It's A Crazy World But's All We Have

The recent bombings and attacks overseas disturb me greatly. Actually all  attacks on innocent people alarm me more than words can convey.

It's almost like these terroristic cells are in a pissing contest, which really pisses me off. Until the entire world comes together as one united force, will we ever be rid of this pathetic small corn on the pinkie toe of earth. By entire world I mean every country and nation. I mean Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Greeks, Christians, Agnostics and non believers. I mean huge corporations, technology giants and billionaires with plenty of money to spare. I mean every military and every organization.

We need to all stick our heads out this small broken window of life called terrorism and scream:

"I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE"

Bet the sick bastards would listen THEN !!

Of course, that's just me and I'm kinda crazy anyway. Look at me in the above photo...I scream NUTS.


On to happier topics...

I'm still not sure how or why I landed my current job almost two years ago but am more grateful each and every day. Bonus points I've even gotten to work there with two of my kids.

My youngest is working with me there now, putting herself through her third year of college all on her own dime. I've worked with all three of my kids over the years. They grew up with me working in the restaurant industry and have all three dabbled in it along the way,  often working beside me.

TJ worked with me there when I first started.

 He needed a good job, I'd just landed one and they were looking for another server. They loved TJ and he was great at his job. The above photo is from the company Christmas party last year.

I'll have to say Massey tolerates me better at work. Well...not at work but on the way to and from.


TJ was mortified by things I would laugh at, say out loud or to other people. One case in point, the time the elevator doors opened on the second floor of the parking garage while we were riding with two other totally unknown males passengers simply going back to their vehicles. The doors opened and I said (in total old school elevator opening door announcements) "Second floor....ladies lingerie."

They both stood there, then one moved forward to get off  then reconsidered but finally moved out dragging his suitcase behind him. When the doors shut the other guy cracked up.

TJ rolled his eyes, looked away from me and shook his head.

Crazy, his dad does the same thing a lot with me.

We were broke back then and I still rode Marta to work. Added four hours of time to each work day and was a pain  but saved us tons of money.

I was totally mesmerized with and by a woman who rode with us. TJ would roll his eyes every time I got out my cell to tape her but not once in six months did she ever look at me once.

She zips and unzips her purse over seventy times in less than two minutes and is just fine with that.

It's like what's goes on in my  brain every waking moment. We were twins!

Then there was the dude on the shuttle bus who voluntarily sat very far away from all three of us other passengers on a bus for fourteen people.

TJ still insists I said it loudly (when I took this this picture) but couldn't resist:

"Nobody puts Bobby in a corner!"

I laughed about it for weeks...and just did.

Five years ago we were flat slap broke. The financial noose turned into a choker and even I couldn't find anything to laugh about.

Both siblings I have, other family members and every person I ever called a friend; acquaintances and even strangers came to our rescue.

If  around a hundred people can save my  family...why can't almost seven billion of us save ourselves from 184,000 idiots?

There's got to be an answer I don't know about but wish I did.


Maybe Jimi had it right.

Til next time...COTTON

Operation Heaven Over Population

Like the old person I am quickly becoming, went to yet another funeral today. Met up with two high school friends at another old peeps hangout, Cracker Barrel for lunch before the service.

Dick Lane was a state representative for my old home town of East Point for decades. I grew up and attended school from kindergarten through high school with his daughters. He was also the superintendent of the Parks and Recreation department for East Point and was known, respected and liked by everyone. My parents were friends with them as well and I spent many hours and nights at their house.

I got to be a page at the state capitol with his daughter one year. We pretty much did nothing but hang out in the snack bar eating tomato soup and crackers but it was an awesome day out of school. Laurie was always tall blonde and beautiful and I pretty much always looked like a short skinny boy.

Not much has changed.

We worked together at the East Point swimming pool in the summers during high school. The pool was a hangout for every kid in East Point. I took swimming lessons there when I was five and spent every day of every summer after there...then worked there when I turned fourteen or fifteen.

There was an old juke box blaring out "Ride Captain Ride" "Brandy" and all the other old hits while you bought frozen candy bars from Old Nash (Mrs. Nash who ran the concession stand) and ate them on the blazing hot painted concrete sun deck.


It was great to grow up in East Point, Georgia.

