new ring, originally uploaded by orange sibyl.

this is the latest addition to my jewelry collection:

now I have to find a pretty white dress to go with it!

I ended up at a Salsa club in the basement of a karaoke bar a few nights back. And as odd as this may sound to people not from this fair city, it seems perfectly normal when you’re there. well mostly normal at least. But because ending up there was completely unplanned and entirely a surprise, I was not properly dressed. It sounded like a good adventure and since my ride home wasn’t going to be done working for a few more hours, I had some time to kill. I vowed not to dance, paid the cover and made my way to the bar. I didn’t, however, make it to the bar before I found myself counting in my head (left, left, right right, one, two, three, four… ). The room was packed with people. Someone took my photo and handed me a card with a web address of a local Latino community. The band was awesome and a few hours later my toes were bloody (see: not properly dressed), I had managed to work up a sweat and I was starving. I also feel pretty confident next time I go I will at least be able to keep up with the basic steps.

My night ended with an amazing burger from a nearby bar and a lengthy conversation about the definition of ground beef and corn vs grass fed.

I’m keeping a pair of closed-toed heels and a flouncy skirt in my bag from now on. You never know when you’re going to need them.

I guess these things happen when you work in a resturant.

Every once in a while I think about blogging. And then I think maybe I should just start a new blog, a fresh start that would liken itself to more writing and less thinking about writing. But really, the excuses are just that. empty.

The weather is fickle right now and the garden loves every day like a fish its gills. The lettuce is almost big enough to harvest and I fear with all the heads in their rows we’re going to have to be vegetarians just to keep up with the growth and green. Maybe we were a bit over-zealous when planting. When trying to fit them all in our humble garden plot we debated so many options for arrangement. Would the tomatoes be friendly enough to allow carrots and evening conversation? Would the turnips turn sour towards the spicy peppers and sweet strawberries? I know not the politics of produce and instead debated planting alphabetically. But I am a scientist at heart and in the end survival of the fittest won. Spencer and Darwin would be proud. I just hope the ‘world’s largest pumpkin’ doesn’t really get that big because I really like cabbage.

Work has been work. In every sense of the word. It seems like cramming a full time job into 4 days a week instead of 5 would leave me with more time for other things. But cramming anything just means I drink more coffee, stay up too late trying to get everything done, oversleep the next day and still have laundry baskets full of clothes and towels that needed to get washed last week. Or maybe the week before. School is out in four weeks and I’m looking forward to the summer off. I currently have at least 2 million trips I want to take and approximately 40 hundred things I want to do.

I worked a brief (read: almost nonexistent) stint with a doctor who wants to get me into medical school. Or at least he wants to help me get myself in. I suppose in the end I had to tell him I really don’t know what I want. I don’t know. And I don’t want to waste your time. So thank you. It felt weird having someone I did not know for more than a few days believe in me more than I do myself. He told me to keep in touch and three weeks later I finally returned his e-mail. ugh. I just want to bake. and garden. and ride my bike. and eat this crazily good smelling meatball sandwich that just came my way via a very nice boy. is that too much to ask?

[Sometimes I'm a cocktail server at an upscale bar. And from this line of work I have countless stories of how strange, weird, wonderful, funny, rude and annoying people can be. Especially when they're dealing with waitstaff, or "the help." I didn't plan on this post being all negative things because there are some awesome people that I deal with at work and I should take more time to write about and acknowledge how great they are. So maybe next time I'll do that. Maybe. I did go back after writing this post and put the word please in front of each of the three "don'ts" just because it seemed nicer. So that's something positive, I suppose.]

From someone in the service industry to those not.

Please don’t say things like “make it good” or “I want it to taste good” Its not like I purposely plan on making your cocktails taste like crap and then as soon as you ask me to “make it good” I change my mind and make it taste wonderful. And I don’t cook your food so if you don’t like it, I will gladly take it back to the kitchen but I have nothing to do with how it tastes. We take pride in the food and drinks that are made, its our art, and we don’t do anything differently because you tell us to “make it good.”

Please don’t come into an upscale bar and tell me you’re in a hurry and need to get your food fast and then order a chicken sandwich or a steak. This isn’t a fast food place. The food here is going to take longer than McDonalds because everything is made to order. If you’re in a hurry order soup or maybe a salad, something that doesn’t have to be cooked. And for future reference, if you’re nice about it instead of informing me that you’re in a hurry and ordering me to get your food fast, I will do everything in my power to get you what you need. I am a server for a living, to pay my bills, not because I want to be your servant. If your’e nice to me I’ll probably even RUN around the kitchen, inform the cooks the of the situation, help them hurry your food along, and tell you to have a nice day when you leave. If you’re nice.

Please don’t try and tell me your food took 20 minutes when it really only took 10.I have a computer that tells me the exact minute your food was ordered. I know you’re exaggerating. And I understand you’re unhappy about something. Maybe you had a bad day, got in a fight with your husband, your dog died, you lost your job, your purse was stolen, your boss hates you. I get it. I have bad days too, sometimes people even talk to me like I’m a child and treat me really crappy at work. If you want to vent, tell me how bad your day/week/month/life is, I will gladly listen for as long as you need. If your food really did take an excessive amount of time, chances are really high that I will apologize before you even have time to complain. I’ll give you a discount if its really excessive. But if you’re just complaining because you want free food. Its probably not going to work anyway. I’ve seen that trick a hundred times and its just annoying.

coming soon…

credit cards, large parties, split checks, blended drinks, special orders, tipping, children and drunk friends. oh and maybe something positive.

Last night I was tired from a long day of bird watching. We actually hiked around quite a bit and saw a good number of bird varities (easily identified in the handy Field Guide to Birds Western Region that I purchased prior to the hike). I especially liked the American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon that were out in the back field learning to fly from trainer to trainer. Both were rescued (with half a wing and only one foot, respectively) and were absolutely amazing birds. It was a Wednesday afternoon with very few visitors to the Audubon and we spent quite some time talking with the trainers and observing the falcons.

Anyway, I came home and planned on zoning out in front of the TV for a while when I came across proof that TV has hit a low. Enter Celebrity Circus. I watched for about five minutes. Which says something because I actually LIKE bad reality TV. I’ve always been a sucker for Survivor, and there have been several seaons in the past in which I seen every episode of Big Brother. I’m not home in the evenings very often because of my job and can’t keep up with series TV. I think thats why I like reality TV,  you can miss weeks on end and know EXACTLY whats going on, because its always the same. Anyway, even I have a limit. And Celebrity Circus is waaaay past that limit.