Joy Cain Dunlap

Text from Joy: 'Working tonight?'
Me: Yeah :(
Joy: Don't worry I didn't want to hang out! I just think of you sometimes and wonder if I should picture you in uniform or not.

Evaluation

The other day we had our first staff meeting of the summer. We talked about random things like don't leave personal items laying around the store when you're not there and don't keep food in the walk-in freezer unless you're going to eat it that day, and other things like watching delivery times. My boss challenged drivers to just take one night and run to and from your car everywhere you go and see if that helps you fit in time for more runs. In my head I promised myself that I would never do that.

At this meeting we also had 1 on 1 evaluations from my boss. Mine was very encouraging. I got perfect scores on everything attitude-wise, like being on time (she said I was always early...I know how to make a good impression), having a good work ethic, etc. But then we got to the actual business evaluations...things that I didn't know existed. For example, my average phone time (time spent taking orders) is around 4 minutes. They want it to be around 2. Oops! And my average ticket price was around $14 I think...they want that to be a minimum of $17. I don't like that because I hate trying to convince people to buy things, because I know I don't like to spend money. I know that's stupid, but I didn't sign up to be a pizza sales lady...I just deliver!
When I told Grace Hooper about these things, she said "It's not like I didn't take your job seriously before, but hearing these things makes me take your job a little bit more seriously." I was like yeah, it's hard.
(It's not actually hard.)
But anyway, the way the eval works is you get a score for each different thing, and then you add up the score at the end to see if you get a raise. I GOT A RAISE!! Don't worry about the fact that it's only 35 cents and only while I'm on the road. So now my pay on the road = $3.85/hr. I couldn't be happier.

I took History of Economic Thought last semester and we spent some time reading Karl Marx. I can't tell you how often I think about what he says about man's estrangement; man are estranged in 4 different ways, one of which is from the product of their labor. Every time I'm hungry at headquarters I just get so frustrated that I have to pay for everything I that I can make myself there. And I get it...someone else is investing in and buying these materials in order to get a return for themselves. They're not interested in feeding their employees for free. I signed up to sell my labor, and that's all. But still, seeing all that food is just hard sometimes.

Quotable

There were a few fabulous things that Cosmo said today that deserve to be recorded.

[Cosmo helped me save time somehow...]
Me to Cosmo: I like the way you think!

Cosmo: (tapping his head) Well, it's all in my butt.

[Cosmo found a stray piece of bacon and turned to hide the fact that he was eating it because according to headquarters that's 'stealing'...]

Cosmo: It's like working for the gestapo here with all these cameras watching us all the time.

(True story: one time this guy Michael was wearing khaki pants instead of black pants - khaki pants used to be the uniform instead of black, and he's worked for a long time and just forgot - and someone from the main office called our store and said that Michael had to leave and change his pants. Because they saw from the camera!! Those cameras are apparently used used more often for our surveillance than our safety.)

This is a joke that Cosmo said he heard one time that was really stupid: There was this man that had a screw stuck in his bellybutton and went to seek help from this wise Indian doctor/healer, and the doctor/healer told him to face the East and say, "screw in, screw out, help me get my screw out" and then face north, west, and south and do the same thing each time and then unscrew the screw. So he did all that and unscrewed the screw in his bellybutton and his butt fell off.
After I heard it I thought you're right, that was stupid. I can't believe you told me that joke. That's not even a joke. It's just a weird story that's not even true or possible.

Also, today I was supposed to work from 10-6:30, but by 12:45 we had only had 2 deliveries, so my boss told me I could take a lunch break until we got busy again. So...shout out to Erica and Doug Oliver who graciously let me crash their Saturday family time and chill with her and her girls by the pool! I thought it would be like an hour, maybe 2 tops, but by 4:30 I still hadn't heard from my boss! So I called and she was like yeah, we've only had 2 more deliveries since you left. You don't have to come back in.
Obviously, today was fantastic. Except for I hope that Erica didn't get bored of me today and still wants to talk to me ever again in the future.

