random morning thoughts

I'm always in a constant state of "rush the fuck out of the house" every morning. By this, I mean every morning since I can remember. I am not good at time management--look, I'm blogging!

My make-up is not working out this morning. Which sucks.

I'm a bit worried that today will be hectic and frazzling at both jobs. The Restaurant should be relatively slow by now though.

My mom makes me coffee every morning (or she makes more since she drinks it every morning). I find it odd that she fills hers full of cream and sugar, but it's actually strong coffee. She should just make it weaker. I don't know.

Okay. Gotta go.

yogurtland!

Ran today and did some weight exercises, but wussed out of doing anything with abs or thighs. Then I forced myself to tidy up my room a bit (a really itty, bitty bit: basically just took out old water bottles, shoved clothes into laundry baskets and picked up random trash). Today's theme, apparently, is do the grown-up thing.

Oh, oh, oh ... I finally got to go to Yogurtland. It was not over-hyped, but I'm not sure if I would stand in a line down to the street for it. We made our way there Sunday after the lunch (pho at Hale Vietnam) I mentioned in the last post. I'm a big fan of plain yogurt. That's what I usually get unless it's really "ice-creamy" yogurt. I just like plain flavored yogurt with fruit or cereal. Now that the mystery of Yogurtland is no longer in my life, I can certainly wait until it's not so new and Hawaii people get over it to go more frequently.

Work has been getting a little hectic lately. Just a bunch of "growing pains," as it is a fairly new venue. And I go back to The Restaurant tomorrow. They're actually both restaurants so I'm not really sure how I'm going to distinguish them because I think I may be staying at both places for a while. Erg. I'll figure something out, eventually. More likely I'll just call one "The Restaurant" and the other "Work" or something lame like that because I'm totally not creative when it comes to psudonyms. Totally.

I like working in restaurants though. There's always so much going on and something to learn or people to meet. Yeah, at times it gets crazy and miserable, but for the most part I enjoy it a lot. Not that this is the kind of thing I want to be involved with forever. I'll probably do it until next year and then see what interests me. I really wish I had majored in something that had a clear path for me to follow upon graduation. English ... what the heck do you do with that?

I wonder what's keeping The Boyfriend. I guess I heard him wrong yesterday when he said his class was getting out at 5:45. Actually I thought he said he would be done at 4:45 so I called to see if it ended early since it's the first Tuesday class but he was just going to class ... then I figured it was 5:45 and I heard wrong ... but I guess it's going until 6:45. Who knows. I wish I could remember how long labs last. I only took one and it felt like "forever" every week I went. Geology. Ick. Anyway, I think we're supposed to make dinner together tonight. I wanted to make a vegetable lasagna since my last attempt finally yielded something tasty and filling, but it's kind of lat now. I use noodles that cook themselves in the pan while you bake the lasagna, but it still takes a good hour or so, plus prep time.

I haven't seen my sister in a while. She's pretty much moved into her boyfriend's house and only comes home for clothes, sporadic meals, and ... no, that's about it. I can't even remember that last time I've seen her for an extended period of time. Damn. I do call her every week or so to keep up. I love having a sister! I think she's coming home for dinner tonight. I hope I run into her.

Okay, done.

good times part 2

Bachelorette party was great!

I ended up being the DD--that was a good laugh for everyone who heard about it since I'm the biggest lush of the bunch, although that also means I hold my liquor way better. The Boyfriend was supposed to shuttle us (me, the bride, and two friends) around from Queen Bee to Pearl and home again, but he canceled out. And that was fine because I did feel sort of bad asking him to give up almost an entire evening just to drive us if he had better things to do, but I did not appreciate it happening at 6pm when he was supposed to let me know in the afternoon what his plans were. A good time, however, was achieved by all. It was a small group of us at Queen Bee--which has some really good food; not just good bar food, but good food in general--playing sexy games and eating penis cake.

