Now I have a two day break from packing the antique shop -- because I have to help the parents move tomorrow. So we're packing. The people who bought the house decided that since they won't put on a new roof (they knocked 25,000 off the house to compinsate) they have to be out by 3 tomorrow. Nice people. Tomorrow will be frantic..but that will make the "goodby, see you at Christmases" much shorter. I hate goodbyes. I love my family -- I wish there was a way to see them more than two or three times a year. But then again, I wouldn't want to be one of those people who live with their parents until they're 30 years old either....I also wish they weren't going to be living in a tent trailer for the next two months until they can buy a house. It'll get cold out there by October. Anyway my main concern is getting back in one piece to waco on thursday....may not be able to blog until then...so if I don't update until then..see you soon. Pray for 'safety in travel' (Always Friar Tucker's sunday prayer) and give me a call on Wednesday or Thursday to keep me awake. See you soon!

So, 7 more hours shoveling out the antique shop. Now they've decided to replace the whole carpet..so we have to pack up everything. Every nicnack, every dish, ever dumb vase and lamp. Don't get me wrong..they're wonderful vases and lamps -- but not when you have to pack everyone of them in individual bubble wrap. At 4 I decided that I'd had enough and was going home. This evening I sang for the last time at the Fess Parker soiree. I sang three songs. Cheryl Ladd was there (I didn't tell her I was wearing her suit) and sang two...Marcy (Parker) of course was wonderful. She has the lowest voice I've ever heard on a woman. she knows some former broadway singer that is from texas and asked that I'd leave my information so she could send it to whoever her contact is. She told me that if I ever need anything, to give them a call. Cheryl Ladd said I was wonderful. It was fun -- and I sang "I enjoy being a girl" just for Bill, since it's his favorite...a good ending to my stay here. Only a few more days. now I'm going to bed. I don't know what they put in my daquiri -- but it was way too much for one glass...and I have to be at the store to pack at 10 tomorrow...Night!

So I went in at 9 this morning. Packed boxes for 6 hours straight...no lunch break (Lynde did order pizza). So tired. Packed somewhere around 40 boxes of dishes and glass and breakables. I've been trying all summer to avoid packing my folks house. Just desserts I suppose...:-)

Guess who was in the bar tonight? Cheryl Ladd. Of the original Charlie's Angels. Last starring in "annie get your gun" on broadway. I sang for her....not specifically for her, but she heard me nonetheless. It was kind of karioke night (with showtunes and jazz of course -- good old bill). A slightly inebriated gentleman came over and told me that I kicked Cheryl Ladd's .... posterior region....but he was drunk, and there's no accounting for taste. that's my third celebrity since my parent moved here. I'm still holding out for Johhny Depp.....

Today I spent 5 hours scraping wet drywall off of $20,000 worth of antiques. Turns out we have an alcoholic tenant in the apartment above us. At some point last night he came home soused, and the toilet didn't work. So he beat it until the bottom half of the reservoir broke off. He the proceeded to pass out, and the toilet drained for 6 hours. Lynde came into work at 10 and found water pooling all over our shop, the ceiling caved in, pictures falling off the walls. She called her husband (a fire chief) who called the sheriff. The two went upstairs where the still drunk tenant refused to answer the door, and when they broke in they found him on his hands and knees mopping at the mess with a towel. He says he jiggled the toilet and it fell off. right. So at 11 I came in and found Lynde alone, taking pictures of the wreckage. I then got the distinction of cataloging everything that got damaged. Clothes destroyed. Bottles broken when the ceiling fell. Pictures and frames soaked through. Furniture warped...and the most heartbreaking; a complete bedroom set from the 1920's, formerly in perfect condition, now has the veneer buckling off in sheets. Then, we discovered that the walls were soaked, and the shelves holding a $6,700 doctor's medical collection were coming away from the wall. We raced against time and gravity -- and managed to get the 200 piece collection off the wall before the shelves came down. it's still a mess. We worked for hours. The amazing thing was that we had the gates closed, and the locks in them, and still tourists kept coming into the courtyard. And stranger, even though we had all the interior lights off (there was water in all the fixtures), the ceiling was falling down in places, antiques in piles to keep them out of the water, and carpet torn up in places, people had the audacity to look surprised when we told them the shop was closed. Strange. I did get to use a chamber pot for the first time. Not for that. When we took down the fixtures, water came pouring out -- so I had to find somehting to catch it, luckily we had chamber pots handy. See--antiques do serve a purpose! Anyway. Tomorrow I go in at 9 instead of the usual 11....maybe it'll look better tomorrow when we can turn the lights on...or maybe not.

