Good thing...

I'm an optomist (cynical some of the time, but DEFINITELY an optomist). :)

I got called off from work again today :( I considered going in to beg someone for their shift, but then decided I didn't feel like going out in 40 degree weather to be turned down and have to walk back having wasted hard to come by free time. So, I took the day off and ran with it! :)

Not to mention, there's a photographer who wants to pay me to do some office managing type stuff for her, which is why I wasn't so stresed about taking the day off. Things she wants me to do include:
e-mail lists
newsletters
helping with a project that will be displayed at a museum in Germany in 2010
archiving 10 years of a photo project
helping with a book publishing! :)

So, hopefully that will help some with the days I get called off from the chart house.
What did I do with my day off you ask? Pretty much nothing. And it was ABSOLUTELY wonderful! I finished a movie I started last night, which by the way I rented from the library (I get that from my mom) ;)

Ah! There's a story! About a library.. ha! Anyway... there is this library that is LITERALLY across the street from me. But technically I don't live in that city zone. So, I have to walk about 13 blocks (thank goodness they're short) to get a card from the Union City library. THEN, I can walk back to the first library across the street from me and get a 'courtesy card'. At least I finally have it and can now take advantage of their dvd selection. Betsy, they have a GREAT view/terrace for photographs outside of their front door!!

Back to today. I tried fixing my living room curtain which has fallen down. The wall are apparently made out of plaster and nothing will bite into them unless you drill a hole first. I tried the molly bolts, dad. I just made bigger holes! :) I spackled them, and am anxiously awaiting you and your drill's arrival! :)

Next on the itinerary: a stop in at my landlady's apt. down the hall. She had apparently made a big batch of soup she wanted me to have some of. Plus, she was on a trip recently and brought me back some coconut candies! How great is she? Oh wait, it gets better! I was telling her I was considering buying an espresso machine or something similar that will go on the stove. Nothing too fancy, but that will get the job done. So she says, "I have one I don't ever use. You can have it." Niiice!

I tell her I can't just take it from her. I'll borrow it. But she insists saying that if I take it, she'll have more room to store her pots! I haven't used it yet, but I have read some reviews. Most rate it as being so-so, but there was one review that sounds like the guy had some tricks up his sleeves to make it work. So, I'm excited to give it a go.

And then, a chat with Martin on MSN (he's been in Sweden for about 2 weeks now) followed by another movie. I've yet to finish it, but I need to so I can give the pooch a bath!

I just realized that I haven't taken pictures of the fall colors... well, not many anyway. Sad story. I guess I've been too busy enjoying them. I'll definitely have to take some of snow. And yes, a video of Keona's first encounter for Nicole!

I was going to post the pictures I promised earlier of the boots and new food experiences, but Dad's been doing some work on the computer and apparently there's something funny with my card reader. So, that will have to wait.

I apologize for the randomness of the post. I was trying to get back to my movie quickly.

:)

They're not as often, but I'm still posting. Hoo-rah! There is hope!!

laundry theif?

Apparently, Sunday is a pretty popular day to do laundry (one I will be avoiding from now on!).

One load... that's all I wanted to do! They made it through the wash ok. They even made it into the dryer without a hitch.

I just realized this story needs is some back story!! :) So, Sundays the restaurant has brunch. For the dinner shift, you're scheduled to go in at one of two times: 2:30pm or 5:00pm. When you're scheduled for the earlier shift, the earlier you get there...you get to choose what section you want. Lately, I haven't been doing so hot at work, so I wanted to get there early to get a good shift where I could make a nice chunk of change.

So, back to the story... I'm trying to get ready early. I go to pull my clothes out of the dryer, only come to find out someone has moved them. Apparently the lady put her card in and pressed the button for the dryer my clothes were in. So, she thought it would be ok to take them out and put them in the dryer above. Only, I'm hearing all this from a second lady, because apparently the first one doesn't speak english! I kind of look at them both and think.... "really? do you THINK it was ok, that you touched my clothes and moved them?!" So, I kind of shrug my shoulders and say I guess not... because really, what am I going to do at this point? Tell her to go back in time and tell her to think reasonably. Perhaps something along the lines of:
-open dryer door so your time doesn't run with my clothes in
-wait, because I'm OBVIOUSLY coming back SOON as my clothes are done drying
-THEN proceed to close the door again to start drying your clothes when I've gotten mine, so you don't touch my personal belongings......

Who am I kidding.. that makes SENSE! Why would anyone do that?!

So, I get back upstairs to my apartment and notice that, yes, it has become a problem. One of my shirts is missing! I go BACK down stairs to ask her to look through her load to see if it was mixed in with her clothes. But of course she's not there. AND I'm starting to run late. Plus, I've noticed that I don't know where my time card is to clock into work. Great, I probably left it in the shirt that's now missing. It's probably flopping around the dryer that this strangers clothes are in!

