Junepath.com

I have a curse. It’s a curse I’ve carried with me since I rented my first apartment back in 2000.

I always have crappy neighbors. Always.

From 2000-2004 it was actually my own uncle, and during that time I also dealt with this college moron who would actually leave his music blaring 24/7 whether he was home or not. He moved out and a deaf guy moved in, and that was pretty sweet, minus dealing with my uncle, who actually mellowed out as time went on.

From 2004-2005 Alan and I lived in a townhouse in SE Nashville, and the  people next door were awful. They would blare music, beat their kids, and I heard the woman one day instructing her children to scream at our walls, you could actually hear her telling them to do it, as well as demonstrating exactly how they should scream. We referred to them as “White Trash Theater”.
We moved out of there into Hickory Run, and that was a nightmare from day one. People above us for a while, and then below us, including Fatty McRedneck, the Cousin Eddies and the Hyena.
Then we moved into our condo here, and as far as neighbors connected to us, we hit the lottery. We only have one connecting unit and they are a young couple like us, they are never home, and when they are the only thing we’ve ever heard from them is the occasional jaunt up or down their stairs.

However, the rest of the neighborhood sort of sucks. Surprisingly it’s not the apartment complex behind us, all we hear from there is the occasional vacuum cleaner or loud cell phone conversation. No it’s the duplexes and condos down the street. I’ve had to call the cops twice in the last week because the music was so loud we could hear it in our house. And that’s not even counting all the cars that get left sitting idle while the music is thumping and the owner is nowhere to be found.

I will never, EVER, in my life, understand the obsession with subwoofers in cars. I can barely tolerate them in home theater systems, to have them in cars is so beyond me. And I’m not some old lady, I’m 26 years old, younger than the generation who started this god awful fad. And don’t think I don’t blare music in my car….it’s just that all of my windows are up, I refuse to use more bass than the sound requires before going tinny, and I don’t have a subwoofer. Oh, and I’m smart enough to shut my car off and get out when I’ve reached my destination.
Do people honestly wake up one day and go “Man…I really feel like assaulting my neighbors with noise and excessive bass today” because to me, that’s some sort of sociopathic behavior. I’ve been in cars with subwoofers, and no, it doesn’t make the music better. Sorry. That’s a falacy. It distorts and muffles it, and you can’t hear the music over everything in the car rattling.
Do these people even know what that bass does the human neurological system?  Probably not, the kind of people who use those things probably can’t spell “neurological”. They have competitions for this ridiculousness. I certainly wouldn’t be interested in attending something like that, but I do pray that someday a sniper would consider it. It’d be like shooting idiot fish in a barrel.

And then there is this weird misconception  that it’s legal to use a subwoofer during daylight hours. WRONG. It’s against the law 24/7/365. The daytime noise ordinances refer to things such as chainsaws, lawn mowers, children playing, air compressors, hedge trimmers, snow blowers and leaf blowers, they do not cover car stereos. Ever. If your car can be heard 50 feet away, or over your private property line (and in this area the private property line is usually less than 50 feet) then you are breaking the law. The same goes for home stereos and televisions for those in apartment complexes, or who feel the urge to open all the windows and make your neighbors listen to Jerry Springer.

I LOVE music. LOVE it. The truth is that I probably love music more than anyone with a subwoofer, because I know how to appreciate it. If you want the honest truth, the single best way to listen to music is with the headphones they made back in the 70s with the plushy earpieces.

Well the girl who wouldn’t help me make an order last night put a lasagna in the oven tonight. So I guess that was pretty nice.

If nothing else at least I have some Simpsons to keep me entertained and an awesome husband and family to keep me sane.

How in the world is it possible, in an economic crisis, that people are still morally capable of being lazy?

I know some people aren’t as motivated, I probably fall into a mid-level motivation range. Sometimes I don’t make my bed before I go to work, and sometimes my housework isn’t done until 5:00 on Sundays.

My place of employment is going out of business on the 31st of the month. Well, it’s supposed to, but that’s a topic I do not have the time or patience to discuss right now. We have a fairly minimal staff, and 90% of them are the laziest people I have ever encountered in my entire 26 years on earth.

