littlelotte

These aren't even close to being in any sort of order, but they're from the 13th, 14th and 15th. Any that look museumish are from the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum on Sunday, any that look bar-ish are from Baker St. on Saturday night, any that look restaurantish are from either Friday night or the benefit on Saturday evening. I still have to get my OKC memorial ones developed.

http://wanderingchild.org/images/travel/okc

Now I'm off to see a lecture on cultural linguistics.

Not really feeling much better, though I slept for over 12 hours. My head is throbbing and it still hurts to move, but I hate just laying in bed doing nothing, and my laptop cords don't reach that far :-( It would be nice to be feeling better so that I could go out and run errands today, but I don't really see that happening :-\

I got some more info about the opening yesterday including my room assignment, a floor plan of the restaurant and a not-useful-in-the-slightest MapQuest map of the area the restaurant is in (well, it would be useful to somebody who didn't know the state, I suppose). It's so bizarre to see the floor plan because it's so different, and yet so similar, to ours.

One week and two days until my flight, and I'm terrified and excited beyond words. I have so much I still need to do before then (mainly things like "I desperately need some new non-work shoes because mine are literally falling apart," "I need a new pair of work shoes before the opening because mine are hideously stained" (because the person who decided we would wear white shoes to work in a restaurant is genius, let me tell you), "I need to attempt to get those grease stains out of my work shirts," "I need to buy luggage ASAP," and "I need to buy certain necessities/toiletries before travelling." I was thrilled beyond words when I saw the schedule for next week (note: our schedules at CiP run Thursday through Wednesday and are posted on Monday). I have Tuesday and Wednesday off, and I know I'll have Thursday off because we're not allowed to work the day before we travel. I specifically requested these days off at Bennigan's so that I might have a little time to get some packing and cleaning done around here, but didn't expect them off at CiP. I will have three full days off before I travel...*insert happy sounds here*

Also, I had my 45-day eval at Bennigan's yesterday, and it went well. I got all Ms (the rating scale is something like R=Role Model (mainly a trainer thing...you only get those when you've been there a while and are up to standards to be a trainer), M=Meets Standards, N=?? (he also explained it can mean "newness" and that most new people get mostly Ns on their first eval or two), I=Needs improvement, and II=Immediate Improvement necessary) and one N (in an area he said just about everybody in the restaurant should probably get an I in, and I got an N simply because he hasn't really paid attention to it with me so he doesn't know where I actually stand :-P), so I'm doing extremely well for a new person. Yay! The N was in the section relating to washing hands every time you switch tasks, etc. I can guarantee I'm at least an M in that one, though :-P I'm beyond obsessive about washing my hands at work, and probably better than even the managers at it...but I really can't complain given the rest of my eval *grins*

I'll stop babbling now. I think I'm going to get a shower and see if I feel okay enough to go buy some new work shoes and some of the stuff I'll need for travel. I'm so good at procrastinating, and I don't want to find myself in Oklahoma and having forgotten some essential thing.

Oh! One more thing, for those who have managed to read this far: I'm thinking about starting a new journal for my traveling training. Should I, or should I just create a filter for it on here? It will include photos, play-by-plays of my days and various other things relating to doing the travelling and the training. I think I should take advantage of my paid account and do a poll here. Note: If I create a new journal for this, it will be Friends Only. I like my job too much to risk it by accidentally posting something Corporate wouldn't like seeing.

[Poll #645485]

My lack of variously appropriate icons is distressing to me. I need to work at filling up more of the 100-icon space I paid for. Also, I must go through my CD book and import a fair number of CDs onto my computer, as I'm also severely mourning the lack of October Project, HEART, Heather Nova, Patty Griffin and others on my computer.

Bah. I really think I jumped into this second job thing way too quickly. I'm already annoyed by everything I'm not doing in the time I'm at work. Is roughly $100 extra per week really worth this? If everything goes according to the meeting's plan, it seems like I'm going to be getting more hours, and better hours, at CiP...so I may end up quitting Bennigan's before too horribly long. I'll be very sad to leave some really awesome people already, but my loyalties lie first and foremost with CiP...and Bennigan's knew that when I went in...and I'm not going to kill myself with exhaustion if it starts getting to that point.

