Sunday, December 30, 2007

Workin hard but playin Harder

The last couple of days have once again been nothing but work and I haven't minded. It'll be all worth it in the end,when I actually have money! I got my first paycheck from the GAP and it was alot more than I thought and so I was pretty flippin stoaked!

Sports Page has treated me pretty well too still. I had a few nights last week where I got shit on for tips, but its gotten better and I've rolled in some extra dough!

BUT I've decided,and i actually decided this a long time ago. But I think everyone should work in the retail and service industries at some point in their life. I think they'd become alot more appreciative and less stupid about thing then.

For example at GAP, for the most part people are enjoyable and great BUT on ocassion you get the stupid faces who tear through your clothes piles and have no regard for you and the hour you just spent meticulously refolding every shirt and carefully putting on the size sticker so that they all line up,one person looks through that pile and its ruined in 10 seconds! OR I was doing a run through of dressing rooms the other day, just making sure there weren't clothes etc in them and some woman had tried on probably 5 or 6 pairs of pants and literally stepped out of them and put the next pair on. SO, the dressing room floor is covered in crumpled up pants. It just really pissed me off, im like SERIOUSLY you couldn't take an extra 10 seconds and at least make sure its all in one pile? I was livid for awhile on that one.

Then there's waitering. Once again, I've only had the table from hell on ocassion. But people need to remember that its not always your servers fault and sometimes the kitchen messes up. For example, I had these two older ladies one day and I had already been warned they were fun to deal with. SO, I made sure I got everything perfect foem. I put in their order-double check it and know its correct. So, im walking through my section and they flag me down,waving taheir arms in the air and the whole bit. So I walk over and ask how I can help and the lady says "Didn't you understand I wanted this medium well, this is too pink" So I force a smile and apologize and take it back to the kitchen. The thing is, see I had put in the order right it was the kitchen who fucked up. What did they want me to do? Cut into their steak to make sure it was cooked right?

So yea, people can upset me at times.

On other more juicy notes.

Once again, my life had a pretty interesting event occur.

So, I'm out at the club on Friday night,standing there chit chatting with my friends when this guy approaches me and says "ANDREW", and gives me this expectant look like I should know him. At first I have no clue who he is and he could probably tell by the bitchy look I gave him and the awkward HI response I gave. But a few seconds later it dawned on me and the guy was my babysitter from back when I was like 11!! He was a senior when I was in 8th grade, so we're only like 5 years apart,don't worry.

The thing is my friends, I have had a mad crush on this kid since he babysat me. Naturally, not the whole time seeing I haven't seen him for 5ish years. So we chatted and he had to go back to his pool game, but told me I better go talk to him more. So, I did and yea, it was great and now hopefully we're going out to lunch or dinner sometime this week!

But 4 real, who freakin' sees their old babysitter at the gay bar?!?Let alone one you had a crush on and he turns around and flirts with you!?

OTHER NEWS
Turns out GK and J are officially dating. How do I know? I ran into them last night at the bar and was talking to GK and he said "yea, we almost broke up last night" and told me the story on why. So, I guess I'm not too bitter. Turns out I was just an involuntary one-off match maker.

ALSO 1 and I kinda talked last night. He had texted me and told me he was out at another club in DSM and I was like "yea, don't care" and ignored the text. It was getting close to closing time at bar and he gave me a call and i couldnt hear him and my phone kept cutting out. But the next thing I know, my good friend CC who I hadn't seen in forever runs up and gives me a hug and we chat, then 4 mins later, 1 comes running at me and gives me a hug and etc .etc.

SO I vamoose, I didn't want to be around him at the bar. So, I tell my friend LJ im outie and she walked with me cuz she was ready to go too.

So, im driving home and get a call from 1, and he was right behind me and he asks why im being so mean to him, why i ignored his text, bla bla bla. and I tell him that he's been the mean one not me. But we ended up chatting for awhile back in Indianola and it was weird..kinda..it was nice,but he kept saying I was being mean and grumpy at him and so I was minorly confused. I'm like WTF, you've treated ME like shit the last 6 months, not the other way around my friend!!!

He also made a few random comments and asked a couple of questions and I was just like..are you sure you're over me/us? Cuz why would you care or say that?

BUUT I think thats about it for the Drew life. For the time being at least.

PEACE

Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Last Few Days

So while life hasn't been to extraordinary eventful, there have been a couple of significant events.

