Day 3 of My Stay-cation

I don't know if you are familiar with the term "stay-cation", I was first introduced to it by a Starbucks co-worker. It is when you stay home for your vacation, no hassle of traveling (not that I could really afford that anyway), just relax and stay home. I have done some much needed cleaning. Daniel's musk had started to infiltrate the rest of the house, he says I should say manly smell because it sounds better. When I first moved in lat March, the stench smacked me in the face when I stepped in the door, which by the way was a feat in itself as there was so much stuff piled everywhere. I really turned this place around, but lately we have be slowly reverting, part of which is my fault too. Anyway, I did 5 or 6 loads of laundry yesterday, as the stench arises from the pile up of sweaty work clothes and damp towels. The odd thing I learned when doing his laundry the first time around, some I could not get what I think is the Daniel smell out of all of them. My hypothesis is that he wore them too many times without washing them that the damage became permanent. Anyways, the smelliest ones I either donated or boxed them up and I put them in the closet outside on our porch. Why we have a closet out there I do not know.

Today I am going to tackle my room, grade some of my final exams, and organize my workspace at school. We will see what I really get done. Peace out, I am hungry.

PS: I am working on Christmas!!!! However, I have no one to blame but myself. It is on a volunteer basis. I decided to take one for the team. I got Thanksgiving off and I am getting New Years eve off. My boss has been really great to me especially since I started juggling 2 jobs and he really needed people. 'tis the season of giving.

Rough Night!

I had a rough night at Starbucks tonight that I can only describe with sixteen words.

YAM (Yound Adult Ministry)

For the past 6 weeeks or so I have been getting involved in YAM, the young adults group at St. Vincent. We meet weekly on Monday nights, the first 3 session were planning, but now we meet for social time, them have a reflection and close with Night Prayer from liturgy of the hours. Daniel and I have gone to the last 2 together. It has been nice getting to know some more people my age at Church.

That cold Sarah got from Joseph well he gave it to me too, I am feeling a lot better today, but school yesterday was pretty hard to get through, my boss at Starbucks today me not to come in yesterday afetr seeing me on Monday, which was a great relief. He really is a great Boss.

I am going to Thanksgiving dinner at the Molzen's with Daniel.

Change We Can Bereave In

Pat McCrory, seven term mayor of Charlotte, lost his bid for governor. A distinguished leader in the areas of public safety, economic development, housing and transportation, McCrory has led Charlotte to a position of national prominance, one of the four "most livable cities" in the US. He was instrumental in enhancing public transportation including the incredibly popular and convienient light rail system at the end of our street.

Famed humanitarian, Elizabeth Dole lost her senate seat to Kay Hagan. Known for introducing legislation to ban Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lobbying, the Motor Fuel Supply and Distribution Improvement Act to address the critical fuel shortages that were causing panic in the western half of North Carolina that I wrote about recently, her work for rural health care initiatives and funding for minority education as well as her past work for the Red Cross. Like Obama, she attended Harvard Law. She faithfully supported the rights of the unborn and opposed using public money for immoral purposes.

Voting

I'm perfectly in step with the Church on the issues of peace, affordable and accessible health care, living wages, life, nuclear weapons and land mines, the death penalty, reducing poverty, sustainable agriculture, undocumented immigrants but I don't feel alienated from the church at all in the way that Rebecca says she feels.

I hope that McCain will continue to oppose radicals in the Middle East that want nothing except to see the world burn. I think of McCain as Commissioner Gordon and the leader of the terrorists as the Joker in the recent movie The Dark Knight. Unless we defend the innocent from the Joker there will never be peace. We can't abandon people their fate in Darfur and Iraq just because it would be easier. We are the hero they need, not the hero they deserve. We have a moral imperative as declared in the catechism to defend the weak and enslaved.

Under the last 8 years, 23 million additional Americans have gained healthcare coverage. Under McCain we can cover another 23 million over the next 8 years. Every American has access to better healthcare today than the best healthcare available to anyone in the world 50 years ago. We should continue to advance the science of medicine and continue to reward those who make those advances to ensure a better future.

