Car Troubles and Comics

It's all grey and cold (for me) right now, so I've brought out my Slytherin scarf which makes me happy. Which is nice cause apparently locking my keys in the car is the new leaving my headlights on... This is the second time in 2 weeks. In fact it happened exactly last week. Comic Book Day us apparently not a good day for my car and I... :-/ The really sucky part is that I have no clue where my spare keys have gone so, again, I have to call AAA unless Campus Police can do something about it...

In other news some more of DC's new 52 are out today. I'm picking up Batman, Nightwing, Catwoman, Supergirl, and from not DC I'm getting TMNT. Unlike last week, I'm very excited about all the comics I'm picking up today and I've already read a good review for Batman #1 so, yay! I really hope they don't screw up Catwoman though. That line about how she's "obsessed" with Batman still pisses me off a bit. If she's obsessed with him then he's equally obsessed with her. They act like it's just CW who can't stop thinking about it... Ok, so more then just "a bit" pissed off...

Work tonight. I'm food running which is a pretty easy shift. I just hope the new manager isn't there. He annoys me. Although I admit new managers always annoy me, I don't like having to impress them from scratch, and he does things differently, and he hovers, and if I hear "in my old restaurant we..." one more time I will scream.

Although he does remind me of Hank Green which makes me feel guilty for not liking him...

Professor is late, and the more time goes by with him not showing up, the more I hope he doesn't show and we can leave early.

Another Lunch break post

Gah! I can't believe I forgot to BEDA yesterday... That really sucks. I also can't believe that April, and BEDA, is almost over. In a way it's a relief that I won't stress out about finding a half hour block to post, on the other hand, it was nice spending the day thinking about what to blog. Although I suppose now if I just blog every few days I can find more time to write it all out and not let it have that rushed feel that some of mine* had.

In some other news I went on a run yesterday, well a jog, but it was about 2 miles total. My legs are killing me today, and they scheduled me as a food runner, which means I just spend my entire shift walking from the kitchen to the tables loaded with heavy and hot plates of food. Don't get me wrong, I love food running shifts. I spend the entire time fetching things for other people and I love work like that, I'm good at it**.

Actually funny story about work. I was scheduled today at 4 like I always am, but usually I'm scheduled to be the Host, coordinating where people and reservations are sat. The hosts also have a slightly different dress code that is, especially for the females, usually nicer clothes. So I was in my black slacks and a nice short sleeve shirt. As a foodrunner I would be in my black dickies and a long sleeve button down shirt... Um oops. Thankfully none of the managers were too pissed about it, or pissed at all really, which is great cause normally they'd send me home to change. I'm still in my nice pants but I had a long sleeve shirt that wasn't button down. But on break (now actually) I went to get my headphones outta my car and I was looking in my trunk for a jacket but nstead found a brand-new black button down shirt. I bought it months ago bt since the material was subpar I was gonna return it and never got around to it. Total blessing in disguise, right?

Breaks almost over sadly, but on the plus side I'm not closing tonight! And tomorrow I'm taking the younger cousins to USC for the LA Times Festival of Books! Which is basically I giant book fair! Last year John Green was signing his latest book. This year I'm hoping to meet Jonathan Stroud, who wrote the Bartemaeus Trilogy which I adore!

Till Tomorrow,

DFTBA!

*ok most. Or, you know, all of them...
**I don't know what that says about me...

Old bosses' New Bosses'...

It's way too hot to spend on a computer blogging. Or even on a phone. I wish I didn't work tonight or I would totally be at the beach and in the water... As it is I spent today running errands and driving around. Sadly not with the top down, since the top can't come down, but windows down for sure!!

Days like these make me want to go and do outdoorsy things like hiking, which is insane, cause if I hike in this heat I'm liable to get dehydrated and unable to move in the middle of nowhere. Been there, done that, not fun. But I'm gonna have to end up at the beach and soon, otherwise, I'll go mad.