Panic Buttons and Door Openers

I can't tell you how many times being robbed/stuck up (like a stick up in some other tense) has come up at headquarters since I began working. People always talk about how when someone comes in stores with a gun, they always try to get everybody to the back (if they don't just get the money right away from the front, because we keep not much cash in our till). My coworkers have all decided that they would never let a robber with a gun take them to the back of the store, because then they would just die where no one could see them. Cosmo is especially indignant about this idea...he always says "if someone pulled a gun on me and told me to go to the back I'd say 'uh, no, i'm not gonna do that.'" He always says it in this really soft voice that's hilarious because you would never imagine anyone talking to a robber that way.
The reason this topic came up yesterday was because Cosmo told my boss and me this story about a restaurant owner in Nashville that got locked in his freezer and died. The electricity went out in his store, so he went and got some dry ice to put in the walk-in freezer to keep all his food from going bad. Somehow while he was in the walk-in, the door locked behind him (which is really weird because I don't even know if our walk-in locks period). So...if you know anything about dry ice, you know that it is the solid form of carbon dioxide, and as it changes states (like ice would melt into water) it just becomes the gas form. So this guy probably realized he was in trouble since he was locked in a basically airtight room with a bunch of carbon dioxide. Their walk-in had a panic button in it in case of an emergency, like a robbery or something. Maybe also for a situation like the one he found himself in. So he pushed the panic button, and the police came and searched the store and didn't find anything so they left, and he eventually died of asphyxiation.
My boss and I thought it was weird that they had a panic button in their freezer. Because we surely do not. There are buttons in the back of the store in my boss's office that look like panic buttons, but I found out yesterday that all they do is open the front door. Cosmo and I had both thought at least one of them was a panic button, and my boss was like how much would that suck if we were being robbed and one of us was in the back of the store pushing that button thinking that help was on the way. Because nothing would happen. And then it came back around to 'I would never let a robber take me to the back of the store because then they would just shoot me in private.'
Does anyone else that works at a restaurant like headquarters ever have these discussions with their coworkers? And the thing is, it wasn't just yesterday, or one other time before that...it has come up multiple times. Maybe we're just really morbid, or like to talk about how brave and how much smarter than robbers we are.
Let's just say that I hope no one tries to rob the store because one of my coworkers will think they are being smart to defy a robber and stand their ground by the cash register.

On Call?

I worked the morning shift today (morning shift = 10am - 1pm; I know that's more like early afternoon shift, but don't judge me. I work at a pizza place.). Our boss always does our schedule two weeks in advance so I went in the office to check out what my next week was going to look like.
Again, I work at a pizza place.
So you can imagine my confusion when I saw that I was scheduled as 'on call' for two days.
Really? On call?
First of all, we have never had a scheduling like that before.
Second of all, what am I? A doctor? No! I am a pizza delivery lady!
So Will Ferrell look alike and I decided that we would buy some scrubs and a face mask and if we get called to come in, we'll rush in in that uniform instead of our pizza delivery uniforms. (He came up with that idea...I laughed because I did think it was funny, but I don't think I would actually ever do that because it doesn't really make sense and it would mostly be awkward. But I humored him.)


Also, I was so hungry today that I temporarily forgot that I really am lactose intolerant, and scarfed down half of a medium veggie pizza (before you go thinking that I am a pig, it was only 4 small pieces of pizza). Now my stomach is pissed at me. And I remember why when I'm hungry at work I usually just get bread sticks. I just get so bored of bread sticks, and miss the days when I could eat all the cheese I wanted. Even if that was 7-8 years ago. I'm still not used to it.

