Heir Poll and Other Nonsense
I think every time I post an Heir Poll, my readership jumps. XD I think that's awesome. I ♥ you guys.
Anyway, I'm bothering you because this is literally a photo finish of an Heir Poll. I don't know who's going to win between one time of day and the next, so if you haven't voted, get to it. I've decided to close the poll at an exact time tomorrow ( Read more... )
Anyway, I'm bothering you because this is literally a photo finish of an Heir Poll. I don't know who's going to win between one time of day and the next, so if you haven't voted, get to it. I've decided to close the poll at an exact time tomorrow ( Read more... )
My boyfriend's dying to go to Italy, Rome especially. So am I, to be honest. We were talking about aiming for summer 2012 as well, actually! I don't know if it'll happen, but you let me know allllll about it, mmkay? :D I have no idea where I'd like to go in South America - one of my friend's has been to every South American country except one (can't remember which), and her pictures have just filled me with longing. With your suggestion, I'll say Argentina sounds like a fabulous place to start!
Oh man, there were these two guys I once served, probably in their early thirties, both married, and at least one with kids because they were talking about how they had a fucking "Finding Nemo" DVD in the van, that were just . . . UGH. Like, I think they would've been decent guys if they weren't so drunk, but they were just coming across desperate and it was really disquieting precisely because they weren't the stereotypical skeevy type. I did make absolutely bank off of them though, and they were never creepy, but it just rubs me the wrong way. I do like your ~subtle tactics though! ;)
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What a coincidence! Though we're aiming for winter since I rarely leave the area in the summer. It's the best time of year to explore this climate, don't you think? XD I can't really decide what part of Italy I'm most excited about, though to be honest I'm just as excited about the food as the cities. In regards to your friend, I hope is Columbia she hasn't been too, but I heard some bad things from other women who traveled there alone. =/ But in any case - Argentina remains my fast favorite, and Uruguay is just an hour boat ride away from Buenos Aires, a must in the summer. ♥
I know what you mean. Sometimes something just feels wrong about those kinds of situations. :( I would probably get the same feeling, especially because they were dads and acting that way. Hopefully the tip was partial guilt. XD And also because I imagine you're an awesome server. I was never the smiley-type server, but I was told I was efficient and down-to-earth, and I guess some regulars liked that. And the ones that didn't were also the ones that didn't pick up on, or blatantly ignored, my "tactics". ;)
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Anyway, I think I have the soundtrack version and the film version. Maybe an instrumental too? idk, I feel like I have an instrumental somewhere, but I don't listen to it then. Which do you have?
Our summers have been rather rainy as of late, so it wouldn't be horrible to leave during the summer. However, rain > freezing cold, so perhaps you have the right of it. ;) I really want to go to Florence, myself, though Rome is definitely a must for me too. I don't want to think about it too much, because it's more just an idea right now as opposed to something concrete and I don't want to get my hopes up!
As for my friend, I honestly don't remember where she hadn't been, but she didn't do all the traveling alone. Some trips she'd go with another person or a group, so if she did go to Columbia, perhaps it was on one of those trips? Either way, she's had nothing bad to say about the continent as a whole! And you are encouraging bad things for my budget, jsyk! :p ♥
Honestly, I don't think the tip was partial guilt at all. Though when they were leaving, one of them said, "Wow, did you girls ever work us," so at least they were aware, haha! I'm definitely the smiley sort, but not the flirty sort, though I work with some girls who definitely fit that bill. I've found that in tables that aren't just guys out to drink, efficiency is definitely appreciated, so I can definitely see why you'd have some regulars with that!
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I have the film version, the soundtrack version, and the weird remix from the movie extras. I remember when I first got the soundtrack how annoyed I was that the soundtrack version wasn't the same as the film. :P The emotional impact of the film version makes it my favorite.
I know how you feel about the rain. :( It rains a lot here too. Must be the latitude. But the freezing cold is why I'd rather go somewhere to summer in the winter. :D I very, very much want to see Rome as well, and could probably spend the whole trip there, but I also want to see Vienna. And Florence as well, if expenses last. ;) You are of sterner stuff that I, I can't stop dreaming about a trip once I get it in my head. Look at it this way - organizing out the details will make it more and more real!
That's a relief then, but it's always a good idea not to travel alone. After watching Wanted I can't help but think I lucked out as a teenager traveling alone. Stupid Hollywood, warping my mind. And I have no guilt over gushing about traveling! ;D ENCOURAGE ENCOURAGE ENCOURAGE!
I worked with flirty girls too, and I think that's just how some people roll. And when it came to guys just out to drink, even if I wasn't overly smiley or flirty, I can rely on my sense of humor to make a group of drunk people laugh, and laughing makes for a surprisingly good tip.
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I will have to look up this weird remix version. God knows I can never have too many versions of that piece of perfection! I know what you mean about the movie version, that's my favourite too. It just seems so much more . . . epic. The soundtrack version is very pretty, but without the ending, it doesn't have quite the same OOMPH.
