If This is a Dream, Please Don't Wake Me

Home again from the new city I work in, aka the busiest airport in the world. I really like the fact that I work a day shift on Saturday and Sunday. There's no traffic on the highway heading into downtown Atlanta for work and the MARTA parking lots are easy pickings with all the weekday commuters off. I park about twenty feet from the entrance of the train station. If I get to park close by, from the time I park until the time I get to the airport is less than five minutes. It takes me one minute to reach the Sardine Shuttle after getting off the MARTA train and twelve more to arrive at concourse F where I work.

Of course I was the first server there. I work mostly with all kids in their twenties and we're just lucky if they show up at all.

Today one of the younger ones never showed up at all which left me working with a guy who enjoy working with. He's younger than me but not by much. It's hard to gauge, he's black and black folks never seem to age to me. They could be almost thirty or almost past fifty and you simply never know until they say "My youngest kid is thirty" from which I always add eighteen years to supposing  they may have had them right out of high school and gauge from there. They never seem to get wrinkles or gray hair until they are a hundred and featured on the Today Show by Al Roker during his weather forecast in a shout out.

He got there shortly after me and we had everything done by nine twenty. We open at ten so I clocked out for my break  and decided to try and make it to concourse C on my own to get food from The Atlanta Bread Co where we eat free up for almost ten bucks.

I have always gone with two of my co workers who weren't working today and usually always chat on the way and instead of paying attention to how we get there just blindly follow them. Last time we went I paid attention so somewhat felt confident I could get there on my own.

Dang, I felt like a rocket scientist when I got off at C and found Atlanta Bread Co right where I thought it was, to the right of the top of the escalator on the left. For no money out of my pocket got a Chicken Waldorf sandwich with a bag of chips, a pickle spear and huge cinnamon bun for later.

I got a little discombobulated on the way back down to the Plane Train and only took one wrong turn but got back to the restaurant with fifteen minutes left to eat.

If my life right now is a dream, please don't wake me up!

Since starting on the floor June fifteenth I've managed to catch up our delinquent mortgage, pay all current utilities albeit some  are "Past balance due" ,  pay the Verizon giants, buy groceries and gas for the vehicles and even funnel back money we had borrowed from our daughter's college fund. My wonderful brother helped pay off my impending new/used car still waiting to get and even have a payment for him. Besides that I've been saving all the cash I've walked with over the eighteen percent gratuity and have two hundred dollars stashed away.

To some fifty four year old people this would sound sad, to me it feels euphoric!

We may be broke but far from poor and is definitely now a temporary status.

The ageless black dude and I rocked the lunch shift, got hit with an onslaught of departing Paris and Tokyo passengers but did it all while keeping tables clean, reset, customers happy and got off by five with another $230 under my belt.

My first customer today was a rather large man by himself, leaving on the Tokyo flight. I was chatting with him asking about his flight when told me the flight to Tokyo would be fourteen hours. Once he arrived in Tokyo would board another flight for nine more hours to Thailand. After that he would have a two hour helicopter ride out to the oil rig where he worked.

This just amazed me. He was going to be in the air for over an entire day! He said he lived in Atlanta but for twenty eight days lived on an oil rig off the coast of Thailand, then had twenty eight days off.

It's an exciting job at the airport  to me. I am talker by nature (duh) but love hearing their stories!

On top of it all, it's literally saving my family.

I am just floored by people who can afford fly to Paris, then on to Greece, Amsterdam or Tokyo then on to Thailand. Heck, I feel lucky to go to WalMart AND Kroger in the same day!

I'm just their "Little Buddy" Gilligan, stranded happily on "Broke Island."

I feel more comfortable every day although still nervous.

This is the greatest opportunity I've ever had in my serving career, and trust me ...it can BE a career.

I was scarfing down my free sandwich from ATL Bread Co this morning when one of my brother in law's buddies who works for Delta stopped by to say hello.

Does it sound bad  I've found a new home? It feels like it does and also makes me feel like a traitor to feel that way.

Til next time...COTTON

Glad That Chapter's Over

I got off around nine fifteen, it was really slow at the airport but still walked with over a hundred dollars. Not bad!

I'm pacing myself again, another seven day work week is looming ahead of me.

Now that I.m settling into this new job and all the new things that go with it (the commute, MARTA, security, working in a huge airport) it's starting to sink in.

That horribly long chapter in my life seems to be coming to an end.

I get my first full paycheck tomorrow, actually being deposited at midnight into my bank account and can pay another mortgage payment tomorrow. It will be the second one this week and we'll be caught up for the first time in quite a while.

God shut a door on us but opened a window and it's to Him I owe the greatest thanks.

I owe my parents the next "Thank you" for being amazing and for not raising a quitter. I lost them both way too soon but as they say "It is better to have loved and lost than have never loved at all."

They left me in good hands, a sister and brother who have continued to raise and support me all throughout the years.

Without these two sibs, I certainly wouldn't have made it, especially these past few years. I owe them both so much will take my lifetime to repay them and then some. I can honestly say I have never asked them for help and been turned down, and over the past five years have had to go to them more often than I'd like.

