...his name is my name too

We get all kinds of sorts that call in to work. Since I work 3rd shift my calls are usually split up into groups. From the start of my shift until around 5:00-5:30, that's when all the crazies call in. Obviously not every call but the phrase, "it's happy hour somewhere" does seem to apply during these hours. After that the calls change to a lot of employees needing to call in, people wondering about appointment times or surgery times and a lot of calls from family and friends wanting to know the room number of a loved one. One of my pet peeves for these last type of calls are the people that give you 52 first names for their friend.



"Yeah, I wanted to get the room number for someone."

"Sure, what's the name?"

"Allison...Peter...Taylor...Joe."

"Um. Ok, so...what's the last name?"

"Peter."

(cut to me with my arms flailing in the air wondering...WTF??? That wasn't even the first or last name that you spewed out!)

"Ok, and the first name?"

"Taylor. TaylorJo Allison-Peter."



Are you serious??? Please remember when you're calling somewhere looking for your friend, if they have 5 different names, and ALL of them could be either first or last, be clear in the beginning. I don't know you're friend! You have to tell me, "The last name is hyphenated, it's Allison-Peter. The first name is TaylorJo." Better yet, just get friends with shorter names.

Weekend in review

This was a fairly busy weekend for The Warren's. I worked all weekend, actually I'm at the end of a 6-day stretch that started last Wednesday night. Tonight is the sixth night, I'm off tomorrow night then it's back on Wednesday again. Then I'm off for a few days, thank God! Anyway, Friday was pretty uneventful, I think. Honestly I don't remember much about Friday, except that it was busy at work. Lots of drunks, lots of people checking themselves or someone else into rehab or mental health. Lots of weird people calling. One old man called me and said exactly this, "I think I have the AIDS." I really didn't want any further details, however I think he called me again last night, more on that later.

Saturday morning was Emily dance recital. It started at 10am, lucky for me since I worked the night before. We had to be there at 9:30 but we got there early to get a good parking space. It was held at the Galvin Fine Arts Center at St. Ambrose University, which is a nice place and they have a lot of events there, however their parking situation leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, there were eight of us total that came to see Emily dance and it was a great recital. I thought all of the classes did really well. I was impressed considering all of the students were probably aged 7 and under. Here are a few pictures post recital.

After that the kids went to my sister's to spend the night and Adam and I went to Riefe's in Davenport for lunch. It's been there since 1948 and we had never been. It was wonderful. Adam had a burger and fries and I had a hot beef. So yummy and very reasonably priced.

We came home and I eventually went to bed and Adam made some new friends around the apartment complex. They played volleyball and Adam allegedly broke one of his toes. Then they all drank beer. I woke up and went to work. How utterly exciting!

Sunday morning Adam had already left to help our bro-in-law with some cement work so I was home alone and I loved it! I went to the freezer and got out my new Bagel-fuls to try out for breakfast.

These things are the biggest, ackiest pieces of crap to ever find themselves in my microwave. I thought the problem I was going to have with them was that there wouldn't be enough cream cheese in them. I didn't realize there would be an over abundance, which is saying something because I like a lot of cream cheese on my bagel. So that was the first thing wrong with them. The second thing is that you either under microwave them or over microwave them. So I leaned towards over microwaving them because I'd rather have them too warm than still frozen in the middle. Well, when you get them too hot then the cream cheese is like lava and it squirts out the other end. Grody. Lastly, they're very doughy, like a pretzel. Like an under-done pretzel. You get four in the box, there's two in the freezer for the next time I get drunk and forget how horrible these are.

That night I worked again and it was a very uneventful evening. Except for one particular call. I believe it was the same guy from two nights ago who called and said he had the AIDS. This time he stuttered a lot and it was very hard to understand him. I had to make him repeat himself a couple times. Finally he said, "I was raped the other night." Oh. I transferred him to a nurse. Again, the less I know, the better.

So this morning Adam took Emily to her last full day of First Grade. After that we got some groceries and came home and ate breakfast. I retired to the bedroom to get a little blogging done and now I'm drinking a refreshing beverage.