I do love rain, but at the same time, I'd like to be able to enjoy the outdoors during the months that I can. We were talking about doing a Contiki tour this winter, I don't know where to but someplace HOT. It's hard for us to get away because we're both the type to feel guilty about spending money plus now that we have three dogs, it could potentially make things a bit tough. So I don't want to get my hopes up for going somewhere and then be unable to do so. In the meantime, I think I will live vicariously through your trip-planning! :p
Yeah, Hollywood does have a way of making everything seem scarier than it actually is, hey? I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case, as it puts you on the lookout, but still. Ha, I like your encouragement! Now if only I could actually act upon it . . .
Oh yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I don't think I'm being arrogant to say that I know my stuff pretty well and I generally enjoy working, so those two factors usually come across all right. It's going to be hard to ever give up serving, just for the short hours and amount of money. :\
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I love the rain because we live in the taiga and without it there'd be too many fires. Depending on where you live in Canada, you probably know exactly what I mean. XD Whenever there's a hot, dry summer it's always smokey by August and I'm desperate for rain. Hot weather is definitely the best in the tropics, but I don't know if Contiki does tropical tours. (???) It's a great company though.
Yeah, you have to think of those puppies. ♥ I guess the only word of comfort I can give the two of you about feeling guilty is traveling will give your relationship a lot of enriching memories. You'll talk about them forever. ♥ In the meantime (for you vicarious living) once we get the photos developed, I'll probably be blogging about our recent long weekend in Homer. And we're planning a NYC stint for this fall.So there's plenty of vicarious living to be done there.
My brothers are both pretty much addicted to serving because of the hours and money. So I understand completely how that goes. I loved the money, but couldn't stand much else about it for long periods of time. =/ I guess one can be really good at something, even if they hate doing it.
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I live in the prairies but we don't have many fires in my area, we're more concerned with flooding as of late. Up north in the prairie provinces, there's definitely more fires, so I'm not unfamiliar with them, but I don't have to worry much about them here, luckily. I do spend some time in the Okanagan Valley in BC and forest fires are very, very common there in the summer; it's scary. I can't imagine having to be afraid about that around your home, so I hope you do get all the rain you wish for!
I know Contiki does tours to South America and Europe amongst other places, so that's good enough for me! XD
Honestly, I think memories outweigh money every time, but it's always hard to see that money disappear. ;) Oh well, I'll deal with it when it comes and just live vicariously through you until that time, which sounds like a flaw-free plan to me! XD OH AND I WILL ALSO BE IN NYC THIS FALL!
There are times when I went to give it up, but then I remember how much money I can make in just a few hours of work so I just cut down my shifts instead. That does make it hard to outright quit, but oh well!
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Thanks dear. ♥ I'm always reminding people why we need the rain. I love hot, sunny days as much as anyone, but I definitely do not like smokey summers. Luckily I live in the city, and fires don't often reach the outskirts, but I do know people that moved here because they lost their home to one of the bigger fires outside the city limits, and it is scary. I'm glad you don't live around that climate. :)
I like the idea Contiki tours, but I'm starting to feel too old for them. IDK, that's probably silly.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO NYC?! I'm going for the Within Temptation concert.
It's tiring work. I don't think I could keep the pace now if I wanted to, but I remember thinking all the time how exhausted I felt sometimes, especially if it was summer and I had to pull longer shifts because of the tourists. I don't know if that's how you feel, I'm just trying to relate.
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No, I can't imagine smoky summers to be much fun. :\ C'MON RAIN! I'll mentally send some of our recent thunderstorms your way, deal?
I've never done a Contiki tour myself but I see what you mean. Whenever you get a bunch of people of a certain age together, it's all about the partying and I don't imagine it'd be any different whilst traveling. I just want a tour where everything is planned ahead of time by someone else, is that so much to ask for? Heh.
I'm going . . . um, November 5-10 or something around there. OVER MY BIRTHDAY, THAT'S ALL I KNOW! *dances* When are you going?
Haha, I appreciate your trying to relate! ♥ Yeah, it can totally be tiring because you are on your feet for however many hours plus a lot of us are coming from day jobs so ugh. Luckily summer is our slow time, so I have some time to relax before building up my serving stamina for the winter, lol.
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Having planned tours are the only way to go in foreign countries. =/ It's not that I'm against doing your own thing, but we tried that once, and you end up feeling like you're wasting time trying to get to what you want to do instead of actually doing anything. And I love dancing, but otherwise am not much of a drinker, so I don't always fit in with the partying crowd, depending on what's going on. :P
We're going sometime over the September 9th-11th weekend for my husband's birthday. Looks like we'll miss each other, woe. That would have been pretty funny!