When I was still a little girl, Mr. Lane even took our Bluebird troupe for a tour of the state capitol.

We all attended Harris Street School. They never called it Harris Street Elementary. Don't ask me why... and still not sure. It even said that across the bottom of all our class pictures.

Then we moved on to high school and cheered together. High school in East Point was just as fun if not more than elementary school. We grew up in a "Leave it to Beaver" town and roots went deep. If you grew up in East Point, you'll always be an East Pointer. We have reunions where sometimes hundreds show up, once even over a thousand.

We may have drifted away and apart over the years but thanks to modern technology and social networking have all re connected and still stay in now constant cyber touch. It's great to have been part of a community which refuses to die, even when one of them literally does.

We all show up and give each other that ole East Point support. We reminisce, retell stories and introduce kids, grand kids, partners and new friends.

We laughed, we loved and we smiled.

We all grew up less than eight minutes from the heart of the largest city in the south east but kept our small town feel and appeal. We remember where we came from and feel proud to.

If the world had as much love as my hometown did and does it would be a much better place to live.

It is sad for my friends to lose their father but was great to grow up in a city he was so instrumental in making a terrific place to live. He's gone on to his just and much deserved reward and joined the hundreds and hundreds who got there even before he did.

He's probably drafting a city charter as I type for the East Point Angels.

Til next time...an older EP COTTON

Getting Ready For "Winterization"

I was born in summer. I had all my kids in summer. I got married in late summer. I live for summer. I can cut grass in hundred degree heat and enjoy every moment. We had our Indian summer last week and just so happened on my last day off. I had to cut grass and my Johnny Dear was sickly so had to old school "Push". I sweated like a three hundred pound fat dude in a corduroy suit with the vest buttoned. It wasn't easy but even more rewarding to see my handiwork done on foot pushing a mower uphill over rough terrain...and survived to tell the story.

 I have six months to get Johnny running again before I need him. My neighbor around the corner I bought him from is going to try and weld the decking. He's a pretty handy guy and bet he can do it.

My life has kinda taken the same course. I was riding a mower for years and years and years. It was a piece of cake. Then life's riding mower broke and I had to push. After riding a mower, pushing seemed a lot harder, and was.

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

After self pity didn't seem to help, I put on my helmet and chased the elusive cheese.

Once people noticed my helmet, they helped as well.

It's taken us well over half a decade...but are back on the road and doing better than ever.

Granted my husband is living a thousand miles away but has a great job and we will all be together again in less than a year's time.

To sum up what happened to us takes three words.

"We were broke." (for a while)

Over the course of going from sitting on easy street to almost living under a bridge (felt that way at the time) and coming back stronger and even better, have had time to reflect and think of things which have happened to ones around us; ones close and dear and ones not so close but also dear to our hearts.

We've never lost or had to bury one of our children. I can count at least ten of our friends who have.

We've never been without a roof over our heads. Hundreds of millions have and still are.

Our kids have been healthy. They may have wanted more at times than we could give  but never been devastated by cancer or life threatening illness. Many of my friends or people we know haven't been that lucky.

Our house never burned to the ground.

My husband never died and neither have I.

No one in our family committed suicide.

We've both lost jobs but always found another one.

My husband nor I have ever been hospitalized or needed to be institutionalized. (unless you ask my husband who would be right about me being just a notch away from certifiably crazy)

We didn't have insurance for over ten years but have great insurance now.

A lot of our friends have no family support system. I have the greatest brother and sister in the world.

I've always been a waitress and lucky for us, people always eat out.

Thanks to another dear friend of mine, I now have the greatest serving job in the world and make more money than I deserve.

I know now.

It took me a while so obviously am a slow learner but at least am a learner!

You get what you give.
If you're not getting, you need to be giving more.

There's always the exception to the rule but luckily we skirted around that one.

I was at work just tonight, talking with one of the cooks. He made the comment "I wish more servers were like you."

That's the biggest compliment I think I've ever gotten. (Thank you Rashaad)

Here's a man who hands down is one of  the reasons I make the money I do. More servers need to realize this.

Life is a food chain. (the zombies just represent my addiction to The Walking Dead)

Eat or be eaten.

I plan to survive and baby, we're surviving!

Sometimes you just gotta step up and step out.

