littlelotte

So we're working on the whole "registry" thing even though I'm really not thrilled with the idea of people getting us gifts just because we decided to make the whole thing legal and we want them to come and watch...

I came across an absolute gem, though: http://www.bottlenotes.com A wine registry! Amazing! Really I think once we set something up (as we inevitably will given that we love wine) it should be more of a wine wish list for all future birthdays/occasions/etc...kind of like an amazon.com wish list (before Amazon started selling things like housewares and set up registries of their own).

Because I want to BUY IT ALL!!!

Only linked because they describe it as first in the series, and I own five that came before it. Ha.

Also why it's a good thing that San Francisco Music Box Co. doesn't exist in malls I frequent...
The ballet!!! I want the rotating music box POTO ballerinas!!!

Awwww...*whimper*

More whimpering...

Another "OMG MUST HAVE NOWWWWWWW!"

*whines* I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant!

Okay...done.

Well, one more, but not POTO...

What I really really REALLY want for Christmas...only in English.

What was I doing on eBay? Buying Dan's present, of course! >-)

Not much to say, really. Nothing special happening in my life at the moment. My parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks, though, and they're bringing my gecko :-D I'm very happy that I will finally have Anna back It's been about a year now since she's been mine :-(

We put the new bookcase together today, finally! Well, mostly I put it together ;-) Dan tells me I'm definitely my father's daughter because I'm apparently "handy." I thought he was being facetious because I'm so home-repair/tool ignorant (in fact, my relatives who read this are probably laughing hysterically reading about the likelihood of me being "handy"), but he was completely serious. Granted, I'm far better at hammering a nail into anything than I once was, and I'm actually not horrible (though not amazing by any stretch) at putting sauderwood furniture together ;-) Anyway, now we can finally get rid of some more boxes. Ha. We have too many books between the two of us. Well, can one ever really have too many books? I think I'll only ever say yes when I'm in the process of boxing them up to move. Books are the easiest thing to pack, though, at least. I think we have more boxes of books than we do anything else.

Also, with the new bookcase I finally got to unpack my Phantom snowglobes and such. One of my San Francisco Music Box Company POTO snowglobes is broken! I was heartbroken. It's my favorite one because it pictures the Phantom with his skull staff during the Wandering Child scene (obviously my favorite scene--in the show and in the story, I do believe. There's something so innocent and sweet and heartbreaking and seductive about it). The water is nearly gone (though it didn't seem to leak and there aren't any cracks) and the figure is at an odd angle in the globe.

I really need to take photos of the apartment now that we've got the apartment pretty much put together. We still don't have it all together, but we're leaps and bounds closer than we were a month ago.

Obviously, my life is far from exciting at the moment ;-) Oh! I should preface the following for my mom: you probably don't want to read this, Mom O:-)

More fun ghosty stuff! You may or may not remember the previous entry where I discussed why I think there is a ghost or something in the apartment. Dan hateshateshates to believe in these things after the silly, fluffy neo-pagan phases we went through at one point, but even he is forced to admit that there is something very odd in our apartment. Last night our cat was running and jumping around as usual (she was playing with a toy), and the bathroom door SLAMMED shut on her when she was about to go into the bathroom. Dan actually saw it slam shut (we were in the kitchen). Now, the bathroom door opens into the bathroom, so whatever caused the slam had to be actually in the bathroom, and the window was completely shut (Dan flipped out and checked it a little later once he wasn't freaking out quite so much), so it wasn't a wind from outside.

He's rather freaking out about it because he's never actually lived in a place with activity like this. I'm used to silly little tricky things from the ghost we're certain lives in my parents' house, so it doesn't bother me. I don't feel terrified like I always did when I was anywhere by myself in Jeremy's grandparents' house, and I don't even feel as much presence (for as little as there really was) as I did in my parents' house, so I don't worry about it. I don't even really feel much of a presence at all, and given how sensitive I've always been to those things I take that as meaning it's very benign and I don't need to worry about anything. Which I don't. I'm trying to convince him not to worry, either, and to not talk about it while we're in the house so he doesn't end up stirring more stuff up. This may sound crazy if you don't believe in these things, but I try to make it very clear to whatever these things are (anywhere I might be) that I've never seen anything and that I really really REALLY don't want to see anything while acknowledging that I believe its presence and that I have no problems with it so long as I continue to not see and not be scared of it. I'm debating whether or not we should bring the situation up to the owner and her boyfriend (both of whom have lived/worked in the space) and see if they have any stories or any knowledge of who/what it may be. I get the feeling that they aren't skeptical about these sorts of things, so maybe.

Okay, I think it's just about time to head out now. I hope you all have a good night/good day, depending on when you read this!

