Joey's school picture

Finally! I got a school portrait of the boy. Last year in Head Start they had them done, but I never got them :( Paid for and everything. They said that they must not have come in, yadda yadda..didn't have any record, blah blah blah. Which is BS. Because his teacher had taken all of the kids pictures and scanned them for her own use (the little school yearbook), and she had Joey's. So, she was the last one to touch them and I never got them *boohoo*

Anyway, I have in my hands his first school portrait from kindergarten. Aside from the little cockeyed smile, I thought it turned out pretty good!

I love kindergarten!

It's fun! I did my good-mom thing this morning and went to hang out with the class. We took snack - little bags of chips for all the kids. They were pretty excited about that.

Today was PE day, but I had a note from my mom so I wouldn't have to do jumping jacks. With hooters like these, I would have knocked myself out and ended up in the nurses office with an icepack on my head. Apparently on Tuesday some of the kids were being bad during PE, so today they had to stay out of it and do other work. While Mr. P took the other 13 kids (out of 18) outside to do relay races & follow the leader, the 5 little bad kids stayed inside. I stayed with them and Mrs. Peacock to help them do their work. I showed little Josefina how to write her name the right direction (she was doing it upside down and backwards), and then her and Dominic both read me a story about a Mom and a Dad. I left just as they were going to their sections to do their daily work.

Table number 1 was doing painting with apples, table number 2 was working with playdough, and table number 3 was working on the letter "a" {lowercase} with Mr. Fred (Still not sure who he is, but he helps, lol).

I'm going back in a few hours to take some lunch to Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. Dora (the aide). I made some dinner last night and I was the only one that ate it and I have a LOT leftover. They thought it sounded good, so I said I'd bring them some. Fettuccini with chicken, pasta sauce & mozarella cheese. Mmmmmmmmmm!

My customers

After my post yesterday, and several responses here in my blog and on one of my MB's, I felt compelled to write this.

I have a lot of regular customers. When they come in on such a regular basis, you get to learn who they are, about their families, and all kinds of fun stuff. Then if they miss a day - especially if they come in like clockwork - you get worried. I know I do. Some of my customers, I have pictures of.

The Kids

The Kids are an older couple that came in quite a lot, about 3-4 times a week. They'd sit at table 17 and drink coffee. Betty, the wife, would smoke her Virginia Slims and have 3 cups of coffee w/cream and a glass of ice water (with a straw!). Tom, her husband, would only have 1 1/2 cups of coffee with cream, no water. Then we didn't see them for a few weeks, we were all worried. Tom came in one day without Betty, and we feared the worst. They are both in their late 80's and drive clear from Sun City for their coffee. Betty was doing okay, but was in a care home. She had a mild stroke, and was having problems with her eyesight. They also found out she had diabetes. He came in alone several times after that, and looked really sad...lonely if you will. Some of our other customers took it upon themselves to sit with him and keep him company for the hour he would spend there. A few weeks later they both came in, with their daughter. Betty didn't look so hot, be she was her normal fiesty self. She was so cute in her little t-shirt and jeans (They were the cutest little old couple ever!). Anyway, I haven't seen either one of them for over a month now. I'm afraid to ask anybody, as if anybody knew how to contact them. I sure miss The Kids.


Lee & The Boys
These are My Boys. From left to right is Mark, Lee, & Dominic. They come in every Saturday, at 7am sharp. If I'm not there yet, or not on the floor, they will wait. Nobody else can wait on them - they won't let anybody else wait on them. They've been known to sit in the lobby for over an hour waiting for me. If I'm not there at all, for any reason, they'll go to another restaurant. Both Mark & Dominic are Autustic and live on their own in a controlled apartment. They stay with their father, Lee (who was widowed early last year), on the weekends. They come to me for breakfast. Both of the boys have a personality all their own.

Mark - He likes to put up his dukes to me. "Why do you keep bothering me woman! Can't you see I'm trying to read my menu!" (LOL, he can't read and I always end up picking what he's having for breakfast anyway, lol). "Get back to work!" "Don't you have something better to do!" - he cracks me up. I always have some new witty comeback for him, and it makes his dad laugh. One time, before the "Exclusively Erin" period, another waitress was waiting on them. She made a crack about me being a crybaby (well, it hurt! i'm sorry if I'm a wussy, lol). Mark got MAD and had a breakdown right there and had to leave. He called the other waitress a "Chicken Wing", which in Mark Speak is a tantamount to being called a Stupid Bitch - I assume, lol.

Dominic - He is my boyfriend. I have a stack of love letters about 6" high, stashed away in my filing cabinet. They are all on legal sized yellow notebook paper, and just say "Love Dominic", in his childlike handwriting. Sometimes there will be a happy face, or a really big heart. He stopped putting them in stamped envelopes though, because their dad told him he was wasting too much money, ROFL. The last present he gave me was a little ceramic candy dish in the shape of a heart with roses handpainted on it :) He always defends me against his big brother (they are 2 years apart), because he loves me so :)

I got worried just yesterday and last weekend because I didn't see them come in. But Bob told me they came in last Sunday and let my sister wait on them. I was glad that they're letting people get in on the good tip also, LOL.

