Waiting around

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Laguna Beach, Espanol, Zoolander

I have finally started doing things. Last night was my first night at Topeka's Steakhouse. I was essentially just thrown in to see how I could handle it. My manager made me aware of the numbering scheme, and then dropped me off at the host stand, and said "Have Fun". So after a little apprehension (I have never hosted before) I caught the swing of it, and started seating people. It was a little weird as the other 2 hostesses were 15 and 17, and at one point I found myself talking about Monday night's episode of Laguna Beach with the 15 year old, while filling in the 17 year old on the most recent happenings between Jason, Jessica and Alex. I then laughed at myself because I thought about Ian, Mike and I watching Laguna (we are 22, 24, and 23) and then I was talking about it with someone who is a sophomore in high school.

The night was pretty easy. They kept saying how it wasn't that busy, but the amount of people they had was about as busy as it got on Friday nights when I worked at Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant. So it seems like I will be making some more money than the summer at Chi Chi's. Which is good.

I also went in this morning for my "interview" at CrossOver Clinic. Again, the quotes are there because it was a formality as she asked what is the most that I could work because they need all the help they can get. It seems like a pretty incredible place, giving healthcare to the uninsured. I am in the middle of Mountains Beyond Mountains and I can't help but think about Paul Farmer on the central plateau of Haiti helping not only the uninsured, but the people who maybe have never seen a doctor before. I know the central plateau of Haiti and inner-city Richmond are 2 COMPLETELY different places, but I felt the parallels that can be drawn are intruiging.

I start work there on Monday at 8 in the morning. I will be there Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings from 8-12:30. I am really excited about this, and I know it will be hard at times, but I feel like this experience is really going to do something to me. One thing I am a little iffy about is that Wednesday is OB day. This is one field I really don't want to enter. So that will be... exciting.

Also, as a benefit (I guess you can call it that) the clinic is teaching a spanish class, which sort of started last week, but doesn't really start until this week. So I get to learn spanish as well. I am excited about that as well, because that is something that I have wanted to pick up.

I'm also trying to come up with a way to end my posts. Some sort of saying that kinda signs me off... Like Walter Cronkite - "And that's the way it is". Ian might shoot me for the Walter Cronkite reference as when we were at Rachels the other night, we played Cranium, and I couldn't guess Walter Cronkite after the reference to Zoolander ("You think you're too cool for school, but newsflash _____________... you aren't"). And to think, I actually won the walk-off when we went to Camp Varsity with UVa my senior year. Curses. I think I need to go hang my head in shame.

Alright, well I guess I should eat some lunch. My eating schedule is really being thrown by working through dinner. I guess I will work something out.

-wait

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Employed?!?

Well as the title of my post indicates, this guy (pointing 2 thumbs towards myself) is employed. Where you ask? Well it is a place called Topeka's Steakhouse 'n Saloon. I did a quick google search of Topeka's, and found that in Richmond, it is ranked below Ruth Chris, and Buckheads (understandably) yet above Outback Steakhouse. I am currently in the process of memorizing the menu (I almost have the appetizers down, I think). I start my training on Tuesday night and by the end of next week, I will be a full fledged server. Then I think you all need to come to Topeka's and have me as a server, and then tip me really well :) The best part about it (except for Grippaldi) is that you can have a bucket of peanuts at your table and just throw the shells on the ground (very similar to 5 Guys Pizza). Note: Wow. I feel very dumb. I must have been really tired when typing this because I know that 5 Guys is definetely burgers and fries, and defintely no pizza. So thank you to that person "Anonymous" who corrected the error of my ways, and many apologies.

I have also lined up a couple of other opportunities in the healthcare field (which is what I really need). On Wednesday I "interview" for a volunteer position at the CrossOver Clinic in Richmond. I should start there by the beginning of the next week (they probably have a few tests they need to do on me, ie: TB). And finally, after having an incredible meal with Kim McKnight last Tuesday night, and found out that she is working at a Hospice as the Volunteer Coordinator. So she is going to give me an "interview" (even looser than the one at CrossOver) and condense an 8 hour orientation into 4 hours and I should be starting that at the end of next week.

