From highs to lows
This past weekend was amazing. I drove down to Rohnert Park (a city near Santa Rosa) to my friend Spiro's house, and stayed at his place so we could go dancing in San Francisco all weekend. :) On Thursday I went swing dancing, then on Friday I went to a miracle fruit tasting party and then Friday Night Blues... both were amazing! Miracle fruit totally works, and it's REALLY cool. On Saturday I got to see my friend Trish who moved from Paso to Rohnert Park, and I got to meet her boyfriend and we all had dinner together that she cooked (was delicious). :D After that Spiro and I went to a blues house party for his friend Mosa's birthday, which was probably the best part of the weekend - LOTS of amazing dancing! We stayed till about 3:30 AM, so I got hardly any sleep that night, cos then I got up on Sunday morning at about 9:30 for Lindy in the Park! It felt like my own mini lindy exchange. :) The great thing about it, though, was that I was the only one from out of town, so I didn't have a bunch of other fresh faces to compete with! I got to be in the middle of two jams (these are held for birthday people and out-of-towners), which were both fantastic. Then, to finish my weekend off, I came back to Sacramento yesterday in the early evening and made it in time for blues at the Firehouse. We even went out for tapas afterwards. Good times! :)
Here are photos from the weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61726&l=1ce3d&id=507990967
And here are two videos, each of the jams I was in: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30523692713 - at the 9:20 on Thursday
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30816177713 - at Lindy in the Park on Sunday
In sad news, I lost my job this morning. I was very tired (only got about five hours of sleep last night) so I was making quite a few errors and going more slowly this morning than usual. Haley, my manager, expressed a couple of concerns to me about the errors I was making, but said she and the owner would meet with me at the end of the week and let me know how I'm doing (as in, she was going to give me the rest of the week to see how I do). However, at one point Haley had gone somewhere (she wasn't in the drive-thru building) and I was in there alone, and I was looking for things I could do. I saw that the coffee was done brewing, so I looked in the canister to make sure it had filled it up all the way (she always told me to make sure it was full). It wasn't full (and I can tell the difference between full and not full), so I stuck it back under and pressed the "brew" button again. By the time Haley came back into the building, coffee had just started overflowing everywhere, and there was no way to turn the brewer off. She cleaned it up, but was obviously unhappy about the mistake I had made, and I was highly mortified. I apologised and told her what had happened, and she insisted that the canister had been full, saying she had filled it up. This doesn't make sense, because if she had checked that it was full, she would have taken it out from under the brewer and put it on the counter... it wouldn't have still been sitting there. So, this part pisses me off a bit. Still, this was the last straw, I suppose, and just after she finished cleaning it up she told me it wasn't going to work out, and it just wasn't the right fit. I started tearing up involuntarily, embarrassing myself further, and told her I understand and that I had been half expecting it. Although I feel that today was by far my worst performance and I was having an extremely off day, I do feel a little relieved, because it was a rather fast-paced and stressful job, one that I'm not going to miss a whole lot. I was enjoying learning the drinks and having more and more success with making them correctly (and learning more and more of them), but apparently my work just wasn't enough. It's okay, though. It's good to know what I am good at and what I'm not good at... and I'm just not good at things such as having to memorise recipes for coffee drinks and make them perfectly in every detail, in super-fast motion. Being a barista is hard work... I definitely have a whole new respect for that job.
Now I have the opportunity to find a better job for myself. I have decided that if I don't find something I like within a month from now, I think I will go back to Target. I do want a job, and while I don't desperately need one, it would be good to have a bit of financial cushioning for things I need as well as extras I pay for here and there - such as dance events.
