Stapler Saddness - A Moment in Marriage

SCB's work has two types of staplers... one type sits at the front sales counter, the other type are located at each person's desk. The sales counter staplers take SR4 staples... and the ones at the staff desks take standard staples.

Before the other day, I had litterally no idea staples came in different sizes. Ya, I knew some automatic machines took fancy staples, but I didn't know that a regular manual machine could in fact be size and style specific.

But back to SCB's work and their two types of staplers. This office stapler duality wouldn't normally be an issue if they stocked both types of staples (standard and SR4's)...

But they don't order them... nor will their manager replace the desk standard staplers with SR4 compatable modles.

(He just doesn't like to spend money- proof in point, one of their office desk phone cords keeps falling out of the jack, causing the client on the phone to ovbiously not hear anything on the line. One day after being fed up with asking for a new phone and never getting one, another employee just took the  managers phone off his desk when he was out of the office... and replaced it with his inferrior unit...  and the manager never said a darn thing. He just keeps using the broken phone and when the cord falls out, he just plugs it back in and keeps chatting away claiming they must have bad cell reception.)

So needless to say, it drives SCB absolutely CRAZY that the standard staplers keep jamming. Its a little game. How many times can I staple before is jams. Its russian roulett with paper.

The other day when we were leaving California Fish Grill after a date night and heading to the car, SCB noticed the Staples store. He started jumping up and down like a little kid, begging to go inside, determined to buy a stapler that would take SR4's so he could use that one at his desk.

I love the man I married and thus allowed our date night to conclude in Staples. As a reasonable women, I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on a stapler when the one I have at home was something I got for free, but apparently you can spend north of $30 for a stapler that does nothing but stapel paper apparently...

So I told him under $10 bucks and he was gold since we had already technically gone over budget with spending this month. While we were searching the packaging to figure out which ones were standard and which were SR4 (because picking up staples that actually worked was never a solution?) We found one. It was actually in a little package with some staples and a staple remover for about $8.00... $9.71 with tax.

There's just one problem. The last one they had was pink.... and all the other ones were $30 or more.

Bright shinny pink...

His co-workers already tease him about his little USB Christmas Tree and the 2 inch tall My Little Pony he keeps on his desk at work (a true brony at heart)... but I could tell he was considering its purchase... But, because every good story has a but...  the display model was still there... and it was purple...

Which is SCB's absolute most favorite color ever... (and as a plus, its less likely to be "stolen" to another person's desk who is also suffering from stapler sadness...)

but again, it was the display model...

As SCB continued to stare at the purple stapler with want and desire... I knew what we could do. We could ask the nice employees if we could just have the purple one and leave the pink one on display.

But SCB hates talking to strangers... litterly. Sometimes in large settings he will pretend he didn't either hear someone ask him a question... or he'll pretend they are talking to someone else in the group and he'll just turn to look at someone else randomly for the reply... all so he doesn't have to answer. That or after i've tugged on his shirt, nudged him in the side and gotten his attention.. he mumbles two or three words and looks at me to elaborate for him. After 3 years, I've finally been able to finally get him to talk to resturant staff (like to get a to-go box or to send something back if its wrong) but it took 3 years to get him there and I relish in the victory now... but when it comes to special requests outside of the normal- Do you have more of these?- he's still as shy as the day I met him.

Seeing the need in his eyes and the fact that he was thinking about purchasing the pink stapler and calling it a day, I went and found an employee and presented our case. Before agreeing, she wanted to make sure they didn't have any in the storage bins above... and truth be told, it was the last one in the place. We waited while she talked to her manager, who must have been in a great mood because she relented and they opened the package and swapped them out and sealed them back up.

$9.71 later and all his problems were solved... until we got home.

He started playing with the stapler and the staples, grinning from ear to ear as one by one the staples cleared the mechanize and didn't jam as he clicked down on the lever. On a whim he pulled out our black stapler to show me what he ment about how they jam. (Apparently I needed to be educated on the matter), So he loaded it with the SR4 staples and started clicking away...

It didn't jam.

It continued not to jam...

Apparently the solution to all his problems was the black heafty free stapler I had picked up 5 years ago from a friend who was clearing out an office and told us to take what we wanted...

So now the black stapler is going to go to his work tomorrow (which really takes standard staples... so I don't know what it isn't jaming with the SR4's)... but because its not made of plastic and it's heavy duty, he wanted to take it instead... so now i'm left with the purple SR4 stapler????

