I spent most of Sunday hanging out with Ariana. This involved a trip to the Asian market, as suggested by Chris. He wanted to go to H-mart, but I knew he had never experienced the wonder known as El Grande Supermercado, now known as All Green. It's a fantastic international supermarkets that is one of my favorite places to go. It's got a huge selection of crazy seafood, produce, meats, and more, along with normal American staples.
Really, my whole venture into more asian/international themed cooking has been brought to you by a book called Creole by Babette de Rozieres.
This books was down by the registers in Border one day, and I was bored, so I flipped through it. Love at first sight. Seriously. With recipes like Urchin Blaff, with pictures of this dish served in urchin tests, how could I not love it? The first recipe I am trying from it, is "Pan-fried Chicken Breasts with Cinnamon and Coconut Milk".
Being an experienced, international food shopper, I already have everything I need to make this dish. I have learned from Ariana, to always keep some coconut milk on hand, just in case I ever have the desire to make some thai-style curry.
Back to the International Supermarket Adventures!!! I have some pictures to share with you.
Crazy nuts! They look totally hardcore. The only reason I know they are nuts is because they were next to chestnuts and hazelnuts.
Durian! I have these trees on my farmville farm! But they smelled really good and now I am curious to try them someday. They were HUGE though. Like, bigger than my head. This was at the H-mart, where they also had kumquats and longan berries.
Some of the squid we bought today. CJ is currently making calamari. It keeps setting off the fire alarm because he is frying stuff, but so far, aside from the noise, it's turned out pretty well.
Removing the beak from the squid. CJ did his homework and checked out a couple on on-line video tutorials on how to clean whole squid. It was kind of cool.
And with a little bit of fresh squeezed lemon, the calamari tastes awesome!
Guess what else is on the way today?? More birnen-speck cake!
This is the place we originally found the recipe. We made it once before and we liked the flavor, but we knew it needed a little practice to get it right. I think this time will be better than before. It's in the oven right now.....mmm
I had my interview today with Bon Appetit. Basically it was either, fill out new-hire paper work, or tell them no. It wasn't even an interview, they wanted to hire me on the spot. Which is cool, except that it's no better than what I am doing right now. So I filled out paper work. I can't make major decisions in minutes. I need time to digest and plan and day dream, etc etc. So now that I am technically in the process of being hired, I don't want the job. Crappy, I know.
Basically, we are still unsure of where CJ is going to be after the end of this month. We are still sharing one car...so that makes finding a new job difficult. He may or may not still be at Borders. It's all up in the air. The only thing we know for sure is that his current position goes away at the end of the month. Whether or not there will be a new one/vacant one for him to step into is what is unknown. If there is not, they will keep him on, but cut his hourly wage...which is too low anyway. So he can't stay there if he takes a pay cut.
And frankly, I am over the mall. I am at the point where I am ready to move on to a real job. Another barista position is not a step forward. In fact, I think that since it's on a college campus, it's a step backwards for me. I am no longer a college student. Eventually, I want to go to grad school, but I shouldn't be on a campus until then, unless I am doing something applicable to my degrees.
So who knows where we will be next month. I am still holding out for this Living Classrooms job. I haven't heard from anyone yet, but I was told mid-January, so I am hoping to hear good news in the next week or so. It wouldn't be a big pay increase, but I would be working a lot less, to make about the same amount of money each month. In the summer, when their schedule gets busier, I will actually get paid more. And it's something I actually WANT to do, something that will help build my resume in the Environmental Science field. Plus, I'd get to learn about the ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay, which is really exciting to me! I am a nerd, I know.
It feel really nice to be relaxing at home right now. I was off work today, but I ran a whole bunch of errands. I had that interview, and I went to IKEA to exchange our damaged stuff, then I picked up my external hard drive from UPS since they couldn't deliver it, and then CJ and I went to Navy Federal to re-apply for a consolidation loan, with me as a co-signer this time. Then we did our long over-due grocery shopping at Walmart and spent $110. Snap. That's a lot of food.
When we got home, I made dinner while CJ set up our new loveseat.
You can also see my new bookshelf that he put together. He's so manly. Or at least accustomed to IKEA furniture.
Here's a photo of the super awesome wine holder Mike Helfer's parent's gave us for Christmas.
Mike's step father is a bit of a hobbyist with woodworking, so he actually made the holder himself. They then went the extra step and got us a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. How cute are they?? The wine that's with the holder right now is one I bought at the Wine Bin. It's my new favorite wine store. They carry verdes from Portugal and when Ariana and Nick came over for fondue the other night, we split a bottle of sparkling muscat I bought there. IT WAS AWESOME. I will actually keep the bottle so I can remember what it is and buy more.