Off to the store to pick up a couple necessities, and then to get ready for work tonight. I also need to go to Bennigan's at some point this weekend to get next week's schedule. Probably tomorrow. I have all weekend off from CiP (and am only scheduled for M-Th at Bennigan's), and a lot of stuff to get done. Dan really wants me to go to Jackson because I haven't seen his parents in quite a while, but there is so much I need to do here that I don't know if I can. Not to mention if it snows more...the roads are already so bad here. Dan, would you hate me if I just stayed here and cleaned and recooperated from the past two weeks? It's been so crazy, I really think I need to.

I closed tonight at work. It's been a while since I've done this, and so I'm now exhausted. Oddly enough, my sales tonight were all of $15 more than on Monday :-P That's how busy Monday was and how slow tonight was. Ashley, Lawren and I all ended up with different pieces of a party of 31, and we really didn't make much off of that, though we did each get a piece of carrot cake. A woman at my table also left me with a very large Cadbury almond bar and her Mary Kay card...rofl... I also ended up with a very very yummy piece of wedding shower cake when I waited on a wedding shower party Sunday.

The highlights of my night, however, had to be after I dropped a bill and then walked by a table that had ordered roughly ten shots for themselves and their friends and overheard, "Holy shit! They were $5 each?!?" and being asked by Nick if Jessica had talked to me about posing for the "perfect uniform" photo for the Sterling Heights store. Apparently, they're starting to hire over there, and Bill wants a photo of a "perfect uniform" to show for orientation and such. Nick and Jessica decided to nominate me. I was definitely laughing over that one.

I think the biggest plus about my laptop so far is that I can sit on the couch and use it. It's far more comfortable than sitting at my computer desk after work all night.

I went into work earlier this morning with Beth to help get the place cleaned up before the big people come in tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow one of the heads of our concept is going to be there with the new Director of Operations, and then Friday the president of Outback will be there. Both of us also work this evening and were repaid with the best smoking and non-smoking sections in addition to getting paid for doing the cleaning itself. I also sent the word out to one of our managers about wanting to do travelling training. He was walking me out to my car last night (because we can't leave the restaurant at night by ourselves--we have to walk out with somebody, and since I'm usually one of the last servers gone a manager usually ends up walking me out) and was telling me what a great job he thinks I do for them and how much he appreciates that and asked me why I wasn't a trainer yet. I replied, "I don't know" and he asked me if I wanted to. I said I'd love to, and that I'd really love to do the travelling training. He said he'd definitely put in the word for me. *squeals*

Along the lines of travelling...my bank account is starting to build again, which is nice. I've never had over $1000 in there at one time of my own doing (and even then I've never had even up to $1500), so I've set a prize for myself as soon as it gets up there--a goal reward, basically. Once I accumulate $1500 in it I'm going to finally get my passport. This is something I've been telling myself I'd do for a long time, and I really do want to start seriously travelling one of these days and I want to finally break that first (and rather costly) barrier. This is my vow to myself, really, that I'm actually going to do it this time. And I'm saying it in front of all of you as an added push to actually do it instead of the "Oh...but you could use the money for this other thing that you need right this moment!" that I tend to do.

In other news, the DSL stuff came, but they couldn't deliver it, so it's sitting at the UPS office at the moment. I'll be picking it up tomorrow and Dan and I will probably be setting it up tomorrow at some point :-D

Wow. 16649 steps tonight. Yes, you're going to have to deal with this every night I work until the novelty of doing it wears off.

My throat really really really hurts and nothing is helping it. This sucks.

Stevie Nicks's father passed away a couple of days ago.

