Pretty Boy Sundays

I'm almost too tired to write tonight. Already, I've opened the computer three times to update you all on life over here but have closed it again too exhausted to think.... All I can think is sleep. Instead of think I typed sleep a minute ago. Side note: Pretty boy sunday is my favorite new phrase.

This is my 12th day in with one day out of work and I get to go back tomorrow night before my next day off. Well, maybe it'll be slow and I'll get called of. One can hope. Plus, only 5 days of work left until I'm homeward bound.

The Saturday to Sunday connection is especially difficult. Saturday being a day I wake early to run after working until 12 or 12:30 the night before. Then spending all day getting life done, in the best possible fashion, before heading in to work again (yesterday from 4:30pm-12:30am).

I bike home after that business and get up again before 7 in the morning on Sunday (leaving me with a grand total of about 5.5 hours of sleep).

The thing that makes it more traditional and far more difficult is that I lost my cell phone... So, that's been fun.

I'm not complaining.

Working so much has finally put me in the groove of the job. I'm getting quick, efficient. My plates are getting prettier. Things are alright. I've gone on dates with a couple of awesome people one of which I also work with(making work all that much better). I'm totally enchanted by the friends and new characters in my life and I'm making that money before I come home. My only complaint is allergies. These things suck.

Allrighty. I'm out. It's a reasonable hour to pass out, finally. . .

Last night: Midnight mystery ride. Bike prom. Don't know what I did but got hit on by a lot of skeezers. Deflected them with an unceremonious and somewhat emasculating rhetoric. What can I say? I get mean when pushed too hard. You gotta be gentle with me. I'm a princess.

Tonight is the world famous World Naked Bike Ride. Gonna be a lotta nakies out there. Bicyclist are fragile and there's nothing like them riding around in mostly skin and bones to really send that point home to motorist. There is no hard shell protecting these organs.

Tomorrow is work but then a date!! "Milkshakes" and a show. It's going to be a tired day. More work on Monday (get money), but I should find a time to train-First training run of the potential Portland Marathon.

Don't point out that I'm afraid of failure.
Tell me I'm crazy and I'll prove you wrong.

Tuesday I have a brief respite. Just a going away party. A show if I can squeeze it in. Wednesday, train and work. Thursday, train and work. Friday Work, and work. Saturday, long run!! And work. Sunday working again. Did I already flash them dollar signs at y'all. $$$$$$$

Monday, I've got a friend date.
Fancy drinks, fancy food.
The beginning of a long anticipated two day weekend!

Date much?

I worked so much this week (or so it felt like). It really shouldn't have been more than usual but somehow it felt like so much. However, on Wednesday, I did get cut early and made an impromptu date with a boy that I met on the train out here. We've been trying to hang out but it didn't work until then. We just met up for a drink and hot dogs. Nothing crazy.

Another however! I met someone else on the bus on the way home from work that day. We ended up hitting it off, hanging out for a gross lemonade and some weird tea before my impromptu but somewhat scheduled date with train guy.

Can you say dates?! Me and bus guy hung out again on Friday for long walk, dinner and some serious talking. We talked for hours. I hope it wasn't just me... Sometimes it is. I stayed up so late! Still, sleep deprived I made it through a late night of work and a Sunday morning brunch shift of work as well.

Hallelujah for Mondays which are my Saturdays. I needed to sleep in. Today, I went for a run with my running buddy and am generally getting exciting about training for longer distances. My good friend, Natalie, wants me to run the Portland Marathon with her. I'm skeptical but at the same time: excited. Think I can do it?

 

On the fritz

My computer thinks that he's on his last leg. Little does he know that he's going to last me for at least another year and a half.

He's been practicing his death rattle for the past couple of weeks. First he gave me a blue screen, which two of my room mates referred to as "the blue screen of death" but then one of them somehow brought him back from the brink. And that was good. But then last night, as I typed to you, you very devout readers, about a breach in my healthy (and temporary) diet, the screen went completely black.

I had my Mac desktop for 5 years and never had any of this sort of problems so I am pretty much completely in the dark on this (as my computer wants me to be). Luckily, I have a collection of technology minded folk in my life some of which have been navigating the infested land of computer zombies for quite some time.

