May 16th, 2003 Last night was my first...I guess "real"...date with Greg. Dinner...at a restaurant. It was great. He's great. My salad was great. Before hand, I was kinda nervous, of course, but more in the good way than the bad way. I knew it was definitely a date (I mean, he asked me out), but we've been hanging out a lot at work lately and I was pretty sure we would have just as much fun at dinner as we do on our smoke breaks. We went to the Claim Jumper downtown. People always talk about Outback and that Bloomin Onion thing (which is the only good thing they have), but even though Claim Jumper doesn't have the Bloomin Onion, exactly, their appetizer combo platter thing was the best plate of food I've ever had. How awesome an idea is the Southwest Egg roll? "A really awesome idea" is the correct answer, thank you very much. God, an egg roll can be so much more than wet cabbage and carrots, you know? We had to wait for a little bit for our table, which actually turned out to be a good thing because I had so much fun watching the basketball game with him, and eating Southwest Egg Rolls and drinking HUGE beers (that I had to use two hands to pick up at first.) I have no idea why they have such ginormous mugs, but they do and they're funny. You feel like a tiny person holding a normal sized glass. So Greg moved here from Dallas—I hadn't known that before-and the NBA team from Dallas was playing a big game that we watched at the bar. Most guys suck at watching sports with a girl or they just hate it or something, but Greg's much better. He didn't get all annoyed when I'd ask a question and even laughed at my stupid little jokes. Dallas has this goofy looking white guy on their team that's really good-surprisingly-who was making baskets from everywhere and I just giggled every time his mop top flopped up and down the court. Dallas is a funny team. They have a guy named "Raja" (but you say it, more or less, like "Roger", but without really saying that last "R) and they have a Mexican guy. Crazy. Greg's cute when he's excited and cheering. When we got our table, I was bloated from the monster beers and the fried stuff, so I had to switch to Michelob Ultra, which I don't hate as much as everyone tells me I should. I had to (I'm glad Greg's a beer man, by the way. Liquor men kinda scare me...for obvious reasons.) I ordered the Caesar salad with shrimp (bbq shrimp!) and he got the "Widow Maker" burger. It has, like, everything on it. ("It's a burger that has everything on it except a hot dog.") That's what he said. It was so funny. Then he said he ordered it because he likes a burger with a name AND because he likes a burger whose name could also be a professional wrestler. I was almost peeing my pants. He paid, was sweet, opened the door, held my hand. He asked about my hair, then made fun of me in a really cute way when I went off for ten minutes about maybe growing it out one day. He lit my cigarette. He put his hand on my leg, and not in a weird way. He told me about himself, but wasn't self-centered. (He was married for three years. I'm much less freaked out by this than I thought I would be. He was honest about it and just real up front.) What can you do? It happens. I'd be stupid to get stuck on that detail, right? As long as he's not still married now...that would just be too much. We have a good connection, I think. And all this happened way before he even met me...I guess the only thing I'd wish is that he and his ex weren't so mad at one another. From the way he talked about it, it sounds like he left her because she was a control freak but I didn't ask many questions and he didn't dwell on it or anything. But it doesn't sound good. I wish they could still be friends (or, at least, friendly) even if they did decide to split...I don't know. It's none of my business. Moving on... The end of the night was very high school but I loved every second of it. I mean, I guess I know why people do it, but the cab of a truck is a hard place to make out. It really is. But it was great. He's more of lipper than a tonguer, so it was good we were on the same page there. I like good, long kisses...who doesn't?....but I don't need all the sloppiness to distract me. He kept grazing the top of boobs with the back of his hand as we kissed and I think he really liked it when I just took his hand and put it where he wanted to put it in the first place. He smiled this really cute smile and just kept on kissing me. We're going to see the new Matrix movie on Sunday.

