I thought you said “Welcome all new POSERS...”

I grew up without any space. I have seven siblings; five above and two below (and, no, my parents have never divorced and we're all legitimate).

My dad retired from the military shortly after i was born and we moved off post and into...well...not quite the country? Very much NOT a city, but enough of a small town to make city snobs annoying? We lived in a neighborhood, but the houses were far enough apart for privacy.

In other words I grew up with YARD WORK. hauling branches up and down the hills in our yard to the burn piles while my older siblings rode the lawn mower (yes we were little pyros and now we're big pyros). I knew how to use an axe and hatchet fairly well before I could cut even slices of tomato. (I still can't cut even slices...)...but of course if you ask kids to "go pick up sticks". They are going to find a stick they can PLAY with. My siblings and I were wizards, explorers, gunmen, swordsmen, you name it, we were it with a stick.

How much blood comes out of a cut after smacking your brother with a stick?

It depends on where you hit him.

But you have to make sure you hit him hard enough that he doesn't hit you back, because he WILL hit back harder.

Anyway, needless to say, we were wild, natures children. We played all day and caught fireflies in June. In the Fall and Spring we played in the rain and thunder until we were soaked and coughing on the water coming down. From the first warm day of the year it was no shoes until the first frost of the year and even then we fought it!

Now we're all older. We've gone our separate ways. I don't talk to them as much anymore...

I guess I just miss that free nature feeling as I've grown older.

So does it really surprise anyone that I grew up wanting so much to work at a landscaping and gardening center?

And then I got the JOB!

AND THE BOSS IS AWESOME!

AND THE CUSTOMERS (some are weird) ARE ALSO (mostly) AWESOME!!

I've worked SO many jobs do to going to school out of state, I've just bounced around from job to job. but this is the FIRST job where I really LOVE the work, the co-workers, the Boss, AND the pay! EVERYTHING has come together and I just can't loose this job...

....I am currently writing this in the midst of 16 dead houseplants.

I have had customers come back to the store and THANK me for the advice I have given them for their plants.

But for some UNHOLY reason I can't keeps MY plants alive.

I thought if I made it into a name and treated it flippantly it would hurt a little less...