We grew up in a middle class family, weren't wealthy but blessed beyond belief. We never wanted for anything as kids but then again weren't raised to be selfish.

I met and married Tim and we raised three kids together.

We've been together now for almost twenty seven years and the first twenty two were pretty great. We started without much but finally settled into a six figure lifestyle and were doing okay.

When the bottom dropped out it was devastating... financially, mentally and emotionally.

As bad as it was (and got really bad) whenever we felt all was lost and nothing could go right, something always did.

When I first lost my job at The Western Sizzler, some great friends helped us out. Tim had been searching for work and was working two part time jobs.

Out septic tank backed up and my sister's Sunday School class paid to have it pumped.

People who knew me from high school, people I worked with at the elementary school for a while when the kids were younger gave us gift cards. Some people came by and stocked our bare kitchen shelves.

People who read my blog sent us cash to help.

These people got us through when we were close to being destitute.

My boxer, Ham went totally blind from juvenile cataracts and people overwhelmed us with support. They paid for his visit to a vet ophthalmologist and when diagnosed with heart worms, keeping him out of the running for surgery, paid for his heartworm treatment. Without them, he'd be dead by now.

I got a new job and new friends.

We were still broke but learned to work the "Being Broke" system. They would come to cut our electricity off, I would wait for them to hang a cut off notice on our front door then run out to the truck and give them a bad check. So what the check bounced? It was a twenty five dollar fee for a bounced check but a fifty dollar fee to have the electricity reconnected. They carried the check around with them all day in the truck which gave me another twenty four hours to try and make it good.

My new boss, Barb loaned me money pretty much every week. Sometimes I paid her back in a few days, sometimes in a couple of weeks.

For four years this cycle continued and started to lose my mind.

I was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and to make it worse was a woman in her fifties!

When this new job came open  was immediately apprehensive. I don't like stepping out of my comfort zone and was perfectly happy at Mama Lucia's. The problem was the bills were piling up again and if this new job would over double my salary how in the world could I turn it down?

Here's one reason. I didn't even have a car to get there and it was twenty five miles away from home.

Enter  "Friend I barely knew."

A woman who used to work at Mama Lucia's reads my blog (didn't even know she did) and offered me a spare car for a week. It was her car that got me to the airport for my initial interview and back for my FBI background check.

Whadda ya know? They hired me on the spot.

This time six weeks ago I didn't even feel like getting out of bed or even trying but simply did it anyway.

Six weeks later my life has done a complete one eighty.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and I took a leap of faith. I won't say it was easy because it wasn't.  I'm still borrowing a vehicle from my neighbors to get back and forth from work but have my car almost paid off and should have it this next week.

It's not a castle but is now ours to keep and will be paid off in less than four years. That's the reason Hells Fargo wouldn't help us modify our loan. They wanted it to sell a huge profit.

Guess we showed them!

I'm still a ninety five pound bag of bones, wrinkles and gray hair but the relief I feel is so immense it makes me feel like a giant.

All thanks to God, family and friends too many to name. You've all lived the fight with me and not only inspired me but urged me on.

By now this blog has covered several days.

I got up this morning after working a double shift yesterday here in Newnan and trekked out of the house , across the yard to my neighbor's and climbed in his little truck and headed out at seven this morning for the airport again.

I got to the MARTA train station thirty seconds late and missed it. I sat for twenty minutes waiting on the next one.

I got to the airport and headed for the Sardine Shuttle which takes me to the international terminal. There were at least forty passengers waiting to be shuttled and knew it would be a forty minute wait. I turned around went back inside, went through security and rode the dreaded Plane Train out to concourse F. I got to work seven minutes late and still beat the other servers by fifteen minutes.

The whole airport was a mad house. I should have known. When I left this morning the full moon was still bright in the sky. I got to work and before the doors even opened had people trying to get in.

Around two the bottom fell out and was busier than I have ever seen it. My last table came in around three. Nine people going to Amsterdam on a family vacation. The tab ended up being a little over $300 and the added gratuity was $60. The man left me eighty bucks extra.

Cha CHING!!!!!!!!!

Transporting myself to bed and doing it all again tomorrow!

Til next time, an extremely grateful COTTON

It's the Little Things

I was scheduled off at the restaurant here in Newnan so picked up a dinner shift at the airport. Left the house in time to stop at the gas station and get a large Coke Icee for the hot trek to the airport.

Once again the MARTA gods smiled on me and found a pretty close spot to the train entrance on my first drive through. The Sardine Shuttle was almost maxed out but slipped in between two dudes and made it to work ten minutes early. It's the little things like rapid transit going your way and being able to squeeze into a tiny spot in the Sardine Shuttle to make me feel like my day's going good.

Started out kinda slow but as the Paris flight departure got closer we got slammed. I didn't leave the restaurant until 11:20 but made over $230 on my day off and had twenty minutes to catch the 11:40 MARTA train back to the parking lot. It's a sad feeling when you miss the 11:40 because then you have to sit for twenty minutes for the next one at midnight.

I have it down to an exact science now  and a mere thirty seconds makes a huge difference.