Looks like water, right? Actually it's invisible cherry Kool-Aid. Now I can trick all my friends after school! Anyway, it actually tastes just like cherry Kool-Aid, not like those other gimmicky Kool-Aids that say they are a certain flavor but just taste like fruity butt.

This afternoon we're going to Emily's school for an awards program. Apparently Emily is getting some sort of award. Very cool, I think. Tomorrow is the last day of First Grade!! She goes for a whole hour then she's done. I honestly can't believe she's going into Second Grade. Crap!

Where have I been??

The same could be asked of you! Where are you? Oh yeah, I guess I actually need to start getting my blog OUT THERE in the world so people can read it. It would probably be helpful to post more regularly than every six months. OK, more posts and more "advertising", I promise.

So what's been going on with me? Well, not a whole lot. Still working, still being a mom. We did move about a month ago. The house we were renting was foreclosed, (despite the rediculous denial by the landlord) so we've found ourselves in a 1400 square foot apartment on the other side of the river. We're now Iowans again. We actually really love living in the apartment. Our original plan was to only live here for a year then buy a house but Adam and I are contemplating living here a few years, get some decent money saved, then buy a house. Our apartment has plenty of room, a cozy fireplace, two decks, one big one off the living room and one in our bedroom, and the pool is right outside our building. What more could a girl want, right? OK, a maid would be nice but I'm not sure I want a stranger touching my dirty underwear. Actually I'm quite certain I don't want a stranger touching my dirty underwear, thank you very much!

Another lovely tidbit of information about what's been going on is that my car got broken into last weekend. Adam and I went to a bar in town for some 8th wedding anniversary karaoke and my really great buzz was killed as I stood under the awning of the bar, waiting for Adam to bring the car to me in the pouring rain. He was only gone a few seconds when he ran back towards me saying, "Remember that new stereo I got you for xmas??" The guy next to me looked at me like he wasn't sure if I was one of those girls that was about to have a mental break-down. Like he might have to duck and cover at a second's notice. I said, "Are you fucking kidding me right now???" "Nope, ripped out the whole dash." They also ripped out my dome light, however they were nice enough to leave the dash and light in the backseat. Anyway, we called the cops, they took the report over the phone, an evidence detective came out and took pictures and we called our insurance company. Because of our $500 deductible we popped the dash and light back in ourselves and we'll replace the radio with a cheaper model whenever we have the extra cash. I can tell you though, I loathe my longer commute to work without a radio. Ugh, it really sucks.

As far as future plans, our little dancing queen, Emily, has her big dance recital tomorrow morning. The theme for this year's recital is "At The Movies" and all of the songs the kids are dancing to are from kid's movies. All of them are easily recognized, too, except of course both of the songs Emily is dancing to. Their ballet dance is to Carnival of the Animals which, from what I can find out, is mostly known from Peter and the Wolf ballet performances. Apparently it was also in Fantasia 2000. It is a pretty recognized song, though if you have a chance to hear it. Her tap dance is to a song called Jump N' Move. It's from Happy Feet. It's a Jamaican-style song. Mostly they say "Jump N' Move N' Jump N' Move N' Jump N' Move N' STOP!" however there are other lyrics. Lyrics we never really paid attention to during the last several months of studio practice...however...a few weeks ago Emily was given a copy of the song to take home for practice. That's when Adam caught a few words that perked up his ears. Words like, "horny" and "LSD". It took a few minutes of research for me to find the lyrics to this lovely kid's song and when I did Adam and I were a bit surprised to find out the song is about Ronald and Nancy Reagan and Nancy being horny and various drug references. We've decided not to rock the boat and not say anything. I'm quite certain the instructors never paid attention to the lyrics and who would think to listen for sex and drug references in a song that appears in a kid's movie? So, it's our little secret.

So what's been going on with all of you? How's your summer? Any big plans or are you just going to sit at home like us because the thought of paying $4 a gallon for gas to go anywhere exciting makes you sick to your stomach?


"I'm not even supposed to BE here today!" Dante 'Clerks'