Bakers Square Happenings

My wife and I went out to lunch today at the local Bakers Square.  We're both pretty big fans of the place, and not just because of the pie.

Ok, the pie is a major selling point, but seriously it's not JUST because of the pie.

The food is pretty solid too.

Anyway.

While sitting in our booth, we were witnesses to a woman in her (guessing here) 50's who was out to lunch with her (assuming) husband.

No issue there, they weren't creating a scene or being rude to their waiter or anything like that.

The issue was the woman's pants.

I'm not opposed to people wearing what they want to wear, or choosing to wear strange colors etc. etc.

But seriously, someone needed to tell this woman that the pants she was wearing were in no way, shape or form acceptable for A) her age or B) her body.

These pants were literally PAINTED on to her legs in a mustard yellow color.

PAINTED on.

Now;

I'm no fashion expert and I certainly don't wear the trendiest clothes.  I wear jeans and t-shirts, sports jerseys and sweatpants, things like that.  That's what I like to wear, so that's what I do.

What I do know, is that there are certain things people of certain ages should NOT be wearing.  Painted on pants or jeans at an advanced age shouldn't even be in your closet, and if they are you need to turn the lights on in your bedroom when you're getting dressed.  Maybe even invest in a mirror or two.

The funny part to me was when they got up to leave, they walked near our table to leave and the husband was in pretty much full sweatsuit gear with a flannel jacket on.  Now he knows his place.  I respect that.

What else.....

We saw a woman leaving the restaurant who was in the area of 60 years old with long hair down to her ass.

Ok, that's not that bad.

Oh wait, her hair was purple.

Yeah, PURPLE.

My wife read something somewhere that said that the reason older women do that is because they figure that since people will know they're dying their hair anyway, why not go all out with not normal colors.

Really?

If you're at the age where it's time to start dying your hair because you want to avoid the gray/white color that comes with your advanced years that's ok.  There are plenty of normal colors out there to choose from.

PLENTY.

Purple is not one of them, and if you think people will make fun of you or talk behind your back about how you dye your hair, imagine what they'll say if you dye your hair purple.  I would think there'd be more laughter.  Just sayin.

One more....

A family sat down at a table near us.  It was a father, his (assuming) daughter and his (assuming) mother, who looked quite old and frail.

The father then proceeded to read a large portion of the menu to his mother, explaining the various choices and options for lunch.

The old woman had glasses on.

Maybe they were just a fashion accessory, I don't know.

I told my wife if I ever get too old to be able to read a medium sized print menu at a restaurant, I'll probably just stop going to restaurants.

Seriously.

Hello Stranger

Hi there.

I know I know.  I haven't written in......yikes, over a year?

Really?


Really.


I forgot how much I enjoyed writing this blog of nothing (I love Seinfeld) and I've decided to come back to it.   I don't know how often I'll be writing, or what I'll be writing about, but I'm pretty sure I won't be taking a year off in between posts anymore.

That being said, here are some random thoughts.....

-Anytime the Shamrock Shake is back I'm in a better mood.  Fact.

-I recently purchased the greatest appliance ever:  http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nostalgia-Electrics-Retro-Series-Pop-Up-Hot-Dog-Toaster/17242561?findingMethod=rr

-My Syracuse Orange have really pissed me off this year, especially with the 11am (CT) starts....although they've really sucked in those games overall so really I shouldn't be all that mad.  Very apprehensive about their chances this year.

-Speaking of being apprehensive about a team's chances; ladies and gentlemen your 2013 New York Yankees!

-I miss you Derrick Rose.  But not enough for you to come back too early.  Pretty sure the (SOB) Heat have it in the bag this year.

-I forgot how funny Curb Your Enthusiasm is.  The wife and I recently got back into watching it, currently on season 4 and loving it again.

-Also, during my blogger hiatus we started watching Homeland and Dexter.  Homeland is great and it's upsetting we have to still wait awhile for season 2 on DVD and as far as Dexter goes, we bought season 1 and quickly thereafter ended up buying through season 6.  Highly addictive.

