A Cry For Help

I was leaving my office today when a customer stopped me and asked me if I had a minute. This wasn't just any customer, this was a lady from my past-someone I have seen in the store on many occasions. I didn't think she knew or should I say remembered me. We met in 1992 when we were both in treatment for alcoholism (my very first stab at recovery). I have seen her shopping in my store numerous times and I assumed she just didn't remember me. Well come to find out she does. We sat down and she asked me if I remember her. I told her of course I do. She asked me how I was doing. I told her I was doing fine. She asked me again-"You know what I mean, HOW are you doing, with - well - you know what I mean." I knew what she meant. Was I still sober. I told her I was doing good with almost 4 years clean. She told me she has never stopped using. Sigh. I always saw her and assumed she was doing alright and did not want to approach her for anonymity reasons and I was after all always at work when I saw her. I gave her my phone number and told her to use it anytime. She gave me a BIG hug right there in the middle of the hustle and bustle of our busy store. She absolutely made my day. I feel best when I am helping another sick alcoholic and I think that God put her back in my life for a reason. Maybe some time working with her and not thinking about POOR ME is just what I need. That AND a piece of ass. Or am I asking too much here?

You all have a good night, and thanks for your kind words after my last whiny post. Queen....OUT

My Weekend and More

So what did everyone do this fine Holiday weekend? I worked every day-well the whole weekend and the holiday. Before you go gettin all "oh poooor Queenie, that sucks you had to work" blah~blah~blah. Lemme just tell you I work EVERY SINGLE holiday since I began this job 29 years ago tomorrow~ Holy longevity batman, thats a whoooole lotta years dealing with my cussies! So because I am a lifer with this company I cannot~CANNOT complain about having to work holidays. I am WELL compensated financially and for that I am truly grateful. There were MANY occassions where they could and probably should have fired my drunken ass, but they did not. I am grateful for that also. SO grateful.

My sister came over this afternoon for a cookout and we had a side splittin blast as usual. We get to laughin so much its a chore to breathe sometimes. There was peeing involved, and it wasn't in the rest room if you know what I mean. Yea that much fun. She seems to have made her decision about leaving her crappy situation. Come the end of school year(just a few weeks!) she will be moving in here. YAY! I will breathe a big ole sigh of relief only when I see her tucked snugly into her new room, having a good nights sleep for the first time in who knows how friggin long. I think it will be very good for her to at LEAST step away from her "situation" for a while so she can think about what she needs to do long term. I will be here for her every step of the way.

While she was here we went to a nursing home down the street to visit her best friends' Mom. What a pistol. I remember when we were young teens and sister would hang out with her friend, and upstairs was my best friend. We both practically lived in that house, we were never home. Only thing about that situation was, both households were SEVERELY alcoholic. Severe. The woman we visited is now 80 years old and boy back in the day, she could put down some pretty serious liquor! OMG! A few years ago she had a fire in her home (cause she was hammered and smoking) and got burned up pretty bad. Ever since then she has been in a nursing home where she can no longer drink or smoke. I believe that that fire probably saved her life. When I heard about the fire, I couldn't believe she was still alive because of her heavy alcohol use. I didn't know she was a half mile down the street or we would have gone a lot sooner.

So it was a good visit, but extremely sad to see people just siting around-in their wheelchairs-staring into space and I think I need to do something about the way i felt when I walked in there today. Or should I say do something about the way these patients feel sitting there day after day in a GD hallway. I know someone who works there and I am going to see if I can go volunteer to maybe sit and visit with some of them~I don't know, SOMETHING. The first person I saw was a man sitting in a wheelchair who had no legs, I am GUESSING that he is probably a veteran. Sitting in a home on Memorial Day, all alone. I will let you know what comes of the chat with my (in the program) friend on what they allow there.

