bump

Meet Karisa. I waitress with her, in fact, she's the one who trained me. Karisa's going to have a baby girl. Our entire workplace is so excited to meet her!

job

Today I went job shopping.

I was looking for something to support my Townline income, mostly just for Mondays and Wednesdays during the day.

And I am now a Jimmy John's employee.

It was the first place I stopped, and when the guy handed me the application I knocked over the gift cards and splayed them all out over the floor. Ten seconds later the guy asked me if I'd like to come back at three for an interview.

Well, sure. If you want the klutz, I'll be back.

So I went back at three and answered questions about my strengths and weaknesses and why I wanted to work at Jimmy John's(the amazing marketing, the yummy food). And when we were done talking my new boss said he'd see me on Monday for orientation.

Happiness! I get to work at Jimmy John's!

coffeehouse

Our coffeehouse at school is a haven of sorts. It's rich, warm colors, natural wood and stone, huge windows and soft couches. It's like this place that's just a little nicer than any other place on campus and this place that makes me feel more like an adult than like a college kid.

I like that feeling. The feeling of being on the brink of something new. When I can walk into someplace I've never been before and feel like I could belong there. Like the first time I met Adam, I walked into Cheesecake Factory...a new, slightly more mature setting than my usual hangout, and sat down and had my first 'interview' for something I really cared about, not just any old job to get me through college(even though I've loved all my jobs). And I sat there and listened as he said everything and so much more than I was hoping to hear. And it was so exciting and new and more grown up than almost everything before it.

I love growing up. They tell you with every new season in life that those years will be the best years of your life, and while that would seemingly get monotonous, it's so true. I loved aspects of high school. High school was choir, was something that I was good at that taught me how to be confident, with the help of some of the best mentors in the world. College brought a few day-long breakdowns as I figured out what I wanted to do with my life, but it also brought the beginnings of friendships stronger than anything I had in high school, and eventually did help me figure out who I want to be, and gave me confidence about myself as a whole, not just in specific abilities. And then there's the years that I'll be working, and the years that I'll be getting married and the years that I'll be having kids...see what I mean? There's best moments in all those years.

football

Football has started! The real season, the games that count. I love this time of year. Two years ago I couldn't have cared less about football, but now working at Lambeau has drastically changed that. I totally get sucked in. I love all the excitement, and I love the loyalty people have for their team. I'm amused to feel that loyalty growing in me just because I'm around these people who really love their team and the game.

I still don't understand a lot about how the game works. I know the basics, but some of the calls make zero sense to me...and I honestly don't care. I have no desire to understand it more fully, I just love watching. Stacy, my coworker, and I stop and watch just for a few minutes on our way back from lunch every game. Every game, and I still get shivers when we step up to the window in the club seats. It's not even about what happens on the field, but about that scene as a whole, the fans screaming, the players, the coaches, the cheerleaders.

Maybe it's not that way everywhere, but at Lambeau, the support and the excitement is incredible.

women

We talked about women in the workplace in my Organizational Behavior class today. Sometimes I get frustrated with discussions like this, mostly because I really believe it's OKAY for a woman to let her man wear the pants in the family. If a woman wants to be the breadwinner in the family, and if that's the life her and her husband chose to have, I have no opposition to that and think that can be a great thing. But I get annoyed when people talk like that's the only way for a woman to be successful, or think that a woman should split herself between being a mother and being a CEO of a company.

My professor is married to a woman with a doctorate, and they have no children. Right now, she's clearly a woman who's goals have been in the workplace and not as much at home. She's also a professor and wonderful at her job. She just earned her doctorate last year, so maybe now they'll start thinking more about kids, and maybe in five years she'll want to be a stay at home mom. Or maybe they'll never have kids, and both teach, or have kids and still work. I find each one of those choices to be honorable.

Our professor put a slide up with this information on it, and said if he was a woman he'd be frustrated with it's contents.

In the United States, women hold:

• 50% of all undergraduate degrees
• 52% of all master's degrees
• and 32% of all doctorates

BUT

• they hold less than 15.7% of Fortune 500's corporate officer positions
• earn 78% of what male counterparts do
• and encounter a glass ceiling in the workplace

The first half doesn't frustrate me at all. We talked about why most doctorates are earned by men, and said it's largely because that's the age where a lot of women want to get married and start a family, and don't want to be in school any more. As I've made pretty clear, I think that's great.