Do I rifle through her stuff? In my defense I wouldn't have had to if she wouldn't have touched my stuff because I know I would have gotten everything out. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
So, I'm sans one work shirt, a time card, and I didn't make it to work early, so YET again... I only came home with $70

car, boots, food and an election... nothing too exciting :)

... the car showed back up. Apparently the owner is ok....? But why would you leave your car running for a day and a half, have it towed, then put it right back where it was?

Bought some winter boots today, 2 pairs actually. When I'm up to it, I'm gonna post some pictures for feedback :)

Also ate at a Korean restaurant tonight where the food was cooked on a grill built into your table :) Which reminded me... when I was first visiting here, I ate at an Ethiopian restaurant where you ate with your hands. Both of those new dining experiences I have pictures of (to be uploaded in an upcoming post).

Listening to live election coverage in the background. Hope my absentee ballot got there in time :\Can't wait to see how things turn out.

That's it. Those were just some random tid bits I wanted to post :)

And because I don't think I included enough of them, here's another one for you:
:)

Just as I was about to post... Barack Obama was announced President-elect. So, there you have it....

Only in, but suprisingly in NY

Probably one of the weirdest things I've seen ever has occurred over the past two days.
My friend came over to my apartment yesterday about midday and as we were walking Keona, I noticed a car on the street was running. You could see steam, smoke, exhaust, whatever, coming out from the tail pipe. There was no one in the car. It was parked. The keys were in the ignition. I've seen the car before, so I assume it belongs to someone that lives in the area. I figure, "well, someone must have just ran into their apt. to get something."

Later that night when I get home from work and let Keona out around 10:30pm-ish and the car was still there. Still running. Keys still in ignition. Again, I just kind of thought, "hmm... weird."

It wasn't until this morning, when I saw it for a THIRD time on the street, parked, running, and keys in ignition. So, I didn't know what else to do besides call the local police office and report it. They said they'd send someone out to have a look. Well, apparently, the information I gave was not good enough because when I came home the car was STILL there. However, I also saw police lights. There happened to be an officer looking in the car talking on his radio.

I told him that I had called it in this morning and was curious if they were just now finding it. He said that they were never able to locate it. It just so happens he was off duty and someone else had flagged him down to report it (also another person who is out walking their dog frequently and noticed it.) So, the police officer said they had an address for the owner and would try to track her down. About 10 minutes later, the car was towed away.

I, unfortunately, don't know what the story is behind it. BUT where in the world would you be able to leave your car running for a day and a half and NOT have someone break in and steal it? Do I live in that good an honest of a neighborhood? Or is NY just so backwards and full of fear that people are paranoid and suspicious beyond belief that they won't touch a car that's handed to them on a silver platter? Who would leave a car for that amount of time, and what good reason could they possibly have for doing so?

I just hope that the owner is ok.

I'm in the money

.. well relatively speaking I guess. I finally finished training at the restaurant. I (along with all the trainers) still can't believe they made me do the whole training program. Regardless, it was a good refresher, and now I'm FINALLY on the floor by myself. Yesterday was my first shift taking my own tables. I waited around for 2 hours before finally getting my first one. Throughout the night, I had 5 total. Not too shabby. I did a lot of running for what I thought would be more money. Even though it wasn't as much as I thought I would make, it was definitely more than I had the day before. So all in all it was a good night.

Then there was today. My second shift. I got called off. Oye! This does not bode well. I had to do what they call "sharking." Once I got my phone call informing me that I would no longer be needed for the evening, I got dressed in my uniform anyway and made the 15 minute walk to the restaurant hoping that there would be some poor slacker willing to give up their night's worth of money so I could take over their shift. Mind you, this is in essence an act of desperation. An essential begging of sorts as I ask each sever walking in the door if they'd like to turn right back around and go home :) I almost gave up after about 9 "no's." My last chance was one girl. Finally, some relief! She gave her section to me and went home! Yay! I was able to make some money!! :)

I'm not so good at begging, so I hope this calling off business doesn't become too frequent!! One more serving day for the week, then it's back to the photo world!

Follow up

For those of you that were curious, Betsy has posted pictures from her shoot in NY.

http://www.betsyhansen.com/01location/location.htm

A post about a post

Betsy, the friend that was visiting, has posted some pictures from her shoots in NY on her photo blog. The second location (both night time shoots) is one of the areas I pointed out to her while location scouting. The other onew (day shoot) was a location one of the stylists knew of close to her home. (Both with A-mazing views!)

http://www.betsyhansen.blogspot.com/


Still on the lookout for the resulting images to be posted on her website.