Ok it's beddy bye boos time people, QUEEN....OUT

Me and The Cussies

Oh Hell, it's 3am and I'm still awake so here I am. I have read the news, my frequently visited websites, played cards and here I am still. Jeeezhus H Christ. I have been working nights all this week, getting out at 10pm so there you go. This is my problem. Its totally screwing with my sleep schedule.
Soooo....like I said I have been working night-just for this week. A few of my people(yes I HAVE people) are on vacation so I volunteered to do some nights. Then came this week and I was like, Shiiiiit - I don't really WANT to do this now!!! Reason being, people generally SUCK. Working with the public SUCKS. I live in Connecticut and believe me when I tell you there are some pretty frikken rude ass people in this state. My "normal" job entails working in an office behind the scenes, doing my accounting thing all day. I love it. What I had to do this week is stand behind a counter and kiss major ass to customers all week. I am NOT a good ass kisser. NOPE. I have one more night to work tomorrow and the nightmare will be over. Well I THOUGHT it would be a horrible experience-but miraculously it has been not so awful! I must say these people (customers) have been quite nice, not one of them got out of line with me. No name calling. No fist fights between them in line(yep-it's happened). Not even a scammer. We usually get lots of those. I have had the BEST conversations with some very nice people. Mostly elderly folks. Really, sweet~sweet~sweet people. I was on my best behavior and was kind to all of my cussies (customers HA!) and they were kind right back. I am also getting to know my night people a bit better and that's a plus as well. So to wrap it up I have to say that I would probably do it again but NOT on a full moon week. OH HELL NO. They are at their worst during a full moon.

OK lets really wrap it up now with a bit of gratitude shall we?

• for J, my wonderful son...who mowed the lawn with no argument yesterday!


• for having my energy back, depression sucks big donkey dick


• a wonderful family, who I may get together with this weekend since the yard is lookin' all nice


• a great job, and nice cussies this week


• for being sober today, I liked it so much I may try it again tomorrow!


• for my SIL (sista-in-law) who though of me when selling her almost new fridge and stove. I need both and will be buying them from her~pretty cheep too! YAY


• for my continued awesome realaionship with God, without Him none of this would be posssible. NONE.

Have yourselves a kickin' Saturday, and a safe and happy holiday weekend! QUEEN....OUT

What a Fucked up Monday

Just as the title says, today was horrendous at work. WOW. And me without my emergency stash of happy pills. What a frggin' nightmare. I have been "chosen" to train a manager. If you want to be in management in my company, you have to work in every department and learn everything about that department. Great concept, but I have a routine people. I find it very distracting to stop and tell/show this guy everything I'm doing and still get all my work done in the time allotted. Its impossible actually. I am a bookkeeper in a very busy store and all I can think about while I'm doing all this splanin' is how much more work I need to get done before I depart for the day and I have this shadow lurking over my shoulder watching my every move. Have I mentioned that my office is kind of on the small side and this trainee has the worst breath I have EVER encountered? I worked with him a few years ago, and when he came into my office I would find something to do on the other side of the room until he left. Come on~He has since married and had a child and you think his bride would do something about this issue. For chrissake, how could she NOT notice and/or have him DO SOMETHING about it? Enough of that before I hurl chunks all over my keyboard. Good thing he's only gonna be here for TWO MORE WEEKS~serenity now, serenity now.
I also had this woman come in to the store to discuss a check of hers that was returned. She has got to be our star check bouncer~I counted at least 30 on record with us. She brings in paperwork from her bank telling me she got charged $20.00 for a check of hers that cleared on the SECOND TIME that we deposited it. The first time it did not. When your check doesn't clear you get charged-she knows this. She could send her grandchildren to college on the money she has wasted on paying bank fees over the years. She knows there is a charge and still continued to argue with me. I gave her $20.00 to get her out of my face. She was not taking no for and answer and I just wanted to be rid of her. Although, she did make me chuckle when Mr Trainee butted in with a comment and she looked at him and said "I wasn't talking to you, I am talking to her. Who ARE you anyway? Are you a manager or something?" hehe. He said nope, sorry. She told him he needed to mind his own business. She was feisty. But I was sooooooo busy and not in the mood to continue arguing with her. I know times are hard, but this woman has been doing this for YEARS. It was worth twenty bucks to make her go buh bye.
On a happier note, I reunited with 3 cousins on Sunday night. I found them on Facebook and we all got together. What a great time. We are planning a family picnic for the summer. A cousin volunteered his home (sucker!) and it will happen! We used to have one every year when all of our parents were alive. We all want to start this tradition again. I brought my son with me and he was able to meet some cousins(second)that he never knew existed and he actually got along great with them. My son doesn't take to new people to well and when he did it made momma a happy girl. The cousin that is having the picnic is in recovery and so is his wife! How cool is that?!!! I see his wife frequently at meetings, she's a sweetie and she was very kind to Jonathon and told him he is welcome anytime to come over and hang with her boys.
So I will go in with a fresh new attitude tomorrow, no sense in having the crazy check bouncing lady or the halitosis king ruin another day. I will not forget the magical happy pills tomorrow. Nope. Queen...OUT

