Minor Disaster

Tonight a cart hit a speedbump too slow to go over, but enough to rock three racks of glasses off the back. 57 casualties. 18 were saved. When the head of food and beverage said to start phasing out the old glasses, I don't think this was what he had in mind...

Screwtape Revisited

Heaven help us all, these people are horrible. HORRIBLE!

At one set of tables, no one is allowed to sit until Grandma decides where. The night before last they brought in four bottles of wine, and wanted extra glasses to go around. Today we tried to anticipate them, and places double glasses on the table they were at before. Murphy's law; they sat at the other table. We started shifting the glasses, and one of the ladies said, "Oh, no no no. We won't be having wine today. They've all been wine tasting."

Table two was better. One man brought in four young children, sat them at the table, and then made to leave. "Ok, kids, have fun at the movie later." The waitress asked if an adult was planning on staying with them. "No. Does someone need to?" She answered in the afirmative, and he promised to send back "one of the twelve year olds" to babysit. They adults wanted to eat after the kids had left.

Table three. Oh the charmers. They can't sit down at once, and they want to order one drink at a time. No one will look at you when you come to the table, but they get quite offended when you walk away. We got slammed last night. The busser came with one table's food. They didn't feel they needed to wait any longer. I looked up and the first table was gathered around the tray of the second table's food yelling, "who had swordfish." They caught me staring, mouth open in disbelief, and one lady tried to..."Oh, well, they've been waiting for a long time and..." I pretended not to hear.

The last I heard before I headed home was the same harried waitor back at table one asking about dessert. A little kid piped up, "Is the dessert going to take as long as the food did?"

Another day, another dollar.

The quarterly report didn't happen until this morning. Wendy and I got lazy last night and watched Tombstone instead. I think I may have to become a grudging Val Kilmer fan. I loved him in the Saint, and was semi-ambivilant about him in Batman when I was a freak about the movies. I even had a poster.

I'm going to go plant an ivy and a star jasmine that I bought yesterday. English ivy is one of my favorite green plants, except for irish moss. That's the lush dark green kind with little white flowers. I'm going to have them surrounding all the stepping stones in my english cottage garden of my dream house.

And tonight I'm bartending in the main restaurant. Well, mainly grabbing beers and putting lids on things. I'm the "bar back." It usually means I go home early. Which is good for my state of loafing, but bad for paychecks.

I heard from Wycliffe yesterday. They want to make sure my letters of recommendation are coming so they can process my application. It sounds like they might want me. Two or three more days and the suspense will be over. I don't know if I'm fit for a ministry oriented performance. I'm not an "on-fire, preaching, witnessing, praying-over-people" kind of girl. This troupe recommends daily bible study (check), group fellowship and praying (gulp) and accountability. I don't like to pray in front of people out loud. This is very frightening, and out of my comfort zone. Two more days. Maybe three.

Jeans, the bane of a woman's existence

Alright ladies, who's with me?

I went to the mall recently needing a new pair of jeans. Jean shopping is a horror second only to the dreaded swimsuit season. Somebody needs to do something about the size standard.

At first I thought I'd just buy a pair of the jeans I had. L.E.I. size 5 with lengthwise striations. Do they carry those anymore? NO. As soon as you find a pair of jeans that looks halfway decent, and doesn't make you feel like a cow, they get rid of it. So the next time you're back in the store trying on five hundred pairs. Now, guys, I'm sure you're wondering how hard this can be. You just find your size and try it on, right?

Wrong.

On that particular day in the mall I started in the teen section, since they had L.E.I. Normally I wear a 5/7. So I grabbed them. I couldn't get my leg in. I grabbed a 9. Couldn't zip it. I drew the line and trying on an 11. My ego couldn't handle it. SO I went upstairs to the womens' section.

The problem up there is they don't make jeans low rise very often. I don't need jeans so far down it merits a special shave, but I don't want hip waders either. I decided not to press my luck and grabbed a 7. And went swimming. It almost didn't stay on my hips. I worked my way back down and wound up buying a Calvin Klein size 2. Low-ish rise. Slim leg. But not eighties slim. Which is coming back. And is a story for another time.

End of the Month

It's the last day of June. Time to pull out the ledger and do my quarterly report, as well as my month end report. Yes, I'm a geek. But Wendy will be right there with me. If you only knew how bad a state my finances were in a year ago, you'd be proud of my progress. Besides, I really like totalling up columns, checking that everything balances, and then decorating the page for the next month. Crayola makes everything fun!

Harry Potter

This article, I'm sure, has circulated around a hundred times, but this is the first I've read of it. It defends Harry Potter from those that outright reject the Harry Potter series. A very good read, though it assumes you've read the first two.

Here are a few sites of people who have visited me recently: Janet and Laurie. Check them out!

Feeling really dumb...

I've just read, for the first time, The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton. I'm on my second read through. The first time I blasted through to get to the point. I felt really dumb by the end. I didn't understand any of the symbolism. And the only surprise I got right in the plot was knowing the connection between Sunday and the man in the dark room. Now I'm going line by line back through. Very slowly. Can anyone tell me what Gregory's sister is supposed to be?

More Scary but true...

A server at the chuckwagon sends a drink order through with a note to *see server.* He dashes in and tells me the lady is a "little bit picky." She wants one lemonade, half lemonade, half water. And one arnold palmer (usually half lemonade, half iced tea) with 70% water, and 15% iced tea and lemonade. We spent some time in stitches debating exactly how much is 70% of a 20-ounce glass. (14 ounces, if anyone did the math) How unreal is this place?

Brains draining away

Someone.....help....

Wendy's family is out of town for the next two days packing up the house they just sold. So I was given the keys to the place and unlimited use of a computer. I've been online for hours. I was on for four hours this morning, and it's after midnight now. In my defense (because surely no one who reads this blog has ever spent too much time online before) I haven't had internet connection of my own in over a year. I will be so glad to move into a place where I can enjoy my occasional addiction. I've missed browsing the movie goofs pages, and having ages to look up links to my blog. Boy, this might explain why I've had more dates this year than in my entire college life combined (three, if you MUST know -- and college had extenuating circumstances).

What am I whiling away my evening reading? Um. Buffy scripts. Isn't there any way to make that smaller? My sister bought the ENTIRE season six and we had ourselves a marathon. I never watched Buffy until she bought season five. I read studiously through the first ten episodes. By the twelfth I was catching the occasional scene. I was suckered into the 16th, and then I watched the rest. And there is a LOT of Spike in season six. He's my favorite. Help me, I've inadvertently joined thousands of screaming pre-teens. But his characterization is amazing. Especially in one episode that goes through his entire lifespan as a vamp. Very nice transitions. I'm going to have to watch House on Haunted Hill again. He played "Camera man #3." Lucky guy -- a real number. Which is more than I can say for myself.

Really I'm trying to numb out the suspense of waiting for these directors to get back to me. It'll all be old hat after a while, but this is my first round of casting calls. I'll know by the end of the week. I've been slightly nauseous for several days.