It's Cookie Time!

This morning I read an interesting piece in my new Food Network magazine regarding the annual Girl Scouts of America cookie sale. Every February, just as most Americans are trying to maintain their New Year's resolutions of healthier eating, girl scouts across the country sell literally TONS of Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, Tagalongs, and the like. I think it's a combination of' but I've been so good since January 1st' and 'the girls are so cute and it's a good cause.' Whatever it is, it works. When I told friends and family that I was starting a Brownie troop here in Key West (my girls wanted to get involved but there wasn't an open troop) the first thing everyone said was 'GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!' Years and years of door-to-door sales have made girl scouts and cookies synonymous. And since you can only get them during January and February of each year, they are sort of a hot commodity, especially if you are a fan.

This past Saturday, a truck full of cookies arrived on the island after the three-hour trip through the Florida Keys from Miami. Even though the Keys aren't heavily populated, there are many girl scout troops from Key Largo to Marathon to Big Pine Key to Key West. We formed a 'cookie line,' passing boxes from the truck to our sorting area in a space donated by the local Catholic parish school. We sorted, we stacked, we checked our inventory sheets....the girls all loved it.

Selling cookies isn't mandatory, and each family treats sales as they choose, but it is a great chance for the girls to work together. I look forward to manning booths with my girls and some of their Brownie friends in front of Winn-Dixie, Publix, and NASKW's Commissary in the next few weeks. I'm sure we will have some good 'Key West stories' when we are done. There's a good chance our booth time will include chasing chickens and talking to pirates.....or at least people who THINK they are pirates. The sale at the Commissary should be our troop's best one, since the girls all attend school on base (75% of students there are military) and the snowbirds camping on base are all retired military members.They can even donate their cookies to the troops overseas.

As the adult members of the troop try to get this all in motion this week, I think I can speak for all of us when I say I am envious of those transporting/storing cookies in winter climates. Leave some in the car! Put them on a pallet in the garage! So many more storage options when you aren't worried about the Thin Mints melting. But this Saturday, when we set up for our first sale in front of Winn-Dixie, it's safe to say we will all be in shorts and t-shirts.....not a mitten in sight.

On Not Being a Jerk

It is very nice to be home again after our holiday travels. We have barely left the house since unlocking the doors on New Year's Eve. The girls are certainly enjoying some downtime with their new toys, and the adults are enjoying being in one place....a place that isn't a car.

Our trip took us from Key West to Savannah, GA, Frederick, MD, Altoona, PA, Williamsburg, VA, and St. Augustine, FL. We saw lots of things that we don't get to see regularly here on the island....our far-away family and friends, stores, shops, traffic, and unfortunately, some really bad behavior from grown ups who should know better. While I do miss the people we love and the shopping options once home, I am glad I don't live in the 'real world' because frankly, people are generally a lot nicer here. It's a small space - if you are nasty to the restaurant server or the cashier at the grocery store, you are going to have a hard time avoiding them.

I could write several blogs on bad behavior on I-95....really, people? Cutting in and out of lanes of almost-stopped traffic really isn't going to get you to your destination any faster. By the time we reached our last overnight stop, a night at a Hampton Inn in St. Augustine, John and I were both completely over driving and other drivers. Maybe that is why I was so sensitive to the rudeness of my fellow travelers that evening.

First was the lady who treated the front desk clerk at the hotel so rudely. I'm glad she is a Gold Member with Hilton Honors (so are we) but that isn't like being a Rockefeller or anything. And while the 6th floor may possibly have been better for sleeping that the 4th floor, I would find it hard to sleep anywhere after being pushy and unkind to someone who was just trying to help the long line of tired travelers waiting to check in.

After dropping our bags in the room we headed to a locally-owned Italian joint nearby for some dinner. Along with many of the other travelers checking in for the night, plus the usual local families out for a bite to eat on the eve of New Year's Eve. The restaurant had been slammed all day, according to the owner, and he asked for our patience when we first walked in as he got everyone seated. They were out of stuff, it did take quite a while, but we played silly games with the girls while we waited (and fortunately they weren't out of pinot noir!) and really enjoyed our meals when we finally got them.

The waitress thanked us profusely for being so kind. I think what she really meant was to thank us for not being jerks. Being rude or unkind to her certainly wasn't going to get us our food any faster. But that certainly seemed to be a popular tactic.

As we chatted with her during our time there, it turns out she moved in with her mother to care for her as she went through chemo for breast cancer, and that she is expecting her first child this year. A really nice young woman, working hard to be able to afford her own apartment again now that her mom didn't need constant care. She brought Josie the last meatball in the restaurant as a thank you for our patience.

I thought about all of this during the next day's drive to Key West, which was fortunately traffic free. It is easy to make lofty resolutions at this time of year....more exercise, less vices, more kale, less pizza, more organization, less clutter, and the like. I am going to start 2015 with a campaign to not be a jerk. I think the world would be a kinder place if everyone embraced it, but part of not being a jerk is not pushing my agenda down anyone else's throat, right? So I hope this blog post makes you think a little, but mostly I hope that you and yours have a great 2015.