On a more positive note: I'm going as Cruella Devil for Halloween and I am slowly but surely amassing all of the appropriate pieces to make an awesome costume. Today I searched long and hard and finally found a good faux fur coat (which I plan on reselling after Halloween). I also, found a really cute hand mixer while I was out and about which is a totally different thing that I'm excited about. I, in a stroke of money wasting, costume oriented focus, ordered red boots online that shall serve me both during and after Halloween if I have anything to say about it. If I can't re-wear them then they're being resold too. I'm trying to make as much back as possible on this costume with plans to resell at least the coat, the dress and then maybe the shoes. Dressing up can be a bit expensive.

How about you? Do you have any fun Halloween plans that you'd like to share with me? Any diet disaster stories? Any suggestions on how to keep my hair standing up like Cruella's for a whole night? How do you feel about the fragility of laptops or the loonieness of microsoft? Feel free to use the comment section of this blog or some other electronic means to communicate with me about any of these topics and more.

All the best.

Second Bike

I was thinking today, about how it is that as we progress, monetarily, we frequently begin a search for another vehicle. The type of vehicle seems to vary depending on which economic level you occupy but the trend still seems to exist.

For instance. A fairly wealthy family might buy a boat or another more recreational vehicle, a middle class family might buy themselves another car to make the commute to work more manageable, my roommate, who has a salaried job, bought a motorcycle a few months ago, and I just bought a 2nd bike. Granted: this bike was only a $15 investment and it is off the hook awesome but the sign is still there. I'm making a stead income.

It's a pretty small bike. Check out those handlebars and that seat.

Another view

Yes, today after I got off of work, I received a text from my friend Dan that his room mate was selling his awesome bike. In the past few weeks I've had the chance to test ride this bike a few times and have totally fallen in love. This beauty has coaster brakes, a banana seat and those awesome drop down, cruisin' handlebars. I feel as though I've made a good investment. I can't wait to ride it around on my day off tomorrow. I think that I'll ride it over to the restore for my first longer ride.

Anyways, I thought you all deserved a more exciting post than usual since it had been a while since my last update. Here you have it.

Rising with the sun

6:30am is the time I've been getting up for work the past couple of days.

Needless to say, I've been tired and grumpy. Waking in the early AM is not really my cup of tea (although speaking of tea I've been drinking it to survive the mornings). Thankfully this early wake up time is because I've served the past 4 shifts that I've worked so I can't complain too much.

Today, I get to volunteer and hang out with my friend, Monica, who's in town. She actually just called. Hurray for visitors!

I'll try and keep you guys caught up on what's going on but things are starting to get busier here so be patient with me.

Side Note: Shout out to dad for a belated Father's day. I love you Dad!

Shows, Saturdays, and Sundays to come

Last night I went to a show and I stayed out so late. It was really fun (it doesn't hurt that I have a mondo crush on the trumpet player of the band I saw) but then I had to wake up for work in the morning.

I can not believe that people do this going out and staying up until the wee hours of the morning all of the time before they go to work. That is crazy talk to me. I took a 2.5 hour nap this afternoon. Yeesh. I still feel like I'm not going to make it until bed time :).

On the up side, I am totally going to serve tomorrow, on Mother's Day. And that's pretty rad. It's going to be so much more fun than hosting plus more money.

Just an early Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms who read this blog (are there any?)

a whole lot

Last time I updated I felt like I had nothing to tell you and this time I feel like I have so much to share.

As you may know, last week I trained as a server. Monday was my first serving shift and Thursday is my second. The exciting thing that I learned at my first shift is that I'm going to serve the weekend after next. What that means from a monetary viewpoint is that I'll be earning at least twice as much that weekend than I usually do in just tips add that to my base of minimum wage and I'm going to be sitting pretty.

That's big news for me but still kind of boring. What's exciting right now is that Jon-Mike and Jackie are in town and staying at my house. That means I get a whole lot of hang out time with them (some of it we're sleeping but what can you do?) which is awesome. I'm so happy to have them here with me. I only wish that I could be a slightly better tour guide for the beautiful city of Portland. Since I've been working or volunteering every day that they've been here I have fallen a little short on that front.

