Dear LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:
I have the absolutely wonderful, "never going to take it for granted" privilege of being able to work from home.
I love it and cherish every day I get to do it because I know one day I will have to go back to miserable cubicle-land and then I will die a little inside. So until then, I thank the Lord above and anyone else who has a hand in it and appreciate getting to do my work in my pajamas.
When I did work in an office, I sat in a cubicle with a low wall. I felt like a bank teller. ("Would you like that in $5's or $20's, sir?") My colleague and I had been relegated to sit next to the accounting department. The woman 2 cubicles behind me received a shocking amount of personal calls throughout the day. She was chit-chatting on her cell phone at least once an hour every hour. I learned more about this woman's personal life than I ever cared to know.
But the most wacky (and annoying) part was that this woman's ring tone was Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." So about 7-8 times a day, I would hear "Sexual Healing" go off at about 1000 decibels. I rolled my eyes so many times a day, I was scared they would permanently stick up there.
Now don't get me wrong, I loves me some Marvin Gaye as much as any other red-blooded American woman - but as your ring tone? In your workplace? 7-8 times a day, every day?
Evidently not everyone can be as classy (k-lassy) as I am by having the dog barking noises from the opening of the Jane's Addiction song "Been Caught Stealing" as their ring tone. (It's true - but 99% of the time my phone is on vibrate or silent, so most of the world doesn't get to hear my barking ring tone.)
So even though I love, love, love working from home and avoiding situations like hearing "Sexual Healing" all throughout my work day and when I am on conference calls, I do get a little stir-crazy/cabin fever by working from home.
Today was a cabin fever day. It's Friday and I needed to go out to lunch! I wanted to go to the Greek Festival that is being held in South Tampa today through Sunday, but I was in an anti-social mood not suitable for trying to find parking in crowded South Tampa and navigating myself around a festival tent. Instead I went to basically the only chain restaurant I go to … good old Village Inn (in the North/Midwest - it's the same company that brings you Bakers' Square - which used to be Poppin' Fresh Pies … oh Pillsbury doughboy, how I miss you.)
Village Inn is running a special on "Grilled Cheese Dippers" or what I term "fancy grilled cheese." I love a good grilled cheese and I love pretending I am fancy, so basically this might as well be called a Lily On The Lam Special.
I ordered the roadhouse dipper - which has cheese, an egg, bacon and sausage gravy. The menu says it comes with a green pork chili but mine came with a reddish cream-like sauce and saltine crackers. This may or may not have been the tomato basil soup that comes with the other two Grilled Cheese Dippers. It tasted tomato-y but I wouldn't call it tomato basil soup, so who knows. Mystery dipping sauce, I guess.
I ordered the egg in the sandwich over medium. Which was a mistake. I cut the sandwich in half thinking I'd be breaking the soft yolk. Nope, it was in tact so when I took a bite a raging geyser of searing hot egg yolk went spurting out all over my shirt and all over the table.
This egg had to have had a gallon of yolk! I was amazed at how much yolk was all over me and the table!
Egg yolk does not come out of fabric well with just water and a napkin, let me tell you! I went home and pre-treated it and then put it in my brand new washing machine -- which decided to break. I've only owned it for a month! Grrr!
Anyway, after the baptism by egg yolk, I actually got to enjoy my fancy grilled cheese. It was very good. The dipping sauce ("not green pork chili") was good, but extremely rich - and since the sandwich is rich enough as it is, I really didn't use the sauce. Which I realize goes against the whole dipping concept. Overall I would say this was a very tasty sandwich and I'd like to try their other 2 "Grilled Cheese Dippers." Just be careful for any yolk geysers!
I have to say I was quite content with my Roadhouse Dipper and a diet Coke (which I so rarely allow myself to drink anymore that each time I do, it's like a religious experience.) I have been so busy with work that to take a moment and just sit with a sandwich and my thoughts was extremely relaxing to me.
Until a couple was seated in the booth next to me.