So at work, two managers left to different BJ's. Sadly they were 2 of the sane ones, and one of those was my absolute favorite Eugene* who was fun to flirt with... We're apparently getting this new girl who's worked every position and has moved up to become a manager. From what I heard she's fantastic, but the only thing I want to know is if she'll like me. All the other managers do which means they're usually willing to give me my days off when I ask for them. If she doesn't like me she can completely ruin a good thing... Not that I can, like, get away with murder, if I mess up or don't do a good job they're not afraid to let me know** but since I do a good job and they can trust me it's easy for me to say: "hey can I get more hours?" or: "can I get next Friday off? It's my birthday" In any case, apparently I'm gonna be able to meet her today as it's her first day... I'll keep y'all posted.

DFTBA!

*like the penguin Muppet :)
**sometimes in loud voices

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:

Ahhhhhh!!!

I have nine minutes before I need to clock back in and since I don't get off the clock till midnight that means I have less then 10 minutes to post a Blog!!!!!!!

*head explodes*

Much like is been threatening to do all night. I only had one patio to use for reservations and 3 over large parties. Since our restaurant is small that means most of my table were being saved for the reservations instead of sat with parties waiting, which means we had to give people high quote times, which mean most parties don't stay cause who wants to wait an hour to be sat, which means we have less people buying food, which means we have less sales, which means less money to spend on employees, which mean less hours to give out, which means my paycheck is smaller... OMG!!!!

I have a headache...

DFTBA

I got a lot to say, I got a lot to say, I got a lot to say. I can't remember now, I can't remember now, I can't remember now

I wonder what would happen if Dr House from House MD met Dr Lightman from Lie To Me...

Anyways. Even though Thursdays are my usual (and only) day off I'm going in tomorrow to do the bookeeping. I usually do that on weekends, but the girl who takes care of it Mon-Fri needs a day off since she's been getting sick*. Its not too bad though, its a slightly higher pay and it's only 4 hours and the best part? I don't deal with guests :) They asked me to also cover take-out but honestly I couldn't... I still need to clean my room** and honestly I was waay looking forward to getting to wear some color instead of all black...

So these days anytime I see a plane, all I can think is "Come July, that'll be me..." I'm still surprised I'm gonna get to go. I'm mentally thinking of what I need to pack, how to avoid too much luggage, how much it'll cost to ship things home... just a lot of little things. squee. really, just, squee!

The only thing I'm worried about is my cat. He hates it when I leave. And apparently he meows all night when I'm not home, he still sleeps in my room even when I'm not there. And of course when I get back he'll avoid me for like 3 days until he forgives me. The cat, Eros, started out as being my sister's. But for some reason Eros chose me, and really doesn't like anyone else except maybe my mom.

There's not much going on, I might hit the beach tomorrow, and I might catch some Doctor Who with Robin since we've still only seen the Christmas episode of Season 2...

Since I gotta be up all hella early I'm turning in now. Catch you all later!

DFTBA

*as prescribed by her Doctor, lucky duck...
** There's a very good chance my room will never be clean again. I've accepted that, mom, however, sure hasn't.

Spring Cleaning? Yeah Right...

So I have a lot of laundry that I need to deal with. The problem is that it's all clean and it's taken over my bed- so when I went to bed last night I had to curl up near the head cause everything else was covered in clothes... and of course, despite that I had the whole day free and didn't start work till 6, did I put my clothes away? No. I did about half, but between errands, in n out*, watching Scott Pilgrim and lazing about, I did not finish. Hopefully tomorrow I will be more efficient.

I went to the library today to return 3 books- Geek High, My Double Life, and Ten Things I Hate About Me, and recheck out: Cirque Du Freak 5, and Geek Magnet. I also went to target today cause with my new very short hair style, I needed pomade to style it, which is basically wax. Problem is, most sculpting waxes for girls are made with high shine, and I really didn't think that'd be a good look for me since I work in a restaurant. The only low shine I found was called Fiber and made by American Crew, which is the official supplier for Men. Although I've always felt that for the most part guys have better stuff, like razors, and shirts, and jeans... apparently hair care as well. What next? Make-up? LOL.

