Life Itself

Is the most wonderful Fairytale. - Hans Christian Anderson

I started work on Friday - catering on-campus events. I think I applied for dish-washing or something, but this is so much cooler, so I'm not going to mention that maybe my application got put in a different stack... It was very much like final banquet, and I felt so classy in my white blouse/black slacks as I ran back and forth down the wide concrete hallways that web their way around all the banquet halls. After we set the tables up, the people came, and we waited for the food...served the salad, and waited for the food some more. I found there was something ingrained deep down as we took the salad plates away with nothing to replace them with. Somehow this was Wrong. And as I stood behind the chairs before I served the main course, the only thing I could think was left or right, right or left? This wasn't something discussed at all in training. It went much deeper, but I couldn't remember right or left. What would Mrs. Weston think?

Lunch was amazing. We got to eat the left-overs while we waited for the people to clear the room so we could clean it. Beef tenderloin and berry parfait (everyone loves parfait). Then the cleaning started. The girl I had been working with up to that point, Kahori, had left, which left me and my manager, Josh. He started working 2 months ago, and in that time, both managers above him left (baby and graduation) leaving him doing 10 hour shifts every day, and yet he was friendly and helpful and outgoing - just like everyone else there. We emptied all of the glasses and stacked them into a crate, and stacked crate upon crate until it was about eye-level. One of the glasses broke from being tapped on the edge of the trashcan to remove the remaining parfait. Thus I learned it's ok if something breaks. The second glass met its demise when, as the tables cleared, it sat, alone, undisturbed, taunting us. The top crate was full, and the second-down looked that way too, so with a shrug, he said, well, I guess this one has to break, too.

In a different building, I met more of the staff. About half, I think is Japanese. The American names, I pick up fairly easily, but the Japanese names, I have to repeat 3 times just to make sure I'm hearing them right, so I think they will take much longer to learn. It surprised me how quickly everyone learned my name.

The schedule came out, and yep, I'm scheduled for Saturday again. I think they'll let me come in a few hours late, so that it's after sundown. They don't seem to have any problems working around schedules (or to be paying too much attention to our schedules - yet - I think it's a bit hectic for them at the moment with everything starting up again after the break, and everyone having new class schedules).

You, Reader

I wonder how you are going to feel when you find out that I wrote this instead of you.

My dad sent me a book during finals last semester of Billy Collins poetry. That is the first line of the first poem. I love it. It gave me something to clear my mind when I needed a break from studying. I finished th last coconut bar that my mom snuck into my bag of random college (non perishable) food. Those things are amazingly good. It disappeared somewhere in the middle of my last class - the forth one of the day, and three hours long. Not to rub it in, or anything, but my parents are some of the greatest parents ever. I type this as I munch on a batch of homemade trail mix...

The meeting

I just met my new RA. We did the whole get to know you bit where they interview and make notes and such. Her personality seems disturbingly similar to Priscilla's...not that Priscilla has a disturbing personality...oh no, I think that's what it sounds like I said...hey 'Cilla! I need you to apologize to someone for me... But really, she seems cool. Took me on an imaginary tour and everything. She needs some practice w/ that, because she kept running me into things...

Snow Buddy Knows

It snowed today! EEEE!!! Northerners have no idea what they have. Ok, maybe they do and just get too much of it, but this stuff ROCKS! I would have gone all Calvin and Hobbs on it, but there wasn't enough and I didn't want to hog all of it. It was a complete surprise. I woke up to my roommate's phone ringing, and then to her talking about snow, and I was up. Everyone else enjoyed the day off of school by sleeping, but I went off to romp and frolic. I made a little puppy dog with all the snow within about 4 feet of me, scrapped off the sidewalk. Then I set him on a bench and ran back to my dorm for a camera (not digital, so it will take me a while to get them developed) and some trail mix. I didn't have coal for eyes, so I used blue M&M's instead, and an almond nose, and a dried mango tongue. Then I set the pup - Snow Buddy - on a bench, and went on with my explorations. When I returned later, it was apparent someone had played fetch with him. His paws and ears were all dirty, and there was a stick in his mouth. Again, later, after I had warmed up, I left my dorm, and there was Buddy, sitting on a bench outside my dorm - a good 50 yards or more from where I had left him. Somebody had taken my pup for a walk, and given him a twiggy little tail, but he was definitely finished playing fetch. The stick was gone from his mouth. Some days people rock. The M&M dye had melted a bit, and he looks a little more like a blue-eyed panda cub now.

Icicles on a Chain-link Fench

Sabbath last week rocked! Church got cancelled. I came back up here early to avoid the ice storm. My parents didn't want me driving through it on Sunday, so they drove up with me on Friday. My parents are the greatest! But yeah, back to Sabbath. The Todds invited me to their house for living room services. We watched Mr. Wally Smith's first telecast as our sermonette, and then sang hymns. They have amazing voices. Seriously. And it isn't just because they are family and their voices are similar, although that does help. They can read music and know how to harmonize and all that jazz, too. After that, we were joined by the guys, rounding our total out to 10. They, too had watched Mr. Smith's sermonette at their place. Coincidence? I think not. After lunch, the sermon was fully downloaded, so we watched it. It was one from the feast, and covered a lot of what we had spent most of lunch discussing. I love it when things like that happen. So much fellowship and biblical discussion was definitely a treat, and to be taken in by another family is a lesson in love. I think I'd be horribly homesick without them.

Road to Yesterday

After 3 weeks of being home, I finally told my high school friends I was back in town. Part of the reason I waited so long is, well, I left all their phone numbers up at college - in a notebook, yeah, I'm low tech, and I need to program things into my phone - and I didn't feel like e-mailing anyone. We all got together yesterday, hung out at the fast food restaurant my friend's family owns. I still need to pay for lunch...I kept trying to, and then after a while I forgot.Then the girls (Candase, Chelsea and I - Nazia stayed at the restaurant) piled into Sean's truck, and Sterling went with Johnny. I forget that I miss these guys. I was feeling rather neither-here-nor-there-ish, and it was good getting out of the house. We ended up going to Petsmart, Target (and Starbucks), the movies, and then to Sterling's house. After all that, Sean drove me back to get my car, and Chelsea home. At about 8 minutes from home, my dad called me to say goodnight, and to come in the back door, as the front one was in the process of being locked. When I got home, the parents were still up, so we got to chat for a bit :) . In the morning, my car was dead. The headlights, appartently, don't turn off by themselves on this car like they do on my parents'. Oh well, home is definately the best place to learn this lesson, and Wal-Mart does free battery charges.