Pearl, I realize, is a really older group of people. I was sad about the lack of eye candy and this one guy in his 50s who kept approaching our group and trying to tell us he was at a bachelor party or something, but it seemed as if he was alone. Lame. I also finally figured out that the song I've been wondering about for forever is called "Calabria" by whoever. iPhones are freaking amazing! They can tell what song is playing and find the name; that was amazing. Good booze there though. I was kind of glad that the bride started slowing down and getting sleepy at the end because so was I.

I went home, tried to eat something to sober up, and passed out. I think I have a bruise on my shin from I have no idea where. That's a good time: waking up with random bruises all over. I do that a lot.

Okay, off to get ready. I have lunch today with one of my oldest, dearest friend (also ran into her at Queen Bee last night, coincidentally) and The Boyfriend in 45 minutes. Eek, I need to work on time management.

good times

The Boyfriend and I had a date night yesterday. Picked up a car battery, got sloshed at Assagio's in Kailua, and watched "Family Guy" until I passed out from the booze--exciting! Somehow we did that instead of going to a film competition (tooooo expensive considering I was going to be paying), hanging out at Uncle Bo's (I only have lukewarm feelings about the place, and he didn't want to go), and having a going away/welcome back party with The Restaurant co-workers (postponed till next week when brokeness and bad backs--both theirs--are not problems). Good times. I enjoy seeing just The Boyfriend when we're actually going out and doing things--I love going out!--but I've also been wanting to see friends more. Last week at the bridal shower was just what I needed to get my mind off all the craziness at work. Tonight's the bachelorette party for the same friend, so the timing is good and it should be awesome.

I also got to do some exercise yesterday for the first time in over a month. At first I was concerned that I would have to start all over in terms of stamina, but it worked out okay.

More later.

breath of air

Finally a minute to blog!

My two weeks' notice was sort of up on Monday. Sort of because it came a couple of days early--but if they weren't going to put me on the schedule, then I sure as heck wasn't going to come in. Also sort of because my old manager got re-hired, had his first day back today, and called me tonight to ask me to come back to cover a couple of days. So I'm back, temporarily. I'm hoping that it won't suck so bad now that one of our old managers is back. I have also decided that I will not put up with the bullshit from the company anymore if they need me.

I've started watching "Lipstick Jungle" and I think I have a new show to catch up on.

I have so much stuff I want to write down, but I'm pooped and still recuperating from two long weeks of double shifts after double shifts. Much more blogging coming soon--I promise!

work is all i have right now

Work is getting a little crazy right now. The owner at the new place just gave me a bunch of stuff to do, and I'm nowhere near done inputting all the invoices that have been crammed in a big folder for me. Argh.

Also I have to face the Obama madness tonight. I guess that pretty much gives away the general location to where I work, but, eh, I'm quitting anyway. I'm a bit peeved at having to work because I was looking forward to skipping the whole mess, but I need to squeeze in a meeting at the new place tomorrow ... so work it is. We had to give our social security numbers and whatnot to the FBI yesterday. For some reason New Manager decided he had to yell the explanation for this as if he was angry. I'm not really sure what he's looking to accomplish with anything he does, really. They still haven't brought in a hostess to replace me or my sister. SO not my problem. Last night was a doozy already (I lamented many times about the disorganization made by poor scheduling and seating, and pondered if I could leave without fulfilling my two weeks' notice), and I'm sure with all the people around the property tonight, it will be crazy again.

Okay, off for a shower and another long day.

i love traveling

I guess for the next 10(!) days there won't be a lot of time for me to blog. I had to work Saturday, too, at both places, which wasn't ideal. It was just a couple of simple tasks at the new place for me to do, though. Mostly prepping for Saturday night because they do a big lounge/club type of venue there. My job was to muster up all the change in $1's and $5's they needed for the bar and waiters, which proved to be a bit difficult. I had to run to two different branches in order to get what I needed since the first place wasn't able to give me what I wanted. I made a mental note to skip Don Quiote banking in the future: the parking was crazy, the store was crazy, the bank line was crazy, and I couldn't get what I needed anyway. Not a happy Saturday for me--I hate lines and crowds.

