It has been a while.
Time for some catch up!
After my wedding crashing hoorah, my first full week of work began. My new job title, lowly as it may sound, is the Receiving Clerk for the Portland Waterfront M. My boss, a Hawaiian born Filipino, who is as crazy as all of the other Filipinos that I know, loves her roots, is a dedicated family woman and according to most, never been happier than to have me working for her. She has been doing, her job as the Purchaser and my job stocking everything by herself. Though we are not the smallest people that work at the M, but we are very tiny people. Tiny people lifting 60 lb boxes and stocking things that even the tallest people have a hard time putting up on the shelf. What can I say, we're amazing.
My shifts start at 5am and since public transportation does not run that early, I have started riding my bike up and down the hills of Portland. Since, it was due for a tune up and the change in elevation did a number to the pressure in my tires, I thought it would be a good idea to ride it anyway. For two days I rode around with flat tires, peddling down hill. Big Blue (my bike) is now scheduled to have his tune up. I'm going to look like a midget body builder pretty soon. I was unaware that so much happened in the wee hours of the morning. And all of the people that I work with are so friendly and always say good morning. It has taken a few days but I think I have finally started saying good morning back.
I spend a lot of time in the walk-ins dating things, throwing product away, organizing and stocking and restocking. Something that most people have a hard time doing. If it's old, they think if they leave it there, it will go away. It's not my job to get rid of it, but I do...because health inspections are usually a surprise. Even though I stock everything as 'first in, first out' and making sure that the older product is more accessible than the new, these assholes will still dig for the best stuff, grab stuff from the back to get the newer stuff and not throw away boxes or trash when it's empty. I'm amazed that half the people that work in the food industry have jobs because we're on the good end of safety and sanitation.
My boss, the Island Boss, has me walk with her whenever she does orders, takes inventory and has me attend meetings. Essentially, I am learning the purchasing aspect for when she is away or unable to make an order. I am taking the Purchasing and Costing class and I am learning more at my job than at the thousands of dollars school that I am attending. I have even been able to cook and prep food in the kitchen. It's a good all around job.
But through it all, I really do enjoy my job. I am working hard, which is something that I didn't do a whole lot of in past jobs, not to say that I'm not a hard worker but because all of my past jobs were in my field, I was good at the things that I did in my comfort zone. Now, I'm not in my comfort zone so I have to work a little harder, but I'm still good at the things I do.
Tip for the Day: There is such a thing as growing up. But most of us will still always be a kid at heart.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wedding Crasher!
I figure with a full time job on my hands, my availability to go and do fun things is going to decrease. Last night, there was a wedding being thrown at the restaurant next door...live band and everything. In my aggression to try and get some sleep, I wandered down to angrily glare at the drunken guests.
When I arrived at the scene not 30 feet from the building I was approached by some of the wild guests. Well, what the heck I thought. Free booze, free dancing and free food. I'm was a big fan of Indian food and all of the other food combinations that were scattered about the tiny room. The Man, this is the name this guy actually introduced himself as, showed me around and introduced me to several people. Within the few hours that I was there, I only met the bride whose name was...Lola....Lana...something with an L.
After several hours of dancing, we were told that we had to move the party inside. I think we were being a little loud, the whole reason why I went down in the first place. I ended up going home eventually mostly because my body was so sore from the day's activities. I woke up the next morning body sore and and feet throbbing. The weekend is now also the only time to run errands and enjoy my time alone. So, I ran to the store to grab some essentials. While I was waiting in line to check out, I happen to over hear the conversation going on behind me about Will and Lorie's wedding. As I turned the two men talking stopped abruptly. All three of us just stared at each other, awkward smile and then the "Were you at...did you...?" asking all at the same time.
It was a nice adventure before real life started.
Tip for the Day: Wedding crashing- free and exciting. If you wedding crash do it right, like John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey. Know your stories and have a good time. Now, go grab your suit and make someone throw their inhibitions to the wind.
When I arrived at the scene not 30 feet from the building I was approached by some of the wild guests. Well, what the heck I thought. Free booze, free dancing and free food. I'm was a big fan of Indian food and all of the other food combinations that were scattered about the tiny room. The Man, this is the name this guy actually introduced himself as, showed me around and introduced me to several people. Within the few hours that I was there, I only met the bride whose name was...Lola....Lana...something with an L.
After several hours of dancing, we were told that we had to move the party inside. I think we were being a little loud, the whole reason why I went down in the first place. I ended up going home eventually mostly because my body was so sore from the day's activities. I woke up the next morning body sore and and feet throbbing. The weekend is now also the only time to run errands and enjoy my time alone. So, I ran to the store to grab some essentials. While I was waiting in line to check out, I happen to over hear the conversation going on behind me about Will and Lorie's wedding. As I turned the two men talking stopped abruptly. All three of us just stared at each other, awkward smile and then the "Were you at...did you...?" asking all at the same time.
