Gone Too Soon

Just like the month of November, my seasonal job ends tonight.  It was a bittersweet time with goodbyes and also a certain amount of relief because this has been coming for weeks now.  The not-knowing who would be next has gotten really old.  We got to leave early and a couple of us went out together to get something to eat for supper on the way home. 
There's still going to a Christmas bonus that will go out next week and we'll reconvene for a banquet on the 16th of December.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas and, maybe tomorrow, I'll start working on getting my house decorated for the holidays.

Higher Consumer Prices

When I went to the grocery store on Saturday, Nov 13th, I was surprised to find that my food cost has gone up significantly.  I don't know if it will be news to you or not, but it was certainly an eye-opener to me.  So, I sat down with some saved receipts and a calculator and here's what I found:

Purina Indoor Cat Formula cat food (3.5 lb bag)  $4.99 now, was $3.49 in September
Granulated Cane Sugar (5 lb bag)  $3.19, was $2.54 in Sept.
Sunchips brand multi-grain chips* $3.79, was $3.49
Mrs. Smith's frozen pie* $4.99, was $3.98
Baked Ruffles brand chips $3.99, was $3.38
Tombstone brand frozen pizza* $4.49, was $3.58
Crest Total Care brand toothpaste $4.19, was $3.73
Spaghetti sauce (store brand) $1.79, was $1.59
(*) didn't actually buy, but made note of the price.

While some prices only went up by twenty cents or so, others jumped over a dollar making my total bill about $5 more than it was a couple of months ago.  By my estimate, this increase is 10-11%.

When citizens in the US are going without pay raises or cost of living adjustments, having their health insurance rates increase by as much as 12% this month, lay-offs still happening, gasoline prices increasing, etc... having to shell out even more to buy food leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Funny Words

I was reading some news articles this morning and came upon a phrase in an article about a recent copyright infringement that made me laugh. 
Here it is: "I have to say my flabber has never been so gasted." by blogger Sally

The word, of course, is Flabbergast and I had to find out more about it.

It turns up first in print in 1772, in an article on new words in the Annual Register.  Presumably some unsung genius had put together flabber and aghast to make one word...  The source of the first part is obscure.  It might be linked to flabby, suggesting that somebody is so astonished that they shake like a jelly.  It can’t be connected with flapper, in the sense of a person who fusses or panics, as some have suggested, as that sense only emerged at the end of the nineteenth century.  But flabbergasted could have been an existing dialect word, as one early nineteenth-century writer claimed to have found it in Suffolk dialect and another — in the form flabrigast — in Perthshire.  Further than this, nobody can go with any certainty.
*excerpted from World Wide Words.org, Michael Quinion

Flabbergastation
Flab`ber*gas*ta"tion\, n. The state of being flabbergasted.

Flabbergast

–verb (used with object) to overcome with surprise and bewilderment; astound; amaze.

Related Words: dumbfounded, dumfounded, stupefied, thunderstruck

 

Come to think of it, earlier this week I was flabbergasted by something that happened to me at work involving a co-worker.  The story goes that when I began working a seasonal job six weeks ago, I struck up a friendship with someone that I am working with.  We sat at work stations next to one another and had a lot of similar interests to chat about about each night.  Let me also say that this job is at a company that is dominated by female employees.  In my department of 60-70 workers, there are only six men -- at most.

 

I thought of this as a friendship and listened to lots of pet stories and similar tales of being laid off from a career job in the recent past.  There never seemed to be a lack of topics that we couldn't discuss. Things seemed to be very cordial until just s few nights ago when I was called into my supervisor's office for a sit down visit.  Suddenly, this person [whom will remain anonymous] had gone and told our superiors that she was uncomfortable sitting next to me and that she wanted to be moved across the room to another workstation and that I was stalking her, of all things.  To anyone who knows me, this is not something that I would do.

 

With my jaw on the floor in what felt like a "deer in the headlights" moment, I told my side side of the story and vowed to have no further contact with this person.  There was to be no further disciplinary action necessary, but it was recommended that I cut off all ties.

 

Believe me, the message is received -- loud and clear.

 

Evidently, this co-worker has some personality disorder: bipolar, paranoia, I don't know what.

After the initial shock of being 'thrown under the bus' by this person, I have moved on and am more the wiser of the "crazies" that we come into contact with in our daily lives.  

 

Be warned!  That person sitting next to you could be a complete lunatic.