I work way out on Concourse F and have to ride all the way back through gates E to A, then past the T gate to the last stop, ground transportation. I hustled all the way down to the first train which lets you out closest to the escalators you climb two at a time up to the terminal when the Plane Train doors open then half jog to the MARTA station another three minutes away and flat out run up the escalator steps. Most passengers don't know this, so the first car on the Plane Train is always packed with employees, all thinking the same thing "Let me make the 11:40!"

Everybody on the first Plane Train is looking at their watch or cell phone and planning their early escape when the doors open. One TSA guy keep telling another TSA guy how many minutes we had left every time it made a stop at the next gate making my tired old woman self more and more nervous.

I "HAD" to make that train!

The doors opened at ground transportation and we all elbowed each other to get out first. It looks more like a starting gate at a racetrack opening.

I beat the two even older TSA guys to the escalator and hot footed it up. They were close behind but chose the South terminal way instead of the North terminal way. One of the girls I work with told me she and another friend tried both ways, timed it and found the North terminal saved you at LEAST ten seconds.

Huffing and puffing through the MARTA turnstile and up the next escalator I made the 11:40 with about ten seconds to spare. My TSA buddies weren't so lucky.

I kept a watch on the time while driving home. By the time midnight hit and the next train was pulling into the MARTA station, I was already back in Coweta County just ten minutes away form the house.

It's the little things!

Working at the airport has certainly been a continuous and ongoing adventure. It's like working in another realm.

Tomorrow I am scheduled for a double shift here in Newnan but luckily have to leave the house only ten minutes before clocking in.

Yes, it's the little things!

Then it's back to my other realm on Saturday morning.

I got this!

I've been able to make two mortgage payments since working at the airport and now we are at least caught up. We're not ahead yet..but will be soon.

My car should be ready by this next week and can quit sponging off my next door husband for transportation. That will be another huge relief. I keep expecting to see a For Sale sign in their front yard every morning I trek over to his house to get in his little truck.

I have my "Thank You" blog saved in drafts but will post it soon. It keeps getting longer every time I think of someone else who has helped us survive this over four year journey. It may end up being as long as the Uni bomber's manifesto!

Yes I'm still tired and working too much but the feeling of getting caught up and closer to being ahead is euphoric and make every day and every shift easier.

I think this picture was taken at our wedding when the minister was asking us to repeat "For better or worse, richer or poorer."

Thank goodness I was listening!

This journey has been long and often though it would never end.

I finally think it has, and look forward to what the future holds for us.

Tim is gainfully employed again full time and in a place where he can advance.

I think my only regret is leaving Mama Lucia's full time. I feel like I am deserting them which in a way, am. But it was us or them and know they understand. They've already come around and think it is now just simply unspoken but understood.

I'm not one to forget when someone has helped me and this family has helped me out time and time again. They will always have my gratitude and sincerest admiration.

They're not too happy to lose me but know they are happy I'm moving ahead. Heck, it's a compliment to know they'll miss me.

Til next time...COTTON

Where'd All the Real People Go?

Had an excellent day. Went by the mechanic's on my way to work and made the last payment on my new used car which have been trying to get for two years. He'll install the transmission this week and hopefully by next week will actually HAVE my own car to drive.

The entire ordeal has been a nightmare but think I'll like it once I am actually sitting behind the wheel and driving it.

Putted up to the airport in my next door husband's borrowed little truck and got the first parking spot by the train station entrance.

NOW we're getting somewhere! All the Jehovah's Witnesses were long gone and made the second Sardine Shuttle. It was a tight fit but at least just a twelve minute ride. I could feel the "Big Boy" sitting smack dab next to me breathing on me he was so close.

Made it through security and into the atrium with almost twenty minutes to spare. I had time to go to the restroom, fill up the empty water bottle I brought through security and send a couple of text messages. The cable company wanted a payment, told them I'd pay online when I got off work, fluffed my hair and clocked in seven minutes early. Got all my opening duties done and since it was slow took my break and went to eat for free in the atrium. Had a nice healthy meal of two chili steaks and fries from The Varsity and was back at work in fifteen minutes.

It was the slowest shift I've worked yet but clocked out around nine thirty making $192.00.

Made the MARTA train just as the doors shut and was back in the little truck by ten after ten.

Came home and decided to pay the cable bill first.

What a joke. I couldn't even log in, rejected my username AND  password so spent ten minutes resetting both with an animated woman guiding me through the process only to be kicked off for too many tries to log in. I finally gave up and used the phone, talking with yet another animated voice. Finally got the bill paid. They sure make it hard to take your money! It made me miss the days of calling the cable company and at least speaking with an actual person, even it if was a man named Apu in Indonesia.

Then I began my "Pay It Forward" campaign again. I know my boss, Barbara now realizes this new job is one I have to keep. For all her faults, her one fascinating virtue is absolutely loving not only me but my entire family. The past four years has helped us out so much I almost feel embarrassed but instead feel eternally grateful I had my Mama Lucia's family to rely on. She's a huge wine snob and knows her stuff. The only thing I know about wine is I like to drink it. At my airport job we have a pretty extensive wine list and their best Cabernet is from the Hawkes Vineyard in  Alexander Valley, California.  They are the only restaurant in Atlanta who sell it by the glass. Twenty four dollars for one six ounce glass. If you ask me, for that price it should make you hallucinate.