Drunkard

Last night, this man came into the store that was stumbling drunk. We kind of laughed about him while we were making his pizza...he waited in the car. When he came in to pick it up when it was ready, I gave it to him, and smiled and was like have a great night! He just stood there looking at me, swaying on his feet to keep his balance, and turned to walk to the door after a few seconds, and then turned back around and stared at me again, and eventually said "Do I know you?" I said no right away, because even if he did know me somehow, I did not want to get into that with him in that state. It would have gotten too complicated and it was late. I was tired. But he still stood there and just kept looking at me; it got kind of weird, and then he turned and stumbled out the door mumbling "I must know who you're related to..."
He was driving himself. One of the guys I work with who's also a part-time cop had just left like a few minutes before, otherwise we could have done something about it. I guess maybe we could have called the cops or something, to let them know someone was leaving the store drunk or something, but I didn't think about it until it was too late.
I have thought about it a lot, and hope that he didn't cause anything awful. That everyone around him was safe. And I guess that he was safe, too.
It was weird though. And sort of funny because it was so ridiculous. I've never seen anyone that drunk in public. But to me it was mostly sad.

Lurking in the Shadows

So what I said about Cosmo last time, trying to say he was more normal than I had thought, I take it back. Not that he did anything totally crazy, but I just can't take him seriously! Last night we were standing around desperately waiting for someone to call in and order something, and my boss was like hey Cosmo have you ever showed Rachel your moonwalk? I looked over at her and we both tried to not laugh as Cosmo was like "Oh no, I haven't showed her!! Watch this..."
He just shuffled backwards. Even I could moonwalk better than that! (And if you're Aften Whitmore or Rachael Aucker, you can understand just how awful that is.) He said "I know, I look just like Michael Jackson. People tell me that all the time." Of course he was kidding, but that didn't make it any less ridiculous or funy to me.
THEN he started talking about how he used to be able to put both of his feet around the back of his head. Like from the front. He said when he was playing music, he got a date with a girl one time because of it. And then the next night his band made him do it on stage for $20. He was like 'I'd do anything for $20 and a date!' I was like that's crazy that you could do that! He looked at me and in all seriousness he said 'Well I'm a limber man!'
At that point I couldn't hold it together. I started laughing in his face (I felt kind of bad) and he was like 'No, really, I used to be able to put my palms flat on the ground!' (He's shorter than me I'm pretty sure, so that might explain part of it) He told me he didn't think he could do it anymore, but said he was going to try. So he bent right over in front of me and was trying so hard to put his palms on the ground. I was frantically looking around for one of my co-workers to notice what was happening, but no one was paying attention! So it was just me watching watching Cosmo trying to stretch his way to the ground. Eventually he stood back up and was like 'Well I can't do it anymore.' I never would have guessed.

On a completely different note, some apartments have a level lower than the ground floor you walk into from the parking lot, like you have to walk past the first few doors to a staircase taking you back under the building, and there are usually one or two apartments down there that are really private and covered. I always get a little nervous when I go to these apartments, just because literally no one can see the door and I feel like if something weird ever was to happen, no one would be around to help me. I had to go to one of these apartments last night after it was already dark. I had had to call the guy I was delivering to to let me in the gate to his apartment complex, so he was expecting me. When I realized it was a downstairs apartment I started praying as I walked down the stairs for God to keep me safe, and I turned the corner and the guy had his door open and was standing there waiting for me, with almost all the lights off in his apartment so that I didn't see him at first. When I did see him my heart stopped dead and I jumped so high I almost dropped the pizza. He kind of laughed and was like 'sorry.' When I gave him the receipt to sign, he walked in his apartment a little ways, turned on a light, signed it, and then turned it back off and came back outside. It was weird. Maybe he was trying to save electricity? I don't know. But I didn't appreciate it.

Also, it poured last night while I was delivering for a while. We're not technically supposed to wear any jackets or anything that we didn't get from headquarters, but I didn't care, I wore my rain jacket. There's also a puddle that resembles a river that forms right in front of our door every time in rains, and there's no way around it, so my shoes were like squishy wet. It was so miserable. But we got more business because of it. Because people didn't want to leave they're houses for food.
It's another rule in the pizza business that I'm learning: the inverse relationship between weather and business. Also, business is better when it's cold. Which makes sense because who craves a hot pizza in the dead heat of summertime?
Although there actually is one reliable summer crowd: people having pool parties. But I can't tell you how much of a love/hate relationship I have with these deliveries. The tips are usually better, but I have to walk further to find them around the pool, and by that time I'm dripping sweat in my pants and two shirts, and watching people splashing around in the pool is just miserable. The other day a mom invited me to jump in with them! It was nice of her but also really cruel. Because obviously I couldn't actually join them.