Oh, and a funny story about last Christmas. About a week before Christmas, Lee gave me a $50 tip. I was so touched, I about cried. Nobody had ever done that before. The following weekend they came in - and for the first time EVER in the history of my waitressing - I spilled a drink on a customer. Not just any customer, but right smack in Dominic's lap! THE HORROR! I was scared that it would freak him out or something, but he just laughed hysterically and yelled "I LIKED IT!" - you had to be there. Every since, every day I see them he reminds me "Hey Reg, remember when you spilled that pop on my pants! I LIKED IT!" - (He calls me Reg, I don't know why, ROFL).

Ward
Meet Ward. Ward is a silly little man. Not really sure what his glitch is, but I do know that he comes from the planet Mars and that he and his cohorts are here to find a new leader for their planet (no kidding!). He HAS to sit at table 10 - which is the last seat at the end of the counter. He drinks coffee w/cream and a glass of water. Never needs silverware, always uses his pinky finger to stir his coffee. His part of the counter MUST be spotless - He will sit there and watch me scrub at it until he's satisfied. He will even take the towel and do it for me, lol. If for some reason his seat is taken, he'll take another and sit there with what looks like a 'pouty' face, until the person gets up, lol. He always has his walkman with him and listens to Metallica, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd...once even heard System of a Down coming from him, lol. Sometimes he'll talk to himself or laugh for no reason. Me & another girl, Laura, we're the only one's that he'll speak to. Once I saw him on the bus and he started singing a nursery rhyme to Joey - he's got a really rough "i'm a psycho" kinda voice and Joey yelled "HE'S SCARING ME MOMMY!" ROFL, he liked that I think, lol.

George & Deb
George & Deb. George is an Every Day, 3 Times A Day customer. Really obnoxious dirty old man. I deal with him though. Knew people are seriously irritated by him. He is the epitome of a Dirty Old Man.

Deb comes in only once a week, on Saturday afternoons. George has a crush on her and makes sure he's always there when she is. It's cute, lol. She is a pretty lady, though, and very nice. They both like cofee. She likes it with cream, him without.

The thing with Ron yesterday hit home when George came in. I asked if he knew, and his eyes welled up and he said he did. Then he sat really quiet - he is NEVER quiet. I felt so sad for him until he said "Stick your chest out girl! How do you expect to make any money if your chest ain't stickin' out!" *sigh* Yes, George.

Brad
Brad - Well...not really much to say about him, except his always cranky. He's a driver that comes in once a week. And will sit, and sit, and sit, and sit, and sit...for hours, and hours, and hours, and hours... Once he did get up to take a shower. And once he left to go to petsmart to get some food for his dog. They didn't have the kind he wanted, but he managed to remember my hamster and pick up some treats for him :)

Sarge
I can't find a picture of him, but I have one somewhere. He was a Sargeant in the Army or something back in Vietnam. He comes in every morning for coffee, and takes a sweet tea to go. The man is a diabetic, but I have sold more deserts to him than anyone I know. I did tell him, however, that if he were to die that I will not be held liable, lol.

Fat Man
I don't even know what his real name is, I think it's Mike. He's a BIG GUY, but likes to be called Fat Man. He's a dirty old man too, but super sweet once you get used to him, lol. He likes decaf coffee with real milk :)

Bob

And then there's Bob. When I first started, Bob was ALWAYS there - I mean litterally - always. Turns out he was homeless and sleeping in his car. He gave rides to drivers who needed to go somehwere (movies, airport, stores, etc) and used that money to 'live off of'. The man drank like a fish whenever he got the chance, and smokes like a chimney. He's become a staple in the restaurant, EVERYBODY knows who bob is. He's like our "Norm" from Cheers. He eventually got an apartment where George lives, so he has a place to sleep, for just over a year now. He's not in as often - like always - but he's there several times a day. For a year and a half he is my own personal Taxi. I pay him to pick me up sometimes when I'm running late or my mom has the day off, and last year he took me to pick up Joey from school every day and then take us home. I only occassionally use him now to go home, because I don't want to bother him, what with gas prices being so high and all.

He's just short of being an employee there. They use him to do Will Calls, and he has EVERYBODY's phone number...so if we need to get ahold of an employee, we have bob do it, lol.

I think that's about it for this round. I do have a lot more - Like the Breeders (don't ask, lol), Ma & Pa (aka: Donna & Charles...Charles passed away earlier this week), The Brothers, Kathy & Hot Mama Margaret (Who passed away at the first of this year..loved that old woman).

The End