My Name's Sidney, and I'll be Your Server Tonight

I finally got a job.
 After a year and a half of trying, something finally gave.
The restaurant Rib City is the place where it's all at.

Tony, the owner, has had a lot of issues with theft and bad workers, so she only hires based on recommendations. My friend Dani has worked there since she was 15, so all of the recommendations given by her are taken seriously by Tony. Dani had put my name in multiple times over the course of a couple of weeks, and last Monday Dani texted me telling me to come in and talk to Tony- she was looking for two new servers, and this was my chance. The "interview" wasn't really an interview. She asked me what my experience was, when I could and couldn't work, when I could start, gave me a shirt and that was that. I honestly was ecstatic with the situation, and couldn't wait to start.

Last Wednesday was my first day, I went Friday, and tonight as well. Obviously, I have to be trained, and so Carla is the person doing the task. She is fantastic, seriously. She walks me through everything, goes through details, and gives me advice. Her personality is very by the book, do the rules, and do it right. Tonight, there was a new girl training, and so I was put on to train with Becky instead of with Carla. Becky is completely different from Carla. She's laid back, has fun, looks for things to laugh at in everything, and barely gave me any instruction. It really was the best contrast I could ever ask for. I saw two different kinds of serving, two different kinds of personality, and two different ways of handling some of the same situations.

Now, don't think that the training is going all perfect and nothing could be better. In all honesty, this is the most stressful work I have ever experienced. There is so much to remember. I have to memorize the menu, know the specials, know the portion sizes, know how to work the computer, remember all the orders, be personable but not too annoying, help the kitchen run, balance tables, and work quickly. I feel like everything cancels each other out, so I am going in circles. Really, it's just new and I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm faking it until I make it. It's going to take time, and I can already see it's going to take a lot of long, hard, exhausting nights until I get it down and good. It'll all come eventually- I just don't want that eventually to be forever away. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, anyway.

In the grand scheme, I am so glad I got a job. It's something new and it's stretching me very hard. Wish me luck- come visit me sometime! Rib City does make the best baby back ribs. (:

January 12

I think I'll probably always remember January 12th. In my personal records and memory, it will always be a highlight. It began as any other Saturday: waking up to a much needed sleep in and cleaning the basement. By one o'clock my dad and I were at Home Depot purchasing wood. You see, I'm re-doing my room (which is much needed, and I am so happy it's getting done). I had bought some brackets at Ikea the previous week, but the boards for the shelves were expensive, and since I have a handy dad, I thought he could just make them for me. Finding a 6 foot board wasn't the problem, though. The real task was finding a sheet of wood that would make a 3 1/2' X 4' wood panel because I'm making a chalk board. If anybody's lacking in the perspective, just know that's really big. The sheets of wood that would come close to cutting into something that big were about 40 dollars. No bueno. The other option was getting a 2' X 8' board, cutting it in half and gluing them together. I really wasn't a huge fan of the idea, but it was the better option and about half the price too.

Now, luck was on my side here because when were going to get our board cut, since they have really nice saws at Home Depot, my dad looked in the scrap box and found a really large wood board. He suggested we have them cut down it into 3 1/2' X 4'. . . it'd be cheaper and we wouldn't have to do any work to it construction wise. Before making any final decisions, we asked the guy how much it was.

"Oh, five bucks," he said.

Oh, man I was down; we cut that sucker up. When it was all done, the three of us stood there looking at the saw with the two pieces of wood sitting there kind of laughing to ourselves. The dimensions I measured and that board fit perfectly together because that board cut two perfect 3 1/2' X 4' boards. So, for the price of one I had two chalkboards. And, to make it even better, when we went to buy the two boards the girl told us that they highest she could give them to us for was 4 dollars. So, by the end of that trip I had my shelf boards, and two chalk boards for 12 bucks. Best deal of my entire life.


Continuing on with the day, I wanted to get the chalk board paint purchased, but seeing as I had just hit the greatest deal ever, I wasn't about to spend 20 dollars on paint. Hobby Lobby has this great deal of getting 40% off with their weekly coupon, and my friend Mary Jo and I were already planning on hanging out later that day, so I went and picked her up early, and she was my comrade in buying chalk board paint. 10 dollars later, we were set!