It was a nice adventure before real life started.
Tip for the Day: Wedding crashing- free and exciting. If you wedding crash do it right, like John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey. Know your stories and have a good time. Now, go grab your suit and make someone throw their inhibitions to the wind.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Recovery, Accountability & Lake Erie
After playing Villa de Danica for almost two weeks, I think I am finally in the recovery stage. A deep clean of my house was in need and now all that's left is to clean the ceiling. So, Villa de Danica is officially closed until the holidays.
Today in class we had our salad practical. About half way through someone found a pot of water on stove overflowing all over the stove, into the drip tray, behind the stoves and all over the floor. Someone had started filling their pot and left it and apparently forgot, thus creating Lake Erie all over the kitchen. I know there are a few people from class who do read this, so here's a recap. After someone found it and announced that it had overflowed, he left it there to finish his practical. Chef Cabbage asked the person who was responsible to take care of the mess. Silly me to think that someone would take accountability for their actions and clean up Lake Erie on their own.
After finishing my practical, I started to clean up our station. Dropping and running seems to be a nice theme of my classmates, once again. As I started to throw trays of uncleaned dishes into the dishwasher, I looked over to see the stack of dishes that people had just left. Frustrated by the fact that we are now 6 months through and into week 4 of this class people are still not cleaning up after themselves, I yelled something like, "You guys can't even clean your ----ing dishes on salad week?" It's not really that hard and you won't end up with a pile of dishes to do at the end. The comment was followed by Chef Cabbage making fun of the fact that I had said something about the dishes again.
I walked over to grab some dishes to put away and found Lake Erie still at its prime in the middle of the floor. A solid hour after it should have been cleaned up. Further frustrated by my inept, lazy and selfish classmates, I yelled some more profanities and went to grab a mop and bucket. Still needing to clean up my own mess, I began to mop up the water while having the rest of the class slosh through the water. "Seriously?" was all I could say. And they just looked at me with this annoyed look. Seriously? Several people came by and asked what I was doing. Seriously?
I aggressively but politely recruited another classmate to help me clean up the mess and it started to go by more quickly. We finished cleaning and I went to go and clean up the rest of my station. To put it bluntly, I was livid and wished karma would kick in at this person. Chef Cabbage came over and started to thank me for cleaning up. I told him it wasn't about being thanked, it is the fact that people in this class need to take accountability for their shit and clean it up. As I huffed and puffed and blew all my food into the compost, he told me to take a deep breathe. He said I was already upset about the dishes when I found the water and I should have left it at the dishes; done my good deed for the day and let someone else clean up the lake. I went for a walk.
Later I apologized for getting so mad. He told me I had a conscience.
Not that I need to be reminded of this, but classmates, you guys need to get it together. I'd be a pretty great dishwasher and so would 3 other people in the class because we're always the ones doing your dishes. It's a good thing I can multi-task. do your dishes, clean up your mess and get my own stuff done. It's a good thing I know who'll be getting a solid externship and job. One way thinkers don't do well in the kitchen...that's why we have trash collectors.
Tip for the Day: Once again, be accountable...jerks.
Today in class we had our salad practical. About half way through someone found a pot of water on stove overflowing all over the stove, into the drip tray, behind the stoves and all over the floor. Someone had started filling their pot and left it and apparently forgot, thus creating Lake Erie all over the kitchen. I know there are a few people from class who do read this, so here's a recap. After someone found it and announced that it had overflowed, he left it there to finish his practical. Chef Cabbage asked the person who was responsible to take care of the mess. Silly me to think that someone would take accountability for their actions and clean up Lake Erie on their own.
After finishing my practical, I started to clean up our station. Dropping and running seems to be a nice theme of my classmates, once again. As I started to throw trays of uncleaned dishes into the dishwasher, I looked over to see the stack of dishes that people had just left. Frustrated by the fact that we are now 6 months through and into week 4 of this class people are still not cleaning up after themselves, I yelled something like, "You guys can't even clean your ----ing dishes on salad week?" It's not really that hard and you won't end up with a pile of dishes to do at the end. The comment was followed by Chef Cabbage making fun of the fact that I had said something about the dishes again.
I walked over to grab some dishes to put away and found Lake Erie still at its prime in the middle of the floor. A solid hour after it should have been cleaned up. Further frustrated by my inept, lazy and selfish classmates, I yelled some more profanities and went to grab a mop and bucket. Still needing to clean up my own mess, I began to mop up the water while having the rest of the class slosh through the water. "Seriously?" was all I could say. And they just looked at me with this annoyed look. Seriously? Several people came by and asked what I was doing. Seriously?
