Category Archives: Work

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Attention whores, drama queens and the gift of life…

None of which are related.  I was reading Ashley\’s blog today and was astounded by how many people one of their friends was able to help because she signed her organ donor card.  72!  72 different lives were enhanced because she signed her organ donor card.  I know so many people who are totally against this for their own reasons but in all seriousness what on earth are you going to do with them?  You can\’t take them with you so why not?  I don\’t know how much of myself would be able to be salvaged after I go but you just never know, which is why I always sign mine.

As for attention whores and drama queens…  Someone I \”know\” as in they\’re more of an acquaintance as opposed to a close friend  posted not one but 2 different suicide notes as their facebook status.  Which reminds me all to well of the story the boy who cried wolf. Except she\’s more like the girl who cried suicide.  Part of me is thinking WTF is wrong with you!  Another part of me is saddened by her blatant misuse of social networking to get attention.  She quite obviously is in dire need of some form of help.  People who generally/typically commit suicide sadly don\’t announce it.  The decision is made and they finally find the peace that they need all the while pretending that everything is fabulous.  I know that all to well, Jason did a damn fine job of convincing me that he would never ever do such a thing to hurt me and well the only reminder I have of my dear friend aside from memories is a cherish tattoo.

I really wish people would realize the cause and effect that it has on people when they pull shit like that!  Ever her RL friends told her she was totally messed up and needed help, to which I agree.  Sadly one day she just very well might commit suicide and when she really needs the help, no one will be there to help her because we/they have heard it all before.  Reminds me of a song from soul asylum: Misery :\” Did you satisfy your greed, get what you need
Was it only envy, so empty\”

In any case she\’s currently alive and well, I can only hope that those who live in the same province as her can help her get the help that she needs.  She\’s a good person who\’s obviously so very messed up inside.  Her brother committed suicide & I feel for her on so many different levels and of course I wouldn\’t want anything to happen to her either.  *sigh* *EDIT: She\’s now getting the help she needs, thank goodness!*

Anyway in other news…  I have no days off until NEXT Sunday, dear God!  I have however found that having my schedule the way it is has been a saving grace to my sanity in so many ways!  Having far more productive days around here has is benefits for sure!

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The randomness that is my life…

So this is my first week with the schedule change and things are actually kind of OK for the most part.  Its a little different being there during the day working with and conversing with different people which is actually kind of nice.  Granted the totally inappropriate conversations are still very much never ending.  Like the great debate over just how much of a redhead I really am 😉  My hair color has changed somewhat exponentially over the years on its own due to age and the lack of sunshine that I expose it to.  However when I was a small child, my hair pretty much closely matched that of fire.  Nothing like looking as if you have a ball of flames attached to your scalp.  I offered to prove it to one of the owners at work but he declined lol.

Then we got to talking about the hockey game between Canada and the US that I quite frankly could care less about in any way shape or form because well its hockey so who cares.  OMFGWTFBBQ shocking I know…  But anyway I was talking to someone on the phone and they were screaming no no no in my ear and I couldn\’t help but lament on the fact that that was the first time I have ever had a guy scream no in my ear like that…

One can hope when I do decide to converse with said person again they aren\’t so damn crusty.  I can kind of figure out why seeing as how oddly enough there are certain aspects of said person that remind me all too much of myself.  I\’m OK with that, because then at the very least I know how to deal with that.  Nothing wrong with getting in touch with your inner Steph 😉  Then again they\’re also the greatest piece of inspiration behind my tattoo.  Don\’t quite know how to say, thanks to you I have my life back.  well I do, just don\’t know how to say it without sounding totally cheesy.

So were 7 days into the new year and so far nothing has sucked too bad…  Lots of work ahead but visa needs to get paid and the only way I can make that happen is to work my ass off some more.  I\’m not going home this summer, the cost is quite exponential overall which is slightly sad in a way seeing as how I only go to Ontario.  However when you factor in the time I need to take off of work, the cost of transportation, not to mention getting my tattoo fix whilst there and general entertainment expenses the end just doesn\’t justify the means for me when I have that much freaking debt. Well its not that bad, I know people who are FAR worse off in that department then I am but still I hate owing money.  I also hate only getting paid every 2 weeks, that\’s exceptionally irritating!