Now, stepping aside from the wood and chalk boards for a second, I really want to put the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring in my room. However, we don't have a colored printer, and seeing as the colors are kind of the point in that painting, I went to Kinko's to get it printed. This journey proved awkward, though. Probably the most awkward experience of my life actually. See, Mary Jo and I walk into the store. There was a guy in front of us being helped so we stood in line waiting our turn. When he was done, the guy behind the desk looked at us, telling us it was our turn, and asked what we needed. I began telling him what I needed, but seeing as I had never been to Kinko's before, I had a timid and confused tone. The guy looked at me like I was an idiot, asked for my thumb drive and proceeded to print the picture for me. Here's the thing, the guy didn't act like I was an idiot in an unkind way. He was very nice and talkative. . . just not in the most amiable way. I'll just say that is the first time I have ever been hit on in a store, and I don't ever, EVER want it to happen again. Also, my picture came out pixelated, and I'm not too excited in making another trip down there. If anybody wants to volunteer and do it for me- I'll buy you a hot chocolate from Holiday. And if nobody knows what that is, go to Holiday gas station on American Fork Main Street, get the vanilla hot chocolate, and you'll be in heaven. Best thing of my life.

*Intermission: go get a coke, maybe some popcorn. . . . I honestly don't even know if this story is all that interesting- to me it is at least. Props to you of you're still reading- I know that this is getting a little ridiculously long.

By 6:00 that night, Mary Jo and I had tackled all the errands we had to run. . . or I had to run. Mary Jo was such a sport through all of this. I seriously owe her. We got back to my house, changed into some sweats and began the priming the chalk board, shelves, and brackets. It really was so fun. We just sat and talked and listened to music, quite relaxing from our crazy afternoon.

We finished our priming with perfect time because we needed to leave by 7:30 to get to Orem. We were going to go to this musical performance at Orem High. . . .or so we thought. We drove over, got the conformation number, and headed our way to the high school; however, when we got there there was nobody there. Not a single car was in the parking lot. Mary Jo searched the printed receipt for the date of the performance, and it said not January 12th but February 2nd. It probably was the funniest thing I have ever witnessed. Mary Jo kept calling herself an idiot and thinking that everybody else thought she was an idiot, but really it was just herself thinking she was an idiot because was so funny.

Changing plans, we decided to crash the AF School's Hero's boy's choice dance that we were both happily not asked to. Mary Jo is on Yearbook, I'm not, but since I have a nice camera, we decided saying we were both on yearbook would be easy enough to get away with. It was.

Probably my favorite picture of the entire night. . .

 

I honestly don't even know how to sum this night up in words. Mary Jo and I dancing stag for all the slow songs and belting out the cliche and melting words to the open air, snapping pictures of all the people that were there. . .  I think my favorite was the group of boys that brought their moms as dates. That was what really melt me. Talk about making a lame dance into something meaningful- props to them, seriously!

To sum it up as best I can, I had a great night. Talk about understatement of the year. It was a night of spontaneity, laughter, awkwardness, and a good time with great people. I admire Mary Jo so much: she's kind and willing to help, a great listener with inspirational things to say, and honestly one of the best people I know. I feel privileged to know her and be friends with her, and most of all say that she was my comrade in a night that will go down in the history of Sidney.

Grey's

Something that most people don't know about me is that I love Grey's Anatomy. Like, LOVE Grey's Anatomy. This past year, I faithfully watched every single episode to all nine seasons. To give you perspective, during the finale of season 7 I cried because I was so attached to some of the characters. And, when my neighbor went to do a bike race in California awhile ago, he made sure that I knew that Patrick Dempsey would be there, he would meet him, and . . . . wait for this. . . . he would get Patrick Dempsey to call me. He did too! Patrick called me on the phone. Yes, now we are on first name basis, and I have his number in my phone.

*Just kidding

But I really did talk on the phone with Dr. McDreamy, and it was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life thus far. It probably was something that should have been filmed because it was so funny. I was laughing and rolling on the ground because I legitimately couldn't contain my excitement.

The point of this post is to gloat in the fact that the show continued airing yesterday. Because end of the terms is crazy and I didn't have time to do anything, I didn't get to watch it yesterday when it premiered. But good ol' TiVo recorded it for me, and I watched it today. The episode was great. I want Karev and Jo to hook up because they're just great, and I am so happy Bailey finally got married. It definitely was about time.

Anyway, I hope at least one person reading this shares my excitement for Grey's (:  I'm beyond excited it's back.

Music Show and Tell

 

Meet Birdy. She's 16, British, and does a dang good cover of Skinny Love. I'm a little obsessed seeing as it's been the only thing I've listened to for the past 2 days. She's great, though, and I hope you guys think so too.

It's a "Knee" Slapper. . . .

