Do you smell my kitties?

Yesterday I was completely depressed and didn't have the energy to blog.  Today I woke up at midnight (or would that be, "This morning I woke up at midnight?") with a horrific migraine, which found me drinking a Diet Mountain Dew and taking some OTC headache pills. 

I laid down again but didn't really rest.  I finally got up at 6.  I didn't do my God Time because I felt like stomped-on crap.  I did take a shower so I wouldn't scare civilians, or my customers. 

We went to the warehouse.  They were out of Sprite, and Peach Tea.  Ron was Not Happy.  I was wearing my ever popular padded bra and a moisture wicking t-shirt I bought for $6.  Not bad for a 2 XL. 

I got what I could for my snacks, some more coffee for the vending machine, etc.  I bought pastries and cookies and crackers.  Then we went to work, I got the carts, got it all in the building, and stocked it all. 

That took a while.  I filled up the coffee machine.  I had some complaints about the coffee machine. 

"It doesn't take my dollar".  Well, we had the repairman out, he couldn't fix it.  Use quarters. 
"I don't like the way it dispenses the coffee".  What do you want me to do about that?  Redesign the machine?  I told him we didn't want the machine anyway and to follow the directions (!!) posted on the front of the machine if he had trouble getting his coffee.  No, he said, and then he wanted to show me his special method, but I walked away.  Ugh.  I hate complainers. 

Now, I did have a "girl" come to me complaining the cold food machine had taken 50 cents.  I went over and found the money stuck in the coin mech.  She just wanted the bottle of water so I had her give me a quarter, then I gave her the water.  She thanked us for carrying Dasani brand and said she liked it much better anyway.  Good.  That was easy.  I don't mind things like that, at all.  It's my job to help people.  If I hadn't known about that I would have had a horrific coin jam come Monday. 

I serviced the coffee machine.  I just had to empty the waste bucket (ew) and add more grounds.  I "let" someone "catch" me filling it with Community Coffee.  It's a high quality local brand that has a very good reputation.  I use "Dark Roast", and of all the complaints I get about coffee, no one has said it was weak or tasted bad.  Good.  Even I like it and I pretty much hate coffee. 

I helped Ron fill the fridge.  After stocking snacks, I put the leftovers (not many) away.  We were running all day long. 

Finally, time to go home.  We were supposed to get rain. 

Now, all day I had been munching on very sweet things and drinking lots of very cold diet soda.  It seems to be one of the few things that work: a very cold diet soda, plus a sweet (not chocolate or peanut butter).  It helped.  The worst of the headache abated in time for me to stock 6 cases of water into our fridge. 

We waited outside for a while.  It was very bright and I worried the headache would come back.  It was oppressively humid, sticky, and heavy-feeling.  Ugh.  Very unpleasant but it keeps the cost of living down. 

We got home.  I took a short nap.  I had planned to get up early and do my God Time but I forgot to set the alarm.  I woke up about 20 minutes before pickup.  I just asked God, nicely, to please take care of everyone. 

Ron was in fine form today, complaining about God's timeline, just complaining in general.  I kept telling him "Not today.  I don't have the tolerance to hear it today.  I have a migraine, can you give me a break already?"  To his credit, he did cork it when asked.  He just kept forgetting (and I believe he did forget) and start up again. 

It makes me realize how much his negativity is part of "the usual" part of my day!  Agh!  Although if he went a whole day without "The Usual" I would get very suspicious. 

We went to the Starbucks near the pet store.  We got there after 4.  The dog rescue group was packing up a couple of adolescent pups and a grown pit bull.  I have to admit I avoided the pit bull. 

Ron wanted to get a harness for Baby Girl.  He feels bad that she's indoors now.  She's not "free".  Yeah, she's free of jerks who hate cats, free of dogs, free of cars that want to run her over, free of other cats wanting to fight, free of wild animals, etc. 

First, though, I got him another bag of cat food.  We aren't using it as fast since Gravy died but it's always good to have an extra on hand.  What if they have supply chain problems?  This is the only food Torbie eats.  Baby Girl and Biscuit would make it on canned food, but Torbie loves her Blue Wilderness Salmon.  They all do. 

So, I got that.  Then I went over to the dog harness section to see if I could find some harnesses for cats, or at least cat sized.  They range from about 14 inch chest to 18 inches (Torbie). 

While I was over there, an employee came over and stood too close to me.  I didn't think too much of that.  Another customer came by with a boisterous puppy.  It jumped all over my feet, smelling my legs, as I said "Do you smell my kitties?" in baby talk. 

"WWHAT??" The employee exclaimed, gaping at my chest.  "What did you say?" 

I got a good look at him and realized he had some Fetal Alcohol features.  "I said, 'Do you smell my cats?'". 

"That's not what you said!" he replied. 

"Kitties?" I responded.  He laughed. 

"I thought you said t*tties!" he replied.  He kept repeating the word, loudly, as I tried to edge away from him. 

I took out my phone and faked a text message.  "Oh, I have to go!" 

[sigh]  Had the boss heard the conversation, I'm sure he would have been fired.  When I left the store, though, he was telling the boss "Sometimes I tell people I don't work here" so I think he is doing a fine job of digging his own grave.  I'm sure he is fine, on his own, with animals.  FAS people tend to be very gentle and empathetic with animals. 

Not so good with people, though.  I ran and hid back in the cat department, nearly falling over the display of cat leashes.  I found one that will work for Baby Girl and Biscuit, and might work with Torbie.  It's hard to tell because she didn't want me to measure her and kept shifting. 

I paid for the cat food, harness, and leash, then went to Subway to get some dinner.  I forgot, though, the lithium doesn't like Subway.  I nearly got sick.  I finally got a frozen coffee drink from Starbucks.  I didn't know it had coffee but it was still good. 

If I have to drink coffee, and/or have a headache, a very cold coffee will do the trick.  I figured it couldn't hurt.  I'm tired enough I know I will sleep fine tonight, assuming I don't wake up with another headache. 

'Round about in here, it started raining, as forecast, for once.  It's raining right now, but not in a menacing "It's going to flood" way. 

We got home and Ron stripped down to eat his meatball sub.  It's a good thing, he made an awful mess of it, which is why I requested he strip. 

Dinner at my place!  Ha ha ha. 

Poor, patient, trusting, Biscuit came over to me, purring.  I took a minute getting the harness and leash on him.  He was OK with that.  Not so good when I took him out on the porch.  He freaked out and laid down, wouldn't get up, and cringed when a neighbor walked a dog down the sidewalk. 

Looks like he's becoming a good inside cat.  I brought him back in.  He cried and cried at me.  I took the gear off and he ran way, hiding for a while until I opened up a can of cat food. 

He and Baby Girl worked on sharing that while I cleaned the litterboxes.  I decided not to "try" Baby Girl tonight because it's raining.  I don't think she'd like that. 

It's OK, I left the tags on the gear, and kept the receipt.  If they all hate it, we can always return it. 

God knows they can always use more treats, or cat food!