littlelotte

Sundays are just no-win at my work. If you open, you're inevitably dealing with everybody and their brother trying to call in sick because they have a hangover. If you're mid, you're walking into the next set of problems (short-staffed so you end up cooking, prep cooks not doing their job so you have to harass them to make something before the restaurant opens in 15 minutes, etc.). If you close, you're there all freaking night because you close at ten, but it's summer so everybody is coming in later and just hanging out for hours on end, so you don't even get the customers out of the building until an hour after close (which is when I'm typically leaving).

Tonight, of course, I was at work until after 12:30am. And we closed at 10pm. We had a six top walk in shortly before close, the headwait was really really sick and we had nobody on the floor to cover headwaiting so I got to do it, and a cook didn't show up (one we were just talking about last night, Julie! ha! Big Spoon ;-)).

Also, we're moving to web-based scheduling. This consists of hours of training materials on top of current responsibilities, and headaches galore. Also, in my sea of unqualified applicants I have two promising applications (one still needs to come in and test, and the other has an interview on Tuesday) from a restaurant I just found out did some major "house cleaning" recently. They fired a bunch of people after realizing that their employees were stealing upwards of 100K/year. Guess who I'm not hiring? The really funny story about it? We fired a couple of people who now work there for stealing. When I told both of the managers I worked with today (separately) the first thing each said was, "Anybody we know?" with a huge smirk on their faces.

Now I appear to be nodding off at the computer, so I guess that means it's bedtimes.

I hatehatehate when I have big news and can't say a damned thing because of stupid confidentiality agreements! I don't like being an adult! *whines*

The big news both affects me majorly and doesn't affect me at all. It all really depends on what my JVP says about what happens with me next. I have no idea what will and won't be affected by the most recent developments, mainly because I don't know if I'll still be with CiP or not.

hahaha...yes! I got my check the other day (well, it's direct deposited, but I looked at my paystub online) and the bonus seemed really really REALLY off. I went into work this morning to an email saying it was wrong, and that FedEx had delivered the rest of it overnight today! I think I don't mind them screwing up my bonus, as it seems the new check I'm cut gets less taxes taken out of it.

Tomorrow I need to mail out my October rent check. My final rent check to Sterling! YES! Also, got my deposit back from the K'zoo apartment the other day (well, most of it). I think I'll have to give Lakeside Dan's address to send that deposit check to, as I won't have an actual permanent address. Oooh...hm. I need somewhere to have everything sent to. Maybe a K'zoo PO box...? I don't like this whole "not going to actually have anywhere of my own to live" thing...particularly the "I don't even know where I will be come October 11th" thing. Well, October 9th, really, as I'll have the last two days of that week off.

Okay...it's bedtime now.

100% for me on the management part of the September secret shop. Win! It was the first time one of my stores got shopped while I was the manager on the floor.

I'm loving His Dark Materials, and I'm on the final book. Also, I bought another Italo Calvino book--If On a Winter's Night a Traveler...I can see he's going to be an addicting one. Essentially, this one is ten separate stories, all of which end at a moment of suspense, that "together...form a labyrinth of literatures, known and unknown, alive and extinct, through which two readers, a male and a female, pursue both the story lines that intrigue them and one another." Now that I can afford to again, I've gotten back in the habit of actually buying books. I like owning things more than borrowing them from a library. I like writing in the margins and highlighting too much ;-)

A couple of striking HDM quotes...

"We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not...or die of despair."
--The Golden Compass

"What do you mean, a paleo-archaeologist? Archaeologists already study what's old; why do you need to put another word meaning 'old' in front of it?"
--The Subtle Knife (hehehehehehehehehe)

Also, this will just sound silly to most of you on my f'list, but some of you will get it. I feel like the gods are pushing me towards something, but I'm not sure what. It feels like it's supposed to be a more mystical turn, but I don't even know what I should be looking for or where to begin. The most mystical I've ever really gotten (except for my silly teenage Wicca days--yes you can laugh :-P) is my tarot deck--and admittedly, I do pretty well with it when I read for people. Unfortunately, I'm a little concerned attempting to use my deck to figure it out for myself, as I obviously have blinders on when it comes to myself and my life and what I would read in the deck in a reading for myself. I've been feeling like this since I got out to Sterling, actually, but I was too unsure to mention it before. Since then the feeling has just gotten more nagging. I find it difficult to try to figure it out through reading, as I am moving so much and don't have reliable access to libraries that would have the books I'd be looking for (and I don't even know what I should be looking for in the first place)...and nothing specific seems to be calling out to me at the moment. I am very lost and very confused and I know I'll have this hole until I figure it out...help? Dreams have given me clues that are either very obscure or I forget by the time I wake up. I'm pretty certain Hermes is behind it, though--it's pretty blatantly his energy and his "voice." Of course, I'm also not completely sure, as that could just be him acting as messenger for someone or something else entirely. Bah! I'm hoping mentioning it will bring something clearer to light.

