Scaredy cat

Rachel, Patrick and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. In the land of the civilized, (and commercialization), Halloween decorations are out already. As we walked in, there was this broom with a witch's hat on top sitting in the middle of the floor. So Ray touched it as she walked past.

It moved. It also made noise.

I jumped, about five feet in the opposite direction.

Not only did Rachel and Patrick find it amusing, but so did all three Cracker Barrel host/employees who saw the whole thing. Awesome.

AT&T? AllTel? Who's to blame?

Thursday, I'm gonna say around 10 a.m., cell service went out. And I don't mean just my phone, or a dead zone or something - everyone's cell service was out. No calls. No texting. Nothing over the airwaves. Silence.

Normally, this would just be an inconvenience, but of course on this day there's breaking news and we need to get ahold of Tribal officials. But the Tribal buildings are closed. My coworker has half of the Tribe in her cell phone address book, but again, no service.

So we waited.

THEN, I got fed up and went over to AllTel to see what the deal was. "No comment," I got told. I was told to call back to talk to a manager. I did not have time. So, we don't know for sure, but we're fairly certain that AT&T must have been attempting to overlay the cell towers with their new "upgrades." Like I said, we don't know, because no one said anything. At all. Great customer service.

So once cell service resumed, it was still sketchy. Whenever I tried calling people, we would get connected but be unable to hear each other. That happened with about 3 or 4 different people. Then, when my mom tried to call me that evening, when I answered all I heard was this woman describing (in great, boring detail) about a tour of some really neat building she went on.

Fascinating.

Mom said on her end all she heard was this guy saying, "uh huh...yeah...yeah...uh huh." So I don't know if we both got one half of the same call or what, but it was weird.

So then, about 10 minutes later, one of my best friends tries to call. I answer. It's some guy, talking in an uber-creeper voice, and all I catch is him saying something to the effect of "I know I'm a pain in the ass."

I hung up. And laughed. (And when I tried to call her back, she didn't answer.)

My coworker said the same thing happened to her...she tried to call her daughter and some dude answered.

So much for a 'smooth transition.'

wow.

I was in the office by myself on Thursday, and of course, was swamped. I had about 18 things to finish before leaving on vacation, the phone kept ringing, and customers kept coming in. Oh, and cell service was out all afternoon and the Tribal offices were closed, so we couldn't even get ahold of anyone we needed to, either.

So sometime that morning, a guy calls in. He's looking for an obituary for his mom. Except he is kind of an angry fella, and all he tells he is that she died in 2002. When I tried to explain that all we have are hard copies, we don't have an online database, he got angry. When I said that if we research it ourselves and it takes very long, we have to charge $15/hour, he got rude. Eventually he hung up on me.

So about two hours later his brother called back. He apologized, saying that "My brother is kind of an angry person...he's an alcoholic..." all this stuff. He gave me some more specific info on the obituary, and I found it in about 5 minutes. He said he's send us an addressed, pre-paid postage envelope w/ a money order, and we could send him the copy of the obit. Fine, i said.

Then he goes back to explaining how troubled his brother is, and ended by saying, "the way things are going, it looks like I'm gonna be going to the rodeo by myself....so if you're not doing anything this weekend...?"

So I got asked to go to the Rosebud rodeo by a call-in customer because he didn't want to go with his alcoholic brother. Pity, I had prior plans.

fml.

Friday the 13th

This morning, the server wouldn't work, Photoshop and InDesign crashed multiple times, and I made about 15 phone calls that got me absolutely nowhere. Yet, the Rapid City Journal seems to have a source down here on the rez, because today they, yet again, had a story about things happening here on the Rosebud. Why. Don't. We. Know. This. Stuff?!?

I had completely forgotten that today is Friday the 13th until my cousin commented about it on Facebook. And I didn't think, "Oh, now I know why all that stuff went wrong at the office."

No, this morning was fairly mild compared to the last few weeks.

Instead I thought to myself, "Wow, that's weird."

