I'm going home. Call my cell phone if you want to see me while I'm there! I hear its snowing! See you guys on Wednesday!

I met Dr. Dobson yesterday! How exciting is that? He signed a book for me and everything (note: I did not ASK him to sign anything. He said hi and then told his bodyguard/president of the company, someone, to go get a book for me and he signed it!). Very nice evening!

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Who are you?Your Harry Potter Character

I'm Hermione Granger (Did anyone have a doubt? I mean really.)

You are intelligent, gifted, and confident. You strive to be the best in everything you do.

Who are you? Star Wars Character I'm in order of appearance: An astrometric droid, Admiral Akbar, A wampa, Empiror Palpatine, and C-3PO.

Someone please tell me I'm not as neurotic as all that!!!

Who are you? Your Star Trek Character I'm Odo, or Wesley Crusher....

People like you are generally extremely logical and pragmatic, to the point of being somewhat aloof. When you need to be, you can function in a highly objective and unemotional manner, but you also tend to be impulsive and incredibly curious about the world around you. You love to explore, to find out how things work, and you believe you have the abilities needed to deal with what you find.

You don't feel the need to tell others about your abilities. You like your work to show your stuff for you, so you tend to be quiet and unassuming in your manner. You are also flexible and resourceful. You do your best work when left alone. You're highly self-reliant, and may have some trouble working as a member of a team. You cannot stand people who nag or who demand to know what you're feeling when you don't feel like "sharing" right now.

Your primary goal in life is being granted the freedom to act independently and follow your impulses. Your reward is to be appreciated for your ability to solve problems and to have others go along with your impulses and have fun with you.

A man I know walked into the Inn today and said, "Oh I forgot you work here. You should go back to singing." As if I'm working this hard for FUN! Yes, I did choose to work my butt off outright as opposed to working one more job than I'm working now plus assistanceships, plus classes and lessons, and teaching in order to afford to pay for grad school. Nope -- I decided to give up my dreams to work behind a desk. Right.

Thanks to all of you who responded! YAY!

I work a double shift today, but it's a double 4.5 hour, so I'm off by 4 or so this afternoon. Aren't days like that nice. I'll work double shifts all weekend through tuesday, then I'm OFF FOR A WEEK!!!!!!!! Ah, the sweet knowledge that a much needed vacation is coming. It's getting so I look forward to being sick so that I can have a legitimate day off. Sad, no?

So my sister and I were driving to Santa Barbara a few days ago to meet our grandmother at the mall. Shopping and all that! Five newsvans passed us going the opposite direction, back to Los Olivos. Drea and I laughed and said "Neverland must be burning, Michael Jackson is the only person around here to merit this much attention." As I'm sure you've heard on every station around the world, we were right. What do you all think from your side of the world? My boss said the last few days you couldn't walk down the street without having a camera in your face asking for "your reaction to the raid." I do say, Kudos to the police for hauling him in, and shame on the lawyer wanting "advance notice" of police action. More brownie points to the opposing commentator who said "if some Joe down the street had a warrant for their arrest, they wouldn't get advance notice. Neither should he."

Roll Call!!!! Who's Reading these days? Let me know!

Actual Phone Conversation with Morning Guest:

Me:Front Desk, how may I help you?

Him: Hello. I need a bellman.

Me:I'm sorry sir, there's not a bellman on duty yet this morning. Let me see if I can find someone to help you with your bags.

Him: There's not a bellman?

Me: No sir, he's scheduled to be on in a few minutes, though. I'll send someone else right over.

Him: I need the bill.

Me:Of course. I'll have that ready for you at the front desk.

Him: I'm not coming down.

Me:Sir, I really need you to sign a copy for me.

Him: Just send it with the bellman.

Me: Of course sir.

Him: *hangs up*

Two minutes, and three people on hold while I try to find someone in the kitchen to help the man with his bags, later.

Me: Front Desk, how may I help you?

Him: It's been two minutes. Where's my bellman?

Me: I'm sorry sir, someone will be right with you.

Him: A bellman?

Me: No sir, but I'm sending someone right over.

Him: With the bill?

Me: Yes sir, no problem. Someone will be right over.

Him:*Hangs up*

Less that one minute later...

Him: I'd like to speak with a manager, or an assistant manager.

Me: Of course sir.

Him: You're really incompetant.

