New Years Eve Plans...

Having six children I thought making plans was a ridiculous notion. I was wrong. Five of the children are staying with the "other parent" and the littlest one is going to a sitter. I do not drink and I despise going to the clubs in my local bar scene. It is always the same thing with the same people. I left the planning and ideas up to my fiance. It did not take him long before he suggested we go to a strip club. The club is about an hour away from my house. Oh yea and it features female dancers. Now I am in no way a lesbian. I am comfortable in my own skin and can appreciate beauty and if one of those girls is a bad dancer well then I can hope they can appreciate my laughing. I have invited everyone on my facebook list to join us. So far I have no takers. I doubt I will get any either. None the less we will be down there to ring in the new year with a bunch of people we have never met before. I can not wait!

Doing the right thing.

As I mentioned earlier I work at a truck stop restaurant. This past Friday I was just about finished with my shift, business was slow and they were going to let me leave early. The other waitress had asked if I would watch a few of her tables while she smoked one last cigarette. In the corner booth sat and older gentleman he was maybe 50 years old. He was still looking over the menu when I approached the table. I asked if he was ready to order. Apparently he wasn't cause he shot me a dirty look and continued to read the menu. As I walked away he asked me a number of questions about the menu. When I turned around to answer them I was hit with a cloud of whiskey. This man was highly intoxicated. He reeked of alcohol! His words were slurred and eyes glazed over. This was more than just one beer. At first I was willing to just walk away and pass this over to the next waitress. I rounded the corner and a picture flashed through my mind. Julie Webster sitting in the back seat of a car. Julie was a girl I went to high school with, I did not know her well. I don't even think we ever spoke a word to one another. I never will have that chance either. Julie was killed in a drunk driving accident this past July. Her boyfriend was driving he was way over the legal limit. She died and he lived. Doesn't seem fair does it? Her family is going through hell trying to get Justice for Julie. They have set up a face book page to help with that very process. I joined the page months ago and follow all of the work they are doing along with all of their pain. Her face was the one that made me turn back.
I walked back to the booth and asked the man how he got to the restaurant that night. He quickly replied with "I drove." My first thought was oh my this man is driving a big rig in this condition. I needed more clarification. So I asked what kind of truck he was driving a big one or little one? Again with out hesitation he said "A little one." You could tell my line of questions was making him uneasy. He started to to get agitated and then asked me where I was from. "State College, where are you from?" I said. He answered with "Right here." I then asked him how far he had to drive tonight and he again said "Right here." I told him that was a good thing and then advised him to keep drinking his coffee. That must have really made him mad because he then started telling me and the other customers that my questions were going to get me fired. "I beg to differ." I said as I walked to the office phone. I called Rockview State Police and alerted them of the issue. I did not want to further provoke this man fear that he would get up and leave before I was able to stop him. Needless to say Rockview parked along the road in both directions. I watched that man stumble to his car and finally drive away. Only to be pulled over just a few feet down the road. I let out a sigh of relief. That man was in no condition to drive. I am not positive he would of hurt himself or others if I had not stopped him. I do know that if it wasn't for Julie I may have never said a word.