Anyway, I guess that's all.

Boring Thoughts and Stories

I'm not really sure if I should publicly address this issue or not, but I guess since I'm writing about it right now, I have obviously decided (against my better judgement) to share. If my better judgement had had much of a say, I would keep my mouth shut. But my worse judgement has taken charge and plus, this is pizza biz, and pizza biz goes on the blog.
They only gave me one shirt for my uniform. And I only have 1 pair of black pants. I work lots of days a week, and don't do laundry lot of days a week. You know what that means? Yeah, I think you know.

But, upon further consideration, I have decided that this is yet another perk of my job. I don't have to own a lot of clothes to carry out my duties. I never have to debate which shirt I should wear. Or which pants. It's no questions asked when I start getting into my work uniform. The only decision: which socks to wear.
This sounds trivial, but it's not! It's actually a sort of moral dilemma everyday. (You can call me melodramatic. It's ok. It fits.)  There are specific specifications (redundant) for the socks I am allowed to wear: they have to be white, and they must cover the ankle. Really? I mean obviously socks that completely cover the ankle are pretty hot. Like temperature hot. So if I had my choice, I would wear shorter socks, the kind that are 'invisible' when you're wearing tennis shoes, in 90 degree summer weather. So sometimes I wear those instead.  Am I technically breaking the rules? Yes. Has anyone ever noticed? No. And then I have these socks that are mostly white with a colored ring around the top. So obviously these are even worse because they don't cover the ankle AND they're not all white. Have I worn them? Yes. Then there are those socks that I'm sure everyone has that are just a little big, and if I pull them up as far as they go, they cover some ankle, but not really.
Here's the deal: all bets are off when the only part of my work wardrobe that I have to choose are a. as trivial as socks and b. items of clothing that I go through so quickly. Because I wear them so often, I always run out of work approved socks first because those are the ones I wear first. And that's one thing I won't wear dirty: socks. (Before you judge me, they're not the only items of clothing that I won't wear dirty.) So, as you can see, I regularly have to choose just how strictly to follow dress-code. Should I really do laundry that much more often to have clean work socks when I can just wear any other socks? Case and point: moral dilemma. (Because following rules I have already agreed to follow involves morality, blah blah blah.) Who ever thought just getting ready for work could prove to be so character revealing?

So the other day Cosmo and I were working the morning shift together, and I started feeling awful and like I was going to be sick. He was about to go on a delivery that went right by his house, and offered to stop by and bring back some Pepto Bismol for me, and I was like 'Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks!' I was texting my mom and filling her in on the situation, and she said 'Make sure he hasn't drank the pepto straight from the bottle! Some people do that if they live alone. Especially men. Just sayin.' I laughed and informed her that he has a wife, so he does not live alone, but thanked her for the advice all the same.
The point of that anecdote is this: I was maybe a little creeped out by Cosmo at first, but the more I get to know him, the more I like him. He just has a lot of weird life experiences that make him seem really out there. Well, he really is a little out there. But he is a very nice man, and way more normal than I first believed. He tells funny (if a little inappropriate) jokes and stories all the time, and has told me more than once that I am very pretty and have a great personality. That was sweet of him. I just want to be fair in the way I portray him. And also I wanted my mom's anal-retentive tendencies to be made known. Publicly.

In other news, beautiful Australian man isn't Australian...he's English. I asked him the other day. When I told him I had thought he was Australian he said 'no I've still got all my own teeth!!' and smiled. I was a little confused because I thought that the English were the ones with bad teeth. But I just told him 'way to go!!' and gave him a thumbs up.
He still called me love. I still loved it.

Also, here's a thought: someone should start a blog about community college. There are just hilarious things there. But this blog is already committed to a very specific topic. Maybe I should just make a blog about interesting people. That would be fun.
But seriously...I want to encourage/challenge someone to blog about community college.

