Friday Fragments #1: Giving it a Try

I'm a huge fan of Mrs. 4444's blog, Half-Past Kissin' Time. One of her regular tidbits is Friday Fragments, which is basically a collection of stuff collected over the past week. I figured I'd give it a try ...

Addie and her best friend tried to make coffee cupcakes from a Tumblr recipe a few weeks ago. The results were disastrous because they used coffee grounds instead of liquid coffee. They went for the redo this week, and they were the best cupcakes I've ever had. They got really into decorating them, too :-)

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Burger King has come out with something called a "Bacon Cheddar Ranch Tendercrisp".  Addie has been salivating ever since, and we had a recent lunch date to indulge in one.

When we went to BK, however, it was like a Saturday Night Live skit.  The cashier was named Phyllis, and her co-workers sounded like crows when they bellowed her name.  Nothing she did made any sense ... like, she would run off to stock lids in the middle of cashiering ... and then someone would squawk, "Phyllis!"

It was ridiculously funny.
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I've been reading a young adult medieval fantasy series geared to boys for the past week.  One of my students recommended John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series, not exactly my usual cup of tea in terms of literature selection, and I haven't been able to stop.  I've slowed down, though, because I'm on the last one ... and I don't want it to end!












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I changed my Facebook status to "single".  I had just left the relationship status part empty, and now it's officially single.  I mean, I've been single for a long time (a long, long time), but I think maybe this means I'm ready to start looking.  Like, in earnest ... not just bemoaning how difficult dating is when you're in your thirties (because, let's face it ... dating is hard at any age).
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Belle started summer camp this week.  She went part-time last year; she was at camp while I was teaching summer school, but I got to spend afternoons and weekends with her.  This year, she wanted to go full-time ... and I miss her terribly.  When I get home from summer school, she's still at camp for several hours, and I'm kind of at a loss.  She loves it, though, which makes it worthwhile.  I suppose ;-)
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Addie sent me this grocery list via Facebook. 

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I'm glad that summer school is only Monday through Thursday (and only three hours).  It is exhausting! 
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My roof is being reshingled.  When I went to go to bed after the first day, it was covered with debris (that's what comes from having your bedroom be the attic of a barn, I guess).  The roofers are decent guys, and the fact that they sing along with the radio (loudly)is especially entertaining.
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I have been having some really strange, extremely vivid dreams this week.  It's odd, because if you can't tell from this list, it's been a pretty dull week.  Maybe that's even why ... I don't know, the whole concept of dreaming is just fascinating to me.

In fact, I wish I was organized enough to keep a dream notebook.  The dream I had last night was like a mystery movie, and I bet I would have had the makings of a new novel if I'd written it down right away.  Now, I can't really remember the details of it at all.  

Sunday Stealing: The Seriously Random Question Meme (Part I)

This week's Sunday Stealing offering is sold as the "seriously random question" meme. It seems to be seriously random in the direction of food, in my humble opinion, but maybe that's just me ;-)

1.Your ex's car is on the side of the road, on fire. What do you do?
I would pull over, call 911, see if anyone was trapped inside, and do whatever I could to help. No matter how bad a situation with an ex might be, nobody deserves to be trapped in a car on fire. Ignoring it, taking a picture and posting it on Facebook, screaming about karma being a bitch … those might be tempting, but as far as I’m concerned, life’s too short to sink down that low.

2. Your best friend tells you she is pregnant. What is your reaction?
“If you’re happy, I’m happy. If you’re not, I’m here to help you process. If you need anything, let me know.”

3. When is the last time you wanted to punch someone in the face?
I’m non-violent, so face-punching isn’t really a viable option for me. I’ve gotten really annoyed with some people at work lately over turning my workplace into a soap opera (it’s sad when adults start spreading gossip around worse than the middle schoolers do), and we’re currently driving home from my nephew’s birthday party (a three-hour drive), and Addie keeps announcing updates on her Sims characters which is for some reason getting on my nerves like you cannot imagine. Hotspotting my Droid is indeed a mixed blessing ;-)

4. What is the last thing you spent money on?
I bought pretzels for the girls, my mothers, and I during a rest stop on the drive down to Connecticut.

5. Do you think you gained or lost weight this past month?
Gained, sadly. A combination of increased Millky Way consumption and not really being able to exercise for medical reasons has not been a good thing.

6. Crunchy or Puffy Cheetos?
Crunchy. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I’m a huge fan of Cheetos, orange fingers and all.

7. The first person on your friends list just called you a bitch. What do you do?
Laugh? I don’t know, it’s all about the context … and I can’t imagine a context that I wouldn’t find at least mildly entertaining. Anyway, I am not a bitch … I am many things, not all of them good, but I would not take a bitch accusation seriously since it is so far off the mark. Furthermore, I don’t think I have any sort of “friends list” … wasn’t that a MySpace thing?

8. Congratulations! You just had a son. What’s his name?
Atticus, Holden, or Rhett.

9. Congratulations! You just had a daughter. What’s her name?
Tess, Elphaba, or Eilonwy.

10. What are you craving right now?
A margarita. Will this car ride never end?

11. What was the last thing you cried about?
My back hurting … I’m becoming a real wimp about pain.

12. When you buy something and your change is 2 cents, do you keep it or tell the cashier to keep it?
I put it in the little “have a penny, leave one, need a penny, take one” box.

