Nothing like a day of napping and being useless to, er, well...
While I can't say now that I regret what I wrote earlier, because, well, I still feel that way, I can at least say that taking something of a "day off" from the world today has been helpful. I spent most of the day snuggling with the cat, waking up occasionally for a smoothie, or to deal with various phone calls. It's kind of like recovering from a surgery, I suppose. Except this is the kind of internal pain that may never really heal. Kind of like what would happen if one swallowed a lawnmower.
I think that it is better to be feeling something, than not to be feeling anything at all. I mean, it can't be a good sign if you can swallow an entire lawnmower and not feel anything, eh? (Like how my writing is turning all Canadian, eh?)
My thrilling plans for this evening include cleaning up a bit around the apartment, maybe taking a bath, and perhaps mucking around on the computer a bit. There is a lot of stuff I would like to get done, but I am going to have trouble remaining motivated, I think.
In other news, I don't think that I said much about my new job yet, but now, I am cleverly working not one, not two, but three jobs. I'm not really sure if I'll end up holding on to them all during the long run, but the Eton House people seem pretty happy to try to work around my schedule, and the MacDonald-Cole stuff is pretty happy-go-lucky as well, so it may all kind of work out. I suppose it can't be all bad to just throw myself into work right now. It never hurts to make money, and it keeps me from all the sitting around and stewing that I've been up to lately. As hobbies go, sitting around and stewing is crap. I was thinking the other day, that for the last few months I'd been feeling a lot like how I felt when I was living all alone in the cabin in the woods in North Carolina. It'd kind of silly to feel that isolated when you're living on a street corner next to a subway station, several 24 hour grocery stores, restaurants, pubs, theaters, and such. I kind of wonder if part of what's got me so down lately isn't the fact that things are looking up for everyone, myself included, and still I'm all grumpery.
I have some ideas forming in my head about what to do. I'm thinking maybe I can embark on some wacky self-improvement goals. Maybe quit smoking, try to learn some new skills, start in on some reading I've been wanting to do, etc.
It's going to be a long winter.
Oh yeah, back to the new job. So I am now operating as a service bartender at Baton Rouge down on Yonge Street. It's strange to work there, as so far, it is the most mellow restaurant environment I have ever worked in. So far, I think that the place is pretty well run. Sure, it's still a restaurant, but all in all, things are actually kept quite clean, the staff are pretty un-melodramatic, the management doesn't seem to be outrageously unreasonable, and everyone just kind of does their job and goes home. It's kind of boring, to be honest, but not bad at all. I'm happy, because I get to be mixing drinks again, which, for whatever reason, just does it for me lately. It's a separate bar entirely from the main bar, just for service drinks, so it is a lot like working in a line kitchen. We just make drinks and do it as fast as we can. We don't have to wash our own glassware, track cash flow, or anything else. It's pretty simple, but it's really not all that bad. Also, this kind of thing is pretty good practice for any kind of high-volume environment, and it keeps me bartending, which makes me happy. The annoyances, well:
1. Uniform uniform uniform! The shirt is white. We can't roll up the sleeves. We have to wear a tie. We are next to a wood-burning grill. The apron, also white. This is the worst color you could ever make a bartender wear.
2. I kind of miss the dealing with customers aspect of things that you would get in a normal bar.
3. Only one quick 15 minute break is allowed through the shift, and so you have to choose between scarfing down free soup or trying to hide your uniform and running for a quick smoke. Probably this isn't all bad, as I should probably work on cutting out the smoking anyway.
But really, these things aren't so bad in the grand scheme of it all. Sure, my dry-cleaning habits have gone through the roof, but it could be much worse.
Ruth left to go back to Erie this morning. It was a bit hectic, because after the chaos of last night, neither of us remembered to set the alarm, so she missed the first bus out of town. It was really good to have her here this weekend. We didn't get up to too much insanity, and I hope it wasn't too gloomy, but I really was needing to see that girl. Can't believe she is moving to Pittsburgh though. (She is going to kill me now.)
I think that it is better to be feeling something, than not to be feeling anything at all. I mean, it can't be a good sign if you can swallow an entire lawnmower and not feel anything, eh? (Like how my writing is turning all Canadian, eh?)
My thrilling plans for this evening include cleaning up a bit around the apartment, maybe taking a bath, and perhaps mucking around on the computer a bit. There is a lot of stuff I would like to get done, but I am going to have trouble remaining motivated, I think.
In other news, I don't think that I said much about my new job yet, but now, I am cleverly working not one, not two, but three jobs. I'm not really sure if I'll end up holding on to them all during the long run, but the Eton House people seem pretty happy to try to work around my schedule, and the MacDonald-Cole stuff is pretty happy-go-lucky as well, so it may all kind of work out. I suppose it can't be all bad to just throw myself into work right now. It never hurts to make money, and it keeps me from all the sitting around and stewing that I've been up to lately. As hobbies go, sitting around and stewing is crap. I was thinking the other day, that for the last few months I'd been feeling a lot like how I felt when I was living all alone in the cabin in the woods in North Carolina. It'd kind of silly to feel that isolated when you're living on a street corner next to a subway station, several 24 hour grocery stores, restaurants, pubs, theaters, and such. I kind of wonder if part of what's got me so down lately isn't the fact that things are looking up for everyone, myself included, and still I'm all grumpery.
I have some ideas forming in my head about what to do. I'm thinking maybe I can embark on some wacky self-improvement goals. Maybe quit smoking, try to learn some new skills, start in on some reading I've been wanting to do, etc.
It's going to be a long winter.
Oh yeah, back to the new job. So I am now operating as a service bartender at Baton Rouge down on Yonge Street. It's strange to work there, as so far, it is the most mellow restaurant environment I have ever worked in. So far, I think that the place is pretty well run. Sure, it's still a restaurant, but all in all, things are actually kept quite clean, the staff are pretty un-melodramatic, the management doesn't seem to be outrageously unreasonable, and everyone just kind of does their job and goes home. It's kind of boring, to be honest, but not bad at all. I'm happy, because I get to be mixing drinks again, which, for whatever reason, just does it for me lately. It's a separate bar entirely from the main bar, just for service drinks, so it is a lot like working in a line kitchen. We just make drinks and do it as fast as we can. We don't have to wash our own glassware, track cash flow, or anything else. It's pretty simple, but it's really not all that bad. Also, this kind of thing is pretty good practice for any kind of high-volume environment, and it keeps me bartending, which makes me happy. The annoyances, well:
1. Uniform uniform uniform! The shirt is white. We can't roll up the sleeves. We have to wear a tie. We are next to a wood-burning grill. The apron, also white. This is the worst color you could ever make a bartender wear.
2. I kind of miss the dealing with customers aspect of things that you would get in a normal bar.
3. Only one quick 15 minute break is allowed through the shift, and so you have to choose between scarfing down free soup or trying to hide your uniform and running for a quick smoke. Probably this isn't all bad, as I should probably work on cutting out the smoking anyway.
But really, these things aren't so bad in the grand scheme of it all. Sure, my dry-cleaning habits have gone through the roof, but it could be much worse.
Ruth left to go back to Erie this morning. It was a bit hectic, because after the chaos of last night, neither of us remembered to set the alarm, so she missed the first bus out of town. It was really good to have her here this weekend. We didn't get up to too much insanity, and I hope it wasn't too gloomy, but I really was needing to see that girl. Can't believe she is moving to Pittsburgh though. (She is going to kill me now.)