My Place of Employment

This is the Starbucks that I work at. Woo hoo!

Baby Steps

Today I finally took three big important steps towards my career as a wedding planner! I paid for a one-year membership with the Association of Bridal Consultants, and also paid for a 5-course professional development program, which, when completed, will earn me the certification of professional bridal consultant! Total cost: $695. I also signed up at Michael's today to start taking cake decorating classes so I can eventually start learning how to make and decorate wedding cakes! Woooo hoo!!! Total cost: $48. I'm soooo excited! :D And yet, I'm sooooo much more broke. :P

Ghost Spiders

I just did something that I never, ever do. I ... just killed a spider. By myself!!!! I HATE spiders. :::shudders::: They totally freak me out and I can never get up the nerve to kill them. But just now as I was getting out of the shower and walking into the bedroom, I noticed a medium sized brownish colored spider walking across the ceiling. While the thought of having to kill it myself, (Chris isn't home,) was terrible, the thought of it ending up in our bed some how was even worse. So ... I stood up on my computer/piano bench and smashed it with my shoe. And ... it's guts are now smeared on the ceiling. I feel a strange sense of accomplishment ...

I really, really want to take a cake design class. I want to learn how to bake, assemble, and decorate fancy wedding cakes. Plus, since I'm going into wedding planning, it might actually be useful! Right now I'm looking at classes at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Pasadena. I'm sure it's very expensive for their diploma and degree programs, so I'm going to see if they offer any individual classes. We'll see ...

New episodes of Ghost Hunters tonight- Yeessss!!!! :D

Highlights for Pink Penguins

* Today at the E-Bar I only had "one" table and made just $5. This makes me annoyed.
* On the other hand, I got to go home early. This makes me glad.
* Chris and I bought our plane tickets last night to visit CoMo, and this makes me very happy.
* The weekend is finally here, and this makes me relieved.
* Currently the weather is cool, cloudy, and stormy, and this makes me content.
* There were two tornadoes here yesterday, and this makes me dumbfounded and slightly (who am I kidding,) "quite" excited.
* I bought Chris the 16gb iPhone last weekend, and this makes me broke. (Just kidding.) :P
* I am currently listening to one of the most relaxing cds ever, and this makes me relaxed.
* This post has nothing to do with pink penguins and therefore makes me feel rather spontaneous.
* Right now I'm thirsty, and this makes me feel dehydrated.

... therefore ... I am going to go get something to drink.

The 'House' Season Finale ...

Who cried? ...

Besides me. :P

Simply Delicioso

While Chris was gone all day today studying, I decided to stop by the Macaroni Grill after running some errands to pick up something yummy to-go. I picked out a "build your own" pasta which included fettucini in a creamy garlic butter sauce with grilled chicken and mushrooms. YUM. And of course, tiramisu for dessert. While I was waiting for my order, I sat at the bar and had a caramel macchiato martini. It was delicious. Today was delicious. Will tomorrow be equally delicious? ... Probably not.

Ugh.

Today was a verrrrry long day. I worked at Starbucks from 6am - 11:30am and then at the Elephant Bar from 12pm -5pm. It wouldn't have been so bad, (because I work both jobs like that during the majority of the week) but E-Bar today SUCKED more than a Dyson vacuum. Firstly, it was SO hot. The weather outside was hot, and my manager is so cheap that he refused to turn up the AC just so he could make a "profit." Plus our uniforms are all black pants, long aprons, and long-sleeves. Urgh. Secondly, I was supposed to go home early because I was put outside on the patio, (which of course NO ONE sat outside on the patio today because of the heat,) but ended up having to pointlessly stay forever while everyone else got to go home. (Although my manager said it was because I'm one of the "stronger" servers and so he wanted to cut all the "weak links," hehehe.) Thirdly, and most importantly, what customers I "did" have today tipped like total and utter crap. I got a measly $2 tip on a $50 bill. TWICE. Agh!!! I literally made HALF of what I should have made.

I'm sooooo so glad that it's the weekend!!!!

Summer Fun

Yesterday while Chris and I were out to dinner at Chili's I had this INSANELY delicious dessert. It was a white chocolate molten lava cake. White cake with melted white chocolate flowing out of the center, topped with vanilla ice cream, white chocolate shell, whipped cream, and a tiny bit of strawberry drizzle. OH damn. OHHHHHHH it was food-gasmic. I had a food-gasm while eating it.

Working Mother's Day at the Elephant Bar today can be summarized in one word: HELL.

I just talked to Mizzy and she said that she might be coming to visit me again at the end of the summer!! That prospect is VERY exciting. This means that I have something exciting to look forward to every month this summer! June: Hopefully seeing Christy and going to Disneyland AND seeing my former college roomie Anna, July: going home to visit for two weeks, and August: MIZZY hopefully coming to see me!!!! Yaaaaaaay!!!

And ... I'm already tired and looking forward to Friday. Considering it's only Sunday night, that's a bad sign. :::sigh:::

The Aftermath

After the bath ... Toasty was not pleased. No she was not. Instead ... she was soggy.

How ... Hilarious.

So today at the Elephant Bar as I was walking away from one of my tables, (after they had made the "Allis-on Wonderland" joke ... like every other customer ... in the world ...) they yelled after me, "Don't go chasing any rabbits!" :::sigh:::

Yesterday when I got home from work Toasty was ... well ... let's just say that if she were a human she would have had majorly poopy pants. Sooo Chris gave her a shower in the bath tub which was "quite" amusing. It was actually the first time I had witnessed Toasty getting a bath, and, like with most cats, she looked HI-larious when she was soaking wet. :P Awww, poor Toasty. But now she smells like Head and Shoulders shampoo! :P

It's such a tragedy that I have to work all day on Sunday because of bloody Mother's Day. BAH.

Tell Me On a Sunday

Okay, every chocolate lover needs to try this. Yesterday I made brownies (just regular store bought fudge ones,) and cooked them in the oven like normal. Then, when they were "almost" done, I took them out and let them cool. (Now for the yummy part.) THEN I smeared Nutella all over them and sprinkled a generous amount of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips on top, and put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes to let it all melt. THEN you put in the fridge for about an hour. YUM. You can also add chopped hazelnuts as well but I didn't have any at the moment.

I received my $600 stimulus payment from the IRS the other day- WOO HOO! An extra $600 flowing into my bank account is ALWAYS welcome.

Today I think I will scrapbook some more ...

Broken Record

My name provides endless entertainment to customers at the Elephant Bar every day. I walk up to greet a table and start off by saying something like, "Hey guys, how are you? Blah blah. I'm 'Allison' and I'll be taking care of you ..." and it's almost always followed by the customer replying, "Oh! Allis-ON Wonderland! Hahahaha!" It never fails to amuse me at just how many people think that they've just come up with the most original thing in the world when I hear it MULTIPLE times daily. :::snickers:::