She came with her family to get the shed my family is trying to get rid of (they are building a garage to sell their house...it's a weird market these days, and they need the shed gone). I never understood the clear benefits of children until this moment. Blia's sons were there working before their flight took off later in the day for Florida, her husband was there, her husband's brothers were there. They disassembled that shed with devotion to their matriarch. When some sat down to eat pork and sticky rice, others kept working. They kept talking up their pork to me and I kept declining until it came out that I was vegan and I felt so badly because then they wanted to know why and I was trying to be sensitive so I started off saying it isn't because I don't like meat because I love beef and pork but...and then I realized I was about to say "it's just really bad for you," to all of these people stuffing their faces with pork. So I started talking about discipline which really is one of my reasons but, wow, it was a close call.
They took the shed away but there was still all of these clay bricks underneath it. Blia stayed to pick those up and I went out to help her. Those bricks weigh a freaking TON. I worried about my back every time I lifted one. Blia kept complaining about her back so I told her to sit around and give me orders. She chuckled her cute chuckle and pondered my proposition but quickly started helping again. She's incredible. She worked non-stop for like 5 hours of labor.
The day after summerfest, which I described in my last post, we we had a staff lunch on the South Side. I did not remember this. I was severely hung over at the house doing GIS work and drinking glass after glass of water when Carl calls me 15 minutes before it is supposed to commence to remind me and to tell me he "really hopes I can make it." So I scraped myself out of my chair and drove to the South Side. I got their in time, perhaps even early, and no one was there! Of course I had left my cell phone at Carl's the night before so I couldn't call anyone. I went inside and got us a table. The waitress brought over seven glasses of water and two large baskets of tortilla chips. For fifteen minutes it was me and those glasses. Finally, a woman who looks ACTSesque walks in and we make eye contact but she didn't say anything so I just figured she wasn't an ACTS worker. After five minutes of wondering, she comes over and introduces herself as Mary from the North Side, and I must be Rachel. I told her I was so relieved she was here because I thought I had the wrong place or something and she said no, Carl just called to say he was going to be pretty late. At this point, he is a half hour late.
Finally, Carl and the ACTS posse I know walks in. Helaria and Francisco of the South Side come in (I love them too) and I start getting really excited because I love this staff! I start saying I brought my camera and Constance (she works with us in Central) freaks out and starts acting like a 13 year old drama queen. She keeps saying, "you should burn it" and stuff like that. Then there was drama because Mary ordered shrimp soup when really she had seen a shrimp cocktail that looked good. Helaria had told her it was shrimp cocktail earlier so I don't know what she was thinking when she ordered but she acted all pissed off and entitled. She wouldn't eat anything but the shrimp and she left all of the cilantro and onions on the side. Like, HELLO, everything is better with cilantro. She sulked the whole time. It was ridiculous. And Carl, who felt bad, told her she could chose the next place we meet and she said...PONDAROSA. For "soul food." And Carl begrudgingly okayed it, only to later mention that it wasn't local so it isn't definite (I just rewrote the ACTS policy book and buying local is an official policy so we will just have to see about Pondarosa). I hope I'm gone before that goes down.
Blia actually took Helaria's advice and ordered the shrimp cocktail which came out in a huge goblet with shrimp around it and a sort of gazpacho sauce in the middle with whole chunks of avocado. She ordered it hot because she only eats hot food and it wasn't hot enough for her so she added boat loads of chile peppers. She told us that in Laos, they eat hot food because it makes you eat more. Parents are worried that their kids won't eat enough so they make it spicy so you eat more to cool off you mouth. I thought that was interesting. I keep finding out new things from her like the other day when she said a part of town looked like the "refugee camp." What a life she's led.
Anyway, I did manage to get a good picture of us:
I still love the staff. Even if you can't take some of them out without them transforming into ridiculous divas.
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