The first was Christmas Eve.

For starts, I lost my keys while at the mall. HAHA yes, I did.

After work I decided I wanted some coldstone, i hadn't had it in over 4 months! So, I get my ice cream and then sit down in the food court to enjoy it. All this time I'm busy chatting on the phone to my friend about another event that had happened that day (don't worry we'll get to that story), so I was a bit distracted. I walk around the mall a bit trying to find a new pair of shoes and then I finally head out to my car. I get to my car and realize my keys are no longer in my possesion.

I remembered that I had them when I was pay for my ice cream becuase I had set them on the counter. So, I prayed that I had just left them there. I book it to Coldstone and the 12 year old working tells me that "he didn't think" any keys were left. So, I go over and check where I had sat,but people were already there. I decide to head down to Customer Service in the hopes that maybe someone or mall security had turned them in. No Such Luck. I then think that maybe I had left them in Banana Republic when I was looking at the cologne in there, but once again I struck out. I decided to check at Coldstone again and try to speak to someone competant, but they assured me no one left keys.

I call home and tell them the story, they tell me to double check everywhere and then call them and let them know if I still can't find them.

I decided to try Customer Serivce again and leave my name and number juswt in case someone turns them in. By this point I'm not too freaked out, I just feel stupid and figure I'll have to call home.

So I talk to the people at customer service and they give me their number and I leave mine and decide to try the other store I was at. About 4 mins later I get a call from Customer Service and someone turned them in!! So,I got my keys back.YAY! But yea, that was just part of the excitment for the day.

NOW the other story.

This past summer, I was in the most complicated/awkward relationship ever and was madly in love with the kid, we'll call him "1" because thats what he was. My number 1 for awhile, my first love, one person I talked to about everything etc. etc. We'll things ended awkward/bad and the entire time I was overseas we didn't talk and things were super awkward/not good between us when I got back and so I had finally called it quits on the kid and said I'M DONE!

We'll I randomly get a text from him while I'm at work that says "are you busy?" I instantly freak out. Thinking "why is he texting me? " "What does he want?" Does he want to talk and apologize? Does he want to yell at me because he thinks I started some other rumor he thought I was trying to start. Does he just want to talk about next semester's classes and borrow books for them? WTF did he want!!!?

So, I get off work and text him back and say WHATSUP?

He replies "I know things have been awkward between us since you got back and I don't like not talking to you and I want to bfriends again. but we can't be physical"

I reply " I agree" even though things were 10x worse than just awkward! "but I didn't expect anything physical"

and we go on to talk about this rumor about him I brought up a couple weeks ago. I had brought it up and told him what I heard and when he approached the person who was my source the person denied it and so 1 didn't know who was lying and I'm pretty sure 1 thought I was and so I once again explained to him that I have no reason to lie etc. etc. and asked him to compare relationships between me and him and him and our source. And how 1 had tursted me with a shitload of secrets that I have kept, how I haven't ever lied to him and the list continues. I also told him I wasn't going to beg him to believe me, but to just think about it all.

but bla bla bla. He said how he really wanted to be friends again, that he didn't like not being able to talk to me. etc etc.

And while even just a couple weeks ago I would have lOVED to have heard that and I would have been so excitied and ready to be friends again, this time I was like "okay, whatever."

I ovbiously didn't say that, but it was the thought that was in my head. That no, actually I've dealt with your shit enough and i'm tired of worrying if Im going to piss you off or not and that on top of it all, you don't believe me about this stupid rumor and IM DONE!

It felt good too. Usually, I was so freaking wishy washy on the kid.I hated him one minute and was still madly in love with him the next, but this time I had finally managed to stay solid on how I felt.

But yea, there's ovbiously a whole lot more to the background of this story and one day I'll do my best to tell you the whole story on Drew and 1, but that'll do for right now.

Yesterday was another exciting day. Sorta. Like most of the day was boring, but one special event made the day pretty spectacular.

I got hit on at work. haha.

I was doing my thing, folding clothes etc and I hear this guy say " i know alot of kids from simpson go there" and I hadn't ever seen him or the girl the was with to I was like "you guys go to Simpson?"

and he said he used to but he transferred. So I chit chat with them a bit more about Simpson and how the music and theatre departments own your soul and etc.

