Dear Me,

Today was crap. That's the best way I could possibly describe it. Have you ever had one of those days where you would rather just restart the entire thing? Well, that was today with the exception of midnight until around 3:30 pm or so. I woke up, took Ally for a walk and then started cleaning my room, nothing abnormal at all. Ally was kicking me all night long, but that is normal for her. Anyways, dad brought me back to Boca and we met up with Carrie for lunch at Pollo Tropical. Mango Chillers and Chicken Tropichops - need I say more? It was slightly uncomfortable, however, due to the fact that there was this guy sitting at a table behind my dad and sister and he was staring at me THE ENTIRE TIME. At first, I thought it must have been the fact that my hair was a mess because I just threw it into a ponytail this morning. I fixed it, so that wasn't it. Then I thought that I must have something on my face. Nope, not that either - just the crazy person staring at me. And then of course I get self-conscious, and I stop eating and listen in on my dad's and Carrie's conversation. Finally, he leaves. With one look back, he's gone. So, after lunch, I went back to Pat's, only to realize that I cannot find my $300 paycheck anywhere, not to worry, I will just look at home. Moving on, I get to work - say hello to Kelly and then track down Oreo (he's the store mascot - a black and white Pomeranian). Elliot (my boss and Oreo's dad), come out to say hi and then he's out of there. Kelly lasts until Elliot walks out of the door and then makes a break for it. Work started out fine, no problems at all - and then - SHE walks in. The ideal bad costumer. What was her problem? Well, let me tell you this story. I personalize items for my store - name plaques, banks, water bottles, lap trays (I design them, too), you name it. I have never once had a complaint, in any way, on anything I have done. Everyone always gives a huge smile and says, "it's wonderful," and then leave. This lady? Noooo. First of all - her kid's name was Skybru. Who in the world names their child Skybru? That's definitely besides the point. So I hand Skybru's mummy her plaque, and she just stares at it, like it's covered with worms or something. I wait a minute and then ask, "what's wrong?" She says, "why are the dots the same as the background? Why would someone do that?" I turn, look at the pile of plaques sitting on the shelf (all the dots are the same as their background colors), and say, "that's how they are all done." She goes, "well, I hate it." Kelly comes over, cause I am starting to forget how to speak, and the lady says, "what's wrong with the B?" I look at the B, and I said, "it looks like a B to me." She says, "well, why is like that?" I am completely confused right now, and I think she meant why was it slanted. "They are all like that," I tell her. Even the damn display plaque is slanted! Kelly asks her if she needs a bag, the lady says no, I am going to throw it away - I wanted to (sniff, sniff) put it on my son's door tomorrow because it's his birthday. GOOD LORD, WOMAN! So, Kelly asks, would you like Julie to do it again? And she goes - okay. So, I pull out the pens, and I try to erase the name off the plaque. Of course it does not come off because the paint is black. The lady comes behind the counter and is standing right next to me. I don't know, but when I am working on something that requires some kind of concentration, I can't do it properly when someone is BREATHING ON ME! So, she starts complaining that the red is pink. The red is not pink. I pull out a pink pen and show her the difference for red to pink. She says, "whatever, who's your manager? Can I have a card?" I hand her a card, she says, "I want my money back," Kelly credits the money back to her charge and poof, awww, all happy - Have a nice day, ladies! Thank you for helping me! It may not seem to be such a bad situation, but when you get used to people being incredibly friendly (which most are, because it's a tiny store), I had to go and scream for a couple of minutes, and then I went to Eckerds. Kelly says, get chocolate, Julie - so I went and got chocolate and apple juice -- interesting combination. And then everything was fine. Until Kelly's friend calls about 45 min - hour before we closed, saying that he couldn't go to the movies. Kelly flips out (let me just tell you that this guy is a complete ass - he always treats her like crap and he just pisses me off) - she has no ride home because her parents are in Ft. Lauderdale. She then turns to me and says, Julie, would you like to walk home with me? The girl lives about 3-4 miles away. I just stared at an imaginary place for a second and said, let me call Pat. Pat is the lady I am staying with in Boca until camp starts (she's another co-worker of mine). I called her to ask if Kelly could come over for a while. Sure, she says. Okay, sooooo...I tell Kelly, let's go to Pat's, I'll go buy us dinner. Yea, the girl is all happy again - I have done my good deed for the day. I take Kelly to Publix, I buy stuff for dinner, and then she says, "let's get stuff for cookies!" Okay, so we get stuff for cookies (I am paying, of course). Then we get strawberries. Then we pass the drink aisle, and she says, "I'll buy some Tab!" Okay, I hate Tab, but whatever, I am being nice. So, total is $23 - but I also bought a cooking dish and three birthday cards. Everything is okay, she's not pissed anymore, we are walking back to the house and guess what! Her ditching friend calls - Kelly, let's go to that movie. So, we get to Pat's, he picks her up from there, I am in the kitchen with all of this food, and Pat already ate - so this is when I decided to hide. The girl was so upset when he broke it off that she calls three of her friends, talks to each of them for 10-15 minutes each - complaining the entire time that this guy did this to her, she is so mad, she doesn't want to hang out with him - and BAM! Oh, heehee, Josh, of course I will go. I feel the need to smack her over the head with my new baking dish. I just don't say anything except for I don't understand why she is going, and she leaves. I make dinner, there is enough for four or five people, put leftovers in the fridge, and then I hide. Until about 10:30 or so when I break down and call Christopher, who, being the incredibly amazing sweetheart that he is, lets me vent for about 5 minutes. :) I am feeling better, and I know this is not a very good journal entry, but I am still upset that people are so stupid. So, I am going to just hide some more.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY (I love this, it's from Mer, I can't remember it exactly, but I am going to try) - From the outside looking in, you can never understand it.

Very true, and you also must understand that no matter how much you tell someone that something is wrong or that what they are doing is wrong, they will never acknowledge what you are saying. Hopefully, they will just figure it out for themselves.

Sincerely, Me