I could feel waves of tension rolling off the man and woman. They were a younger couple - perhaps 27 years old? Attractive. The girl was very slender and she sat leaning forward with her arms wrapped around herself - body language for emotional protection - and in doing so her body became all sharp angles from her bones sticking out of her tiny, skinny frame.
They each had a steno notebook. They were here on a mission. Evidently they had been in relationship counseling and had been given homework. They were now here at Village Inn to discuss their homework results over pancakes.
Side Note: If you're going to go through anything emotional, I highly recommend a side of pancakes to go with it. I wonder if their relationship counselor had recommended the starchy treat?
The assignment had been to write three things that bothered you about the other person, three things that you think you could do better and then to write an action plan between the two of you on how you could both work together better.
I could see their steno notebooks. Have you seen in prison movies where a prisoner is only allowed a small amount of paper, so they write as tiny as they can to maximize the paper? Well each of them had insanely tiny chicken scratch but on pages and pages and pages of their steno pads. Good lord, how many bad things did they write about their significant other???
I am no psychiatrist, but I have to think that starting with "these are the three things I hate about you" before doing the "here are things I need to work on this relationship" is just starting the conversation on the wrong foot - a one way trip to Defensiveness City.
For the record, I did not want to eavesdrop on the relationship couple sitting next to me. I also did not want to listen to the guy on the other side of me who apparently was doing a one-man show called "I am SOOOOOOOO FABULOUS and you all can worship me!" But since I was eating my grilled cheese and not stuffing my ears with it, I couldn't help but listen.
The relationship counseling couple started off with their complaints about each other. At first they were using a lot of "I feel" and "When you do this, I feel that" type language that is so endemic in couples counseling.
But sure enough when you start off a conversation listing all the things that bother you about the other person (they didn't stick to the "top three" rule), angers started to flare and the communication went into "And YOU DO THIS and YOU DO THAT" accusatory bitch-fest mode.
I wanted to tap them on the shoulder and say "Reboot - start off talking about yourselves and what you plan to do to do better first -- and stop ruining my field trip away from my home office and this delicious grilled cheese!" But I didn't. There was so much tension in the air, I would be scared someone would stab me with a butter knife. I already missed a shooting at the Home Depot parking lot by 30 minutes this week - I didn't need to court death again.
However with remarkable good timing, when the anger was really seething the waitress came over with two gigantic plates of berries and whipped cream laden pancakes as big as my head. Is it possible to be angry with pancakes in front of you?
The couple stopped talking and grimly started cutting their pancakes. I wanted to shout "STOP DISRESPECTING THOSE WONDERFUL PANCAKES! SMILE AND APPRECIATE THEM!" But I guess if you cannot appreciate your significant other, you probably can't appreciate pancakes either.
I wanted to lean over and say "you are both young and attractive - this looks like a lot of work and a lot of anger to be dealing with -- perhaps you're just not well-suited for each other? Maybe time to cut your losses and find someone who makes you smile over pancakes?" But again - none of my business and I didn't want a fork to the forehead, a butter knife to my spleen or boiling hot coffee thrown in my face.
I don't have a grand resolution to this story. I left while the couple was chopping into their pancakes with silent, searing spite.
For me, it was a good day - the weather is wonderful in Florida right now, it's Friday, I had time to go out for a delicious (albeit not low calorie) lunch. I have a lot of fun weekend plans coming up. I received some good news at work. All win, win, win.
All I could think about before encountering this couple was how much I had to be thankful for and how good life can be. But I left the Village Inn with an egg yolk-stained shirt and a somewhat sad heart listening to this couple tilling the soil of their bitter garden in the name of trying to save their relationship.
I drove home thinking "Life is short - don't lead with three reasons why you hate -- lead with the positive first. Or at least a positive plan of action."
But sometimes it's just a heck of a lot easier to get a really good grilled cheese (or mighty stack of pancakes) then to be kind to the people you love the most.
Happy Friday, LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!