The first paycheck

Its one of those moments that deserves its own post! Ladies and Gents, I present the First Paycheck!!


Awe... employment... its sooooo good!

Why I Married My Husband... (Reason 2)

It seems like every so often I just get in one of these horrible moods and I feel like i'm just one more emotional upheaval away from crying a river and flooding the state of California.

Exaggeration aside, a few weeks ago I was having a really hard time emotionally. I remember vividly the time right before our honeymoon. No matter what happened that entire week I just couldn't get anything to go my way. After work one day I just climbed into bed and pouted. There is no other words for it. I pouted like the cute 7 year old child I used to be. I was upset from everything from the uncleaned bathroom, to things that were out of my power at work... I was upset that the laundry wasn't folded and put away... that my "family" kept stressing me out... and I just felt under appreciated as a whole.

I didn't want to cook dinner, clean the house, or even watch TV...

The final straw for me came when I got mad at the weather man. Yup, that's right. I was upset that I was teased with the hope of rain that never came. (Just FYI, I love it when it rains and it always makes me happy--at least when it rains and i'm not working outside working in it).

My pouting fit was not one of my better shinning moments... In fact, I even threw a stuffed animal in a fit of pathetic-ness (yes it made me feel better) before I hid under the covers around 8 pm at night and declared the day officially over...

Yup, in summation, I just wasn't feeling like "me."

This is where we all feel bad for my wonderful husband who was trying to just calm me down every way possible and was coming up dry. In the end he left me to my own devices while I tossed and turned in bed-- a whiny mess of hormonal wife (what he lovingly refers to as "bat shit crazy mode.")

While I sat clinging to the stuffed animal on my bed that I had thrown (and retrieved to tell it I was sorry) my husband kept going through drawers and both the closets on the hunt for something in particular...

He stumbled upon it a few hours later when he came to bed... and I heard it.

Rain.

My husband spent 2 hours searching for an old hand me down CD that his parents had bought for one of his older brothers when CD's first came out and were all the rage. It was one similar to one of those cheesy "wild animal sounds" or "songs from nature" CD's that are always on the store ends with the little "play a 15 second clip" stations...

but it wasn't cheesy. It was soothing instrumental music with the sound of rain falling in the background... it was so real sounding that I made my husband open the slider door and turn on the porch light to prove to me it wasn't really raining... (for the record... it wasn't but I totally thought it was)

But my husband made it rain for me... the sadness and crazy lifted and again, I just laid there knowing that this was another one of those moments where i'd look back on it years down the line and know that this was one of those reasons I married my husband.

If you like this story, check out my other post: Why I Married my Husband (Reason 1)

Why I Married My Husband... (Reason 1)

The other night we went out to dinner for my friends birthday and we dressed to the nines: Heels, Cute stylish dress, jewelry, make-up, and hair... and South County Boy in some slacks and a nice button down shirt.

We had a good time despite the fact that my Ex was there with his best friend (who now hates me). We all played nice and while we were eating our dinner, SCB didn't feel so well. He got up to walk around a bit and tried fresh air, but it wasn't helping him too much. The loud restaurant, the slightly unfriendly people, and a few awkward moments weren't helping much. We made it though dinner and declined a night out at David Busters (one of my hubby's favorite places) because he just needed to go home and lay down. He didn't want the computer, or ice cream on the way home... all he wanted to do was just lay down.

So we headed home... and after about 15 yards my feet started to kill me in my shoes (the ones I had worn though out our wedding with no pain... apparently my lack of walking all the time had ruined my ability to survive shoes with elevation).

I decided to ditch them and walk barefoot towards the car since I could already feel 3 blisters on my feet. The place we were at was like an outside mall so it was like walking on sidewalk. Everything was going well until we had to cross the black pavement towards the car. I looked down and was about to walk to the car when my husband... who was already not feeling well, told me to wait.

He said he'd bring the car around so I didn't have to walk in the street...  without my shoes.


He drove me home and I followed a second or so behind him while I grabbed my stuff so he reached the stairs first... and in that moment I knew why I had married my husband.

He slipped off his shoes and he left them there for me at the bottom of the stairs and walked up in his socks...

Why?

Because we have cobblestone steps (lots of little hard pebbles mixes together with cement) and he knew I didn't want to walk up the stairs without shoes... or put on my heels of death again...

I heart him.