So basically, I am starting to get busy. I don't plan on getting excruciatingly busy, because I do want to have some fun this year. If I could truly have it the way I wanted, I would work at CrossOver for a little while, and eventually they will find a job opening for me, and I can get paid doing that job for more normal hours, and drop a few shifts at Topeka's.

Hopefully I will be busy enough to not feel like a loaf sitting around the house watching TV all day, yet not so busy that I never see my roommates or the inside of my house. (I plan on only working about 6 shifts at Topeka's -- 4 dinners and 2 lunches, so it can't be THAT bad, right?)

On the medical school front: No news. I am complete at all of my schools. I believe that Tulane is now not requiring a secondary, so that makes me complete at all of my schools. I want to call them and check for sure about the secondary, but they moved from New Orleans to, believe it or not, Houston. They actually opened the phone lines on Monday for applicants to call, but then closed them on Wednesday so that they could evacuate. I feel pretty horrible for them, however they definetely seem as upbeat as possible, all things considered.

In other news, I have been having a blast in Richmond. Tonight I went over to Rachel Burgess's house, and played Cranium with Ian, Rachel and Kristen, followed by watching Sahara. Rachel has mono, Ian is sick, I might be coming down with what Ian has, so a low key night was definetely in order.

Otherwise, I haven't been doing much, and it feels so great. Lots of people have told me to really enjoy this time, and I truly have been. It has been great to just wake up when I feel like, and not do much throughout the day. I have been starting to read more, restarting Mountains Beyond Mountains since school took over last year. I also have grand intentions to read Brave New World, HealthCare Meltdown: Confronting the Myths and fixing our failing system, Harry Potter 2-6, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Bourne Trilogy, and the Chronicles of Narnia. That's a lot to read, I realize, but just like this summer where I felt it necessary to catch up on some movies, I am feeling it necessary to catch up on some books.

Nick Huck comes to Richmond tomorrow, and I havent seen him since the big snow storm in January. It will be good to see him. These are the things that have been keeping me busy enough to not feel complete boredom, yet still comfortably relaxed.

That's about all I got to say for now. I realize I haven't been updating too frequently, but that's cause I haven't been doing that much. Eventually I will be busy enough to have more to post and talk about.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Up and Running

The title just reminded me of a slogan that I saw on a truck as I was driving along interstate 95 one time this summer (it's been a few times now). The slogan said "We need to get up, before we get off." The immature side of me laughed nearly uncontrollably and I almost hit the jersey barrier. Then rational side of me kicked in, and I tried to put together what their slogan truly meant. I just tried a google search of that slogan, partially in fear of what may show up, but alas, no topics came up. And I really cannot think of what the slogan could truly stand for. I don't even remember the company to which the truck belonged.

Aside from that aside, we finally have the internet up and running here at 4702 Radford, of course not without its headaches. After having spent 45 minutes on hold with the phone company yesterday, and then performing the work that the technician should do, I got our telephone service hooked up, which was shortly followed by DSL. I then attempted to hook up the wireless router (a Linksys router which are generally very good) and spent 3 hours fiddling with that, while talking to Dave V. online so he could maybe guide me through it. After 3 hours I gave up.

Today though, I switched from my linksys router to a netgear router and everything works, sort of. I tried to set up a password for it, but when I do that, it makes the internet connection really choppy, and sends my computer through a pretty serious cycle of restarting over and over and over... So it's just an open network. If any of you techies have any ideas for me on that, I'd appreciate it. The error I get says its a Graphic Device Driver problem, which doesn't make too much sense to me because I feel a graphic driver wouldn't have much to do with the internet.

But who am I to discuss computer matters? I am trying to get into medical school. Which serves as a nice segway (I think I had a nice segway last post too, I'm getting good at this.) as I have finally pushed off all secondary applications. To my knowledge, 10 schools are absolutley complete, 6 should be complete, and 1 was mailed today. That of course leaves Tulane, which I have heard no news on.

