Older People Steal Too January 31, 2008

First of all, congrats to Kate M on the music quiz!! Sorry Dad, she was about two hours ahead of you – but I am impressed that you got it right. Thanks to everyone else who got it right – I don’t think anyone guessed wrong – apparently it was easier than I thought – shoot.

Yesterday was a gloomy rainy day – much like Tuesday – I think today looks a little better which is great because I have the day off! Of course, I’ve got nothing to do besides get toilet paper and toothpaste – but still, the possibilities of what might happen are endless. I just started reading this new book “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA” and seriously – it is so hard to get into. I’m hoping to finish it before we go to NZ because I really can’t bring myself to cart around an 800 page book for a month.

Last night at work I had this table of five older people. Probably in their late 50’s early 60’s – I’m thinking - sorry if that offends anyone for me saying they are “older” but to me, they are old enough to know better. All are nice, in good spirits – and having a great time. Throughout the evening they are drinking bottled sparkling water – have about three bottles and say they don’t want anymore. In our restaurant there are silver buckets around the tables filled with bottles of tap water, bottled water and wine – most tables have to share buckets – but its no problem because the only person that should be reaching into the bucket is the server. So – the night progresses, the table of five finishes dinner, coffee and has now paid – they are just sitting there calmly chatting. All water glasses are empty – but they haven’t said anything to me about wanting another bottle – and didn’t want anymore water when I asked earlier. Now – there is another table sharing their bucket that happens to have a full bottle of sparkling water in the bucket. Somehow in the span of about 10 minutes the table of five opens the bottle of water – distributes it and drinks it – puts the cap back on the bottle, places it in the bucket and leaves. Yeah, yeah – so what- they stole a $3 bottle of water – but still. Who steals a bottle of water?!?! They didn’t even ask AND they knew it wasn’t theirs! Ridiculous.

Other than that – some guy proposed to his girlfriend at the restaurant – you could hear the collective “Awwwwws” all around the restaurant all dang night. Sorry for anyone who has proposed in a restaurant, but over all my many years as a server I have seen enough of these to know I would NEVER want to get proposed to at a restaurant. Especially not at a restaurant where the ring was hidden in food – everyone knows – everyone is watching you – plus, all the staff is talking about you and the guy that is proposing to you. Just not for me.

Enough babbling- on to the quiz.

This East Coast group has been around for as long as I’ve been alive – they were recently inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame – They are credited with being the first band in its genre to reach #1 on the US billboard charts – and they are also credited for being the first band to coin a phrase for a very interesting haircut. I used to think my name was in one of their songs, but as it turns out the lyric is actually something along the lines of “lumber jack” go figure….

 Lets hope this one is a little harder.

Love

So The Game Was Slightly Flawed January 29, 2008

Alright – in hindsight I see it was a mistake to have the title be a song title – considering Google rules the world and you can find anything on it (as my mother pointed out) I guess I’ll try to have something a little bit harder otherwise I’ll be writing postcards to mommy every day – not like there is a problem with that, mom – but I think I have to turn up the difficulty level.

Anyway – no posts for a few days – Sunday I was at work for a grueling 10 hours, actually clocked on for nine of them – oh and I had another star sighting – I waited on the guitarist for the Australian band Powderfinger. He was very, very nice – albeit a bit drunk. Well, I think the other people at his table were a little more boozy than he was but they did go through about five bottles of wine between the four of them. Yesterday was a public holiday due to Australia Day on Saturday so P9 was closed. Jess is in Fiji living it up so Dan and I just kind of bummed around the house. Made a great dinner of Moreton Bay Bugs and watched Superbad – which is, as I am sure you all know – super funny. Thank you itunes for allowing me to rent movies.

Today I got called in to lunch and put in a good five hours – which was nice because I actually picked up the on-call shift from Mel and really needed the hours. Tonight Dan and I are just going to chillax – its been raining on and off all day so not too much going on. Congrats to Jenn for your new job! Whoo hoo! I am so excited for you! Katie A. – I’m just going to email you – enough of these novel promises – I can’t wait anymore!! haha, just kidding. For today’s quiz question:

I am the lead singer of a band originally from California. We hit it big in the early 90’s and many of our songs are still bar staples – a few of which are guaranteed to get Jessey M. on top of a bar - We played Saturday Night Live in 1994 during the appearance I wore a “Cracker” shirt. I have been very “Friend”ly with two well-known actresses who are also real-life best friends. Our band is known for our energetic live performances where I am known to intertwine different song lyrics into different songs. Who am I?

