Day 3:  Your idea of the perfect first date.

Walk around the New Orleans French Quarter

This is a picture of the New Orleans Riverfront outside of the Riverwalk and the Aquarium of the Americas.  Since I was about sixteen years old taking a walk along this has been one of my favorite things to do.  Hell, I enjoy it so much that I used to skip school when I was a senior in high school to just walk around the French Quarter all day with my ex.  To this day this is one of my most memorable memories I have with my Mom.  When I drive to New Orleans to see her – and if the weather permits – we will take a stroll around the piss smelling streets of the French Quarter.

There are certain stores that my Mom and I  visit religiously such as:  Lush, Urban Outfitters, and Herb Import Co. We almost always get a bowl of gumbo at The Gumbo Shop.  Last month when my cousin Melanie was in town from Georgia I took her to walk around New Orleans and showed her all of these stores (I didn’t take her into Herb Import) and she had her first cup of seafood gumbo with me at The Gumbo Shop.

I feel more comfortable out in public with someone and doing something that is active and also a lot of fun.  Well, for a first date anyway.

No matter what I do I will get half way through a new post and completely forget about it. I’ll go back to it a couple days later to finish it but will leave my WordPress window sitting open all night as I neglect my poor blog. Needless to say I am open for any ideas I can get when it comes on what to write about on here. I have so much fun living my life yet when it comes time to put it down via keyboard I am always drawing a BLANK. I recently ran into Jenn’s idea for The 30 Day Meme. I am interested. And I will try this out! I won’t be blogging every day, but hopefully this will give me the kick start I need to get things going on this site.

The 30 Day Meme: Day 1 – A photo of yourself and a description of how your day was.

Today was craft day for the girls.  While the guys went to our friends’ house to play D&D (as they do every other Sunday) I went to my friend Sheyenne’s house and while we watched Big Love I cross stitched.  Before I got to Sheyenne’s house I actually went to Michael’s craft store to get a new pattern book and lots of new thread.  As you can see, I  got a lot.  Once 3pm rolled around Sheyenne ordered us a couple pizzas and breadsticks from Domino’s.  Our friend Izzy came over as well.  Her craft was beading necklaces.  She did an awesome job on the one she made for Sheyenne.  Sheyenne’s craft was making letter books for the kids in her class (2-3 year olds).  She was making a book for the letter A while I was there.  Five thirty came a lot faster than I would have liked.  It took me a good two hours to get all the string wrapped around the floss bobbins, but after that I did a bit of stitching.  Now I have something else to take up my free time other than WoW, Facebook games, and the new book I’m reading.

I got home a couple hours before Blondie came home, so I started laundry.  He’s upstairs studying at the moment.  My evening is slowly winding down.  I’ve got work in the morning.  I can hear the rain and thunder outside and it is quite peaceful.

I have been in the service industry for over nine years now.  The typical things about working in a restaurant have always annoyed me:

- people asking for their food to come out fast because they need to catch a movie, during our dinner rush, and on a weekend night

- customers who don’t tip

- people who eat more than half their food, complain, and then want it for free

These are some things that have happened to me recently at work that have irked the hell out of me:

The Regular

We have this one regular who comes in for lunch about once a week.  At times, and it seems to be on our busier nights, he brings his family in to eat.  This group consists of himself, his wife, their son, his wife, and their baby.  He asked for a straight up martini with a touch of vermouth.  The sons wants at least six refills of tea per sitting.  After waiting on the entire family once I already know to just make a pitcher of sweet tea to give to the son.  Any way.  This guy is pretty particular about his martinis.  And the recipe is not difficult at all.  A straight up top shelf gin martini with a splash of vermouth and two olives.  I have a habit of shaking my drinks pretty hard so I can get them chilled as fast as possible.  On nights like this one I need this cheat.  The guy stopped me in the middle of my next big order to ask me if I heard him correctly when he told me he wanted his martini straight up with no ice.

I asked him if he would have liked his martini warm.  That sounds much worse in my head as I type this out then it did when I actually said it.  He did not look surprised when I said it though.  His wife actually interrupted me and told him I made it as he ordered it (thank you awesome woman).  I then looked into the martini and saw that there were several very small shards of ice in the martini.  Without thinking I explained to the man that the strainer I used let the ice through, and that I was sorry the martini did not turn out the way he had asked.