I aggressively but politely recruited another classmate to help me clean up the mess and it started to go by more quickly. We finished cleaning and I went to go and clean up the rest of my station. To put it bluntly, I was livid and wished karma would kick in at this person. Chef Cabbage came over and started to thank me for cleaning up. I told him it wasn't about being thanked, it is the fact that people in this class need to take accountability for their shit and clean it up. As I huffed and puffed and blew all my food into the compost, he told me to take a deep breathe. He said I was already upset about the dishes when I found the water and I should have left it at the dishes; done my good deed for the day and let someone else clean up the lake. I went for a walk.
Later I apologized for getting so mad. He told me I had a conscience.
Not that I need to be reminded of this, but classmates, you guys need to get it together. I'd be a pretty great dishwasher and so would 3 other people in the class because we're always the ones doing your dishes. It's a good thing I can multi-task. do your dishes, clean up your mess and get my own stuff done. It's a good thing I know who'll be getting a solid externship and job. One way thinkers don't do well in the kitchen...that's why we have trash collectors.
Tip for the Day: Once again, be accountable...jerks.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Timber's Soccer
Yesterday we were lucky enough to experience our very first Timber's game against Puerto Rico. Little Pearly is here for a visit and to commemorate the return of some more Wyoming/Colorado we decided to pregame it before heading down to the stadium. Originally we had planned on everyone meeting up here and then heading over but everyone seemed to be running a bit late. So, in the process Little Pearly and I proceeded to go through a better half of bottom shelf vodka with orange drink. By the time that we met up with everyone our happiness level was the equivalent to the end of the first quarter of a UW Cowboys game...even if we were losing.
In the 85th minute the Timber's scored and with sunflowers in the air, PGE Park exploded in song and cheers. By this time it was very apparent that no one really knows how to pregame it like Wyoming and Little Pearly and I were very much jubilated. So, dressed in green (instead of red) Little Pearly, McAsian and I made our way to the Irish Pub with their double decker bus for celebration and good music....or so we thought.
We celebrated, along with a bachelor party and the music was terrible. The Puerto Rican Irish bartender and I had several discussions about what makes a true Irish and why there weren't more people here celebrating. Week day games, especially before a holiday, are not cause enough for great celebration. The Irish Pub is also usually the last stop on everyone's trek from the Park. Needless to say our game experience for the first time was fantastic and I can't wait to go to more games. The fans are loyal and true. It was so much better watching from the stands rather from the rooftop-it's a more authentic feel. And for those of you who thought we were 'out of control', ha- clearly you have no sense of adventure to enjoy all the things that life throws at you in the moment. You will not survive the Army. It will be great to see the stands fully packed come next season. *insert Irish cheer
Tip for the Day: Everyone is accountable for their actions, including me. Don't treat me like a child. No matter how much fun you are having always be responsible and for the most part I am, especially in the city. I will jump without knowing where or when I will land but I will make sure the adventure ends up safe. I am no one's problem but my own, and you are your own problem. If you are going to hurt yourself, of course I will catch you before you fall. So the tip for today-be accountable and be responsible. Make good decisions!
 |
| Free nachos and beer-Thank you "Ladies" and Man |
It took us the better half of the first half to figure out what color we actually were, usually we are green but for some reason this game it was black and white. After cheering for the opposite team for almost 40 minutes, we, and by we, I mean our entire group was confused, finally realized we were the black color. Just like most stadiums we were limited to purchasing only two drinks at a time and since there was no 7th inning stretch, booze sales stopped at the 80th minute. Our first run resulted in a awesomely discounted domestics and free Philly Cheese Steak Nachos. Thank you man from the Timber's Army for your conversation, discounted beer and nachos-great recommendation and I owe you.
In the 85th minute the Timber's scored and with sunflowers in the air, PGE Park exploded in song and cheers. By this time it was very apparent that no one really knows how to pregame it like Wyoming and Little Pearly and I were very much jubilated. So, dressed in green (instead of red) Little Pearly, McAsian and I made our way to the Irish Pub with their double decker bus for celebration and good music....or so we thought.
