it never rains but it pours, as they say. i jumped in the car this morning and started up my little baby. uh-oh, i said to myself. you're in the red, remember?. well i hope i make it to work, i mused as i headed towards the stopsign at the end of the street. it's a good thing i made it because i had to be there early to make the pancakes for the wednesday morning pacake breakfast. i was the first one there and it was kind of spooky unlocking the lonely building, turning off the alarm and turning on all the lights. i just get that creepy feeling that there's someone behind me or ready to jump at me from the periphial somewhere. i turned on the radio so it would be more friendly. then i fired up the grill, turned on the dishwasher, made some coffee, put out the milk, laid the cutting boards on the counter, seperated the table cloths in piles of 'big', 'oval' and 'small', not to mention keeping the hotcakes coming. they were nice fluffy ones today. i always try to sneak a little creamo in the batter. it makes it yummier. true story. i phoned lisa and left a message for her to pick up some milk on the way in and set up stations for all the work to do in the kitchen today. we made BLT's and potato bacon soup. the blt's were'nt that popular. i think people are getting tired of them. i was in charge of making the potato bacon soup. i'm usually the one that works on the new recipies. i didn't taste it, because i ate left overs of yesterday's enchilada casserole (yum) but it looked really good and it was pretty popular. i enjoy making the new recipies. it's more fun if it's new for some reason. right after lunch i had some major owwie cramps. the kind that you wish you could lie down in the fetal position and just rock for a while. but i had to put food away and wipe counters and start the table cloths in the laundry and so on. i told lisa that i was going to DIE. no you aren't she said. go take some ibprofen. yesterday i told her that my uterus was full of blood and that it was going to explode. when she saw the look on my face after lunch she asked it my you know was full of you know what. uh-hu i groaned. i rolled around on my office chair wiping the counters and then rolled myself into the snack bar to bug rick for the money. his back was to me and he was bent over something. "what are you doing rick?" "what are you doing rick?" "rick! what are you doing??" in a moment he turned around "i was counting!" haha, exactly what i wanted. i waited for him to finish and listened to his rants about how he gave someone change for a ten one day, as a favour and the next day they brought a twenty and people just don't listen to him, he said. neither do i, i said. he expects that from me. so i counted the money, wrote down the stats and did the i-owe-you's. we were short staff today in the thriftstore, so i had the 1:30-2:30 shift and lisa shooed me on my way. i rounded the corner to the thrift store to find barb, and debi (upstairs workers) and carmen (clerical worker) joyously making christmas displays in the window. i've never seen barb so enthused. everything we brought out was a new exciting treasure. barb is in charge of public education and often stressed and tense. i told her she should start working in the thrift store. she said no, sometimes she would feel like sitting. well, i answered, that happens here anyways. i myself found some good finds. i got some really good ugly tie presents for the likes of evboo and others such as him. so it was a fun way to spend an hour and my uterus walls had calmed down and that was pleasant too. by the time it was 2:30 and the thrift store was closed we were still in the midst of our little projects. tanya, who we like to call tanya tucker had joined us by that time. tanya is a good partner in enthusiasm, in team work. finally i had to get back to the kitchen, so i cashed out, locked up and left barb to turn off the lights. i heard her happy chatter fade behind me as i carried the lock box towards the kitchen office. as i neared i saw that predictably there was a pile up of used coffee mugs and empty pop cans on the counter. i thought about muttering to myself under my breath about the laziness of people in general but i decided to forget about it. i'm big that way. so i spent the rest of my time doing the daily bulletin. eric was talking to me most of that time, so that i was drained trying to listen to him and be witty on paper at the same time. intermittently mark would come in and say something inappropriate or put his head too close to mine, or try out some annoying generalization on me. usually they are about the differences between genders and they typically start with "why do women always...." today was a little different. he asked why smart people are unfriendly and dumb people are friendly. i told him that was the dummest thing i ever heard. finally it was 4 and time to go home. on the way i didn't look at the gas gauge until i was heading over the first bridge. it basically read empty. oops, i was supposed to fill up before heading home, i scolded myself. of course today would be the day that traffic was backed up beyond belief. one of those annoying traffic jams which eventually ease up, after a long line of congestion and you can't tell why it was ever congested in the first place. the whole time i was whispering little prayers of please let me make it to the gas station. don't let me run out of gas on the bridge and the like. i think my bcaa membership ran out yesterday too. i kept looking at the gauge and telling myself reassuring things like, i think the last time you ran out of gas the needle wasn't this high on the red. but then i only ran out of gas once, and it was almost a year ago and i can't really remember, so i doubted my reassurances. still i made it thankfully home and filled up at 92. something. what a relief to pay for gas in the 90's, and how annoying that it's a relief. last night barb didn't show up to institute and so i ended up sitting between kaisha and a newguy guy. it was strange because i had this whole nervous reaction that i wasn't expecting. one time murley got me to read this scripture and asked me a question about it. at first i thought he was asking everyone, but when i looked up he was looking at me and i asked a surprised "you're asking me?" yes he was. i had no idea how to answer his question either. i just looked blankly at the scripture. finally i told him he should ask someone else. i felt kind of foolish. kinda dumzo. but oh well, it wasn't coming to me. later i could see it clearly, but it was too late then, wasn't it. yes it was. oh well, it's good to feel like a dummy every once in a while. charles ingalls knows what i'm talking about.