, family and even strangers...my life seems to be more "Pow Pow Pow" than "Why Why Why?"

Yes I crammed it in. I waited til the last minute...but now I know why.

God let me have a day of rest and then he blessed me beyond belief.

Am I lucky? Heck yeah...Am I blessed? Beyond my wildest dreams.

I got off around 11:30 and headed straight to the high school to pick Massey up from the ball game.

She was grumpy, tired and in a bad mood. I wanted to shake her shoulders and tell her how blessed we were. Then I stopped myself and thought...she's just a kid.

It's not her fault...although it's not our fault either. I just want my kids to be happy but have learned that even money can't make a teen age girl happy. A teen age boy is even a harder case for the "Happiness Effect."

What matters most is that "I" know how lucky we are and how much we are blessed.

It was a crazy stinkin' day... but I managed to cram it all in. I will wake up tomorrow and cram it all in again.

When you are a parent it is incredible what you can manage to do. When your kid's and friends that love THEM are involved, it is incredible what can happen .

I'll be on my knees tonight (again) and back up with the morning sun.

I've been beaten down but I have also been raised up. I have felt like there was no answer at times, to find that someone else has given me the gift of not only breathing room but the gift of fresh air.

My tears are genuine...my soul is bursting...my life is full. My thanks are endless and I seem to have a lifetime of paying it forward in front of me...What a wonderful thing to have sitting in front of you.

Somewhere...

So as part of my training I had to work the hostess position tonight. Talk about a fish out of water!

I haven't done this type of job in almost 13 years...the last time was when I did it for training at my old store

(which will remain nameless to protect the innocent.)

After just two days at this new job and even though I haven't made a dime yet I already feel like I should send my old boss a "Thank You" note. I am nervous and have so much to learn but the atmosphere is that of "One big family" and they all act like it's a great thing to have me join them...not like the last job where I constantly felt like the "Red headed step child."

Granted getting fired could not have possibly come at a worse time and when you are already down...it feels like a cheap shot to the ribs and leaves you actually physically aching from the blow.

After a complete mental and emotional melt down I have begun to see the daylight again.

With the help of God, family, friends, strangers and even anonymous donors my family is being taken care of while I get my feet wet again in another restaurant and my husband works two jobs and goes on interviews for a full time position.

I received an envelope today in the mail with a note simply reading "Praying for you and your family" with cash folded in with the note. I received a gift card from a grocery store with a beautiful card saying simply it was from an old high school class mate and Facebook friend. I got enough Chic fila cards to give the Cathy's a heart attack.

Yesterday I received a heart warming letter and generous gift from a server I used to work with. Battling difficulties in his own life he is supporting my family in their own time of need.

The feeling is over whelming and at times makes me feel guilty for taking these gifts.

At other times it makes me feel that this is my sign to help others even more than I have in the past and to live my life as a testament to the power of God and the power of true friendship and caring.

My husband has been amazing and is the one that shook me into action when I felt like staying under the covers and burying my head in self pity.

My middle son has stepped up to the plate and is an incredible help around the house and even passed all his classes this semester (the greatest gift he could give me.) He's my ace in the hole...smarter than Bill Gates and MUCH better looking, once he figures out he can't beat the system but needs to work it instead he will be just fine and end up being a tycoon that takes care of mama one day. My older son has helped even more by not moving back home again !

My daughter has begun to feel the pressure and the age of 14 compiled by being female is a drama fed combination in itself. I sat her down tonight and told her emphatically "IT WILL BE OKAY."

I have said that in the past, not really believing it myself but as I told her that tonight...even I believed it. I told her to give it a week or two and things will be totally different. I told her we were blessed with so many people loving and looking out for us and God has opened that window... a window to a better and different life.

I am ashamed that I have had to accept so much help from so many people but at the same time I would be so lost without it.

This new job is a new beginning.

It is Spring finally and my faith has blossomed. It has been there all along, but for a while I piled the gravel of depression and doubt on it, keeping it from blossoming. It has now broken the surface and my friends and family have watered it with generosity and care. It has bloomed and it the most amazing flower I have ever seen.

I have so many people to thank and so much to pay forward...but thanks to them soon I WILL be able to do JUST that .

I'm not sure what I have ever done in my life to deserve all of this love and care but know that without it I would not be here tonight feeling for once that the worst is finally behind me and all that lies ahead is a beautiful rainbow over my life.

The clouds have parted and the sun is shining ...I think I can make it now, the rain is gone .

Til next time...COTTON