Bus Gossip 2

It's like the 'loudspeakers' on the bus heard me and decided to give me a present: more hilarious things to tell the world! Yesterday's conversation was over the phone, so naturally I only picked up half of it. But from what I heard I think I can extract a pretty accurate storyline. After all, what hasn't been deduced by my impeccable perception skills can be easily substituted by my imagination. The story "relayed" to me was by a younger woman, apparently on the phone with her friend. Here's enough to know about her to completely scare the crap out of the girl if you should ever meet:

Apparently she is either a very close friend of, or dating, a man who has a small child with another woman. Last week it was his birthday, for which his parents threw him a party. He asked the girl later why she didn't come, and she had to endure the awkwardness of the moment in which she told him it was because the parents haven't invited her. Apparently, the guy has shared custody of the kid and either lives at home or just drops him or her off at his parents a lot, because to answer the question whether the grandparents mind, she said that they don't because at least this way they can ensure that their grandchild is fed and has everything.

An unusual answer, but apparently the mother is slightly crazy. To save money, she disconnected electricity, which is what heats up the water in the house. In order to bathe, she boils water in pots on a stove. For lighting, she uses candles. The girl was dismayed about a lifestyle like this with two elementary school age kids in the house. (She should try living in Russia... Nothing unusual about that there!) From this I deduced that the mother also has a child with someone else.... oh the drama of life! Why the girl would want to get involved in a situation like this remained a mystery to all on the bus... Juicy as the story was, the second one she blabbed was just as good!

The girl told her friend that she doesn't work "there" anymore and has a new job now. Apparently, there was something fishy going on at "the French place." The owner was also the manager because nobody else stepped up to the position. This was annoying, because she let people go for no apparent reason. After about a month of working at the place and being very helpful, the girl got called into the owners' office and told that "it's not working out." She was given reasons that in her mind were simply irrelevant. The reasons were that her coffee service is too slow and that she stands around too much. (Is it just me, or does this sound like a pretty relevant reason?!) She was offered the option of staying on call. But apparently has found other employment. She also suspected that half of the employees at the place worked under the table, since the owner never asked her to fill out any W-2's or anything. (I think she meant W-4's though....)

I think that it's time for me to make business cards that say "read about this conversation tomorrow at this link," and pass them out on the bus. I'm sure people would get a kick out of it.