So, then I'm folding clothes more and doing my thing once again and he comes up and was like "i don't live in town, but im here for a couple of days. You should give me a call" and gave me his number. I was minorly excitied. He was a cute kid plus I had actually gotten hit on! It was great!

BUT that's a roundup of the last couple of days.

PS-back to 1. I'm starting to wonder if the kid is actually 100% over us. All this time I thought he had been and I was hurt and had finally moved on and now even though he says he wants to be friends and there can't be anything between us, he texted me last night asking if I was in Indianola and then at like 2am saying "whatsup" of course this could totally be him just being conversational, OR it could be more. Who knows!

Oh-well.

Have a good one

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Greetings Friends,

Life has managed to continue,even back here in Iowa.

So far the transition hasn't been too hard. I'm not digging the cold weather, but I really have never liked winter and I miss being able to always have something to do or somewhere to go, no matter what time it is and now I'm beyond broke, so I'm living the life of a college student thats even poorer than poor.

However, its been great getting to catch up with all my pals and see familiar faces and I'm finally getting into the routine of things again. Its been so nice having NO responsibilties, no classes to go to, no papers to write and no tests to cram for. Which is something everyone else on campus can't say at the moment. I find it ironic that this week is known as "dead week" because there's not supposed to really be huge tests or papers due for students, so we can prepare for finals. Yet, it usually ends up being the most stressful and busy week of all, at least it was for me last year.

Anyway, I'm getting into the swing of things again. I had a CAB meeting today with Rich, Lindsey and Amanda and am getting excited to start cab things again, and I also got re-elected to Student Government, so when the new term starts I'll be on that again. So ,its getting pretty close to being just like old times :) I start working at Sports Page on Saturday which is exciting news because that = TIPS which =instant cash! Then hopefully I'll start GAP on Sunday.

I went up to Jordan Creek and applied and was lucky and interviewed like 10 minutes after I turned in my app. It was a pretty laid back interview and it turns out that the store manager(the girl who interviewed me) is a Simpson Graduate and distant cousins of some sort with one of my references!! But she was super friendly and said that she "technically had to do reference checks" but should expect a call on Thursday and she looked forward to seeing me at orientation on Sunday, so it sounds like its hopefully a job.

Its been so great just getting to bum around and visit everyone. I went to the basketball game tonight and got to see alot of friends I hadn't seen yet.

So, I've been told that Reverse Culture Shock is worse than original culture shock and I admit that I was a bit weary coming back. But really, I haven't had any problems. I remembered how to drive my car and use my cell phone and I knew to drive on the right side of the road. If anything the most noticable awkard change has been the money! American bills and coins are so much thinner and lighter than the money over there and thats actually been one of the main things I've noticed.

SOO, thats about it for now.

Hope all is well!

Cheers
Drew

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Home Sweet Home

Greetings Friends,

So I've finally arrived back on campus and its been great catching up with all my friends!

We also had elections for SAE today and it took 5 hours,but it was so good seeing everyone again.

Its been not weird, which has made things weird though, when catching up with some friends. I went and visited my good friend Kathryn and we caught up on things and even though we were filling eachother in on the last 13 weeks of our lives, it felt like I had never been gone. So much for reverse culture shock,but I guess I haven't really been back in the real world yet. Just home and seeing friends, I'll wait and see what its like tomorrow.

I've only had the I HATE IOWA and WANT TO GO BACK TO LONDON moments a few times since arriving- once when I got off the plane and there was stupid snow and slush on the ground ( I HATE Winter!!) and then when I was sitting and realizing all the things I now need to get done for theatre!!

But I'm mostly glad to be back! It was nice actually getting ready in a real bathroom today and being able to fix some real food and yea. I enjoyed it.

This next week looks like it should be busy again and back to my Simpson normal.

I have a few different meetings: 1 with my SSS coordinator to talk about this last semester, 1 with $$ aide to talk about next semester,1 with the CAB advisers and my friend Amanda, who I'm going to be CAB co-presidents with to map out a few things, 1 with my old job to figure out when I can start again, and then several important lunch/dinner/catch up dates with friends!

So, thats roughly sorta the new things going on.

It's still hard to believe I'm back in Iowa though. When we left for the airport at 6:30am London time, it was sad and felt like there should have been fireworks or something going on. It just seemed a little too whateve, we're leaving.

But yea, For the time being I'm fine with being back in Iowa, we'll see how I feel when it starts to snow.

Cheers
Drew