-Taylor Swift needs to go away.

-MLB The Show 13 is out.  If you're a baseball fan or a video game fan or both you need it in your life.

-http://www.coffeewiz.com/  You're welcome coffee lovers.

-I LOVE Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' album The Heist. Can't stop listening to it.

-Angry Birds Star Wars?  It's ok

A new Dunkin Donuts recently opened right down the street from us.  Do I need to tell you how happy this makes me or is it safe for me to assume that you know already?

-The new SimCity game is not without its issues (we've had some data deleted due to server problems) but it's still a hell of a lot of fun to play.

-The fact that the price of soda has gone up so much is upsetting.  I know I know, I shouldn't be drinking it anyway and in truth I've cut back quite a bit but $7-$8 a case is a joke.

-I'm already ready for football season to be back #Bears

And today will be better than yesterday.

Life and Times.....

There's an old saying that sometimes life throws you a curveball.

I'm currently facing a knuckleball with a 3-2 count.  Bases loaded.  Bottom 9th.  Game 7.  World Series.

Haven't blogged in awhile, my apologies for that.  Had some stuff going on.  Or I slacked.  Whatever you'd like to take an excuse is fine with me.

I've let a lot of people down. People that loved me.  That welcomed me into their family.  Their homes.  Their lives.

To state the obvious, it's not a good feeling.

There are changes that I need to make to my life.  Changes that should have taken place a long time ago.

I should have realized a long time ago the changes I needed to make in order to share my life with another person.  I needed to stop being selfish.  I needed to not think of myself all the time.  I needed to adapt to the other person in my life.  I needed to work at maintaining a relationship with the woman that was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

And most of all, I needed to open up.

All my life, I've always internalized my feelings.  Every once in awhile, I'd open up to friends, close family, or my wife.  Every once in awhile. 

Not good enough.

It would be about anything; things at work, personal stuff etc.

Not good enough.

I need to be more open to those that are close to me, and my wife is #1 on that list by a mile.

She deserves that, and a whole lot more.

I don't really have a good excuse for acting the way I do.....I've never liked confrontation, maybe that's part of it.  I need to change.

I've been given so much love in my life, and it's time to give some back.

I HATE the fact that recent events have led to me effectively pulling my head out of my ass.  HATE it.

I should have realized this earlier.  I have no excuses for not doing so.

I need to change.

I WILL change.

The Holidays........from a retail perspective

So, the holidays are upon us

That's fantastic.......unless you work in retail.

I currently work in a pharmacy.......but I've been in worse situations......

Several years ago I worked for a company that you'd all know, their logo is a giant yellow price tag.  That was by far the worst work experience of my life.  And not just because of Black Friday.

I worked in the "media" department" meaning I was in the section with the CD's, DVD's and videogames.

Pretty much up my alley as far as knowledge goes.....

I was getting along ok for the first few months, these were items I was used to so selling wasn't really an issue.  Carrying around a stupid binder (with selling techniques etc) and a "disc cleaner" was absolutely ridiculous as were the daily "chalk talks" if you worked in the morning.  Basically they'd gather everyone in the store and either; a) show a video of proper sales techniques, b) promote the latest sales ad, c) show a video from our store of someone executing the proper sales techniques (I was so honored) or d) force everyone to do some sort of "team building" type of exercise that would make sophomore speech class look like easy street.

I'm not bitter.  Really.

Well maybe a little bit.

Anyway, I worked a 12-12 shift at said retailer on a Black Friday and let me just tell you this, if you haven't seen or dreamed about the depths of hell then I'd love to give you a complete rundown of that day.

I had a customer ask which kind of Justin Timberlake TV they should buy.

I had a (drunk) customer ask what videogame I would recommend for him, because (as he put it) "I've been an awful father because of my cheating ways and I want to make it up to my son"  He smelled like Jack Daniels.  Awesome.

(BTW, I recommended a first-person shooter game.....just saying)

 I had a customer argue with with me about why a PS2 game wouldn't work for an XBOX  system.....that was fun.

