Guest Post: Nancy- super market shenanigans

Remember when my checker invented Quesadillas? Or the time when everyone was in a hurry?  Well, I'm not the only person these shenanigans happen to, my sister Nan had a situation at work on Saturday...

I’d like to tell the tale of how my Saturday night Shift at Fred Meyer went from good to better to bad, all in the course of 4 hours.

The night started out as any other. The 7 o’clock clock in followed by register assignment. Spending 2 hours on the express lane was bliss. Small transactions blur the customers together and cause a kind of rhythm to form. The arrival of fellow cashier, Delynn means that I am to go on break. Could it really be 9 o’clock already? The first two hours of my shift have flown by…it all felt like only 30 minutes. This, surely, is the sign of a great night at work.

Although my 15 minute break passed far too quickly, I have hope for the remaining 2 hours. While ringing up a cheerful customer, I glance up at a crinkling sound. Walt, the grocery manager, is straightening the Lay’s chip display, located directly in front of my check stand. This is nothing new. One grows to learn to tell the time by these routine chores. But could it really be 10 o’clock already? The approach of my favorite night crew guy and a glance at the clock in the lower left hand corner of my computer screen confirms this. Amazingly, working tonight hasn’t been too bad at all!

“Attention Fred Meyer shoppers, the time is now 10:45 and in just 15 minutes your one-stop shopping center will be closed for the evening. Please bring your final purchases forward so our remaining cashier may assist you.”

Really? Amazing! The past hour has flown by, and it’s closing time! My instant joy at this overhead announcement was quickly deflated by my manager. “There’s still 20 cars out there!” she said as she walked by. Unbelievable. 20?! However, trying to stay positive, probably over half of them have just stopped in for a last minute item, such as a quick dessert for the night or milk for the morning. These small transactions will be taken to U-scan, the self-checkout.

“Attention Fred Meyer shoppers…”

The call for 10:50 is usually a joyous occasion, but when I see a huge cart full of groceries pull into my check stand my annoyed button goes off. Make that double annoyed when I see her huge binder of coupons. Great. She’s one of those customers. How am I supposed to be quick when she’ll force me to be slow? Okay..it’s going to be okay. Just be quick and cheerful. I am determined to end the night well.

While still ringing up the coupon lady (really? Do you have to do 5 different transactions so you can get all your Powerade for 50 cents each? You’re killing me here), I hear Toni make the 10:55 announcement to bring all the final purchases forward. Two women are moseying up and down the aisles, paying no attention to the overhead announcements.

After I finish bagging all of coupon lady’s Powerade and other groceries, she brings out her reusable bags (no, I’m not kidding.) Excellent. I’ll just re-bag all these bottles for you, since you insist. Thanks for waiting until I was done bagging it in plastic bags.

“Attention Fred Meyer shoppers, the time is now 11:00 and your one-stop shopping center is now closed for the evening. Please bring your final purchases for our remaining cashier will be closing momentarily. We’d like to remind you of our hours of operation from 7 to 11 every day of the week. Once again, Fred Meyer is now closed, so please bring your final purchases forward.”

It’s amazing. Those two women are still walking up and down the aisles with their Artic Circle blizzards in hand. They must be hard of hearing. Perhaps the man with the cart full of Tupperware cannot hear either, since he is still walking around the entire store.

I begin cleaning my register, a routine chore that comes at 11:00. As I look up, it appears the two women are not deaf. They seem to be communicating about their shakes as they continue to meander through the aisles with no expected purchases in tow.

In the middle of washing down my register belt, the two women approach with a carton of ice cream and a bag of chips. Well, at least they made their decision. While ringing them up, the Tupperware man approaches. Seeing that I have a customer, he backs up and walks down to U-scan. What a nice fellow, I think to myself. He’s trying to get out of the store as quickly as possible.

Once the two ladies are done, I get a call from Toni saying I can drop my till, and go home. Sweet! I still have to pick up the security tags from all the check stands and drop them off at the apparel register, so I start doing that. Halfway through, the Tupperware guy rolls up. What?!? I thought he left! Toni already locked the front doors, and technically he’s not even supposed to be in the store anymore. Lucky for him, I haven’t dropped my register’s money yet, so I can still ring him up.

When I’m done (11:10 by now) Wanda tells me that the Tupperware guy went back to shop some more when he saw me helping those two women. I thought he was going to U-scan to leave faster, but instead he was going back for something else. Ridiculous.

After dropping my till and finishing all my other closing chores, I still have to wait around for the Tupperware guy to unload his cart so we can bring it back in and lock the doors again. (why couldn’t he just carry his 3 bags out to the car?)

Finally, we can all clock out. It’s 11:15. And that is how I spent my Saturday night.