I had her husband, Len covered with his three seasons of Breaking Bad I got him but was stumped as to what to get Barb when I thought of the Hawkes Cabernet. Everybody tries to buy Barb things but she's pretty picky and her tastes are normally out of my price range. I wanted to do something really special for her considering all she's done for us and wanted it to be something she would truly enjoy. I had told her about the wine when I first started working there and immediately asked what rating it had? Heck! I didn't know, but after a quick search on her husband's office lap top found out it was a 97.5.

I'm not too sure what all that means but sounds like an "A" to me and she even arched an eyebrow when I told her. I found it on line last night and had a bottle shipped to her at Mama Lucia's.

She has helped us pay our mortgage probably three or four times over the past four years and sometimes waited two weeks for me to pay her back. When we were at our weakest point, gave me all the short rolls of toilet paper out of the restrooms at work and at least once a month brings me a bag of things she "Says" she doesn't need or can't wear. Camisoles, tank tops, socks, pants, skirts and some of them still have price tags on them.

It's not like I've gone out and bought her a new car or paid somebody to secretly "off" her husband. She acts like he's a thorn in her side but know she truly loves him, just as I do.

I know I've left them high and dry on the server side and were both disappointed when I took another job but like I told them: "This isn't about you, it's about my family and what's best for us at this point in our lives."

Zach went to Mama Lucia's to eat with friends the other night for his birthday. One of our regulars, another great person I met while working there paid for Zach's entire table's tab for his birthday.

This wonderful man also paid for the central air in our house to be fixed last year when we were broke as jokes and was what felt like a billion degrees outside. I'd hate to guess how much that cost him but refused any payment and the A/C is still running like a charm.

Zach came home from his birthday dinner and told me about Thomas buying their entire meal. He asked me what he could do to repay his kindness and generosity so  told him about the Hawkes Cabernet and said we could split the price of a bottle since I really owed him too.

BAM!

Paying it forward once again.

I can't believe I waited so long to take my friend's advice and join her at this new restaurant. Like I've said before, if you have enough money to fly to Greece for a month you certainly have enough money to eat an upscale meal before boarding the flight.

I still have so many to "Pay Forward" and doing it slowly, but surely.

This time four weeks ago we were two months behind on our mortgage. I made one payment online last Friday and will be able to make another one tomorrow night when I get home from work.

My list is long, very long and may take me a while, but have a little book where I have everything written down.

My brother, sister and brother in law top the list but are family and won't mind waiting a bit. That's the way my family is and most probably the reason we survived.

The relief I feel is immense. Mentally, emotionally and physically. I still wake up tired but now it's a good tired.

What I WAS tired of, was feeling constantly distraught slipping into an abyss of depression and despair.

Life's not really much fun that way but sometimes you have to take the bumpy road to find the high road.

It's been an over five year struggle but we're "off to great places" and our mountain is waiting!


Find me somebody to love? Not a problem! Just watch this...

Oh Freddie Mercury, you always nailed it!

Til next time...COTTON

My First Semi Celebrity

Woke up when the alarm sounded on my cell phone this morning. Got up immediately remembering how I had turned it Off instead of Snooze the other day. Left the house right on time. I had to clock in at eight thirty so being Sunday with no business day commuters using the MARTA lot allowed myself an hour twenty minutes to get there, park, catch the train to the airport, catch the Sardine Shuttle to International, go through security and fast walk across the atrium climbing the escalator steps two at a time to Ecco.

Clocked in eight minutes early!

The Jehovah Witness peeps have been swarming like purple flies the entire last week at the airport for their International conference being held here in Atlanta. For a religion that doesn't celebrate holidays they sure looked like they were. I got kicked off the Sardine Shuttle for the first time the other day because they had it all filled with their bags and huge yard signs. I made the second bus with a lone straggler toting her sign.

I know a few JW's and even worked with a couple. My most vivid memory is when they built a "Kingdom Hall" about a mile up the road from our house. My two younger kids were still in elementary school and I was working for the After School Program in their school. The ASP art teacher was a JW and one day my son, Zach asked her during art class why they built their church without windows? He continued on , while painting his art project and asked if they were they doing secret experiments in there?

Zach is WAY too much like me!

I'm feeling more comfortable with every shift and kind of getting used to working in an airport restaurant. It feels like working in a hospital. There's no day time or night time. No weekends or holidays. The busiest airport (like a hospital) in the world always has people in it.

I learned me yet another trick yesterday. When I open with peeps who really don't know that well I simply walk across the food court and get "Whatever" from "Wherever" close by and bring it back to eat before we open.

Yesterday morning opened with two peeps I really like and once we got through setting up said they were going to Concourse C to get food from Atlanta Bread Company. We get up to nine bucks of free food from certain places so like a lost puppy, followed them. I LOVE Atlanta Bread Co. !!

Unfortunately I was chatting with them the entire time there and couldn't find it again if I had a compass and map.

The good news is I got one of my favorite sandwiches ever, Chicken Waldorf and a bowl of vegetable soup for free ninety nine.

Today I opened with just one of them and got all excited when we got ready to open early and she mentioned making the trek to Atlanta Bread again.

