Leaving the Bee

Well, I didn't think I would ever do it, I was feeling like a Bee lifer. But on the 25th I will no longer be an AppleBuddy (yes, they actually call us that LOL.)

"So what happened? I thought you were so happy."

That's a fair assessment of the situation most of the time. There was only one small problem with some rowdy, demanding, chaotic, cheap guests, but I could handle it. They are only around for nine months of the year and dealing with them along with friendly co-workers makes it bearable. My favorite manager used to handle them respectably well and they would at least be quieter, still not tip, though. Unfortunately, he abandoned us because he's a big, fat loser. (And yes, I know you might be reading this, but I tell you this all the time, it's time everyone else knew it, too.) Really, I have a whole log of reasons he's a loser if anyone is interested, but anyway, enough about Doug...

So, this undesirable group begins to grace us with their presence around 9:00 and stays until close or after, sometimes arriving as little as 5 minutes before close. This used to give us two hours to deal with them. Two hours of running my butt off, getting belittled, having to track down the manager all for my $3.33 hourly wage, basically no tips, especially when you consider that I have to tip out the host and bartender 2% of sales so sometimes I end up paying for the privilege of waiting on them. Lovely, huh?

Well, Saturday, management informed us that we are now going to stay open until midnight every night but Sunday. Not for me! I put in my notice on Monday and will be working at the restaurant in the brand new Doubletree hotel starting on the 26th. It seems really nice and I think I will be happy there, at least the change of pace will be nice. I enjoy fine dining and it is probably a better fit for me. I like having more time to get to know the guests and I LOVE really good food, so I might get a bit chubby working there!

New Place: Sapphire

I feel bad leaving my managers and co-workers who I have really enjoyed working with. I know that in this business I am infinitely replaceable. Servers are a dime a dozen, but it is a bit hard finding one to show up every day (sober) and not steal the silverware. They hired three new servers this week so hopefully at least one will make it through training. I trust they will forget all about me by the time I've been gone a week.

Landscaping

Okay, I know that some of you might have given up on me ever doing any type of landscaping. I keep saying I am and I really believe it when I say it... but then life keeps taking all my time and/or money and, long story short, I've been in the house over a year and just today got around to doing anything in the yard.

I am so proud of how it turned out!! The kids and I all worked so hard on it. Levi was my hole digger, Paige spread some mulch, made sandwiches, and kept the sprinkler company.

Here's the breakdown:

I'm not sure why but I accidentally bought a 20' x 20' tree (well, two to be honest, but I'm returning one) and didn't really have anything to do with it so I put it in the middle of the old pond. Kent was supposed to bring me dirt quite a little while ago and still hasn't, but I can't really complain, he was doing it for free. On the other hand, I really do need the dirt to fill the pond, so I now have a tree planted in a half full pond. Oh, well, no one who knows me expects me to be totally together, right?! My plan was to have the pond filled with annuals each year so now they can just go around the tree and it will be really nice. Right now there are just a few ground cover-ish plants (it's a horticultural term) surrounding it. So that's the pond part.

When I moved in there were some steps dug into the side of the hill to go from the driveway to the top of the yard but only one block was still in place and the holes were fading. So today I took some blocks from the pond and re-dug the steps and replaced them. I would like to change the blocks around the pond to something a little more natural anyway so I'm not worried that three are missing.

Now for the main part, I put flowering plants ranging from mature size 6" to 5' in a pretty much semi-circle around the pond and along the sidewalk. They start small on each end and get larger and bushier toward the sidewalk and then a little smaller right as you turn to go up the steps. Eventually I think I will remove those two giant bushes but that's a while away so for now the flowers will just be in front of them. I also put five huge bags of mulch around everything, which is really the part that makes it look finished. Just mulching would have been an improvement and I think I might just do that in the back yard for this year and worry about planting next year.

Did I mention how proud I am and how great it looks!!