The second half is a little frustrating. Not the first line about women not holding at many officer positions, that's probably also due to families, but with what they earn and the glass ceiling they encounter. That's not right, and I hope those two statistics change.

However, when my professor opened the topic up for discussion I mentioned that I don't think the percentage of women earning doctorates and holding high positions will ever be equal to the percentage of men. I feel that if you polled a sample of men and women, from age 6 to 60, more women are going to say their goals for their life involve getting married and having a family than men are. Point blank. A classmate brought up the rising of stay-at-home dads, and I know that's true. I don't think they will ever outnumber the amount of women who want to stay home though.

When I mentioned that it's exceptionally difficult to be a parent and a CEO in a company because both demand so much time, my professor said that when he lived in NYC he knew many women who would have laughed at me, and told me that they could have both, and that's what a nanny was for.

My automatic response was to ask him if those nannies were men or women. He smirked and said women.

Something I didn't mention in class but will mention here is that men are designed to provide, and women are designed to nurture. I didn't mention it in class because in some ways it's Biblical, but it's also obvious in observing humans and in science. My professor said that women have a thicker corpus callosum, the part of your brain that connects the left side and the right side. This makes them better with communication and connecting emotions to facts, which can make them better leaders in the workplace. That's true, but it's also what makes them great caretakers.

Another thought I'd had was that globally, the United States does pretty good as far as men and women being equal in the workforce. Sweden's definitely better than us, but compared to China or Japan, we're doing great. So think about globalization. Businesses in the United States want to work together with businesses in China and Japan. What representatives are they going to send to those companies to impress them and get them to join forces? Certainly not the women that aren't respected there. What about after they've joined forces, are they ever going to have a woman be the front runner of a project? I don't think so. Before the United States can truly be 50/50 with men and women in leading positions, there's a lot of other places in the world that are going to have to accept it as well.

thankful

I work in a place that is about 400 sexual harassment claims waiting to happen.

As a whole, we're ridiculous. Single or happily married, innuendos fly around like crazy, everyone's checking everyone else out, there's lots of compliments and butt slapping. However, we've all got this understanding that we're joking. Well, maybe not about feeling someone else is hot, but there's no intentions behind our sexual conversation(though some of the single ones have been known to frequent the bar and then act on those conversations). It's all in good fun, and most of the time nothing becomes of it.

Now, you may be wondering how on earth this fits into something to be thankful for. It'll make sense by the end, I promise.

Mario is who I'm thankful for. He's our lead cook. He's Italian(shocker, I know), balding, and short. Like, really short. I'm 5'4", not a very tall girl, and he's up to about my nose. I don't often talk to Mario, because waitresses spend most of their time up front where the customers are. Last night, however, I was talking to him about some of the new things on our menu.

We have these fantastic new flat bread sandwiches. I'm super excited about them, because I try to only eat the healthy stuff at Townline, and I've kind of exhausted the wraps. They're really good, but more options is always a good thing. So I was talking about how the flat bread sandwiches are pretty healthy, and how that's good since the constant surplus of french fries is a problem for me.

Mario turned around and looked at me and said, "What are you talking about? Look at you, I don't see any problems." Only in an Italian accent, so it sounded cooler.

Now, in my super sexual workplace, this type of comment is not uncommon. But for some reason this particular one made me ridiculously happy and made me feel good about myself. Coming from a guy my father's age who's in love with a great woman his own age. I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that, but I'm just going to take Mario's compliment and the ego boost it gave me and not over analyze myself.

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So, thanks God, for blessing me, for now, with Mario, a great cook with a great heart.

mooch

Last night I had an excellent night at work. It was surprisingly busy...apparently there was something going on in town that I didn't know about. I was happy to enjoy the business though.

I had a table of four older gentlemen all out for dinner and a beer. They were great. I walked up to their table and asked if they were ready to order, and the man to my right jokingly said some of them weren't quite ready, because of their poor eyesight, they couldn't quite read the menu, did we have any menu readers available. I joked back and said no, that's what their friends are for, and he immediately responded that those guys weren't his friends, they just bought him beers.

Now, when I get a table that will joke like that within the first few minutes, I am thrilled. I love tables that open themselves up for me to create a mini relationship with them. If I can create an experience instead of just provide them a service...I see a drastic difference in my tips, and I have far more fun than if all I do is ask what they want and thank them when they leave.

