So today was the start of my job. Wooh!
I work at a mom-and-pop type restaurant in the tiny town of Burlington, Illinois. It's a more upscale restaurant, though not too much - to put it in perspective, you get a microwaved loaf of bread as the appetizer, and there's a free-range salad bar.
My job as a bus girl is on several fronts. In the kitchen, I wrap the silverware in 'greens' [green cloth napkins], prep the butter dishes that go with the bread [eight butter packs and four margarines per bowl], refill the salad bar stuff, and assist in making desserts. On the outside, I put a glass, a silverware set, and a small salad dish on the table per number of customers ['2 at 4!' means two people at table four; there's fifteen tables in the whole joint], wipe up the tables once people leave, clear dishes whilst people eat, refill water glasses, and serve bread.
Right, so I haven't done all [or even most] of those things by myself. Yet. But yes.
I worked for two hours, completing the first section of my tutorial. For the first half hour-ish, I was extremely anxious and spaztastic, since I was essentially thrown in on one of their busiest nights. I shadowed my friend, and by the end of the hour, I was chilled out more and actually assisting in tasks rather than watching. For the last hour, I did things by myself, such as zap and serve bread, clean tables, refill salad bar things, and filling up this cheese...thing...my hands smell like chedder...Anyways, I was able to get in the zone of it all.
I have no idea how many people actually work there, but in the kitchen, there are four sections: the cooking part, the cleaning wall, the waitress hallway, and the miscellaneous room.
The head chef is David...skinny, lanky, cool guy. Me and Blythe [friend who got me the job o3o] were over-complimenting his carrot cake...But yeah. His thing is that he's only ever eaten at the restaurant once in his twenty-one years there. XD
Then there's the co-chef, or underling, or mini chef...something. I think his name is Jerry or something like that. He looks in his twenties and is very laid back and joking. At one point he was pointing at a box and going 'FIRE HAZARD!', to which Blythe and I just shrugged and said 'no big loss...'
There are three or four waitresses. I cannot remember for the life of me, sorry. ._.; The one whose name I remembered was Sherri. All of them are nice and funny, though I have this upped level of respect for these people [though it was already high]. At one point, one of the waitresses was telling Jerry her order when she stopped and was like 'SHIT I FORGOT WHAT THEY ORD - oh wait'.
From what I gathered, there are three bus girls, me included - so Jordan, Blythe, and Ginger are there for...the stuff. Jordan is a whiz, according to Blythe, and is a senior like Blythe is...So we had a fun time during the momentary slow parts, and she helped me out in my training as well. She taught me how to punch out. XD;
I go back tomorrow, 6-8pm again, for my training and such. I'm exciiiited!
I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, probably because of the hot chocolate I had a couple hours before hitting the sack. >>; Regardless, my mind was racing and thinking about several different things.
Most prominent was me and money. That spawned off several different topics - my future job, ACen (and the truckload of thought sthat brought), and college. However, while focusing on the 'job' subject, I had a recurring thought...a thought that made me anxious and revealed just how much anime has brainwashed me:
How does one, in English culture, thank another?
Okay okay, I know that you say 'thank you' and if the opportunity arises, you shake their hand...But I was just like, we don't bow, which is something I've been doing a little bit (head bows, mainly). When I go to the restaurant tomorrow night and I meet the lady who called me and I have the chance to say 'thank you', what physical action do I take? This is driving me nuts. x_x
Once I did manage to fall asleep though, I had this really cracked dream about ACen. However, it wasn't evven at the hotel, it was more like the day before and the trip that we would be going on to get to the hotel and stuff. However, the time was askew, as there was snow on the ground. >>; But I remember being angry at the friend whom I'm crashing with at the Hyatt for not telling me something or another...Then Waffles and I were trekking through the snow to her car after school and then I was going 'BUT I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED MY COSTUME YET' or something. It was weird.
Then I woke up, thankfully.
I am so excited for this job it isn't funny. I just hope the boss likes me. ._.;
I'm in a startling good mood. >3
Some of you may remember an anicent post in which a friend of mine pitched in a word for me to be a buss girl at a restaurant.
