Rhonda's Ramblings

Yesterday I took the postal service exam, along with about 150 other people. And ours just one session of eight being held in my area. There were 15 choices of post offices to workat, ane wed could only choose three. Once you pass the test, you are put on a list for future employment at those offices for the next two years. And when jobs come up, you are given preference according to your score. So, I’m not sure how many job openings there really are.
But I was surprised at how rude and stupid people are. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I still am.
First of all, they told us about 25 times to make sure that our cell phones are off. But did people turn off their phones? Of course not.
And people just can’t listen, I guess. Because they couldn’t follow simple directions like “Don’t open the book until I tell you to.” Or “Sit in this seat”. Plus people are just rude and dont’ treat people with respect.
My favorite moment was when one of the test takers wanted to get the attention of one of the men who was helping to administer the test. So, he called out to him, “Hey, old man!”. Nice. Do they not realize that they are trying to get employment? The funny thing was that the head test administrator heard him say it, and chastized him in front of everybody, and then told us that they were also a part of the interview committee as well. Nice way to make a good impression.\

In other news, I went to Walmart yesterday to return some things that my sister got at a wedding shower. Apparently, you can only return items without a receipt 3 times a year. And you only get store credit. Apparently this discourages people from stealing things and then returning them. So, they take your license number and put you into the computer. Well, when the cashier looked at my license, and said, “Oh my word”, I knew what was coming. Some comment about how I look so young, or how I look so different, or is that really me. I knew this was coming because I have received omments like that so many times in the past couple of months. But never before….though I have had this license picture since the week before my 21st birthday…so, a good 8 1/2 years. But apparently I have aged a lot in the past couple of months. Every time I use my credit card or go to Blockbuster, I am reminded of this. Granted, I look very sad in my picture. I don’t know why. And I do look quite young. I’m just curious why this is suddenly noticeable to everyone who checks my I.D.

In other, other news, I have taken up a new habit. Well, it’s not a habit yet, since I have only been doing it for three or four days. But I have been riding my (sister’s) bike to the post office at night. It is not very far, but it is all uphill, so my legs are like jelly when I get there. But nothing beats riding back down the hill. The wind at your face, the blanket of stars above you the crickets cricketing. The last two days I did it a tiny bit after dusk, when there was still light in the sky. But tonight, I rode after I got home from work at about 10:30 and it was much darker but enjoyable.

And in other, other, other news…I have lots of tomatoes and I don’t know what to do with all of them.

The House

Front Porch

Overgrown sunflowers in the backyard.

Porch Swing

My vegetable garden

Rose bush in the backyard.

There are lots more, but that will do for now.

I’m not super creative or artistic. But I am crafty. And there is a difference. I can’t take a blank canvas and create some beautiful masterpiece. I can’t envision something really artistic and then create it. But I can make greeting cards or scrapbook pages with stickers, paper and embellishments that I buy from the store. But I pretty much do variations of the same thing every time. Nothing extremely creative.

I spent yesterday evening making cards, and it reminded me how much I enjoy doing “crafty” things. I haven’t done much lately, mostly because it’s summer, and I don’t love spending my free time inside. Or because we were planning a wedding. But that’s one thing I like about the winter. I can stay inside on the cold winter evenings and work on craft projects. I need to be more crafty.

So, tonight, one of my waitresses walked out at the beginning of her shift. (I don’t even know why…some dumb drama with a cook) That left just me and a new food runner (it was her 2nd day) on a Saturday night. And then I got 2 parties of 8 and a party of 10. Plus all of the regular parties of 2, 3, or 4. So, out came Super Waitress. OK, not really, but I am a good waitress. What a great thing to be good at. My food runner was amazing and Carlos (my boss) helped pour beer and help the guys at the bar. And I it all worked out fine.

But, it means that I probably won’t be able to go to the reception that my sister and her husband are having in his home town. I don’t like being in charge…and therefore having to cover when there is nobody to work. I’d rather just go back to being the lowly waitress at the bottom of the totem pole. But then again, I probably wouldn’t be able to get the time off that I want.

I read The Third Summer of the Sisterhood today. And I was trying to decide which character I most relate to. And I decided there are pieces of all them that resonate with me.

But a couple of quotes really stood out to me and hit me where I’m at, thatI immediately related to situations in my life.

She’d (Bridget) rather go through her life doubting that such a thing was possible than knowing it was real and she couldn’t have it.
What a pitiful waste she was. She was willing to give away, to throw away, the very best she had. It was one thing to sacrifice yourself for a great cause. It was another to destroy yourself for a person who didn’t even want you. It was an act of self-immolation, a sacrifice nobody wanted, that did nobody any good. What could be more tragic than that?

She thought she was independent and strong, but she got one small taste of love and she was hungrier than anyone. She was ravenous.

And another one from Bridget;

I didn’t know if it (friendship) would be possible after what we did two summers ago, but then it happened. I was happy. I loved being your friend. I admit I may have had some other thought too, but they didn’t matter to me nearly as much as being your friend. I was happy to be close to you on any terms.

And I relate this one to the same situation.

She (Lena) was still waiting for him to come back to her, even though he wasn’t going to. She was still holding out for something that wasn’t going to happen. She was good at waiting. That seemed like a sad thing to be good at.

Release me, she begged silently.

She needed to be free of him. She needed to get on with her life. Maybe even to fall in love again. She had a candidate in mind

(except I don’t have a candidate in mind)

:sigh: Yeah.

But this one isn’t deep at all. It just made me laugh.

Carmen made attempts to clean her room while she waited. In truth, she did that spasmodic, surface rearranging, like putting the random AA battery into her sock drawer to get it out of sight, that would only make the job bigger when she got down to real cleaning.

For the record, I really love these books. They are very real, and even though they are about teenage girls, I still really relate to them. Maybe that says something about my maturity level.

I feel like my life is not nearly as out of control if my house is neat. So why is it messy so often? If I would just make sure to straighten it every day, then I would feel so much better. Sometimes I think when there is so much to do, it’s overwhelming, so I just do none of it, rather than take one thing at a time.

So, today, I did a lot of those little things. And it feels so good to come home from work to a clean house, and knowing that all my bills are paid.

My yard is out of control. But some neighborhood kids raked it today for me for a couple of bucks. Which made me happy and made me feel like there is one less thing for me to do.

I will never be the kind of girl who has it all together and whose house is spit-shined, which is okay with me. But I would like my life to be a bit more organized.

Well, I suppose a blog entry is long overdue.

But today, I picked up two books that were on hold at the library for me. The Third Summer of the Sisterhood and the latest Harry Potter. I was disciplined enough to straighten up the house before reading the first few chapters of the Sisterhood. I know if I start Harry Potter, I will be entirely unproductive tommorow, so I’m trying to be good.

My sister got married last weekend, and it was a wonderful wedding. A couple of people have said that it was the best wedding that they have been to. How fun is that?

And my computer keeps freezing while I’m trying to write this. It’s quite frustrating. So, that is my short little update for now.