I have the absolutely wonderful, "never going to take it for granted" privilege of being able to work from home.
I love it and cherish every day I get to do it because I know one day I will have to go back to miserable cubicle-land and then I will die a little inside. So until then, I thank the Lord above and anyone else who has a hand in it and appreciate getting to do my work in my pajamas.
When I did work in an office, I sat in a cubicle with a low wall. I felt like a bank teller. ("Would you like that in $5's or $20's, sir?") My colleague and I had been relegated to sit next to the accounting department. The woman 2 cubicles behind me received a shocking amount of personal calls throughout the day. She was chit-chatting on her cell phone at least once an hour every hour. I learned more about this woman's personal life than I ever cared to know.
But the most wacky (and annoying) part was that this woman's ring tone was Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." So about 7-8 times a day, I would hear "Sexual Healing" go off at about 1000 decibels. I rolled my eyes so many times a day, I was scared they would permanently stick up there.
Now don't get me wrong, I loves me some Marvin Gaye as much as any other red-blooded American woman - but as your ring tone? In your workplace? 7-8 times a day, every day?
Evidently not everyone can be as classy (k-lassy) as I am by having the dog barking noises from the opening of the Jane's Addiction song "Been Caught Stealing" as their ring tone. (It's true - but 99% of the time my phone is on vibrate or silent, so most of the world doesn't get to hear my barking ring tone.)
So even though I love, love, love working from home and avoiding situations like hearing "Sexual Healing" all throughout my work day and when I am on conference calls, I do get a little stir-crazy/cabin fever by working from home.
Today was a cabin fever day. It's Friday and I needed to go out to lunch! I wanted to go to the Greek Festival that is being held in South Tampa today through Sunday, but I was in an anti-social mood not suitable for trying to find parking in crowded South Tampa and navigating myself around a festival tent. Instead I went to basically the only chain restaurant I go to … good old Village Inn (in the North/Midwest - it's the same company that brings you Bakers' Square - which used to be Poppin' Fresh Pies … oh Pillsbury doughboy, how I miss you.)
Village Inn is running a special on "Grilled Cheese Dippers" or what I term "fancy grilled cheese." I love a good grilled cheese and I love pretending I am fancy, so basically this might as well be called a Lily On The Lam Special.
I ordered the roadhouse dipper - which has cheese, an egg, bacon and sausage gravy. The menu says it comes with a green pork chili but mine came with a reddish cream-like sauce and saltine crackers. This may or may not have been the tomato basil soup that comes with the other two Grilled Cheese Dippers. It tasted tomato-y but I wouldn't call it tomato basil soup, so who knows. Mystery dipping sauce, I guess.
I ordered the egg in the sandwich over medium. Which was a mistake. I cut the sandwich in half thinking I'd be breaking the soft yolk. Nope, it was in tact so when I took a bite a raging geyser of searing hot egg yolk went spurting out all over my shirt and all over the table.
This egg had to have had a gallon of yolk! I was amazed at how much yolk was all over me and the table!
Egg yolk does not come out of fabric well with just water and a napkin, let me tell you! I went home and pre-treated it and then put it in my brand new washing machine -- which decided to break. I've only owned it for a month! Grrr!
Anyway, after the baptism by egg yolk, I actually got to enjoy my fancy grilled cheese. It was very good. The dipping sauce ("not green pork chili") was good, but extremely rich - and since the sandwich is rich enough as it is, I really didn't use the sauce. Which I realize goes against the whole dipping concept. Overall I would say this was a very tasty sandwich and I'd like to try their other 2 "Grilled Cheese Dippers." Just be careful for any yolk geysers!
I have to say I was quite content with my Roadhouse Dipper and a diet Coke (which I so rarely allow myself to drink anymore that each time I do, it's like a religious experience.) I have been so busy with work that to take a moment and just sit with a sandwich and my thoughts was extremely relaxing to me.
Until a couple was seated in the booth next to me.