May 3, 2003

Today I had my first speed bump at Home Plus. It was more than a speed bump, really. It was those spikes that you can only go over in drive. But I backed up. Tire damage, for sure. Jeez. I screwed up. This woman—this woman who, at first, was really nice, but totally turned into a bully—came in and wanted to return a TV/DVD combo, which was on sale when she bought...God, this sounds so stupid writing it all out...when she bought it, it was on sale and when she returned it, it wasn't, and I gave her back the money it cost now, not what it cost then. She totally pressured me in that snotty middle-aged woman way...head all cocked to the side, talking in a really sweet voice, but not really being sweet at all...ahh! And her hair was this terrible shade of reddish-orange or something...like the color of a tequila sunrise before you take a sip. Terrible. I can't believe I let her talk me into it. But I did. I should have..."known better", I guess, but didn't. Deep down, I knew it sounded wrong, but...whatever, so I gave her $188 dollars too much. Then, Cheryl FREAKED. (Forgot to write this yesterday: Chantel's name is not Chantel. It's Cheryl. Debbie finally pulled me aside and told me. Where did I come up with Chantel? No clue, But Chantel/Cheryl never said a thing about it, which I think is weird. I wonder how long that would have gone on...we were getting pretty close, too, mostly because she never shuts up about her divorce, but still. Anyway...we're not such good friends right now.)

She YELLED at me. She called me "retarded". Come on. I know she was just trying to do her job...supervising or whatever...but she was a real bitch to me. I was proud of myself, though, for not crying in front of her. She chewed me out and then went to Mr. Henrickson. She said she "had to", but I couldn't believe it had to go all the way to the top. Thankfully, he was much better at handling it than Cheryl was. He met me in the break room and was just so...cool about it all. He knew I didn't mean to do anything wrong. That was the first thing he said to me when he walked in. I was kinda teary by then and he walked in, took his jacket off and was just so relaxed about it. He gave me his handkerchief—how hot is it when a man these days has a nice white handkerchief....seriously—and told me not to be upset. He's a really good boss because he makes it seem like he's done every job in the store at some point and knows all crappy things that can go wrong. He kept saying not to worry and said my job was totally safe and said that anytime—ANYtime—there was any question, I could go straight to him. "The customer knowing that we say 'the customer is always right' is not always a good thing for you, the employee," he said, and I thought that was totally right. When they know that, they try to take advantage of things and they just start bullying, like this woman did to me today. I was so scared to say no to her because I was afraid she would ask to see Cheryl and just raise hell and embarrass me. So I caved. It's not gonna happen again. I'm gonna be so careful from on, and I hope Mr. H meant what he said because I am gonna go to him if I'm getting bullied again. He'll protect me. People always try to push me around. I hate it. I'm glad the boss man has my back. It's good to know.

After Mr. H left, I stayed in the break room—he said I could go ahead and take lunch AND he said he would talk to Cheryl about the "retard" thing. (I'm sure he didn't, but I like thinking that he chewed her out for that.) Then this guy named Greg from the shipping department came in when I was in there and we totally got along. He's really funny. I don't usually like beards, but he has a good one. Usually fat guys have beards...fat and old guys, but he's skinny and young and it looks pretty good. He went straight to the vending machine and before we even introduced ourselves, he asked out of nowhere, "Trinidad or Tobago?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but he just told me to say one: Trinidad or Tobago. I said Tobago, for some reason, and he bought an Almond Joy. He was asking me to choose "sweet" or "salty" for him, but without knowing what I was choosing. Just to pick one for him. It was funny. Almond Joy's suck, though. I'm glad I chose sweet for him, but if I were really picking, I would've gone with a Kit-Kat, but whatever. I'm really glad I met him. I told him the drama of the day and he was just so cool. He hates Cheryl—not just because of that, but more, he said, because she's always real bitchy with the delivery guys. Anyway, I'm glad other people don't like her. Especially cool people. That makes me feel like I'm on the right side. The cool side...I'm cool right? YES!!!

I hope I see Greg around a little more. It's such a big place! He smokes so maybe we could be smoking buddies. He tells stupid jokes that he knows are stupid, which makes them funny. And he's got a really good smile behind that beard. But the best part was that he wasn't, like, hitting on me or anything. We just talked while he ate his Almond Joy. It was so easy. If he was hitting on me, he's got a good method. It definitely wasn't obvious and he wasn't cheesy like most guys are. Maybe he was hitting on me...no, he wasn't. I'd know, I think...right?
Alright. Enough for tonight. My Lean Cuisine just dinged and the Bachelor starts in 15. I wanna get to bed early, too. I'm actually excited about work tomorrow. Who woulda thought???