And you know what the kicker of all this is?  No matter the annoyance.  They tip fantastically.  And aside from the Dad being picky about his martinis the family is a delight.

Because I Love Repeating Myself

The first thing I do when I go to a table is introduce myself and sometimes the restaurant if I don’t recognize them as regulars.  After that I ask them what they would like to drink.  The first person to say “tea” gets asked whether they would like sweet or unsweetened tea.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve waited on a table of six or more where I have to ask every single person what type of tea they would like.  Is it just me, or wouldn’t you think that by at least the fifth person they would know to specify which type of tea?  I guess everyone just doesn’t pay attention.

Can I See Your ID?

One thing I cannot stand is when families with kids sit at the bar on a busier than normal night while they are waiting on a table.  Not only does it stop actual bar customers from sitting down, but most people order a couple drinks, tip me a dollar, and then sit at the bar for ten minutes.  Oh!  And then the kids want to eat a bunch of crackers and make a damned mess all over the bar.  Most of the parents don’t even clean up after their kids.

That is all I’d like to say about that.

I have been in the service industry for over nine years.  I was a hostess for five years until I began bartending.  I started waiting tables March 2009.  I began working at my first seafood restaurant (and oyster bar) September 2009 and am still employed there.  My current job has been one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever had, both financially and emotionally.  This has been the first job that I have also been able to separate my personal life with my work life.  I’ve made some really good friends along the way.  Blessed has been the way I have described my life since beginning this job.  I was able to make a great life for myself.

And then the oil spill happened.   I am telling any of you who are reading this right now – our lives have been turned upside down.  Shyness is not a personality trait that comes out in me often.  Especially in conversations with friends, customers, etc. about the oil spill and how it has effected my income.  I’ll be the first to tell anyone – I now make $700-$900 less a month.  I’m not embarrassed about it.  I’ve completely stopped going out.  If I do, it is usually on someone else’s dime.  Frivolous monthly bills got cut as well.  I was living quite comfortably.  Not is not the case anymore.  Monday through Wednesday I wait tables on the lunch shift.  I’m making about $30 less per shift.  I bartend Thursday and Friday nights.  Because business is slower the bar business has slowed down too.  I do wait tables on Saturday nights.  That is a sure shift.  I bought tickets to go see Tool a few weeks ago before this oil spill thing became as serious as it is now.  Not only did I pay $80 for my ticket but I missed a Saturday night shift.  No more!  My days of spending are over!  I have dedicated my nights to Blondie, Loki, and lots of WoW.

Yes, I play WoW.  On Spinebreaker too.

Tuesday morning my boss gave me a pamphlet from BP so I can make my claim.  I’m getting my check stubs from the past three months together and making my claim next week.   People ask me constantly if the seafood at work is edible.  Of course it is edible you ignoramus!  If seafood has made its way to a restaurant it has passed all the proper inspections to make its way to your plate.  These days, I’m sure seafood from the Gulf in general has to pass through more tests.  The fact that I get asked on a daily basis if our oysters are “okay” to eat baffles me.  Companies have made commercials to let the public know that the seafood is safe to eat.  Restaurant owners are pleading on local news stations to make people aware that the seafood is okay to eat.  We only have a shortage of oysters because BP is paying our fishermen to work for them instead of fishing these oyster beds.  The owner of the company we get our oysters from took his own boat into the beds over the weekend and fished his own oysters so we could have them.  They passed all the inspections.  They are more than okay to eat.  Sheesh, enjoy the seafood while you can!

On a lighter note.  Loki is 16 weeks old now.  I took him to get de-wormed & get his first round of boosters on Monday.  He had a small dot of something above his eye that I got a culture taken of as well as received some medicine for.  He goes back in three weeks for his next round of shots and for me to schedule his neutering.  He’s going to be much calmer one that happens.  I cant wait.

Sunday Fundays have officially started, which means summer for my friends and I has started. Sundays are my only days off of work, so my friends and I have been trying to have the best possible time we can have.

I’m also dealing with the end of a two year relationship. The finality of it all has my mind going in circles. In the end we just ended up bringing out the worst in each other. I knew he loved me, but I didn’t feel like he liked me very much. The entire situation and what happened towards the end saddens me, but life goes on. I’m being optimistic and looking forward to a great summer surrounded by good people.

Got any plans for the summer? Tell me in my comments! I’ll be 26 in July, so the plans are already cooking.