Pizza Phone Commandments

1. Thou shalt never use a speakerphone while ordering pizza. I can't hear you, and you'll just get pissed off. Save us both some trouble.

2. Thou shalt leave the room if your kids are screaming. I can't hear you, and you can't hear me. Bellowing into the phone at your kids is a stupid thing to do.

3. Thou shalt say thy phone number slowly and enunciate.
"Yeah. My number is six eight seven eigsevnien."
"Can you repeat that?"
"Six eiven eigsevnien."
"One more time please?"
*sigh* "six ... eight ... seven ... eighty ... sevien."
"Was that 687-8017."
"NO!!!!!!! Why can't you understand? It's not that hard! 6... 8...7... 8... 0... 7... 9...
"It's loud in the store, and if we can't understand your phone number, we'll just give you a generic phone number and write in your name. Usually wrong. You'll come to pick up your pizza, and we can't find it because you couldn't be bothered to slow down when you're talking.

4. When you come in to pick up your pizza, it could be under several names, usually not your last name. Last names are hard to spell, so it's usually your first name. Sometimes it's under something close, don't get pissed off at us. Spelling it doesn't help, as it is over the phone and we have other things to get to, like the next phone call or the customer that doesn't want to wait.

5. Thou shalt have patience. It's not the person at the front counter's fault if there's something wrong with your pizza. Don't yell at them please.

6. Be nice to the managers. It will get you more than being an asshole ever will. We're more willing to give the nice guy free stuff than the guy that sits and bitches at us. In fact, we'll do everything we can to not give the assholes frees stuff.

7. If there's a problem, let the right people know. Be nice about it. We understand being frustrated, but it's usually not just you that has a problem in one night.

8. Yes, we do have retards working for us. We do our best to not let it interfere with your pizza.

9. No, I'm not going to read off the entire menu to you. Go online if you have no clue what you want. The entire menu is up there, and you won't be wasting my time.

10. Know your address before you call in. Most annoying thing in the world is to ask a customer for their address, then to hear them bellow "hey, what's the address here?". Just get it written down before hand.

11. Telling me what you ordered won't help me find it faster. It will just make me hate you more. Telling me your name usually helps. If you gave us the right phone number, that helps a lot more. I can't look up your order by using what you ordered or your name. I can look it up from your phone number, and that's it.

12. Actually wait for your order to be repeated for you. Don't call in and say "I want a pepperoni pizza and I want it delivered to my house at 999 somewhere street. *click*". You do this, and all I do is move on to the next call. If you call back wondering where your pizza is, answer is, you didn't order a pizza, you screwed yourself over.

13. Staring at us from the counter won't make your pizza come faster, it just annoys us.

14. Thou shalt tip thy driver. Doesn't have to be much. It's usually only a 10% tip. They get paid below minimum wage when they're out on deliveries. The drivers have a list of houses they won't deliver to because the owners never tip them.

Yes, all of these have happened to me. At least twice in the last week alone. Be nice to your pizza guys.

A year in review....

This year has been a huge growing point in my life. A lot has happened. I really mean a lot.

First thing that happened, I left a relationship with a man I still love. It was the hardest thing to do, but it needed to happen. I've grown up so much since then. I used to think that everything was wrong with that relationship because of him, but looking back, both of us just kind of let it all go. I then spent the next several months making him miserable, then finally stopped after he broke up with his girlfriend. We're now good friends again, but I really don't know if I will ever date him again. Maybe it's better to just leave things in the past.

The next major event, I got engaged to a good friend of mine. I thought he was a really awesome guy. I even started going back to church and everything for him. After talking he decided that he just couldn't marry me. Why? Because he believed that the sole purpose of marriage was to have kids. I disagree completely. Kids are a part of marriage, but should not be the sole factor in who you marry.

I then figured out how much fun getting drunk could be.

I left a job that I despised. I wouldn't mind doing catering again, I just didn't get along with my bosses at all. Best day of my life was the last day at work.

I got a dog. He has been the biggest blessing in my life. I couldn't get over my recent failed relationships. Wookie taught me that I can ignore myself and take care of someone else. He also helped get me off of my butt and moving again, instead of wallowing in self pity all day. I love him, and wouldn't trade him for the world.

Moving out to the middle of nowhere was an adventure. And more of a lesson in learning to be happy with who I was. It was out here in the middle of nowhere that I realized that I was still sexy, and that what other people thought didn't matter. Now that I believe that I am a sexy woman, it shows. I've never had so much attention from guys before, and most of it is in a good way. Confidence is sexier than being a size 5 will ever be.

I started an awesome job. Pizza Hut may seem like a terrible place to be, but it's enjoyable. I'd rather be poor and happy with my job, then be rich and despise my job. I work with awesome people.

I moved out. For the last time. It's been... Well, it hasn't gone all that well.

Ignoring your gut is a bad thing. It left me out over $3000 because I ignored my gut and trusted someone too much.

I met an awesome guy. I'd love to date him, but he keeps saying he's too busy. I'm hoping one day he may just change his mind. One can always hope, right?

Last of all, just when you think life couldn't get any worse, it does. Then something comes along to make it all better. Wookie brought me back from the depths of depression. He gives me someone to come home to every night. He doesn't care how bad the day was or how late I am, he's always there wagging his tail, waiting for me to come home. Wookie taught me how to love again. Wookie taught me how to forgive again.

Anger and Love

How can two things be so different yet so attached? It's so easy to turn love into anger, yet so hard to accept anger and move on. Maybe because it's easier to hate someone then to accept the truth. Maybe it's because subconsciously we're trying to cover the wounds in an acid bath. Acid doesn't really heal wounds, it just keeps them open, never allowing them to heal fully.

It's ok to feel hurt and to feel betrayed, but wounds need to heal. Lashing wounds open over and over again hurts no one but yourself.

As painful as the healing process is, the sooner it happens, the easier it is for you to move on in life. Covering it up just increases the pain of the wound. When you rip off the band-aid to find the would festering below, you just have to start all over.

NaNoWriMo is my therapy this year. It's past time to just sit and write it all down. Let out all the anger, hurt, betrayal, and distrust in one month long session. It's beyond time to close this chapter and move onto the next chapter in my life.

Management training

The other day, I participated in management training at work. This wasn't the first time I've been involved in something like this. Scouting goes over the basic principles of leadership with almost everything that is done.

Back to the presentation. We had workbooks to go through, and the director had their book to read from. The leader sat up there, and read through her script. The problem being, there were no visual clues at to what we were supposed to be listening for. She had a few pages of reading for each page in our workbook. I spent most of the meeting lost, and was sad because I knew it could have been done so much better for very little effort.

I left the meeting knowing the same that I did when I went in. I was grateful for previous leaders that went over how to be an effective leader before hand. Leadership training can be such a hands on thing, it doesn't need to just be a lecture.

Artemisian Costuming Challenge

Some part of my insane brain decided that it would be a good idea to take on the Artemisian Costuming Challenge, or ACC for short. I'm in the middle of hitting my head on the wall and ignoring all the other things that I need to do.

My outfit for the ACC is a 14th century scandinavian dress.

image from revivalclothing.com

It looks something like this, except with different colors. I have the shift and the apron dress done. This week my goal is to weave the straps for the apron dress. I'm thinking of just doing a simple checkered white and green strap, but we'll see what happens.