I come into work at 4 most days, and usually show up at about 3:40-3:45 and it never fails, the person in the shift prior to mine says “I didn’t have time to get to ____”. That’s fine, except for the fact that they are telling me this while sitting in the dining room watching tv. And there is usually still 15-20 minutes left until their shift is over.
I can’t even count the times I’ve come in to find my back area a total mess, because the person before me didn’t have time to clean it (which takes maybe 10 minutes) because they had to leave 45 minutes before their shift ended.

My shift is from 4-9 (or 4-10 on Fridays) and you know what? I’m there early, and I’m there until my shift ends. It’s a very easy concept. You go to work, you do everything you can possibly do (and what you are paid to do) until the time you are supposed to leave. If you have something unfinished, you finish it before you leave. The other night I didn’t leave until 9:30 because I’m not lazy enough to just leave things undone for the next person after me. Which I guess is stupid because nobody who works there would dream of extending that courtesy to me.

I think I might be the only one who works there who does things that aren’t part of my job description.  My main job is to make certain foods, wash dishes, and answer phones (which, don’t even get me started on how cooks should never answer phones….) and that’s really it, other than sweeping and mopping at the end of the night. In addition to my main duties, I voluntarily help with the counter, prebus, clear, wipe and stock tables, cut pizzas, fetch stuff from the coolers, and if I have 30 seconds where I’m not running around like crazy, fold boxes. Those things I do because I see that my coworkers are busy, and it is in the best interest our customers to help them out. Do you think anyone would do the same for me? Absolutely not. I’ve never had someone say “Let me help you with those dishes” or “I see you’re really busy helping someone else, let me make this order for you” they just don’t care.

Yesterday I came in early to do some prep because yesterday was Friday and Fridays are notoriously busy and we run out of everything. I was grating blocks of cheese which is a time consuming process. The restaurant was completely empty except for one person who came in. The girl at the counter comes back, hangs the ticket up, says “You got an order” and walks back out to go sit in a booth to watch tv and play with her cell phone.

So I had to stop what I was doing, make up the order, and lose prep time, because she was so lazy and inconsiderate that she couldn’t put cheese on a sandwich and run it through the oven herself. If she was busy, or if the dining room was trashed, that’d be fine, she had work to do. But to KNOW I was busy and just go sit down and do nothing…well what are we paying her for?! I even tried to ask for help but she acted as if she didn’t hear me and kept on walking back to the dining room.

Prior to this, as I mentioned I’d come in to do prep, and ended up clearing the buffet and do all the morning dishes. Two tasks definitely not belonging to me, as I wasn’t supposed to be there for another two and a half hours. While I did this, the other employees went out to smoke or had lunch. Again, I lost prep time, which was what I was there for. I did not get a chance to eat anything myself, so I went from about noon until 10:30 at night going a million miles an hour with absolutely nothing but a handful of Froot Loops to run on.
I’m not happy to be losing this source of income, but I can’t wait to be away from that place.

So, I haven’t posted in a while. I decided to do a revamp on the layout (although who doesn’t use RSS these days?) and try to get my hat back in the blogging ring.

Not that I haven’t been blogging. I have. Just not here.

So what have I been up to?

Trying to get my professional website up and running, and working on a website for an older country musician.

The restaurant where I’m currently employed is going out of business on the 31st. Or, it’s supposed to, the old owner is somewhat interested in it, but with the current economy, it might be best to let this location settle up it’s debts and re-open somewhere else, and when the economy is better.

In home life, we still miss our Miss Kitty, but we did adopt another kitty. Lucy is about 6 months old, and she’s a very beautiful calico. She’s…interesting. I have really grown to love her, but for a while we really butted heads. What truly brought us together is that she has the most loving personality I’ve seen in any creature. She loves with everything she is, and since we’ve had her, I’ve never seen her in a bad mood. She’s happy and loving every second of every day. It’s hard not to fall in love with that.

Benjamin and Harvey are well. Benjamin has lost a ton of weight because Lucy is such a piggie. Benjamin actually really hates Lucy, and that makes me feel sad for her because she wants a friend more than anything in the world, and he is just so mean to her.

