Construction

Sorry for how crazy this blog has been looking. I'm trying to figure out how to design it myself. So far it's not working out very well.

Goodbye, Cashier Kara

I have now been employed at three different places in a month. That's definitely an improvement from the first two months. Orientation and the one day of training I completed as a cashier at the Rose Garden were pretty depressing. The managers kept comparing it to McDonalds or Taco Bell. "You do ___ just like you would at McDonalds." I was dreading having to actually go to work yesterday and work the Blazers game. I was training with college freshmen who had never had a job before. Needless to say, I was only doing it because of how bad we need the extra cash. Tom has being calling me "Cashier Kara" for the past week, I'm glad he finds it so funny...

But I didn't go to work yesterday. Because the manager at Podnah's called me yesterday morning and asked if I could come in that afternoon. He gave me a job! It's a BBQ joint, super laid back, but they are very devoted to quality product. Tom and I have eaten there twice already since we first went a few weeks ago. This place has received amazing press since they opened in 2006, and even though it isn't fine dining I know I will be proud of the products I'm selling. That is really what is important to me. For example, I couldn't bear the thought of pumping out the liquid cheese crap for nachos at the Rose Garden. If I wouldn't want to eat it why would I feel okay serving it to your children? Anyways, please check out the website for Podnah's, it will have you craving good BBQ, that's for sure.

Training is tomorrow and Thursday and hopefully I'll start on the floor this weekend! Even though it is the bad time of year for restaurants they are very busy, and will just get busier during the summer. I'm so excited :)

Now for a picture of Roxy to break up all the words...

I hope everyone thinks she is as cute as I do. She is such a sweetheart.

So last week we had a snow day! Well, more like a snow night. It started really coming down around 8:00 pm and didn't stop for several hours. We were outside playing in the snow around midnight, but we had so much fun! Roxy loves the snow, I can't wait to take her to Mount Hood to see some serious snow.

This series is funny. 

Roxy and Tom prints.

There isn't much more to that story. It all melted by around noon the next day and turned to mud to add to the preexisting mud. Lovely.

I don't have anything else for you today. I've been meaning to take pictures of the apartment since I haven't really done that since we moved in. There isn't much to take up space so far, I need to figure out some more cheap crafts and make my own decorations. But even craft supplies cost money. 

Happy Tuesday! 

The Beach Trip

It's been a while. I was having a lot of fun updating this so frequently. Christmas was wonderful, I had a job, and then I didn't. So that's probably why I haven't been back in a few weeks. The post would have been dreary, I didn't need to wallow anymore than I already was.

I'll start with New Years Eve. I had just started my job at Wafu, and we were actually planning on going there for their party/midnight toast. Unfortunately Tom got off work a little later than planned so we ended up staying home and toasting with a cheap bottle of bubbly. I was pretty upset we didn't go out, that's such a fun holiday and I've gotten to celebrate it at restaurants the past few years. I love that feeling of counting down with a big group of people. But Tom and I had a nice night in, and I got my midnight kiss :)

And now for the bad part. The details aren't really necessary, all you need to know is things didn't work out at Wafu. I felt like I worked very hard to please the staff and show them my value, but the manager didn't see it the same way. As you can imagine, losing the job I had worked so hard to get was devastating. I felt like such a failure. I couldn't even imagine what Tom thought of me. Back to Craigslist. Instead of walking around handing out resumes to every establishment I decided to stick to the places I knew were hiring. So I've sent resumes to many different places, some jobs I would enjoy, some are just jobs. At this point though it doesn't matter, we need the money.

Thankfully Tom and I had a nice little vacation right after all of this happened. As I mentioned in a previous post, Grain and Gristle, one of the restaurants he works at, has been open for a little over a year and to celebrate it's anniversary the owners decided to host a party at the beach! They rented four beach houses for the whole staff plus significant others. Thankfully one of the server/bartenders there was driving a dog friendly truck and offered to let us ride with him! Tom's Jeep needs a little work, and it was good to save gas money.

