The "long" trial

Someone with my maturity level shouldn't be called to serve on a jury where the defendants' last name is "Weiner".
It started with jury selection (which lasted two and a half days, I might add).  For those of you who have never served on a jury before, there is a selection process where the two attorneys get to ask potential jurors questions to see if they would be good for the case, bad, etc.
"Do you know Mr Weiner?"
"Are you familiar with Mr Weiner or his business?"
"Do you have any financial dealings with Mr Weiner?"

Due to the fact that I was probably one of the 3 or 5 people that wasn't retirement age, I felt like I was the only one who found these lines of questioning difficult to sit through with a straight face.

The Weiner "jokes" continued throughout the trial.  The first day a state trooper was testifying.
Lawyer:  "At that time, did you speak to Mr Weiner Sr or Mr Weiner Jr?"  (Yes, there were two of them!)
Trooper: "At that time, I wasn't aware there was two Weiners. I spoke to the younger Weiner...."

Oh my!

It wasn't until the second day of the trial, when a piece of evidence was presented, that I realized the last name was actually spelled with a "t" at the end.  The "t" was obviously silent, which made it funnier to me.  Some of the lawyers (there was three of them) really stumbled over the last name and one kept trying to pronounce the silent "t", but she was always corrected.
"It's Weiner, not Weinert" one would say.

I had originally been called for jury duty in July but I deferred it to November because we had company every day in July.  They ended up calling me in December, and I was chosen for the jury to serve right before Christmas.  Uggggh.  The timing couldn't have been worse!  What was supposed to be a 2-3 day trial ended up being 7 full days, stretched out over the span of a month (due to holidays, illnesses, lawyers fighting, etc).  It was awful.  Deliberation at the end was over 5 hours long.  I lost all faith in the justice system. The defense played the sympathy card and most of the jury bought it.  It was 2 against 4, myself and another juror pointing out fact after fact after guilty fact.  Justice was not served.  Very disappointing.

But anyways, I am done with that for two years.  And, the next time I am summoned for jury duty and they ask me if I have served on a jury before, I can say "Yes, I served on a month long Weiner trial". Ha!

Drove to this beach for lunch one day

slid down this clay trail

to walk here

 

and collect driftwood here

Farewell My Friend

Confuscious  4/2000-1/2014

It's hard to believe.

Hard to say goodbye to

13 years, 9 months

8 moves in 4 different states

Countless road trips, vacations, camping trips, and backyard adventures

The brother to two Frenchie sisters, Mastiff mix foster, Boston rehab and foster, and almost one cat.

Sweet Confuscious has been with us almost as long as we have been married.  He has been with us through it all:

home remodeling

backyard remodeling

hellish jobs that brought us home in tears

the heat of Idaho

the cold of Wisconsin

the good times

the bad times

always with a "smile", lots of kisses, and plenty of snuggles

When he was a puppy, he used to snuggle across my neck and we would take a nap on the couch before work.  As he got bigger, he had to settle for snuggling in my lap.  I was his snuggle buddy and Skott was his playmate.

Fucie was always up for an adventure.  In fact, he would get SO excited on car rides that he would whine with excitement almost the ENTIRE time.  He LOVED the beach!  We will never forget the first time we let him off leash at the beach:

The only thing he loved more than the beach was sunbeams.

If there was any bit of light, he was in it:

As his health and mobility declined, this was his favorite spot.  He would go to the door and stand with his nose pressed into it until we noticed, opened the door for him, set up his blanket/pillow, and set him in the sunbeam.

When he lost control of his back end, Skott built him some wheels to allow him mobility.  No corner, door frame, door, or bare foot was safe from his wheels!  I think we will be finding blue paint scrapes until the end of time....

He eventually went completely deaf, almost blind, and unable to stand on his own.  His happy spirit persevered even then.  But when he no longer enjoyed time at the beach and spent most of his time sleeping, we knew his quality of life was slipping.

Eventually, his front legs gave out and we knew it was time to set our sweet boy free from the confines of his worn-out body

We will miss so many things about him.