Fire Station 2012

We went to the Fire station on a field trip, just like last year.  I think its really great to go meet the firemen and learn about fire safety.  The kids really liked it.  First we talked with Fireman Jake- he asked the kids different safety questions.  What to do if your clothes are on fire (stop, drop, and roll- and cover your face with your hands)  Then he asked if the kids have fire drills at home.  And what they would do if their house was on fire.  He also reminded the kids to have their parents check the smoke detector to make sure it didn't need new batteries. 

We went with Fireman Chard outside to look at the fire truck.  All the kids got to sit in it and look really cool. 

Our firemen are city employees, not volunteer, and they live at the station during their shift (72 hours, I think)  So they have all these cool things to keep them entertained.  They have to exercise- cause being a fireman requires some heavy lifting and lots of physical activity.  The kids did some pull-ups and push-ups, just like a fireman. 

They have this room in the basement of the Station that they call the gerbil habitat.  They can rearrange the different elements to create new mazes.  It has tubes, stairs, ladders, wires, chains, and walls.  The firemen use it to practice.  They turn off the lights and go in there when its pitch dark (cause smoke makes houses dark)  When they go through the tubes, they can't fit with all their gear on, so they have to take off their oxygen tanks and push it in front of them. 

This is the inside of an ambulance.  It's a lot roomier than I thought.  Sometimes they have to have a lot of people in there working to keep one person alive.

Then one of the kids tried on the fireman's clothes.  They are heavy!  I tried on just the hat and it weighs about 5 pounds. 

Firemen have to put on boots, pants, a coat, a hood, a mask and a helmet.  They  put on gloves too so all their skin is covered. 

Here's Chard (one of the kid's dad- and an actual fireman) putting on all his gear.  The firemen really like when the kids come in and see them because they don't want the kids to be afraid of them.  They want the kids to see who's under all that stuff so they won't hide if there is an actual fire. 

Chard talked to the kids through his mask and showed them how he crawls around during a fire

Then he showed the kids what he would do if he found someone in a burning building.  He would pick them up, throw them over his shoulder and run out of the building as fast as he could.  Chard is using his son Jake to demonstrate this. 

Last year Jayne was freaked out when Chard put all his gear on, this year she was in awe.  She thought Chard was really cool and wanted to sit on his lap.  I'm glad she's not afraid anymore.  Hopefully our house doesn't burn down, but we know what to do if it does catch fire.  Max was a little scared.   He had this nervous laugh/cry thing going on. 

Jayne really liked wearing the helmet

At this fire station, the living quarters are above the garage.  It's the only station in town with an actual fire pole.  Here's Chard demonstrating it. 

And the firemen are off to save the day! (or taking the truck back to the other station) When we got there the truck was gone, this station has a yellow truck.  But some of the guys from the other station brought the red truck over. 

Go schedule a field trip with your city's fire station today!  Totally awesome.

52 Finishes: Week 13- Nancy's Wedding Hairpiece

Have you all been missing me?  I didn't mean to go so long without posting, I just got really busy with life.  Here are a few things that have happened...

1. I was asked to participate at the annual Baby Spring Fling again (so I needed to start making items for that- stay tuned)
2. I went with Darick to Utah for a work thing and hung out with some of my family
3. We have been getting out house ready to sell, and finally put it up on the market.  I did tons of packing, donating, organizing and cleaning.  How did I get so much crap stuff?!
4.  Painted the Kitchen, Bathroom, and basement (to sell the house)
5.  One of my awesome friends had a baby, and I got to spend time with her other baby while she was recovering
6. My whole family came to Idaho for my baby sisters wedding
7. I fed 25 people for 4 days
8. As part of the baby fair preparation I have made 15 bow ties, 32 onsies,8 monsters, 8 pairs of shoes, and 4 dollies.  Plus organized the rest of my pre-made items
9. My little sister got married!

So I have been beyond busy, but in denial about how busy I actually was :) Naturally, I have quite a few finishes. I just haven't been able to post them, until now :) I'll start with my favorite, my sister Nancy asked my to make her hairpiece for her wedding. She didn't want a veil, and she didn't want anything too distracting. I made some simple flowers out of various scraps of fabric. I added a few pearls and feathers for glamor :)

Doesn't she look so pretty?!

To see my other finishes, click HERE

super market shenanigans Take 2

I went to the store last Saturday night. We needed cheese and poly-fil (for crafting). Normally we don't EVER run out of either. I always have a couple packages of shredded cheese, and normally a block too. Well, we were totally out. We needed cheese for about three of the recipes I was going to make this week, and one of them was for Sunday's dinner. So I had to go get some.