I tried to pay attention to all the twists, turns, different elevators and which plane train we took and which way we turned when getting off but just gave up. I got me a freebie Bella Chicken sandwich, huge cinnamon bun and a fresh banana to boot!

At this rate I'll be up to my fighting weight in no time.

This place all depends on departure times and preferences of destinations.  You don't get slammed with peeps traveling to Yemen but Paris, Italy and Amsterdam will profit you greatly.

It started slow, good thing with my little belly full of good grub! By two o'clock the Italy and Paris flights were nearing, things picked up and by six walked out with over two hundred dollars.

One of my last tables was an older couple who told me they were flying to Italy. They were very nice and after the man ordered the Trout told them it was caught locally in Rome, Georgia. The wife said her son lived in Rome and managed a baseball team. When they paid the bill,  noticed on the card his name was  John Scheurholz.

 Dang, he was president of the Atlanta Braves organization!

When returning his card with the check asked if he was with The Bravos? He smiled and said he was. I told him my sister was their biggest long time fan. He nodded but when I added, oh she's loved you guys since  Rico Carty

Bob Didier

Felix Milan

Phil Niekro

and Hammering Hank!

That got his attention.

He commented I certainly had a dedicated sister to the team.

He don't know the half of it!!

I told them both to stop back by on their way home from their trip.

After they left, thought of a story about my sister's older son, also a huge Braves fan. When he was little, very little my sister and her husband bought him a rocking horse for Christmas. This was almost twenty five years ago.

Steve Bedrosian played for the Braves back then. On Christmas morning my nephew was all excited about his new rocking horse and his dad said as he was rocking away on it, "You need to give it a name."

My nephew Casey (Casey at the bat) simply and quietly said he already had. His dad asked him what he named it and he said "Bedrock."

I keep thinking I'm jinxing myself by talking about how great I'm doing but have  just decided to accept the fact that "Karma" finally rolled around our way.

It's so pleasant to go to bed without the fear of foreclosure, it's not even funny.

Rolling into bed and back to the airport tomorrow.

Til next time...COTTON

Guess With This Ten Pound Weight Lifted I'm Down to 85 Pounds But Sure Feels Good!

Let's talk about the "Elephant in the room." For five years we've been tip toeing and stepping around him.

Guess what? I think he's gone!

I was terrified to take a new job even if it was a second one, keeping my current comfortable job. It was twenty five miles from home, not on a bus route and didn't even own a car. I think our mortgage company urged me on the most, us being two months behind and getting five calls a day from the greedy rat bast after never being late one time in fourteen years until all the turmoil started, then spiraled.

Boy, Michael hit this nail on the head!

With much prayer and conferring with people most important to me, decided to take a leap of faith. We were close to losing our house four years from pay off and Hells Fargo wanted it. No upside down mortgage but a house they could sell for 100% profit. Not going to happen if I could help it.

I'll never know why God chose me to travel this path but right about now wish I knew Heaven's address to send Him a Thank You note.

The two weeks of training for my new job almost killed me or at least felt that way. I was overwhelmed, stressed out and on top of that borrowing a vehicle from my next door husband every time I had to be there.

My first day on the floor made almost two hundred dollars in tips and had faked it the entire shift. On top of that got "Secret Shopped" by Fifth Group, the parent company. I got a 78, a terrible score but the home office contacted the managers and said considering it was my first shift could have been a lot worse and gave me credit for  doing a LOT better than they would have expected from a first day server.

Then eight days later I get shopped again. What are the odds of THAT? I got a 95 though. Suddenly I was doing not just okay but doing GREAT.

By this time it was the end of June and my last day off had been May 24th. I was running on fumes and out of gas quick. I would wake up in the mornings confused until Tim told me what day it was and where I needed to go, by what time.

Working at the airport has been another job all in itself. I have to navigate parking at the MARTA lot, allowing myself time to stalk someone back to their car and snag their spot and also time getting there  to coincide with the next available train to the airport, forty seconds away.  Then have to sweet talk my way onto the Sardine Shuttle because employees take second priority. Then going through security is always a hit or miss with the TSA. They either act like you're trying to blow up the airport with the empty water bottle in your bag or could care less and ask why you are still standing there?

I've gotten everything down to a science except the job itself but working on that too. I usually just ask the more senior servers what I need to do when have done everything I know to do.

In the two weeks I've been on the floor have managed to bring home enough to make a mortgage payment, buy gas for my borrowed vehicle, staples for the house and even food for the pups.

The answer was simple. I had to step out of my comfort zone and into a world which not only scared but intimidated me.

I'm not making many friends at the new place but have made a few. Not sure if they intimidate me or if I intimidate them but my bosses seem to like me and isn't that the bottom line? I have a lot to learn but learn it I will.

Worked forty days in a row and thought I would collapse but my boss at the local job gave me a day off yesterday. I slept twelve hours and woke up still tired.

I checked in on my blog, my baby and saw a comment from a reader in Ireland. She had traveled through the Atlanta airport the day before and mentioned she wished she had known I was at work and would have stopped by to say hello.

How fantastic is that? Someone from Ireland who reads my blog was actually in the concourse where I work and could have stopped by to meet me? Shout out to "Enie Dub".