Alan is still working like mad, he’s now the Sous Chef at Prime 108 downtown.

For now, that’s about it. My original intentions was to change this blog into a rants/raves blog, but I think I’ll make it a hodge podge of stuff. Hope to be writing here again soon!

Dear Miss Kitty,

I know the last few days have been real hard for you. I am so sorry we didn’t know you were this sick, or we’d have acted so much sooner. I don’t think that I will ever stop feeling responsible for how this has happened.

I’m so sorry that we sometimes took you for granted, and just assumed you’d always be here. We didn’t take that many photos of you, because we figured we had time. We sometimes brushed you away when you wanted attention, if we were busy or not wanting to be bothered. For that I am SO sorry because if I’d have known your life would be so short, I’d have treasured every single head butt, purr and snuggle. I wish I had taken just those extra 30 seconds every now and again to make sure you had a pet on the head, or just watch you. Watch you sleep on the office chair, or in the window. I wish I’d have played with you more, instead of always putting your cat toys in the basket.

You were SO strong, and so brave. When I brought you home all those years ago, you were so sick but your heart was so full of life. You fought that fight for a long time, and you won. I never thought you’d get sick again, and I never thought that what we thought was a little cold would end your life.

We’re still wishing for a miracle here, but this morning you looked ready to go. Don’t think I’m not wishing with all my heart and soul that you’ll turn out ok, because I would give anything to bring you back home, and have you be just fine after all.

I, and the rest of the family, really, really love you. When you go, there will be a void in our hearts so big, that I’m not sure anything will ever be able to fill it.

I’ve spent the last 6 years watching you grow, watching you get healthy, and seeing the cat you became. I love so many little things about you, and losing those things in my life are breaking my heart into a milion pieces.

I will miss walking into a room and seeing you sleeping in your favorite spots…your Joe Boxer pillow, a window sill, the office chair. I will miss hearing you snore on my head at night, and I will miss SO much the ways you demanded attention. I will miss seeing that stumpy little tail wag back and forth when you are playing, and I’ll miss hearing your little chirps when you are happy to see us. Every time I see a little patch of sunshine, I’ll think of you and the way you liked to “charge” in the window. And I think that for as long as I live, I will always expect you to see you in an upstairs window, looking down on the world.

I love you. We all love you.

I love your little ears, and the way they’re not all brown, they have little edges of pink.

I love your beautiful green eyes, they were the prettiest I’d ever seen, they were a blue/green, and always so bright.

I love your cleopatra lines, and how they always made you look so beautiful.

I love your little nose and the way you’d always rub it against mine.

I love your little mouth and the way you’d give kisses.

I love your chin, and the way you’d lift it up when we rubbed underneath it.

I love your little paws, they were so dainty, like a princess.

I love your little spots, that you only had on one side. Only yesterday did I notice for the first time that when you sat a certain way, they looked like two halves of a broken heart.

I love your stumpy tail, and the way you’d wag it. You didn’t always realize you were a cat.

I love the way you purred so loud that you could hear it in the next room.

I love the little brown spot on the inside of your back leg.

I love your beautiful fur, it was always so thick and full of life.

I love your heart. It made you who you are, and who we are going to miss. You had limitless amounts of love, and you never once made us feel unloved. I never thought I’d see a day when that heart stopped beating.

I love you baby girl. You’re our princess, our baby, our everything. I still find myself pleading with the universe/God/whoever to please make you ok. To stop this before you’re gone. Please don’t think that by writing this I am wishing you away, because I’m not. I want you to be here, I want to see you at 10, and 15, and 20. I want to see that coat get full and shiny again and hear you on my pillow at night.

We love you. I hope that you always knew that, and that you never forget.

Nashville is out of gas, because Nashvillians are apparently less intelligent than we first suspected.

I mean…we knew they stopped at green lights and can’t drive in the snow…but to run out of gas because of a RUMOR.

Someone said “Nashville is going to run out of gas this weekend”

So everyone went out to buy gas.

If they had never heard that rumor, we would have gas. The rumor was false, but it came true because people are stupid and gullible.

I have a gallon of gas in my car, it will get me to and from work for about a month.

Of course that’s if my car would start, but it would appear that the alternator blew.