More Stories From Little Caeser's

I can never remember where I put my car. I can always remember where I put my glasses, but I usually lose the car. I mean, out of the two, I'd think the glasses are easier to lose, but I lose the car most often. Mind you, if I lost my glasses and the car, the car would probably be the one I'd find first. I mean, how easy can it be to hide a red car with Ontario plates in Nova Scotia? Maybe then it's a good thing that I lose my car more often than my glasses.

Ahhh... So I was on cash again at Little Caeser's. By the way, at Little Caeser's they call me Dorothy. Like, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. I don't know why. Ashlin always teases me about being called Dorothy, so I call her Ugly Flying Monkey, or Stupid Flying Monkey. But it doesn't deter her. Anyway, On Thursdays we have Free Crazy Sauce with our Crazy Bread. One gentleman came in and asked for Crazy Bread and I asked, "What kind of Crazy Sauce would you like with that?" He looked confused so I explained that on Thursdays and Saturdays Sauce is free with Bread and I asked again, "Would you like Donair or Tomato sauce?" Still looking confused he said, "I didn't know there would be a test."

One of our Combos at Little Caeser's is the Family Choice. It's actually the most popular choice of our customers and it comes with one canadian pizza and one peperoni pizza, a two litre pop, some crazy bread, and crazy sauce. The only caveat is that it can't be changed. You can't change the toppings, or anything. So anyways, this lady came in--she's one of our regular customers and she's really cranky all the time--and she asked for the Family Choice with no Bacon. So I told her, "I'm sorry, we can't make any changes to the pizzas." So she repeated, firmly and louder, "Give me the Family choice with no bacon!" I repeated my earlier statement, and a tall graying man who was with her, and who I hadn't noticed until now, put himself in front of her and said angrily, "Boy, can't you speak english! We want the Family Choice with no bacon!" So I said, "Sir, I'd be happy to sell you the family choice, or a pizza with no bacon, but I can't give you a pizza with no bacon at the family choice price." I don't think they completely understood what was going on, because they stalked out and didn't come back. I think they may have thought that I was refusing to serve them.

The next day, a lady came in and asked, "If I order pizza for my daughter's birthday, would they be made fresh?" So I replied with, "Yes." She qualified with, "Or would you just take them out of the box?" (The hot box is where we keep our ready-made pizzas.) So I replied with, "Yes," again, because we would give her the order out of the box, but the pizzas in the box are kept fresh. She said, "What?" and I said, "Pardon me?" and she said, "Why are you saying 'Pardon me?'?" And I replied, "I'm not quite sure I understood the last thing you said." She rolled her eyes and said, "Can I talk to that girl over there?" pointing at Janelle. So I went over and traded jobs with Janelle and she asked the same question to Janelle, which Janelle answered with more clarity. Then she said, "Can that boy not speak english?"

I have to admit that I was being purposely difficult because the lady was being rude and snobbish. I get frustrated with customers who come in and ask for fresh made pizzas when we already have some ready. I generally give them a fresh pizza when they ask for one, but if we gave everyone a fresh-made pizza we wouldn't be able to sell them at the prices we do. Five dollars for a medium pizza is probably the best price you'll get anywhere, and the pizzas we sell ARE fresh! (That price is even better than the price you'll get on a same-sized frozen pizza at the grocery store!) Here I am, ranting...

Anyways. We had a brunch today. Tim and Stef, Kenny and Heidi, Kim, Rachel, Laura, Celina, Janna, and Stephen all attended. We had german pancakes, sausages, coffee, fruit, yogurt, and all kinds of nice things and good fellowship and played Apples to Apples and Bananagrams. It was great! Then everyone went back to their studies and Janelle and Rachel went out.

New Furniture!

Yesterday was an interesting day. Janelle went off to school at eleven o'clock. I spent the rest of the morning writing, and at one thirty I picked up Janelle at the university and we went furniture shopping. We looked up all the used furniture stores we could find in Halifax and some in Dartmouth on the internet while we ate a quick lunch. Then off we went. The first store was a quick decision, we walked in and the first thing we saw was a little mirror priced at $160. So we turned around and left. The second one didn't exist anymore. And the third one wasn't open on mondays. So we went across the harbour to Dartmouth and hit up Angie's Buy and Sell. But we didn't find what we were looking for there. On the way back, we stopped at Colin and Joanne's house but they weren't home. Probably out for pizza or something. So I dropped off Janelle at the university and went to Staples.

After Janelle was done school for the day, we had supper with Juaniece. Cousin Jeff from Vancouver was there too and we had an awesome time with the dog. And the kids.

I bought a nice black bookcase at Staples, and after supper Janelle and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a nice futon. Then we spent the rest of the night putting together our guest room. Then Jeff came over to spend the night and Janelle made some grilled cheese sandwiches and then Jeff and I went out for Donairs. It was almost two AM so King of Donair was closed-ish. All they had left was slices and they wouldn't make us anything, so we went to Greco's and they were closed. So we went to Sicilian's and they were just about to close, but the man offered to make us donairs anyway, so he did, and it was fantastic.

Anyways, I just left a ridiculous message at the Morton's and I'm feeling somewhat embarrassed. And I'm waiting for Jeff to wake up so I can make him breakfast or something. Or maybe he'll want to go out for Donairs again...

longing

Prayer, October 20 2007


I felt the walls closing in on me tonight
A little more,
Middle class blandness.

I could see myself ordinary
Getting older
Busy with children, with work, with food
Only nodding, absently, at God once a week
My heart slowly congealing
My brain settling lower in my skull

I cried out in horror and longing
For the extraordinary

For cars dangling on pole bridges
For hints of death slithering in the grass
For life passed from mouth to mouth with joy
For lightning, for thunder,
For running flat out, for being needed,
For tears and gasps of joy and shouts of laughter.

