I give thanks for....

... my parents. I know that Thanksgiving is several months away yet, but I just had this awesome idea tonight. Since this is my first Thanksgiving as a married woman (and I'm not even sure yet of my plans for Thanksgiving), and I'm not always real good with birthdays and mom/dad days, I wanted to do something special for my parents. So, I decided to make a list of things I remember about my childhood that I want to thank my parents for doing for me/teaching me/ letting me do/ etc.

This post will be constantly edited as I think of more things to add.

To my mom:

Thank you for taking me antique shopping and trying to tell me about different things.
Thank you for taking me hiking, even if we did get lost.
Thank you for doing the "treasure hunt" game - I loved figuring out the clues.
Thank you for taking me arrowhead hunting and for teaching me what flint looks like.
Thank you for letting me ride horses, and for teaching me how to do so properly.
Thank you for letting me play and swim in the creek.
Thank you for letting me and my friends ransack your closet for our "fashion shows"
Thank you for taking me "sledding" down the creek bank.
Thank you for teaching me to be tough.
Thank you for teaching me to use power tools.
Thank you for letting me run around naked and barefoot.
Thank you for teaching me to think for myself and not depend on others opinions.
Thank you for taking me to ballet lessons for 10 years - I really did love it.

To my dad:

Thank you for taking me deer hunting, even though you never shot one with me around.
Thank you for taking us camping - and not getting lost!
Thank you for taking me to ballet.
Thank you for telling me about the history of our land and family, even though I may not remember it all.
Thank you for letting me get dirty, but still be your little princess.
Thank you for putting up with all my dogs and cats, especially Muffin.
Thank you for letting me help you with the cows, even when I wasn't much actual help.

Yay, school! ??.......

So, yeah, I am officially accepted to Texas A&M University in the Masters program in Biomedical Science. And I'm finding out that graduate school is a bit different from undergrad. First off, I'm gonna have a "committee" to guide me in picking classes and whatnot instead of an adviser, and I did not get to pick my classes or schedule at all for the first semester. I'm taking systemic vet physiology, 5 days a week in the morning, stats in research mwf in the morning, molecular biology of viruses, which is tba, and a one hour course which the guy described as an orientation class, but my schedule calls " educ. vet. med. bio. envir." ...... very non-descriptive, if you ask me. So, 12 hours total, no labs, and only 2 of the classes have a scheduled time so far. The other 2 I have to contact the professor before classes start to see where and when they meet. I hope that they are mwf, or 8am tues/thurs (and yes, I'm mildly crazy for wishing that), otherwise I will only be able to work lunches on the weekend, so I may not be able to keep my job. Although, if Marcus gets a really good job, maybe I won't really have to keep my job; I don't love it by any means, but it's an ok job with ok money.

I'd like to place a to-go order...

Well, duh! I just said "Cheddar's To-go, this is Amy". Seriously! So, yeah, I worked to-go's yesterday, for a grand total of 2.5 hours.

Pros: short hours, no tip share, no silverware fee, no sidework, no closing work, no cleaning my section.

Cons: short hours, bad tips, I have to use the crappy squirrel, and I have to talk on the phone (which is difficult for me - I tend to hear the background noise on my end and their end before I hear the human voice). Plus, when the hostess forwards to caller to to-go's for me to pick up, there is a slightly different ringer, which I cannot really differentiate from the regular one. Good thing the bartender was helpful.

So, on to more upbeat and interesting things... Susie is the sweetest little cat ever! She sleeps on my pillow above my head, which is fine except for when her fluffy tail gets in my face... cat hair up the nose - ugh. Jody is still jealous of her, even though she has gotten more attention from us post-cat than she did pre-cat. She used to just lay down and sleep, but now she's either following the cat around or following us around. She's weird. Susie just got spayed a couple days before we got her, and she's still recovering - she sleeps alot (of course, cats tend to do that anyways), and she doesn't eat a lot (but maybe I'm just used to our fat, piggy cats which would scarf down as much food as you were willing to give them), but I'm thinking that she will be more energetic next week. I got a lot of things from Freecycle for her (check it out - most awesome website ever!) and one of those was a little wicker basket, and I made a little cushion to put in it, and that is her favorite spot to sleep during the day, aside from the rocking chair.

MEOW!!!

I finally got my kitty cat!! Her name is Susie, she is a 2-year-old tortie-and-white semi-longhair. We got her today from Petsmart. She is very sweet, but still not quite sure about Jody. We actually got them too close trying to get them used to each other and swatted Jody on the nose... and managed to get my arm with her back claws in the process. Ouchie! But I think I'll live :) I really hope they learn to like (or at least tolerate) each other. Anyways, yay, sweet (to humans) kitty!!