Love to all -and let me know if the quiz is working for you or not. I need something and I figured this might be it. who knows.

We Will Become Silhouettes January 26, 2008

Warhol Jackie and Mel

I had a pretty big day here in Minimal Responsibility land kids! Above is a picture of my friend Mel and I at the children’s section of the Brisbane Andy Warhol exhibit (also known as the only rooms that were free at the art museum) We have been Warholed. Actually the exhibit looks pretty cool and once I feel like parting with $20 I’ll probably go check it out. I think the thing I was most interested in was seeing his “A Was a Lady Who Went Shopping at Saks” pictures- check that out – its cooler than the whole “Campbell’s Soup” thing in my opinion. We also tramped around West End – went to some markets, had lunch at this kick ass vegetarian restaurant and just hung out. It was SO hot today – ridiculous. Oh – and its also Australia Day which meant thousands and thousands of drunk people everywhere – they get a bit more patriotic than Americans do – and a lot more drunk. Someone threw a party in our pool area today and I am pretty sure I saw two people doing something very innappropriate in the pool – I’m hoping the chlorine gave them a rash – is that mean of me?

I have also decided to try to make all of my blog titles song titles – anyone guesses them right and they will receive a sweet Aussie postcard from moi. Get excited!!!

Yes – Aussies are distressed over the death of Heath. Someone at work said “Oh, it’s just such a great loss” to which someone else replied “No. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great loss – Heath is just an unfortunate death.” So – take that for what you will.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! lOVE

The Ocean Breathes Salty January 25, 2008

Hello!!! No postings the past two days because I was actually away from my computer and out of Brisbane!! Whoo hoo!! Wednesday morning Dan and I had plans to go to the Australia Zoo – but I was on call for lunch and so that put a little wrench in the plans. I called in and didn’t have to go – but by the time we got our stuff together and got downtown a woman at the train station informed us that the next train for the zoo was leaving in an hour and we would only have an hour at the zoo before the last train left. This of course was after we had spent 30 bucks on tickets. I honestly think there was a moment when Dan was thisclose to turning to me and yelling “You blew it!!” considering I was the reason we didn’t leave earlier – but in my defense – the train woman said we would’ve had to have gotten there at 8:00 am in order to really make it worthwhile and big Dan-o had the alarm set for 8:30 – we probably wouldn’t have even gotten there until 10 anyway. HA! Anyway – we sat there for a while, a bit defeated but then decided that since we had plans to go to the beach the next day anyway – why not just go a day early?

We scurried home to pack and actually made it to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast at around 3:30 or so – not too bad. Coolangatta is a super small town – it boarders New South Wales and basically a street separates the two states – and towns, Coolangatta and Tweed Head – Its a bit strange in the summer because NSW observes daylight savings time and Queensland doesn’t – so if you are on one side of the street its an hour earlier than it is on the other. Some highlights from the trip:

- The Sunset Strip Retirement Home Hostel that we stayed in. It was a little rundown, but the rooms were small – only one or two people per room so we weren’t stuck in an 18 person dorm room, which was nice. The owner however, was a little edgy. He totally had Dan and I pegged as sketchy so I am completely certain he a – overcharged us hardcore and b- routinely passed by our room in order to “keep and eye on us”. Everyone else in the hostel was over 60 and there were three rules regarding “quiet hours” – 1: Be Quiet 2: Shut up 3: Remember the last time you were woken up! so…..yeah.  It was delightful. When we were checking in Dan asked a question regarding Tweed Head – the guy said something completely unrelated to Dan’s question so Dan tried to ask it again – then the guy inturrupted Dan and said “I’ll explain that to you – OK – I’m explaining it” and then just stood there and looked at us while not explaining it. Weird.

