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April 06, 2006

The First Week Of April

I left work last Thursday about 2:15. I hadn't sleep much at all the night before and I was just going to take a nap before I left town. The next thing I knew, it was after 7pm. Then I couldn't sleep, I was still awake at 4:45 and finally decided to just order a movie on OnDemand. About 7am I finished watching Elizabethtown and tried to go back to sleep. I think I slept till about 10:45 and then I got up and packed for my long weekend.

I got to "TheArmpitOfHell" just in time to meet my parents for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. A wonderful margarita and prime rib later we headed home and enjoyed my only bit of "bumming" I would be able to take on my vacation.

The next morning my mother woke up and called a few of my grandmother's friends and told them that we would have birthday cake and to drop by if they could between 1pm and 5pm. She left to go buy snack-stuff for the party and I got ready. My dad came home from work and we went and picked up the cake and the party trays and met my mom at my grandparents. While my aunt kept grandparents, Nana and Peep, busy in the other end of the house, we set up the table for her 87th birthday party.

We sang Happy Birthday and then I walked around and took pictures of the all the beautiful flowers and birthday cards she had received so far.

This stack doesn't include the cards she actually received on her birthday or late.

Not long after we sang, the party started. Friends and neighbors started to ring the doorbell. Nana was surprised and it was fun to see her get so excited to see who else was at the door.

The next door neighbor and her granddaughters. The two girls painted Nana birthday cards.

The neighbors from across the street and catty-corner. The little old guy in the front right corner of the picture is 92 years old and still goes and paints and helps build houses for Habitat for Humanity.

And then some people from church showed up.

This sweet little old lady is 91 years old, still drives herself around and kept telling my Nana she had a few years to catch up. Later that evening when mail came, the birthday card this lady had sent arrived. It was a picture of a cake with a bunch of candles with the Caption: "Who's Counting?". You open up the card and on the inside it says: "Who Could?"

A couple from church leaving after the party.

Another couple leaving, with my aunt directing them to look at the camera.

Nana's Sunday School teacher and her husband. I have no idea what Peep is looking at.

One of Nana's favorite people. The postman. She had so many cards he came in to hand deliver them and to give her a birthday hug and the birthday card from HIM. We sent him off with a plate full of cake.

How many people do you know that get flowers from the FlowerShop Owner? She keeps him in business the rest of the year sending flowers to people so he always remembers her birthday, and delivers it to her personally.

At the end of the day! Happy Happy Happy Birthday Nana! I hope I look that good when I'm 87. As one of your guests said.. you don't look a day over 70.

After the party, my parents drove thru a new mexican place and got dinner and we went home and DIED! I slept till noon on Sunday and then after watching the original Yours, Mine and Ours I packed up my stuff and headed to Houston.

I drove thru Smalltown, TX (where I lived from 1999 - 2002) and got BBQ at one of Ness(a)Lee's favorite places, and then drove the rest of the way to my best friend's house. We printed out resumes and references, maps and iteneraries and then went to sleep.

Monday, after she left for work I got dressed up in my "interview suit" and drove over to the Galleria area to meet with a recruiter, VS. She had me take a typing test and a test over Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I only typed 64 words per minute but I made 96% or above on the three office tests. I probably could have typed faster but it was a flat style keyboard and I can't hardly type on anything but ergonomic keyboards anymore.

After looking at my resume and asking about the jobs I have had she decided that I must have been a "gifted student" and that she was not surprised at all that my experiences were scattered all over the place.

From teaching, to accounting and IT, to restaurant management, to pricing. She said that many "gifted" people have a hard time focusing on one set career because they have so many talents in so many different areas that deciding on one may not fulfill their career desires since it is hard to utilize every niche and talent.

I wouldn't call myself gifted, but if she wanted to call me that I wasn't going to argue. Especially since the part of it kinda sorta sounded like she was actually talking about me. I left there feeling really good and hopeful that she would be able to find me a job in Houston.

Then I went to another placement agency and this time I wasn't greeted with the glowing praise I had just left. This lady, KT, was all over negative. She didn't understand what I was looking for, exactly how I managed to have so many different job experiences and what really sent her into orbit was "I just dont know how to schedule you for interviews when you are in Dallas." VS didn't seem to think it was a problem and was more than satisfied with my "give me 48 hours notice and I will drive down here," that was just not acceptable to KT.

After that I went to Kinkos, printed out some more resumes and as I was about to leave that part of Houston I got a call from Nessa and she met me at a gas station on the corner for a couple of minutes to say hi! Then I drove clear over to the north side of Houston near Greenspoint Mall to go to a job fair. Can you say WASTE OF TIME? UM, yeah! I walked in, walked around and looked at the 10-15 companies that had booths set up and walked out.

It was time to head back to my parents but I had to go get something first. I drove back down to the NW side of town and stopped at a restaurant on 290. My parents left Houston in 2001 and of all the millions of wonderful restaurants in the Houston metropolitan area that my mother could possibly miss... she misses James Coney Island the most. My dad and I do not understand this obsession since neither of us will even eat hot dogs, but we try to keep her happy anyway.

Since Monday was also my parent's 35th wedding anniversary, I stopped and bought my mother 6 hot dogs (with everything on the side so they wouldn't get soggy) and took them to her. I got back just in time to eat dinner with them at Red Lobster and then drive back to Dallas.

It took me nearly 4 hours to get home Monday night. A trip that should, on a normal basis, take no longer than 2 hours TOPS! I would say of the 110 mile trip, 90% of the first 70 miles was blocked down to one lane because of construction.

Today, 5th, would have been my dad's mom's, Grandmommie, birthday. She left us in June 2001. We miss you Grandmommie!

Yesterday was a long but not too painful day back at work. I actually had a little bit of work to do and that always helps. Today was about the same. Tomorrow we are having a training meeting and ExcelLady will be there. Send good vibes that I don't slap the Big-hair right off her well-manicured and fake-tanned body. At least they are taking us to lunch afterwards.

When my parents were deciding to get married in 1971 they thought it would be neat to get married smack-dab in between their mother's birthdays. I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time, but man that makes for one long First Week Of April.

Posted by FutureFoodTVStar at April 6, 2006 01:14 AM

Comments

Posted by: Carrie at April 6, 2006 03:15 PM

Posted by: Nessa at April 15, 2006 10:37 AM

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