Most Awkward Things

There are some situations that I have repeatedly found myself in that I just don't really know what to do with. So I've decided to make a list of them. They aren't in order of awkwardness, like 1=most awkward or anything like that, just in the order that I think of them.

1. When people's dogs slip out of their house and are barking at me the whole time we're doing the pizza/money exchange, and then their owner keeps trying to call them back after I've already said something like have a nice day, or you know just however we ended things. And then the dog will inevitably follow me to my car while the owner is trying to call them back to the house. It's especially little dogs. So after the owner realizes that the dog isn't going to listen/obey, they come walking or maybe even jogging after the dog to try to physically carry it back to their house. And I never know if I'm supposed to like stop walking to my car and just stand there so the owner can catch up to the dog, because obviously the dog is just following me, or whether to just keep walking and let the owner figure it out once I'm in my car. The most awkward part is the whole you've already said goodbye and then you're walking together still/they're following me. And also it'd be weird to address the situation directly by asking 'do you want me to stop walking so you can get your dog?' So I just never know how to act in that particular circumstance.
2. When I can't get the pizza/breadstick/sandwich boxes out of the hot bag at the door, and the customer tries to help me, and I just feel embarrassed that this is literally the main part of my job, to give them their pizza, and I am physically failing at it. It's the worst.
3. One time, I was handing over the receipt for this guy to sign, and literally at the moment the receipt was changing hands, a huge gust of wind blew the receipts away into the bushes in front of his house! And he ran after them and had to get down on his hands and knees and crawl around to get the stupid receipt, and I was just standing there at the door waiting for him to get them. Because it was kind of a one man job, and I didn't have anywhere to put the pizzas anyway to go help him except just hold them. We sort of laughed about it, but it was just also a little awkward.
4. This has happened a lot: I knock on the door or ring the doorbell or whatever, and I'm standing there waiting for the customer to open their door, and it gets to the point where I don't think they heard me. So I knock louder or ring again, and at that moment they open the door. And I just feel like I was too impatient.
5. This has happened less than the previous one, but still, it's happened more than once: I knock/ring and no one comes to the door, and I bang on the door as hard as I can, and still no one answers. So I look at the phone number on the receipt, call them, and they don't answer. I call headquarters and tell them while I'm walking around the house to look in they're backyard to see if they're there, and then headquarters calls them, and they answer then, and headquarters is like our delivery lady has been at your door for like 5 minutes trying to get your attention. Then the exchange is always weird after that. One time it was because a dad was giving his kids a bath. He came to the door and was like 'did the doorbell not work?' And I was like 'yeah, I'm positive I heard it ring, and I rang it like 5 different times, so I'm positive it's working.' I was thinking in my head, I called you multiple times, as well, and you didn't answer your phone. Do you think you're phone's not working? You'd think if someone ordered pizza, they would be ready for me to actually arrive at their house with the pizza. I wouldn't think that someone should be totally surprised when I show up.
I guess #5 isn't as much awkward as it is annoying.
6. When someone invites me inside to sign the receipt in the entryway to their house and I have to say 'no thanks, I'll just stay outside' or 'I'm not allowed to go in peoples' houses', or something along those lines. They are always like oh, ok. And I always feel a little rude.
7. When someone takes the receipt and goes far away inside their house and sometimes even shuts the door while they sign the receipt, leaving me standing on the porch. Why don't they just sign it in front of me? Are they embarrassed for me to see the tip (or lack thereof) that they're giving me? Because I'm going to see it anyway. Or do they really feel the need to sign it on the table? Because I'm pretty sure I've seen using the wall, the door, or the top of the pizza boxes I'm holding work just as well.
8. When I drink too much water throughout the night and get to the point where I'm desperate for a bathroom and can't stand/talk long without being kind of antsy, but I still have to take care of my delivery business like it's normal. It's painful, and I've noticed before that people kind of notice I'm in a weird rush and don't know why.
9. One time I rang the doorbell and the adult of the house was opening the door with a younger kid beside her and as they were opening the door, before he saw me, he excitedly yelled 'pizza man!!' And then he saw me, not a man, standing there and we all kind of paused for a minute, and then in the same voice as he had said I exclaimed, 'pizza lady!!' It was a weird moment for all of us.
10. When people are by their door, or even standing outside, and see me miss their house and have to a. make a U-turn in the middle of the road; b. turn around on another street; or c. pull into and then back out of another driveway very near them to get back to their house while they just are standing there waiting for me. I always feel like they get impatient with me or just think I'm an idiot. Which I guess are both very valid feelings in such a situation. But that doesn't make them any less uncomfortable for me.

