Odd Drive Home

I usually end up coming home late on Friday nights, seeing as I work late. Tonight I actually thought I left early enough to by pass the crazy people on the road. Only to find that odd people are around at every hour of the day. So what did I see on my short 10 minute drive home tonight.

1. Passenger in white car throws a nice puffy black jacket out window on 200 S. and 200 E. Car in front of me swerves to by pass it hitting the windshield, I swerve to not run over it. Car behind me also makes to not tire tread the sad coat.

2. Car that passenger threw coat out of pulls over only to not see the wonderful coat anywhere.

3. Pull up to 700 E. and the guy in the car next to me at the red light begins staring over at me. He looks like a gentlemen with a bit too much fashion since and for some reason I feel he is out of place in Utah and should be driving around in Italy. This may be because I feel he had a mix of Mafia and Oscar de la Renta style that seemed to shine off his curly mid length hair and was placed in a spot light from his huge bling of a watch.

4. By 900 E. this gentlemen and his red car are now in front of me, and I see the wonderful black puffy jacket, the sad white car was currently still looking for, attached to the Italian-Mafian, who lives in Utah cars muffler, which proceeds to speed up the hill at around 50 miles an hour in a 30 miles an hour zone.

5. At the top of the hill the man, his car, and now his coat turn to never be seen again. But then to my left a young man decides to possibly try and run across the street only to stop at the corner and begin dancing as if he is at a rave. Questioning his sanity, and also laughing and enjoy the fact that men feel comfortable making fools of themselves in the attempt to woe the two girls in the car in front of me, the light turns green and the car in front of me proceeds to dance inside their car.

6. Near The Pie a man walks a women across the dark lit streets as if there was a threshold on the other side.

All this in 10 minutes. I was entertained to say the least.

Mother to Daughter

I returned home this weekend from a whirlwind of work and fun during the Indian Summer Storytelling Festival. My mind a bit boggled with new ideas and my body just worn out from all the last minute details, I started my day Tuesday like any other. My eyes told me it was to early to wake up, so I listened to my three alarms for a good half hour and then forced myself to get ready for work. I walked through the doors and began setting up the restaurant and half way into serving tables I received a beautiful treat.

Two dozen lilac roses in a wonderful glass vase appeared for me. All my co-workers wondered who was courting me. I laughed at this because I knew who the roses were from: MY MOM!

I was asked recently in an interview if it was difficult working with my mom. I found this thought foreign. My mom and I have always been interested in the same things. We share the same views to a certain extent, and we both value community and culture and want to give back. Sure we have our moments of disagreeing, but we always talk those through. The only hard part about working for my mom is that others don't seem to understand how one can be building work experience with their parents.

Yet, I continue to learn so much from, and with, this women. She never gives up, she keeps going, she does what she is passionate about, she rolls with the punches, and she is able to control a room of people in the subtlest of voice. So to be able to learn from this women is an amazing gift. And to receive two dozen roses from this women is no small matter. It was a thank you, but more than that it's a symbol of our connection. Like Mother, Like Daughter, our relationship is ever growing. And I find it a blooming masterpiece to call her Mom, boss, friend.

Walking with my Cons.

As I walked to my regular coffee shop today, I stared down at my feet as they padded the cement sidewalk descending downhill. I wondered to myself: How long should one keep a pair of shoes?

You see lately, a lot of things have been going through my mind (and as I'm sure my friends could tell you I have been a bit preoccupied with my life and thoughts). But back to the shoes. My Cons. have been with me ever since 9th grade (though I should say I got them in 8th grade, the same day I received my first "grounding" from my parents--Crystal and I did the whole "we're staying at each others house" bit--which should have been a huge indicator that the shoes wouldn't fit and I would have to wait a whole year to receive the right size).

Anyhoo... these shoes have lasted through running, river wading, choir practice with three girls writing and drawing on them until all the white rimmed plastic was covered in art and ridiculous sayings, concerts, hiking, and well all that and more for 14 years. And the miracle of miracle is--they still fit.

So when do you throw a pair of shoes away? Especially, a pair of shoes that still retains the faded drawings and conversations of three young girls that called each other friends. If you have an answer to this random thought of mine please respond. If you are as perplexed as me ask a friend.

5 things that baffle me:

5. The need people have to tell a server they are waiting for people, when it is quite obvious there are four menus on a table and only one person.

This happens every day I work, at least once if not more. I don't understand the desire to inform someone you are waiting when it is so obvious. Plus, why can't a person get a drink while they are waiting for other guests to arrive. They are the ones that are late, why do you have to suffer?

4. The desire to have a cell phone with you at all times (including in your car, at a restaurant, or while watching a movie).

It drives me bonkers when a person begins responding to a text while watching a movie at the movie theater. Tickets to a movie aren't cheap, let alone the cost of pop-corn and soda, why in the world do you want disturb your viewing experience (let alone those around you) just to write three letters LOL (by the way, this is not a word, nor is it out loud, it is pixelated). Furthermore, when did it become a problem for the human race to have human interaction? It's dinner time people, talk to the person that is in front of you instead of sending texts threw phone antennas.

3. The need to sale a holiday three months before the actual date, and then take down all merchandise the day before said holiday and begin sales of the next holiday.

If you read my last blog, you know my feelings towards the "pink" aisle. Currently, though the pink aisle quickly transformed to pastels. I am now being told bunnies, eggs, tulips, and shamrocks somehow go together. (I think they combined two holidays and it goes unnoticed to the wily consumer).

2. The response of many costumers when asked, "How are you today?," their response is "Diet Coke."

This is not a state of being people. If you must know most servers are talking about you behind your back when you do this. Let's all go back to Etiquette class and respond next time with, "Fine, thank you. And how are you?" Servers like to be noticed and recognized as people. We are not robots responding to your beck and call.

1. The reliance on cell phones and the near extinction of phone calls.

This is a mystery to me. Telephones were invented so we could talk to those that could not readily be in front of us. To find a cell phone today that provides clarity in sound while talking on the phone is almost an impossibility. Instead we consumers get phones that can communicate by text, Internet, e-mail, twitter, Facebook, blog, and whatever else they can think of that has no human voice behind it. Furthermore, text-ing is taking away language. Now in conversations I hear, IDK, OMG, LOL. These are letters people, speak words please, even when the telegraph was the source of communication, they spelled out STOP. And finally when did "text" become a verb?