Christmas is Coming

So here we're on the eve of the holidays starting with it being the 17th and I have just dropped off my son Harrison with my buddy Lou so that my young man can spend time with his Mom this holiday season up in Montreal. Lou and his family are heading up to Montreal for Christmas. I'm spending the week here for the first time in 10 years to spend it with Jackie and her family. This will be the first one that I spend with Jackie and her family and I think we are about to embark on a new tradition. I smiled as I typed this!

The reason for the blog though is that this will be one of the first ever Christmases that Harrison won't be nearby for Christmas Day. It is definitely the first time since I lost my Mom back in July 2002 so it will be weird. Ever since that day, Christmas has been spent with my sister Chantal and the rest of the family up in Laval. It won't be like that this year. That saddens me! Cue the tears. LOL. Seriously I am misty-eyed.

Anyways back to dropping Harrison off. Just before leaving him I gave him a hug and told him I love him and that started getting me misty-eyed. I don't do that often enough. Hug and tell him I love him. Is it some misplaced male machismo that does not allow me to do that? Is it my hoping that my actions on a day to day basis absolve me from vocalising these thoughts? I don't know.

All I do know right now is that I will miss Harrison over the next 10 days or so. I will have fun with Jackie and her children but at the same time a very important piece of me will be missing.

Off Days

Do you ever notice that we have off days every once in a while? By this I mean that sometimes things just don't seem to work right. It is almost like the left foot doesn't know what the right foot is doing. A case in point is that I just woke up from a nap 10-15 minutes ago. I caught a cold at the start of the weekend and my energy level is non-existent. I was watching the Biography channel and fell asleep on my couch for a couple of hours. I woke up in a dire need of kleenex for my the one side of my nose that seems to be working properly and I gingerly extracted myself from the couch and nearly wiped out. It was like I took two steps with my left foot as opposed to the more normal left right combination that would have been more effective. LOL. I think I need a really hot shower to get me ungroggy.

What has become of civility?

So before I go off on my latest rant about something that I see as wrong about today's world I should perhaps preface this by saying that I'm not perfect. I know that is a bit surprising but I have come to grips with it as I rapidly middle age-dom. LOL. Is that a word? Sounds like one. Agedom! LOL.Doesn't look right though.

If people could sometimes read my thoughts; they would think that I am not too civil. I need to work on that I think.

Anyways the reason for the title of this blog is about an event I found about last night at "trivia night" at the Zone in Mauldin.

Here's the event. Jackie and I and my good friend Lou (most times) have been frequenting the Zone on Wednesdays for the last 3-4 months for their trivia night. They offer bar tabs for the top three places and the beer is cheap and the food isn't too bad. DJ Quiz (Chris) runs the trivia "show" and he tries pretty hard to make interesting for all of us. He takes over the music playing which is slanted to 80s stuff which I happen to like and he even takes requests. Where else can you get to hear within minutes of each other Garth Brooks, Buckcherry, Rick Springfield and Matt May? Pretty cool and eclectic.

Sadly last night one of the people that has attracted many of us to the Zone was fired. This lady was and is bubbly, smiley, pretty, fun to be around and a great barmaid/waitress. She would see us walk in and before we even had a chance to take our seats we would have our pitcher of Yuengling with 2 cold glasses and Lou's vodka cranberry at our booth. All of us felt good about this little gesture. It made us feel special and important that someone who serves hundreds of people a week knew exactly what we wanted. She just wasn't only a barmaid or waitress. She was our friend Casey!

So Jackie and I walked in last night at 7pm and Casey was there but not serving people. She was dressed just like the clientele. Casual like. Whenever we walk into the Zone, Jackie gives DJ Quiz the obligatory hug and I do the handshake thing. Jackie more often does the hug thing with Casey and I do my usual "hey". LOL.

At this moment we found out that Casey was fired because supposedly there were some shortages. I've seen Casey on her own and by herself handle a full bar of people ordering drinks and food own. Running from table to table, from stool to stool and giving us absolutely wonderful service. I really don't think that she was "stealing" from the Zone.

Regardless of this so called reason; she was fired by text message last night after showing up to work. Yes that's right text message. Uneffing real. Some gutless worthless uncouth a-hole fired a great person via a text message. Where is the civility in this action? How does such a person look at himself in a mirror? What an effing something or another. I really want to go to 4 letter word territory to describe this spineless amoeba but am refraining from doing so.

Most of last night I was frustrated beyond words. I've never heard of this happening. I'm sure that it does but I never thought this would happen in my little world. I'm sad. I'm discouraged. I'm disappointed. I am trying to think of what I can do to "protest" this. I am pretty much a black and white guy. I can almost see what my next step will be. A man, a woman, a human being must have some tenets, some beliefs, some line in the sand that one just can't cross without a repercussion. We shall see. I will miss the professionalism of Casey. I know that I won't be getting the same service from the supposed eye candy that are now working there.