Soon I\’ll be back in school, that\’s kind of scary!  I\’m still holding off on my website because even though I finally feel as if I have my life back on track, I still haven\’t transferred everything over to this computer yet program wise and all my files are stashed on my other HDD  as well and that\’s just such a cumbersome task that I have little interest in embarking on for the moment.  It will get done, its just a matter of when really.  That and well I have too many other things that need to get out of the way first so it\’s just going to have to wait a little longer!

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Out with the old and in with the new…

New Schedule hooray!  I don\’t particularity care for it per Se since its 6 freaking days a week but 3 of those days are half days and the best part: THEY\’RE DURING THE DAY!  So maybe, I can get my ass back on track, have a life and you know all those good things!  So I think I will be speaking with Leanne about this whole personal Chef business because now I can totally pull it off and I need the cash.  The sooner I get my visa bill paid off the sooner I can get my derriere back in school and get the hell out of this industry and that\’s what I\’m after the most!   I have to say that this new schedule of mine feels somewhat liberating!  No more working til 4am (except for one day a week no biggie) and maybe no more feeling so lethargic all the time either!  In any case I am going to see my hot Dr. about getting my thyroid tested because I\’m always tired and cold.  I think its under-active (very much like myself)  :p So that\’s on my to look into list and I\’ll be doing that sometime this week seeing as how I\’ve been like this for years and nothing much as helped aside from lots and lots of caffeine!

My newest tattoo addition is healing beautifully and I am quite happy about that!  When it started to scab over it was a tad gross because the kept falling into my cleavage and it looked like I had some strange disease or as someone pointed out, looked like I had ants in my bra…  My lovely friend Jeremy came in from Maine with his super sweet new Beau Tim and we had a fabulous brunch at my house.  It was so great to see them both!

So tomorrow I have to run to the post office and mail my rent via registered mail, do my laundry, pop into Gryphon and see my ladies!  Call the clinic about getting those tests done and talk to Leanne who is hopefully in the office when I pop in.  I also have to finish cleaning my apartment!  I made some minor changes to the decor around here and got rid of some stuff that I don\’t need any longer.  The garbage men are going to likely hate me but its nice to De-clutter one\’s home 🙂  Some stuff can be donated and it will be, or I\’ll just put an ad up on CL in the free section to get rid of it that much faster.  I also have to network my old PC and my new one so that I don\’t have to spent an eternity burning CD\’s and what have you.  That\’s going to be a slightly cumbersome task but at least I\’ll have all my programs on here.  Especially Microsoft office because I don\’t have the CD anymore and well I don\’t see a point in buying it again and of course my new computer (which I love!) only has the 60 day trial.  Not to mention all the other programs that I have trapped in my old HDD.  I could just switch them out but this one is bigger (460g) vs my old one (80g) and the OS isn\’t the same either.

Then maybe I\’ll get back on track with my website!  For now though I\’m going to focus on getting caught up on some much needed things around here and in my day to day life first.  I\’m finding it really difficult to sum up the motivation to work on that I have to admit.  It just seems so damn tedious…  I\’ve contemplated throwing in the towel on numerous occasions but, as everyone has said:\”You\’ve come this far\” but I still have such a LONG way to go…  But hey if its meant to be, it\’ll happen right?

On a final note: Some seasonal (Christmas) humor leftover from the holidays.   Sketchy Santa &  The ultimate prank

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So it begins…

Started my new job yesterday which was interesting to say the least…  Mostly because the guy who was supposed to be training me wasn\’t in due to the flu.  I however have become a little too accustomed to be being \”fed to the sharks\” and adapt pretty damn fast to these situations.  So I was working on the line with the owner last night which wasn\’t all that bad.  Except at first, I had no clue that he was one of the owners oops!  We got on well and rocked it out but the place was a freaking zoo at one point.  Rush from hell kicks in, were SO not prepared for it since we were short people who work during the day to make this whole prep thing happen.  All in all it was OK, it had its moments of total and utter fail but at least we got on well.

Funny enough another one of the owners (I think there\’s 5 of them) used to attend the university I work at and on the occasions that I was working in the actual cafeteria itself as opposed to the kitchen, I\’ve served him before.  So we both thought it was pretty funny that I went from serving HIM coffee, to having him sign MY cheques.  Everyone there is really cool, though.  Were all in the same relative age bracket, everyone is English which is awesome since my French is terrible at best.  So those two things alone make work suck a little bit less.

