Lisa Ann Writes

In the middle of the night I suffered a contusion of the quadricep in my right leg. Quickly I stretched the gastrocnemius muscle to diffuse the pain. Or in colloquial terms… I had a wicked Charley Horse and jumped out of bed screaming and tried to walk it off. It was brutal. It still hurts today. This one should have been called a Charles Steed as it properly kicked my butt. Well, nothing that standing at work for the next eight hours won’t cure.
Also, for some reason I thought I had chicken pox when I woke up. Strange night indeed!

So I made it through the store… and am very proud of the excellent job I did in organizing the pantry- which spilled over into getting the other cupboards in order. I didn’t even know I had blue jello AND six boxes of banana bread mix! It was a full-filling day. (get it) Being serious for a minute- I am just so thankful for the ability to fill the cupboards. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for providing all these great things I can put into my pantry. We are so blessed. Now if I would just have the ability to use them. How hard can it be to open a can! We are also getting the attic it final little touches. The trim is going around the window and soon bookshelves will be installed. Like I said… VERY blessed.

I have a friend…. I could call her at two in the morning and say something like this. “So, Robin, I am making something and need to have a four ounce can of apple cranberry orange strawberry seasoning, do you happen to have one?” I know she would say- “Well- yes-yes I do! This women is amazing at shopping the deals and stocking up on things. She is my inspiration. Here is a shot of MY pantry. Lets take a little inventory shall we. The top shelf is paper goods. From many picnics where I keep buying more because I could never find the ones I had- pasta, cheese, 1 miraclewhip (thought a miracle would happen if i put that in there and it would all be organized) stale chips, 4 cans of cream of something soup- then 7 cans of crushed tomatoes- (don’t know why… they just showed up one day while I was at work) the large tin cans hold oatmeal and dried apples that I have had since 1998. Still good I am told. some waters and G2s. My goal today is to make this cupboard something my friend Robin would be proud of…. truth be told, I don’t even have a jar of grape jelly in the house! So… off to the grocier to stock up today. And then to organize what I find. This should be fun- I am not a shopper. When I go to buy food I walk into the store and all of the sudden become stupid. It is true. It is like all those pretty boxes and buy one get one free signs sends my mind into Blankville- (located just south of TMIville.) So… here I go. I will let you know how it works out. I do feel as if I am saving the planet as I go…. after all- I am taking along 4 reusable bags. (how do you spell that) see I am already beginning to lose my spelling abilities the closer I get to the shopping trip! I wonder if I called Robin and asked for a really long list of things my cupboards would be filled! By the way… I think this is a genetic- my daughter is like me and Robins is like her! Go figure!

I am putting off going upstairs to finish painting the attic. I really want to get it done….but just don’t want to start. I just keep thinking how great it will look once we are finished. I was able to go see some of my family that live in CT the other day. Sorry I missed Melissa and Kayla…. wish there were more hours in a day! Tonight I have book club. We read The Ledgend of Sleepy Hollow. Poor Ichabod! We will be deciding on a new book to read for Decembers meeting. Hope it is a good one. Still working on Jane Eyre. It is my night time reading book so I have been falling asleep before I get much done. I have been working more, with the holidays coming, there are more hours to go around. Just keeping busy and trying to stay warm. Ok… no more putting it off. Gonna go get the room painted. One more coat of paint and I am DONE in there.

It has been a busy week. I can’t believe it is Friday! I worked a few days putting in some extra hours. A friend of mine has the same day off work so she came over and we painted the attic that is getting finished. It is really looking so good up there. Much better than an old empty attic. It will be a great place to read and hang out…. By the way- you know you have a good friend when she will come to your house- paint AND sing into the paintbrush Janis Joplin songs……. I was back up… what fun! I have had some videos from Erin this week of Camper… LOVE IT! PLUS pictures sent to Walmart for me to pick up. LOVE IT! It has been busy- but a good week. I go into work later today since we are open till 8 tonight. I was planning on just hanging out and resting up.. but I need to go get some groceries and do some laundry- just can’t put that off any longer. Jim is not into eating brown oranges go figure? I also drove a friend to a class she was going to and we couldn’t find the place right away- but we found a chocolate shop- so we went there first. LOVE IT! All in all good week-

Work today was fun….. until Mr. I want to scream at you came into the store.  I will try to explain the situation. First – I work at a Hallmark store. It is a very busy time of year for this business. Lots of crazy promotions going on all the fun stuff. He was upset because last weekend he bought the “tremlin toads” AND the Christmas promtion with three cards and didn’t get the right discounts. I looked over his receipt and sure enough he  bought the toads- got 40% off- as the sale was going on- and then got the discount because of the 3 cards on the Christmas promotion. He tried to explain to me that because he bought the 3 cards that he should have gotten the toads for $14.95 THEN the 40% discount then the discount of the Christmas stuff. I tried to tell him that he had to have 3 cards for each promotion…..therefore needed 6 cards- but that if he had used the 6 cards he could not use the 40% off….. it was at that point he began to get angry- and AT ME- like I make up these rules or something. So he began to scream at me over the counter. Other custumers in the store started to gather to watch. I stood quiet till it was obvious he was finished and began AGAIN to try in another way to help him understand the promotion and how the sale worked. I am old enough to know that no one likes to be told that their understanding is not correct- and that the more I tried to help him understand the more angry and loud and red faced he became. It honestly was not correct for me to give him the few dollar difference and now I wasn’t going to be bullied into it. So I told him that I would call the store manager- which I did. I read her the receipt over the phone and she understood that no money was due back as well. So she told me to tell him what she said- I let her know he had been yelling at me for sometime already and I had tried to tell him just what she said- so she said to put him on the phone. He went to the phone in the back of the store and the two of them went at it. My manager said all the same things I did- and he yelled at her- saying he was calling corporate blahblahblah…..after they got off the phone with each other he went to the front of the store- yelling all the way. I asked him to take a breath and count to 10 before he got in his car because I thought he was too angry to be driving. He continued making his points and the phone rang again. One of the other workers answered it and said it was for me. I went to the back and it was my manager. She asked if he was still in the store. I said yes- she told me to put her on hold- go to the front of the store and ask him to leave. If he still was yelling just to push the alarm and pick up the phone again. So I went up front and as I got back up there he was leaving. I have been thinking about this over and over…. it wasn’t the stores place to give him the money that he thought he should be getting because the sale was done correctly- he had no reason to scream at me the way he was doing even if the store WAS in the wrong. I was STUCK IN THE MIDDLE….. Even just to make him happy it would have been like saying it is ok to yell at someone and then get your way. I was so upset by this that when he left I just had to go into the back room. I got myself together and then went to tell the girls up front that I was leaving. That who ever it was that rang him up last week did it right- so they wouldn’t think they did something wrong- and that if he came back ask him to leave and then call the police to escort him out. I am home now- wondering why a grown man would get so angry over toads and snowmen…… so strange. So ya- came home to my husband who wants to go beat up this toad buying creapo- he is so sweet to still want to be my knight….. but this mans problem is not mine so out it goes and soon our chicken dinner will be done. Oh… one really good thing happened today. I got a hallaween picture frame on sale half price for my grandsons picuture in his first halloween outfit.  He was an owl! SO cute.