McCain wants net wages to increase and costs of goods to decrease so that Americans and our trading partners can all have increased standards of living. The United States has helped in a major way to lift 2,000,000,000 people (2 billion) out of poverty in the last decade. If we can sustain that, then the poverty of tomorrow won't even be comparable to what was considered poverty in the past. Free and fair trade benefits all parties.

We have made major reductions in our nuclear arsenal and world nuclear stockpiles in the past 8 years and hopefully we can continue this progress by taking a tough stance with rogue nations and helping to promote and monitor peaceful uses of nuclear technology. I hope that the actions of Iran and North Korea will not force a pre-emptive nuclear strike, but if orbital or submarine strikes are required to save lives, which our advanced technology can do so with an absolute minimum of collateral damage, we can avoid situations like Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

McCain opposes the wasteful farm subsidies that give money to the rich and mandate using food to create ethanol, which contributes to world starvation. We deprive Mexico of water so we can grow crops in the desert, which we could instead import and give needed money to developing nations.

By using our local oil and natural gas reserves we can reduce the risk to the environment that shipping oil across the oceans presents and help ease the suffering of the poorest members of our society that suffer most from high energy costs.

McCain has the most comprehensive and compassionate immigration plan that allows the largest number of permanent citizenships and guest workers that we will need to work in nursing homes to care for the increasing number of elderly that most current Americans are unwilling to take. We will probably need another 15,000,000 workers to shift to providing health care for the elderly and be willing to work at minimum wage since we don't have the resources to pay huge salaries to feed and bathe the increasing number of elderly. We also need another 100,000,000 immigrants in the next 30-50 years to start contributing to social security and Medicare to help relieve the burden that having one person on social security for every three workers would present.

We are praying for candidates that will lead with God's wisdom.

Peace.

"Weekly" Update

Today was a straight forward day in the pizza business but there was a notable accident at the entrance of my apartment complex just as I was finishing my shift. A 4x4 pickup t-boned a mini-van that was crossing over Sharon Rd West, the street that is the hub of our lives. This time there was an ambulance, fire truck and 3 police cars. This is not the first accident at the intersection of our apartment complex since Rachel and I have been living here. There was a previous smash up right in late spring as I was pulling in with cars going into ditches and lots of glass scattered around. Rachel was out walking/jogging when that one happened and lots of people came outside to check out the crash.

I have driven at least 20,000 miles so far this year and I've manage to "hit" a mailbox or three in pitch darkness (one maybe during the day, not admitting anything), bent a tire from hydroplaning into a curb at 10 mph during an ultra rain storm, had the trasmission break under warranty which resulted in driving a mini-van for a month which may have resulted in a mailbox incident. Minor "Collision" with another car that turned without signalling and didn't realize the cars had actually touched because of my quick response of hitting the brakes. Didn't set my parking brake one time and my car rolled into a nearby suv in the parking lot of my apartment complex which was more damaging than all the other incidents for the year put together and I wasn't even in my car. I think that's not bad for 5/6 of a year, not that great either. Fingers crossed my insurance rate doesn't go up too much.

My 3 big purchases this year were my 2008 Chevy Cobalt, 30" Gateway Monitor (2560x1600) and another Alienware computer to replace the one I'm using now. I figure this one has 4-6,000 hours of use and I had to do a little computer surgery on it. There is something wrong with one of the memory sticks or the motherboard related to the memory sticks. I haven't taken the time to put each memory stick in all 4 memory slots and check if the computer still boots and I think I will wait until my new computer arrives before I start tinkering with the only working internet enabled computer in the apartment. The new computer is going to be about 10x as good as the one I have now which is probably 500x as good as the one Ben has making the new one 5000x as good as Ben's. Once I figure out what quirkiness there is with my computer and fix it I might be selling it for $500 or best offer. Intel 2 Duo Core 6400 @ 2.13 Ghz, 1 gig of 800 MHz sdram, dual NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 graphics processors, 250G HD and your standard optical drive with dvd burner.

Talked to the grandparents tonight and found out they haven't been reading anyone's blog because they are not "plugged in." I think its very sad that they aren't more techno-hip with wifi and a nice Mac-Air or something they could have with them all the time to say hi and see everyone's photos and have online chats any time they got bored.

