After Carolyn and I met, we naturally were spending lots of time together. But we had to take a break for at least one night in mid-November, not long before the Thanksgiving holiday, when I had to pack up Ashleigh and Briana and head all the way down to Burlington, Kentucky, to star in a Kroger training video on the proper ways of bagging groceries. Being in the management training program and a former second-place winner of the annual Kroger Bag Off, I was a natural to be selected. And since there was a requirement to have two children seen in the line at one of the checkstands, I volunteered the services of ten-year old Ashleigh and seven-year old Briana.
We left late in the evening and met my training coordinator Nancy at the Tylersville store and then followed her down to the Burlington Kroger, where we gathered groceries to bag for the video. I of course was playing the part of the bagger. My name was Randy. The adult customers in the line were professional paid actors…and they stunk. Usually any retake involved them screwing up their ad-libbed lines. I had to make the lines up as I went along while bagging properly at the same time, in order to appear to have a seamless discussion with the customer.
We were up nearly all night filming this video, which was used for several years to train baggers all over Krogerland. Ashleigh and Briana played there parts perfectly and professionally were rewarded with brand new Razor Scooters for their part. I eventually got a gift card to the Tri-County Mall - which I sold to Nancy, who actually lived in that vicinity and could use it. I also helped myself to the Randy nametag as a souvenir. Even though the girls crashed in the back seat of the car, I had to puff cigarettes all the way home in order to stay awake.
The movie prop
The first holiday for Carolyn and me since we had been together came on November 23 - Thanksgiving. Because of the leeriness of shopping one another to our families, I had the bright idea to use the safety net of traveling for the day with Charles and Susan. But by the time the holiday rolled around, we were comfortable enough to go at it alone. Her family’s Thanksgiving was held at her Grandma and Grandpa O’Connor’s house. From there we went to Diana’s. Truly happy that I had escaped my divorce almost unscathed and had found myself in another meaningful relationship, I proudly announced when we went around the room to say what we were thankful for: “I’m thankful that I don’t have anything not to be thankful for.” It seemed profound in my head, bristling with meaning -but no doubt sounded idiotic.
On December 1, Dad was married to his girlfriend Vicki at the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren, with a reception following at his house. More details of this event can be found here.
Also early in December, the Fairborn Kroger store held its annual Christmas party for the employees at a nearby bar in town. The first part of the evening was for families and Santa Claus was present to give gifts to the kids. I arranged to bring Ashleigh and Briana for the first part of the evening. Carolyn and I stayed a while longer playing a game of pool or two. It was right around this time that I completed the Management training program and was assigned my official position of Associate Manager beginning the week of December 10. My zone manager Rick decided to keep me at Fairborn for a while, and the store manager Bruce assigned me to work alongside Danny Eyler in the Drug/GM department.
At ten years old, Ashleigh was still uncomfortable with Santa
A toothless Briana has no problem jumping up and straddling Santa’s leg
My adorable girls with their cheap junk loot
Carolyn and I naturally enjoyed getting ready for Christmas together, shopping, and putting up the tree. Things got a little uncomfortable a couple of times with Lisa still around the area. One night she crept into the house in the middle of the night for a surprise visit and was surprised to find Carolyn on the couch with me. I don’t think she heeded my warnings that I would find someone so quickly. I began to feel that she might be having second thoughts about our separation, probably because of the emotion of the holidays. She had the painful task of seeing Carolyn and me putting up our tree together when she stopped by to get some things on one occasion.
Although had Carolyn had completed most of her Christmas shopping while in Florida, she did do a bit of shopping with me - namely at Barnes & Noble, where she expressed her disdain for the fact that I was making so many last-minute purchases for the girls the day before Christmas Eve in this one store. In addition to a few books, I found a juggling set for Briana and a dual set of playing cards with instructions for card tricks for Ashleigh.
One other thing that made this time period rather difficult was that my entire family effectively moved out of the area. Dad had already re-located to Brookville a few years before, but now Mom and Denise were departing Kettering as well. Mom’s job had been transferred in June from being able to work out of her house to an office in Northern Cincinnati. She had spent some time staying in Franklin with Bob, but by December she had decided to move down there for good. Denise soon embarked for a life in Columbus near to her boyfriend Aaron. She also left before year’s end and soon occupied her own small apartment. Although the house on Beaver Creek Lane in Kettering wouldn’t be sold until March, Mom and Denise were vacated before Christmas - and all of my frequent, enjoyable days of stopping by there were over.
On a lighter note, I had to cram two of my A-Haunting We Will Go tent meetings into just a few weeks, having fallen behind during the chaotic times of October. We held a meeting at my house on November 12 during which we featured Block-Heads. No one questioned Carolyn’s inconspicous presence. But I’m sure heads turned a bit when she came along with me to the meeting at Charles Sexton’s house on December 3. Here we featured some Christmas fare and the feature compilation When Comedy Was King.
Overall, these were happy times, although, I occasionally was wracked with emotion thinking about Lisa moving away. Things had occurred so quickly that it could be painful, even though I was happy in my relationship with Carolyn. What really was difficult was that Carolyn had plans to visit her friend David in Florida during mid-December, not arriving home until two days before Christmas. Although they had only dated one time before deciding they were better suited as friends, I still was not very comfortable with this trip, but understood that it had been long-planned. I can still recall Carolyn coming to work to say goodbye to me and presenting me with a tiny Russ stuffed doggie as a remembrance of her while she was gone. As silly as it sounds, I actually slept with it.
She would be back soon enough, and our first Christmas would be here…
Up next: the millennial holiday…
haha. turbo 2000
briana
November 21st, 2007