I am gonna truly start the job search when I get back from Baltimore this weekend, ie: I will start waiting tables soon. As much fun as it has been sitting around watching TV, waiting for the telephone guy to come, I am just starting to get bored, and I feel like a complete waste of space. People say I need to enjoy that time, and I do, but I also feel the need to be doing something. Call me masochistic or something. Oh yeah, and I need to start making money.

I have another cool story about how some lady tried to rope Ian and I into a pyramid scam. But I don't feel like talking about that now.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Untitled (too many random thoughts)

Oh, right. My blog.

Well it has been approximately 3 weeks since I updated my blog, and I actually do have a pretty good excuse. It is that for the past 2 weeks, I haven't had the internet long enough to post a new entry. I moved to Richmond about 2 weeks ago, and my internet time has been solely devoted to checking my email and working on secondary applications, of which I have now officially completed, with 2 minor exceptions:

1. Boston University -- I received that yesterday (Friday) afternoon, I completed it today, and need to just throw it in the mail on Monday.

2. Tulane University -- Being the "smart" person I am, I sent my secondary application off to Tulane at the first chance I could following the re-processesing of my AMCAS (which occured on Friday, August 26th). It dawned on me about Monday that Hurricane Katrina might have an impact on this application, and on this past Thursday (September 8) I asked the USPS what they thought the status of my application. The nice lady said that it is probably swimming in the Gulf of Mexico right now. So, that application remains in limbo. Obviously I will resend, I just need to figure out if/when/where etc.

Of course, my lowly application to Tulane University is the least of concerns, considering the devastation seen in New Orleans. It is freaking unbelievable some of the pictures I have seen, and I can only hope and pray that something good will come out of this situation, though it is hard to see that now.

So I decided to go ahead and apply to go to the Gulf Coast region to volunteer. If accepted, I would be "deployed" for 2-4 weeks and I have no idea what I would be doing. I just thought I'd throw that out there.

I also realized today that tomorrow is 9/11 (/05). It is REALLY hard to believe that 4 years have passed since that all too memorable day. It's amazing how long ago that seems, yet it still feels like yesterday that I was sitting up on the second floor of Thomas watching TV awaiting word.

Which makes me think that tomorrow before the beginning of the U.S. Open Men's final they are going to do some elaborate ceremony in memory of the fallen.

That serves a nice segway into the idea that I have watched a lot of tennis lately. We got DirecTV set up on Tuesday, and I have watched Tennis everyday since then. I am not sure what I going to do on Monday without it. The Agassi-Blake match was phenomenal... Ian and I stayed up til 1:15 to watch it (Mike wussed out and went to sleep).

So I head back to Richmond tomorrow... hopefully I will be back in time to catch the Ravens/Colts on ESPN. I am also going to start looking for jobs this week. I believe that I will be setting up an interview to volunteer at the Crossover Clinic in downtown Richmond on Monday, so hopefully I won't waste the entire day away. And then I will probably be entering some restaurant asking if they are hiring so that I can make a little bit of money throughout the year.

Hopefully the internet will be up and running at our house tomorrow as well. That is assuming that the telephone guy came on friday afternoon, and the DSL modem arrived Friday as well. I think that is hoping for too much. So hopefully Monday. (at least that's what I am banking on).

I will be back in Baltimore next weekend for the wedding of Laura Peace. This should be one heck of a wedding. It's pretty wierd cause I definetely grew up with her and her 3 brothers (we were friends from the waaaaaaaaay beginning... like still in diapers together... I mean we're not in diapers now, but we've been friends since we were in diapers... you get the idea). So she's getting hitched to a guy that is like 6'4, and she is something like 6'1, so they are gonna have some ridiculously sized kids. Hard to even imagine.

Well that's all I feel like saying now. It's a bunch of randomness thrown together. Til next time.

-waiter