Finally, Hendrick's Gin is awesome. Just awesome. If only I had a refrigerator to keep a cucumber in for it...

Now it is 1:30am and I work at 10am in the morning, probably until about nine or so. But I want to read more! But I must sleep. *pout*

Way way sicker than I woke up this morning. As I was in the shower before work it occured to me, "Damnit! I'm in management now! I can't ever call in sick again." Insert very sad face here.

First night of bar training went not too badly. Could have certainly gone worse given that I feel as though I've been run over by a semi at the moment.

I am also so drugged up right now it's ridiculous. I never mix medicines outside of what doctors have given me all lumped together, but I felt so good this morning that I had to do it again.

Sleepy time. Work at 11am tomorrow. Pout. Four more days behind the bar, and then my restaurant opens and closes (a week or so), and I'm done. And I still don't know when I'm leaving or if I'm going to Polaris 100% for certain.

LOREENA MCKENNITT IS COMING TO KALAMAZOO!!!

http://community.livejournal.com/quinlan_road/31185.html?view=115153#t115153

This just made my day from hell wonderful.

Not so much a day from hell, but when your kitchen manager passes out and gets carted away in an ambulance at roughly six-thirty in the morning and you're the closest thing to a manager left to create the prep lists (when you've never even worked in a kitchen before and you've seen her do it all of about twice, especially) and open the restaurant...it makes for an interesting day--and you know that wasn't the only thing that went wrong today that involved me. The past two weeks, in fact, have been terribly crazy and surreal. Next, a chunk of the moon is going to crash into the middle of our restaurant...and you think I'm joking. Just you wait and see...

I finished about a third of my first BYTE book last night ("Better Yourself Through Education"--a series created for OSI management to familiarize themselves with various things...topics include running meetings, legal issues important to restaurants (which is the one I have now), financial management, and other various business related things), and according to one of the other managers it's the longest/hardest to get through. I got through that much in two hours sitting at the coffee shop, so I'm not terribly concerned about finishing it before I'm out of MIT--in fact, at this rate I'll finish before I even start my training.

Dan's still asleep (he worked the overnight last night), and I'm kinda hungry, but he'll probably be up within an hour or two, so maybe I should just get a shower. We got about four inches of snow between 1am and 7am last night, and it still hasn't stopped. I haven't seen outside since 7:30 this morning, but I can see the snow still coming down outside my blinds. I told Dan when I picked him up that we should go for a walk and take some pictures of it today after he gets up. I really need to empty my camera...I really need to get my laptop fixed so I can use my own computer again, actually.


A "style" survey from entwined_in_ivy:

1. What *Era* Or *Period* Of Clothing Do You Feel Best Suits Your Looks And Personality? Why?
I really don't know. I've always loved the 50s poodle skirts and sweaters and always thought they'd look exceptionally good on me given my figure. I also really enjoy the lovely simplicity of the 40s-era dresses.

2. Have You Ever {Or Would You Ever} Worn Fantasy Or Historical Garb As Casual *Every Day* Clothing? Why Or Why Not?
No, but I wouldn't necessarily not, so long as it was tasteful and wasn't overbearing and matched what I felt like wearing. I more like modern fusion of historical pieces. For example, I have a lovely white collared top that is vaguely a corset top.

3. How Would You Describe Your Personal Style?
Classic. I'm big on tailored looks. I love pretty, but I also love professional. I love my collared and fitted more professional shirts, but I also adore my princess sleeves and frills--I especially love when the two can be combined. When I was in high school I told my mom that I wished I had the money to dress like Stevie Nicks. I love trailing sleeves and sheer overshirts and long, flowing skirts. Really, this post has pictures that rather perfectly describe what I love to wear most: http://littlelotte.livejournal.com/188166.html --minus the picture from work...lol

( the rest of the survey... )

The compliments I treasure most are those unintended...

