Monday, December 31, 2007

A Hollister Holiday Story

My oldest princess has a part time job at the local mall, working at Hollister. She thinks she is so cool! Well, she did . Until she realized that the job isn't all that she thought it would be. Glamor and popularity and excessive coolness aside.... it's just not her dream job after all.

Katie was working one of her 4 hr shifts recently during the Christmas shopping rush.... and this is how her story goes:

She had been working for over 2 hours and she was feeling thirsty but it wasn't her break time yet. The store was packed with people, mostly crabby moms. (Boy, I can relate to that, two seconds in that store and I'm a crab and a half!) Katie was working in Betty's One - that means the first room of girls clothing.

One mom came up to her and was asking her something about a shirt. She needed the same shirt in a different size or something like that. Katie said that the lady just kept talking and talking and talking. Katie couldn't understand her. My poor little princess said that the lady was in her face just talking and nothing made sense to Katie - she was speaking English though. Katie said "I was just staring at her for the longest time and I couldn't understand or say anything - I just stared at her".

Oh my. Can you imagine what this poor frustrated mom was thinking at this point?

Katie's story continues.... The lady was talking and talking about the shirt, waving the shirt around, and then she went blurry. That's all Katie remembers. Then she woke up on the floor with a crowd hovering over her and her manager saying "KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE!" She had herself a nice little seizure just then.

They got her up and moved her to the back room and let her lay on a boxes of sweatshirts, got her some water and asked her if she was ok. Well, she doesn't like to worry people, so she said she was just fine and she just needed to lay there a few minutes. So, that's what she did. Drank the water and rested for a while.

By this time she had an hour left of her shift and she was still feeling kinda goofy. Her manager said she could sit in the chair in the Betty's One room and drink her water for the rest of her shift, so that's what she did. Nice guy, huh? Did he call an ambulance? No. Did he hide her in the back room where she couldn't get any help if she needed it? Yes. Jerk. He better stay far far away from me, cuz I have nothing nice to say to the guy. You'd think he'd want to cover his ass for liability anyway. She said she folded a few pairs of jeans that were next to the chair so that she earned her hour of minimum wage.

Yes, minimum wage. The kid has worked there for a year and they don't give raises.

Then, she drove home. I know! Crazy kid!!! When she got home she was so pale and she looked exhausted. I knew as soon as I saw her that something was really wrong. Gave her some OJ and she told me how the lady was talking to her, she fainted, had a seizure and finished her shift and drove home. I made her promise me to call me for a ride or get a ride home from someone if ever this happens again. Yeah Yeah, she says. So I told her you could hurt someone else - maybe a family with little children. Oh! Well, ok. She promised then. She doesn't want to hurt someone else by accident. I also told her she didn't need to finish that shift, but she said she still needed to sit for a while so it was ok.

Oh my goodness.

Can you just imagine this mom trying to communicate with my Katie, who is staring off into space and non-responsive and then she just drops like a rock to the floor? That poor woman. Sounds like she was already having a difficult shopping day and then Katie faints at her feet.

My little princess has low blood pressure and has a history of occasional fainting followed by a seizure. It hasn't happened in quite a while so I figured she had grown out of it. I guess not. Sugar brings her around again as does fluids. I've taken her to see several docs and nobody could ever come up with anything wrong. They all say "it was probably a one time fluke". This one-time-fluke happens a couple times a year though. She's been having mild seizures since age 6 or 7, fainting since age 10 and that's when the convulsive seizures began too. In her younger years a seizure just looked like she had zoned out. We thought she was a daydreamer. She can feel it coming but was ignoring the signs since she was working and knew she had a break coming up she could get something sugary to drink then. But, she didn't make it till break time.

I think she was reminded of the urgent need to listen to her body when its talking to her. Poor girl. I cannot believe she didn't smack her head when she fell in that cluttered store. Have you ever been in there? I hate that store - I come out with shin bruises from their racks and a massive headache from the music, not to mention the poisonous toxic thick perfume in the air. I don't know how my daughter can stand to go in there and spend 4 hours. Blech!

She's looking for a better job - I wish she'd look harder.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Quick Crazy Update

Finals are over. I'm waiting on my grades but I predict: A, A, B, B and C. darn that last one!

Christmas came and went. It went pretty well! I didn't send out any packages. Bad Mom! Maybe next year. I am still working on my cards.

Birthday invitations are in progress. I am working on designing the the invites for my grandmother's 100th birthday party this summer. Sounds easy, right? No, she has to love them and that is the hard part!

Everyone in my family is home on winter break from school. The neighbors are in and out. This place is like Grand Central Station. Even the neighbor dog came over and ran amuck in my house.

Katie is working hard at Hollister. She hates her job and yet, she doesn't have a different job yet. Lex is also not working. Why can't my girls get motivated enough to get jobs! They are driving me insane!

Gracie is on nap strike. No more naps. None. She's still waking up 3 times every night. She's wearing me down. I'm exhausted!

I bought a $75 football and thought I paid $3.97 for it. Oh dear. I have to go back to Walmart with an expensive football and no receipt. Walmart might eat me alive!