On the job injury...

... wonder if I can get compensation?? haha. My ankle has become the first casualty of working at Cheddar's. It's been a long time since I was required to walk around for many hours at a time without being able to sit down, and apparently my ankles are not quite as strong as they were when I was a dancer. It's not really anything serious... just some pain and inflammation/swelling. Nothing a little ibuprofen and an Ace wrap won't cure. All the same, annoying knowing that I have to go to work tomorrow morning... *sigh* I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Grrr

I swear every movie I've seen lately has babies or pregnancy in it. I mean, come on, Hellboy?? Really?!? Who saw that one coming?

Complaining time...

So, I've decided that the thing I dislike the most about my job is the fact that I have no set "get off of work" time. It's around the same time, obviously, but it can vary by an hour, at least. It really bothers my sense of order that I have to wait for someone to tell me that I'm "cut", at which time I can start cleaning my section and doing whatever my duties are in the kitchen (re-filling salad dressings, [which is what I did today], stocking to-go boxes, cleaning the tea and coffee station, or whatever).

I really have mixed emotions about this job. The things I like: always moving (mostly), having a chart and book to tell me exactly what my kitchen duties are during and after my shift, making money, making small accomplishments throughout the day (closing out a ticket makes me feel like I actually did something), and the repetitiveness (greet, get drink order, suggest appetizer, bring drink, get food order, bring appetizer if called for, wait [and do sidework if needed], bring food, circulate to check on them and to re-fill drinks, do sidework or run food, pre-bus, suggest dessert, bring dessert if called for, bring ticket, run card or get change for cash, tell them to have a good day, wait 'til they leave, look at what kind of tip I got, close out the ticket, rinse and repeat).

The things I dislike: the above-mentioned time issue, the fact that I have to "check-out" with someone (like I wouldn't do things properly otherwise...), the shoes, the amount of people that I'm constantly around (I occasionally just have to swallow the panic... or go to the bathroom or store room to be by myself for a minute or two... hopefully no-one will notice my more-frequent-than-necessary bathroom trips :)), the times when I have to ask someone how to do something because some moron has altered every aspect of the item that they ordered, the fact that it interferes with my eating schedule (dinner I can deal with, because staying up late is no problem for me, but lunch is another story... thank God they don't serve breakfast, because if I had to work a breakfast shift and my breakfast time got screwed with... I don't think I could manage that). Oh, and the fact that I have to have a starched uniform.... I'm convinced that starch affects the so-called breathable aspect of cotton... I'm not too crazy about the pants either.

And if today was any indication, tips for the lunch shift suck compared to the dinner shift.

Anyways, I suppose that's enough ranting for one night.... I best leave it at that unless someone out there thinks I'm totally crazy...

First day on my own!

So, yesterday was my first day as a server by myself. I worked the dinner shift, and took care of two tables. I got in at 4:00, but didn't start really start until at least 30 after, because Dakota had a big table and wasn't finished at 4:00.... I got off at 11:00, and I managed to make $40 in tips, so adding in the $2.13/hr that I make, I made about $8.50/hr. Not bad, I think, for my first day. I was so exhausted though, because the carpets were getting professionally cleaned, so we had to move all the tables and chairs from the carpeted areas into the tiled area.

1st day on my own...

...is tomorrow. I was scheduled to work lunch, but Dakota called and wants to switch (she has the dinner shift) so she can go home later that evening. That is totally fine with me, because I won't have to go in until around 4, instead of 11, which means I have most of the day free. We just have to go to Cheddars here in a little bit to switch our shifts.

Last Training Day!!!

So, today was my last day of training; my trainer was Hilary and she rocks! She totally made up for the fact that my previous trainer was an asshole. I am totally confident now that I will be able to take care of my two tables on Tuesday. I don't have to work tomorrow, but I do have a few errands to take care of, mainly, taking Jody to the vet. She was all sneezy, so they gave her some meds (which, oddly enough, is one of the same things I take for my urticaria, only they gave her a bigger dosage), and said to come back in a couple weeks to get her shots, as they wouldn't give them when she was on medication. So, she's gonna get her shots and her heartworm/flea stuff, and her county tag.... and then we will find a different vet to go to. The people are nice enough, and they seem competent, but I just didn't find the place very professional. Much too girly and cutesy for my taste (and M's).

A post that isn't mostly about work!

