My friend, Julianne, poured the little packet of mix into her cup and added water.
"Wow."
She pours half the glass into the sink, and adds more water.
"Does anyone want some of this?"
I say that I'll take some. She fills my glass up halfway, and I add water.
"Holy crap. That's still sweet."
Message on the wrapper: "Makes 2 quarts! ... Add 2 quarts (8 cups) of cold water, stir to dissolve."
I drove up to my workplace (a bowling alley. yay.) at 1030 in the morning, and saw no cars in the parking lot. I tried each door all around the building. All closed. I got slightly hopeful. Maybe for whatever reason that I didn't care for, the place was closed today, and I wouldn't have to deal with some of the very... annoying people that pass through there. I called the place from my cell phone, looking slightly dumb standing in an empty parking lot, and byt the sixth ring, was pretty sure the place was closed for the day. I excitedly started rushing back to the car. And then I hear, "Thank you for calling Commack Vet Lanes, Dina speaking, how may I help you?" "It's me. Marta." "Oh, hi, Marta!" Her voice was a little to excited consdering this was work we were talking about. "I have a party at 11, but all the doors are closed." "Hold on, I'll be right there once I finish in the back. I'll meet you at the front."
Turns out that I didn't even know that the place opens at 11. I love my job and care for it very much. Obviously.
Having woken up a little past 10, I'm pretty sure I'm back to my good old eastern time. I was actually planning on not changing out of my pajamas for the whole day, but I was pulled out to go birthday gift shopping. I love not shopping! Trudging pointlessly from store to store gets me into a mood that could be mistaken for PMS. But I've been trying to keep myself under control. I think I did a pretty good job today. And shopping was successful, at least for the gift gettee. Oh, and I got to utilize my driving skills for the first time in six weeks. Felt good.
Some things in life should be free. Really, some things are not to be paid for. Like the right to be able to pee in a bathroom and try on a pair of shoes. But no. In Poland, many times, people are forced to pay for these simple things. Converting the price to dollars, to use the bathroom prices have varied from 75 cents to a dollar. It may not seem like much, but when you really have to pee, every penny counts.
And you know those one-use socks that lie around every corner of a shoe store in the US? Some shoe stores in Poland offer one sock for 75 cents. So you try on a shoe for 75 cents and ask for another sock to try on the other shoe. "That will be another 1.50 zloty, or you can just use that sock on your other foot."
You even have to pay for those stupid plastic grocery bags at some stores. The price for one plastic bag is 50 cents, which is 50 cents more than you'd pay anywhere else. It's a good idea, it may force some people to reuse their bags. Or, you won't ever go back there ever again. As is the case with my family, who drives the extra mile to go to a store with free grocery bags because by the time we realize we forgot the bags at home, no one feels like going back to get them. Nice try, but this is totally impractical.