I went into my local job today, thinking they would be all hating on me for abandoning them four days a week.

Quite the opposite. They seemed happy I was making financial progress and although know will hate losing me those four days a week, support me in my new venture.

I am a blessed, beyond blessed woman, wife and mother.

Headed back to the chaos of the airport tomorrow but making such significant strides it even impresses me!

No longer afraid of failure but excited for our future and  feels really good. It's a pleasant change and WAY overdue.

Til next time...COTTON

Feels Good to Wear Street Clothes!

I fell into bed around a little after two AM last night, early considering I didn't get home from work til after midnight. Scheduled off at my local restaurant on Thursday had volunteered to work at the airport.

By force of habit, woke up before seven this morning, struggled to remember what day it was and where and when I needed to be at work? Satisfied that it was indeed Thursday,  rolled back over and slept soundly for another six hours. I got up and sent a text to my manager at the airport asking if he needed me and chilled for another hour, horizontally. The dogs love it when I lay around like they do and hover right by me the entire time, not moving either.

Feeling somewhat normal I got up and left the house by two to run errands in case they called me into work. Sitting at the bank drive through got a text from the airport saying they didn't need me. Last night I was all psyched about working again and padding the kitty. Today I just wanted to lay around and pet my dogs.

The thing is you don't realize how tired you are until work suddenly comes to a stop and temporarily have your life back. Today is the first time in forty days I haven't been in a work uniform and felt good to be in shorts, flip flops and a tank top. Bad news is my toenails look horrible, desperately need painting and the corn on my left pinkie toe seems to have tripled in size.

I was gone for over three hours running errands and paying bills. By the time I got home felt exhausted again as I pulled into the subdivision. My spirits immediately lifted when I saw Tim had cut the front yard while I was gone, borrowing our neighbor's push mower. Johnny Dear broke a bolt on his decking last time I cut the front of the subdivision and is in the hospital (aka my next door husband's garage) while Dr.'s Zach and Kevin try to mend him.

We missed our garbage pick up last week so we're overflowing, mostly with flies. I stopped by Mama Lucia's while out and got a couple of the huge thick bags they use. I stuffed three bucks in Len's chef coat pocket before I left. Bless his heart, it's probably more cash than he's had in his pocket since last time I bought bags from him. Barb runs a tight financial ship.

I had to stop for gas on the way home from work last night and broke my last pair of cute peepers I wear at work to be able to read, write and use the computers. I stopped by Michael's and picked up three more pair. They were on sale and three pair for eight bucks!

I went by Home Depot to try and get a car key made for Tim. His is bound together by more duct tape than prom dresses those chicks are making and going viral with wearing. I was waiting for any guy in an orange vest to walk by the abandoned key making booth on aisle fifteen when suddenly felt so light headed I simply sat down on the concrete floor. Good news is I felt better after sitting down. Bad news is we'll need a locksmith for a new key.

Bought a Milky Way on the way out and made me feel a lot better. Junk always does.

Tim bagged up all the excess garbage when I got home and is grilling out burgers as I type.

I don't have to be at Mama Lucia's til five tomorrow so guess I can officially call this a vacation, certainly feels like one.

I'm gonna do my toe nails and finger nails. I'm gonna match socks (the mis matched sock basket is ridiculous) and live with all men. They'll put on two of ANYTHING which keeps the mis matched thing going...sheesh!

I'm gonna go all crazy and take a bubble bath, shave my European looking arm pits and legs and drink a cold one.

I'm still in disbelief that we're finally digging out of this hole we've been in for five years but refuse to deny it any longer.

Karma, Pay it Forward, Omens and simply being blessed have finally paid off. I won't say it hasn't been hard because it has, but has taught me more about life than any woman sitting on a beach in the south of France could ever read about in an issue of Cosmo.

Tomorrow I'll suit back up but today I'm just a momma. Talked with Massey as I was driving from place to place today. TJ poked his head in and chatted with me briefly while waking up from my twelve hour slumber. Zach came home after surgery on my Johnny Dear in the neighbor's garage and thanked me for sewing up a pair of his butt ripped work jeans. Tim's got the burgers ready and I'm gonna stuff two down.

You know what? Seems I've been a winner all along.

Til next time...COTTON

Forty Days and Forty Nights

I guess I didn't even need to read the book to find out the formula! I just hit the forty day mark in my current work week and discovered the formula all on my own.

Hard work pays off.

I clocked out at 11:00 and had twenty minutes to make the 11:20 MARTA train back to the parking lot or have to wait another twenty for the 11:40. Waiting twenty minutes when you're beat like a drum makes a huge difference in how you feel at the end of yet another long day. Got off the plane train at 11:17 and ran up the escalator to the terminal, rounded the corner and fast walked all the way to the MARTA station. Everyone in front of me was running, with the same goal in mind so I gave in and jogged through the turnstiles and flat out ran up the escalator behind them as they were all all shouting up to other friends already on top "Make it wait, hold the doors, don't let it leave!"

I slid in as the bell started to ding, letting you know the train was departing. The doors shut when I saw a co worker, actually the girl who was wonderful enough to get me on at the airport appear at the top of the stairs hustling her way over to the train when it took off with her less than five feet from the door.