We need to prepare for our next semester of college and school. Not sure when we will have time to do this...

The Ant Guy is coming tomorrow morning.

Craziness!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Who is this scary bearded old man?

We went to see Santa today! This is how my conversation with Santa went....

Me: Hi Santa!
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Gracie: screaming already
Me: Sit, Sandy, Sit!
(Sandy sits and looks lovingly at Santa)
Gracie: WAHHHHH!!!!
Me: Hang on to her, Santa!
Gracie: NOOOO! NOOOOO!
Santa: Maybe you should come back later
Me: No, thanks, this is fine.
Santa: Really, I'll be here till 3:00
Gracie: WAHHHH!!!!!
Me: Trust me, she won't like you later either.




Here she is running away as fast as she can!
But not without nabbing a candy cane first.

Monday, December 10, 2007

What? Christmas is Coming? So Soon?

We just had Halloween!

I've been so swamped with finals and term papers that Christmas really snuck up on me. I'm not ready. I have all my shopping yet to do, shipping, baking cookies and writing cards. We haven't even taken our family photo yet for our cards - oh boy.... we might have to stretch Christmas into January.

I'm working on a quilt for our ex-foreign exchange student in Germany, Anna. All I have left to do are the edges. It takes a good long time to ship something to Germany, so she won't get her gift until after the holiday. Oh well. I just don't have time till after finals and that's just how it is. I'm disappointed that I can't get things done on time, but I'm resigning to the fact that Christmas is just too soon!

We decided not to decorate for Christmas this year. No lights, no tree, no getting the boxes out of the garage. We have a tornado for a daughter and we'd rather not deal with the chaos of a knocked over tree, ornaments flying through the air, watching her swing from the lights... you get the idea.

I'll dig out our stockings and we can have those on Christmas morning. Otherwise, it's all up to our imaginations this year! Ho Ho Ho!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Great Day yesterday!

Yesterday I had such a great day!

Started off running late, traffic jam, parking permit machine wasn't working and had to find a different one.... ok, that's not the great part...

I got to my first class late but the professor was happy and just chit chatting with students, petting the service dog that always snores in class stuff like that. Once he got started, he gave out the questions that will be on the final exam! So awesome! It was like getting the dream Christmas gift!

So then I go to the women's center to study on their awesome sofa... and they have these really yummy treats. Luna Bars. They are a kind of granola bar infused with tea. Total Yum!

Then my next class is the one I've been looking forward to. We get to evaluate our British Lit teacher. Professor Spaz! I evaluated all right - and I let it all out! After class about 10 people stuck around and vented! It was better than chocolate! Sounds like everyone had similar issues and lots of people wrote it in the evaluations. Good! I told the group about my paper being handed back to someone else. You should have seen the jaws drop. Felt good to get that off my chest.

Next class. Post-Modern and Post-Colonial Fiction. We had our final exam and I totally aced it! I rocked! I think I floated out of that classroom! So happy!

I was having such an awesome day that when I left, I pulled past the parking permit machine and gave my permit to the next person in line. I was leaving and it is good til midnight. So, I shared. I've never done that before - never thought of it. It felt really good so I'm going to do that again sometime.

When I came home, the dog greeted me with her usual enthusiasm but the baby just gave me a wave. She was watching "Fishies" and apparently, I was second rate. It's good to see her growing out of her separation anxiety.

Next class, my evening class. The traffic jam was gone - so weird! The instructor lectured a bit, went over what he expects on the final exam and then we filled out evaluations. I gave this guy a good one. It's not his fault that I kinda got tired of watching Westerns. He was hired the same week as the class started, and I think he did pretty good.

Came home and had some quality couch & tv time with my hubby. Ah, that's always nice!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Sarcasm is my forte'


I am writing a paper today about the sarcastic rhetoric of Herman Melville. This is how I imagine Melville - He looks like Chevy Chase don't you think? "They call me Ishmael"

My life is sarcastic so of course I thought this would be a good topic for my term paper. But I'm still struggling to find time to write the term paper! This quicky post is one thing, deep thought and analysis is quite another. And I'm not being sarcastic!

I have three papers due tomorrow so I should be sticking my nose in my research, but "I prefer not to". (Can you hear Chevy Chase?)

I'm going to also discuss satire and irony. I tell ya, I am steeped in irony on a daily basis. Three daughters will do that to a person!

I've decided we should have fish for dinner tonight! LOL!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Proofreaders Wanted!

I have two of my three papers done. Of course, I wrote while doing a bunch of "Mom" things, so who knows how they really turned out. I am too tired to proofread for myself since I tend to overlook my own mistakes. I can type things so very wrong and not see it until after I turn my paper in.

Anyone want to proofread and give me GOOD USEFUL criticism? And not the "start over" kind, because its just too late for that. And not the "yeah, that's fine" kind cuz then I know it bored you to death as soon as you read the title. I don't wanna do that!

I have one more to write. I think I will take a brain break and lay on the floor and play trucks with my tot for a while. Call the teens on their cellies and ask them where they are (they hate that! hehhee) and maybe throw in another load of laundry.