I have tasted it! I have floated in it!
I must go.
I’m running…

our romantic saturday

this morning we woke up to the sounds of little kids screaming. one of the little girls who lives in the building next to us is a tyrant: she screams orders at the other kids, and they disobey her at their peril. we saw her learning this first hand from her mother ... it was sad.

anyway, we decided that since it was a saturday, we wanted to sleep in. after all, who wants to start their day with the screeching of a pint-sized dictator? we're not living in north korea. i closed the window.

three hours later, we groggily crawled out of bed into the noon sunshine. over breakfast, we decided to go to peggy's cove before patrick had to work at six. it was a perfect day. the sky was high and clear, the sun warm. we bought pumpkin spice smoothies, new batteries for our camera, and set off.

the leaves on the trees were brilliantly red and orange and gold and green. the dark firs and shadows made the leaves in the sun seem to gleam in comparison, and everything felt as joyful as we were. we hadn't been back to peggy's cove since our honeymoon, and driving there together again was incredibly romantic and happy. the curvy, windy road sparked a surprise at every turn - funny signs, red maples flaring by the blue sky, the silvery water, families walking their dogs. houses for sale. we were zipping through a little hollow where the water curled right up to the road when the most delicious smell of fish and chips made us drool. it was hackett's cove - we have to take ashley, joel, willow, and naomi there when they come visit!!

peggy's cove was full of people - not uncommonly, especially on such a perfect day - but the water was weirdly calm. not gorgeously glassy, like in the postcards, but just tossy and ripply.

patrick was standing on the edge of a rock, watching the seaweed float, when a wave just leaped out of nowhere and soaked him up to the knees - then it went back to being still. we thought we heard it snicker as it went. we took some pictures, then decided to go back to hackett's cove for lunch ... which by this time, was actually supper. it was really good, and hackett's cove was pretty pretty pretty.

the radio played sappy music and we held hands. i didn't think it could get any better after we got married. i thought that was the epitome of happiness.

but it just keeps getting better.

Janelle's Birthday Week

It has been about one month now that we've been living in Halifax. It's crazy to think of it because it feels like we just moved here a week or two ago. I still have nightmares about living in Toronto and working at the Super Store.

This week was Janelle's birthday week. For her birthday we got a new couch--that was towards the end of September--and closer to the day of her birthday I got her a new Bible. Also, our car broke down, as I mentioned in previous posts. First we thought it was the starter because the car wouldn't start (we still managed to jump start it down the hill of our parking lot) but finally the car died on us while we were out and we needed to have it boosted (it wouldn't jump start down a hill at all). This led us to believe that there was a problem with our alternator or our battery.

Anyways, this week Uncle Ken heard that our car was broken so he decided to come over and have a look at it. It turned out that our battery cables (the ones that connect to the posts on the battery) were corroded. So uncle Ken scraped off all the rust with a pair of clippers or shears or something, and put the cables back on and the car started like normal. It was almost like magic. Then we went to Canadian Tire and Uncle Ken wanted to buy a new gizmo (I forget what it's called) to replace the rusted one. Uncle Ken even tried to pay for it himself, but I managed to beat him to it. He said, "Bob wouldn't have let you get away with that!" and I replied that Janelle wouldn't have let me get away with letting him pay. Anyways, we went back to the car and Uncle Ken replaced the parts and the car was fixed (for the time being). He told me to pack some grease or petroleum jelly on it so it wouldn't corrode again.

On Tuesday, Janelle's birthday-day Janelle was at school and I worked until six. After work we had planned to go to a Children's Meeting in Dartmouth but I came down with some kind of flu or something while I was at work. I felt very cold while I was at work, and then I had some kind of crazy fever and a headache a very sore muscles. So after work I came home and slept for a while and Janelle went shopping. When she came back I got up and we hung around the apartment for a while and then went to pick up Joanne at work and watched a movie and then went back to bed. I was off on Wednesday but still sick. At four o'clock I went to Mount Saint Vincent University because Stephen Vance was giving a presentation there about the rationality of belief in God. There was a good turn out and Stephen spoke very well. (He's here for a series of Gospel meetings). After that I was feeling very sick so I didn't go to meeting, but after meeting Janelle went to Juaniece's house and I stayed home.

Thursday I worked again, and was still sick. When I came home I had a nasty fever and a crazy headache. Janelle had gone to Scott and Krisha's place to watch a scary movie and it scared her so much that she needed me to go over and walk her back home. The whole way home she hung on to my arm very very tightly while she told me about the movie and it even creeped me out. So we went home and watched a the end of "Becoming Jane" to get Janelle's mind off the creepy movie, and then I had a shower and went to bed. We had to sleep with the light on because Janelle was still scared. Apparently my fever got really bad when I was sleeping because Janelle woke me up a bunch of times to drink water because it was getting uncomfortable to sleep with me (I don't really remember it, Janelle had to tell me about it later) but I was feeling better by Friday morning.

On Friday, Janelle went to Cora's for breakfast with her sisters and that was a rather mixed experience. Then Laurie and Eva were getting their hair done, and then Janelle raced back home to give me a ride to work and I worked from noon to eight. After work I was feeling sick again and had a shower. Then Heidi came over and hung out with Janelle and I fell asleep on the floor. After Heidi left Janelle and I got a movie and after watching it, my fever was up again so Janelle poured me a cold bath and after that I went to bed.

I'm feeling better again this morning. Flus are nasty. Today Janelle and I are going to get some lunch and then we're going to go to Peggy's Cove for an outing! And then I work at six.