These are all of us crossing over the river to West Portland.

We left on Tuesday and got to the beach around 1:30. It was a little cloudy but the sun was out, Roxy and I were thrilled to run around in the sand. It was our first visit to the Pacific Coast, and it was beautiful. There were mountains on one side and rock formations on the other. These pictures just show the mountains on the left.

We showed up first, the check in was at 3 pm. So we went ahead and explored the houses to pick a room. These pictures are of the house we stayed in, it definitely had the most rooms of all the houses. I just loved how everything was decorated. I love beach houses.

The house next door to ours was the "main" house where all the cooking, eating, drinking, and shenanigans happened. I loved the kitchen in this house. How cool is that old radio?!

Everyone started arriving and the skies cleared for a beautiful sunset. 

Meanwhile a fire had been started in the pit, and Tim (the chef from Firehouse who was awesome enough to commit to cooking dinner the first night) had the house smelling wonderful. There was lamb shanks (smoked and then braised), beans, kale, a pasta dish, and salad. The lamb was amazing. Everything was amazing. Everyone had been drinking before dinner, so I forgot to take pictures :( But I took a billion pictures of the fire. And other randomness. 

Roxy was pretty wet and cold from swimming in the ocean so she got cozy with us by the fire. Oh yeah, the weather was great during the day but it got REALLY cold at night. 

Someone was brilliant and brought karaoke. Lets just say it kept everyone entertained for hours.

Apparently to keep the fire going you just have to kick it a little bit.

Roxy was very popular. Everyone called her "Dingo".

We had so much fun that night. Tom works with a great group of people. The next day we all got up and had a perfect breakfast after a long night. After hanging out and recovering for a couple hours a big group of us piled into cars and headed to Kelly's Brighton Marina to go crabbing! Most of us had never been before, it was an incredible experience. No, I didn't bring my phone with me on the boat, so no pictures. Basically it was four or five of us per boat, one of us would drive and the rest would throw the crab pods and pull them in. The pod (I think that is the right word) is attached to a buoy, you leave it for a while and then come back to check if it picked up any crabs. There is a size requirement the crabs have to meet, so we had to throw back a lot of little guys. We only caught one we got to keep. But it was so much fun!

Ben (the chef/owner) had stayed behind to roast the suckling pig (about 40 pounds), so it was looking crispy and delicious when we got back. The chef de cuisine made Cioppino (a tomato based fish/seafood stew) with the crabs, clams, mussels, and rock fish. That night we had the stew with grilled bread, and the pig. Easily one of the best meals of my life. I took plenty of pictures of this dinner.

Foaming at the mouth.

We were all a bunch of vultures trying to get in and eat skin, cheeks, and other deliciousness off the pig.

Another great part of the evening were the bloody marys. One of the line cooks brought her infused vodkas and bloody mary mix. Seriously the best bloody mary I've ever had. She had rosemary, beet, horseradish, serrano, and another kind of pepper, infused vodkas. Amazing. Plus jars and jars of pickled vegetables to use as a garnish. I'm telling you, the reason this trip was so memorable is because of the industry we all work for. Restaurant industry folk know how to have a good time. 

After dinner everyone just chilled, especially the dogs. There were at least nine dogs there, and they all ran around all day and wore each other out. 

What a spoiled mutt.

This trip is exactly what Tom, Roxy, and I needed. I'm so grateful for the owners/staff of Grain and Gristle for providing such an incredible experience. 

So I do have another job now. I just got hired this week as a cashier for Ovations at the Rose Garden. Ovations is the company that handles all of the food service at the Rose Garden. So for now I will be a cashier at the food stands during events. They also have catering services, but they aren't hiring at the moment. A job is a job, this will work for now. If something better comes up I'll go from there. Orientation is tonight and I start training this weekend. I'm excited to get out of the house, and hopefully I'll meet some cool people. That's it for now, have a wonderful weekend!