City of Brotherly Love

Today did not start well. First of all, I overslept and never did get to yoga. My cookie tin's been empty for days now, but it's been too hot to fill it. It finally dropped back to the 60s this morning (where it belongs at this time of year), so I thought I'd make Oatmeal-Coconut Cookies. I tried to toast the oats and coconut, but the coconut burned. They ended up being Oatmeal Cookies. I didn't even get a chance to put them away before I had to race to work.

Work was busier than yesterday, but still not overwhelming. The front desk ran out of money when I tried to get my paycheck cashed, but I overreacted and got one of the managers upset. I didn't mean to do that! It's my impatience acting up again. I did get it cashed, and she seemed ok later, but I still wish I'd kept my big mouth shut.

There were some annoying customers, too. While we stopped selling the stickers for the free pots and pans last week, customers can redeem them until the 15th. While I like the idea of giving out pots and pans, I think the way they went about it was all wrong. The stickers were hard to keep track of, a pain to distribute (we had to give them out from rolls in our registers and count every single one), and annoying to return. People put them all on the same card when they're buying multiple pans, or they get upset when they can't get the stickers back when they have too many for the pan they want.

The next time they want to do a promotion like this, they have to think of a better way to keep track of collecting money for it. Maybe they should use the store sales cards, like for the turkeys and hams around holiday times.

Thankfully, my relief was right on time. I was doing my weekly grocery shopping when I got a call on my cell phone from my sister Rose. She'd called me yesterday, and I called her back first thing this morning. Our 17-year-old brother Keefe was visiting her this weekend. Did I want to show him my place and have a chat with him? Sure! I was almost done, anyway. (Ironically, Rose called me as I was looking for a birthday card for her. Her birthday was Wednesday.)

I finished my shopping quickly and hurried home. Called Rose right when I got in, and she and Keefe appeared 20 minutes later. Keefe and I had a nice, long chat, mostly about our parents and my apartment and how close he is to our sister Anny and her kids and how much Mom and Dad are driving him nuts, especially Dad. He said he and Dad had a fight the other day. He was supposed to have worked on my stepfather's fishing boat this week, but Dad left before he got out of school for spring break, and he really needs the money.

Rose and Craig picked him up about an hour later, just long enough for us to chat and listen to one of my Led Zeppelin records. (Keefe's a huge Led Zeppelin fan.) Apparently, they're going to order Indian food for dinner. (I don't know from where.) Keefe gave me a bag of gifts from Mom on my way out. She gave me a small bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans (I love those), a container of chocolate-covered sunflower seeds (I love sunflower seeds, too), a huge Godiva chocolate bar, and a dress, a nightgown, a pair of shoes, and a pair of socks for my American Girls dolls. (The Michael's where she works sells the Springfield Collection line of 18-inch dolls and clothes.)

And I got a really good schedule next week, speaking of my birthday. Nothing later than 5, no really long hours (nothing more than six hours), Monday and my birthday on Wednesday off.