Get Off the Phone People!

I will admit it, I am occasionally guilty of talking on my cell phone while driving (BAD!), but I'm going to do my best not to do it all moving forward, especially after today. I saw three near misses all caused by people yammering on their cell phones and not paying any attention to what they were doing. In order of potential severity:

1) Two women simultaneously backing out of parking spaces and coming within a foot of backing in to each other. Neither one noticed.

2) A women driving a large sedan pulling out of a shopping center, turning left on to a very busy street at 5:00 p.m. talking on her cell phone, driving with one hand and not even glancing once at on coming traffic.

And the scariest

3) The man who seemed to have forgotten basic driving laws (or maybe he just thinks he's too important to follow them) turning left in front of oncoming traffic. The light turned green and he turned left, right in front of us. I guess he thought he could beat us through the intersection. One hand on the wheel, one hand on his phone, he never even looked at the on coming traffic. What he didn't count on was the car in the right lane that hadn't been stopped at the red light. Fortunately, the woman was able to stop in time and I drive a stick, so I saw what he was doing before I really got going. Ironically, when the car in the right lane almost hit him he was furious.

Seriously people GET OFF THE PHONE!!!

Before I sign off, I have to give a shout out to the man in the blue BMW convertible on Westheimer driving through Montrose at 5:30 p.m. tonight. Thank you for letting me in, I really appreciate it. I swear I was being stupid, not being an a$$hole. I thought the back up was caused by people turning left, I did not realize there were cars parked in the right lane. (Don't you just hate it when people run up the short lane and want to cut over??).

Perspective

Today has been pretty frustrating. I've had snafus with paperwork for the health insurance I'm attempting to buy to carry me through to the next job. (The price tag on COBRA was brutal to start out with and staring in January the monthly premium went up $100 a month). In addition to screwed up paperwork I've had to endure three extremely detailed "interviews" about my health history which was all kinds of fun and had to deal with a rude customer service rep. Then there was some sort of foul up with the paperwork for for converting my company-sponsored life insurance to individual that I'm still trying to figure out. (Being unemployed is FUN!) Add in a zillion little things the universe decided to pile on in an effort to amuse itself and a rather ill advised attempt to change a light bulb standing on a window sill (at least the bulb I smashed in to the wall wasn't energy efficient so there's no need to call out the haz mat crew) I was not having a good day. But on the drive home from my adventures in retailing this afternoon I watched a cable van rear end a pick up truck --- full of windshields. It's bad enough to rear end someone, but to do it in the company vehicle....now that guy, had a really bad day. I sure hope the guy driving the pick up truck is cool.

Bad Decisions

I've run in to a bit of a wardrobe problem with my new (temporary) retail gig. You see, most of my dress slacks are hemmed for a minimum of a 3" heel (yes, I torture my feet on a regular basis). But, there is a big difference between rocking a great pair of heels when you spend most of your day sitting in your office and spending 6 or 8 hours on your feet. In addition to the length of my pants, my wardrobe is also limited by some recent weight gain. Yet, I can't justify a shopping trip for my short-term, $7-per hour adventure in retailing. So, when I ran out of clean, short(er) pants I decided I could handle a six hour shift in a pair of "comfortable" heels. After all, these are boots I regularly wear all day, travel in and have worn on marathon treks to the mall. without a problem. But, I learned the hard way, that none of that compares to standing behind a cash register for six hours. It's been several days, but my feet are still throbbing.

Bargain Shopping

I will admit that getting stuck behind someone with loads of coupons usually results in some eye rolling, but these days I have a different perspective. With all the talking heads yammering about impending doom, everybody is hunting for bargains. So, this morning when I found myself behind a bargain shopper extraordinaire at Walgreen's I was impressed with her shopping savvy, at least initially. She had a coupon for every item and a couple general coupons. She got a bottle of laundry detergent, two three-packs of Scotch tape and at least three bottles of cough syrup for $.79. That's right seventy-nine cents. SCORE!

But wait, she wanted her "register rewards" (the frequently irrelavant coupons that print out at the end of your transaction at the grocer store and aparently drug stores) but, as the cashier explained you don't get the register rewards if your discounts the price down so low. Made perfect sense to me, I'm not sure she even covered the sales tax. But bargain lady was not satisfied. She became irate and demanded her coupons back, resulting in the need to completely void the transaction. The poor cashier called the manager, rang up my bottle of water, which took about 30 seconds, and I got out as fast as I could. As I was leaving I could hear bargain lady demanding to know why it was taking so long for a manager to come. As it had been less than a minute since the cashier paged the manager, I'm guessing this did not end well.

Things I LOVE About Not Having a 9-to-5

In no particular order: Central Market mid-afternoon - it's not crowded at all and there are almost no food tourists. (I have nothing against food tourists - those who wander the aisles, usually in large groups, with very little interest in purchase anything but intent on hitting every sample station, multiple times - but it's a lot easier to shop when there isn't a line 10 deep blocking the frozen food section.)

Going to the gym at 8:00 a.m. instead of 7:00 a.m. - that one hour makes a big difference. There are a lot less people around and I am really enjoying not dragging my entire bathroom around with me.

Doing laundry in the middle of the day. I feel a lot more productive taking breaks here and there to change the laundry or unload the dish washer than taking breaks at the office. Although, I do miss the people.

Not sitting in traffic - I know I shouldn't complain considering my previous commute was less than five miles each way, but thanks to all the nimrods who feel like need to use the two left lanes on 59 as you approach downtown even though they are not exiting the spur, it could take me almost forty minutes to get home. Okay, I know, I still shouldn't complain, but everything is relative, people.

Being home early enough to cook dinner, really cook dinner.

Now that I'm working (seasonal retail) I am having to adjust to having a schedule again, but it's still not a 9-to-5, so I'm still enjoying the upside.