13. What color is your tissue box?
I don’t have a clue. Do people actually pay attention to stuff like that?

14. Do you have a ceiling fan in your bedroom, and if so, is there dust on that fan?
Hahahahahahahahaha. I live in the attic of a barn. It is freezing cold in the winter and sweltering hot in the summer. There is no ceiling fan. There’s plenty of dust, though …

15. What was the last voicemail you received about?
An old friend calling to say hi. I have a boring life ;-)

16. Have you ever blocked someone on Facebook?
Nope, nor have I ever unfriended anyone. I’ve turned down people asking to be friends on Facebook (mostly students … they do not seem to listen when I tell them that I cannot be Facebook friends with them), but I’ve never blocked anybody.

17. Scariest thing you’ve experienced in the last year?
Since Addie got her license, I make her text me right before she leaves and as soon as she reaches her destination. Overprotective, I know, but I am a worrier. Addie had a concert at school, and she left an hour before my mother, Belle, and I did. I didn’t receive a “Made it” text from her, and I was absolutely hysterical. I tried to call her, but she wasn’t answering her cell, and I didn’t hear back from her when I texted her frantically.

The period of time when I didn’t know where she was … it was horrible. Addie is in general a really responsible kid, and she was (and still is) religious about texting. I was utterly convinced that something unspeakable had happened to her because it was so unlike her not to text.

When we got to the concert, she was sitting in front of the stage with the rest of the band, and I went charging down there and went totally nuclear on her—demanding her car keys and so forth. She was mortified, and the worst part was, she had texted me … she showed me on her phone. It just happened to catch that little cell hiccup that happens occasionally, so it didn’t get delivered to my phone for several hours.

I felt like the biggest jerk in the world.

18. Do you wear a name tag at work?
Nope :-) I’ve worked at schools that required staff photo badges, and it’s such a relief to have gotten away from that. It’d be silly, actually … there are fewer than 300 students in my school, so trust me, everyone knows everyone else without a name tag.

19. What kind of car do you want?
A Jeep Wrangler.

20. What do you order when you go to Burger King?
A Whopper with cheese. I am usually pre-menstrual to the extreme when I get the BK urge, so I figure why mess around?

An Outstanding Burger King Employee

I consider myself a very open-minded person who views all people by their merits rather than through the lens of race, age, disability, or whatever. Me? I am the ultimate believer in equality, in not judging a book by its cover, in not remembering people forevermore by my first glimpse of them.

At least, that's the way I like to think I am. The truth might be a bit grayer than that, as I realized last night.

This has been the snowiest week I can remember, and I've lived in New Hampshire my entire life. In fact, I'm home from work today because the superintendent called a snow day. Anyway, the driving has been horrendous all week, so I haven't been letting Addie drive herself to and from school (and to and from activities, and let me just say that Addie is a very extracurricularly-involved child ...)

Last night it was jazz band, which ends at the awkward time of 7:30 (awkward because Belle usually goes to bed at seven, so I have to keep her up past her bedtime and deal with the various ramifications of that). I decided to bribe Belle with a trip to Burger King to make the idea of not going to bed on time more palatable (she's got to be the only kid in America that actually WANTS to go to bed on time). She was agreeable to this, so off we went.

We walked into Burger King, and there was a dwarf behind the counter. The first thought that goes through my head? "Oh my gosh, he's a dwarf!" The second, by the way, was, "Yeah, you hypocrite, you think you're open-minded, but 'He's a dwarf!' is flashing in your brain like neon."

We went to the counter and ordered our food, and the employee (I'll call him Ned) gave me an immediate knowing smile as if to say, "Yeah, I'm a dwarf. I get this all the time."

This Burger King was short-staffed (that was a completely unintentional pun, by the way ... I just picked it up when I reread what I've written so far), so Ned was working both the cash register and the drive thru window while one other employee made orders behind him.

And can I just tell you how amazing this guy was? He moved from the cash register to the drive thru, carrying a step stool with him so he could fill cups, scoop French fries (he put gloves on before he did this ... many fast food employees don't, or don't remove gloves before handling money, a practice that turns my stomach), and that sort of thing. This sounds cheesy, but it was almost like watching someone dancing; he was that coordinated, that in a state of perpetual motion.

As he was putting our tray together, he brought out a selection of toys and let Belle pick which one she wanted, which got him instant status with her.

While we were eating, Ned was changing the trash bags and collecting the trays. I smiled at him the first time he walked by, and he asked how everything was. The second time he walked by, I said to him, "Wow, you never stop working, do you?"

He replied, "Well, they told us in training that we should always be moving."

I laughed and said, "Well, you certainly are."

And as he walked away, I said to Belle, "Do you see how hard that man works? It's so important to always put 100% into your job, whether you're a doctor or a worker at Burger King."

She nodded solemnly.

When we were finished eating, I threw away the trash and gave Belle the empty tray. I told her to bring it to the counter, where Ned was busy wiping down the trays he'd collected from the tops of the trash bins.

As Belle handed the tray to Ned, she said, "Thank you again for letting me pick my toy."

He looked at me and smiled, and I felt like I'd done something right.

And yet I'm almost tormented by the fact that I almost called this post, "The Dwarf at Burger King", by my initial reaction to the sight of Ned.

I'm trying to make up for that, though, by sharing the experience with the blogosphere ... and, of course, giving this post a more reverent and completely accurate title.