Life, Liberty and the Pursuit...I mean Theft of Printer Cartridges

Happy 4th of July week.

I thought I'd start off that way since my story involves some very American themes: Shoplifting (or getting something you haven't worked for), Walmart, and of course stupid people.

So I went to Walmart to get my Rx today. (Sidenote: I'm not really a fan of Walmart, but I'm not as adamantly against it as my sister. I just don't really like the place. I usually leave mad. This time, though, I left laughing.)

As I was walking in there was a guy trying to shoplift several - like 10 - printer cartridges. 2 Employees were trying to block his way. A third came running to stop him, and together they formed a human chain in front of the door - like in Red Rover. The thief wasn't running, but was denying stealing, even though you could see the stuff bulging out the back of his shirt. It was actually all kind of in slow motion - not much action at all. I guess they thought he was dangerous because they weren't grabbing at the stuff he had obviously shoved down the back of his shirt.

I went on in the store (b/c I didn't know how violent it was going to get), but the pharmacy was closed (awesome). So I walked back out to find like 5 cartridges on the ground and 3 employees walking back from the parking lot with several more. 2 of the crime stoppers were really pissed off women in headsets. I wouldn't cross them. I'm not sure what happened to our thief, but I'm confident they got all of their merchandise back.

Olympic Hopeful

So I was at the pool today and there was this lady there (probably about 35ish yrs old, not what I would call 'athletic') leisurely swimming laps. Now, that is funny in and of itself since one end of the pool has stairs all the way across. However, that was not the funniest thing that this woman did/said.

She was talking to her mom about wanting to learn how to do a flip turn. She said something like, "I've got the concept of the flip turn. I just can't seem to do it." Her mom of course encouragingly gave her the name of a friend or family member who could help. (I love how supportive her mom was of this venture.) Then she proceeded to practice her flip turns. I can attest, she indeed could not do it.

Now, I'm not against people learning new things. I'm all for it. I love learning. However, I kind of think there is an age after which learning to do a flip turn isn't going to do that much for you...like maybe 12 (and that's generous).

But, hey, if someone wants to shave 0.5 sec off her lap time, who am I to judge? I mean, I guess this is a pretty good time to start training. She has 3 years until London. (In the words of the 'knuckle puck' kid's brother on D2: The Mighty Ducks) Go USA!

It's Already Been Broughten!

Alright, April, I hate to admit that your public chastisement was actually a decent motivator, but whatever.  I did want to ask, though, how your other websites were going.  Gone for any good runs lately?  Procrastinate much?

 

Ok, onto the real post…

Several months ago I got an offer to work as an athletic trainer at a cheerleading competition.  I know, I know, my immediate response should have been, “Yeah, thanks, but no.”  I mean, I have nothing against cheerleaders.  I would never say they weren’t athletes, or call them ‘dancers gone retarded’ or anything.  I’m just not really into cheerleading.  Besides that, cheerleaders probably have more injuries than football and soccer combined.

But, times they are tough, and I needed the money, so I took the job.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Wow.

So I naively thought that this competition would be fairly low-key – kind of like a wrestling tournament (which I also dislike covering), with a few different mats, teams competing on each.  I thought I would sit in a corner somewhere and hand out band-aids and ice, and then deal with major injuries on the mats. 

Um, no.  First of all, this competition was considered a ‘National Championship’ even though there were only teams from a few states.  And there were several different mats, but they were in the warm-up area.  The competition area was in fact a stage…like a 4 ft. tall stage.  It was like Bring It On.  The lights were out the entire time (except for the strobe lights, which were definitely on), and the music (a strenuous number of horrible remixes) was blaring so loud I could barely hear myself think.

I had blindly stumbled into big time competition cheerleading.  I wore a headset radio to communicate with the other staff members.  There was more make-up and hairspray in one building than you would find at a drag queen competition. It was all downhill from there.

How old were these kids?  The youngest were probably 5, and the oldest were college age.  Don’t worry, though, the hip gyrations were all top notch.  And, remember, the smaller they are, they higher you can throw them.

I doubt my heart rate dropped below 90 the entire time.  I dealt with at least 25 injuries over the 2 day period - multiple suspected concussions, suspected fractures, knocked out teeth, among other things.  The worst injury, by far, though involved 2 words I never thought I would hear, and never, ever wanted to hear:  Parent Team.

What?!?!

Seriously, you can’t just live vicariously through your children?  I mean, aren’t you doing that anyway?  Do you really need to get up on the stage and try to re-live the glory days, or, for some of you, invent the glory days?

And the thing is, if this was just a joke, or even just for fun, that would be one thing.  But these people were actually, seriously competing.  Like the judges judged them and gave them scores.  It was a for real competition.

Well one mother (who will remain nameless – because I don’t remember her name) got a little bit too into the routine and lost track of her boundaries…and jumped off the back of the stage.  Yeah, go ahead and re-read that sentence.  Better yet, I’ll type it again.  SHE JUMPED OFF THE BACK OF THE STAGE.  Are you kidding me?

Oh and in case you were wondering, there were no railings on the back of the stage because they weren’t aesthetically pleasing enough for the competition.  Yeah.

So she just jumped back and landed on both of her knees.  I won’t go into detail about what happened next, except to say that there was a large amount of moaning and screaming (while her team was finishing their routine).  It was similar to the sounds this lady made.

She ended up being ok.  No broken bones, amazingly.  I didn’t hear the about her follow up, but I’m guessing there was some ligament damage.

The moral of the story?  Avoid cheerleading competitions.  And if you can’t, ask for more money.

Is it Just Me, or is That Kid's Meal Toy Trying to Make a Statement?

First off, I would like to congratulate Cristin for officially accepting her authorship invitation to this blog. Get to writing!

Now that the niceties are over, let me get into this post. Sometime ago, I was rummaging through the Goodwill Clearance store. It's hard to believe that Goodwill actually has a "clearance" store...eh, a whole other post of it's on, I guess, so let's not think on that for too long...anyway...For some reason, I've always enjoyed digging through other people's crap. At the clearance store, it is especially fun since everything is in these big blue bins and it's just one giant free for all. They charge you by the pound for items that you buy. Once you get past the odd odor of the place, it is pure bliss. That particular day I walked out of there with a few random t-shirts from places I've never visited, a safari looking shirt made for a plus-sized woman, a cookbook and this peculiar little toy.

The toy was a little action figure from the Rocket Man movie. I examined it closely and saw that it was part of a Burger King Kid's Meal.


While I do like toys, this was not the main reason why I decided to bring it home with me. This Rocket Man, like most rocket men, I would assume, shot "fire" out of his feet to propel him off of the ground. The thing about this toy is, I've never seen fire like that before. (See image below).


Now, I'm no scientist, but I do consider myself a pyromaniac in my spare time, and I have never seen fire that looked so...flesh colored. Nor have I ever seen fire that looked kinda...circumcised?


I was shocked, yet amused to see that this had been approved to be distributed to children. I mean, there has to be someone who approves the toys for kid's meals, right? While I'm sure it isn't easy to make realistic looking plastic fire that shoots out of an action figure's feet, they could have at least given it more of a reddish orange tint...and maybe jagged up the edges a bit. I don't know, is it just my imagination, or did some toymaker get one in over the censors like the animators of the Little Mermaid did when that movie originally came out on video?