Plus they have tasting events and classes....and they are right next to the new, super giant Whole Foods. They can do no wrong!
For Christmas, a bunch of our Maryland friends got together and got CJ and I a giftcard to IKEA. And by giftcard, I really mean Ariana is holding on to $125 in cash for us for the purpose of buying a couch. I guess they didn't have a chance to get an IKEA giftcard, but that was the intention. Anyway, CJ and I drove up to White Marsh to check out the IKEA there. It was my first IKEA experience. Oh My GOD, the place is HUGE! It was kinda fun to see all the miniature rooms set up...but the warehouse part frightened me a bit. It was kind of barren, and at points I felt like CJ and I were the only people there. It was weird. But we went yesterday for a specific reason...there was a loveseat that was on sale for $99 on Sunday only. So we bought it. YAY! Mission complete.
Except that one of the pieces of the frame is broken...and one of the covers is missing half....so I get to go back tomorrow. I will actually be in the area for an interview, so I called them that same day to let them know I would be coming in for an exchange, and to make sure they would have it in stock. So maybe tomorrow we will have a loveseat! We are slowly furnishing this apartment. Someday it will be a real home! I still haven't bothered to hang anything on our walls. I just haven't decided how I want to do it...and I don't have a hammer. Lol.
So my interview tomorrow is something I found on Craigslist. I think I already blogged about it, so yeah. There's nothing new to add, except that the interview is tomorrow. I will also be filling out an application that day too. Basically, it's full time, which is a plus, but if the pay rate isn't great, I'll be peacing out.
I am tired of the mall and tired of working two part time jobs. It's worked so far because CJ and I have needed to carpool. We still will, so I am not sure how it will all work out in the next month, but it's gotta change. It's time for retail to stop. I'm over it.
The book I am reading right now is really strange. It's interesting, but I don't know how I feel about it.
The writing style is intriguing, but it's really quite gruesome at times. It's kind of creepy, in fact.
BTW, I love getting advanced copies of books. And this book is PRETTY. It's hardcover, and as you can see from the image above, a very eye-catching image.
I FINALLY used my giftcards to buy an external hard drive from amazon.com. Now I am just trying to figure out how to get UPS to LEAVE THE DAMN THING IN THE BUILDING. It's under $100, the building has a key entry, but they must not have a key. It's obnoxious because the mail man has a key and leaves USPS packages inside the door all the damn time. They are going to try and deliver the package tomorrow...but I won't be here then either. So I will go to the website and tell them what to do. They didn't actually leave a UPS delivery attempt notice the first time, I just got an e-mail from amazon.com. WAY TO GO UPS. Failpile.
Anywho, I should probably go to bed. CJ is staying at his parent's tonight, as he has work in Annapolis at 6:30 am, and I have an interview in White Marsh at 11:30am (THE OTHER SIDE OF BALTIMORE FROM ANNAPOLIS)....so he's doing his own thing and I get to sleep in this cold ass apartment all by my lonesome. This is when I wish I had a dog to cuddle with. Or a space heater.
Yeah, sorry that I haven't posted recently. It's been a little crazy with work, but nothing is really going on that I feel is blog worthy.
I am sick of working retail, and am continuing the job search for something a bit more substantial. I still haven't heard about the Living Classrooms people that I interviewed with, but probably won't hear from them for another week or so. I have an interview next week with an organization called Bon Appetit which is a cafe/catering place up at Gaucher College. It wouldn't really be all that different, and working a service job on a college campus would probably be kind of awful for a college graduate...but if they offer full time and pay well enough, it'd be enough for me.
Both Borders and Teavana have cut their payroll hours. Welcome to the post-Christmas season. It means I actually have days off, which is nice, but it also means less money. With the impending "I need to get my own car insurance" deadline, money might be a bit of an issue. It's not like I don't have any, it's just that I won't be saving any. I like saving it. I like seeing it add up in my bank account each month. It makes me happy, as sad and greedy as that sounds. Really though, it's about security. And feeling like a grown-up. I work full time and have a college degree, therefore, the next step in my life should be to save money in order to spend on things that come next...like getting married and buying a house. But I also like having that money add up in my bank account because it makes me feel safe. If something happens, I can cover it financially. That's a big deal for me! I am on my own and I can financially take care of myself! I hope!
Having time off has been really nice, especially with my reluctance to go to work as of late. It's not like I wouldn't go, it's just that I don't want to be there. I am tired of all the bullshit of working in retail. I am sure there is plenty of bullshit elsewhere, but if I A) Got paid more and B) Felt like I was using the last 6 years I spent getting a degree, then I might be more willing to deal with the bullshit.
Always at the back of my mind is eventual wedding planning. I haven't really done anything for that, other than think about it. I know I want to make my own cake, I know the dress code for the bridesmaids and groomsmen and I know who I want to ask to be my bridal party, I just haven't bothered to yet. I need a date. That's the biggest thing, and I don't even know WHERE we are going to have it, which will affect the date. Plus, Annie is planning on getting married around the same time, so I need to know HER date, in order to plan my own date. I am her maid of honor, after all. Blech. This is all so complicated. Rachael got engaged after I did and she's getting married in September! Adrienne and Aaron got engaged just recently and they are getting married in December. So...I just feel like we jumped the gun with getting engaged and need to get on the boat with wedding planning.
Speaking of Rachael's wedding, it will probably be the next time I am in Oregon, which is mid September. I plan on being there for about a week, figure I can kill every bird in a 10-mile radius with that stone. Chris Jordan wants to come with us too, since he really wants to visit Oregon, and Ariana might be interested as well. Ben, I hope you are ready for us to take over your house! Hahaha...I am only sort of joking though. I imagine we'd fly into Portland and hang in Corvallis for a bit, then head down to Southern Oregon for a bit as well. It depends on the timing of everything, as I imagine Rachael's wedding will be in Corvallis, so I will need to be there for that. Who knows. It's far enough away I haven't really bothered to figure it all out yet.
Oh yeah. New Years. I didn't make any resolutions or anything. I had already made one to be less of a know-it-all (especially at work), but that was before January. Our New Year's party was our Friendsmas party. Basically, everyone in our friend group went to Chris, Aaron, and Adrienne's house and did a present exchange and then got drunk. I drank a lot, but I had a really fun time hanging out with everyone. We attempted to play a game called Dicecapades, which we had never played before. Learning a new game = FAIL when you are drunk. I attempted to play match maker and went for a drunk run, after Ariana and Mike and Nick, who had left. It was fun times.
Anywho, life here is a lot of work, work, work and a lot of sleep, sleep, eat. I feel like I very rarely have time to do anything else, simply because of the retail schedule that CJ and I live by.
Speaking of retail...it's about time to head to work....Joy.
Today is my first day off in two weeks! It's been a little crazy trying to make my schedule work between the two jobs, but after this week, everything should be fine. I still have some tweaking to do with this week, but oh well. At least I have today, Wednesday and Thursday off right now. I definitely need to down time to relax. Today, I feel like crap. Either I am getting sick, or I am just exhausted and it's catching up with me. Either of those is very likely.
Working at Borders has been fine so far. There are a few people who are just so inept at life, that working with them is kind of a chore. That's why I prefer to work weekdays there, where it's just me and the supervisor, and maybe one other person. The hardest part is learning to deal with everyone else's style. Everyone does things in a different way and I am constantly having to adapt to each person I work with. They have all been there longer, so even if I am more recently trained (and therefore more up-to-date on certain protocols), I still have to follow their lead. My big thing is people not keeping the place clean. There are certain people who don't do any cleaning. They just ring people up, and make drinks, but there's a lot more to the job than that. It's always frustrating, to come into the cafe and take over for someone who has let the trash cans overflow, the coffee all sit for too long, the condiment bar run out of everything.
But then there are the regulars, who you recognize on sight, who know you by name, who tip every time. They make all the bad stuff go away. Then there's the random people who pay and put all of their change in the tip jar (and I'm not just talking about the 3 cents from their $2.97 sale), which can make your night too. I had a lady tip me and my co-worker $8.33 the other night. It was ridiculous and awesome. Needless to say, when their drinks were ready, we carried them out to their seats, which we don't normally do.
Teavana, on the other hand, has no redeeming characteristics, other than the paycheck. The extra $100ish a week, almost makes up for giving up my days off...but there is so much there that is NOT worth it. Like the co-worker I had the displeasure of working with the other day. I have already twittered about what a worthless human being he is, but needless to say, I hate him. He is everything I hate about salespeople. I heard him blatanly lie to customers to make a sale. His method is to just talk and talk and talk and talk and it's awful. He''s awful at public speaking, so his speech is full of colloquialisms, and "um"s, and just utter bullshit. His response to everything I said (much like how I can often be heard to say "Your mom" or "Your face") was "That's racist". I'm sure he thought that was hilarious, but he then continued to talk about how he hates white people, and lumped everyone who was not as dark as him, into that category. To me, that's a form of racism in and of itself. People like him are the reason that people suck.
Anyway, I wanted to post a quick update. Now I am going to watch TV on my internet. For free.
So this was my first week back at Teavana! It was kind of nice to just be able to jump into the swing of things. Everything felt pretty familiar and there are only a few basic things that have changed in the 11 months since I worked there last. There is no more free tea for making your sales goals. I was sorely disappointed to hear that, but I can understand. When you have people who make their goals almost every day, it's a little expensive to provide them with 2oz. of free tea every day. It adds up quickly. I'm still bummed about it. Now I will just have to buy my tea like everyone else. *sigh*
While I was working the other day, someone from Banana Republic came in and handed us a family and friends discount coupon. It was for this weekend only, so I managed to make it to Old Navy with Ariana today, to use it. It was a 30% off coupon, so I got a really schnazzy wool pea coat (a long, warm one, just in time for winter!) for $45. It's exactly what I wanted, which was something warm AND stylish. I need to have something that's a little more grown up than a hoodie, and this is it!
Today was my day off, and CJ had the day off to. I got called in to work at Teavana, because someone was a No Call/No Show. That's bad news bears for them, but I got a few extra hours in this week, which is fine by me. I don't know when my next day off will be, which kind of sucks, but is kind of awesome at the same time. I like the work and I like the money. I also happen to like my free time....but I can enjoy that after Christmas.
Since we were off this morning, we made plans to head into Baltimore and go to Bookthing. Bookthing is like the greatest thing ever. Basically, this guy takes all book donations, sorts them, and makes them available to the public, FOR FREE! It's all donation and volunteer based and you just walk in and take all the books you want. I picked up The Last of the Mochicans, The Subtl Knife by Philip Pullman (sequel to the Golden Compass, which I LOVE), Cell by Stephen King, Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (I plan to re-read the series once it's all out, so I might as well collect them now), among other things. Mike and Tiffany came with us, and they met us at our place at 9. I had scones waiting for them, so we could all have a quick breakfast before venturing into the city. Not just any scones though...apple bacon maple glazed scones. They were pretty yummy, but not stellar. I feel like, with a little tweaking, they could be really awesome. Clearly, there just wasn't enough BACON!
Anyway, I am in the process of making beef stroganoff and then CJ and I are going to relax and watch a movie before bed, so I better get back to it.
Today is my first day off in almost a week. I'm actually working full time at the cafe this week. I'm not sure if this will continue, as I was told I wouldn't get full time until Thanksgiving, but we did lose a staff member indefinitely. Plus, this past week, a co-worker's grandmother passed away unexpectedly, so they were out too.
I feel pretty comfortable working in the cafe. I really enjoy being in a cafe/bookstore. The clientele are pretty chill, and are a fairly intelligent bunch. The major complaint I have about my job is being pulled away from the cafe. I don't mind working the registers downstairs, but it's kind of a pain. People are a lot less friendly (apparently they are in need of some caffeine or some happy pills!), and there's a lot more to remember. Plus, I am constantly having to call a manager for this or for that. I'd much rather just be in my own little world in the cafe.
The cafe tends to be pretty slow during the week. We get rushes at certain times, and then it's a little crazy, but I like that kind of crazy. As long as there is someone else there to help me through the rush, it's no big deal. A rush on the register down stairs is a different story. People get pissy, and then when they get to the register, they want to take 20 minutes. Blah.
I've also checked in with Teavana about working there part time. This was before I was working full time hours at the cafe, so things could be a little crazy in the coming weeks. I am not really sure how to balance my schedule between the two, so it'll be a work in progress. I have yet to hear for sure, but I was told I'd be on the schedule for next week.
I'm excited about the tea. Actually, I am kind of excited in general, to be going back to Teavana. As much as commission sales sucked, that store was kind of home to me. I spent a lot of time there, and was quite comfortable. Plus, I LOVE the tea. And they just got a bunch of NEW teas, which is really exciting.
http://www.teavana.com/shop.axd/TeaWall is a complete listing of all their teas. Mmmm tea.
Halloween passed pretty uneventfully. We went to an impromptu party at Ariana and Nick's, which was fun. CJ and I both worked that night, and the next morning, so it was a pretty low-key evening for us. We watched other people drink.
That's pretty much about it. We are trying to figure out Christmas plans. My family will be visiting grandparents in up-state New York, so CJ and I are trying to figure out when a good time to get up there and see them would be. Working retail, we probably won't be there Christmas day.
Oh, and as a Border's employee now (even though I technically work for Seattle's Best, I am a Border's employee), I get to peruse all the advanced copy books and take them home for free. I just finished one that I really liked. It's called "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes". It was about an America woman who was living in London doing a Masters program. She met a frenchman who lived in Paris and they eventually married. It talked about her transition from American woman to ex-pat and all the trials and tribulations of living in a different society. It also talks a lot about food and how that was a major part of her learning to accept her new life. At the end of each chapter are fabulous recipes. I'm a fan. The book is by Elizabeth Bard and it comes out in February.
