Bustin heads at Ghetto Bell

Last week my friend Nikki and I hosted pictionary at the home for wayward girls. Just for a little background information, there is a facility near where I work that houses girls who are troubled, in trouble, or are from troubling situations. Nikki is a wonderful volunteer at the home for wayward girls, and I try to help her out as much as possible. Pictionary went very well. Sure there were accusations of cheating, sore feelings over losing, and girls that were so cute and sweet that they broke your heart, but that is not the topic of this blog.

The topic of this blog is the dinner we had before hand. They do serve dinner at the event we hosted, but the food is always nasty.

Anyway, there is a Taco Bell near the home for wayward girls. This Taco Bell is like nothing I have ever seen before. It looks like a regular Taco Bell, but it has bullet proof glass everywhere like a gas station in Downtown Detroit. Because of such safety measures, we call it Ghetto Bell. It is kind of an adventure and a tradition to go there everytime we volunteer. Last week was the first time I felt nervous about being there.

The service is seldom award winning at the Ghetto Bell. Last week was no exception. When we got to the window, there was no one there to take our order. We waited a few minutes and then the guy who was making meat in the back put down the meat and came up to take our orders. Because I was behind Nikki, I didn't hear both sides of the conversation, but Nikki's side was enough to crack me up. Someone started giving the meat guy a hard time for not working on the meat. He responded, "Can someone help me, y'all are just standing around." The person who was originally giving him a hard time said something else and then I heard Nikki ask about the manager. Turns out, the person giving the meat guy a hard time WAS the manager and she had been swearing at the meat guy. Nikki did not appreciate that and told the woman so. Nikki asked for the name of the district manager and then looked at the mouthy manager and said, "No, it was your MOUTH". Then I just heard Nikki repeating her order over the voice of this ticked off manager. At that point I was ready to leave, but Nikki was not. Nikki got her food in record time, mine took forever. I had trouble enjoying my tacos because I was busy worrying about the following:

• Was there piss, poop, spit, or worse in my food? You always hear about things like that happening at restaurants. I just hope it didn't happen in this one.
  
• Was the manager going to come out and kill us.
  
• Was the manager going to call her baby daddy to show up and kill us.

I know, it is wrong of me to fear these things just because I in a Taco Bell with bullet proof glass, but still, I don't think I will go back again. We did manage to escape with our lives, but we probably just barely dodged a bullet.

Oh, and there was one funny/inappropriate thing that happened at pictionary night. We were doing a raffle for some prizes and the girls were way too excited. It was about 105 degrees in the gym and even hotter than that where I was standing because all the girls were standing about 2 inches from me yelling the numbers they wanted me to pick. While I was waiting to hear how many prizes we had left, I tried to get the girls to back up, saying, "Man, you guys are making it so hot over here." One of the girls responded, "Why because there are too many black people?" I completely ignored her response because it didn't make any sense, but another girl did not. She responded, "Yeah, why do you think it smells like this." I don't really know what she meant, or the background behind why she said it, but it was hard not to giggle a little bit.

Freedom Festival

Last night was the freedom festival fireworks display in Detroit. Detroit and Windsor work together every year to put on a fireworks display on a day that is neither Canada's Independence Day nor USA's Independence Day. They have the event on a date somewhere in the middle (or so I have heard, I don't really know when Canada's Independence Day is...Or if they are independent. They might still be a British Colony for all I know of Canadian history).


I heard about it on the radio when I was on my way into work. People were already saving their places at 7 am to make sure they got a prime spot for the fireworks that evening. One mother was there with her family. She said the kids were having fun playing around all day. One guy was there with a ton of booze and a tent turning it into quite a party.

When I watched the fireworks on tv, for 5 minutes before I got bored of them, I thought about all the people who had been waiting for them all day. There is NO way I would wait around all day to save my spot for fireworks. There is no way I would even drive downtown to see the fireworks, especially because they were expecting about a million other people.

It got me wondering if there is anything that would get me to drive downtown and wait all day to see. I asked the hubby and he suggested a perfect scenario of a free concert featuring your 10 favorite bands and a free tailgate party during the wait. I guess I might wait all day for that. However, I think I am starting to turn into my dad. The thought of being in such a big crowd makes it seem like torture. My dad hates crowds and as a kid I used to get so mad when that was the reason we couldn't do something I thought would be fun.

By the way, I am not against going to see fireworks, I have travelled to downtown Flint and Grand Rapids to see fireworks for the 4th of July, but both of them you were able to just go to. You didn't have to save a place all day.

Not Funny

I am an adult. Not only am I an adult, I am in my 30s, the oldest sister, a wife and a mother and with that you would think maturity would be inevitable.

I guess I missed the day maturity was handed out. The following are things that I should not find hilarious, but unfortunately I do.

• I got a call from daycare telling me I need to take the baby to the doctor because his penis was swollen. On one hand, I was worried about my poor chazz’s privates, but on the other hand I couldn’t help but giggle when I called to make the doctor appointment.
  
  
• I also couldn’t help laughing when my coworker told me to make sure the doctor checked his testicles to make sure they weren’t twisted. I am sure it is very serious if they are twisted, but the teenager inside me thought it was hilarious.
  
  
• Seeing the site of little Chazzy chazz in agony when I picked him up from day care sobered me up for a little bit, but when he held my hand and walked into the doctor’s office with a diaper, but no pants on, again I had to snicker.
  
  
• Things got funnier when I got him home and he diarrhea-ed in the bathtub.
  
  
• They were funniest of all when I followed doctor’s orders and took the boy outside, naked, for 5 minutes so he could get some sun in the area where the sun doesn’t normally shine. I kept picking him up and aiming his crotch at the sun. Anything to help my baby boy. The doctor did advise that I had to be careful not to leave him in the sun so long that he got sunburn on his privates. For the record, Nathan thought I was making up the part where the doctor said we needed to take the baby outside naked. I only made up the part where he said we had to do it in the front yard.