This is what I deal with EVERY DAY

I don't think I have mentioned it here yet, but I work in a grocery store. I work in customer service and have been in the same job for almost 28 years now. WOW. Just writing that blows my mind. Can I just say that some of the shit I have to put up with and listen to, I would NEVER EVER do or say in any store. (well maybe i would at Wal-Mart...I hate that dump) So anywhoooo.....The homeless lady who brings back a $75.00 prime rib roast that's a month old, and says she defrosted it (what under a bridge?) and its bad. Now I have NOTHING against the homeless, don't get me wrong. But I DO have a problem with a known street person with no home, bringing in a hunk o meat like that wanting me to give her the cash. We get ripped off all the time. We have this new policy-HASSLE FREE REFUNDS-that allows this to happen. So next time you go shopping and you wonder why everything is so damned expensive, this is why. We ended up giving her ANOTHER lovely prime rib, instead of giving her the cash. WHATEVER. I can't even afford to buy my family a luxury like that.

Then there's the people who come up with the funny stuff. Stuff that just makes you wonder, how the hell did they come up with that one? For example. True story. A woman calls the store and wants to make a complaint. She says she bought a box of corn flakes and there is something in it. We ask her what is in it, she says " I bought a box of corn flakes and there is a BOOGER in it" WHAT??? Yes I'm SURE someone at the corn flakes factory couldn't find a tissue and just did a back woods hanky in your corn flakes. I shit you not, this is what she claimed. My boyfriend at the time thought he'd be funny and he called the store a few days later and got the same girl who took the "booger" call and he acted like he was a customer. He tells her "I have a complaint. I was in your store the other day and I bought a box of BOOGERS and there was a corn flake in it!" LMFAO. He turned out to be a lying, cheating no good piece of shit, BUT- It was hilarious. I love my job, I really do.

Fire Sale Anyone?

So I'm at work today and a co-worker peeks in my office and announces to me that our store is on fire, call the fire dept. WTF !!! Now mind you, just a few years ago-this would have been a dream come true for me. I hated my job and wished the dump would burn down. Today I kinda like being gainfully employed so I call 911. They told us to evacuate and so out to the parking lot we all go. Come to find out some dipshit disposed of some batteries improperly and they just started to blow up and shoot sparks everywhere, catching cardboard and what not on fire. Geez, what a smoky mess it was. FOUR HOURS later, we were allowed back in the store. Made for some awesome OVERTIME for me....Awesome as in, mo money for the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays, I decided that I will battle all the bitches this year on Black Friday! How much fun will that be! I already have my list and my mace ready people. I will be bringing my sister Barb for backup. Together we will make a killing, yes I mean literally. If any of these twats think they're getting their mitts on that GPS I've had my eye on forever or the LCD HDTV I sooooooo want they got another thing comin! My cart will become a lethal weapon. So Ya'll better watch out! FUN!

I need to kick the boys off the Wii so I can go to sleep. My son is here and my nephew Bub is here. Lemme tell you a bit about this child. Having him over is a bit like living "Ferris Buehlers' Day Off".......without the day off. He is the same age as my son J, and has the best sense of humor of any 13 year old I have ever met. He has been cracking us up with his antics since the day he was born, I friggin love this kid.

Life is good. Can't wait to kick some serious ass on Black Friday. Peace