Tonight we're going out to get some cheap brews and I'm looking forward to actually taking them out on the town.

Hope you all are having a great week so far too.

Tired Thursday

Today, is a tired morning. It's 6:39am and I've been up for almost two hours now.

I thought that Dan's, my friend who's been visiting, flight left in the evening when he told me his flight left at 6:30 but it turns out that it leaves in the morning which is good because it makes it possible for me to work today and earn some money but is not good because it involved leaving the house before 5 in the morning. Yuck! Not my favorite thing.

This is really just the beginning of my work week as I work from today through Sunday at the ol' Slappy Cakes and then am supposed to start training for the yogurt shop on Monday. If that goes through I'll be working at least 5 days in a row and then volunteering on Tuesday. I may even get more yogurt shop time in than one day and work most of next week. That would be both good and bad because I am very tired already but it would be an awesome problem to be tired from working too much. That, in fact, would not be a problem that I've faced in at least 6 months.

So, here I am, at the begging of my day looking forward to the problem of having too much work. Let's hope things are as troubling as they look like they'll be :).

Yay! Yay! Yay!

I am super super excited right now. It's partially because I'm on a massive sugar high from eating left over peanut butter icing (for my roomie's birthday brownies with peanut butter icing) but mostly because a lot of things are coming together right now!

First! I worked my first busing shift today. I've only got one a week but I think they're going to be good money. Today I made $50 in tips! That's on top of my base pay (which should be about 9/hr). I'm saving most of my cash for fun goals like a trip to Seattle. Although, some of it's going in a little car fund so I can buy gas for my friend's car that I'm baby sitting.

Second! I got another job! It doesn't start until April which will be nice since I won't have to worry about being out of town for Jon-Mike and Jackie's wedding in March. I was a little anxious about that with all the other jobs I had applied to. It's also a promising job because it has room for advancement. I would really like to get some leadership experience so I am happy to get a job at which I can advance.

Third! Brownies with Peanut Butter icing are in my near future!

Fourth! I went for a run this morning before work and I forgot about it by the time I got off of work which is one of my favorite things. Working out in the morning and being really ready for the day plus forgetting about it and then remembering that you don't have to exercise because you already did. It's wonderful. Friday's are going to be my long run days which I think is going to work out great because I don't have to be at work until 10. So I have a long morning.

I hope you all are eating something sweat so you can get on my level right now.

Silly emails and guacamole

I applied to a job today. How is that different than any other day you might ask?! And I will say, "That in itself is not so absurd

but what comes next you haven't yet heard".

OK. OK. I know. That was awful.

And that's the thing. I just applied to a job using lines like that. It was an email only application with my cover letter and resume attached. I didn't want it to go unnoticed so I titled it "dynamic and diligent FOH delight" and then I went on to use an acrostic! That's right as in:

Aren't I
Crying a little on the inside?
Reason being:
Oh that I've begun to try
Stupid

Toddleresque
Intelligence insulting

Crap to get a job.

Like that. But hopefully more job winning and less negative. It might reduce my chances of getting the job but I never feel like my chances start off that high and who knows?! It might up my chances too. It is only a restaurant job.

Other than that, I went on a hike with my exercise buddy Marika the other day. It took 2 hours! I'm not that outdoorsy and usually after 2 hours in the beautiful wilderness I would have a headache and a runny nose but luckily good health and fun time prevailed! Here's to being outside. Tomorrow's a run and also a friend dinner and tonight's a friend's show.

This week is shaping up quite nicely (besides the weird antics to get a job).

32 hours

Yesterday, our internet went out.

It was out from when I woke up to listen to Stephanie's radio show (at 7 am) to at least when i went to bed at 12pm. I didn't check it again until I came home from work this afternoon. So, I went a whole 32 hours with no internet. Which, it turns out was a challenge. I don't know how Stephanie does it in Paonia. Shout out to that.

I did get some good reading done, a run in, a friend date, some collage material cut out, and a collage made. So, a pretty good anti web day anyways.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to update for you all though. So, I'm relieved things have settled on that front.