Me: Thank you sir. *I hang up*

35 seconds later, and several irate customers who have now been on hold through this whole exchange...

Him: Is anyone coming?

Me: Yes sir, he's on his way over with your bill.

Him: And what's his name?

Me: Oscar.

Him: And he's really coming?

Me: Yes sir. With your bill.

Him:*hangs up*

And people wonder why I want a vacation....

Ok, so last night I bartended, with another bartender, at a special event. Splitting the tips we both made $122. That's crap really for a bartender, but as a cocktail waitress I MAYBE, on a GOOD night, take home $30 extra. So why do I stay at my job, you ask? $100 a month rent and everything-but-optical benifits. But I think I'm going to haul my tushie to bartending school at some point in case I need a job besides singing (and who here doubts that I'll have to work like a dog for a while...). Bartending, even at the alisal, is excellent money!

Go see ELF. It's silly, it's cute, and tis the season to throw off our pretentions, and enjoy a good cheesy, get-you-in-the-spirit Holiday Movie! It starts out a little slow, but it picks up once he gets where he's going...

So after throwing a MAJOR hissie fit at work last week, and threatening to quit (who knew I could be such a diva? No comment Jeff) They changed everything about the horrible continental breakfast delivery by the time I came in this morning. YAY to my job for fixing the thing that has caused more complaints than anything since I started working here. Now the guests can come down themselves if they want breakfast, and we have a way to accommodate walk ins if they are desperatly dissappointed that no one serves anything around here! KUDOS!

A note to my email carrier:

Dear Internet service provider,

I want to thank you for the excellent level of junk mail protection you provide. Directing all of my personal mail to my junk mail box does make sure that I actually look over that inbox before deleting. And I so appreciate the excitement of thirteen new messages, only to find four letters guaranteeing me cheap flights or hotels, two Victoria's Secret coupons, Several half.com/ebay/amazon.com promotions, and at least one website offering enlargements for anatomy I do not currently possess...nor could I without some serious surgery. It does, however, make life interesting I must say. Thank you for anticipating the spice that is so missing from my life!

Ahhh the silly things we do when bored....

I'm a Shirley Temple, discover your ALcoHoLiC personality!

Today has been the day from Hades

I woke up this morning with Chloe having an accident all over my bed. Lovely. I'd just gotten the place cleaned up from the last mess....

I got to work, and everything was chaotic. The breakfasts were all running late. Then they ran out of orange juice. Then people who weren't supposed to have breakfast because their wedding party was having a hosted brunch decided they wanted room service anyway. Then people who did have breakfast were calling because it was late, or there wasn't enough coffee...and they wanted it right now, and hung up on me when I told him it would be a little while....So, in other words, I caught the brunt of it all morning. Occupational hazard of sitting by the phone labeled as "operator." I'm a little stressed. And I have to go to the Alisal at 5:00. Drea and I didn't work out the car schedule well, so I'm stranded here until Drea gets off at the Alisal....which leaves me less time to nap.

On the plus side, the sleeping pills kind of worked. It took forever to get to sleep, but once I was asleep I only woke up once...which is about 10 times less than the night before. So tonight I'll take two, and see if I can't get both benifits....yay health food store.

Hey guys, Now that I'm empowered enough to start playing around with html code, I went nuts with colors.....don't you all feel special to be the recipients of this much pink? I thought so.

YAY to Jerah! Who looked at my template and finally fixed the problem!!! Apparently, when I'd deleted my old comments link code, I deleted the code for the last section....and thus why my text was screwy! Isn't this lovely! Life is beautiful! La vita e bella!

ALRIGHT EVERYONE!!!! I HAVE COMMENTS AGAIN!!! I still haven't managed to solve the shrinking text problem, but at least I've fixed one problem. So now, your job is to write comments so I know you're out there! Tell me if it sucks! Tell me if it's good! Whatever! Just imput!

Still Sick. Is anyone counting? How long is this cold going to last? I'm getting sick of it. Of course, working four double shift days in a row and not being able to sleep at night isn't HELPING!

I've been having the worst of all possible starts to a morning -- besides waking up ever 15 minutes all night.......Chloe is not taking well to being potty trained. Caiaphas has it all figured out as far as we've gone. Chloe proceeded to have an accident this morning, and then another when I shut her in the bathroom to clean up the first one. So half of our house is finding its way to the laundry room this morning, and of course, I was running late to work....big suprise..