2 – The ocean!! Yes – I am a North Dakota girl. I realized this when I got rocked by a wave and felt like someone threw a cupful of salt in my face and then sprayed me with a garden hose set to “jet”. My eyes are burning, my suit bottoms are up my butt and I’m probably mooning the entire beach – I’m thinking, ok – I’m not a strong swimmer, but whatever – I can hang and I look at Dan and he has the look of pure joy on his face. He’s yelping and splashing – diving into and over waves  - swimming like a fish. At first he was right next to me – but soon he is at least 50 feet away and still moving. I feel like I’m being pulled in every direction – getting knocked over and tossed around – trying my hardest to look graceful – or at least look like I know what I’m doing when I just give up. Screw this – I’m going back in. Although going back in was harder than coming out – I’m stumbling around like a drunk, waves keep coming in – I’m up and down – the sandy bottom is rising and falling so I’m tripping and feeling like I’m walking against the current the whole time. I am sucking – hardcore. Meanwhile I see a kid of about 8 run out into the waves with a surfboard. I am defeated. But I had a great time.

- Wahoo’s Fish Tacos – go figure we don’t eat Mexican food the entire time we are in Brisbane – save for the burritos I sporadically make – but we eat it TWICE in Coolangatta! It was the best ever. Wednesday night we ate at this cheesy place – exactly like Mexican Village or Paradiso in Fargo – overpriced margaritas, horrible decor and delicious enchiladas – the only downside was no free chips and salsa. Oh – and a sign on the door says “Don’t worry – our food is mild, not spicy!” But hey, I’m a sucker for refried beans and melted cheese. But the definite food highlight was Wahoo’s Fish Tacos – so delicious I would go back there just to eat the tacos. Since we are on the topic of food – we had breakfast at this restaurant called “Pancakes in Paradise” ( of course it made me get that stupid “Cheeseburgers in Paradise in my head and now its back again – Damn you Jimmy Buffett!!!) Dan got ‘All you can Eat’ pancakes and lets just say it went like this:

Dan orders. After the waitress leaves we of course start talking about how many pancakes he’ll get – how big they’ll be – how many we think he can eat. He honestly says “I bet they never saw this comin’ – just wait”. Oh yeah – I was waiting all right. He gets his first plate with three pancakes on it and just devours them – just shoveling the old pancake in. He orders a second plate and you can see that as time is passing – he’s definintely getting full. At the end of the day the kid finishes four pancakes. Yep. Four. As we leave to pay we pass a sign touting Amy Lewis as the pancake eating chamption with 16 – if you beat her record you get a $50 voucher. Dan looked a little defeated. Meh, I’m sure he’s over it.

So yeah – now we are back in Brissy – wonderful. Back to work, back to life, back to reality. Speaking of life – is anyone else a bit bothered by the news of Heath Ledgers death? I don’t know why its been bothering me so much the past few days – I didn’t know him – I haven’t even seen all of his movies. I think its just remembering watching him in “10 Things I Hate About You” and loving that movie – plus, hes only slightly older than me. Its just unsettling. Anyone else??

Anyway…. love to all – I’m nursing a slight sunburn and a case of racoon eyes.

I Had Lunch With Fergie Yesterday January 22, 2008

Alright – I know…. its been three days – apparently Post-A-Day is out the window and I have joined thousands of other Americans who couldn’t even make it through January before they broke their New Year’s Resolution. I am a statistic. Fine. But honestly, I hardly had anything to write about over the weekend – I worked, went out with co-workers one night and then worked again. I mean, Kevin Smith (director of Mallrats among other things) has a blog called “My Boring Ass Life” but it usually contains name drops and actual interesting things – mine really would be boring. That is, until yesterday….

I was on call for the day shift but ended up not having to go in – I met Dan for lunch and for some reason we decided to go to P9 to grab something (the half price discount seemed very apppealing yesterday). The Police are in town and Fergie is opening for them – the other day we had a bunch of lighting and sound guys in for dinner – and anyway; Dan and I get seated outside where there is just one other table – none other than miss Glamorous herself – with a lady friend. Fergie is TINY. Really thin and probably average height. She had the shortest dress in the world on with a tiny leather vest and knee high boots. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have even looked over at her table if a – the staff hadn’t all come up to me and told me she was out there – or b – her friend would’ve been a little quieter. Seriously – I before I knew it was Fergie I looked at the table because I could hear an American accent (which always perks me right up) and the woman was so damn loud. Over the course of lunch I am pretty sure she showed off her weave – talked about Woody Harrelson a lot – and kept banging on and on about how she was 5′10″ and weighed 145 pounds (HA! I don’t even weigh 145 anymore – take that old fat Jackie!!! Although I am not even close to 5′10″, sigh.) Anyway – everyone said she was really nice and she looked good. I actually was in the bathroom at the same time as her and was tempted to start singing a little “Fergalicious” but decided to hold it in – I didn’t want to embarass myself after all, unlike the three groupies from the restaurant next door who came over and made complete asses out of themselves.

