Thursday, June 23, 2005

I am a barista

I finished my last day of training at Starbucks tonight and I am now officially a barista. What the heck that means, I do not know, but it is my title. I have now learned how to make all the drinks and use the register and I am starting to get the lingo down, but it will still take me awhile to really get the hang of it. It would be so much easier if people could just order a "tall mocha" instead of a "double tall half caf skinny extra foam no whip mocha"...just for example. I will probably have everything mastered just about the time I have to move to Louisville..but shhh..they do not know about that yet. I am thinking that I will work at a Starbucks in Louisville a couple nights a week or something if I am able to for extra money. This is the best summer job by far that I have had. I like everyone I work with, the time goes so fast, and I do not dread going there. And my schedule varies week to week which is so much better than 8-5 every day, but it does make it more complicated to schedule weekend roadtrips...

Speaking of road trips, I am pretty sure the weekend that would work best for me to visit Rebekah is July 8-10. I am supposed to play special music at my church that Sunday, but I will just have to switch it because it is the only time that works. And hopefully I can get off work...that weekend is full already (which means four people already have it called off), but I am sure if I write my nice manager a nice note about how one of my best friends from college is moving to Bangladesh for two years and this is my last opportunity to see her, I can get the weekend off. So Abby Mo..I will call you soon to discuss the details, and if anyone else is up for it, let me know! I wish everyone could come.

Other than working with Will and at Starbucks, I have not been up to much. I hung out with Vicki and Kim every day this week since Vicki was home. She went back to Toledo today. We tried on some more bridesmaid dresses which was fun. We found one at Macy's that I really like. However until Vicki sets a date, we won't be deciding on dresses (hint hint Vicki). I also discovered that I cannot wear halter dresses, unless Vicki wants everyone at her wedding discussing the size of my chest. Oh yeah, Denise is staying home with me this summer for the first time since my work schedule is so varied and she is now old enough to be home by herself. So we will get lots of quality sister time in this summer.

That's all for now!


Kim, Erin, and I on my birthday Posted by Hello


Matching Sisters Posted by Hello

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Vacation is Over

I returned from my vacation in Tennesee this afternoon. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to go somewhere different and see new things, although I would have gotten a better tan at the beach. :) The Smoky Mountains are beautiful! I took several pictures on the new digital camera I got for my birthday. It is nice to know I do not always have to travel overseas to see some beautiful sights. We did a lot, which is very different from my usual vacations filled with laying out at the beach and watching TLC. Let's see if I can list all we did...Dollywood (Cedar Point with a country flare), Gatlinburg (to visit the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum and aquarium), hiking and driving through the National Park (two different days and areas), the Louise Mandrell Show (yes I went to a country music show..although it wasn't all country), Chinese Acrobats (just as cool as the ones that came to Bluffton..and I had second row seats!), and I think we went to three different mini-golf places. Our cabin was really nice. We had to drive up some very steep and twisty roads to get there. It was located just outside of Pigeon Forge, which was a good thing because wow..I do not think a town could get any uglier/tackier, even with the gorgeous background of the Smokies. Anyone who has been there agree with me? Our cabin was seculded with a great view of the mountains and that's it. And we had our own hot tub! The only negative thing was the frisky squirrels running around on the roof which woke me up every night. All and all, it was a good vacation. Now back to reality. I start working again on Monday.

I arrived home to lots of mail waiting for me, including a few belated graduation cards with unexpected money and four checks (two from Bluffton, one from Starbucks, and one from my job with Will). So that made my day. Starbucks sure is an efficent company, I do not think I have ever gotten a paycheck so fast, it was dated less than a week after I started. I finally got my first check from working with Will since we graduated a month and a half ago. I almost forgot I was doing that job for money! (which I imagine is a good thing).

One of my dad's cousins sent me a $50 dollar MasterCard gift card that I could use anywhere. Since I could not put the money in the bank (like I did with all my other graduation money) and it happened to be the same amount as the third complete season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer..I went out and bought it today. At least I can justify it to myself. I had to buy something....I am sure it could have went to something more useful, but I decided to just give into my Buffy addiction.

After I publish this I will attempt to figure out how to put some pictures on here from my vacation, it may or may not work! I might get frustrated and just go and watch Buffy.


The view from our cabin Posted by Hello


Our cabin Posted by Hello


The Smokies Posted by Hello


Chinese Acrobats Posted by Hello


Shark! Posted by Hello

Friday, June 10, 2005

Smoky Mountains Here I Come..

Early tomorrow morning I will be leaving for Tennessee for my family vacation. I will return the following Saturday. We have gone to Hilton Head for our vacation for many years in a row now, but this year we are changing it up. I have never been to the Smoky Mountains. I am sure it will be nice and relaxing, not that I am in great need for this because I have done plenty of it lately.

This was my first week working at Starbucks and with Will and I realized the week goes a lot faster when you do stuff! I really do enjoy my job at Starbucks so far. The training stuff is boring (and very extensive) but it will be a lot better when it is done. I got to make lots of drinks and ring stuff up the other day. I could easiliy get fat there..they have a lot of yummy drinks. And everyone I met so far is very nice. And I found out another good thing about the company..they donate all their leftover pastries to a shelter downtown. When I worked at Tim Hortons I threw away countless amounts of food every night. I asked why they could not donate it somewhere and they said it was because of liability reaons, but obviously Starbucks has worked around that.