You might be thinking this is kind of a lame list. But whatever. I just feel like there are mundane oddities to my job that happen regularly that don't make for exciting stories, and knocking them out in one post might be a little more entertaining. Because you get to imagine me going through these things and just being unsure/insecure in my ability to carry out my job, which I feel should be just extremely simple. But sometimes simple things quickly become complicated. (If anyone thought that pizza delivery would teach me nothing about life, this proves you were wrong.)

Scandal!!!

Will Ferrell look alike also works at Jet's Pizza!!! He confided in me the other day when he almost answered the phone by saying thanks for calling Jet's Pizza. Because I looked at him funny when he just stopped talking in the middle of his sentence on the phone.

Also, today I hit the mark over over 400 page views on this thing! (That's total, like since I started the blog. Not in one day. Haha...in my dreams!) Yay! Thanks to the regulars! And to everyone else, too!

The Office, Feta, Caesar's Palace, and Riding Pants

So it's been a while...longer than usual anyway. I'm feeling the pressure of giving you something good, but there are only short snippets of interesting pizza activity.

But I guess the first order of business is letting everyone know that I now officially consider my car my office. And that's what I'll be referring to it now as.
My office has a faint smell of pizza that is just part of it now. My seats have completely absorbed the odor and I expect they will be giving back for some time. So there will never be a shortage of pizza memories in my office. Except for that I don't notice it anymore, so maybe my immunity will minimize the effect of olfactory memories, or however you would phrase that. I don't know...I'm not a sensory scientist or anything like that. Just a pizza delivery lady. In case anyone was wondering or forgot.

Yesterday, I answered the phone at headquarters ready to take an order, and it was a black lady on the phone and she was asking me about some of our specialty pizzas, and especially liked a spinach and feta kind. She said hold on, I'm going to ask my husband if that sounds good to him, and then she yelled 'baby! what do you think about a spinach and feta pizza?' I heard him say spinach and who? So she repeated herself and he said 'what the hell is feta?' And I'm like laughing on the phone, and she said 'do you just want a philly cheese steak sandwich?' He said 'yes, that sounds great.' Haha so she talked to me again and was like ok, we'd like a spinach and feta pizza, and a philly cheese steak sandwich please.
When I took the delivery to their apartment, her husband answered the door and was wearing one of those shirts you can buy with your own pictures on it...it had two school pictures of what looked like his grandkids on it and it said happy birthday pappy or something like that.
I loved everything about that couple.

A few days ago I delivered to this duplex out off of Charlotte by Walmart, which is just the classiest area (that's sarcasm for people who don't live in Nashville). I pulled into the driveway and this man came right out of his side of the duplex to meet me, and was like 'Hey! Headquarters!!' (obviously he said headquarters' actual name, just to clear that up) I realized after talking to him for a minute that this was not even the guy I was delivering to, he just came out to greet me anyway. I realized he was either a. a little tipsy/drunk or b. just a little off. Or maybe a lot off. He asked me if I worked for Caesar's Palace as a delivery lady and I was like uh no, I just work here for headquarters. And he was like oh, I thought I'd seen you in those commercials. You kind of look like that sexy delivery lady, except I've never seen her sober or in the daytime. And I was like thanks?
I still have no idea what he's talking about. I even searched for commercials for Caesar's Palace when I got home that night, and came up with nothing. If anyone knows what this guy is talking about, let me know. I can post the video and take a vote on whether I look like this lady or not.