I've been working very hard this past week at work to tie up loose ends: make sure all the invoices listed as unpaid on the statements actually have or have not been paid and get copies of those that I don't show as having been paid on my end, make sure all the folders I've cluttered with random papers over the past year are organized or tossed as appropriate, make sure that the messes others have made are fixed or cleaned up or appropriately organized, make sure terminations and addresses are up-to-date in the portal and the phone list is as up-to-date and correct as possible--basically, make sure everything is reasonably organized for the next person to take my place. I won't be around to answer questions like "What goes in this folder?" or "Is this form important?" about something momentarily unneccesary that still did eventually need to be done.

Nick was looking for paperwork regarding a large piece of equipment that we no longer needed and was sent on to the Tulsa, Oklahoma Carrabba's in November. The paperwork had nil to do with me, so I never touched it, but we thought that perhaps it may have been put in one of the boxes we fill with various paperwork each month (our way of loose-paper keeping). We dragged the boxes out of our back storage space and he was going through them trying to find them. They weren't in there, as I knew they wouldn't be (I personally organize and put everything from the previous month into those boxes on the first of every month), but then he called the company responsible for the move to try to find some information. When they were throwing names his way to try to identify as the person who organized the move I remembered that I'd written the person's name in a note in the manager's redbook, and I searched it out.

Now (as a preface of sorts, as if the above paragraph wasn't already one), completely opposite to how I am in my personal life, I'm really rather organized when it comes to work--or at least the part of things that I know other people will have to deal with. I have my own personal form of organization, but I know it's nothing that anybody else would ever understand, and so I'm able to organize those other things so other people can easily find what they need. I bunch up all of the DSR bundles and line check sets in big rubber bands so that they're not just loose, I binder clip all of the tipshare sheets and the labor reports and the Bar drawer/server tracking sheets seperately, I have the invoices separated into approriate categories, etc.

Well, Nick was going through the boxes and--almost under his breath and with a tinge of sadness or regret--said, "God but you're thorough! You're going to make somebody a great manager. I only wish it were me."

It's these things that nearly break my heart and make me wish I had a place right here. People find out that I'm going to become a manager and their face lights up for me and they're full of really genuinely nice and congragulatory things for me. I've never seen people so genuinely happy for me. People say things to the managers when I'm keying--both within and outside of my earshot--about how helpful I am and how good I am and thanking me profusely for simple things that I take it as my job to do (but too many others in charge, I realize, don't bother with) like greeting a table or taking a drink order and sometimes even half waiting on the table myself if the server really needs it. Somebody, a day or two after I found out about my test, had some really nice compliment for me while I was in the server alley and Nick was expoing. He made some comment about teaching me nearly everything he knows and not being able to teach me everything because--of course--then he'd have to kill me; and then, as an aside and with the knowledge that only himself, our JVP and me had, said, "Don't forget where you came from." I replied with a catch in my throat, "How could I ever forget?"

From the beginning he's painted himself as like our father--and the staff as a family of sorts--which of course it is. He really is like a father to me. Without this job and without his guidance and mentoring I'm not sure I'd ever have come to where I have--especially so quickly. I see it and hear it in these unguarded comments and the devastated look on his face when he found out I probably wouldn't be there much longer. He's really happy that I've grown into what I have with the company, but he's truly upset to see me go--someone he knows really and truly cares for the restaurant and everything that happens within it. I've sacrificed a fair amount for that restaurant, and he knows it. There are few places where a server can find a relationship with a restaurant like that. What does it say that we have multiple servers who were here at the very beginning who have since graduated and gotten salaried jobs and still make it a point to work there because they just love it that much?

I've babbled far more than I intended to, and kudos to any who actually made it to the end. I'm just feeling thoughtful and a touch melancholy tonight, and I've been thinking a lot about this stuff.

In completely other things, Loreena McKennitt's new album is really breathtaking. Certainly my favorite...

Here is my heart and I give it to you
Take me with you across this land
These are my dreams, so simple and few
Dreams we hold in the palm of our hands

--

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
I see him walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should
A creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose
His wings at the dawning of the day.

I think this is the most passionate CD I've ever heard. It's heartbreaking and upbeat and just breathtaking.