I finally went to Starbucks with my great friend Dani today. I haven't gone once this winter, and it really kind of depressed me since their hot chocolate is so good. Whenever I go out in public, though, I always find myself in odd situations . . . or just odd things always happen. Maybe it's because I myself am an odd person, but nonetheless they happen. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad to have these odd things happen because it brightens the day a little- adds a little color or flavour or whatever you want to call it. To be honest, it makes me happy because it makes me laugh.

Here's what happened today:

I have seen many, many renditions of my name, but never have I ever seen this version. Ever. It honestly is the epitome of what sounding out words means. . . . it is so great, though. At first I didn't even see it because the cardboard thing was over it, but I took the cardboard off (I have this weird thing for playing with everything that is in my hands while I talk), looked at the name, stopped mid-sentence, and just burst out laughing.

Also, when I came home today, I caught the dog in this position:

You see, the dog isn't allowed onto the couch, and so when I caught her in the crime, her ears instantly went down in shame. She's so noddy!

Today's been kind of crazy, and I haven't finished my homework . . . which I really don't want to do. It's not going to go away, however, so off I am to do it. Hope your day has been good and funny and productive- it's always best that way. (:

Happy 2013

New Years was a big exhibition over in my world. You see, I'm part of my stake's Youth Committee, and this year for New Years (or the Saturday before), my stake was assigned the Stake Dance. Obviously, we had to make it awesome. I was apart of the decorating committee, and for three days I practically got no sleep because delegation wasn't working out. However, that's not entirely true, because Shaylee was lovely and cut out all the triangles for the banners, cut the yarn poms, and stayed up with me the Friday night before. Also, the morning and afternoon of the dance many of the other members of the committee came together and we worked as hard and fast as we could to get the decorations completed, which we did! Hearing the words 'we're done' had never been music to my ears until that moment.

The actual decorating was another process seeing as we then had to transport everything from the church to the Jr. High. We'll just say we ran into serious complications as the puff balls were in knots and the streamers were not done correctly and we didn't have time to fix any of it. It's okay, though, I understand that my frustrations and expectations are ones that don't matter, so I've overcome my pride and have learned to move on. Really. Because the dance was fantastic. SO many people showed up when I really thought that nobody would show up. People from all around Utah County and probably some that weren't showed up, and so by the end of the night, I felt the wave of accomplishment of taking part in helping people have a good time- the decorations really didn't matter. Besides, our (as in mine and Shaylee's) photo booth turned out sooo darling. So much so, that's really the only pictures I have. . . ha.

 Let me tell you the brief story of the photo booth, because it's a good one. You see, it was Friday night. Shay and I had been working on party decorations all day long, but we still needed to assemble and purchase the PVC pipe for the photo booth. I had gone to Home Depot and Lowes earlier that day to price the PVC pipe, found that Lowes was significantly cheaper, and so assembling and buying really was all that we needed to do. The two of us drove our way over and began to assemble. After two structures that wouldn't hold and an hour later, we finally had our structure. Granted we looked pathetic and during that hour we had employees and consumers alike staring at us and laughing at us, and one nice man even came over to us asking us if we needed help- We declined with a laugh and told him that we probably looked pathetic, but he gracefully told us we looked cute. However, we accomplished it. We decided that we didn't want to have the embarrassment of going to a normal check out, so we decided to go to a self check out. BAD IDEA!!!!!!!!!!! The computer froze and needed assistance, and when we finally got it, the employee was so mean to us. She acted put out and annoyed that we were buying so much PVC pipe or that we were young and buying PVC pipe. . . I don't know what it was, but it wasn't the happiest check out experience. We got out of there quickly when it was over, though, and when the whole thing was set up- it was truly a success.



The actual day of New Year's: Monday, was so fun! Lauren and Ashley invited over a bunch of their friends as well as our cousin Kayley and Aunt Lisa to play Just Dance. It. Was. Fantastic. Really!! Nothing is better than getting together with great people to dance away. And, when the clock struck 12 fireworks boomed in the 790 North cul-de-sac. The irony is the illegal fireworks were purchased by the police officer . . . They definitely looked nice and brought the celebration into the new year.

 This last group of pictures is probably my favorite. My Aunt Lisa loves the song Love You Like a Love Song by Selena Gomez, and conveniently Just Dance 4 has the dance. So, my neighbor Rod, Kayley, and Lisa were the ones to do the dance- it really was so great!

Well, folks, we're beginning another year. I hope your holidays have been safe and festive. Though, it's a cliche, and really we only say it's a new year because the numbers change, it really doesn't feel like one. It's an excuse to just stop and be grateful for what we have, evaluate what we're doing well, keep doing those things and set goals to do some things differently. It's a good excuse to do so, however, don't hold the new year as an excuse to change things about your life- do it because change is good.