Anyway – thats my brush with fame. Last night was back to normal at P9 - I actually got a 10 cent tip. Yeah. Said tip was from an elderly couple who were very chatty – everytime I went to their table they talked for a good five minutes about all their travels. Once they learned I was from the States they decided they just HAD to tell me about the time “We were in North Carolina. It was so much fun, we stayed with a black family. Oh yes, they were black as spades but we’re witnesses you know – and we think that everyone is our brother and sister.” Witnesses?? As in Jehovah? Black as spades?? WTF. I just had to plaster a smile on my face and give a courtesy laugh. I’m thinking the 10 cents was due to their old age – maybe they figured I could use that dime to get a handful of candy. Ahhh, handful of candy.

Alright- hope everyone is doing well – I’ve been laying by the pool effectively bleaching out the brass – I know it didn’t come through on the pic and I’m suffering alone. Cross your fingers its nice on Thursday – Dan and I have plans to go to the beach and he is already giggling at the thought of me swimming in the ocean. I really don’t want to ruin it for him, so I’m praying for good weather. Love to all

Another Day, Another Dollar January 18, 2008

Whew! What an exhausting day. Ummm yeah…. right. Lets see what I accomplished today – woke up around 10:30 or so…. did some laundry – sat on the couch with Jess and discussed her recent trip from Adelaide to Melbourne and then played around on the computer. Did this from about noon until 3:30. Then Dan came home from work and we went swimming. We shared the pool with a raucous group of kids – one of which decided to burst into tears for absolutely no reason at all about every five minutes. Yeah, she was a treat. The rest of the kids kept calling her princess. I wonder why…. I then got ready for work, went and did a wonderful job – its now about 11:15 and I am home. Whoo hoo! I thought this was supposed to be a life of adventure – its really turned out to be days of leisure followed by nights of chaos – and not fun-at-the-bar chaos either. Well, can’t complain – its 85 and sunny -haha!

Anyway, next weekend is Australia Day- basically the Australian version of the Fourth of July – from what I hear its just a day to consume massive amounts of alcohol …. weird. I’m really having a hard time distinguishing it from all the other Aussie holidays where the main point is to get “Off Ya Face” (that means drunk in Aussie speak). I’ve got to work – but maybe I’ll see a bit of debauchery after my shift is over. This weekend its work, work and then next Thursday Dan and I are going to the beach yay!!! I’m hoping it doesn’t rain – the last time we went to the beach it rained all day and we just toughed it out. Yeah – it was as fun as you are imagining.

Ok – I’m off to watch the rest of “Ali” with Dan – love to all

Here It Is January 17, 2008

I’m a bit worried the brassy-ness isn’t really coming across full strength – but here is the photo of my recently mangled hair.

Oh – and did you know that Aussies have no idea what “smores” are? I tried to explain them at work only to be met with “Graham crackers? What are those??” I guess they don’t have them here. A girl at work was like, Oh, Yeah! Smores – I learned about those from some Canadian girls on a trip once. I guess that’s one thing I can be grateful towards Canadians for. Just kidding. They also don’t have sherbert here – they think its like that candy where you have a sugar stick that you dip into flavored sugar. Can’t for the life of me remember what that stuff is called, but know that I ate boatloads of it when I was a kid - that and Big League Chew. Do they even sell that anymore? I also remember my brothers being big fans of shredded beef jerky – it came in a chew tin and they would put in between their teeth and lips – just like chew. Man, the old candy marketed towards kids that was so similar to tobacco. Candy cigarettes that were coated in powdered sugar so when you blew out they actually puffed? What happened to those gems? Here you get chocolate marketed to kids hardcore. Nutella is superior to peanut butter because it is more nutritional, “Active Teen Gatorade” is a big one as well – oh, and there is also a chocolate bar called “Kinder Chocolate” – straight for the kiddies. And I wondered why everyone has horrible teeth here.

Dan and I had the night off tonight – we made some dinner and watched “Medium” fun, fun.