My day did get somewhat better after work, though. I had modern dance, which went pretty well, and my class after that was cancelled, so I had a bunch of time in between dance and world lit during which to read, get on facebook, and to donate blood. I saved a life today! :D
There's not much else to report. I have a few fun things coming up, though... my friend Shawn (a swing dancer from SoCal) is coming to visit the weekend of November 21st, and the weekend before that, I am going to my cousin Rey's wedding in Lancaster. November should be fun. :D I just keep wishing I knew when I'd be able to visit Aaron again. Things are going really well between us again (we even had our first anniversary the other day), but his financial situation is still very stressful, and he continues to have to work overtime, so that if I were to visit him right now it would be kind of pointless - I'd barely see him, and when I would, he'd probably be wanting to just sit and do nothing and relax... Not that I'd totally mind, but I do like us having quality time together, and we wouldn't get much of that right now. *sigh* I do miss him a lot... haven't seen him since July.
I think that's all for this one. Been trying to catch up on your entries... I hope you're all doing well!
Here are photos from the weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61726&l=1ce3d&id=507990967
And here are two videos, each of the jams I was in: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30523692713 - at the 9:20 on Thursday
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=30816177713 - at Lindy in the Park on Sunday
In sad news, I lost my job this morning. I was very tired (only got about five hours of sleep last night) so I was making quite a few errors and going more slowly this morning than usual. Haley, my manager, expressed a couple of concerns to me about the errors I was making, but said she and the owner would meet with me at the end of the week and let me know how I'm doing (as in, she was going to give me the rest of the week to see how I do). However, at one point Haley had gone somewhere (she wasn't in the drive-thru building) and I was in there alone, and I was looking for things I could do. I saw that the coffee was done brewing, so I looked in the canister to make sure it had filled it up all the way (she always told me to make sure it was full). It wasn't full (and I can tell the difference between full and not full), so I stuck it back under and pressed the "brew" button again. By the time Haley came back into the building, coffee had just started overflowing everywhere, and there was no way to turn the brewer off. She cleaned it up, but was obviously unhappy about the mistake I had made, and I was highly mortified. I apologised and told her what had happened, and she insisted that the canister had been full, saying she had filled it up. This doesn't make sense, because if she had checked that it was full, she would have taken it out from under the brewer and put it on the counter... it wouldn't have still been sitting there. So, this part pisses me off a bit. Still, this was the last straw, I suppose, and just after she finished cleaning it up she told me it wasn't going to work out, and it just wasn't the right fit. I started tearing up involuntarily, embarrassing myself further, and told her I understand and that I had been half expecting it. Although I feel that today was by far my worst performance and I was having an extremely off day, I do feel a little relieved, because it was a rather fast-paced and stressful job, one that I'm not going to miss a whole lot. I was enjoying learning the drinks and having more and more success with making them correctly (and learning more and more of them), but apparently my work just wasn't enough. It's okay, though. It's good to know what I am good at and what I'm not good at... and I'm just not good at things such as having to memorise recipes for coffee drinks and make them perfectly in every detail, in super-fast motion. Being a barista is hard work... I definitely have a whole new respect for that job.
Now I have the opportunity to find a better job for myself. I have decided that if I don't find something I like within a month from now, I think I will go back to Target. I do want a job, and while I don't desperately need one, it would be good to have a bit of financial cushioning for things I need as well as extras I pay for here and there - such as dance events.
My day did get somewhat better after work, though. I had modern dance, which went pretty well, and my class after that was cancelled, so I had a bunch of time in between dance and world lit during which to read, get on facebook, and to donate blood. I saved a life today! :D
There's not much else to report. I have a few fun things coming up, though... my friend Shawn (a swing dancer from SoCal) is coming to visit the weekend of November 21st, and the weekend before that, I am going to my cousin Rey's wedding in Lancaster. November should be fun. :D I just keep wishing I knew when I'd be able to visit Aaron again. Things are going really well between us again (we even had our first anniversary the other day), but his financial situation is still very stressful, and he continues to have to work overtime, so that if I were to visit him right now it would be kind of pointless - I'd barely see him, and when I would, he'd probably be wanting to just sit and do nothing and relax... Not that I'd totally mind, but I do like us having quality time together, and we wouldn't get much of that right now. *sigh* I do miss him a lot... haven't seen him since July.
I think that's all for this one. Been trying to catch up on your entries... I hope you're all doing well!