So, with this gentlemen, I stepped right into the opprotunity he left for me with that comment, and said something about him being a mooch, and walked away as they laughed. When I came back up again to take their order, he told me I'd given him a new nickname, and all his buddies were calling him Mooch now. I bantered with them and made sure to give them good service, and when they were done eating I printed out their seperate checks, and instead of just writing "Thank you! : )", like I normally do, I put "Thanks, Mooch!" with a wink face.

Mooch asked me to keep his receipt with that on it, and each guy gave me four or more dollars when all their bills were under ten dollars. As they were leaving, Mooch thanked me for the good time. That's what I love. He didn't tell me the food was great, he didn't comment on my simple service alone, he thanked me for making their time at the restaurant entertaining. I'm so thankful I work in a place where the food is good and our runners and bartenders are prompt, because it allows me to really have the time to create those relationships and experiences.

geeker

Phil and I got all geeky yesterday again.

He came to visit me after work, and we had plans to meet up with some of my friends for wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. But before hand we went to Barnes and Noble, like we do practically every time he comes to town.

Now, my friend Ray at work has been studying for the GRE. He's kind of brilliant, and I've always enjoyed talking to him because he talks SMART. A lot at work is "so and so got drunk last night and did this stupid thing, and so and so is going to get drunk tonight, thank goodness, or we wouldn't have anything to talk about tomorrow!" And I can only handle so much of that. So I like to talk to Ray, because we talk about school and our futures and traveling, and it's just so much more interesting.

So, GRE. He's going to graduate school for math, so he has to take the math version of the GRE and the general version. So he's been going through his huge calc book, and his goal is to be able to open that book and be able to do any problem without having to review. This is a goal I'd never be able to accomplish(part of that being because I have ZERO ambition with calculus), but there's little doubt in my mind that Ray will. He'll do great on the math GRE.

However, he's also feeling the need to study for the general GRE, in particular, the vocabulary parts. He uses words really well, another reason I enjoy talking to him, but he doesn't have that large of a vocabulary. Which is actually kind of cool, that he can use words that well without using that many of them. But, alas, it doesn't really help him with the GRE, where they have questions like "indolent is to zealous like deft is to ______?", where his reaction is, "ehhh, uhhh, banana?"

To fix this lack of vocabulary, he bought a book made specifically for the GRE full of vocabulary words that he goes through every day, adding ten new words each time. And he had it at work on Monday because it was deathly slow but he need to be there until 11. So as I was leaving I stopped to talk to him like I always do, and thought the book was totally cool.

Okay, now, the difference here is, Ray NEEDS to know more words. He has to to get into grad school. I just think it's cool to know a lot of words. I love language. I get excited when I use words I don't often use. That would be why I am a total geek, and Ray's just a good student. However, I may have called him a geek to make me feel like less of one.

So when Phil and I go into Barnes and Noble, he heads to look for a Russian cookbook and I head to the Standardized Test Study Guide section. And geek out over all the books. I wanted the psych one for the GRE, and I wanted more than one vocab book, and I wanted French vocabulary flash cards, and grammar flash cards, and I just totally geeked out. And finally decided on the English vocabulary cards by SparkNotes, because they were $10 and there's 1000 words and I didn't know the word on the back so I figured it'd be hard enough. Some of them had words like "convince". I wanted it harder than that.

Meanwhile, Phil found a Russian cookbook that even got me excited about the food in it, and found German vocabulary cards just like my English ones when he came to find me. So we head up to the check out with these three things, and as he's checking out the cashier starts TALKING TO HIM IN GERMAN. He asks him how long he's been studying it, and Phil's all taken aback and goes, "uhhh...awhile". And the guy keeps talking in German and Phil keeps answering in English. And my eyes are bugging out thinking the whole thing is totally cool! We found out the cashier's about to graduate from UWGB and is this linguist who knows a bunch of languages. I was sooo excited to see Phil understand another language.

Now that I think about it, this could probably become a trend for us, if we ever travel like we talk about. Phil understanding and talking and me standing there with my eyes bugging out. Oh well, I do all the talking when we're speaking English, he can take the reigns in everything else.

hilarious

Last night was such a fantastic night at work. I was bummed at first because it started out so slow, and even made a comment about how I missed having nights where I ran my rear off all night. I love busy nights like that. And about an hour after I made that comment, people started flooding in. It was so fun! I had a group of 5 guys in their thirties and forties who were hilarious. They harassed me all night, but all in good fun, and if having a entertaining table like that wasn't good enough, they left me a more than generous tip, and told me they'd be requesting me next week.