Sushi! It makes writing schedules so much more palatable.

Somebody really needs to tell the bartenders at SushiYa that they really don't need to pour me ultra-heavy drinks. I mean, I know that I tip excessively because they are wonderful, and I know I drink an ultra-premium gin in a very specific way, but these triple pours with just a splash of tonic are a little excessive when I'm the one who drives. Dan wasn't even with me today, and it wasn't even our regular bartender, but you'd think it was!

But yes...seaweed salad, a tuna roll, and a Yasai roll (tempura sweet potato...yummmmmmm). This is what I call dinner!

Now off to write a server schedule!

So is it just me or do people in Michigan just not take tornadoes as seriously as people in places where they are really common? The whole thing is a little disconcerting to me. Two days ago Dan and I were watching Frasier DVDs and the tornado sirens started going off. Being the little girl from Oklahoma that I am I started gathering up the necessary things and searching for the kitty-cat to head down to the basement for a while (and lamenting the lack of necessary things--we don't have a flashlight, we don't have a small radio with batteries, etc...I made a note to pick these things up on my errands today). We have a basement right in the apartment now which is immensely satisfying to me in regards to weather safety, but it still amazes me after almost three years of living with him that he (and nearly everyone I've met in the state) just doesn't get the danger of them.

The May 1999 Moore/Oklahoma City F5 tornado that destroyed the homes of family friends of ours and had my mom and dad here in Michigan on the internet and phone for days on end trying to find their friends in the area:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4pbqGsS5iB4
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zYdTLEBddPY

From a video camera set up inside a home during the above tornado (I think...and hope...that the people had set it up and left). Listening to this one brings back a lot of my childhood springs spent listening to the winds while hiding from tornadoes. It also makes me remember what my mom would always say once we finally got our storm shelter there (hardly anybody has basements or storm shelters in Oklahoma because the red clay ground makes it so difficult to dig and build as deeply as you have to for those things). We'd leave the top of the shelter open and we'd listen for the freight train/whistling wind sounds that always accompany them:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6mdf9R4nFMc

Really great piece on the May 1999 tornado from a TLC show including a satellite tornado attached to the main one:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XEW5UCIMyrQ

My favorite quote from the above piece:
"It came right up to the water tower, raised up over the water tower, came down on the other side of the water tower and then it came down the hill." Yup...that's about right...Tornado says, "Nah...I don't want to take the water tower out, but I'll destroy EVERYTHING ELSE IN A FIVE MILE RADIUS AT LEAST! NOT A FLOWER WILL BE LEFT STANDING!"

This is footage of a multi-vortex set of tornadoes. The thing that has always mesmerized me about tornadoes--it can be a beautiful and terrifying ballet of sorts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8NENOeKjaM&NR=1

I guess I've seen too much destruction, and I've lived through so many that I understand that you have to take them seriously. Dan teases me about how seriously I take the possible tornado-spawning storms, but I know that they aren't something to joke about.

Yesterday was evil, and I'd really rather not talk about it (except for the fact that we had a great lunch at Food Dance and that I got a massage for the first time in over a year...that was amazing...until I started dwelling on other things again). Maybe I'll talk about it in a work-filtered entry later. We had a work meeting, so it wasn't work per se, just things involving work. I must say, though...I will never work at another corporate restaurant again. I love this restaurant, and I adore my management team, but I'm done with corporate restaurants. I want a nice, privately owned place next.

So yes...massage. Wonderful. I also got an email today that the yoga studio I went to for a period of time is moving to the downtown mall area. I went to their site to perhaps sign up for a new yoga class, and noticed they are also offering bellydance. I went to the site of the teacher doing the class and realized that there is a beginner class on Monday nights at 6:30...which I can now attend!!! Losing the admin that does the invoices and Monday package to MIT is apparently not such a bad thing at the moment. I'm doing the Monday packages, which means I'll be in to the restaurant somewhere between 6am and 7am, and I'll be out around 5-5:30pm on Mondays. It's been a handful of years now since I did bellydance, and it's been way too many in general since I've done any dance at all. It will be an exceedingly long day, but completely worth it...and no longer than my days in high school with class, and colorguard, and dance or girl scouts or play rehearsals. Maybe after this six-week set I'll see if there are any ballroom classes on Mondays or Thursdays (same work schedule on Thursdays for payroll) that I'm interested in taking, or maybe I'll stick with this. heeee. I'm happy that I can finally start doing something like this for myself again. I need it in a lot of different ways.