Because it would just figure that Friday the 13th, supposedly bad luck, is one of the best days I've had in a while. The weather was nice. I was out of the office allllll day, helping with/taking photos of the County Fair, and being social.

It was a good day. So yeah, really, why wouldn't everyone else's bad luck day be my best day in a while? Makes sense. Oh well. I'm not complaining. I'll take a good day any way I can get it. Hope Friday falls on the 13th again soon!

What?

Netflix just created a 'row' entitled "Father-Son Dramas based on real life" supposedly "based on [my] preferences."

Really?

You must be smarter than the door

I've been house-sitting for the past 4 days (along with moving and working) for my friends. They get back tonight, so I did what I usually do when people are returning - swept the floors, washed dishes, emptied the trash, and stripped the bed to wash sheets.

Trouble is, the washer and dryer are in the bathroom. And somehow I locked myself out.

I didn't even know the door locked. So I tried to open it, unsuccessfully for about 20 minutes, until I had to go teach a little girl how to train her dog. Her mom found out about my "situation" and loaned me a wire hanger.

I got the door open. I feel dumb.

Hobos anon.

There are a lot of homeless people in Todd County, unfortunately. Many of them are in a perpetual state of *something* - drunk, high, etc. There is also a lot of hitchhiking through Indian Country. It's not at all uncommon for "street people" to come into our office and try to sell something.

This is what happened yesterday.

A man came in, and approached my coworker. He said he was a writer - poetry, short stories - and homeless (made me feel wonderful about the profession I chose) and looking for some money to get to where he's going. He was also very not quite right. After Marie told him he had no money, he kinda tried to stare her down. She doesn't stare down very well, so he asked if he could come talk to me (I'd been hiding in the corner).

He walks up to my desk.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you could take a picture of me and put it in your paper."

"Um...well why? I mean, what's the story?"

"Homeless person."

"Oh...ok...well...um, yeah...I'm sorry...I don't think we can do that."

Since I told him no, he then asked if he could borrow a dollar.

I told him that I didn't have any money either, being rather homeless myself at the moment, and I was sorry.

So, Mr. Hobo then tried to stare me down. When that didn't work, he asked if he could have a cup of coffee. I stuttered out something about how if he had a cup, then sure. So he asked Marie, who was just making a fresh pot. She said we were out and he'd have to wait a few minutes but then he could have some. He was starting to get a little bit angry and semi aggressive at this point, so he plopped down in a chair in the office. for about 5 seconds. Then he stomped outside, and said "I'll be back" over his shoulder as he left. He did not come back.

I saw him a little bit later at the post office, talking to people as they came out and got in their cars. Then he kept walking east. I truly wish him well.

Seriously unfortunate events

So, Friday was one of those days that was so bad in the office that all we could do was laugh. So we did. We laughed a lot. That's what I loved about working here.

Then I had a wonderful weekend. I got to see a dear, dear friend whom I hadn't seen in quite some time. I went to a good movie with some great friends (almost got kicked out of the theater). I got to play with my dog. I got to see kitties just opening their eyes. I got to go to my home church and tithe. I got to see some more dear friends I haven't seen in a long time. I got to eat Chinese with friends and my Momma. It was good.

Then I came back.

Monday and Tuesday were progressively worse than Friday, with Monday ending in my landlord informing me I had to be out of my house by the end of the week (not because of anything I did, because his daughter moved home and needed the house). The house I plan to move into will not be ready for about a month. So then Tuesday was ridiculous, with the coworkers and me becoming almost slaphappy as we feverishly tried to get everything done. We worked our butts off, then went home thinking, "hey, we worked hard. maybe things will be better."

Nope.

Wednesday. Everything was fine, until about 3 p.m. Suffice to say: drama.

Now, I have to move today. I'm moving from my pink trailer on the rez to an underground house. The common question I receive is, "What, are you a hobbit?"

Silver lining: Mom and Dad are coming today to help me move.