Pickin’ Up Shifts January 16, 2008

Originally when I checked my roster this week I had pretty much the whole week off. I plead my case and I now am working all week – yay! Its money I really, really need. The visa options aren’t lookin’ too good, folks. There is now a 50 percent chance I’ll be home before the snow melts – I’m having mixed feelings about it. I do miss home – I miss family and friends. But, I’m just not ready – there is still so much to see and so much to do here – you know?

Tonight at work one of my friends Brad said “So, when did you dye your hair?” I replied, “Oh,  yeah. That. Its not really the best” – he laughed and replied “Darlin’, the color is horrible – I think its time for a re-do” Don’t get me wrong – it was hilarious! But it reaffirmed my suspicions that brassy is not at all my color. Work was really busy tonight – Dan worked as well and it was a whole different story – they only had 27 people on the dinner cruise tonight, about half of what they usually did before Christmas, but at least he got some hours in, no matter how bored he was. There have been a ton of Americans in at P9 as well – usually they somehow end up in my section and I find myself telling “my story” about three times a night. Strangely enough, I rarely end up speaking to anyone from the Midwest, its always people from California, Texas or somewhere on the East Coast. Last night I had a table from Buffalo – they were so boring it was almost as if they were asleep at the table. Seriously – I accidentally spilled a little coke on the guy (whoops) and he hardly even moved. In fact his daughter had to take her napkin to wipe it off of him and he looked surprised, like he didn’t even realize his arm was wet. Weird.

Tomorrow is now my only day off and I’ve got nothing planned – its also payday so I might get some groceries, who knows. Welcome to my exciting life – whoo hoo!!! Oh – and all anyone can talk about is the infamous Tom Cruise Scientology video – I guess its really creepy. If you care and can’t find it on You Tube – Google “TodayTonight” its an Australian news program and they did a story on it.

Love to everyone

I’m Brassy January 15, 2008

First of all, I want to thank my mom for sending me constant packages – I love the surprises in each and every one. One of these surprises just so happened to be a box of Herbal Essences hair dye. I was super excited – my hair was shades of brown on top and blond on the bottom that really wasn’t working for me. So after a week or three of the box staring at me, taunting me to use it – I ripped the sucker open. I put the tube into the bottle, shoved on those rubber gloves and applied. Waiting the recommended 45 minutes I was kind of excited to see the final result. Weeelllll….. lets just say I am now blond again – but a brassy blond. Its not that hot. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments at work and I can’t really tell if they are sincere or just out of shock. Tonight Mel at work offered to help me fix it – quite politely, actually. Its kind of starting to grow on me, almost like a strange facial mole or a random birthmark. Hopefully the sun will bleach out the brassiness or I’ll get a call from the Aveda salon that tests students (Jess signed us up on that mailing list) – I’m keepin my fingers crossed either way.

I apologize for the short posts lately, I’ve had stuff to write about – I still am writing in my journal every day, but when it gets time to sit down and write emails or write in the ol’ blog I get severe writers block. Maybe its the pressure to be funny, who knows.

Work tonight was actually kind of busy – which was nice because it rained all day and you just never know if thats going to keep people inside or make them want to go out. Tomorrow I have a date with the bookkeeper at P9 to see if they would sponsor my next work visa. I’ll keep you all posted.

Thanks mom and dad for another great package today – Thanks to Tim for quite possibly the funniest Christmas letter ever and the MPLS rags – Thanks to Debbie for the wonderful Christmas card and letter as well – Good luck to Breann on her surgery, you’ll be skiing again in no time, hopefully Love to everyone else

Another Day, Another Movie January 14, 2008

Had the day off today and was deep into a Stephen King book called “Christine” about a posessed car. Ended up going to the Bob Dylan movie “I’m Not There” with Chloe and Laura. I think we all left with a little bit of, uhhhh… what was that all about? The movie theater was pretty cool, though – really old – almost like a theater you would go see a play in. Kind of like the Fargo Theater. Jess has left for a week taking a trip from Adelaide to Melbourne – sounds like it should be pretty fun. I’ve got some easy shifts this week – am hoping to pick up a few more as just about everyone got their hours cut because we just aren’t as busy as we were before Christmas. Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny and I’ll get some tanning time in – also have to write a news release for some other work I’m doing which will be fun. Its nice to use the old brain again, just for the satisfaction that it is still working and that expensive college degree I have is getting at least a little bit of use.

Hope everything is well wherever you are. Love to all