Also, I've decided that I don't want a big dress. I knew from the minute I started looking that I didn't want a big dress, but they're so pretty and so much fun to try on, and with my shape and bust they have the best structure for me and look very awesome with my figure. I've decided that I want to walk down barefoot in a very simple, pretty, halter-style dress (think similar to my NYE dress...only floor length with a tiny train of sorts...and white...and not sparkly). I think I'll enlist a local or localish seamstress for the task since I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on it. I actually saw a nearly perfect style in the Inside Weddings magazine this season. They don't have the weddings from that issue online yet...it's Amy Michelson, very similar to this one.

Okay okay okay...I've got stuff to do before work now, so I'm heading out. Hey! I'm feeling better now! Hope you all have a great afternoon :-D

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.

http://community.livejournal.com/2009_weddings/96352.html

That post makes me feel like I'm behind or something--her date is the same as mine, and I've got my vows, ceremony site, a handful of important songs, colors, attendants, guest list, and...that's about it.

I know what I want for invites, and we're doing Save-the-Dates soon since our date is now official, but that's it. I have one thing that I've had for months that I really need to finish today, and that I can't talk about on here until it happens O:-)

We're going to see Prince Caspian this evening. Yay :-D He's the big Narnia fan, and I've never actually read the books, but I've always enjoyed anything based from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think I should add that to my list of classic children's literature that I've read over the past couple of years and fallen in love with, hm? ;-) Maybe later, as right now I've got at least three books that I've wanted to read waiting to be read (including Jhumpa Lahiri's newest set of short stories...heee!).

I can't believe I'm up this early. I guess I should actually make something of my day before Dan gets out of work (he's 7am-2ish today). I need to finish above mentioned project, for one, call a certain best friend for her new address O:-), and I need to pick a few things up from Meijer, and I wanted to get lots of laundry done and put away, and I wanted to start unpacking today. This weekish is nice, as our weeks run Thursday-Wednesday. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off this week, I open Thursday, and then I have Friday and Saturday off (a weekend! YAY!). Almost four days in a row, so I should be motivated to get us as out of boxes and suitcases as possible!

Things to do today which may or may not actually happen:

-Shower!
-Go into work even though I don't work and set up a few server interviews for Thursday
-Treat self to amazing new Calypso Salad and Blackberry Sangria at work after interviews scheduled because they are the most amazing things we serve right now
-Move things from other apartment
-Buy food and other things (sangrias! and porch furniture!) from Meijer
-Get myself a new digital camera, finally, as I adore my other one, but it's four years old and not as good as it once was, and I have federal refund money
-Set up my altars
-Put books away
-We need a coffee table, so coax Dan to furniture store
-Maybe cook out for dinner and eat and drink sangrias on the porch, yay!

I obviously feel about a million times better today, as I am far more ambitious than usual on a day off, and I predict that I will be back to perfectly normal health by tomorrow. Whee!

-Eat something reasonable, given that all I ate yesterday were tastes of dishes from the new dinner menu where Dan works, hot chocolate, a gin and tonic, and most of a half-pound of smoked brie and garlic and sesame crackers, and water. By bedtime I was craving veggies, obviously, but the roads are terrible and I didn't want to leave the apartment again.
-Get oil changed in car. (working on it...somebody called in and they were running behind, so I had to make an appointment for later)
-Deposit my half of rent check into Dan's account since he already sent it in and I keep forgetting to go do that. (will do that on way to oil change)
-Get roll of quarters while at bank for laundry. (ditto)
-Pick up some bathroom essentials (shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste) since we're running low.
-Do some laundry.

Do this week at some point:
-Pay bills.

Also, last night we went to Tiffany's (hence my picking up a new gin, though I still have Hendrick's left...I'd like to build up my personal collection since so few places serve the ones I drink, and the brie and crackers) and they happened to have a "Kalamazoo Bride" magazine. I picked it up hoping to find more possibilities for ceremony and reception venues downtownish. At this point it's getting extremely frustrating and I nearly want to throw my hands up in the air and shout "Okay! Fine! I'll cave and be typical and we'll change it to Midsummer and have an outdoor ceremony!" (and neither of us particularly want an outdoor ceremony because it's so iffy with weather) because apparently the only places to have a downtownish ceremony with more than 50 people is to have it outdoors at one of the B&Bs in the area. We both have Catholic families, so even with only grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, we're looking at 30 alone in my family, and more in his. Of course, we also have a handful of friends each that we'd like to invite, and given I'm still working where I am I just have to invite my boss and his wife because he's like a second father to me. And did I mention that even though I'm not the oldest (on my dad's side...I'm the oldest on my mom's side) I'm the first grandchild getting married? This is going to end up a big deal :-P

( Cut for babble )

So...I still never got to where I meant to go with the above. Anyway, still no luck on a unique downtown venue that will hold roughly 100 for the ceremony itself, and certainly no luck on a reception site that would let us decide our own catering and let us stock/run our own open bar. Bah.