It's interesting that summer is your slow time! Summer is our busy time here. All those cruise ships. :P
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No, I completely understand that; we've done the same thing ourselves. If we don't bite the bullet and do something like Contiki, we're going to have to sit down and plan out every little detail ahead of time because if you go that far and spend that much money, you don't want to be sitting around debating what you're going to do. Boo to that.
Too bad, I bet we could've had some fun! But hey, this way I can take advantage of your knowledge of things to do. :p
Well, in the winter we have Christmas parties starting in November and idk, I guess people think of steak as a comfort food when it's cold? But yes, winter is definitely our busy time. Though I have a weird idea of "busy" after working at this popular of a place - we fill up almost every night but if there's not a line-up of thirty people to get into the lounge, I'm just like "Whatever." That's a slight exaggeration, but not by much!
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That's exactly it. Tours are definitely the way to go. I've tried to explain that to some stubborn people who think tours would just interfere with what they want to do, but it wastes too much time trying to figure that out yourself. Let someone else do the dirty work! Usually tours have a lot of free time anyway, it's not like they'll be monitoring every single minute you're there. :P
That is too bad. Maybe next time? I'll give you the pointers I have and let you know where we ate and stuff. I'm really interested in the Big Onion walking tours.
Steak as a comfort food, what madness is this?? >.> Actually, I can see how that works. For me, it's mostly cheese and chocolate when it gets cold. I can't believe how busy you guys get! Do you get a pretty good tip average? One place I worked, I made a good 18-20% average, but the touristy place I worked was awful, only 8%. :P
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Exactly! Why not make the most of the time you're there? I don't know if I'd go with Contiki for sure, but I'd definitely be looking into different tour packages and if I wanted a day just to relax or do something I just discovered while I was there, I'd leave myself one free day. Ta-da, best of both worlds!
That sounds good to me! Do you know what, if any, plays you're going to see yet? Apparently we may do a play every night; I'm really interested in War Horse and my Broadway-buff of a friend recommended Anything Goes as kind of a more quintessential Broadway musical. She also highly recommended The Book of Mormon, which I'm dying to see but I don't know that my aunts would be quite the target audience. Either way, I need to get booking things asap!
Yeah, it's not really my comfort food, but I can see how during the cold weather, people may want the steak and potatoes thing and our atmosphere is pretty warm so I can see it. Apparently we are one of the busiest franchise locations in the country - I believe it! We do have some rough patches, tip-wise, but overall, I think we all make pretty good money. We tip out 3% of sales, and I think most people walk with around 15% on average. I've heard that Canadian tips are generally lower than American, 15% as compared to 20%, but I think it's evening out more nowadays. We also tend to get rather high ring-outs, being both busy and modestly expensive, so it's definitely good money.
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Most tour packages give you free evenings anyway, so there's always extra things to do. On our New Zealand tour, which was run by a couple, the lady in charge always made a point to give Eric and I "date like" suggestions for our evenings. We also had a free day in Wellington, which came in handy. :D I love that city, I want to live there.
A show every night?? Wow, that's pretty intense! We're going to go see two musicals, Wicked and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. We're also going to a Within Temptation concert and I wanted to spend an evening at the KGB Bar, so that takes up four out of five evenings and leaves one so we can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at night. If you want to see The Book of Mormon, I recommend booking now since it's selling so quickly!
It's not really mine either, but my husband loves potatoes during the cold snap so I can see how your joint would be jumping that time of year. What franchise are you in? That surprises me that American tips are higher. I really think that must be a regional thing - tips around here at the locally owned restaurants are pretty high, but when I'm visiting relatives, I have to sneak more money on the table if we go out to eat to make 15%. :P
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My friend was in New York for two weeks and went to fifteen Broadway shows. O_o Now that is crazy. Of course, I was more impressed by the fact that she met Lee Pace three times. And by impressed I mean jealous. Naturally. But yes, as much as I'd like to see The Book of Mormon, I'll be there with two of my aunts and my mom and I know that sort of show would not be enjoyable for one of my aunt's so it's out. Oh well.
I think the former difference in exchange rates has a lot to do with the disparity between American and Canadian tipping averages. Of course, I'm only really familiar with Canadian tips so this could be all lies. The Americans we get are usually hunters and they always tip well, but I see a lot of Canadians tipping far above 15% as well so I'm not sure how true that is anymore. Oh, and I'm at The Keg, which is a Canadian franchise. It's pretty great, if I do say so myself.
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Wow. XD There's just too many other things I want to do to go that hardcore over the shows, but I am in awe of her dedication. That's cool she got to meet Lee Pace. Did she ask for an autograph? I'm starting to feel weird about asking celebrities for autographs since I've seen a few around town. :( I hear in NYC it's not a taboo, but some sort of unspoken courtesy to leave celebs be. Anyway, I'm sure you guys will find something you can all enjoy.
Wow, that place looks cozy! I love real-burning fireplaces in restaurants. Next time I'm visiting my mother, I'll tell her we should go.
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