Help Wanted

I know that this blog was set up with the expressed purposed of posting über-cute pics of our wee lads and lasses but, every once in a while, you will notice that something will get posted breaking the mold of what one usually expects to find. It's always been a part of my nature to poke my head out of the box to have a peek at what’s outside the allegorical platonic cave, so if you want to stay along for the ride, you will occasionally need to take these pit stops with me. It's all part of what makes life interesting.

With that preparatory introduction, I will now share with you an amusing story of what happened to me on my father’s day when we went to get some fish to put in Elijah's new aquarium. Right now, my wife Nadine is reading this, shaking her head and saying aloud, "oh, no he isn't!" It is my sad duty to inform her that in fact; yes, I am.

Elijah and I have been busy the last few days turning his new aquarium into a homey habitat suitable for submarine specimens. The tank was a present from our dear friend Kevin, whom which we will think of and thank every time we gaze upon this beautiful addition to our dining room. To make a long story short, (since it is a sunny day and the kids don't tend to nap quite as long) yesterday was the day we finally had the tank ready for the fish.

I pulled the car into a parking space one row over from the pet shop and we all climbed out. As we were walking across the lane I noticed that there was a black pick up truck stopped there waiting for a space to become open. The moment we stepped behind the truck, the reverse lights came on and it started backing. "Whoa there", I said to the driver as any instinctual parent will do when they are walking with their six year old son and carrying their one year old daughter. A young woman with light blond hair in the passenger seat leaned out of her window and shouted, "We weren't going to hit you!! What the heck does it look like, we're hecking blind?!!!" Except the word heck had an extra "p" at the beginning and an extra "u" somewhere in the middle.

Somewhat shocked and dumbstruck by this young woman's remark, I just calmly said back to her, "Happy father's day." She didn't quite get that I was subtly asking her to kindly censor her vocabulary in the interest of little pitchers with big ears and she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Heck you, you hecking apple." (This is a day care blog, gosh darn it, and it's going to stay that way). Eloquence was not one of her finer points.

As Nadine and I reached the store we both looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief at the exchange which had just transpired; then carried on with our original mission of acquiring some fishy friends.

A couple of minutes later, a young woman that looked quite similar to the one I had encountered in the parking lot walked into the store. The man she was walking with had the same curly brown hair as the one who was driving the truck, also. Hmm, I thought, I wonder if those are our new best buddies? But didn’t really give it much more thought. Soon after, though, Elijah and I were scanning the tanks for critters that might fit our budget and, out of the corner of my ear, I swore I heard the girl say to the young man, "I don't think he recognizes us". The clues were starting fit into place.

We received assistance from a very helpful young woman who advised us on some fish breeds that were particularly hardy and not all that expensive; so we picked out three of the feistiest ones we could find and walked back to the cash registers with our fish bag. In a bizarre coincidence, the blond woman I saw earlier was standing behind our cashier on another register ringing up some personal items she herself was purchasing.
"Does she work here?" I inquired to the woman assisting us.
"Uh huh." She replied.
The young woman at the other register shifted her head to the side to listen in on our conversation and I could see that her face was beginning to turn bright red.
"Does her boyfriend drive a black pick up truck that's kind of beat up?" I continued.
"Yes, he does." she answered as her smile took on a more concerned expression.
"Could I get the information for your district manager and the associate’s name standing behind you?"
"Yes, of course."
I explained the story to our clerk, who happened to also be the assistant manager, and she very cooperatively gave all the information I needed. We packed up and left the store to go introduce our new pets to their new home.

I was in the process of fastening Amelia's seat belt when the couple walked out of the aquarium shop toward the parking lot. As they walked to their truck the young man shouted, "see you later" and gave me this strange backward peace sign with the pointer finger curiously unextended.

To his farewell remarks I simply replied, "Good luck" and waved.

This morning I had a nice conversation with the district manager to explain what had happened in the parking lot of one of his stores and that the guilty party was actually an off duty employee who was there getting pet supplies. I gave him my name and phone number and asked him to give me a call when the situation was addressed.

He gave me a call back in less than an hour to advise me the employee in question had been terminated. He apologized wholeheartedly and said that he hoped we would continue to do business with his company. I replied to him, "We will never buy fish from a store other than yours." He really was a great guy.

All day I keep thinking of a quote from the movie "Friday" where Chris Tucker asks Ice Cube, "Now, how the heck do you go and get fired on your day off?"