I’d better keep my head low and try to do very good things for people ‘cause I was just terribly rude! 

First, I was at the grocery store.  I picked up a few things and headed for the checkout.  There was one regular checkout open and about 6 people backed up in line.  There was one “10 Items or Less” express lane open with one person finishing up.  I counted the items in my cart.  Eleven.  11.  Ten PLUS One.  Too many.  But I got in line anyway.  One of my items was a case of water that I left in my cart.  It looked like 10 items on the belt, but it was really 11.  I felt sort of guilty.  But not so much so that I got in the long line!

Then, I stopped at the pharmacy (see my last post - grrrrr) to pick up a prescription that had been phoned in.  I walked up to the pharmacy counter and there was one woman already standing there with a few things.  It looked to me like she was waiting for someone in the back to return to her and finish her transaction.  Someone came out from the back, looked me square in the eye and asked me if I was being helped.  I said, “No,” and the woman in front of me said, “oh, excuse me,” and moved her packages out of the way.  My transaction was finished in about 3 minutes and I was on my way.  As I reached the middle of the aisle on my way out, I heard the person who had waited on me ask the woman in front of me if she was being helped.  She said, “No,” and I felt AWFUL!  I wanted to go back and apologize but I was already at the front of the store and it would have been way past the appropriate time to get back to her.  Now I feel like a heel.

Something rude is going to happen to me now, I just know it!  I’m sorry, universe!  I promise I’ll do something extra nice for a bunch of people to make up for it!!

I am one of those people who banks at local banks, not big conglomerate banks, and I’m one of those people who always uses a local pharmacy, no matter where I live.  I cannot abide CVS or Walgreen’s or Rite-Aid or Eckerd or Drug Emporium or any of the myriad of cold, impersonal supermarkets of drugs.

When I lived in Warminster, I saw the old Warminster Pharmacy close down when Drug Emporium and Rite-Aid moved into town.  (I switched to the Medicine Shoppe but stopped shopping there when the pharmacist was sent to jail for various drug-related indiscretions - oops!) I moved out of Warminster and switched to my next small pharmacy - Springford Pharmacy.  I saw it change hands a couple of times in the last five years but it stayed open.

Until last night.  Well, actually, I don’t know when it really closed, but I tried to go there last night.  Gone.  A few pieces of paper trash remain on the floor and big signs in the window tell me that my prescriptions have now been transferred to…

...CVS.

Oh, god.  I hate this CVS.  More so than any other big pharmacy.  This CVS has the rudest pharmacist on the face of the planet and they are always, always swamped.  EVERYONE is in a bad mood at this CVS.  I loathe the CVS.

It’s time to go shopping for a new local pharmacy again.  I will not give my business to pharmacy chains.  I just will not.

I just realized something.  I don’t like tomato pie.

I keep trying because people keep making ooh and aah noises when they eat it and tell me how good it is and it keeps showing up at work.  But you know what?  I just don’t like it.

I keep thinking that it’s going to taste like it has pizza sauce on it but it doesn’t.  It tastes bad.  To me, anyway.

So lesson learned.  I will simply pass on the tomato pie from now on.  My life will be better for it.

I just used the phrase “right as rain” in an e-mail.  I tried to look up where the phrase originated but found huge articles about it and, frankly, I got bored.  Normally, this kind of thing fascinates me but not this time.  I guess I’m not feeling right as rain at the moment - not up to snuff.  Now, where did that phrase come from??  Up to snuff…

P.S.  I’m reading the book “When I Am An Old Woman, I Shall Wear Purple.” Because of this book, everything in my life right now is shrouded in a sense of my own mortality and I spend a long time at the mirror looking at the face that looks back.  It’s not the same face I had as a young person.  I guess it’s time to start wearing more purple.

Oh, and I cannot for the life of me figure out at what age one should read this book.  It’s a terribly sad book.  Full of stories and poems of women who can no longer fend for themselves and are lonely and alone.  There are a few stories that are more uplifting but not many.  I’m about three-quarters of the way through the book.  And look what it’s made me do!  Think about my own mortality and spend a long time looking at my old face, thinking that I’m glad it’s not AS OLD as the ones they are describing in this book, but knowing that there’s no turning back.  If I were a young person, the book would be lost on me.  If I were any older, I think I might run (or limp off) screaming at my impending doom!  I don’t know that there is a good time of life to read this.  Sad book.

A lot of today was spent decorating for Christmas.  When all is said and done, it doesn’t look like we have much in the way of decorations but it takes a long time to get it all distributed and set up properly.  The major things are done - swags and lights at the windows, outside decorations and a wreath on the door, the Christmas village is set up, and the Santa display is essentially done.  There are still quite a few things to do here and there but at least we look like we’re celebrating!

All pictures are clickable…

I know that everyone always says that when you’re sick, you should stay home from work, right?  They even write articles about it.  Here’s the thing.  I get a lot of vacation time (6 weeks), 2 optional holidays, and your standard 6 or 7 US holidays off per year.  I also get 6 personal days.  That’s my sick time.

Here it is - December 6th.  (It’s my parents’ anniversary - must call them...) The year is almost over.  (There is no such thing as rollover time where I work - you use it or you lose it.) I have two days of vacation left that are already scheduled.  I have one US holiday left (Christmas).  And I have a half a day of personal time left.

I’m flirting with a cold.  I’m coughing and sneezing and sniffling.  I can’t stay home.  I’m not allowed to use vacation days as personal time so what’s a person to do?  A half a day is not going to do me any good.  Or anyone else who works around me.

So I guess I’ll just keep on going to work and hope no one gives me a hard time for coming to work when I’m sick!  What else can I do?? 

Buzz and I started up a new site called:

”He Said : She Said”

We thought it would be fun for both of us to do some food and beverage reviews.  You know, places we’ve eaten, recipes, wines, etc.  Anything related to food or drink.

We’re just getting started but so far it’s been quite fun! 

So go on over and check out our new site when you get a minute.  I promise we’ll be adding more opinions as the days go by!

Years ago (when I was 18, no less), I became the night shift supervisor of about 8 people who ran gigantic printers all night and printed junk mail.  The printers all sat on a raised floor in a climate-controlled room.  At night, that room became very, very cold.

As supervisor, I had to take care of a lot of paperwork, tallying timecards, evaluating production output during that shift, writing up reports, etc.  My hands used to be so cold all night long! 

That was in the late 70s.  Right before Madonna hit the big time. 

A future cousin-in-law from England gave me a funky little gift for Christmas.  She sent me bright purple light-weight cotton half-finger gloves, which I just knew I’d never wear.  Until I got that job.  They were perfect!  They kept my hands warm and still let me do all of that paperwork.  They were made of the same type of material that cotton underwear is made of.  Once I no longer had that job, those gloves got lost in one of the many clothing purges that have happened since then.

Flash forward to present day.  It’s 2007 and I now have arthritis in my hands and type all day long.  There are times at work when my hands get so cold and achy that I can barely stand it.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have those purple gloves back!

I have searched and searched online for something equivalent but all I can find are bulky knitted gloves, which wouldn’t allow me to type, or neoprene gloves that would make my hands sweat and feel strangled all day (not the mention making it hard to remove when I have to go to the ladies’ room or whatever - and neoprene gets sort of stinky, too). 

Doesn’t anyone make lightweight cotton half-finger gloves any more??