Just got off work. I've got to find a more creative way to begin a blog. Only 9 days more to work. The end is in sight, and I'm getting antsy. I don't care about doing a good job as much. When the lady sends back two bottles of water with two glasses of ice because it was supposed to be two bottles of SPARKLING water with LEMON and NO ICE. Its then that I'm tempted to bring back the sparkling water in a brandy snifter, but I refrain. Instead I bring back two bottles of sparkling water, two glasses of sparkling water WITH lemon and NO ICE. And an orange juice. And amazingly, this nearly full tray is all for one kid. He had the same thing last night -- over half of the glass content for the entire table. However, I digress. What I meant to say was that I don't much care anymore...and besides its August . The Witching hour for all service industries. Summer is almost over, people are bored and have nother better to do than entertain themselves by running waiters ragged. Not all of them. The french family are actually very nice. Especially when they apparently thought that they were in Spain, because they were speaking to our very-non-hispanic waitress in neither French nor English. Halfway through the order they apologised and translated for the rest of us. As we all felt very dumb. Well, not our bilingual bussing staff -- but I certainly did. I used to speak French fairly well. An now I'm hard pressed on how to say hello, goodbye, and how are you doing this evening. At one point I could have carried on an intelligent conversation about wine. Now, no. And so i didn't butcher the little french I did know...I just let them translate. Even the stuff that I understood. Well, obviously I'm very tired. Too tired to write a coherent blog on a single topic. So instead I will go to bed. Goodnight all!

So I had my first celebrity sighting at work. I was doing a wine order at another table, and turned to the two-top next to them and asked...can I get you anything.....? And there he was. The groom from "father of the bride." He IS as cute in real life as onscreen. Still holding out for Johhny Depp.

Adding to the book talley. I went into the bookstore attempting to buy only the complete illustrated guide of European costumes. It's in color -- the rest are in black and white. Hard to tell what costumes to put people in for opera scenes when you can't see the fabrics. However, I digress. I walked out with 5 books. Couldn't resist. I bought; The field guide to American Victorian Furniture, The encyclopedia of Antiques, The dictionary of Antiques, and When I am old I shall wear purple (for my mother who loves the poem). So there. My dad gave me the idiot look when I walked in with another stack having just packed two boxes of them. But there are only two things in the world that I buy without regret -- books and shoes. In that order. You can never have too many of either. Now I'll go back to being frugal again -- until the next book sale, or Nordstrom's half-yearly.

Explain to me why rich people don't tip. They have the money. They spend thousand of dollars to come to the ranch. What's so hard about leaving an extra couple of bucks to make our lives easier? And then, I sing 5 or 6 songs in the bar with Bill the accompanist, and they tell me how wonderful I am, and how much they're rooting for me, and good luck on my career....and they still don't leave anything. Don't they realise that if they REALLY wanted to help me out they could..I don't know...GIVE ME MONEY SO I CAN STUDY NEXT YEAR INSTEAD OF WORKING THREE JOBS??? Strange people. They act all astonished -- "why on earth are you HERE instead of out singing somewhere?" Well, one has to raise money to be able to afford to sing...its not really lucrative right off the bat. So, to all the rich people out there who refuse to put their money where their collective mouths are...If you mention the Alisal should you happen to see me at the Met, don't expect an autograph based on "you knew me when." So there. I'm done being bitter now.

Alright, so another fine day in the world of insanity. The insurance company declared my car totalled...looks like I'll be driving my mothers van back to texas. Well, it's the perfect "soccer-mom" car to match my "soccer-mom" purse. (thanks matt -- I actually found a bigger one and bought it...much easier to fit a book or two in there). And if I find an amazing antique that I absolutly must buy, I can actually haul it -- instead of trying desperatly to meet someone with a truck. And between Aaron and I, we can now fit approximatly the entire youth group and their various sundries into two vehicles (congrats on the new minivan -- we match!) So tomorrow I have to go kiss my car goodbye, and remove anything I have left in it. Poor thing! In memoriam.....