We celebrated, along with a bachelor party and the music was terrible. The Puerto Rican Irish bartender and I had several discussions about what makes a true Irish and why there weren't more people here celebrating. Week day games, especially before a holiday, are not cause enough for great celebration. The Irish Pub is also usually the last stop on everyone's trek from the Park. Needless to say our game experience for the first time was fantastic and I can't wait to go to more games. The fans are loyal and true. It was so much better watching from the stands rather from the rooftop-it's a more authentic feel. And for those of you who thought we were 'out of control', ha- clearly you have no sense of adventure to enjoy all the things that life throws at you in the moment. You will not survive the Army. It will be great to see the stands fully packed come next season. *insert Irish cheer
Tip for the Day: Everyone is accountable for their actions, including me. Don't treat me like a child. No matter how much fun you are having always be responsible and for the most part I am, especially in the city. I will jump without knowing where or when I will land but I will make sure the adventure ends up safe. I am no one's problem but my own, and you are your own problem. If you are going to hurt yourself, of course I will catch you before you fall. So the tip for today-be accountable and be responsible. Make good decisions!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
White Hairs
It's been a while since I got a hair cut. The last time I got it cut was at this fabulous place in Laramie- Flux Studios owned and ran by my awesome friend Trina. Since then, I'm too scared to have anyone else cut my hairs. Yesterday, I was standing in front of the mirror contemplating how the day was going thus far and what my plans were going to be for the rest of the day. That's when I noticed them.
Now, I have always had a small cluster of white hair at the very top of my head (hehe, my dad also has a patch of white hair at the very top of his head). And whenever I would go get my hair cut, I would just get them cut or if someone saw them they would rip them out of my head. So, the white hairs haven't been tended to in some time now. And they seemed to have started their own colony directly in my part and on the top of my head. I'm beginning to look like Rogue.
In the instant that I noticed them, I suddenly freaked out and realized...O.M.G. I'm getting old. Yes, yes, I realize I am not that old but holy cow! I would say 60% of my friends are married, getting married and/or have kids or are pregnant. I am one of the few that do not have a stable job and/or is still going to school. When I was 19 (yes, not that long ago) I gave myself a list of things that I wanted to do before I turned 30. And now, that time is quickly approaching and my list has been pushed to the back burner. So, now it's time to get back in the saddle. Finish the things that I've started and stop being scared of growing up because growing up happens. I fished through all of my things and found my 30s list. Time to "finish an unfinished project".
Things to do Before I'm 30 (the old and the new):
-Visit all 50 states
-Visit all 7 continents
-Get my bachelor's degree
-Pay off all my debt
-Be happy
-Get my master's
-Grow a garden successfully
-Fall in love
-Live in a new place
-Take a road trip by myself
-Finish an unfinished project
-Run a marathon
-Climb a mountain
-Build something from scratch
-Write a book
-Fall in love...again...get married...?...for real
-Ski all season
-Go to the Philippines with my family
-Be in charge of someone's well being...aka get a dog
-Hike the John Muir or through the Red Woods
-Learn how to fly fish
-Raft the Colorado
-Siblings only getaway
-Make my own wine
-Go to church, voluntarily
-Eat something new
-Visit home more often
-Volunteer, voluntarily
-Get a job
Tip for the Day: No goal is unattainable. Bumps happen along the road but don't let those stop you. Pick yourself back up because you have people to support you through the good, the bad, the ugly. Good luck to those of you who also have goals to still complete...
Now, I have always had a small cluster of white hair at the very top of my head (hehe, my dad also has a patch of white hair at the very top of his head). And whenever I would go get my hair cut, I would just get them cut or if someone saw them they would rip them out of my head. So, the white hairs haven't been tended to in some time now. And they seemed to have started their own colony directly in my part and on the top of my head. I'm beginning to look like Rogue.
In the instant that I noticed them, I suddenly freaked out and realized...O.M.G. I'm getting old. Yes, yes, I realize I am not that old but holy cow! I would say 60% of my friends are married, getting married and/or have kids or are pregnant. I am one of the few that do not have a stable job and/or is still going to school. When I was 19 (yes, not that long ago) I gave myself a list of things that I wanted to do before I turned 30. And now, that time is quickly approaching and my list has been pushed to the back burner. So, now it's time to get back in the saddle. Finish the things that I've started and stop being scared of growing up because growing up happens. I fished through all of my things and found my 30s list. Time to "finish an unfinished project".
Things to do Before I'm 30 (the old and the new):
-Visit all 50 states
-Visit all 7 continents
-Get my bachelor's degree
-Pay off all my debt
-Be happy
-Get my master's
-Grow a garden successfully
-Fall in love
-Live in a new place
-Take a road trip by myself
-Finish an unfinished project
-Run a marathon
-Climb a mountain
-Build something from scratch
-Write a book
-Fall in love...again...get married...?...for real
-Ski all season
-Go to the Philippines with my family
-Be in charge of someone's well being...aka get a dog
-Hike the John Muir or through the Red Woods
-Learn how to fly fish
-Raft the Colorado
-Siblings only getaway
-Make my own wine
-Go to church, voluntarily
-Eat something new
-Visit home more often
-Volunteer, voluntarily
-Get a job
Tip for the Day: No goal is unattainable. Bumps happen along the road but don't let those stop you. Pick yourself back up because you have people to support you through the good, the bad, the ugly. Good luck to those of you who also have goals to still complete...
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