Oh yeah, I should mention that I did this instead of mowing and so the rest of the yard looks like crap. :-)

Candidate Rankings

Have you ever wanted to know how all the candidates for office rank on midwifery but are too lazy to ask them all? Me too!! Thankfully there are dedicated women out there who have done it for us! Yea! Check it out here: Show Me Candidate List

Bravery

I got a call today about the class I'm teaching for our homeschool co-op. Pretty run of the mill, really, but during the conversation the mom told me how happy she was that I was brave enough to post to our email list about an idea I had for a splinter group of homeschoolers. Basically, young-ish and/or single moms who maybe feel left out of the other activities. After the call I started to think about how silly it is that I would be thought of as brave that I put out this description of myself:

For those of you who don't know me - in a very small nutshell, I am a
divorced mom of 2. I am a full-time server and bartender. I am a
member of a very liberal Christian church. I have a strong calling to
help women choose traditional birth attendants and use the God-given
tools and skills to parent, particularly breastfeeding and respectful,
attachment parenting. I have friends of many faiths and have learned
a great deal about true love and tolerance from many of them.
Politically, I am a fervent liberal feminist Democrat, but love my
conservative Republican friends who can have intelligent discussions
about current events. I am 33 years old and feel like I am just
coming into the best time of my life and am more comfortable in my
skin now than I ever was previously.


Should I be ashamed of my life? I'm not. I think I'm pretty okay. It struck me as odd that I might need to be brave to tell some people about who I am.

Saying goodbye to the Pirate

About noon yesterday I got a call from my best friend asking if I had talked to anyone at Jolly Rogers. I had not so he told me I should probably call as he had heard on the radio something about it being damaged the night before.

I called Joe (the owner) and he said it had not been "damaged," it had been destroyed; burned to the ground. I made sure no one was hurt and their home was saved (they live on site) and did my best to express how sorry I was and let him know to call if there was anything I could do to help. He says he plans to rebuild for next season, always the optimist. That is one thing I will really miss. It is one of about a hundred things I will really miss.

The great money would not be enough to make me drive four days a week for an hour to get to a place to run my butt off for several hours in scorching heat. Working there is so much fun, it is easy to feel like you are a part of your tables' vacations. The owners are fantastic and accommodating, my co-workers and guests are/were fun and entertaining, the food was fantastic. I miss it already and tomorrow will be my first actual missed shift. I got a little teary-eyed putting away my apron this morning.

I am incredibly fortunate that I kept Applebees part-time. Yesterday I went in as soon as I heard and asked about getting put back on the schedule full-time and Kara assured me that they would make room for me. I put up a note asking for shifts and already got one for Thursday, so I will be fine. I will need for work some on my kids' weekend which pretty much sucks, but I'll survive and they will, too. When I worked at the Pirate with them, they loved it. They got to play with Luke and Anna all day. It's not so much fun at the Bee. :-(

Here is the story from the newspaper:

Fire Destroys Jolly Rogers

Statewide Celebration

I am so upset that I had to miss the midwifery celebration this weekend. Here is the post from FoMM's blog, including pictures:


Friends of Missouri Midwives: A Celebration of Legal Midwives in Missouri!

WE WIN!!!!!

I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT I'M SO EXCITED!!! BASICALLY, IF YOU ARE CERTIFIED NATIONALLY AS A CPM YOU CAN START PRACTICING LEGALLY NOW!! IT'S HARD TO PUT TOGETHER A COHERENT THOUGHT, SO I'M GOING TO C&P FROM THE EMAIL LIST:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The Supreme Court ruled in our favor today!!!!!!!!!!!!! The ruling was based on standing. Yay for our lawyers for making such a good case on that!

You can see the opinon and summary here - http://www.courts.mo.gov/Courts/PubOpinions.nsf/0f87ea4ac0ad4c0186256405005d3b8e/f291298ad8cf21978625747100797615?OpenDocument

The plantiffs have 10 days to request a rehearing. We've been told is it *very* rare for the SC to agree to rehear a case, but the decision won't be "final" until that's over. So keep praying.

WAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, send us some money so we can finish paying our attorneys. We have only $33,000 to go!!!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I THINK THE ONLY PROPER WAY TO CELEBRATE TO TO GET PREGNANT AND USE A LEGAL MIDWIFE, HMM. THERE'S ONLY THE ONE TINY GLITCH... ;-)