Been there done that!

It's a terrible feeling. Number one you're already exhausted from a long hard shift and totally out of breath from running, And number two now you have twenty more minutes to wait before another train comes. When you miss the train by seconds (like I did the other night) it makes you wish you had just taken your time and slowly walked to the train. That way you aren't worn out from running and will have less time to wait for the next one.

It's all been a learning experience for me. First off learning how to even find my way to security in domestic. Then I learned how to catch the Sardine Shuttle and go through security at the International terminal where the lines are much shorter.

Then I had to learn how to become what seemed like a brain surgeon in fourteen days. Then much to my amazement they thought I was trained enough to be one and put me on the floor. Then I learned how to fake it til I could make it.

I've learned every short cut from every person I could, from how to get to the plane train quicker to how to get off it quicker.

I now have my Masters degree in navigating a MARTA parking lot to find a good spot to park and my PHD in planning exactly, down to the minute what time I need to leave the house on certain days for work.

Unbelievably I called Mama Lucia's to see what time I worked on Thursday and Friday and found they hadn't scheduled me at all on Thursday.

I'm picking up another shift at the airport on Thursday, just asked if I could work the three thirty shift which will give me until two before having to leave the house.

I'd really like a day off, but if  work another shift at the airport will be closer to being able to do so.

After that last good Shopper Report, think they like me more.

I have a few errands to run in the morning but will be just fine going in at three thirty. If I took the day off, I'd be missing making maybe two hundred more dollars which is huge to us right now.

Yes I'm tired but exhilarated at the same time. I'm finally moving ahead, finding my groove in the new place and making a name for myself with the managers. They now all seem to realize what a hard worker they took a chance on and will benefit not only me but them as well.

Even some of the peeps who were pretty hard on me at first are easing up a bit on Granny Clampett.

I guess just like every new job, you have to prove yourself to be accepted.

This picture looks SO much like me it's scary. From the wrinkles and gray hair to the peepers perched on her nose, although you wouldn't catch me dead in that dress.

So I'll work another shift at the airport tomorrow (now today) and go back to Mama Lucia's on Friday for my weekly local performance.

I think Barb and Len know what's coming. As much as I love them both,  have to do what's best for my family and right now it's working this new job. If Tim moves up with this new company and eventually makes enough again to support us solely on his salary, I'll be happy as a clam to only have to drive seven minutes to work. I actually think they gave me Thursday off to let me HAVE a day off. It was gracious and sweet of them and the thought was wonderful but on the other hand gives me one more day to  bank big.

I've made enough to make a mortgage payment, making us only one month behind and next Thursday when  get paid from the airport will have another one making us current.

I can't say enough bad things about "Hells" Fargo, who currently holds our mortgage. For fourteen years were never late ONE time with a payment. When things went downhill for us their greedy pockets wanted our house, only four years away from pay off. They could take our house and sell it for a hundred percent profit.

Well, they can kiss my skinny little ninety eight pound butt.

I found a way to pay the mortgage when they wouldn't help us with modification or refinancing. As a matter of fact I've found a way to make two mortgage payments in one month.

They can stick THAT in their pipe and smoke it.

Barb has her faults, who doesn't? She can be a tough old bird but came by it honestly. Her father died when she was a toddler and grew up dirt poor with her mother and sister living with in laws who didn't even really want them. She's a miser and can pinch a penny until it screams.

For some reason, and think it's most probably because she's seen me struggle the entire four and a half years I've worked for them, has always had my back. She's loaned me money for utility bills scheduled to be cut off, money to make the mortgage payment and even money to buy dog food when my pups didn't have any. I affectionately call her "Mrs. Drysdale ". (the banker's wife from the Beverly Hillbillies)

Without her generosity and help,  would have never even made it this far.

Yes I feel tremendous loyalty to them both.

Len, her husband  is also wonderful to me... and wonderful isn't even in his vocabulary. Most of his words are four lettered. So what I've worked forty days in a row? That would be like a vacation to him. He's almost ten years older than I am and works seven days a week, EVERY week. He puts up not only with Mrs. Drysdale but with their son, Jethro who works for (and sometimes against) them.

Yes they are a dysfunctional family but living the American dream. Own their own business and adhere to their own rules.

These two people have helped me out time and time again, and you know why? It's because they know how hard I work. It's because they know I am loyal. It's because they have come to love me.

I love them both right back, and then some.

Going to bed, waking up tomorrow/today knowing that change is finally happening around here and is all for the better.

A very grateful and blessed COTTON.

What A Relief

Since starting this new second job have had to be an Early Bird three days a week. Not my forte.

I had to get my son,  Zach to show me how to set the alarm on my iPhone.

Well technically, no pretty much ACTUALLY he did it for me but you get the drift.

When I first got a cell phone my kids (all still in high school then) teased me when saw I didn't know how to send a text using "word" on our old Verizon flip phones. If I was going to start the text with "Hello" I would hit the number four button twice for the letter "H" on my phone. Then would press the number three on my phone twice so the letter "E" would appear next. Then I'd hit the number five three times twice to put two "L's" into the beginning of my text message after the letters "H" and "E" which already appeared on the screen. (I always liked those two letters, they made me look like I was doing it really fast)

In other words it would take me five minutes to type "Hello!"