I'm checking out, and my checker (who had really long pretty hair, and BRIGHT blue eyeshadow) noticed I had cheese in my cart (2 packaged shredded, and one small block). She exclaimed, "whoa! You must really love cheese!" I sorta chuckled and said "I guess so." While thinking, its not that much, right... RIGHT??

Then she commented that she had invented a recipe using cheese. I said "really?" In a somewhat interested voice. She then replied in a dreamy sorta way "yeah, you take a tortilla and you put cheese in it, then you put it in the microwave and melt the cheese." At first I thought she was joking, her blue shadowed eyes looked at me in earnest. She then lamented to the fact that her new apartment didn't have a microwave. I suggested she try to cook her new recipe on the stove top. She replied that she had! And that the stove top adds a slight CRISP to her tortilla that makes it pretty much perfect. I told her she should call it a "cheese crisp" (what we call this manna from heaven in my house). She seemed awed at the suggestion and said that was a good name for it. With a smile I told her I would have to try one for myself, I paid for my large amount of cheese and walked away.

While I was driving home, I realized I had forgotten to get cereal (so I stopped at a different store and purchased some). I was thinking it was a shame I hadn't bought some at the last store. I might have been told about a new recipe that had been invented. "you take a bowl, put some cereal in it, and poor milk over it. It will blow you mind!"

to read my previous shenanigan, click HERE

super market shenanigans

I do the shopping in the family.  ALL the shopping.  Darick needs a new pair of pants? I go get them.  We run out of milk- on a Saturday night- and its 11:52pm?  I go get milk.  It like an unspoken rule.  I don’t really mind.  The other unspoken rule is I go shopping by myself- no kids!  So usually I go at night, after Darick gets home from work. (perfect break for the kids, and it gives Darick some good parenting time)… Anyway- why tell you all this?  It seems like I have some kind of “experience” happen to me every time I go shopping.  Sometimes its just a rude person that cuts me off from my parking place.  Sometimes its some kid that got lost in the store, and we needed to find his momma.  Something ALWAYS seems to happen. 

So I went to a store on New Years Eve (bad idea, I know.  But I needed a few things for our party!)  At this store, you have to bag your own groceries (HATE that part, but the prices make it worth it)  Because it’s a holiday, every checker is open (like 25+ of them)  so there are really short lines, like maybe two shoppers per line.  The checkers at this store are pretty fast too (cause they don’t bag)  So I’m not really worried about searching for a “short” line.    I walking down the line of checkers (grab a loaf of bread) and turn into a line. I notice at the checker to the right of  me there is a lady with a cart, and then from the left comes a different lady who walks into the 1 foot of buffer space I have between my cart, and the shopper in front of me. 

To my surprise, the lady calls to her mom (the shopper to the right of me) to come over, that she has a place of line.  This lady totally cut in front of me.  Now, the mom can totally see I am right there.  She says, “are you sure? “ to her daughter.  The daughter says, “Oh it’s fine, we’re in a hurry.” The she pushes my cart (and me!) back like a foot, and pulls her mom’s cart into place.  The mom, starts spouting off excuses, like “I’m sorry, we’re in a hurry!”  Then I say, “oh cause you’re in a hurry, you can cut in from of people?”  The daughter says “ we were here, we’re in a hurry.”  I say “No, you were there (pointing to my left-where she came from)  I was here. We’re all in a hurry, its New Years Eve!”  The mom says, “I’m sorry, we’re in a hurry".”  Hello? Is it just me, or is being in a “hurry” not a good reason to cut in front of people?

I decided I couldn’t stand  to watch these ladies, and I didn’t really want to fight with them (I was about to deck both of them).  So I move to the checker on the right (where the mom was standing)  I unload my groceries… wait for the checker to process my goods, help the old lady behind me unload her groceries (cause I really am a nice person!). Then go to the end of the checkout to bag my groceries.  The old lady’s groceries came down too, and so I bagged hers and put them back in her cart.  Then I went to pay my bill, and I had to wait for the old lady, who was paying hers (writing a check!). I then paid, and turned my cart to walk away.  Guess who hasn’t made it out of their line?  Yeah, the mother and daughter criminal duo!  As I’m walking past their checker, the daughter looks up at me, and I say loud enough for her and momma to hear… “Who’s in a hurry now?!”  and I stroll away. 

It was really satisfying.  Not only did I help an old lady with her groceries, I also beat the scoundrels who cut in front of me.  Maybe I’m being over dramatic, but I hate rude people at grocery stores (you know, like the ones who take the package of chicken you were about to grab)  Its the one thing I hate about doing all the shopping.  But that blessed New Years eve, the nice guy (me!) wound up on top.  Do you have these kind of things happen to you shopping?  Is it just me?