Today I made a delivery to the horsebarn at steeplechase to some cops. They had on tight riding pants that were still part of their cop uniforms (like navy blue with yellow stripes down the sides). I didn't notice them until I was leaving and thought it was a little strange. I wonder if they ever accidentally wore those pants out in public. Or like when they leave work from the horsebarn if they change into other pants and regular shoes instead of riding boots. If I was a cop, I think I would want the riding boots and riding pants option for my uniform.

Mohib

One guy that I work with that I have not talked about yet is Mohib. Mohib moved to the U.S. from Egypt. (Shout out to Emily Kuhn!! I told him you grew up in Cairo and he loved it, especially that you're parents were missionaries.) He said he moved here because the government there was corrupt, and everything was run by Muslims. At least I think that's what he said. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding him. Sometimes everyone has a hard time understanding him. But he's awesome. So sweet and full of love, and jokes around a lot.
Ever since he found out that I'm majoring in economics, he has been telling me I should get my MBA (I'm sorry if it's insulting to assume that some people don't know what this means, but just to be safe I'm going to spell it out...MBA = master of business administration). Every time I see him, he says it again: 'You should get your MBA. It would be good for you to help you get a good job.'
The other day we had this same conversation, and he told me that the best jobs are in Dubai, and that after I get my MBA, I should move there, even just for a year, because the cost of living is low and wages are high, blah blah blah. He also added that in order to be happy, I should find a good husband.
I told him that I would really like to do that. Find a good husband, I mean. And I tried to not say too much about not wanting to move to Dubai...I didn't want to hurt his feelings and tell him that that did not sound appealing at all. But honestly, I really can't rule anything out as far as my future goes. If you would have asked me a month ago, or maybe two months ago, what I would be doing this summer, I really think that delivering pizzas would literally have been close to the last thing on my list. And we all know that happened.
Anyway, Mo is a quite a character. Everyone jokes about him needing to go to driver's ed because every time he parks his car, it's just basically diagonal in parking spots. But it's endearing. I really like him, and he looks out for me, always making sure I know what's going on in the store and giving me advice. And as you can see, he never limits the advice to just within the pizza biz realm...he is not afraid to include suggestions for my future happiness, such as needing to find a good man. So thanks for that, Mo.

On a completely different but fantastic note, I want to give another shout out to my friends Sparrow and Chef for spotting Cosmo on a delivery tonight! When they told me, I about fell on the ground with laughter, and pride and joy, because I can't help but feeling as if I have given a special gift to those who know his story and get to see him in action.

So a few things that have now become routine:
Every time someone leaves headquarters on a run (aka delivery), someone tells them to be safe. Whoever sees them going, usually. Whenever I'm leaving I always say: 'see you soon!' (to no one in particular) And someone always replies, 'ok, be safe!' But I really secretly love it more when it's just me and my boss and she says, 'give em hell!' I think I love it so much because I've never heard her say it to anyone else, and it's just better than the usual, mundane 'be safe'. Which, don't get me wrong, that's great too! Who wouldn't want someone wishing for your safety? Cosmo threw me a curve ball the other day though...he said 'Godspeed, youngling!' And that just takes the cake.
Actually, that's really the only new routine. I'm really sorry if anyone feels as if I led them on to believe there were more great things in this category.

One more thing that I feel is an important addition to my public sentiment records: today a mentally challenged girl (is that a politically correct term? if anyone is offended, comment about it, and i will change it to something better asap) showed the same excitement about seeing me as the little girl with her grandma displayed; her face lit up with sheer joy when she saw me, and she just waved so hard to get my attention. Of course, I waved back and smiled. I'm well aware of the fact that I'm changing the world just one pizza delivery lady admirer at a time.

Also, one very last thing: tonight, I got the pleasure of delivering to a beautiful Australian man. He called me love and everything. I just stumbled with my words the whole time. I felt like such an oaf walking away from his apartment. But still, I thoroughly enjoyed it.