That's what I love most about waitressing, being able to joke around with people and build relationships with people who choose to come back each week because they enjoy the service. There's no greater compliment than return customers.

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Another reason I'm continuing to love my bike rides...saw a man driving a big white van today for some maintenence company with a Buzz Lightyear toy strapped to the front. So, so funny. I started laughing out loud when I saw it and caught the driver's eye, he laughed right along with me. I'm sure he gets that a lot.

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Today I am wearing a cute flirty little sundress that I got for a meer $17 at Forever 21 and enjoying the warm weather. I think I'll take a chair out in the sun and read for a while. Too nice to stay inside!

panic

This morning I was eating my usual breakfast of Special K cereal in milk exactly the way I always do, preztel-legged on my bed with my computer in front of me, when my roommate walked in to chat about the attractive police officer that she's been flirting with. Apparently the distraction of her in the room while I was eating was too much for me, because I managed to drop my bowl.

Right on my keyboard.

Um...AHHHH! My roommate flew out of the room to get paper toweling while I picked up my now-shutting-down computer and tried to shake the milk out of it. We got it pretty clean and took my sheets off my bed...but when I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't work. So I did whatever I do when something major happens and I don't know how to respond. I called my mom.

me :: "Mom. I did a bad thing."

mom :: "Okay..."

me :: (speaking at a lightning fast pace) "I spilled milk all over my computer and now when I try to turn it on nothing happens and one of my seniors ordered pictures this morning and all her pictures are on that computer and I just need it to work!"

mom :: "Okay...why don't you call Dell and see what they recommend."

So I did. I called Dell. And I'm sorry, but I don't like Dell at all. You have to PAY to talk to a real person about a potential problem with your computer. It's not like I was asking them to FIX any damages. I just wanted to know what I should do in a situation where I happen to drop milk everywhere. I wanted to yell, "I don't know anything about computers. This is customer service. I bought a computer, I'm a customer. HELP ME." But a lot of good that would've done me, yelling at the VOICE RECORDING. Grrr.

I called Mom back. She told me to call Bud, what we call my stepdad. Meanwhile, he started calling me, because Mom had already talked to him while I talked to Dell. He told me immediately to NOT try to turn it on and to unplug it.

Well, crap. I had just tried to turn it on like four times by that point. That couldn't be good. But I didn't mention this to my helpful stepfather, I just did as he said and thanked him for his help.

I rushed to get ready for work because I'd burned up a bit of time with the whole escapade, so I ignored my computer for a bit and packed up everything to go home after work and slapped on some make up and ran a brush through my hair. I wound up putting my computer, battery out, in the backseat where the sun would hit it and hopefully dry it out.

After work, I went out to my vehicle and changed. Yeah, in the backseat. Why I didn't just go inside and change, I don't really know, but whatever. I did go back in with my computer though, and set it up on a table in the back where the drivers take orders. One of the drivers was back there with me, and when I pressed the power button and my computer turned on I squealed and grabbed his arm jumping up and down I was so relieved to discover it worked.

Disaster was avoided. Except for a little stickiness with some keys, it works just fine. Thank goodness!

brewers

I want a Brewers tshirt.

I like baseball, but it's really more liking the all-American feel of being at a baseball game eating a hot dog and cheering for the home team. And maybe singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Or liking to watch a game while I'm waitressing. Something about serving beer and wings to a group of guys yelling at the screen gets me interested in what's going on on that screen.
The problem with wanting a Brewers shirt is that last year they had these great shirts with the cute MB baseball glove graphic(above), all light blue and summery and cheery. This year, though, they've gone and made everything in the local stores all grown up and serious. It's all navy and gold and scrolly(below). Hello. Baseball isn't grown up and serious. It's lighthearted and fun. You spit sunflower seeds everywhere. That's not a sport that requires a scrolly font.
I'm considering buying my own plain tshirt and printing out a happy graphic and painting it on my shirt myself. Unfortunately, I'm pretty awful when it comes to painting things accurately, even when I'm copying directly. Pathetic, I know.

Anyway, I would love a Brewers shirt to potentially wear to a Brewers game this summer. Or to wear to a cookout, and eat my hot dog there.

Plus...if the Brewers are playing during our shift at work, we can wear a shirt supporting them instead of our usual work shirts. A little variety is always nice!