Ok: work related - I went in this morning at 9:00 am and did my bar class and test. Yay, done.

Non-work related - Then I went shopping, just a few mundane things: prescription, cereal, bananas... that was pretty much it. I did go to Dillards to get 2 more of my wine glasses with the gift card I got from one of my cousins, and I was going to get pants, but they only has size 0 in the ones I wanted.... so I walked out of the mall empty-handed... kinda sad, but whatever (oh, I did get a Godiva Chocolate bar... yum!) I've kinda gotten behind in chores and things because I've been either working, studying for work, or playing WoW.... I finally got the floors vacuumed and mopped, but now I need to fix my desk (it's the old secretary kind with the fold down lid/desktop, and the desktop thing is sagging a little because the chain stretched since my mom put it on), and I need to write more thank-you notes. That will be something I will be SO glad to get finished! Ugh... writing....

3rd day of Server training

So , my third training day was today, and something was messed up in the schedules, so my trainer was not there..... So, they assigned some other guy to train me. He was either in a bad mood about having to train me, or he is just normally an asshole. Either way, he was definately not a good trainer. I was supposed to have a little more freedom today, and basically have two tables just for me to take care of, but he made me follow him around like a little puppy. I went off to fill glasses and pre-bus tables, and he basically chewed me out when I got back. Every time I did something, he had something negative to say about it. Apparently, he has never heard the term "constructive criticism". I admit, I need to work on talking to people, asking the correct questions, and I need to be quicker at everything. But, jeez, putting down everything that someone does or says is not the best teaching method. ugh... plus, I need to re-take my bar test. I didn't do so well on the wine part or the pricing part.

Second day of server training

So, second day of training was even more tiring and hectic-feeling than the first day. I took orders, put in orders, filled drinks, even carried a tray. We had the same side-work today as yesterday - salad station stocking. I went in at 3:00, did my squirrel training (6 orders on the crappiest machine in the place), did another food test, then did a cash-out worksheet, which was easy, but I looked in the wrong spot for the totals, so I got 4 things wrong, but it wasn't really a big deal. When my trainer finally got there (at 5:00) and graded my tests, and let me correct most of the ones I got wrong. Tomorrow (or I guess, today, lol) I don't have to work - which is awesome. I can study for my bar test, which is pretty intense and in detail. The hardest part is knowing all the wines and their costs, and knowing all the ingredients of some of the mixed drinks. It's kinda stupid, cuz the bartender makes the drinks, not me, but whatever. Friday is my third day of training, and I get even more responsibility. My main things I think I need to focus on right now are: writing down orders quickly and correctly, getting drinks and apps out quickly, punching things in the squirrel quickly and correctly, keeping drinks filled, fixing salads and making sure they get out before the meals, being friendly and personable with the guests, gettting to know my co-workers, and doing all my side work and closing work quickly and correctly. A lot, I know, but I really want to get really good at this, because that's how you make money as a server..... so I really have to figure it all out really fast. I think being by myself might actually be easier in some ways, because I will be able to do things my way, and I will only have myself to rely on. I won't have to wonder whether or not I should do it, or if my trainer has already done it. I've also got to figure out some type of eating schedule that is more conducive to being able to get through a shift without wanting to steal some food. It's been nice, because since I'm training, my trainer and I get to split a meal for free. But, once my training ends.... no more free food. Discounted, yes... free, no. Ugh.. I'm just exhausted, and have so many things going through my mind. Half the time I think I'm never going to be good at this, and other times I think that I will be pretty good at it once I figure it all out and become more efficient. So, yeah.... bedtime.... or actually, shower-time, then movie-in-bed-until-I-fall-asleep-time. I'm watching Underworld, a vampire and werewolf movie.... I've seen it before... it's my kind of movie.

Server Training

Yesterday was my first day of server training. I had to take 2 menu tests and a table chart test. Then I followed Trey around while he did all the server stuff. I got a quick tour of the kitchen and various freezers and storage areas. I practiced writing the orders while he wrote them, and discovered I really need to work on my shorthand. I had a practice order to punch in to the squirrel, plus Trey showed me how to figure up how much I owe the restaurant at the end of the night. Later, Dakota and I went to her place and studied the bar test stuff, and then we went to eat at Cheddar's - yay for employee discount! Today is my second day - I have another menu test, and I have to do more squirrel practice. Me. Taking orders. ..... "Hi, my name is Amy and I'll be your server today. Would you like to start off with some iced tea and some chips & queso?" I have a hard time practicing that because I thinkI just sound stupid..... Oh, well....