Not long ago a friend of mine was going to McDonald’s for lunch and asked me if I wanted anything. She told me that they sell large “sweet tea” for one dollar. So I said, sure, I’d like that, and I gave her a dollar ten (the extra ten for tax) and when she came back with my large cup of sweetened ice tea I was quite surprised exactly how yummy that was! Whenever I order sweet ice tea anywhere else it just is not as yummy. Even if I add tons of sugar, it just is not as yummy. I wish I knew exactly how they made it; I’d try to duplicate it at home! And I wish that they had it available in a sugar-substitute form so that it was zero calorie. I’m sure I could drink a lot of this stuff, but I hate to think of the weight I’ll gain if I do!

Well, ever since I worked for a Hotel Bathroom Supplies & Restaurant Supply Company myself back in 1972 and 1973 I have had an interest in where people can go to get those types of supplies at a wholesale price. The place that I worked at did not advertise that they would sell their products to walk-in customers, but people walked in just the same and bought things from the company.

I decided to try to look up the company I used to work for on the Internet, and I couldn’t find them online. I wonder if they’ve gone out of business! I did, however find the website of the PeachSuite Wholesale Hotel Supply & Restaurant Equipment Company and found myself spending quite a long time looking at the different flatware and stemware and thinking about how even after all of these years I am still using the same flatware that I bought back in 1972 from the company that I worked for. I’d say that was a good investment, wouldn’t you agree?

So Tim picked me up at the appointed hour and drove me to the club. When we first walked in the door, there were four greeters there, introducing themselves with a smile and a handshake. One person was selling tickets to a 50/50 raffle, and another was collecting business cards for a prize drawing that was going to be held a little later. At first I felt a little bit awkward, but it wasn’t long before I recognized a few people that I had met before and I went over and chatted with them for a little while.

The first time I tasted that flavor I thought I had died and gone to heaven! It was simply the best tasting frozen yogurt OR ice cream that I have ever tasted in my life. Every time that we found out that they had that flavor on special I would order it. It was NOT available as a regular flavor on a daily basis. That is probably a good thing because I probably would have eaten way too much of it! Sadly that frozen yogurt shoppe was only in business for a couple of years before it relocated to a different town. I sure miss that place!

I find this news very discouraging; I feel that women should earn the same amount of money if they are doing the same work as their male counterparts.

When I first entered the job market umpteen years ago, I found that the company that I worked for systematically paid the male employees more money than they paid the female employees – for the exact same job.  When I inquired why that was so, the reply was that “men had families to support and needed the money more than the females did.”

The logic behind that assumption was that the men that worked there were married, with children, and that the wives stayed home to take care of the children.  And the assumption continued that the women that worked there were young and single and only had to worry about supporting themselves.  So the company felt that they were paying their employees based on their employees needs, rather than on their level of production.

I have always felt that if I am producing at the same level as another person, I should be paid the same as that other person, regardless of marital/family status.  I ended up going to work for a large, unionized corporation, where the union contract prevented that type of wage gap discrimination.  For me, that was the best option for me to be treated more fairly.

The first time I noticed that type of arrangement was when I saw my mother-in-law was using a mailbox with a padlock on it as a drop box. She had a padlock on the box, and she explained that the office’s courier had a copy of the key so he could pick up and deliver correspondence independently of the US Postal service.

I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if home delivery of the mail was cut down to only a couple of days a week, or even eliminated completely in favor of people having to pick up their mail in a central location like cluster mailboxes at the intersections of their roads, or like commercial mailboxes in a post office or a general store, like in the old days when the post office was just delivering mail by pony express. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we would revert back to ponies, just that the mail delivery would end at the posts office and people would have to come get it from there.

One of the companies that employs people who have access to the Internet, and copy writing skills is the triangle direct company. This company assists businesses to market their businesses on the Internet, and one of the ways it does that is by hiring people who can write for them without even leaving their houses! Can you imagine being able to make your living by staying home and typing on the computer without even having to change out of your pajamas? Sounds great to me!

Being new to the industry meant I had a lot to learn but I was really thankful my old boss gave me a chance. When I started out I was just an administrative assistant and that was really helpful for me in getting my foot in the door – I got to be involved in EVERYTHING which made me feel more confident in my abilities all the way through by the end of my tenure at the event planning firm. I had to help with marketing and merchant services and even the air conditioning – I was the only one who knew which key went to which door and how to turn the alarm off when it was going crazy. I know my boss really appreciated the hours and work I put into everything but you know, at the end of the day I think there’s something to be said for paying your dues and moving on. I would have always been an assistant if I had stayed with that firm.