Donations

If anyone would like to donate to the  "Get Anna a New Bike" fund, I would greatly appreciate it. You can send it to my mailing address, or tell me how to figure out paypal. My email associated with paypal is annasoke@yahoo.com.....my mailing address is 1629 Hawthorne Ln, Charlotte NC, 28205. Anything is accepted and appreciated.

:)

Team Players

If everyone does a little, nobody has to do a lot. This is all too true; yet, some people at my work place feel the need to completely ignore this philosophy. Good to know, though, that those people will not be working at Mimosa very long. :)  Working there is great, but tiring. I'm pulling 10 shifts on average every week. The money is good, but I'm exhausted already!

Not much is happening in my life except work. My birthday is coming up and we will be having a cook out (courtesy of my mom). I'm pretty excited about that, but birthdays don't really mean that much these days. I guess I've hit all the good milestones - 18 and 21, haha.

My bicycle got stolen from work yesterday. I'm really upset because now I'm either going to have to go without, or spend a lot of money to get another one which will derail my budget that I spent a couple hours figuring out how to be debt free before 24. Decisions decisions.

Life at Mimosa

I've begun my dinner training at Mimosa Grill now. I am very pleased. Everyone has been so welcoming and have gone out of their way to say how they are happy to have me as an addition to the dinner servers. (I think they just want some days off, but who can blame them?)

I keep calling CPCC, but they are not returning my messages and I'm not getting an answer at anytime that I call. I may try to go there tomorrow to get some answers. Time is ticking. I have not yet gotten my NC drivers lisence. I need to hurry up and do that so my year to establish residency for tuition purposes is sooner rather than later.

Other than working, I haven't had much time for anything. I should take pictures of the progress of the house. I'm completely moved in. I think Christopher still has some stuff he wants to do, but everything is IN the house. I think Joe is pretty much moved in, too. There are just boxes upon boxes stacked up everywhere. We need to get rid of that business. I heard that cockroaches come from the glue on cardboard boxes. Gross!

Busy Bee

Wow. I have been so extremely busy that I've completely neglected this blog. Here are some quick highlights. The boys and I are pretty much completely moved into the house. I think Christopher has a few things left at his apartment, but his lease is up May 14, so he definitely has to get his things out of there quickly.  My room is still completely messy. I don't have a dresser or anything, so I'm trying to save money for one, or I could just decrease the amount of clothes I have.

This will be my last week at Big Daddy's.  I'm happy because I won't have to drive all the way down to Ballantyne almost every day. Thank goodness!! However, I'm kind of sad because it's super easy work and I make decent money there.  Apparently, I'll be making more money at Mimosa for dinners, so hopefully that'll work out.

I'll be going down to Columbia Friday for Michelle's masters graduation. I'm so proud of her and happy for her!  I'm thinking of going to CPCC for dental hygiene. I have to wait a year to become in-state for tuition purposes. Oh how I hate waiting!!

I bought a second-hand bicycle on Sunday. I'm so happy! I can start riding it to work (Mimosa) so I can park my car. I also live within walking distance to the grocery store, plenty of food establishments, and local watering holes :) Hopefully I'll rarely have to drive. Christopher had a grocery bag pannier and a basket that he doesn't use on his bicycle, so we attached it to mine. This is all coming together quite beautifully. I feel all is well with the world right now.

Overwhelming

I started working at Mimosa for lunch on Tuesday. I've been training (today is day 3) and it's a pretty good time.  The people there are very nice and helpful. It's such a fine dining restaurant though, I sometimes feel out of place. I guess I just won't joke around as much as I do at Big Daddy's.  I think that working two jobs is going to be really tough, but maybe it's just because I'm training at Mimosa and I'm having to study for all these tests after I've been working literally all day. I'll go to Mimosa at 10 (but leave the apartment at 9 because traffic from South Charlotte to Uptown is RIDICULOUS! I leave Mimosa around 2.30 and begin my trek back to South Charlotte which takes probably 25 - 30 minutes. I go home to let Stoli out and play while I change into Big Daddy's uniform. Then I usually have to be at Big Daddy's from 4.30 to around 10 or 11. Last night I didn't get home until 11.15. By that time, I'm pretty beat. Thank goodness Shugart is around to let Stoli out while I'm not home. When we move into the house, the boys will be there. Which concerns me about Christopher. I told him I didn't want him to resent me because he had to take care of my dog or anything. As much as he loves dogs, I don't want him to think I'm a neglectful mom. He said he wouldn't. I'm hoping the days of two jobs is coming to a quick end, but we shall see.

Speaking of jobs - FS Food Group (which owns Big Daddy's) is opening a BBQ place in Plaza Midwood right off Central which is the road the new house if very near. So, maybe I can make the switch over there and not have to drive all the way to Ballantyne to work. That would be ideal. I talked to my general manager last night and she said she would like to use me to be somewhat like a trainer at the BBQ place since I've been at Big Daddy's long enough to know the atmosphere and expectations of the company. I took that as a compliment.

I really hate restaurant tests...but I'm off to study for mine. ugh.