I wanted to get up early so that I could catch up on some of my, much missed, TV watching online, but I was more worn out by this week than I thought. I didn't roll out of bed until past 10AM. I wonder if I have time to do anything now (it's nearly 11). The Boyfriend was supposed to call in the "late morning" to make lunch plans and take me to Yogurtland. I hate it when he's flaky, and if he doesn't call soon I'll probably be rather unpleasant on the phone. I've been irritated that I haven't been able to see him since he lives in the boonies now and I've been working all the damn time.

On another note, I'm pretty sure Yogurtland is going to be a disappointment. I was really excited when I started reading about it in articles and other people's blogs, but I don't think it's going to live up to the hype. Unless they're like a Pink Berry; I love Pink Berry! However, I only love Pink Berry on the West Coast. When I was introduced to Pink Berry, it was during our 2007 LA trip to see a good friend from high school. The yogurt there is what did it for me: it's frozen yogurt, but it was icy instead of creamy. That's the best I can describe it. I'm pretty sure that it confuses people who have never been there, but makes perfect sense to those who have. When we sought out Pink Berry again in NYC this year, it was just frozen yogurt, which made us sad. My friend, K., specifically printed out Pink Berry locations for us to get our fix with while we visited NYC, and all the East Coast places did was let us down.

Writing that last paragraph made me think of all the traveling I've done. I've been lucky enough to get away at least once a year for the past four years or so. I think. I know it's terrible not to remember, but I can't quite get the timing down. I think it was:

Spring Break 2004: San Francisco
November 2004: Las Vegas
Spring Break 2005: Boston/Amerst/NYC
January 2006: Las Vegas
October 2006: Las Vegas
Spring Break 2007: Maui
June 2007: Los Angeles
May 2008: London, Paris, Rome
June 2008: NYC

Man, I guess that's all over now since I have to work instead of go to school with convenient slots for vacationing. Those were all trips I've taken sans my family. I guess I'm a typical Hawaii resident since I frequent Vegas so often. I like Vegas. I don't gamble, but I like that almost everything I do on vacation is consolidated to one area that I can eat an array of foods, shop, and drink at. And, yes, that's really all I do. I'm not too big on sightseeing, although I do enjoy museums and such. I mainly go to eat and shop. Those are my two main priorities while I'm away. That is why I usually don't come home with a lot of pictures and have to steal memories of my vacations from friends who are nice enough to share them in online albums.

Okay, The Boyfriend finally called so I supposed I should get off my butt already and get ready to go out.

Oh, my sister gave me all her work clothes that she used to wear to The Restaurant (yeah, she worked with me, but was smart enough to quit over a month ago) so I have a whole new bunch of stuff to wear! I like how hand-me-downs go backward in our family. I actually use a lot of her old stuff: sunglasses, iPod, clothes. I'm just not into buying things I don't feel I need, but I'm more than happy to use her old stuff after she gets newer, better things. Awesome.

i hate the live blog feed

Okay, I officially hate that live feed thing for the blogs. I liked it much better when it just linked you straight to blog, but you could still tell when someone updated. Now it's all jacked up and annoying. Boo.

13 days until I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I'm very excited. Also not as angry because either I care less or I know I'm almost through this harrowing time. Hah. The theme of the next two weeks is "don't go down with the ship." That is my advice to everyone else. As soon as it starts to crash and burn, I hope they all get out.

I think the dog misses me during the day. We hung out almost every day since I got home from Europe/NYC and was just working nights at The Restaurant. Now I only see her for, like, half an hour a night while I'm eating dinner and getting ready in the morning.

There's this huge gecko living in my room. I'm not sure how it got in, but I see it every night. The big ones kind of creep me out; especially when they're all see through and fat. Gross. That reminds me of the little gecko that lives in the podium where I put my hostess stand. My old managers never believed me when I said he lived in the pillar until they watched him creep out of the same hole at around 8PM for a couple of nights in a row. He's my arch nemisis and I've always been a little wary that he was going to fall on me one night and make me freak out in front of everyone. I guess I'll miss him when I'm gone, though, because I do like constants.