I never want to forget all the funny, crazy things-

*his love of anything mint flavored

*his obsession with squashes and gourds

*his love of drinking water from the hose

*his countless toys (the elephant, the infamous monkey, the red devil, the giraffe, his minion, his sunbeam....) 

*the bets we had when giving him a new toy and what part we thought would be destroyed first

*his stupid ugly zebra dog bed that we got for $3 at dumb Walmart because we forgot his bed on a trip. He LOVED that thing and it lasted FOREVER.  I tried throwing it away several times and he would literally sit by the garbage and whine for it.

*his "scuttle butt" run

*snoring

*doing anything for cheese

*jumping in the bathtub for bath time (cuz he knew a treat would follow)

*playing "rah-cha-cha" with the towel after bath

*hide-and-seek when we came home from work

*his love of pillows and his uncanny ability to drool on the ones we actually slept on

*his love of being up high and watching everyone around him, yet he was terrified of heights and would freeze if taken across a footbridge 

*the way he always had to take a big mouth full of sand at the beach and then look up at you with a goofy grin as sand poured out of the corners of his mouth

*his love of people, especially little kids -as long as they didn't cry.  If kids cried, he would jump up and lick their mouths, as if trying to shut them up.  The harder he licked, the harder they cried...

*belly rubs

*his never-ending patience when rehabbing foster dogs

*and yes, even his obsessive licking.

I still find myself glancing over at the couch to check on him, find myself thinking about needing to go find him to see if he's stuck on something because I haven't seen him zoom by in awhile... missing him so much.  He was all love.  

Oh what a new year it has been!

Once again, I am SHOCKED at the way human beings treat other human beings, aka New Years Eve at a casino....
I was "fortunate" enough to deal to mostly "mean" drunks -the ones that cuss you out when you take their money, the ones that repeatedly tell you how awful and mean and horrible you are, the ones that slam the table, the ones that throw their cards at you and hit you with them, the ones that think you are their servant because you work in the service industry.  My latest "method" of coping is just to agree with people when they get mean.  For example: they will say "You are the worst dealer I have ever had!" and I say, "You're right, I am the worst dealer here.  In fact, I won that award last year as the worst dealer.", etc.  This usually enrages the player even more, but I can't help it.  I've actually had people tip me, then they lose a few hands and say things like "Give me that tip back" or "you're awful, I should have never tipped you, you don't deserve it".
Ahhhhhhhh, if working 12 hours on News Years Eve isn't motivation enough to make Botanical Sweets and Treats work, then I don't know what is.  My goal for 2014 is to learn as much as possible to make this business successful and thriving to the point that I can quit the hell-hole!

Among all the horrible customers, there is a gem or two,  -a gentle reminder from a higher power that there is good in mankind.  One such instance occurred towards the end of my shift on Thursday.  A gentleman sat down to my single deck game.  He was clearly a little intoxicated, but seemed to be having a good time.  I made small talk with him as I got his chips, and we joked a little back and forth for a few minutes.  He told me he left his teenage son at home and that he had come to the beach for a few days to see his wife.  He said she lived right out there, and he pointed in some random direction.  There are many houses along the casino property so I assumed he was referring to one of them.  He was fun to deal to and we chattered back and forth until another player sat down.  This other player is one of our "regulars" and I hadn't seen him for quite some time.  Nice guy.  All three of us started chatting and joking.  Somehow something was said about me being married and my regular customer commented on his first wife and how they divorced because she was an awful person that drove him into bankruptcy... and then the other guy shares with us that his wife had passed away and, with tears streaming down his face, said he would give anything to have her back.  My heart BROKE for this poor man.  He talked about their life, their decision to wait until they were older to have kids, their adventures, her battle with ovarian cancer, and her final wish to have her ashes returned to the ocean.  He said he comes to the beach at least once a year to visit her and how she always gives him the best, most beautiful sunsets ever.  (and it was!).

We are not allowed to touch the guests in any way, but I told him I wished I could give him a big old hug.  He asked me to do him a favor and he said "Please hug your husband every day and never take it for granted."
I was humbled and saddened beyond belief.  Thank you for sitting at my table, Pat.  I hope your heart continues to heal and that you find joy again.