Strange...

I noticed a strange phenomenon at work today--when my hair is down in a braid (such that it reaches the middle of my back), people tend to be unable to resist the urge to give it a tug or swing it. From my boss to the grumpy bartender, many people played with it over the three days I wore it in a braid to work. Silly people! Luckily, I don't mind at all.

However, I do mind that people are advocating my hair being cut. I'm not at the point where I want to cut my hair yet, but almost everyone at work thinks that I should cut it. Or let them cut it. Eep. I just finally started being able to braid it without the shorter layers poking out of the braid funny! I'm pretty sure everyone is just jealous because my hair is so long (and pretty).

Tonight is Sunday Funday with some of the people from work. I'm pretty excited. :-)

Better Weekend at Work

This weekend was much better for me at work, other than the fact that we were not as busy as normal. My brother started working on Thursday as our dishwasher, and Saturday I helped him out after I finished my serving shift. We left about 2:30am (Sunday morning), which is 3.5 hours after the restaurant closes. Last night, when he worked without me, he finished at midnight, which was only 2 hours after close! Hopefully that's a good sign for the future!

I'm sick of the spring rains. I want sunny days to be the NORM not the exception like it's been for two weeks. Ugh.

The boyfriend is at his home for a few days to assist his dad recover from surgery. He was diagnosed with colon cancer last month, and last week he underwent surgery to remove his colon and biopsy his lymph nodes. All the biopsies (40-something) came back clean, so essentially he's cured. I'm very thankful that they seemed to catch it early, even though they had to remove his colon. There's a family history of colon cancer, so it was wise to remove the whole colon and not just the affected areas. Of course, I need to prod my boyfriend to get himself checked out, if only to get a baseline for the future.

Now it's onto my day. Class and groceries are my only required activities today!

Nothing Particularly Noteworthy...

Yesterday was a heinously busy day at work--from 9-2:30ish, I had $1000 in sales. Which is very good for a Sunday (usually by 4, I make between $700-800 on a good day). Unfortunately, I utterly bombed in the tips department and only ended up making $105. So all day my tips were roughly 13%. Ouch. I didn't feel like any of my tables didn't like me, so I'm not sure where the problem arose. My general manager said that the problem was that people who don't usually eat out were out to eat yesterday...and perhaps were not impressed with my service on our BUSIEST DAY OF THE YEAR. *sigh* Luckily for me, I regularly have nights where my tips are 20% all night, so I won't suffer too much.

In other news, I went to Whole Foods today because I needed "Greek style yogurt", which my local Giant Eagle doesn't carry--go figure! While perusing the dairy aisle, I found skyr, which is an Icelandic dairy product. It's hard to describe, but it was very good. It's much thicker and creamier than yogurt (in fact, it's actually a fresh cheese). I was intrigued to find it because I had read about it online and saw it on TV.

Lastly, I helped my brother get a job at my restaurant. It's not the most glamorous, but it's money, and he can move up to better jobs as other positions open. And he'll be living in our apartment for the summer (in my previous roommate's vacated room), so that's pretty neat.

Apartment Hunt

The boyfriend and I hunted for apartments again. The first time, we found a great place to live (with one of our roommates from this year), but the roommate got a job in Cleveland so we had to look again for two bedroom apartments. Thankfully, looking for two bedrooms is a lot easier than looking for three bedrooms. We checked out 4 places yesterday and found one that was too old (no updated in the least), one that was too expensive and a little shady on pricing, one that was pretty nice, and one that seemed like the IT choice.

I did a little internet searching today about our top choice, and realized the complex is right next to train tracks. Not a complete deal breaker, but it soured the deal for me enough for me to look again at the "nice" choice. I also read reviews online, and while I know to take those with a grain of salt, most people had similar complaints (especially about noise).

I think we're going to end up going with the "nice" choice, because the location is pretty good (a stone's throw from where we're at now, so we know the area) and it seems that it will be cheaper for similar amenities (the ones that we'd use at least). We're both pretty happy with the choice, and I felt like I liked the leasing agent best at this place. We're putting in an application tomorrow (with no application fee!), and hopefully we'll be able to live there. We probably won't know for at least a while--since Ohio law requires only a 30 day notice for move-outs they won't know the availability for our time frame (late August) until June or July. We're estimating that it will cost us the same as living here once all utilities are considered, which is good, because we're both living within our means right now.

There's still a walk-in closet in the room I'd be in, which is a bonus (really, it's extra storage space for both of us). We have the option of getting it renovated (new carpet, new appliances, new cabinetry, new bathroom vanity) for not too much more. There's also a possibility of getting a brick wall in the living room, which sounds strange, but the more I think about it and looked at it, I kind of like the feel it gives the room. The complex was built in the 70s, so the brick was probably very chic at the time! We'd actually have a dining room, so no more eating on a couch! In all, it's pretty exciting.

Off topic, I love the smell of rain in the spring and summer. So refreshing!