Thursday, November 30, 2006

I've Thought About Us for a Long, Long Time

Hello, pretty flowers. It sure is nice to see you.

Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo where I pledged to post every day in November and that's exactly what I did, goddamnit. I usually try to post every day anyway, but with my cold this week, I've been really challenged to even hold a thought, let alone write it down and then try to make sense of it. So, after tonight, it's over and I will still try to post daily, but now I can take a sick day once in a while too. Uh, let's see...I got off work early to attend Stinky's last swim meet. I was so out of it from my cold and so I tried to stand off to the side where I couldn't infect anyone with my germs or my stupidity. Then I'd see people, like this guy, Judd who I went to high school with and he must have thought I had brain damage when he talked to me. I'm sure he walked away thinking, "Hmm. I don't remember her being retarded in high school..."

I also kept seeing people who looked really familiar, and I couldn't remember their names, but then I would suddenly think, "That's the large black coffee to go guy," or that's the "small iced tea with lemon and lots of ice," lady. Now I'm really worried that when I start to go all senile, I won't be able to remember my daughters' names, but I will constantly mumble coffee orders and daily specials from all my food service jobs. Is this how waiters and bartenders experience hell?

Oh, wait. I was going to end this, but I do have one last thought. What is it with Iowan's when it turns winter, anyway? It's like we forget every year and the minute there's talk of any snow, all anyone can do is relate the latest grossly over-exaggerated prediction. All I heard at the damn swim meet were converstations where people said, "Well, we're going to head back to Cedar Rapids as soon as we can. They're talking five inches." Or, "We thought we'd go over to the Hy-Vee and and stock up just in case this blizzard hits as hard as they say it's gonna." When I got home, I checked the weather and there is a chance of snow, but the big stuff is all supposed to fall East of us. I've also lived in Iowa long enough to know that fronts move, and we could get hit as well, but I think it's funny how dramatic everyone gets about imginary blizzards. Maybe if we had real crime in town, we wouldn't have to work so hard at creating our dramas.

12 comments:

rel said...

Churlita,
Congratulation fellow nablopomo-er.
Some days were easier than others, I agree. But we slogged thru with our dogged determination.
Semper Fi ---Do or Die!
rel

Anonymous said...

Good job posting every. single. day.

Better to remember drink orders than conditions from the days at the gyno office.

booda baby said...

A lovely month was had by all your readers. Let's do that again soon.

I hate the being sick, but I LOVE the being stupid with cold. It's a forced experiment in how well people can tolerate impatient forthrightitude instead of all the diplomacy and bullshit. Or rather, not how well they can tolerate, but how few penalties there really are for dropping all the booollshit.

I don't know. I might need a hobby.

Churlita said...

Rel,

Yes, it was even tougher for you with all of your travelling. It was kind of a fun experiment.

Margaret,

Man, you always think of things that I already should have, but didn't. It could be much worse after working in ob/gun, you are right.

Booda Baby,

Unfortunately for me, I get even more internal than I normally am and so I'm not so much forthright as totally spaced-out. It's embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a month of great posts! Keep them coming, please.

I love what you said about people flocking to Hy-Vee to stock up before the "big one." That always cracked me up because even in the worst snow storm, I only remember ever being stranded for about 12 hours. It's a good thing I had 23 cans of Campbell's soup and 4 boxes of Cap'n Crunch, though, because that made those 12 hours more bearable.

Churlita said...

Julie in L.A.,

You're welcome. You know me, I can't shut-up so I'm sure the posts will keep on a comin'.

Did you alternate between the soup and the cereal or did you eat all the soup first and move onto the cereal for dessert?

Brando said...

Yeah, when is the last time you heard, "After being snowed in, the area man was forced to eat his family"?

I like the idea of a person losing his or her mind and only remembering orders of past customers. There's a story there.

And congrats on a month of blogging. Quality and quantity is rare in the blogosphere.

Churlita said...

Brando,

Thanks, and that story you're talking about would probably be very depressing and scare kids off of the noblest profession of all - serving others.

It would be like the Donner party, but without the necessity.And that is no kind of party at all.

Mark said...

What I enjoy about Iowa winters are all the people I hear say, "They say this is going to be the worst winter in XX years." No one seems to know who "they" are, but we give them a lot of credit for predicting months into the future.

And let me join everyone else in congratulating you on your month of posts. You've definitely become one of my regular reads, even though I don't comment as nearly often as I should.

Churlita said...

Thanks Mark. I think sometimes "they" are the Farmer's Almanac because it always seems like the Almanac predicts the worst winter ever.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know weather hysteria is not any better anywhere - In Austin the local news devoted 4 reporters and constant attention to the cold front phenomenon and we weren't getting any precipitation - just colder temperatures - I was meeting a friend for lunch who thought we might cancel because of "bad weather" it was 39 degrees out - cold yes - treacherous?
I can't do anything everyday for a month except eat and well.... Great job all the time on your blog.

Churlita said...

Thanks AKelly. I suppose it could be worse, when we lived in Albuquerque it snowed once, and no one even cleaned it off their cars or slowed down when they drove. It was more than scary.