Pete

In my new quest to write something everyday, I find myself looking for things which I can write about later.  (Beware: if you hang around me, you'll most likely be blogged about.  Just saying.)  My day seemed fairly uneventful, that is, until we received a shipment from China for one of our customers; then all heck broke loose.  Since my boss is on a business trip, it's up to me to run the business.  Which, under normal circumstances isn't that big of a deal; just stressful at times.  However, this shipment allowed me the opportunity to be all things to all people (that's the best explaination).  I won't bore you with all the details, but I feel a great sense of accomplishment that the boxes were shipped out and our customer is happy with all the details.  I wore many hats today and was proud that everything was handled well and in a timely manner.

Every afternoon, I drop off our orders to the post office in Vestavia.  I've come to enjoy these outings, even though I usually have to stand in line for a while.  But the post office always has such odd strange unique interesting individuals, so I do a fair amount of people watching.  Plus, it's quite fun to walk in and have all the workers look up (at some point), smile and say, "Hey, Pete!" 

OK, I have to explain where "Pete" came from, but I promise you, it's one of those things you just had to be there.  One of the ladies working there and I would talk and goof off while she worked on my international packages.  I always tried to bring a smile to her face with a joke or funny story.  Well, one day, I told her my "Pete and Repeat" joke.  (Have you heard it?  Pete and Repeat got in a boat.  Pete fell out.  Who was left?  Get it??) 

I realize it's not actually funny.  In fact, I realize it's hardly even a joke, but the funny thing is it took Mavis days and days to finally get the joke.  I must have retold it to her countless times.  The other workers tried to help too, but she never got it.  A few weeks later, I walked and she said, "Pete, I get the joke!!"  Since that day, she always called me "Pete" and the name stuck. 

Mavis retired recently and I was sad to think that "Pete" would go away too, but the other workers (Hello: Bobby, Alcia, Terry and JoAnn!!!) carried on the tradition.  It just makes me happy to walk in people know my name (even if it's not really my name).  Though, funny story, Bobby told me that Alicia asked about me earlier and wondered where Pete was.  Bobby said, "You know, I think she thinks that's actually your name!  I wanted to correct her, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember your real name!"  So yeah, Pete is here to stay!