Wait a minute, make that seven if had included the exclamation point and parenthesis. I was terrible with the "Symbols" key, where it made a capital letter or gave you options for punctuation marks. I never understood why it was marked with the letters "fn". Hang on... Did they mean "Function" key?

Dag Nabit! NOW I get it!!

Looking back it's a wonder I even knew how to make or receive a call.

Massey and Zach made fun of me for a while but then gave me a tutorial on changing my settings under texting to "word" and told me how to just simply start typing a word and the word would finally just pop onto the screen like Magic!

I'm telling you it FELT like magic!! How in the world did a cell phone know what word I was trying to type? That's just CRAZY!

It was kinda a spooky moment for me.

Looks like I've come a long way! I should have started with a "Jitter Bug".


Anyway, back to my alarm for this morning. I'm still not real savvy with using it and just recently learned how to make it hit the snooze button.

I LIKE that snooze button! Especially when I have to be at work by eight thirty on the morning of my thirty eighth day in a row of work.

I decided I could snooze fifteen more minutes when it went off at six ten this morning.

At seven, woke up with a start when I saw what the clock read. I should be getting into my next door husband's borrowed truck RIGHT NOW!

I had turned the alarm to off instead of snooze, although "Snooze" is what I had been unknowingly enjoying for almost an hour.

I skipped a real bath or shower...did it the old fashioned "Ho" way. I was in the truck by seven twenty and even had some makeup on.

Made awesome time to the MARTA station and although had to park quickly far away from the station as opposed to stalking people who were leaving and grabbing a closer spot, still made the eight o'clock train right as the doors began to close. It's a good thing I did, I don't know if I weigh enough to stop the doors from shutting on me. Got to the airport by 8:05 and the Sardine Shuttle line by 8:06.

Then just as my luck would have it, they had an old dude in a wheelchair stuck in the Sardine Can Shuttle I needed to get on. For Pete's sake, if the lift mechanism isn't working properly on the van, instead of five of you who work for the shuttle service trying to fix it for over ten minutes, just tote the old man's chair off! It's only two steps down, heck I've FALLEN down both of them and lived to tell the story.

Well anyway I got to work five minutes late and was still the first one there. So much for hurrying. And to think I did all that rushing on a still bum and swollen ankle from another fall!

Jeez though, it feels wonderful to have gotten shopped twice in less than eight days from my initial shift on the floor at the new place, improved my score by almost twenty points and is still under the one month mark since starting to serve there.

I'm sure the first day I walked in there most everyone was asking "Who hired Granny Clampett with her butch looking hair cut and all those wrinkles?"

Well Granny's still here and beginning to feel pretty stinking good that she can not only keep up with you younguns but still beat you to work most mornings.

I haven't made a lot of friends, most all are in their twenties and would be embarrassed to call an old fart like me a friend but that's okay. I'm not there to make friends, I'm there to make money. All are pleasant to me and the ones who don't seem to want to bffls with me at least acknowledge my presence and help me when I ask for it.

It's like I'm learning to Text all over again.

The few older chicks there who are all at least ten years younger than me are really nice. I guess I give them hope for their own future as a professional server.

I got off around five thirty and dragged myself back to the Sardine Shuttle feeling like I WAS Granny Clampett.  No wheelchair stuck old dude on the ride back but an annoying woman right next to me who griped at her husband loudly the entire twelve minutes back to the domestic terminal where I catch the MARTA train back to my next door husband's borrowed vehicle. My feet were throbbing and I wasn't even on them. The more she griped at her husband, the more my feet hurt.

I wanted to ask if it had been HER money that had taken them both to France for three weeks or his?

I bet THAT was a fun trip for him.

It was at least two hundred degrees as I walked back to the truck after getting off the MARTA train with now a throbbing head AND two feet.

By the time I got back to Newnan my makeup was running down my face and my eyes were blurry. I had all the buttons on my shirt unbuttoned except the middle one hiding my cheap bra covering my ant bites.

It's been a tough few weeks and is beginning to show. Mentally and physically.

I walked in the house sweating like a fat man digging ditches in the Sahara Desert mid August with a small garden spade in long pants and a long sleeved shirt.

I looked around the house and thought of tons of things I needed to do, then sat down and all the thoughts went away.

I sat down at the computer and did what "I" like to do. Write about it.

I feel better now.

I don't know if I make others laugh but make myself laugh when I write about my always crazy day.

Added bonus:

Came home after my seemingly million degree trip back to the house and Tim had the oven in the kitchen on 400 degrees to cook some chicken for dinner. We have one air duct in the kitchen for A/C and was already seventy seven degrees downstairs where the kitchen is.

I Don't Think So.

Dug out a coupon for Philly Cheese steaks from my favorite Take out place and sent Tim to pick them up.

I'll be in bed before long and even already feel better just doing what "I" wanted for an hour or two...write about my day.

HUGE shout out to my dear friend, Oopsie. You literally saved us. Thank you !



Til next time...Granny COTTON