2/14/06

Today makes me laugh because I know there are students on the ACU campus wearing white t-shirts with big red iron-on letters that read, "Singles Awareness Day."

flakes predicting flakes

Wouldn't it be great if we all had jobs where we could say what we want, based on flimsy evidence, without recourse when we are incorrect every single time? We could. And we would be called meteorologists.

The past two times they called for snow here, a grand total of five flakes fell. But oh, this weekend, they were saying, "We know we missed it last time, but get ready, it's gonna be bad this weekend." They predicted four to six inches. So everyone raided the grocery stores and cancelled plans for the weekend.

As soon as the sun was up this morning, I spang out of bed to look out the window. Clear blue skies and barely a frosting on the ground. whatEVER.

I mean, I love clear blue skies, but not when I'm expecting snowman-building-weather. I bet Karen gets sixteen inches.

Hi, I'll be with you when I'm good and ready.

At work, the Staff Development Committee (read: Party Planners) that I was drafted to participate in does a Valentine's Day goodie bag for all the staff. This year, it seems Krispy Kreme is giving away coupons for free donuts (which double as VDay cards) with each dozen purchased. Some staff have collected some coupons to use in these goodie bags, but we need more, so I said I would drop by the KK near my house on the way home today and ask that they donate 4 sets of the coupons for our little party.

I walk inside and the chick behind the counter is at the drive through window chatting with a friend outside in the car. She leans toward the counter, makes eye contact with me, and turns back to the window to proceed with her conversation for several more minutes. There is no donut-related transaction taking place. Just giggling in the general direction of the dude in the vehicle.

She finishes with him, then takes the order of the customer at the drive through speaker, who, in case it matters, arrived after I did. She takes their order through her headset, the whole time, looking at me but talking to them. Then she stops talking to them, but doesn't say anything to me such as, "Hi, can I help you?" She just stares. I couldnt decide if I was in the Twilight Zone or an episode of Seinfeld.

Finally, I say,"Hi, I have a question..." She smacks her lips, looking annoyed. She glances at my work ID tag, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly and audibly. I explain why I'm there, and she gives zero facial expression that would have given me a clue that she understood a word I was saying.

I finish with, "So would you be willing to donate 4 packs of the coupons for our staff?"
She says, with no expression, "We ain't got none."
I say, "Do you mean you don't offer the coupons at this location? Or that you are temporarily sold out?"
"I mean we ain't got none."
I just stare right back, until she says, "Come back later, we might have some then."

As I walked out, another acquaintance of hers walked in, whom she greeted like a human with tremendous expression on her face and excited tones in her voice.

Terrible customer service just kills me. There are certain restaurants and stores that I avoid like the plague because of consistently terrible customer service. There is no excuse, people.

Although I guess I shouldn't complain because this probably makes me even. I've been given free donuts three times in a row at this location when male employees were working the drive through window.

Forget your jammies, Mrs. Packard?*

i'm taking a survey to settle a discussion with a buddy. humor me, and tell me what you think.

1) regardless of anything else they might or might not be wearing, do guys wear t-shirts when they sleep?

2) do women sleep in the same thing (or lack thereof, as the case may be) every night, or do they have lots of different jammies to choose from?

please note: i don't wanna know aaaanything specific about what you people sleep in. i'm lookin' for vague, non-mental-picture-producing answers here.

*one of the best lines in the movie Atlantis

well, laura, i build guitars

i met a guy last night who builds guitars here in nashville. here's how he got his current job:

he walked in for his interview and the boss had 8 or 10 guitars lined up, each of which had some sort of defect preventing them from being sold. the boss told this guy, "i'm gonna leave you alone here, and when i come back, you tell me what is wrong with each of them."

so the boss came back, and the guy plainly told him the problem with each guitar.
"can you fix them?" said the boss.
"sure," said the guy.

so he took 5 defective guitars home, fixed them that day (that day!) and brought them back to the shop the next day.

the boss says, "how did you fix them all so quickly?"
"you asked me to. so i did," said the guy.

he was hired. and he promptly sold all the previously defective guitars.

it was quite a cool conversation. i had zero knowledge of what it takes to build a guitar. this guy loves, and i mean loves, his job. did it on the side for a while, but now works for a company with access to all the tools he needs.

he has recently happened into a folk band with his buddies. they write and play and sing and gathered an immediate following after playing at starbucks one night with no advertisement beforehand.

he is bringing me a cd they have done. i'm giving him a JP cd to show him how it's really done.