Gas Prices plummet

I can't believe gas is a whole $2.00/gal less now than it was just a month ago! This is like having an extra $200* a month or not having that $200 cruelly sucked from my wallet. I hope we learn from the gas spike and expand oil exploration and continue moving towards nuclear energy. Electricity prices continue to rise every month, which is getting progressively more annoying. I want to not heat the apartment at all again this winter to see how much I can bring the bill down. Rachel needs to wear more sweaters and blankets because she is more sensitive to the cold. I never turned the heat on once when I lived alone for two winters.

Trying to reconcile the irreconcilable realities

I spend a lot of time listening to the news and politics, almost certainly more than my entire readership combined (which is almost certainly very small). My thoughts on the matter is that there are (at least) two entirely different media markets with realities that are diametrically opposed and facts that are opposite of the other. Blue states and red states can't communicate because the language used is not the same. We can watch the same event such as a debate and each candidate uses special code words that are inherently understood by their constituency and not understood by anyone else. If you don't understand the code, then that candidate sounds foolish and out of touch with your reality. That is why two groups of people can each have 85% or greater agreement that their candidate's performance was "greatly superior" to the performance of the opposing candidate.

Ted Stevens and Chuck Schumer can make front pages news for corruption and scandal in North Carolina but I have no idea how these stories are covered by local media in their home states.

Gustav and Ike and the aftermath

Things are finally back to normal here in Charlotte in regards to gasoline supplies. It was rough for about 3 weeks with 90% of gas stations having no fuel and police being deployed at all stations that had fuel for sale to maintain order. Traffic cones and police tape were used to mark off the stations on busy corners so that people wouldn't block traffic checking. If anyone saw one car in a gas station, another 100 cars would gather thinking there was fuel even if the first guy was just buying some beer and smokes. The cheapest gas you can buy is now $3.39 which is a fair bit lower than it was 2 months ago. During the hurricanes the high was $4.59 and the longest I had to wait was 90 minutes to get a tankful. Early on all the stations ran out of regular and had only plus and premium for sale then no stations had any fuel except sometimes diesel. There were periodic shipments of regular gasoline over the next couple of weeks but the anxiety continued just short of panic and rioting. The mayor chastised the media for causing panic and overdramatising the situation.

We had the advantage of eyes on the ground and our manager made almost 100 phone calls to keep up on which stations had fuel. I wonder how much gas was used idling in lines for gas or driving around, looking for stations that weren't empty or driving out to neighboring areas that had fuel.

There is some concern voiced about economic conditions because Wachovia employs close to 1% of the people in Charlotte. The big companies here are Microsoft, Coca-cola, Wachovia, Bank of America, Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) and Lance (crackers). It still seems like 30-50% of the businesses here have positions available and some still have to actively advertise to fill positions. I visit a great deal of businesses in our 80 square miles and I keep my eyes open for these sorts of things. I'm sure collections and repo agencies are hiring in record number. Bilingual is a huge plus. All in all, people seem in reasonably good shape. I haven't seen any forclosed properties though I noticed Java Detour and Tijuana Flats on the corner of 51 and Park have closed up. All the other restaurants on 51 have drive through. I wonder if that is a requirement to be successful there. A big sign that people recognize might be the other important factor because I can name all the other restaurants from Red Lobster, Starbucks, IHOP, McDonald's, KFC, Bojangles, Jack in the Box, Waffle House, Chic-fil-A, another Starbucks, Caribou Coffee that are on 51 between South Blvd and Carmel Rd.

That's all for now.

When is Christmas break????

becca gave me and daniel a blog citation, for an overdue blog.

Well, right now I am looking forward to Christmas break, beacuse teaching is exhausting. I feel like I have never worked so hard and felt so responsible. It was a nervous wreck for about the first month on and off. Boy was my anxiety bad. Only in the last couple weeks have i begun to settle in and freak out less. Somedays are better than others, but mostly i feel like i am trying to survuve one day at a time. At the beginning i was trying to do too much and didn't know what to do at the same time.

I have some kids that drive me nuts, and I worry about my kids a lot too. Everything is so new, I am trying to balance everything and it has been a challenge.

I saw one of my students at Starbucks wednesday, I was all worried that they would tease me the next day, but it turned out to be fine.

Daniel is same old same old. We did say a very nice rosary together last week.

