The Weekend Grab-Bag: The Itsy-Bitsy-Kinda-Sorta Tardy Version

Welcome my kiddies to the latest installment of THE WEEKEND GRAB-BAG. Yes, I am aware that it is Monday and again, sorry for the truancy. It's been an interesting several days and you are all welcome to join me in reliving them. And, as always my faithful readers, this is not chronological. . .

- Ok, so I'm gonna begin it all tonight with the Hellhole that is JOHNNY CARINO'S. To begin, the restaurant is great, the food is really good, and I completely recommend coming in and trying it out if you haven't already. Now, that being said, I swear that the GM is only concerned with the "proper" treatment of the customer and not the employee. And I KNOW that this is how the "real world" works and all that jazz but it still sucks. So I'm gonna rant. Again. Actually, no I'm not. You see, I've been ranting pretty much every night that I come home so I'm growing tired of doing so. BUT, I will give you a brief fly-by howsabout? Ok so I worked Saturday, Sunday, and today (dang, that's three days straight - o man and I work tomorrow and Wednesday! - you can't get too much more involved in work than that). Saturday was a quick day - only 4 1/2 hours. Not bad either. . .

I'm unable to blog right now - I'm watching THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (my most recent DVD purchase - great film with a sweet ending but an extremely crude first half; if you can get past the first half (for those who are easily offended) then you will be happy at the end. Trust me on this one.) and I am muy distracted. I'll come back to this in a bit. . .

- Ok I'm back. It's 2330 and I'm ready to finish this darned thing. So then Sunday I go in at 1600 ready for a brief night, hopefully ending around 2030 or 2100. Well, apparently they just recently let go two more Table Tenders (I don't know why) and there was only one scheduled for last night. Well that was seriously not enough (it's really really not) so Tim asked me to Table Tend for the night. There were 3 total hosts, so this was a fine exchange. I said of course and went to work. It was tiring and very hard work. But, it was well worth it. I ended up staying til past closing with Agustine (the other TT) like a regular TT and closed with him. I got outta there at 2330 with not only 7 hours of work under my belt but $100 in my wallet as I got tipped out! At JC, the TTs get two percent of the total sales and we split it, giving me one percent of the JC profit for the evening. This was exciting. I want to do this every night! Well I talked it over with the padre and I went in today and was set to ask to switch over to TT, as there were obvious slots to fill. I was the opening host today and it was SO BUSY!!! About an hour after we opened and the first set of guests began to leave, I realized that we had no TT working. This was going to be a problem! When the other host came on at 1230, I offered to Charlie, the big bad GM, that I would bus (is it buss?) tables since there were two hosts and no TT. He agreed (he really needed me to, but is too arrogant to ask, I swear) and I bussed (I think that's the right spelling) all morning by myself. Sure, Charlie helped a bit and the servers did do some pre-bussing (taking some of the larger items before I get to the table) but it was really only me out there cleaning, wiping down, and setting the tables. I had asked Charlie earlier for a second to talk something over with him (the aforementioned transition) and he said later and I agreed. Well when it died down for a bit, I went looking for him and found him interviewing a younger Mexican guy. Flash back about a month or two ago: I asked to move to TT and Charlie said there were no openings but would quote COME TO ME FIRST WHEN THERE WAS AN OPENING endquote. Now we're back in the present and I'm steaming cuz his word officially means shit now cuz he hired TTs when there was an opening and didn't come to me. After I enquired about moving over, he came up with an idea that might work out, but certainly does not give him any respect in my book. Despite their hiring of 2 new TTs (that's the young Mexican guy for those slow ones out there) he said he could maybe give me a mixed schedule during the week (like, for instance, 2 Host shifts and 2 TT shifts - I'll take it!). This of course is all "his word" which, like I said, means absolutely nothing to me. So I don't know where I stand. Patience come quick to me! More to come in the coming weeks. And you know there will be!

- Ok, well that was about as short as I could make that - that's how frustrated I am. Sorry. If you're still with me, I'll continue with other things :D

- The following is all I recall and the specifics from the WISDOM TEETH thing I did on Tuesday, for those of you wondering how I took to the anesthesia (spelling?) and such: I DID NOT have laughing gas. I think I was put under via an IV. Upon waking, I told my mom I could beat her in a one-on-one basketball game, despite not being able to stand. I played a lot of MADDEN and watched a few movies. I am officially caught up on THE OC. I slept a lot. I still maintain a rather specific diet until tomorrow's follow-up where the last stitches will be removed (next stop: IN-N-OUT! - I love you Heather! I swear I'm not addicted! :). I am beginning to bruise yellow on my right cheek. I am glad it's almost over. I don't feel as wise. My mouth feels lighter.

- The other thing that was true about me was that I didn't leave my house from Tuesday until Saturday when I went to work. That's a long time to be in one place. After work on Saturday, I went to CIRCUIT CITY and bought THE 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN for myself and a Christmas present for Barbara (Heather's mom) which I will not divulge here. After that, I went home and changed and then went to Desert Christian High School for the Alumni Basketball Game (it's just called that because it takes place the day after Alumni Chapel - Alumni did not play) between DC and Vasquez. I hung out mostly with my boy Rico (Ok, quick bio about Rico: Junior in HS, played Varsity basketball with me for 2 years, just moved to Ventura with his mom, the black influence on my life - no joke - a great kid, and a friend that I will have no matter how long we are not teammates on the court) and it was a lot of fun, although difficult to watch the guys play and not be able to help. I miss basketball. DC won an UGLY game that featured multiple Technical Fouls, 2 ejections (both Vasquez guys) and a couple almost fights. I talked with a few people who I hadn't seen in awhile, but was certainly not interested in hanging out after cuz I then went over to Heather's and hung out for the remainder of the night. We were watching THE GRADUATE when Chelsea got home from work around 2330 and paused it to chat. We ended up talking til flippin 0400 in the morning! We talked about pretty much everything going on in our lives and shared random (and hilarious) stories. We didn't even realize what time it was til my dad texted me at 0200 and then I decided to just stay there. Don't worry folks, I slept on the downstairs couch :D . . . Saturday was a good day

- Still no school. This is a good thing.

- Still with me? Hang in there people! It'll be worth it! (Well, probably not, but if you've read this far then you might as well finish!)

- On Sunday, Heather and I (do you like the good English there) met my family (which included my grandfather, Pop-Pop (Pop for short), who was in town for the weekend - he drives a tour bus based in Arizona in his retirement and had brought a group to THE LB for a cruise or something and had the weekend free so he came to see us) at CASITA LOPEZ for lunch. After that we headed home and watched the end of the AM football games (No more undefeated COLTS - Bummer) and then the lady and I finished up THE GRADUATE. Then it was time for work and you already know how that turned out.

- I went 13-3 this week in the Pool. I'm still in the hunt. 2 weeks left. Crunch time.

- The aforementioned gift for Barbara is the only Christmas gift I have bought. Period. I'm screwed.

- Well folks, that's that. This week should be interesting for me as I have two more days of work, mucho family coming into town, (so many people I've lost track) and what else? O YEAH! CHRISTMAS is SUNDAY!!! Wow the time flies! Thanks for stopping by (I hope you grabbed some water from the guys handing out cups of it halfway through this marathon) and please come back, as there will be a new blog tomorrow night. This I also promise. And my word does not mean shit, unlike someone else I know. . .

- - - "I don't wanna cram pimpage"
- - - My favorite line from THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. Deja vu anyone??? (Note: the reason for the comment there is that I used this quote in one of my earliest blogs after seeing the above movie in the theatre - It's just that funny!)

Extemely winded and uncertain of everything,

JUSTIN