Ye Olde Archives | The Useless Site | Art Dump
It's a Long Way to Tipperary
The Journey to a BFA
Hello there, this is Katana, your friendly neighborhood eighteen-year-old hyperactive art student who somehow manages to have wit. Questions? Comments? Death threats? Put 'em in the guestbook! But bear in mind -
"It's a plot device. It's very flimsy, so be careful."
Hahaha, yeah that Kat will actually call you if you give her your number.
-Miss Anonymous (and confirmed by many others)
DUDE THE SCHOOL FILTER ISN'T BLOCKING ME LOGGING INTO PLACES AHAHAHAHA
I wonder how long this'll last...
Soooooooooo I finally registered for ACen. I'M A PROCRASTINATOR SORRY. D: I got an e-mail confirming stuff and such, so it all looks good...merr.
Upon telling my mom about the hotel plan, she was vehemently opposed to it, but I continued the conversation and she finally subsided to a sigh, saying she would talk to my dad and then have to talk to my friend and her parents, etc.
I'm not dumb. I'm not. If I didn't trust this person, I would've known it by now. But I do trust them. Unfortunately, I am still my parent's baby, and their pride 'n joy [*sigh* how often I've heard that -_-;]. I know they want to protect me and such. But please! I'm going to be seventeen. Next year I'll be heading off to college and not have them around.
It's nice to know my parents love me and want to protect me, but as ACen is really the only fun thing I get to do [I don't see us going on vacation this year], I really want to go either the full way or at least 2/3 of it.
I also need to re-bake my magatama. o3o
I went back to my restaurant gig last night. More times were had, and more learning occured. Also, sneaking food. o3o
I knew it was a good sign when I came in through the back kitchen door and David [head chef man] was like "HEEEEEEEY YOU'RE BACK! We didn't scare you off, eh?" Apparently, before I came, they trained another bus girl for one night, but she...never came back. Ever. So yeah.
Thrown in right away to the mix, I got my little waist apron thingie, meaning I'm officially official. Then I proceeded to microwave bread loaves.
Frequently throughout the night, I was tasked to go to the basement and do something. Got bread twice, did the green napkin laundry twice, and retrieved two different things of cheese from the walk-in fridge twice. Fun times.
I also learned how to make croûtons. They take the day-old bread loaves, slice them up, and then deep fry them. However, I ended up cutting my thumb with the bread knife. >>; Twenty minutes and two Band-Aids later, I realized that it was best to have a [now closed] flesh wound than constantly peeling greasy wrappings from my thumb. P:
At one point during the night, I placed a thing of bread at the [combined] tables 10 and 11. "Here you are," I say, and then this guy turns and looks at me and goes, "HEEEEY, how are you?" It was kinda weird, but I just grinned and replied, "I'm fine sir, and how are you?" "OH, I'm just great!" Awkward pause. "Well sir, enjoy your meal tonight at the Burlington House. *arm motion*" "Why thank you, I will!"
It's always nice to have a nice guy. XD;
At another point, when I was confined to the miscellaneous room to wrap silverware, zap bread, and compose butter trays, Jordan came in and was like "the crazy lady's back!" Soooo apparently there's a crazy lady that dines there. The waitresses began battling it out to see who would have to take her. The whole thing was rather amusing. ...Though I never saw the crazy lady despite her being seated RIGHT by the kitchen door. o3o; I was usually told to go check salad bar or wipe a table or go to the basement.
Now that I'm officially official, I also had to take a peep at the calendar to check for time off. Luckily, I learned that the boss-lady let's us take off, no problem, for school events that we're involved in [so I can take off for football games because the band plays, etc.]. The only thing I'm taking off for due for my own personal enjoyment is ACen.
Let's see...soooo I have May 3rd [talent show, sponsored by art club], 14th [band concert], 16-18 [ACen], 20th [underclassman awards], and 30th [graduation, band plays] off. LUCKILY the place isn't open on Mondays. x_x;
GAH I feel bad. ;_; But May is May, so...
So today was the start of my job. Wooh!
I work at a mom-and-pop type restaurant in the tiny town of Burlington, Illinois. It's a more upscale restaurant, though not too much - to put it in perspective, you get a microwaved loaf of bread as the appetizer, and there's a free-range salad bar.