Other than that, I've started campaigning for higher pay where I work. I don't know how that will go but I figure it can't go too poorly. Plus, as a host there, I do a lot that a server is getting tipped for plus way more to keep the restaurant running smoothly. So, I figure the hosts should get tipped out a little bit, at least.

One more day of work before the job search/rest of the week begins. Some highlights that you're almost sure to hear more about are:

HIKES!

DINNERS!

and JOBS!

Get excited.

East Coast! East Coast!

Today I did a big thing and applied for food stamps. It's possible that I won't qualify but I also just spent a bunch of money on air fare to get back to the east coast- so I probably will- and that brings me to the fun stuff!

I'm coming back east! I'll be flying into the Philly area on March 23rd 2011 and staying in DE for my brother's wedding on the 26th. Then! I will head on down to good ol' Richmond, VA to stay from the 27th to April 1st (Which just happens to be the birthday of a very sweet lady I'll be kickin' it with)

So, if you'd like to see me during this time get on top of things because this is a limited time offer.

Hope you're all having a great day. Thanks for reading.

wonky work week

Usually, I love working. I love knowing I'm making money. I love getting paid. I love being busy. I love having goals. I love a heavy dose of interpersonal interactions. I love making thinks run smoothly around me.

I know my use of the word 'love' here is very liberal but what I'm saying is working is usually something that I cherish being able to do.

Recently that hasn't been the case. The last week has found me just a bit angrier and angrier at the establishment for which I work every day. I think it could just be one of those wonky work weeks where nothing goes right and things just conspire to peeve you.

Since, I hadn't updated my blog as of late and I had work today I thought I would let you all know these feelings I've been having. :D.

It's silly, and I'm sure it will pass and I'll love working again in just a few bit. On the upside I did have an interview at another restaurant yesterday. As far as I know, it went well. Hopefully that pulls through and things will start looking up on the work front.

Best wishes. Hope everyone is looking forward to a great new year.

Two Days Before Christmas

Hi out there.

I was recently musing about how I had no reason to update my blog but I had forgotten how Christmas was only two days away so in the spirit of giving (information at least) I will update my blog despite the fact that my life is somewhat lacking in excitement.

To keep with the Christmas of it all, I'll begin with my holiday plans. The start off event to celebrate Christmas was to go to the grindhouse slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night for free at the Hollywood Theater here in Portland. This I did with Jon, last night. It was a silly, silly movie but had at least one of us humming Christmas carols as we headed out into the night.

My next line of Christmas business is going to be to send out Christmas cards to those I haven't gotten around to sending them to yet. That happens today.

On Christmas eve, Jon and I (The friends that are staying in town for Christmas) are going to go grocery shopping for Christmas dinner ingredients.

And On Christmas day, we will make Christmas curry, cookies, and apple cider. We will open gifts from our respective families. We will watch a Stanley Kubrick movie marathon. We will, of course, long to be with our respective families and may even take phone calls from them.

On the day after Christmas we will head to work at Slappy Cakes and get money.

That is all for our Christmas plans, at least as far as I know.

To quote the cartoon Kim Possible, which I once loved so much, "Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me" I'd love to hear from you while you're taking a break from the regular stresses of everyday living for Christmas.

Love,
Rachel

With sunshine comes sunsets!

Today it was sunny! Oh, the wonders that a sunny day can do for you when everything's been gray for so long. Also! tomorrow I have work and sunshine means it will probably be busy and I'll get to stay for longer and thus get paid more. Get Money!!

Besides that, today I saw a sunset! It was spectacular. Not only do I not usually get to see the sun on a normal day but because of this I never get to see a sunset! I had forgotten how wonderful the sun moving over the horizon (or I think it would actually be the earth spinning so that it looks like the sun is moving over the horizon) could be.

So, in an act of humble gratitude I would like to issue the following statement:

Dear Sunshine,

I missed you more than words can explain. Thank you for coming back to me.

Please do not leave me for so long again. Being without you is being without a life force. Even if I can be emotionally strong, my body betrays me. My serotonin levels dip and I sink into a sleepy and unproductive state.

Now that you are back I am revived. I will remain faithful to you both out of principle as well as need. Please do the same for me.

Yours truly,

Rachel Ogburn

Good things often come in envelopes