Last night I participated in the "Senior Crawl" at OSU. Basically. all the graduating seniors visit all the bars along High Street. Kim and I went with some of our OSU friends and pretended we went there too. It was fun. I was the driver so I only had one drink and I had fun watching all the crazy people. The bars were packed, obviously. Craziness. We joined in the tradition of wearing white shirts and carrying around Sharpies so we could have people sign our shirts. I now own a t-shirt with many random, intersting signatures, complete with some blood from Kevin's hand (he fell on a broken beer bottle). We ended the night with Waffle House at 3 a.m. Good times.

Now I must go watch Will. I will post when I return from Tennesee. And when I come back I plan on figuring out how to put pictures on this thing to make my posts more interesting.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Spiderman is cool

Hello friends. I am sitting on my couch on my dad's laptop watching Spiderman on the nice plasma TV. This past weekend was fun. Friday was the most random night I have had in awhile which is always fun. I first re-lived my colorguard days by helping judge colorguard try-outs at Westland High School where my friend Jenni just got a job as the colorguard instructor (yeah Jenni!) Incidently, she got this job after they fired Kris, my former/PSYCHO/very mean instuctor. What goes around comes around. He told Jenni she couldn't do it, but she is going to have 20 girls on her guard which is the biggest they've had and I am happy for her. Then Kim, Jenni, and I went out to dinner. We had no idea what to do after this..and then Jenni found out about a Westland High staff party going on about two minutes from where we were. Since Jenni is a new staff member..we were all invited. Imagine walking into a backyard full of extremely wasted high school teachers, principals, and other staff on their last day of school. It was amusing to say the least. I wonder if my high school teachers did this?? The head principal of the school was rolling around in the grass. The three of us were hit on by several older men and accused of being underage several times (apperantly none of us look 21). I met someone who graduated from Bluffton in 98. He was a football player and said he loved it there. He told me he was in the HPER program and he hated Perry Bush, so I do not believe we would have been friends. It came up that I was a Mennonite (well kind of..I like to claim myself as one now) and I had to explain to several different people that Mennonites are different from Amish. It is interesting trying to have an intellecutal conversation with old drunk people. I was referred to as "The Mennonite" the rest of the night. This came in handy when a 32 year old repeatedly asked me out. He wanted to take me to the movies. I told him that Mennonites do not watch movies or date. He was kinda cute..but ten years older..so no thanks. After the party ended we headed to a bar in Hilliard with some of the younger staff then ended up at the 32 year old's house because he happened to live on the same street as Jenni. All and all, it was a fun/random night. Oh yeah, Kim and I also had an interesting road rage encounter that night. Saturday I wandered around Hobby Lobby with Denise for about an hour, then hung out with Kim and Jenni again all night, but it was much more tame. Saw Hitch at the dollar theatre for the second time. I decided I really like that movie. You should see it if you haven't already.
Today I went to church, then straight to work with Will, then straight to Starbucks for my first day of training. It was rather boring, lots of paperwork and reading and and answering questions, but I got to do some coffee tasting! They really take their training seriously. It will be about two weeks until I am done (with a week of vacation in between, so really three). I was excited to see that Starbucks recycles. Tim Hortons did nothing of the sort. They recycle their coffee grounds to use for gardening, plus all their plastic and paper. Everyone I met was really nice and much more normal than the folks I worked with at good old Timmy Hs (minus Celeste of course), so I think I will like this job. It sure beats sitting in a cubicle eight hours a day..even if it does not pay as well.
Well I hope my detailed description of my weekend did not bore anyone!
Oh yeah, one more thing - two comments I am sick of hearing from my parents
1. My dad bringing up the fact that I won't be making money for a year and how horrible this is (who cares that I am dedicating a year of my life to service..)
2. My mom implying that I should be getting married around this time and it is weird that I am not
Oh and one more thing - I also got to relive my fifth grade days these past couple weeks by attending Denise's first big orchestra concert, the fifth grade play, DARE graduation, and an awards ceremony where Denise got a presidential academic award signed by W. himself (I got one signed by Clinton when I was in fifth grade). I also went to school with Denise for a half day last week and helped her class scrapbook. One of their assignments is to make a scrapbook of their fifth grade year and they were all into it, even the boys. It was a lot of fun.
Ok I'm done for real.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

I have a job!

Yes, I have a job. But it is not as exciting as a real job. I will be working at Starbucks until I move to Louisville at the end of August (of course they do not know that). They just called me yesterday (a week after my interview) and I will start training on Sunday.
It's nice to see that Abby Mo now has a blog. I hope doing nothing is treating you well. I have done a whole lot of nothing as well, however I do not have a lake to stare at. I watched a whole season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (all 22 episodes, I know Rebekah is sad she missed it), read the Phatom of the Opera (the original novel), and I have done a lot of scrapbooking. I am almost done with all of senior year..next is Europe. It has been nice to reminisce about this past year while scrapbooking, but it also made me a little sad realizing that yes it is over and I will not be seeing my friends daily anymore. Life at home is a lot less hectic than college. I miss being busy! (Abby I do not know how you do it!)
It was so nice to see all of you at Chris' wedding! That was a fun weekend. We need to plan another time to try to get together this summer. I don't know if it will be possible since we are already beginning to spread out, but we should try!
My birthday was last week. I am now 22. I feel old! I went out to dinner at Don Pablos with my family plus Kim and Celeste, then went out with Kim and Erin to a bar/club in the arena district. It was fun and very crowded since OSU is still in session and it was a Thursday night. Not quite like my birthday last year in Ho Chi Minh City....
Well back to doing nothing!