My job as a bus girl is on several fronts. In the kitchen, I wrap the silverware in 'greens' [green cloth napkins], prep the butter dishes that go with the bread [eight butter packs and four margarines per bowl], refill the salad bar stuff, and assist in making desserts. On the outside, I put a glass, a silverware set, and a small salad dish on the table per number of customers ['2 at 4!' means two people at table four; there's fifteen tables in the whole joint], wipe up the tables once people leave, clear dishes whilst people eat, refill water glasses, and serve bread.
Right, so I haven't done all [or even most] of those things by myself. Yet. But yes.
I worked for two hours, completing the first section of my tutorial. For the first half hour-ish, I was extremely anxious and spaztastic, since I was essentially thrown in on one of their busiest nights. I shadowed my friend, and by the end of the hour, I was chilled out more and actually assisting in tasks rather than watching. For the last hour, I did things by myself, such as zap and serve bread, clean tables, refill salad bar things, and filling up this cheese...thing...my hands smell like chedder...Anyways, I was able to get in the zone of it all.
I have no idea how many people actually work there, but in the kitchen, there are four sections: the cooking part, the cleaning wall, the waitress hallway, and the miscellaneous room.
The head chef is David...skinny, lanky, cool guy. Me and Blythe [friend who got me the job o3o] were over-complimenting his carrot cake...But yeah. His thing is that he's only ever eaten at the restaurant once in his twenty-one years there. XD
Then there's the co-chef, or underling, or mini chef...something. I think his name is Jerry or something like that. He looks in his twenties and is very laid back and joking. At one point he was pointing at a box and going 'FIRE HAZARD!', to which Blythe and I just shrugged and said 'no big loss...'
There are three or four waitresses. I cannot remember for the life of me, sorry. ._.; The one whose name I remembered was Sherri. All of them are nice and funny, though I have this upped level of respect for these people [though it was already high]. At one point, one of the waitresses was telling Jerry her order when she stopped and was like 'SHIT I FORGOT WHAT THEY ORD - oh wait'.
From what I gathered, there are three bus girls, me included - so Jordan, Blythe, and Ginger are there for...the stuff. Jordan is a whiz, according to Blythe, and is a senior like Blythe is...So we had a fun time during the momentary slow parts, and she helped me out in my training as well. She taught me how to punch out. XD;
I go back tomorrow, 6-8pm again, for my training and such. I'm exciiiited!
I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, probably because of the hot chocolate I had a couple hours before hitting the sack. >>; Regardless, my mind was racing and thinking about several different things.
Most prominent was me and money. That spawned off several different topics - my future job, ACen (and the truckload of thought sthat brought), and college. However, while focusing on the 'job' subject, I had a recurring thought...a thought that made me anxious and revealed just how much anime has brainwashed me:
How does one, in English culture, thank another?
Okay okay, I know that you say 'thank you' and if the opportunity arises, you shake their hand...But I was just like, we don't bow, which is something I've been doing a little bit (head bows, mainly). When I go to the restaurant tomorrow night and I meet the lady who called me and I have the chance to say 'thank you', what physical action do I take? This is driving me nuts. x_x
Once I did manage to fall asleep though, I had this really cracked dream about ACen. However, it wasn't evven at the hotel, it was more like the day before and the trip that we would be going on to get to the hotel and stuff. However, the time was askew, as there was snow on the ground. >>; But I remember being angry at the friend whom I'm crashing with at the Hyatt for not telling me something or another...Then Waffles and I were trekking through the snow to her car after school and then I was going 'BUT I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED MY COSTUME YET' or something. It was weird.
Then I woke up, thankfully.
I am so excited for this job it isn't funny. I just hope the boss likes me. ._.;
I'm in a startling good mood. >3
Some of you may remember an anicent post in which a friend of mine pitched in a word for me to be a buss girl at a restaurant.
GUESS WHO CALLED TODAY. OH YEAH.
My tutorial mission is on Friday, 6-8pm. I need to wear durable black shoes, black slacks, a white "wrinkle-free" blouse, and...that's it. They also wear ties, but the boss lady didn't want me to wear one in fear of somebody asking me for help that I couldn't offer. >>; lolOurancosplaytie
I'm really excited. And I have to go give Blythe a bajillion hugs and thank yous. o3o
In other news, thanks for all the comments on the banner image. XD; I, uh, didn't expect it to be so popular. 8D; But yeah. I await the day in which I can actually code the picture so that, when you click on a certain part, it'll lead you someplace...Curse BB code...