I could feel waves of tension rolling off the man and woman. They were a younger couple - perhaps 27 years old? Attractive. The girl was very slender and she sat leaning forward with her arms wrapped around herself - body language for emotional protection - and in doing so her body became all sharp angles from her bones sticking out of her tiny, skinny frame.
They each had a steno notebook. They were here on a mission. Evidently they had been in relationship counseling and had been given homework. They were now here at Village Inn to discuss their homework results over pancakes.
Side Note: If you're going to go through anything emotional, I highly recommend a side of pancakes to go with it. I wonder if their relationship counselor had recommended the starchy treat?
The assignment had been to write three things that bothered you about the other person, three things that you think you could do better and then to write an action plan between the two of you on how you could both work together better.
I could see their steno notebooks. Have you seen in prison movies where a prisoner is only allowed a small amount of paper, so they write as tiny as they can to maximize the paper? Well each of them had insanely tiny chicken scratch but on pages and pages and pages of their steno pads. Good lord, how many bad things did they write about their significant other???
I am no psychiatrist, but I have to think that starting with "these are the three things I hate about you" before doing the "here are things I need to work on this relationship" is just starting the conversation on the wrong foot - a one way trip to Defensiveness City.
For the record, I did not want to eavesdrop on the relationship couple sitting next to me. I also did not want to listen to the guy on the other side of me who apparently was doing a one-man show called "I am SOOOOOOOO FABULOUS and you all can worship me!" But since I was eating my grilled cheese and not stuffing my ears with it, I couldn't help but listen.
The relationship counseling couple started off with their complaints about each other. At first they were using a lot of "I feel" and "When you do this, I feel that" type language that is so endemic in couples counseling.
But sure enough when you start off a conversation listing all the things that bother you about the other person (they didn't stick to the "top three" rule), angers started to flare and the communication went into "And YOU DO THIS and YOU DO THAT" accusatory bitch-fest mode.
I wanted to tap them on the shoulder and say "Reboot - start off talking about yourselves and what you plan to do to do better first -- and stop ruining my field trip away from my home office and this delicious grilled cheese!" But I didn't. There was so much tension in the air, I would be scared someone would stab me with a butter knife. I already missed a shooting at the Home Depot parking lot by 30 minutes this week - I didn't need to court death again.
However with remarkable good timing, when the anger was really seething the waitress came over with two gigantic plates of berries and whipped cream laden pancakes as big as my head. Is it possible to be angry with pancakes in front of you?
The couple stopped talking and grimly started cutting their pancakes. I wanted to shout "STOP DISRESPECTING THOSE WONDERFUL PANCAKES! SMILE AND APPRECIATE THEM!" But I guess if you cannot appreciate your significant other, you probably can't appreciate pancakes either.
I wanted to lean over and say "you are both young and attractive - this looks like a lot of work and a lot of anger to be dealing with -- perhaps you're just not well-suited for each other? Maybe time to cut your losses and find someone who makes you smile over pancakes?" But again - none of my business and I didn't want a fork to the forehead, a butter knife to my spleen or boiling hot coffee thrown in my face.
I don't have a grand resolution to this story. I left while the couple was chopping into their pancakes with silent, searing spite.
For me, it was a good day - the weather is wonderful in Florida right now, it's Friday, I had time to go out for a delicious (albeit not low calorie) lunch. I have a lot of fun weekend plans coming up. I received some good news at work. All win, win, win.
All I could think about before encountering this couple was how much I had to be thankful for and how good life can be. But I left the Village Inn with an egg yolk-stained shirt and a somewhat sad heart listening to this couple tilling the soil of their bitter garden in the name of trying to save their relationship.
I drove home thinking "Life is short - don't lead with three reasons why you hate -- lead with the positive first. Or at least a positive plan of action."
But sometimes it's just a heck of a lot easier to get a really good grilled cheese (or mighty stack of pancakes) then to be kind to the people you love the most.
Happy Friday, LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!
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