Remember the good times you've had this past year- I know I've definitely had some good ones and most importantly: happy 2013

Christmas 2012

I'm glad that December 21st came and passed as any other day, because this Christmas was beyond beautiful. The white snowflakes that fell between Christmas Eve and Christmas day laid a foundation of sereneness.

The falling snow did cause a bit of trouble, however, because it was coupled with freezing temperatures which created dangerous ice on the ground, and seeing as my family and I were traveling for parties, uneasyness was felt; however, we made it to where we needed to be safely, and I hope everybody else did too.

The beginning of our festivities began on Sunday, the 23rd, down in Richfield at my Aunt Jacque's house. We began with a delicious dinner of rolls and ham and salad and of course cookies and ice cream and cake.

We all then all went down to the basement to play some games . . . . Kaylynn, Lauren, and I got a little carried away with the camera while we were waiting for the stragglers to come. That middle picture made us laugh for maybe 10 minutes. Kaylynn's eyes just get to me every single time.

The first game we played was a catch-up game mixed with musical chairs . . . kind of. What happened was the person up and without a chair would say one thing that they did that year. If you had done it, then you stayed in your chair otherwise, you had to get up and run to another chair before they were all taken. It was probably the funnest game I've ever played, although, I kept trampling my grandma . . . that probably wasn't a highlight, but the actual sight of everybody else trampling each other was quite entertaining.

The next game was a gift exchange. We all had brought small little gifts, and as Jacque read a story that held a large plethora of rights and lefts we passed them around the circle. When the story was over, we were able to trade the gifts until one had been traded twice and everybody had gone in the circle. I ended up with a box of coke and sprite and two movies: Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum 2. It wasn't a bad present at all, if I do say so myself! Some of the presents were humorous too . . . Like Randy's. We thought we'd never see the day that Randy Brocious would get in touch with his feminine side, but low and behold a wall clock and some dish towels later, he proved us all wrong.

 On Christmas Eve, my family and I traveled up to South Jordan to my Aunt Peggy's house for our Christmas Eve dinner- a tradition we do every year. However, this year, Lauren brought along her Korean roommate Anisha for Christmas this year. The dinner was great and we talked and laughed and had fun. On the way home, Anisha taught us all about the Korean flag, which is interesting!

When we got back home, she became really excited when she say the house and said, "Can I take a picture of it?" It was great, but it made me think how different it probably is compared to Korea and how much she missed her family and home- it made me feel special that she could or would come and celebrate the holidays with us.

We finished the night with watching Home Alone, opening the last 12 days, and playing the piano. Anisha is a musical prodigy, and when she sat down at the piano, she just started playing. . . making it up as she went. Absolutely amazing!

The next morning, the 6 of us traveled to Eagle Mountain to Aunt Julie's house for a Christmas breakfast. It was a tradition in Mike's family when his mother, Muzzy, was still alive; however, it is a tradition that they love and wanted to keep going, so Julie decided to host it at her house this year. It was glorious. The food was great, the people were great, the time spent just being with family was great. Being with the extended family was something that hasn't been too frequent in the last couple of years so the little bit we got this year was a true blessing.

 When we came home, we opened our presents and spent the rest of the night with family.

 This Christmas was a different one just with the many family parties we had and with having Anisha here as well, but it by no means was bad. To be honest, it was probably the best Christmas I've experienced thus far just because it was centered primarily around the things that mattered most: love, service, and family.

Here's To What's Left

Welcome to my day today. I have been sitting here in my leggings and oversized t-shirt with my bed head hair and relieved eyes from no contacts doing my homework, which I dreaded doing all break. So now I'm doing it. Except for now, obviously. For two hours I have been listening to an interview I had done awhile ago with my neighbor and typing it up . . . it's glorious work. The interview had some good things to say, however, so it hasn't been all tedious. And, I worked on my Art History study guide for my final this week which wasn't tedious either. I actually learned (gasp, right?) some very, very interesting things, and it reminds me how much I really do love just sitting and studying.

I keep wondering if I'm dreading school tomorrow because I'm conditioned to be that way or because I love sleeping in oh, so much. Either way, tomorrow's Thursday and then the weekend which allows me to do more of my procrastinated work. The Christmas break has been magnificent, I can't lie, and I'll truly miss it as I always do. It's hard to go back to the grime, but the grime means a little change and only 5 months until summer.

*I'll write about my break another time . . . as you can see, there's still much more to do. Until next time. (: