Monday, December 3, 2007

Devil Cabs and driver candy

For about 3 days in a row, I woke up with terrible headaches. I'd beat them back with asprin (either generic alka-seltzer or ecotrins), eat enough to hold my pills (I've learned I have to eat at least 1.5 cups of food with some protein and/or fat), and take the mood stabilizers. Like some horrible ghoul, though, the headache would return. NOT FUN. I'd chew a Tylenol Gotab and soldier on - generally with increased Lithium side effects.

Thank God, when I woke up today, they were gone. I'm ovulating around now so I'm prone to more headaches as a rule. But no headache today, thank God.

I can tell what kind of day I'll have by the amount of driver candy I end up toting along. I give one to every driver we have - so one bag per trip. Am I getting a delivery? They get a bag too. Today, I brought a record total of 6 bags. One for our 4 AM ride to work, one for the sandwich guy, two for the wholesale delivery guys. That's a funny story.

I had a terrible headache most of yesterday so I took all my lithium in one, 900 mg dose last night (my doctor says it's OK on occasion). I didn't sleep well last night - I didn't fall asleep until well after 9. We had a 3 AM wakeup. As soon as I woke up, I took my pills.

So they hit me pretty hard. I could hardly walk straight and I'm sure the gossips would be talking about my "drug problem" if I hadn't made a point of telling them all about my illness and the medication. I stagger out to the dock when I hear the wholesale truck has arrived. I see two gentlemen, who happen to be black. They look like the driver and his assistant, so I chase after them a little and say, "Hey, this is for you!" They were very touched and appreciative.

Driver Candy. They are mail truck drivers. They don't work for my wholesaler, and I gave away "his" candy. Fortunately, he was a new driver and he didn't expect the candy and he didn't see me "treat" these complete strangers. I'm glad I did it, they obviously "needed" it. But I do feel a little sheepish.

I got EVERYTHING! Yay! Pineapple soda! Iced Lemon Cookies! CHIPS! Oh, I needed chips so desperately. Ron and I had a total of 7 hours at work, and I did it ALL. The snack machines look wonderful. I would love to get a quarterly review right now, they look that good. I have an enticing array of tempting treats to please just about anyone. Yay! I'm so thrilled I got it all done.

I have to add something really quick. My customer base is all adults, mostly 20-50. Postal Workers. We sell a lot of caffeinated sodas, salty snacks, sandwiches, etc. Oh, and the coffee machine. I sell things that aren't healthy. I have two kinds of peanuts and pork rinds but that's it (for the low-carbers) and if you're low-fat, I've got some animal cracker cookies. The low-fat chips don't sell. Everyone's an adult, they have the ability to make their own choices.

I do not think, however, that schools should sell any of the crap I do to children. It's one thing to provide Mountain Dew and Cheetos to an adult, but selling it to children is child abuse. They should have fresh, whole foods available. Not this processed crap that I can't even pronounce. I think it's prostitution, the payoffs between the soda companies and the schools. They are destroying the health of children to make a dollar. Whores.

That said, let's go back to work. So, I gave a bag of candy to the sandwhich delivery guy. When he called Ron to tell him he was coming, he grilled Ron about how many hours we planned to work today. That's just him. When I gave the driver the candy, he looked at me with a sardonic expression and said "Are you trying to send me to the dentist?" Let's contrast the complete stranger, the mail truck driver, who expressed such sincere gratitude. I wished I could take it back and give it to someone who'd appreciate it. I don't expect anything more than a "Thanks" but I didn't even get that. No wonder I'm irked.

Now, it's Walmart time. I'm all done with work by now. I need more lithium. I got really shaky on the way to Walmart. Hello, I need to get some no msg snacks. I got really wobbly. I'm pleased with how I handled it. Ron and I went to Mc Donalds and I got chicken nuggets with honey. No "sauce", just plain delicious honey. Tasty! It brought me up to a rational level again so off to get my pills.

The lady in front of me in line was obviously manic. But she was picking up her pills so let's hope she just ran out, going to take them and get back on track. I gave 2 bags of driver candy to the clerk. One for her, one for the pharmacist. They were really busy so I'm glad I did it. So was the clerk.

Then we came home, but Metrolift rode us around for an hour first. I was glad I'd brought an ice bottle (soda bottle filled with water and frozen) to keep my meat and salad cold. I like the fact that Ron fell asleep, and I offered the driver a hamburger (we got some to-go), in addition to HIS driver candy. No attitude or sniveling, just some aimless chatter.

I came home, took a nap, and did some laundry. Now I'm here. Tomorrow won't be difficult, just a couple of hours at work and then home. I have some delicious ham and steak just waiting to be cooked up.

Oh, and the devil cab? The other day the cab number was 666.

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