Today we have a party of 50, a party of 20 and the regular walk ins for brunch, plus a meeting in the board room this morning, so its going to be a veritable zoo around here. Hopefully I can go home and sleep for a few hours before I have to go to my next job. So sleepy. I'm stopping by the health food store to see if they have some kind of pill that won't leave a hangover. Even before the cold I wasn't sleeping well -- I'm a light sleeper in the best of nights -- and between Caiaphas playing with paper bags, or shoes, or whatever else he happens to find amusing, and Andrea grinding her teeth all night, I'm beginning to look slightly more like the witch from Wizard of Oz -- but with larger bags under my eyes, and a smaller nose (thank heavens). Yes Indeed, I am green...but I'm blaming that on the Camomile tea.

I really love the health food store! Drea and I have started shopping there because, 1. Albertsons is still on strike, and 2. It's on the way home from our mutual jobs. Drea can get food for her lactose intolerance, and I can buy things that actually contain vegetables. That's my biggest failure with this new diet we're both on...no sugar, no problem. No fast food, ok. No junk food, I can eat balance bars...but eating vegetables just because -- blech. We did buy vegetables. And they are sitting quite happily in the freezer section of our fridge. Right where we put them a month ago....

Speaking of the Albertson's strike. Enough is enough already people! Go find a new job if you're that pissed. But Albertsons's is the only place to shop that isn't a mom and pop shop...Which are, of course, great for produce and such, but FREAKISHLY EXPENSIVE for anything prepackaged, and then it only comes in the smalles possible quantity. So, to all the ALbertson's strikers out there....I'm going broke supporting your strike! Plus, I'm wasting all sorts of gas money driving half an hour to my bank, which is conveniently located in your lobby.

Never doubt the power of tea to sooth an otherwise rocky morning.

From the beginning -- I've been sick for two days. Finally dragged myself out of bed this morning to go to work again, armed with a box of Celestial Seasonings Camomile Tea and a jar of honey. Ahhhh....

So far this morning, everything has gone wrong. They're training a new night auditor, so one mistake gets compounded into several, and I, as the representative to the public, get to take the brunt end of it. Every person I've checked out.

Then the GM and I spent an hour trying to figure out where the mistakes were made, and by whom, and WHY the *&#% did that happen, and I hate when people *#&$^%*#(@ mess things up like this!

So, now it's 11 o clock. I have two hours left, another cup of tea with honey, and some beef jerky that was brought me by our fabulous maintenance man, and a breakfast burrito from Margerita -- the morning waitress....I'm thinking most of this is a sympathy gift, but the way I feel this morning, I'll take it any way I can get it!

P.S. I'm having a great hair day for no apparent reason! It adds one or two molecules of happiness to the day!

Oh it's november! The temperature is in the 40's -- which in California after 6 months of endless summer feels very very cold. I'm wearing a wool plaid skirt, cotton sailor sweater (oh how I wish I'd kept my wool ones!) and knee high boots. Still cold. Not nearly as cold as all of the natives ... this weather feels like fall for the first time. Hard to tell time around here with no identifiable seasons. Probably why I've been unable to grasp the fact that its officially November, and my birthday is a month off.

On another note. 7:00am doesn't feel nearly as early as it used to. And sleeping until 8:00 feels very refreshing. 5:30 -- still a bear to wake up that freaking early. And it's not the waking up thats so difficult. It's the convincing yourself at 10:00 that instead of watching another rerun of "Whose line is it anyway" you should really go to bed because you're going to feel it in the morning if you don't." And every night its the same thing. You stay up for just ONE more episode, or ONE more chapter. And then 5:30 gets earlier and earlier. And earlier still when the damnable cat decides to play with a bit of plastic bag at 4am. Oh yes. At that point, lying in bed listening to crinkle crinkle.............crinkle....you begin to with that everything you've ever heard about plastic bags being dangerous were TRUE! That would at least save you the trouble of getting up again and taking it away from him so he can find something new to get into. Last night he slept on a loaf of bread. Does that make any sense? And why only the paper plates that we use, and not the stack that are too flimsy to use? And why does he sit in my lap only when I have a notebook on it, but then gets off when I pull it out from under him, and then crawls back on top of the notebook once I think he's really gone.....? Ah the mysteries of cat ownership.