I am ready to strangle some people I work with. I was FoH (Front of House) closer tonight, which means I check a designated area of seats. I make sure the six-packs are refilled and done correctly (Heinz 57, salt, kethcup, tobasco sauce, pepper and mustard), that people have swept their section and that their tables look presentable and ready for the next day. We have a FoH closer (who is responsible for checking out most of the non-smoking sections), a bar closer (who is responsible for checking out the bar area sections), and a patio closer (responsible for checking out the people who worked on the patio, obviously). Tonight I signed out about six people. Three of those people were from other sections. I went to check out my area before the manager did an inspect of it and realised that I had checked out all of about three people of my own area and that someone else had done the rest--badly. Very badly. I had to sweep almost the entire non-smoking area (save those I had checked out myself) and fix about three incorrect six-packs. Also, I saw my initials on the board for a couple of people who I definitely did NOT check out or sign for who were not in my area and not one of the other three I checked out. So, A) I'm infuriated with whomever checked the people of my section out and didn't actually make sure things were done properly, and B) infuriated with the people who decided it would be fun to forge my initials next to their names so that they could leave. Just because you're angry that you got a bad section and that it was a section with only two tables does NOT mean you can slack on your closing sidework, Taylor (not like she's actually on here and will read this), and it DEFINITELY does not mean you can forge my initials so you don't have to do it...when I wasn't even closer for your section.

Stupid people.

I didn't sit down once from 3:00 until about 2:15. *collapses*

I love our Not Too Particular, Not Too Precise burger without meat more than I can say. Especially after I hadn't eaten in about seven hours. And our house salad. And our fries. And everything on the menu that I can eat except for the veggie burger. The veggie patties are icky.

We now have our liquor license. We had it faxed to us ten minutes before we opened. All is well in the world.

I also work tomorrow, so I really really want to sleep now. Good night.

Well, training was actually kinda fun. The tests weren't bad, but I'm scared over tomorrow's--the specialty drink test. The menu tests aren't horrible, thankfully--they're pretty much "Here's a list of descriptions. If the description fits the dish, circle it!" Pseudo-multiple choice, except you might have anywhere from five to twelve+ things circled on any given question. The specialty drink test is going to be "List what's in the drink and tell me what garnimal it's garnished with," so that's going to be the worst of the lot. We got to try the pale ale we serve tonight. It's made special for our chain, I guess, and it's not bad. Also, apparently we still don't have a liquor license because the liquor commission is being a pain in the ass, so if you want to come in and drink you're going to have to wait a little bit :-P That's not going to be cool for when we open.

I got home at about 9:30 and suddenly had a splitting headache :-\ I'm not really sure why, though.

Okay...I'm going to go now. This headache is really obnoxious.

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/02/27/Business/A_novel_approach_to_h.shtml

http://www.cigna.com/health/

Bah...I need my job to start so I can more directly look into all of this :-P I like the sliding scale way of handling health insurance, though, that they talk about in the top article. That's nice.

On abstinence education. I'm pissed now:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/crysania4/385617.html

In much happier news...

I WAS OFFERED THE JOB! *squeals* Orientation is tentatively scheduled for the 18th of June (sorry, Lissa and Kelli :-( If so, I won't be able to come to your party *sniffles*), and training starts July 5th. I get to quit the pub! I think I'm going to talk to Mom about rescheduling my graduation party for the first weekend in July (the 2nd). By that time I'll have quit the pub and it won't interfere with training or anything at the new place (we're slated to open to the public the 12th of July...there are a lot of planned events the weekend preceeding, that, though...like a Friends and Family night, a benefit night that he might actually be singing at--lol, and a media/publicity night). Of course, that's also the weekend before 4th of July, but we're only really inviting immediate family and a few of my friends, so...if family wants to ditch me for Fourth of July out-of-town plans, then they're not worth being there, anyway. We were already anticipating problems the weekend of my birthday anyway because that's the same weekend at the Venetian Festival in St. Joseph, and practically all of Dad's family goes to that every year.

In other news, Lissa *(cdaae13) was suspended because Melousie and co. are fucking idiots. I STILL LOVE YOU, LISSA!!! And happy belated golden birthday! I wasn't online for it, otherwise I would have posted sooner :-(

...and contrary to Dan saying I shouldn't, I'm celebrating the new job by not going to class today and taking my one absence. I'm sick of the idiots in there :-\

Now I'm off to deposit this weekend's tips and pay my phone connection/first month of service bill and my cell phone bill...which I think I already paid this month, actually, so I wouldn't have to worry about it...