Hot Fun in the Summer TIme, We can do What we Want to

So yesterday. After I got back from my break, the manager thought that it was dying down enough to just send the remaining 3 hosts home as they hit their 5th hours instead of breaking them for lunch. Problem was that I still had a quote time and a wait for people coming in when, at 11 o'clock, the last host had to go home. The manager ended up having to help me seat parties, but since he couldn't stay the whole time, since he had manager stuff to do, like run the restaurant, I ended up having to deal with the whole greeting people as they walk in, paging people when a table was being cleaned, and seating them. Thankfully with some sporatic help from the manager and one of the servers, who's totally on my Hero list, I survived long enough for me to seat everyone on the waitlist by 11:45- 15 minutes before the restaurant closed. The best part of the crazy days when I have to bring my absolute best to the table, and sometimes even better then my best, is that at the end of the night the manager mentions to me that I was a huge part of the reason the night was a success!

It's really the only upside to having to close Friday nights, wake up 4.5 hrs later and go to work for 8 hrs...

After work today I almost went to Disneyland, but 1. I always go there, and 2. how could i not go to the beach when its perfect beach weather???

Plus Dland is still on Spring Break crowds so it would have been packed. So I changed out of my uniform and into some capris, a muscle tee, and my toms and I was off.

Despite the fact that at 5pm the weather was cooling down and the winds were a bit chillier the crowds were still going strong in Manhattan Beach, probably helped by the fact that there was a sidewalk sale going on, to say nothing of the incredible heat that the south bay had going on. Seriously, I stepped out of the restaurant at like 9:30 in the morning and it felt like the middle of July!

So there I was at the beach. Gorgeous of course. All the shops were busy, the restaurants were full, and the beach was full of people- the college students playing vollyball, young kids checking out the aquarium at the end of the pier, people on bogie boards and surfboards waiting for that perfect wave, families and old men fishing, couples holding hands, friend shrieking as they kicked water at their friends, everyone enjoying this seemingly perfect day. And it was perfect.

To me, when people say LA or SoCal I don't think of the Hollywood sign, or movie stars, shopping on rodeo drive. It has nothing to do with movie premieres and the oscars, or club hopping and the night life. LA is going to a dodger game in the middle of summer, hiking PV, driving up to Malibu in search of watering holes, but most important: LA is the beach. It's this:

Beach Day!

     I'm sorry, but when you go to a bookstore and the first words out of your mouth are "I don't know the title of the book or the author's name..." please just go home, go online and do some freakin' research! A bookstore is a place of business, not your own little living yellow pages.

     I also had one guy get mad when the book he was looking for wasn't in hardcover format but paperback. His words were: "You sent me to the section, but they didn't have the book, all they had was the paperback!" Apparently paperbacks aren't really books... then he goes on this rant how why would he want to spend his $ on a POS thats just gonna fall apart anyways, and why do they even make paperbacks?
    
     I really wanted to snap back that, one, he didn't tell me he wanted a hardcover so how the eff am I supposed to know he wouldn't want that version. Two, some people prefer paperbacks and some are trying to spend within their budget and $30 is a lot for one book. And three, please stick to shopping online cause you're annoying. Sigh, people sometimes...

     Thankfully no one else gave me any grief during my 4 hour shift. I guess its good that I got my one douchey customer out of the way in the first half hour of my shift...

     Before work I went to the beach! It was awesome, and the first time this summer (that never was) that i actually went into the water, which was FREEZING!!! Seriously, it was like water in early may since the weather hasn't been all that hot the ocean hasn't heated up any. It took awhile but Cassandra and I finally got in all the way (Crystal was way ahead of us...) and it was fun! I mean it was still freezing, and my toes got numb a bit (and then they started to hurt a bit) but it was nice to in the big old blue again! We even saw some dolphins swim lazily across the beach, one even jumped out of the water a bit! I swear it never gets old seeing marine life especially the cute ones like dolphins and and sea lions! But even the scary ones like sharks, jellies, and rays are cool (from an aqaurium, of course).

     Hopefully, this won't be the only beach trip of the year, but knowing how cold the water is, I know I'll have to practically force myself  into the waves!

     Tomorrow I work both jobs, thankfully they're spaced apart far enough that I won't be rushing from one job to the next. Not so thankfully, my job at Barnes and Noble starts at 6am... how do I get myself in these situations?! oh, right, I have no spine... plus I could totally use the extra $ on my paycheck...

     DFTBA!