For those going thru some kind of Ginger with drawl

It has been brought to my attention that I need to step up my blogging game. So here I am writing just for you 13 people. I am not sure what exactly you want to read about. Maybe I should tell you about my new job. After all working in a truck stop restaurant is full of fun stories.
Back in August there was rumor that my unemployment was going to end soon so I panicked and got a job. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What started out as a source of income switched to one day a week. My unemployment had not stopped after all. Since I already agreed to take the job I felt obligated to stick it out. I am glad I did. Cause here I sit now with no unemployment. Tips from dirty truck drivers is what I rely on now. I am grateful to have a job. It is easy money but it does take away from my time with my family. I work Friday to Sunday, mostly nights. Each day I work is sort of the same. I rarely see familiar faces. It is always someone new and of course 80% of my customers base is made up of dirty truckers. They are either covered in grease from their trucks or in desperate need of a hot shower. Now I know I am far from a playboy pin up but that does not deter these guys from making comments. I grew up in a bar with my Dad. For some reason back then it was acceptable to bring your kids to the bar with you. So being around dirty old men is sort of a past time for me. I have heard it all at some point in my life. What really throws me is these guys see the ring on my finger and I talk about my husband all the time... ( I know I am not married but I thought it would cut down on the some of the more ridic comments ) yet they never back down. They always make comments on how I must love sex cause I have so many kids. That is the tamer version of that comment. I even had a guy once tell me that I was lucky I lived so far away from him. Does that qualify as a pick up line? Aside from the constant crude remarks the day is fairly uneventful. Until last Sunday. I was working my usual shift and it was slower than normal. I was planning to leave early. My side work was almost complete and a young Latina woman came in and sat down. I went out to greet her and give her a menu. She asked if 45 minutes was enough time to eat. "45 minutes is plenty of time to eat" I told her. That is when she dropped the bomb she had 64 friends with her. IT WAS A BUS! This was my first bus in this restaurant. I have worked in food service for 11 years so a bus was nothing new. Usually they call ahead and at least warn you though. Needless to say all of the 65 people were Latina and spoke very little English. This made it tricky to take orders. As my team and I are running around trying to serve everyone. It made it a little more difficult because they did not sit right away. They were wandering like mules and grazing on my soup and salad bar. Before I knew it the bus driver was introducing me to the second bus driver. SECOND DRIVER!? Yes you heard it right. Not only did I have one bus with 65 I had a second with 45. That makes 110 non English speaking patrons. When the soup ran low it was like the end of the world. All of them were telling me as if I did not hear the first fifty tell me. Bad news we were out of soup. I could not remember who wanted it and who didn't. They were all still wandering. The clock was ticking and no one seemed to care but us. They all acted as if they had no deadline. That was until I took their orders then it was hurry hurry hurry. So I did what any normal person would do I stood up on a booth and yelled for every ones attention. I cannot whistle so I had to improvise. I made a general announcement about being out of soup and that they needed to sit down so that would could locate them. I am not sure if they understood what I said or not. All I know is the cheered and applauded my announcement of soup. They left as fast as they came. I had to stay late to help clean up and redo my side work but all in all it was a fun night.

Pirate Christmas

I always put my tree up the day after Thanksgiving. This year I was so bored the week before I almost put it up early. Instead I kept myself busy by going to the local craft store with the kids and picking out some extra decorations that we could do ourselves. You see the theme of my tree is not something that is readily available in the Christmas section at any store. I had to improvise. Thankfully all the items I would need to complete my tree were on clearance. Since that holiday had just passed. Yes I am talking about Halloween. My Fiance believes he is a pirate for what ever reason. I do not question it or argue about it. I just accept him for who he is and wants to be. If that person happens to be a pirate well then, when in Rome. So needless to say my entire household is now pirates. The kids love it and even tell all their friends and teachers about our happy little family of pirates. No one has called the authorities on us yet. LOL.

I spent the remainder of the week adding paint, glitter, and jewels for eyes to the skull and cross bone wooden cut outs. I added black ribbon with white skulls to the tops so they could be hung on the tree. Crafty Huh? I was also able to find some Styrofoam skull heads. There was only five of them, really wish there had been more cause they are cute as all get up.

Friday came and I was exhausted from pulling an all nighter at wal mart waiting for a TV that was way cheap. ( Yea there are still some left what the hell did I sleep on the cold floor of wal mart for then. ) While I took a nap my kids and fiance rearranged the living room to fit the tree. I woke up just in time to direct the decorating. There just is not enough room for me and six kids so I leave it up to them. I have red and white lights with red and black bulbs. This year we added the rest of the pirate theme. Skulls, skulls, and more skulls. I love my tree I just hope it does not scare Santa away.