Applebee's + Joe Biden

Little update here...

Last night (Thursday, 8/28) I had my first shift by myself at Applebee's. It took a few tables before I really got in the swing of things but I got it down now! I ended up selling around $500 worth of food but I only made $70. That's 14%! :-( I guess tonight will be better - my goal is $100. With Labor Day Weekend traffic I think that's pretty feasible.

Today I went to get books for school with Justin. We went to Lieberman's on Main St. in Newark. I had already pre-ordered my books so they were there waiting for me. It turns out that Justin needed to go to the Wilmington campus to get his because they were different sections. I picked out Alexa's books and took hers and mine up to the register. The girl gave me the subtotal for mine and I (stupidly) started to fill out the check before she rang up Alexa's books. Justin had to pay for her books. After that, we went across the street to Cafe Gelato - mmm. I got a Caprese panini. The service was a little bit below average but the food was fresh. We ended up driving to meet my mom to get a check to reimburse Justin and *another* check to get Justin's books. Justin and I went to Wilmington and got his books. After that, I drove around Greenville and we turned onto Barley Mill Rd, where Joe Biden lives. As we passed, there were like 5 secret service agents in his yard. It was a pretty cool sight! We headed home after that. Now I'm getting ready to leave for work. More to come...

iPod Touch!

So yesterday (Wed 8/28/08) Tom FINALLY bought his new iMac. He actually got an incredible deal on it. It's a 24" with 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - 2GB RAM - 256MB video card - 350GB hard disk. I helped him set it up yesterday and it's REALLY nice. In fact, it made me realize that I need to get a better video card soon. Oh, and all I "helped" him with was plugging it in haha. ANYWAY, he got a free HP printer and a free 8GB iPod Touch with the deal. I made him an offer for the iPod and he accepted! I got it around 11:30am but I wasn't able to play with it until I got to my office at church around 5pm. Unfortunately, I don't know the WEP key for the church wireless network so I had to wait until I got home at 9:30 to *really* play with it. It's actually really neat. I know I knock Apple products a lot (and for good reason) but, for what I do, it's a pretty neat device. My dad recently bought a Mac Book Pro and an iPod Touch and he told me that, compared to Windows, Apple computers are much more streamlined. He added that this mostly applies to more advanced computing but still - it's neat. My contract with T-Mobile is up tomorrow (8/29) so I'll be free from their reign. The Android phone reportedly comes out sometime in September so I will definitely be checking that out. In the meantime, I'm going to play around with my Touch more because I might be interested in an iPhone. Who knows?

This is random but it's worth noting. In Paramore's Riot! CD, check out the transition from the end of Let the Flames Begin to the beginning of Miracle. It's both seamless and musically clever. Comment and let me know what you think!

In work news, tonight is my first shift by myself and I am so ready! I'm ready to make money! It's great because the paychecks from church are for my bills and the money from Applebee's will all be extra that I can apply to savings, credit cards, etc. I'm really excited! Also, last night at choir I discovered a technique that I will implement at every choir rehearsal. In an effort to improve the choir's musical listening skills, I suggested that we all sing a few hymns without piano accompaniment. One of the ladies in the soprano section suggested that we all stand in a circle and sing instead of sitting down in rows. We sang five hymns or so and it really worked! From now on, I will be starting each rehearsal off like that. In addition to improving their listening skills, it also brings us closer together. It's a nice touch :]

As of today, Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 1:04pm, I have 617 pictures of Delaware low-digit license plates. My latest (PC911) was sent to me from a friend.

That's all for now. I'm working out with Alexa at 2pm today - triceps and chest! Work @ 4. See you soon.

8-26-08

Just wanted to provide an update as to what's been goin on in my daily life...

Today was my last day of training at Applebee's. It's such an easy job! The one thing I don't care for is the company's over-obsession with rules and regulations. Rules are good but not when they interfere with your primary responsibility - to take care of your guests. Here's an example - they make you say this whole speech when you greet a table, including a greeting, list of soups, specials, drink specials and appetizer specials. I don't know about you but, as a customer, I wouldn't want to be bombarded like that, especially if I came in and I already knew what I wanted. More critically, it makes the guests feel like they have a robot, not a server. It's all about personal attention! I guess Applebee's is a pretty good example of your typical corporate American food service business. *sigh*

Classes start next Wednesday - scary! I go to pickup my books this Friday - scarier! The coolest class I'm taking (by far) is HIST200 - The History of Delaware. I'm taking it with my friends Justin and Mark so that should be awesome. I hope they talk about low-digit license plates but I *highly* doubt it. This is my last semester of undergrad - very exciting!

I've REALLY been into Paramore lately - the best word I can describe them with is "fresh". I just love their use of the band instruments. It's so original and ... well, fresh.

I'm SO EXCITED about Joe Biden being Obama's VP choice! What a great moment in Delaware's history! I know Joe has a big mouth but I think he's the best and natural choice for the Democratic party. OBAMA-BIDEN '08!


As for recent tag sightings, I've been seeing a lot of 3-digits but the two I like the most in the past two weeks are 302 and PC66. 302 is awesome for the obvious reason that it's Delaware's only area code and PC66 because I had seen it once before but I wasn't able to snap a picture. I finally saw it in Middletown, made a sharp U-turn, and got right up behind it.


I think that just about wraps it up! Stay tuned for more updates!

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Six Flags!

Hey there!

Today is Justin's birthday and my mom treated him, Rakeen, Deborah and me to Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ. We got there around 10 and the park opened at 10:30. We rode Nitro, Batman and the Great American Scream Machine before we went to Wawa for lunch. When we got back to the park, we rode Kingda Ka and OMG it was incredible. Watch this...



The coaster accelerates from 0-128mph in 3.5 seconds and goes 458 ft. in the air! It was awesome! Definitely one of the coolest things I've done in my life!