Til next time...COTTON

Almost Giddy

Five years ago we were lost in a sea of financial despair and constant, almost all consuming worry. 

I used to relentlessly coupon. I used to write bad checks to keep utilities on because was cheaper than the cut off and reconnect fee. I thought about trying to make strawberry frosting one time for a cake out of the strawberry conditioner I got for .59 (not really...did think about it and chuckled but you get the gist). My sister's Sunday School class paid to have our septic system pumped when it backed up. A customer at the restaurant where I worked paid well over a grand to have our A/C fixed one hot long, broke summer. We had friends and we had strangers simply give us gift cards or drop a cabinet full of food by in person.

I felt like I should be ashamed but wasn't in the least.

I was relieved beyond belief.

I was unbelievably amazed and we will all be eternally grateful.

Every lucky person needs a mid life humbling and I was way overdue.

I was also fortunate enough to have over a quarter century of fun filled, easy breezy years where my biggest worry was what to cook for supper.

I was even more fortunate in our downward spiral to have two wonderful siblings, countless friends... even strangers who simply helped in so many ways I couldn't keep count.

They all Paid It Forward.

It's a concept that could  (would) change the world.

It's like a reverse pyramid scheme.

Instead of encouraging others to join your plan, make them underlings while you profit... help ones who need it and hope one day they too will feel inspired to Pay It Forward.

I am feeling it...and have been for over a year now.

I had an awesome mentor...our service manager, Damir. I miss my Muslim buddy every day.

When I got my new job was absolutely and well deservedly petrified. I was a fish out of water and definitely a Clampett. Damir scared me as well. He's a true professional and was hard on me. At the time I thought he was picking on me but learned over the course of almost a year that he was only educating and making me change for the better as a server. Every single time he saw me do something wrong or the improper way, he'd correct me. I always countered with my standard "Yes sir." I get the compliments I do now about my service because of him.

I'm the server I am today because of this man and just adds one more thing to what I'm eternally grateful for. On his last day I gave him a blinged out turban with his nickname on it and a shirt with pork on it. (touche') He wore both out the front door of the restaurant when he left.

I purposely didn't work the last day he worked...I would have cried.
My daughter worked though and shot this video of his last speech to us all.

I know now what I have to sell... my self and all which makes me a good server. I've learned how to let guests experience joy, thanks to Damir.

Lucky beyond belief and ready to do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next!

Til next time...COTTON

Getting Closer Every Day

We played the poor hand for well over five years and has paid off quite handsomely. All bills are current, both have great jobs with great benefits,  excellent insurance and getting closer every day to being together once again.

My husband is almost halfway done with his two year stint away from the family working in Lubbock and getting closer to home every day. I know he misses us terribly but stepped up, did what was best for the family in the long run and admire him for doing it...for us.

Meanwhile I'm here keeping the home fire burning and almost feel bad for how happy I am with my job here at home. The house is coming around nicely and every couple of weeks make improvements and fix things that have needed fixing for literally years.

Tim left in early February, came home for a week at the end of July and wasn't planning on coming home again until January.

His sister from California hooked him up with her frequent flier miles and he's going to be able to come home Christmas Eve and stay until December twenty seventh.

EXCELLENT!

This crazy bunch will all celebrate and berate together this year. Trust me, it will be a day of much fun, many laughs and hugs and memories will be made once again.

Work has been awesome for me and go in every day grateful beyond belief.

I get to work with my bestie every weekend; who has turned out to be a wonderful young woman who works hard, paying her way through her third year of college and is loved by all. I asked her just today how she liked having a crazy momma and her coy smile said it all. We laugh every day, vent every night and is an adventure I tremendously enjoy.

Zach's doing great, working two jobs and making that money. TJ's doing just as well and starting a new life with his own little family.

 Then he went ahead and added another person for us to love.

My kids aren't kids anymore.

They are three young adults going forth and conquering life with a vengeance.

For over half a decade I've dreaded Christmas coming. Nobody likes to get excited about having to do their shopping at Dollar General using coupons.

This year I say "BRING IT!"

We're not going overboard, I never do but sure will be nice to have money to fix a nice dinner,  get the people you love something they need or want and see a sincere smile on their face when opening it.

Til next time...COTTON