Blogger 365 Day 271 - So what did you miss exactly?

     Let's try to see if I can recap the weekend in all its glory.  First I am going to need some blogging music.  Yes, I know it disrupts the rhythm of reading the blog when I go all song and title in the middle of a thought, but I am in the mood for music and since I run this hear thing like a boss music we shall have.

"Sleep to Dream" - Fiona Apple

     There, that's better.  

     This was weekend number two where I was supposed to go home and help with the process of getting the place ready for the new carpeting.  Mind you all of the hard work was done last weekend, all that really needed to be done this weekend was to take some stuff out of the bedroom that was left in there and find a place for it.  In all it would be a project that would take maybe an hour, but with everything that has been going on with my mom recently I went ahead and talked to Ed at work about getting Saturday off.  Of course he was accommodating, he almost always is and truth be told I need to start burning off vacation days anyway, even by using one on Saturday I still have 7 paid days coming to me yet before my next vacation comes due in January, in which case we will add another 5 to the total, provided I do not work Thanksgiving or Christmas, in which case there could be even more paid time coming my way.

"I'd Rather Go Blind" - Clarence Carter

     I may end up just asking to be paid for the days I am owed rather than taking them, I will need the money around Christmas so I don't need to cash them in at this very moment, but in the near future it might be a good idea. 

     Okay, I am getting sidetracked here, suffice it to say Ed said I could take Saturday off, using one of my vacation days, which meant that everything I would usually do on Saturday I had to do on Friday instead, all of the ordering and the invoices and what not.  Plus I would have to run out to the store formerly known as Gus Millers and pick up their Monday order, something I usually do on the way to work on Saturday but since everything was being done on Friday that meant I had a bus trip to take in the middle of my day.

"Cities in Dust" - Siouxsee and the Banshees

     I got all of my normal Friday stuff done on schedule, which for me meant by 3pm, then I hopped a bus and picked up the order I needed, hopped another bus back into town and put that order as well as a second one I received earlier on Friday together for Monday.  I also banged out about a week's worth of invoices, they had started to fall a little behind and before the bills can be paid I have to break them down by category so I went through the invoices, getting all of them done and ready for Monday morning, then I went upstairs and reloaded the Freal milkshake machine, which I usually do every Saturday morning.  I also remerchandised a Coke cooler, we are close to the time when we renegotiate our next contract with them and the last time the regional manager was in he noticed that some of the product in one of his cooler was items he doesn't sell, so I had to take that product out and find something of theirs to put in its place.  For the time being I just doubled up on our Minute Maid juices that are on the floor.  Nothing overly complicated, but something that needed to get done and if not by me then who?  I have come to just quit relying on anyone else to do things, it is better that way.

"The Killing Moon" - Echo and the Bunnymen

     Have I ever said that I have the coolest Pandora station?  Yes, I do believe I have but I want it on the record just in case.

     After redoing the cooler I went downstairs and placed the two orders I already had, then I started doing the order for my store, beginning with our GFS order which was already partly done, Stephanie had already placed an order for the things that the deli needed, I just had to add a few odds and ends that I also need because GFS will not deliver unless you spend $350, so I spent just enough to make sure we would get a delivery on Tuesday, a case of jalapeno dogs, a case of kielbasa and some breakfast burritos and all was good on that front.

     Next was tackling our grocery order, which comes in three parts, the deli order which is just me ordering things on a list that they give me, a tobacco order which consists of both tobacco related items that Belinda gives me and cigarettes which I put together by following a simple list I keep in the cigarette stockroom, all I have to do is count the cartons we have versus the base counts that are on the sheet, if we are short then I order enough cartons to make up the difference and the grocery order which is the hardest part because I have to walk around the store and make note of everything we are missing or low on on the shelves, plus because I am doing this a day early, I have to anticipate what we may sell over the course of the next couple of days.  

"Fascination Street" - The Cure

     It was a time consuming process to be sure, made longer because we misplaced Belinda's original order sheet and had to start from scratch on it and by the time I had gotten everything done it was just about 9pm.  I sent the orders in and called it a day, though the day wasn't over for me, I still had to get back to my apartment, grab a shower, call my family and say I was ready to be picked up and  pack my things to go home for the weekend. 

     I hop a bus and get home, it is about 9:30 now and I hop into the shower and try to get some of the day washed off of me, then call home and say that I am ready, even though I wasn't but I figured they had about an hour in the car and that would be enough time for me to pack some things for the weekend. 

"Strangelove" - Depeche Mode

"Pittsburgh" - Lemonheads

     My family ended up being about a half hour late, they tried to go a way where they could avoid the Squirrel Hill tunnels and managed to get lost in the process an didn't arrive until it was almost midnight. 

"I'll Be You" - The Replacements

     We nonetheless head out, on the way back we stopped for something to eat at Eat N Park, which was fine with me, I hadn't eaten much all day.  They didn't want me too but I bought dinner, last weekend when I was home they wouldn't let me buy anything.   I would always get the line "You can leave the tip", which I hate because without seeing the bill I am not sure what to leave as a tip.  I wouldn't say I am a generous tipper, but at least a fair one, so on our check of $35 I left a $10 tip.  Cuteness may have figured into the tip, so could the fact she smiled at me a few times while we were there.  Sucker for a pretty face?  Guilty as charged.

"A Little Respect" - Erasure

    We got back some time after 1am, maybe 1:30 or so and after haggling with my mom to take her meds (after my last trip home she went to the doctor and was put on blood pressure medication because hers was 200 over 100) everyone went to sleep. I slept on the living room floor, I just tossed a blanket out and aid down on it.  The living room, carpet which can also use to be replaced at some point, has a feel to it that I would rather lay on a blanket than directly on it.  Don't know if that is from not being kept up, or if it has to do with the water damage or both but after last weekend I wanted to sleep on a blanket and not on the floor.

"Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns and Roses

     I ended up waking up off and on all night long, which should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me, it is par for the course.  I would step outside and have a cigarette while staring up at the stars, something I do miss from living in Pittsburgh is actually being able to see the night sky, on this weekend I was not disappointed on that front, most nights were almost completely clear outside.  Maybe I should have just slept on the porch like I used to do as a kid. 

     Anyway, we get up off and on on Saturday, that being people would wake up then go back to bed so until everyone really started moving as something resembling a unit it was probably after 11am.  Little did I realize that my mom had plans to spend the day shopping with my aunt Mary, so one of the reasons I was going home, to keep an eye on my mom, was pretty much pointless because she wasn't even home for the better part of Saturday.  Not that I am complaining, she needs to get out, I just wish I would have known, I could have just worked on Saturday then, rather than rush home Friday night.

"Would?" - Alice in Chains

    That left Mike and I in the house by ourselves most of the day, we ended up doing the remaining work in the bedroom pending the arrival of the carpet guys on Tuesday.  There was a knock on the door though, I got up to answer it and it was a gentleman who asked in my mom was home.  Well he asked for her by name, I have reached the point age-wise where most people do not look at me and ask "Excuse me son, is your mommy home?".  I saw this guy was carry a clipboard and a badge that looked semi official, plus on his sheet he had a note saying that my mother's favorite color was purple.  Silly me, I thought that perhaps this guy was someone who was doing work on the place, so I called for Mike to come out.

"Rain" - The Cult

     I say silly because that wasn't who this guy was at all.  Apparently my mom, unbeknownst to everyone, had contacted someone about her future funeral arrangements.  I don't even know if my mom knows she did this or not, but this guy was there to talk to her about her future casket and what not.  The thing is, with the way my mom has been acting, I really am not even sure she knows that she had talked to this guy, tonight at diner she couldn't even remember that she ordered unsweetened iced tea when the server brought her a refill.  She looked at the glass and said that it wasn't what she ordered, even though she had the empty Sweet N Low packet right next to her glass from the previous one.  So yes it is entirely possible she spoke to some guy about her future funeral and doesn't even realize it.  That is becoming par for the course more often than not these days.  Whether that is related to her high blood pressure issue I do not know, I just know that it is becoming an ongoing battle to get her to take her pills, which isn't making anything better.

"Enter Sandman" - Metallica

     Since my mom wasn't around and the work I was home to do was done, Mike and I ordered a pizza and then went to our separate room, me the living room, he to his bedroom and I just watched TV the rest of Saturday  until my mom got back. When she and Mary returned Mary had brought some stuff for me, some steaks and ground beef she had in her freezer (I think she bought a cow or something from the butcher and was just storing meat in her freezer) and we asked my mom about the guy that showed up.  She didn't seem to know what we were talking about.  Again I don't know if that is because she really doesn't remember or just isn't telling, she can be stubborn when she wants to be and just not say anything.

     Saturday night just ended up being more laying around watching TV and not doing much of anything.  I spent most of the time just playing Marvel Puzzle Quest on my iPad. 

"This Time" - Tracy Chapman

     Break time, I like this song a little too much to type through it.

"Landslide" - Stevie Nicks

      Sunday was pretty uneventful as well, technically Mike didn't want to leave until after the Steeler game was over, which makes sense because traffic on game day is always a mess and with the Richard Caliguri Great Race going on in town this weekend, getting to and fro early in the day would have been problematic anyway, but then we didn't even watch the game.  Not that I much cared one way or the other, I like football but I do not live and die Steeler football, if it is on I will watch it, but if it isn't I do not miss it.  By the same token, if that is why we aren't leaving earlier, it would seem t make sense that some one wanted to watch it.  Instead it was just a lot of laying around doing nothing.  My mom ended up sleeping most of the day, apparently her shopping excursion yesterday as well as the late night trip to get me on Friday wore her out.  She woke up long enough to put Roseanne on TV, which just made me all the happier that I had my iPad with me.

"Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O'Connor

     We left after the game ended (the game we didn't actually watch) and stopped for dinner at Golden Corral on the way back, again I didn't get to buy anything, I just left the tip.  I never know how to tip a buffet server.  Technically I don't think they are waiters or waitresses if I have to get my own food.  I'm doing most of the work, all they have to do it bring me drinks.  That's not that hard, and even the first drink they don't get, you get that when you buy the buffet, so what do you tip a person that only brings you a refill or two?  What is the proper tip percentage?  I don't know, I am unsure of the etiquette in such situations. 

     I got home somewhere around 7:30pm, put up a missing blog entry and have just been pondering the weekend ever since.  I know they want me to go back next weekend and start unpacking everything we have packed up, but I can't take full weekends off of work every weekend.  I have cigarette pricing that will need to be changed this weekend as well as two weeks worth of price changes to deal with.

"Forever in Blue Jeans" - Neil Diamond

     By the same token sitting at dinner tonight and seeing my mom not even remember what she ordered to drink, after the issue with the phone call a couple of weeks ago where she didn't even realize I hadn't been home since June just leaves me a tad bit frightened.  I know she needs to take her meds, but I can't force her to do that.  Ideally she should probably get a diet from her doctor to be on, and start doing some things to get out of the house, even if it is a simple walk around the neighborhood.  I am just not in a position to do that on a day to day basis, not unless I quit my job but then I would have no money to live on.  I don't know what would be the best course of action at this point.

"The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death" - The Housemartins

     There, you now now just how my weekend was and now I am officially caught up on blog entries again.  I guess we both win.