There's more, but honestly if I re-hash it any more I will get upset.

And it's the holidays.

So I won't.

Did you get you flu shot yet?

Being a cat owner (sort of)

For the past few days we've been hosting my in-laws cat at our house while they're out of town.

Their cat, Tapio, has been a pretty good houseguest.

That being said, I still can't figure out cats.

I was around my sister's cat for several years when I still lived at home.  This is not a very nice cat we're talking about.  Of course, much of that may stem from the fact that I used to antagonize it constantly by teasing it, etc.

That cat really hated it when I would pick it up and twirl it around; I figured most babies liked it so why wouldn't a cat?

So anyway, Tapio is a different story.

Sometimes when he wants to play he'll meow, and when my wife or I will attempt to play with him he'll  run away.

Sometimes he'll jump up into my wife's lap and lay down.....but while being petted his claws come out.  To me that's just weird.

That being said, he's a good cat who has been an excellent houseguest these last few days and will be welcomed back not only at X-mas but any time after that as well.

So in closing I don't get cats, and since we aren't pet people I guess it really doesn't matter.


At least that keeps things interesting.

Ahh, Mondays

Mondays at work are always fun.

There's always the customer (or 7) that calls 10-12 times about the rx that they've been trying to refill since Saturday ("What do you mean, if the Dr. has office hours on the weekend?")

There's always the customer that's upset about our hours on weekends, ("I thought you guys were open until 9 on weekends too!") even though they've been told several times what the weekend hours are.  Oh, and the hours are also posted in at least 3 spots throughout the store.

There's always the massive amounts of Dr.'s calling in rx's, which is understandable since they (for the most part) weren't working over the weekend.  Not that customers were aware of that.

There's always an awful crush of people coming in from 3:30-6.  Always.

There's always a string of incredible problems/issues that come up, more so than any other day which is impressive.

Ahhh, Mondays

Random movie stuff

I've been watching a lot of movies this week as a way to pass the time with my wife out of town, here's what I've watched.....

1.  Taxi Driver

             I hadn't watched this movie in forever, it's on Blu-Ray now and I picked it up the other day and I'm glad I did.  If you haven't seen this movie you're missing out on a classic, one of AFI's top 100 films of all time.  I'm somewhat of a De Niro whore so I'm a bit biased but this film is tremendous.

2.  The Green Hornet (2011)

             This one was on the Starz channel and I decided to give it a shot.  That was a mistake.  I lasted about 20 minutes in before I realized all the negative reviews it received earlier this year were well deserved.  I like Seth Rogen and all of his other films but this one is atrocious. 

3.  Bad Teacher

           I enjoyed this movie.  Cameron Diaz's character is pretty much the exact opposite of her character from There's Something About Mary in that she plays an incredible bitch who does not like people.  Diaz plays a school teacher who is pretty much worse than any teacher you had growing up multiplied by 100.  Her main goal in life is find a man who is rich (or has the potential to get rich) and marry him so she won't have to work ever again.  Justin Timberlake and Jason Segal are also entertaining in their roles.  If you like raunchy-type comedies this one's for you.

4.  The Dark Knight

        I recently purchased the new Batman video game Batman: Arkham City which is a fantastic game so far but while I was playing I had the urge to watch The Dark Knight for the 217th time (a rough estimate) so I did just that.  It's probably the best movie on  Blu-Ray that I've seen and it never gets old.  No need to go into details as I'm sure most everyone reading this has seen it or at least knows a bit about it. 

5.  Mad Men season 2

     I'm on season 2 right now and it's one of the best shows on TV.  At some point I'll catch up although it may not be for awhile.

6.  Boiler Room

  One of my favorite movies ever, a good example of a movie that did terrible at the box office but has somewhat of a cult following since being released on DVD.  Great story, a very good cast (even with Vin Diesel) and also a really good soundtrack as well.  All around awesome.


I'm sure I'll be watching more movies in the next few days (like Horrible Bosses) so this may turn out to be a part 1 of 2.