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| The very first bunny square |
So one of my goals was to blog more often this summer than I have managed to commit myself to in the recent past. I want to work on having something to say on events/happenings, big or small, in my own life or out in the rest of the Earthal-sphere. I want to develop on crafting my own writing style; I felt good about blogging/writing in college but quickly got out of the habit here in the real world.
I know it takes discipline which is probably the overarching goal of the summer, discipline. Not just wanting to do all things, but carefully discerning the most valuable projects to invest my time/effort. I am chronically a bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew kind of person. I will take on many goals and usually near the end I feel as though I am half-assing my way through them. Take the baby quilt from last summer (status-near completion). The first steps of going through the quilt (getting/cutting fabric, creating pattern, stitching squares, pinning quilt together) went really quickly; if I had kept at it, it could have been done for Mom to take with her to Hawaii for Sebastian and Sarah (not that they will need this winter quilt on the tropical island of Oahu!). I am just now finished stitching the squares to the quilt, getting the backing on, and last night I got the silky border pinned to the edging. I think I have maybe a weeks worth of work left if I hammered down and had nothing else to do.
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| Starting to come together |
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| From October (?) More like a quilt |
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However, having nothing else to do is not the case; next week I am running the show with Junior Silver Cornets. It will go fine. I have shirts for the kids squared away and we have enough kids for a pretty decent sized, well balanced band. I need to get a food list together and recruit some helpers to be kid watchers, mentor players, and game referees. The program will take some of my time and energy, but I am committed to it being a fun/positive and enjoyable experience for the kids and a great learning experience for me.
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| Side work for slower afternoons |
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Since I am still employed up on the hill serving the masses that crave Italian cuisine, I have decided to make another goal of maintaining a positive attitude about my place of employment throughout the summer. It is a restaurant, and if I have learned anything after six (yes, six) years with this restaurant, it is that I am really in charge of whether I have a good shift or not. It is my attitude that determines how I perceive what happens and how receptive I am to the people/events around me. I always make it a point to be professional and pleasant with my customers; this is basic server survival 101-be nice to the people paying you. It's not just about the money, though; I want my customers to have a wonderful dining experience and anything I can do to make that happen, I will. Trust
me, I have faced managerial and chef wrath trying to guarantee a great meal for my customers. Nine times out of ten my customers are wonderful, funny, and appreciative of my service. I have a few horrible customer stories. But I have also had some great people come into my life that I would not know if it weren't for this job. The picture with the brown box is from 2011 Christmas time. A group of ladies came in to do a secret Santa exchange. They were sweet and humorous and remembered my name (I don't have/wear a name tag and I am notorious for forgetting names two seconds after hearing them so I consider name remembering a great skill). They chilled watching the snow for a while and I refilled their coffee a bunch (as a coffee drinker, I will bring the pot around every few minutes because I know having an empty cup causes great irks within me); they heard about my aspirational teaching goals and they told me some of their histories. When they left they left the brown box on the tip tray. It was a neon orange wrist watch that has a colorful flashing feature that goes seizure crazy with a button push. I was near tears; seriously, how sweet! I have sometimes felt like a nobody to my customers (comes with the territory, along with the paranoia that your customers think you have no brains-don't prove them wrong out of spite-just have confidence that you are the wonderful person you know yourself to be); but these ladies took time to care about me. It isn't about the gift or getting a tip-it's about caring for the people that come into your life, no matter how long they are there. A final note on this long side story: these women came in again for their Christmas gift exchange in 2012 and although I was not there to serve them, I came in during their sit and chat time and they had asked about me, so I stopped over to say hi and wish them a Merry Christmas (seriously, those gals are the bees-knees!). My goal this summer is to enjoy my working time in the front as well as the back of the house. I know it gets tense; I know we all get sour or have things going on that color our day in a foul way. I want to work on the ability to keep my demeanor professional and positive. I am going to be there a chunk of time this summer, I should get to enjoy it!
I didn't get through all of my goals for the summer. Actually there are many more, but this post is long enough for the moment. It will be part one. I know; I can keep you all on the edge of your seat!
me, I have faced managerial and chef wrath trying to guarantee a great meal for my customers. Nine times out of ten my customers are wonderful, funny, and appreciative of my service. I have a few horrible customer stories. But I have also had some great people come into my life that I would not know if it weren't for this job. The picture with the brown box is from 2011 Christmas time. A group of ladies came in to do a secret Santa exchange. They were sweet and humorous and remembered my name (I don't have/wear a name tag and I am notorious for forgetting names two seconds after hearing them so I consider name remembering a great skill). They chilled watching the snow for a while and I refilled their coffee a bunch (as a coffee drinker, I will bring the pot around every few minutes because I know having an empty cup causes great irks within me); they heard about my aspirational teaching goals and they told me some of their histories. When they left they left the brown box on the tip tray. It was a neon orange wrist watch that has a colorful flashing feature that goes seizure crazy with a button push. I was near tears; seriously, how sweet! I have sometimes felt like a nobody to my customers (comes with the territory, along with the paranoia that your customers think you have no brains-don't prove them wrong out of spite-just have confidence that you are the wonderful person you know yourself to be); but these ladies took time to care about me. It isn't about the gift or getting a tip-it's about caring for the people that come into your life, no matter how long they are there. A final note on this long side story: these women came in again for their Christmas gift exchange in 2012 and although I was not there to serve them, I came in during their sit and chat time and they had asked about me, so I stopped over to say hi and wish them a Merry Christmas (seriously, those gals are the bees-knees!). My goal this summer is to enjoy my working time in the front as well as the back of the house. I know it gets tense; I know we all get sour or have things going on that color our day in a foul way. I want to work on the ability to keep my demeanor professional and positive. I am going to be there a chunk of time this summer, I should get to enjoy it!
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