Just Business As Usual

I needed to fill the refrigerator so that we actually could have food to eat, so I went out earlier to shop.  Of course, I can't go out without making the obligatory stop at Wal Mart--or, as the case was tonight, the land of the RVs.  WOW!!!  The RVs were lined up end to end all around the perimeter of the parking lot.  I don't think I've ever seen so many there at any one time before, so I was quite amazed.  But then, it IS the unofficial end to summer and people want to get that last trip in before school starts.

It is pretty cool that Wal Mart allows RVs to be parked in their lots for free.  Not that Wal Mart is losing out in the deal:  every time I see one of these things parked, there are people walking to the store to buy.  There is a definite method to this madness.  One of the guys that K works with laughingly says when he retires he will buy a Chevy, put all of his belongings in it, and park at Wal Mart to live.  I wonder how many have tried this already?  :)

This town is unbelievably crazy this weekend.  First, the students are back--and not one of them know how to drive in this town.  There is some sort of half K or full K run this weekend, so that has brought a lot of people in.  But the big draw is the annual blues festival--and THAT gets an awful lot of people from quite a distance coming here.  So, the traffic is absolutely nuts.  And the drivers are going to get someone killed.

Wal Mart is situated on the main highway that runs through the UP.  Of course, we don't have interstate highways, so every business has its own entrance onto this major road.  Target is across the highway from Wal Mart, so the traffic along the corridor there is quite extensive.  To help with left turns, a traffic light was installed at the intersection.  A pain in the butt for people passing through, but essential for those who are trying to get to one of the businesses.  When I go to Wal Mart from our house, I have to make a left turn to get into the parking lot.  The light for the through traffic was green, but the left turn lane had a red light.  When I got to the light, there was vehicle in front of me making a stop, but BARELY.    And then the car turned left while the light was still red!!!  I know people are always doing the wrong things while driving, but it still flabbergasts me when I see something like this.  Here I am, hours later, and I can't believe I really saw this.  That driver is certainly an accident waiting to happen.  And I am staying in the house until the holiday weekend is over.

No Words...

From notalwaysright.com:

Me: “Hello, this is ***** Healthcare line. What can I help you with?”
Caller: “Hi, I’m calling because my son just ate a bunch of ants.”
Me: “I’m sorry? Your son ate ants?”
Caller: “Yes! I was wondering if I need to take him to the hospital and see a doctor.”
Me: “Well, ma’am, I don’t think you need to worry. I don’t think the ants will make him sick, but I advise that he doesn’t eat any more of them.”
Caller: “Well, I gave him some ant killer to get rid of them.”
Caller’s friend: “Get him to the emergency room, now!”

The Slobby McSlobbersons Have Left The Building

*I write this post with a great deal of amusement and amazement--and NO amount of meanness is intended.  I have a lot of affection for the persons named.*

I have never raised boys, but I think I can say this without much worry:  While boys are messy--and dirty, at times--girls are the biggest slobs on the face of this earth.  I am totally amazed at how slobby girls are.

In the past, we have opened our home to young men to stay with us while they attended our local university.  The first time, G was trying to stay in school for one more semester.  He was having a great deal of financial difficulties, so we offered up our basement family room for him to stay in.  He was with us for only one semester and then he took a break from school, finally completing his education a year later.  A couple of years ago we had one of K's nephew's sons here for a semester.  Both guys were absolute sweethearts and didn't really make much more work for me than I normally had--extremely low maintenance.  And then, we had a couple of young women stay with us the last two weeks...

Another nephew of K's has a daughter who just completed her 3rd year of nursing school.  She was required to come to our town for six shifts at the local hospital.  Because she was only going to need a place to sleep for six days/nights, she asked if we would let her and a friend stay in our spare room.  This was a no-brainer for me and I said 'yes' immediately.  (I figure this is the generation that will be taking care of me when I'm in my dotage, so I better be nice to them.  :D)  Two weeks ago this coming Wednesday, the girls arrived.

Let me say this, whenever someone is a guest in my home--whether it is short- or long-termed--I try my hardest to not invade their privacy.  However, there are times when I have to go into their space, and it isn't always convenient for me to let them know ahead of time.  When the guys lived here, I had to go into their rooms a couple of times, and it usually was to get towels on laundry day.  Of course, the beds were never made and the guys had some personal items spread out, but for the most part, I 'spread out' much more whenever we stay in a hotel.  Not horrifying, in the least.  The girls?  A much different story.

On Thursday, less than 24 hours after the girls descended on our house, I had to go upstairs to close the windows.  They had left the windows open and the rain had started, so I needed to go up there.  O. M. F. G!!!!!  First, there BARELY was a path for me to walk from the stairs to the window.  They had, literally, dumped everything they brought with them onto the floor and spread it out from one end to the other.  Every flat surface, every inch of floor space, was covered with their stuff.  And I'm not sure WHAT they did to the bed.  I didn't even SEE the quilt or blanket that had been on it and the top sheet was in one ball in the middle of the bed.  I didn't know anyone could cause that much destruction in that short of an amount of time.  It just blew me away--but it was fine.  If they wanted to live like that, more power to them.  ;)  (At one point, the blanket found its way onto the curtain rod--I believe they were trying to shut out the sunlight so they could sleep during the day.)

The other thing that amazed me was the condition of the bathroom after it was used.  Now, the guys weren't great about cleaning up the little hair bits after shaving, but very rarely did they make the mirror unusable--at least, not like the girls.  After the girls were done in the bathroom, there was water and face-cleaner residue from one end of the vanity top to the other.  There were spatter marks on the mirror and other things I couldn't identify.  The room was just a mess.  And this wasn't just them being inconsiderate, because there always was an attempt to clean up after themselves--they just didn't succeed very well.  On first glance, things didn't look TOO bad--they took all of their possessions with them, as well as their wet towels--but things were FAR from well.  ;)  I still have a hard time believing what they did in that bathroom.

Part of me wonders if my OCD tendencies make me see some things as horrible, but are only 'normal' in other households.  When I was a teen, my room wasn't always neat as a pin, but I NEVER came close to these two girls.  And both of my girls were slobs, but not to this extent.  So, I don't know if these two are 'normal,' or not.  However, from talking to others, I think I can say with a great bit of confidence that girls ARE the Slobby McSlobbersons of the human race.



*And, to give these wonderful, adorable, sweet, and friendly girls their due, they wrote a marvelous thank you note to K and me and gave us a gift card to a local restaurant for us allowing them to stay here.  NOT something that we expected or needed, but a wonderful gesture on their part.  Still, I can't help but wish we had a guest bathroom that they could have used instead of us all sharing the same one.  :D

Really...REALLY???

To begin with, I am not trying to pretend to be the best-dressed, most sophisticated person in the world.  Heck, I'm probably not even the best-dressed person in my extended family!  (I tend to wear yoga pants and Red Wing t-shirts the vast majority of the time.)  So, I'm really trying not to be mean with this post.

The other day I had to go shopping.  There was a snow-storm predicted--which we didn't get once again--and my pantry resembled Mother Hubbard's cupboard, only with less food in it, so I HAD to shop.  Usually when I go shopping, I begin my evening at a general merchandise store, such as Walmart--and this is where this story takes place.

I'm sure most, if not all, of us have visited the site People of Walmart.  I find much of what I see there frightening and disturbing--but I think it affects me so much because I'm very, very afraid I'll see my own picture there some day.  {shudder}  Anyway, when I was in the store the other night, I found a perfect candidate for the site.  I DIDN'T get a picture because I'm sure the woman would have beat me severely for doing so and would have taken much, much pleasure in my pain.  BUT, I think I can paint a pretty good picture with words, so here goes:

First, the woman was anywhere from the age of 35 to 85.  And however old she is, her face would STILL not look good for her age.  Her hair was straw-colored bleach blond and the 'straw' reference didn't end there--it looked as if she had never heard of conditioner.  She looked like she had visited every bar in three counties in the last two months AND smoked a carton of cigarettes in each.  She was wearing low-cut jeans.  On top, she was wearing a vest that hit her mid-thigh.  The vest was leather and, other than possibly a bra, she was not wearing anything else.  The vest only had a closure at breast-level and it was completely open the rest of the way.  Her stomach was exposed so that I got a very good look at her bread-doughy, bumpy belly/muffin top.  While she wasn't more than 10-15 pounds overweight, she was nowhere near an age that could pull off this clothing.  About the only place a woman in this age group could possible fit in would be at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally--but nowhere else.  And the best part of all of this?  She was a Walmart employee!  No, she wasn't wearing her Walmart tunic, but she DID have her name tag on and she was organizing shelves when I saw her.  And all I can say is:  REALLY??????

Un-Freaking-Believable

I just found out that The Brother and his wife have a foreign exchange student living with them.  The two people who didn't even raise their own kids have taken someone else's into their home.  I am just speechless.  The only thing I can think is that their youngest--our godchild--wanted this to happen.  And from what it seems, whatever she wants, she gets.