GUESS WHO CALLED TODAY. OH YEAH.
My tutorial mission is on Friday, 6-8pm. I need to wear durable black shoes, black slacks, a white "wrinkle-free" blouse, and...that's it. They also wear ties, but the boss lady didn't want me to wear one in fear of somebody asking me for help that I couldn't offer. >>; lolOurancosplaytie
I'm really excited. And I have to go give Blythe a bajillion hugs and thank yous. o3o
In other news, thanks for all the comments on the banner image. XD; I, uh, didn't expect it to be so popular. 8D; But yeah. I await the day in which I can actually code the picture so that, when you click on a certain part, it'll lead you someplace...Curse BB code...
I'm surprised. I've actually slipped into the rankings. XD; It's not that impressive, but I'm in the top 100 of must subscribed, and somehow managed to slip in...somewhere...amongst the wallpaper artists.
I really am not a competitive person unless I volunteer for a contest. So yeah. P: I do remember being in the member list over at myOtaku [which only listed five-hundred people, so that was rather impressive]. I think I was around the 180-ish spot. Heh...
I've been on a wallpaper kick recently, to which I go 'lolwut'. I've been wanting to make this one inspired by "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry; the problem is finding actual pictures [not fanarts] of anime characters with musical gear. Bleach seems to be leading the pack due to the first series of Beat Collections, but the problem there is finding all the album covers at a decent size [at LEAST 500 pixels].
I'm a music geek. Can't help it. Whenever I see a picture of anime characters with headphones or something, it gets saved into my pictures. ...Okay, so not ALL of the, but a lot. :3;;
Also, spring break. *hugs*
I have an actual fan word in the works [huzzah!], but this is juts a random blurb of...randomness.
I have read plenty, plenty of essays, journals, and comics to get the gist of being a female gamer. I see stamps on DA on the declaration of being a gamer with boobs. I've heard the horror stories of being rejected in online games because one is female.
Honestly? It's all so cliché.
What's that? I'm wrong? We all have different experiences, and this is mine. So let me speak.
I'm the youngest of three kids, with my two older siblings being brothers. I grew up with an NES [yeah, old school original!] in the house, later graduating to the PS, PS2, XBox, GameCube, and 360 with the dashings of the GameBoy Pocket, Color, Advance, and DS. We've essentially been in the major part of gaming ever since I can remember.
Growing up, all my friends were guys, mainly due to the fact that the street I lived on had mostly male children. We would discuss and roleplay various cartoons and books, and get together after school to watch Fox Kids [now THOSE are the good ol' days] and Toonami. We'd battle with action figures and whack each other with squirt guns and play swords, rounding out the day with soccer matches and obstacle courses. On the weekends, we'd gather and eat lunch in-between matches on the PlayStation. Man, that was a great childhood.
I moved to my current location in fourth grade. And you want to know what? The friends I made - all girls - loved video games as well. But these were not tomboys. By chance, these girls - who loved shopping, make up, and talking about boys - were into anime and video games, just like me. We'd duke it out on the N64 and PS2 while watching Zoids and Rurouni Kenshin, giggling about crushes and squeeling over cute things.
In middle school, I met my best friend (Aiyanna) by one very simple word:
"Aha!"
It was in sixth grade, during math class, in the midst of a chapter review page. She and I sat next to each other, and in the murmured silence of the room, I managed to overhear her. Flabbergasted, I quickly replied.
"You sound like a video game character!"
"The Professor from Spyro 2?!"
"Yeah!"
And every female friend I've ever made has somehow been into video games. But really, what breaks the mold is that every guy friend I've ever made has never had a second thought about us being girl gamers. I can easily talk with them about games and systems. They have never made any mention or demeaning notion about female gamers.
I know a lot of people will call me lucky and the whole thing coincidental, but it's a little hard to really call it that, given how many people this involves. Just saying...
Edit: So in the backroom, I was looking at my stuff when I suddenly noticed this:
