Back To The Grind
What a glorious three-day weekend I just had. Being at work today isn't even that bad, knowing that I only have four more days until this coming weekend. It will already be hump-day tomorrow, and only two more days until I get paid again.
Friday at work was loathesome--personally, I think Fridays before three-day weekends are pretty much useless. Most of the people in our industry duck out early before holidays. This allowed me to leave work around 4pm, versus 4:30pm. Not too shabby. Normally, the time would have passed even slower on Friday, but since Charlene and Sullivan took the day off, I kept busy by working in the warehouse packing up the shipments to go out.
The second I left work on Friday, I was excited. Three days of complete freedom and BBQs galore.
Friday night, Fernando and I went to Brett's house for a bring your own meat BBQ. We stopped at Albertson's on the way there and picked up the fixin's for Brats and shish-kabob. We also picked up a twelve back of Widmer Hef. Brett's house was good times: Plenty of meat on the grill, hung out with Brett and his new girlfriend, Stevie, Fernando's co-worker Phil and his girlfriend, and a few of Stevie's friends. The brats were delicious. Phil's girlfriend (I can't remember her name) made some really good corn on the cob. We spent the evening out in Brett's backyard, sipping beers, eating BBQ, playing with Brett's dogs, and just enjoying the fire pit.
Saturday during the day was a bit of a wash-- my foto-facial appointment at the American Laser Center got cancelled, so I woke up early for nothing. Still, it was good to get off my butt and be productive. My dad dragged me on a wild goose-chase all over the city that afternoon in an attempt to get the title of my car in my name so that we could refinance the car in my name, which included stops at the Lockheed Credit Union, AAA, and the Toyota dealership. Absolutely zero progress was made, but I did grab a free cup of coffee at the credit union and a free Dr. Pepper at the Toyota dealership. In the end, I just had to mail in a form to Toyota financial to change the name on the title. Since my car is financed, Toyota Financial holds on to the pink slip. So hopefully, in a few weeks, my name will be added to the title (along with my dad), so I can get to the credit union and refinance with a better interest rate.
Saturday night was another BBQ over at Brett's house. This time, we did hamburgers and hotdogs. Brett's cousin (who bears a striking resemblance to Drew Stroud in both looks and personality) was there for the festivities--home from his first year of law school at Boston University. We whiled away the evening around the fire-pit again. I had my first taste of Samual Adams Summer Ale (which is quite tasty), and even sipped on some Jim Beam and Coke. It was hard not to get into the spirit considering Brett was spinning Johnny Cash and Credence Clearwater. A bunch of Stevie's friends were there--which made Fernando and I feel really old. They're all under 21.
Sunday was family day. I was over at my parent's house all day--mostly doing laundry. When Fernando got out of work, we did a hamburger and hotdog BBQ and ate dinner as a family--even my grandma was there. Fernando and I recently "inheirited" a small green table from Oscar and Erika. We put our "inheirited" TV--the one my parents handed down to us after they got the LCD TVs--on top of it. That thing is a moster, but Fernando and I were able to lift it on our own. Now our living room looks a little more put together--as put together as a living room can look when none of the furniture matches.
Yesterday was fairly productive, considering I woke up at 1:45PM! Yes, without an alarm clock, I slept in that late. Crazy. Fernando had to work yesterday, so I had the apartment to myself. I did a thourough dusting and vacuuming of the living room, and cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom. We had Brett over for dinner last night--I made chicken tacos and tostadas. We spent several hours talking about opening a business. Brett and Fernando have been talking a lot together about starting their own appliance sales company, similar to the company they are working for now. Brett is an amazing salesman. Just listening to him talk, it makes me want to collaborate with him to write a sales how-to book. Both Brett and Fernando are working towards their degrees in Business--Brett in Business Administration, Fernando in Business Management. With their training and experience, I think that they have the stuff to open their own business.
Brett isn't even 21 years old, but he's already an assistant manager at the same company Fernando works for. He has more direction than most 20 year olds I've ever known. He has tons of money saved since he works full time and lives with his parents. Since he's been working in appliance sales for so long, he has plenty of "ins" in the business with all the major company reps. A possible location to open up would be Palmdale/Lancaster. Land is still cheap out there to open up shop, and it's a market that hasn't really been tapped. There is only one business out there, and they carry more of the low-end merch. Fernando gets a lot of business from people out there. They drive all the way to Santa Clarita because they can't find high-end names for their custom homes at that other store.
Fernando has often talked about opening his own business, but now that he's hooked up with Brett, this is the first time I really see the reality of being able to do this. I'm not sure if I'd want to take part in the business, considering the position I would hold in the company would be something akin to Office Manager or Purchasing. We'd have to hire someone to do the bookkeeping and additional salesmen. So if Fernando and I ever get into the appliance sales industry, you'll know we've been talking about it for quite some time.
That pretty much rounded out my three day weekend. Like I said before, coming into work today wasn't too bad. Knowing I only have four more days until the weekend makes me happy. And this weekend should be a good one. Plans are as follows:
The rest of June is coming together (and when I say "the rest," I'm talking about the weekends. The work week doesn't count). I'll be in San Luis Obispo the weekend of June 15 and 16 for the graduation ceremonies. Friday night is going to be a big BBQ for all the NAK and SON graduates (there are a lot this year). Saturday is the actual graduation ceremonies. The weekend of June 30th is Brett's 21st Birthday Bonanza camping trip in Ventura. We're looking forward to it, for sure!
My tutoring is going to drop down pretty low in a few weeks. I'll have a few jobs over the summer, but not too much. This will be good since my online Psych 172 class starts on June 18th. I'll have time each evening to read one chapter and answer all the questions on the online message boards. Heck, I'll probably be able to do my homework at work!
Well, it's almost noon, which means lunch is fast approaching. Time to be productive.
~LOVE~