Work Today was alright. Its generally a short shift when I Food Run** but today it was really short- I only worked 3 hours. And since it was relatively slow today I doubt I'll make more then $20 today... ah well. To tell you the truth I wasn't really feeling it today anyways. I did however score a bottle of Barefoot Moscato since Stephanie doesn't drink.

Tomorrow I'll clean, but I work a full shift so I'll have to finish by 3... Here's hoping!

DFTBA

* not that I regret going to in n out :)
** especially since the girl I work with, Stephanie, really pushes to get me home early so she can keep most of the tips...

Blogging at work...

It's busy but no ones yelled at me, so win! Plus I'm on break in the kitchen and we're telling riddles. I have Thomas, the manager, confused in the Greenhouse. Which is the only good riddle I know. When I have more time I'll blog it. Plus I plan to down like 3 cups of coffee :)

So far two people got the riddle, but 3 more still need to figure it out... Hee hee I'm evil.

Ok so 2 cups of coffee and some coke...

Ok, now back to work! And thankfully in a much better mood :)

DFTBA

PS... you can have apples in the greenhouse but you can't have oranges :)

Ugh work

Seriously people. If you're gonna get 14 friends to go out to dinner don't be surprised that you have to wait. Don't whine and bitch about not being sat immediately. Especially when there's a Dodgers game AND a Lakers game. Hello? You Live in LA, of course we'll get busy. *Le Sigh* at least I'm on break now (and I have 10 more minutes) and when I left there was only like 2 names, I'm soooo hoping it's just like that when I get back...

heh

I'm at work right now, manning the nook station at work but its really slow so I'm playing with the nook.

Ooh, I just sold a nook Color! I usually suck at closing a sale. So not much going in with my lige right now. Ok that's not true. I just still don't want to talk about it, its just either too much or nothing. And thinking about it makes me want to cry or scream. Plus it gives me a headachr. Oh I should go to lunch. Time flew. No idea how...

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!

BEDA

And damn it I will succeed!!! 31 posts in 31 days and I'm not gonna let mundane life get in the way of blogging either. If I can't talk about my day cause its so boring (a common occurrence) then i will find something to blog about! Even something like a picture, or a link, or a song, even.

Speaking of mundane days, today was pretty mundane. My Sundays are all the same now- Work, Mass, True Blood. I'm not complaining mind you. Its great to work but not have to actually work in the front of the restaurant- no guests to greet and quote times to meet, no large parties to set up, no one to yell at me. I just get in, count money, organize papers, and get out! Plus I get a free meal out of it- Chili fries today and the manager treated me to Starbucks! <3

Its weird though, since I do have a position where I have more responsibility and because I am constantly in the manager's office I hear so much crap now- not even about the servers and hosts and stuff, but like about other managers- one manager can't stand another, another gets annoyed when so and so does this, and the number of eff-bombs that were dropped today? yowza. Of course when I first got the bookkeeping position I was told that I would be hearing a lot of stuff that should never be repeated. Today kinda proved it. :)


But, you know, I don't mind not getting to tell any one cause I'm just excited I get to hear it in the first place. I'm not a huge gossiper, in that, I don't repeat what I hear, but I LOVE to hear other people's secrets even if I don't do anything with the information except forget after a few days... I just like knowing things.


Song Stuck in my head


BEDA- Day 1 Complete!

Take Out F.I.N.A.L.S. (or Frak I Never Actually Learned This Stuff)

To work as Takeout at BJ's I have to pass three tests. The haredest one (that I thought I'd majorly screw up on) was the food final. This 99 question test had obvious questions like how many wings come on the appetizer plate, or at what temp (for lack of a better word) do we cook our burgers. Things like that are basic, then there's questions like: Here's a list of ingrediants, which salad is this describing? And our salads have things like red onions, or green onions, sometimes different sauces/dressings or a blend of one, or the meat is cooked in a specific way. And these are a bit tougher cause there are obvious food items like meat or a specific dressing but not all of the ingrediants are obviously one type of salad or another... ask me to list which salads have red onions and which don't and i draw a blank... Thankfully it was a multiple choice test and I passed with 92% (I needed 90% to pass) So I have one more day of training in Take Out and then I'm officially cross trained So I can get scheduled as a Host or as Take Out, and I'm hopefully one step closer to becoming a server.

Of Course, its almost expected that I'll become trained as take out right before I leave for Anza-Borrego State Park for my Geology lab class... I'm gonna be gone for 4 days and when I come back I'll have forgotten everything and my managers will decide that I'm not a good fit for take out and maybe it was too soon to sort of promote me... OK so maybe not, but still it'll be 4 days that I don't get more practice.

In any case I am extremely excited about camping! I love camping in the desert. The weather has been mostly 80's but the rain here has made the temps there lower to 70's which is still nice, but it also means the the nights still dip into the 50's which sucks. I still think it sucks that I get the option of drinking every night taken away from me and replaced with copius amounts of notes (My Geo Prof is a HUGE structual fan.)

So recently My friend told me about a web comic that has fun with Epic Fantasy Aventures like LOTR made popular. It's called Looking For Group. And it is AMAZING!!! Cale may be the protagonist of the story but Richard is Barney Stinson to Cale's Ted- he ALWAYS steals the show. For such an evil guy he rocks! (Or is it that he rocks because he's so evil?)


Here watch this video Where Richard sings a song in the tune of "Part of your World" except its called: "Slaughter your World"



And if you liked that then start at the beginning of the comic HERE

Enjoy

And the Award goes to...

So the Employee Appreciation meeting came and went. Sadly I did not get the Host of the Year award which, you know, totally bites. But what can you do? At the very least I did get a few servers who came up to me and told me that they believe I should have gotten that honor, which in a way is more satisfying then the award because the managers don't see everything but the servers know which hosts they like having around to seat their tables, so the people who's shift is dependant on how well I work think I do a bang up job.
I did manage to win a raffle and walked out of the meeting with $10 for itunes and $25 for target. I was hoping for the $100 American Express card or a bottle of Petron... but I did get a new CD off itunes so yay! Plus we spent the morning gambling and I turned a 100 chip into 700! I LOVE BLACKJACK!

So work: the girl who got Host of the Year chose that same day to inform everyone that even though she was scheduled to work the long shift (and the one with the most responcibilty IMO) on Valentine's Day she was not going to show. So everyone who was scheduled that day had to work a double shift... yeah, right now she's not the most popular girl at the host desk...

Anyways work is work, but they give me good hours so I'm one of the few who works 5 days a week... I mean it sucks that I no longer have a weekend cause I work Friday nights, Saturday nights, and Sunday nights, but I still have thursday nights and i have a bit of extra cash too!

School started last week. I'm enrolled in Health class and Geology class. I sadly did not get into my speech class, oh well. And I decided spur of the moment to try to get into a Shakespeare class but its looking a bit dire right now... I'll find out tomorrow I imagine...

I'm really excited about my Geology class because it includes a 4 day camping trip to Anza-Borrego (desert!) and let me tell you, i have been jonesing to get out of the city for a bit. It sucks being able to see the mountains so clearly and not be able to be in the mountains... :(

So not much going on in my life, I passed the written portion of the drivers test So i have a permit! I'm hoping to take the Driver's Test in March! Mostly just so I can get to Disneyland soon! I REALLY want to go!!!! its been 3 weeks!!! haha, i'm so obsessed!

DFTBA

Back to life?

Yeah... So its been awhile...

Part of the reason is that my poor Charlie (thats my macbook) died suddenly one day, and I didn't get him up and running for 3 months. Part of the reason for that is at first I was broke, then my sis was gonna buy it as a xmas gift, then i was out of the country, then i sister needed to actually, you know, order it, then i had to connect it myself. That last one was a bit scary, cause even though Macs, as it turns out, are rediculously easy to DIY, I was still scared that i would somehow screw up so completely that my mac would never survive... But I did it! Charlie is back and I am so happy about that! even if it is back to Tiger since thats what was current when I bought it, and I can't get it to Snow Leopard cause the disk was my friends and she can't find it, and I no longer have Microsoft Word cause another friend had that one, and she can't find her disc either... I'm gonna save up money for Snow Leopard at least cause a lot of my old applications like Evernote (which is awesome) need Leopard or Snow Leopard to operate...

Besides my computer woes, there is the fact that my life is ridiculously basic right now, all I really ever do is go to work... I have gone out with the girls quite a bit recently though, but in general there's not much going on in my life.

Speaking of the girls, I'm going out with Robin, Jen, and (maybe) Twin tonight to the AMC Theater at Downtown Disney cause for Vday they are having special screenings of Casablanca from now till the 14th! I love that movie, and its gonna be sweet to watch it in the big screen!

What else is going on? Well school starts next week on Tuesday. The only class i'm really looking forward to is my Geology class with one of my fave profs. A class that includes a camping trip to the Anza Borrego Desert. Its not quite Death Valley (which is awesome) but its still the desert, and i adore desert camping.

This Saturday morning is our restaurants Employee Appreciation Meeting. We get a nice breakfast spread, and a chance to gamble for raffle tickets that go to many many prizes! This year everything is shrouded in mystery, unlike last year where we already knew some of the prizes... We also have the Yearly awards for the best host, server, busboy (Service Assistant of SA), bartender, and takeout. And this is not vanity but at the very least I'm a top contender, even if i don't get it. I bust my metaphoricall balls at that job- going above and beyond as often as i am able too. At the very least I can safely say that I always do my job to the very best of my ability (whatever that may be) while some of the other hosts just breeze on by...
But really its not so much about the award ceremony (though i'd love to win) as it is about the raffle prizes (last year one of the prizes was an XBox 360- i'm hoping this year there's a Wii for me to win...), the blackjack table, and the awesome breakfast spread (the omelets from last year were SO GOOD!). Its also pretty great that i'm not the host who has to work right after the meeting, i don't come in till 5pm so i get the day after to do stuff.

Stuff which thankfully do not include cleaning my room, cause (drumroll please) for the first time in like 1/2 a year my entire room is clean! dusted, vacummed, and reorganized!

OK, well not comepletely reorganized cause now that my roon is clean i want to do some early spring cleaning with tossing things out that i don't use anuymore and once again my bookcase has turned into part filinf cabinet.

But Still! i can see the wood surface of my desk!!! Thats a big thing for me!!

Ok dinner time for me. Hope this post hasn't bored you. I'll see you soon!

D

Going to Disneyland, Work Blows, and my top 5 movies

So I'm going to Disneyland today! I can't wait to ride Haunted Mansion and take pictures of everything. It's my first time going this Month so i'm really excited, although I have to talk to the ticket people cause i kinda left my annual pass in the dryer and it got all jacked up... whoops...

in other news Work is making me come in on Halloween from 4pm to Midnight. Ugh! all I wanted to do was take my cousins trick or treating and then go to my friends house in time to start NaNoWriMo off right, but No. And lately the managers have been kind of asshole-ish lately which is making me really think about calling in "sick" that day which I never do...

But I'm not gonna think about that... I'm gonna think about a list. The Top 5 Movies i can watch over and over again:


5. Beauty and the Beast

4. Stranger then Fiction

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So thats my list. It was really hard to narrow it down to just 5 since i'm pretty easy to please, as far as hollywood is concerned... but still these are some great movies right?

So whats on your list?