Daniel is back into Magic full force now, there are cards everwhere. He is making decks all the time. He has taught one of his friends at work to play and he comes over sometimes to play. I never have anyone over, I am too embarassed because the mess, oh, and I have no friends.

But I have a new friend on the horizon. I learned of a household sister of mine who is a new teacher too through our prayline email, so we connecetd through that, then I learned that she teaches in Charlotte and used to live in Buffalo, then the next email I find out she lives down the street from me!!!!! We are going to try and meet up soon. I think this is an answer to my prayers.

A Day in the Life

Coffee and Pizza existence is just that. Almost everything I eat or drink comes from either Papa John's or Starbucks. I spent half of my work day listening to either NPR or POTUS '08 (President of the United States) and the other half doing a variety of mini chores from answering the phone, putting stickers on the boxes and lining them up on the rack, slapping out dough (rarely), saucing and topping pizzas, putting them in the oven, taking them out of the oven, pulling down the appropriate box, putting the pizza in the box, making the cuts, putting in the garlic sauce and pepper and stacking it under the heat lamp, logging out orders, grabbing the driver ticket and credit card receipts, checking the order, grabbing sides and drinks and out the door and leaving the food and taking back the payment.

You can get a fairly accurate simulation of what I do here:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/FliplineStudios/papas-pizzeria

Rachel found it entirely too stressful and I felt it was just like being at work.

what's been happening (by rachel)

I work between 34-39 hours a week, when I am lucky. Fortunately, i have done well with my hours lately, but next week I only have 26.5, which kinda stinks. Hopefully I can pick up a shift. Lately people have been upset about their hours. I dont know what it going on. My manager has hired a lot of new people even though other people want more hours.

I finally qualified for my benefits and they will start July 1st. This is the whole reason I took the job in the first place. I feel like it is lame to work at Starbucks, and that I want to have a job that uses my degree. I dont know what I want to do. I got into grad school for the elementary education certificate program. I dont know if I want to do that though, I dont know if I want to teach elementary school or see if I can get a teaching job without that degree. Yeah I dont know what I want to and I am anxious about it. Somedays I dont like being a grownup. There is too much to worry about. Bills, jobs, car, staying in shape, staying healthy.

One of my weekly joys is visiting Joseph. He has begun to say my name (Nonnie) excitedly when he sees me driving up. At church I usually try to find Sarah and Michael and sit with them, but last Sunday I didnt see them so I was a few rows back, when Joseph saw me he yelled my name and and tried to escape to come find me. I was touched that he was so excited about me.

Customers aren't stupid

In the food service industry, employees seem to feel that customers are total rubes and that they can do anything they want and the customer will never know the difference.

My former manager threw jalepenos on a pizza that was sitting around and told me to deliver it. Sure enough, in the weekly complaint summary there was a email from a customer complaining that their pizza looked like someone had taken an old pizza and thrown peppers on it and tried to pass it off on them. How perceptive of them!

One our teenage insiders was cleaning the make line and left a puddle of soapy water. She didn't put back the catch trays or the rails that go over the trays right away before making a pizza and pulled the crust through the soapy water and guess what, we got a call from a customer saying the crust of their pizza tasted soapy. Now we didn't figure out how this happened right away but the shift leader and I aren't fools and it didn't take us more than half an hour to piece the events together from our combined observations.

Rachel mixed up a chai latte and a vanilla latte at the drive-thru, one sip later the second customer sipped her "chai" latte and said this doesn't taste right but the first customer already drove away without tasting their drink. I bet they were surprised when their $4 drink wasn't what they ordered.

Barristas aren't supposed wear dangling jewelry and here's why. This middle aged woman was horrified to find a "roach" in her coffee but it was only her barrista's black earring. Let me fish that out for you. Good as new.

One bite into a 3 day old pastry elicits remarks of "My! This is dry!" and savvy customers start to request things like a piece of cake from the MIDDLE of the stack.

Subway advertises bread baked fresh daily but when your sandwich artist asks you if you want that toasted, its code for "Do you mind if I use leftover bread from yesterday?" This is one case where you probably won't know the difference. However, if they want bread that isn't toasted and you haven't baked the day's bread YET, the customer can hear you saw through the hard bread and they ask for fresher bread, and when you saw through that then they ask for the FRESHEST bread you have and they stop caring about what flavor it is.