Of course there are always a few downfalls, as one would find in any kitchen.  The hours, OMFG there goes my life…  Sunday they\’re open from 2pm-1am, Monday-Wed 5pm-1am, Thursday-Sat. 5pm til 4am, yes that would be four o\’clock in the freaking morning!  Guess what shift I\’m working tonight and Saturday…  There\’s a few \”problem area\’s\” that need to be addressed but not so many to the point that I wouldn\’t want to be there unlike one place that I worked at.  So I\’ll be doing my damnedest to make that happen.  John himself said if anyone can whip that place into shape it you lol.  He is right though, years of experience do help and I have reached a point in my career that you know what\’s going to work and what isn\’t.

I have to admit though that the times that I have upstaged them thus far, they\’re pretty good about it.  Yesterday being a prime example: you work in any kitchen that has a grill and you\’ll know what I mean.  Each one has a drip pan underneath it that generally slides in and out.  Most places cover this with tinfoil because when your grilling chicken, the oil in the marinade tends to catch on fire.  However I was told that it was broken, I was like broken?  Dude its a drip tray, how on earth can you break that?  He said that its been jammed in there all day and no one could get it out.  That was until *I* came along and yanked that sucker out in all of 2 minutes.  I\’ve never seen a  bunch of boys so excited over such a  thing!

Tonight pending the exec Chef comes in, it should be interesting.  I like him, he\’s nice enough BUT he\’s also a recent graduate (class of 2008) and I also happen to be a few years older then him and he\’s a little cocky, but too much so.  Needless to say, we\’re going to be having a discussion today if he comes in.  No its not *my* kitchen, and I am OK with not being anywhere near in charge for a change but certain things just don\’t sit well with me for justifiable reasons.  Mostly I get into \”anal retentive Nazi\” mode when it comes to organization, cleanliness, food safety and efficiency.  Those are the 3 key areas that I always find need to be addressed to some degree or another.  Not that I\’m saying that my new job has a profound amount of those issues thankfully, it just needs \”the Steph touch\” 😉

Its a HUGE change from the life I have grown somewhat accustomed to and my schedule and its time constraints tend to turn people off more often then not.  Not that I can say I blame anyone for that because it takes a pretty tolerant person to date someone in this business.  The hours are insane, its stressful, becoming an alcoholic is always an issue (thankfully not for me, that\’s why I don\’t drink that much), its very demanding overall and you tend to become exceptionally bitter and jaded at best.  In any case I consign myself to the fact that I\’m getting out sooner as opposed to later.  I signed up for this life, it was my choice and like several other things I choose to do, you can either take it or leave it.  Not like it matters, since the last few dates I have been on haven\’t been all that remarkable.  I have a few ideas as to why, but mostly people automatically assume that because I work as much as I do, with the most random schedule ever that I won\’t have time for them.

WRONG…  I ALWAYS make time for those that matter.  Granted I can\’t bet here for everyone 24/7 but I sure as hell don\’t expect them to be there for me that much either.  Which makes the time you do have with them that much more precious.  It also makes dating someone who\’s in the same industry as you a hellish nightmare at best…  But its been done and if I was destined to, I\’d do it again.  Not that it matters because the last few have totally lacked the whole wow factor for lack of a better term.  I don\’t know if its one situation that I can\’t seem to let go or if I\’m just dead inside.  At this point its anyone\’s guess and there\’s only one way for me to narrow it done, but I have to nail down that one opportunity first to see.  Which very well might never present itself at this rate.

In other non work related news: I booked my ticket to go home and my annual Christmas tattoo appointment as well 🙂  Now I just need to take the time off of work.  I\’m hoping that won\’t be an issue…  I\’ll only be gone for a few days, I leave the morning of the 24th @7:30am and I have to leave Cambridge on Dec 28th @ 9:30pm to make my connection in Toronto for 12:30am the following day.  But it\’ll be nice to go home & see everyone and get my memorial tattoo for Jason as well (which in case you were wondering is booked for 3pm on the 28th YAY!).  If  your wondering what I\’m getting,  I\’m keeping a closely guarded secret.  Only one/perhaps 2 people know what I\’m getting and even Tim doesn\’t know yet.  I just said that I\’m getting a memorial piece and nothing more.  I\’m excited though!  I was going to get Gil to do it a few months ago but I thought better of it and decided to wait until I went home instead.  I need a little more time to heal and the tattoo usually helps, but in the end there\’s no point it rushing it either.