The new job is going okay. I'm pretty quick at counting up all the cash from the day before for deposit. However, I realize, once again, how much I hate math. I hate math and I'm not particuarly good at it (I almost didn't pass high school because I failed math two years in a row--thank gawd for credit by exam in 8th grade), but now I have a job where I do math all day long. If only my former math teachers could see me now. Hah.

These 12-13 hour days are kind of killing me. I'm glad it's the weekend soon so I'll have a couple of daytime hours free. It was a good call to put my notice in because I don't think I would want to do this for longer than two weeks. The exercise thing didn't pan out either. I'll try again tomorrow morning, but I'm not making any promises. 6AM is soooooo early. Ugh.

I miss Europe. I miss traveling. I miss New York City more. Ahhhh. I think some of my other friends are shooting for an Alaskan cruise in 2010. That might be fun too. I like boats. And ... bears. And salmon! I probably won't get to take a vacation until '10 either--Europe, New York, and being only semi-employed kind of depleted my bank accounts. Oh, well. Money well spent. I still have to either order a photo album book from the online site we're hosting all our pictures on or get motivated and start scrapbooking. I guess there will be plenty of time for a lot of things in another two weeks though. I'm excited! :D

i love lists

Some thoughts:

- I put in my two weeks' notice at The Restaurant! I got kind of nervous because, on my trek into the hotel from my car, I began to feel guilty again. Finding the place in disarray, like usual, when I got there helped me push through it though. Man, I still really have issues with guilt ... but that's for another blog. As soon as I told New Manager about it, I felt very happy and relieved. It was a very "the end is near" moment and I was pretty chipper for the rest of the evening. I'm not sure everyone else took the news as well. They're happy for me that I got a full-time, permanent job, but I am screwing them all over a little bit by leaving, especially without a replacement.

- I'm very accident prone today. I smashed my finger between my door and the filing cabinet while trying to let some guy deliver envelopes today (my office is very small) and just a couple of minutes ago I kicked a weight and injured my toe. Awesome.

- Working with money scares me. And that's my job now. Eek!

- I'm totally counting on being able to figure out Quickbooks by being part of the generation I grew up in. This is kind of how I got proficient scores on all the Microsoft Office tests I had to take for some recruiting company the other month. I just half-educated-guessed my way through it all ... and The Boyfriend helped a little (okay, a lot). Maybe I should be scared. The accountant promised that I would be able to figure it out once I "messed around" with it for a bit though. Eh.

- I don't know when I'll have time to exercise anymore. Not that I enjoy it all that much, but I don't want to add another two weeks of fat to work off. I'm shooting to get up at 6am (slim chance) and get some cardio in before I have to go to the new job. After a full day of two jobs, there is no way I'm going to come home and run. Mornings are not my friend, but they are my only hope at getting my body under control a little bit before I have the actual time to devote to slimming and toning.

- Working 12 hour days suck. Especially when The Restaurant only gives you one night a week off --which wasn't asked about. I'm still salty about that. I totally would have worked it anyway, but I would have liked to have been asked if I wanted more days off. Good riddance to them!

- I was thinking about it, and I would totally try to keep The Restaurant in my schedule if they offered me more money. Only they won't because the people in control of the money have no idea that I'm under-appreciated and under-paid (not for a hostess, but totally for the BS I deal with now and all the crap I fix in the reservation book). Oh, well.

- I started brining cute stuff to make my office seem less dreary. I think I need to replace the light fixtures. A little more light would make the place look a lot bigger and happier.

- I totally love that planner I just bought ... even if I bought myself a work planner in January too. The one now is super cute and I use it all the time.

- Off to bed. Maybe I'll actually wake up in time to run.

P.S. I kind of hate whatever Blogger did so now that when I click on blogs that I linked, they're all weird and f'ed up when I get there. I previously liked it because it updated itself to list who recently posted stuff, but now I hate whatever is going on. A lot.

just a quick note

First day went okay. I need a cup for my pens and a staple remover. I'm going to put in my two weeks' notice tomorrow at The Restaurant. I don't think that I really want to work two jobs and there's a lot of stuff going on at the new place for me to do right now.

Starting a new job always reminds me how bad I am at remembering names. Being the "new girl" means that I need to remember a whole load of new names (the staff is much bigger than the restaurant I'm at now) and they don't have name tags. I miss name tags.

One of my friends is getting married in September so there's frivolity abundant and dress shopping to do. I actually have a dress in mind to wear that I bought in New York, but I need to find shoes to wear with them. This is the first friend wedding I'm going to so I'm super excited.

The Boyfriend and I are going to grab some dinner, pick up a couple of office supplies for my new space, grab a key to his brother's apartment so that he can start moving in (I hate moving!), and maybe see a movie (which is what I said last time, but we didn't). I am determined to see something recent. And .... I'm off.

news

To Michael: Yes, if you read back to an entry that I made (and am too lazy right now to link; sorry) about how my body hates me and wants to get fat and have babies, you will find the source of the (still minute) desire to get off my butt. No, I don't use my real name here so thanks for the discretion. It was a bit of a shock to find someone using my internet alias here, but a nice one. Also (sorry again), I'm at a loss to which "Michael" you are ... there are a lot of you out there.

***

It made sense for me to start with that, but now it kind of puts a damper on the good news I have ...

I GOT A JOB!

Whoo hoo! Go, me! It's at another restaurant so I have no idea what I'm going to call it yet ... I already have "The Restaurant" taken, obviously. Eh. Anyway, it's an admin/book keeping/all other odd jobs position and I think it will be a lot of work, but a lot of fun. The place is kind of new so I get to come in and basically create my own system of doing things and keeping track of a gajillion items and duties. The anal retentiveness in me is revving to get into it and organize the crap out of the place.

I start tomorrow at 8:30AM so no more late nights for me, I guess.

And I know that I've been griping about The Restaurant and quitting ever since I started blogging again, but I'm feeling kind of guilty about quitting. We are a small company and I would feel really bad about leaving them without a hostess, especially since there is no one who could really give another person the kind of training I received. I'm the only one there right now, too, so they need to look for two people, at least, to cover the week properly. And I can only imagine the kind of havoc that will ensue if there's a new person with no training working every night in the middle of summer. Still there are times, like tonight, that I revert back to my disdain about my new position and think, "To hell with them." I think I'm going to wait until Saturday to make a final decision. If the new job doesn't take too much time, I may just work two jobs until they find someone. Or maybe this is the week The Restaurant pisses me off so much I can just quit. Who knows.

I'm very excited about the new job though. I had to bust out my old, ghetto T-Mobile starter phone from four years ago because I think there is going to be a lot of texting involved with the new job. When my sister can get an upgrade I'll probably use it (she used mine last summer) to get a fancy smancy phone. And I guess I should get that laptop battery that I was talking about too. Damn. That's a lot of spending for a job I haven't worked an hour for yet.

Okay, off to bed. I almost forget what it's like to get up early and go to work. I hope the hiatus of a day job hasn't spoiled me too much.

i love tags

I didn't blog all weekend. Boo.

However, I did get some comments and a tag from another blogger I read, which made me excited (because I'm a dork like that). So, before I do anything else, here's that:

1. How much exercise do you get in an average week?

As much as I can stomache ... which is about an hour of cardio and weights 5-6 days a week. Except for this past week where I completely slacked off and exercised only once or twice. Damn. I have no day job though so I figure I should be doing something productive like "not get fat sitting on my butt all day watching TV shows."

2. Do you make an effort to fit exercise into your daily schedule?

Not really, but that's only because I'm home all day during nothing. I hope that changes soon though.

3. Is there any part of your body that you feel could use a little extra work?

My thighs. All the weight just goes there first. I hate it. I don't gain weight evenly. One of my biggest fears that don't involve dying or immense pain is that my body becomes disproportional somehow so I've been trying to include some lunges and other thigh exercises into my day when I feel ambitious.

4. What time of day do you prefer to work out?

It doesn't really matter to me.

5. What kind of music or what song gets you pumped to work out?

I don't typically listen to music. At home, I watch TV while I run. When I go out I just run.

***

Doing that makes me feel as if I need to step it up this week with the exercise. We'll see, though, because I really do hate it.

I'm starting to wish that I didn't link this blog from my other personal sites now. I just tried to write three different paragraphs, but decided that I didn't want everyone who knows me knowing what's going on with my life right now. I wonder if anyone even followed me here. I like to think that I'm way better than boredom any day! Well, actually I'm guessing that the people who can access my Facebook didn't even notice the change. However, maybe the loyal few who still frequent Xanga made it to the new blog. ("Xanga" is actually a word that the spellcheck feature on on my Firefox browser recognizes. Odd.)

I have two phone interviews set up for tomorrow morning. It gives me hope that an end to my nights at The Restaurant are near.

I don't like writing these little paragraphs that aren't really paragraphs, but I feel as if I can't really concentrate right now.

Noticing that I begin so many sentences with "I" makes me feel self-absorbed. And, yes, I purposely began this mini-paragraph differently after making that realization.

(Okay, maybe Firefox is just being weird because I spelled a funky word and it didn't catch it)

I'm off to bed now because all this writing and deleting has made me tired. Plan for tomorrow:

- Breakfast with The Boyfriend
- Phone interviews
- Clean room
- EXERCISE
- Work at The Restaurant (BOO.)

wish me luck

Going for an interview! Got a good feeling! Wearing my new, blue shirt that I've been saving for a good interview!

ice cream = delicious

I was just thinking about how I like my ice cream firm enough so that I have to chew it as it melts in my mouth. That led me to wonder if it would be possible to melt down a tub of ice cream and redeposit the liquid mess into ice cube trays so that I could have rock hard chunks of ice cream at my disposal. I may actually try it someday.

I'm more than halfway through the 3 small containers of that delicious gourmet ice cream I mentioned before. I think I'm the only one eating it too. Although 1) I like to think to myself that I'm not the only one so that I don't seem so much like a pig and 2) it's been so bloody hot lately I can't believe I'm the only one to seek solace in the rich, creamy goodness.

I always try to trick myself into eating less by spooning it into little bowls (so it looks like I get a full bowl, but it's a small bowl). I also do this with pies and cakes by cutting them into ridiculously thin slices because I know I'll eat at least three or four, but it will be the equivalent of one slice. I'm a freak like that. And it really doesn't work because I always over-eat at some point anyway. I totally have issues with impulse control. Boo.

Tonight at work wasn't as hellish. I know this because I wasn't as angry and people were more inclined to talk to me, commenting about how there wasn't a giant storm cloud over my head shooting lighting at everyone in sight. I think I've found the trick to surviving there: cut actual caring about running things perfectly (I'm a huge control freak, which is probably why I'm such an awesome hostess) and do whatever I want despite what New Manager wants to do. I placed a few very firm "no's" to squelch ideas of New Manager's that would have led to major headaches for me and much running around in every which direction for the servers and it turned out well. I'm sure at some point he will not like me bossing him around like that, especially in front of guests, I suspect, but whatever.

My former manager told me that I would hate working at his new place of employment and that I should just try to stick it out or quit if it starts getting worse. "Time off is not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes sitting out a hand is better than losing," is what he told me via email in response to my rather desperate inquiry about a job. I don't want to be miserable at a job; it's seriously one of my worst fears. I saw a few things in the paper (and the dreaded UH employment site, unfortunately) that piqued my interest, and I've got a couple of leads from my boss at the capitol that I hope lead to interviews. So, with any luck, I'll be putting in my two week's notice before I even qualify to get health insurance from The Restaurant, although I hear that their plan is quite good.

Time for bed. I need to get up early to get through cover letter writing, resume tweaking, exercising, and transcript sending all before work tomorrow afternoon.