Bad Luck

Yesterday, I worked the lunch shift, and had some bad luck. First, I had the good fortune to serve a woman with food allergies. She couldn't eat anything with garlic or onions in it. EVERYTHING we serve is cooked with garlic. So I had to spend 10 minutes dicking around with her and the cooks to find a bland enough salad for her to eat. Then I served this old couple...they were nice enough, bantered with me and whatnot. I took them their check, left for two minutes to check another table, and came back. They had already taken off, without paying the bill, but leaving a tip. At least it was a good tip. Then I got stiffed by a couple of businessmen who left no tip. Lots of bad luck.

Have you seen my buns?

Well, work at Buns has been great. My training was finished in about 3 days, and I settled right back into the old restaurant-work routine. It's a great restaurant, actually. It's casual yet elegant dining, with very good food. The other servers are great. Most are in their twenties, and plenty of them are attractive females, which is always a plus. My boss is a tought little Greek guy named Vasily, and he's a good boss. The managers are really nice too. It's been really fun, and it feels good getting back to some hard work and making money again. It was a slow weekend, though, but things should pick up soon.

I've continued lifting, running and swimming. That, combined with 4-8 hours a day of frantic running around while I wait tables should make for a lean Tom very soon. Speaking of that...I'm the third Tom at Buns right now, which means I'm now Tommy R. while at work. The only person I've ever let call me "Tommy" was Sarah.

I'm just about to finish "A German Identity: 1770 to the Present Day". It's an analysis of the German crises of identity, from essentially the Enlightenment and the subsequent Napoleonic invasions to reunification (it was written in '91). The author uses cultural, political, economic and national factors to explain the various stages of modern German history as a search for identity. It's an interesting thesis, and probably correct. Germany as Mitteleuropa was very late in establishing itself as a nation-state, and culturally there were as many Germanies as there were Laender.

A Jorb!

Today I got a job at the nicest restaurant in Delaware! It's a place called Buns, and the owner, a Greek, called me this morning to offer me a server position. I just applied two days ago, and I start tonight. With any luck, Apple will give me a job too, and I'll be able to start making bonzo bucks.

In new Onion fun:

PORTUGAL FINALLY GETS IT TOGETHER
LISBON, PORTUGAL—To the relief of surrounding countries, Portugal seems to have finally gotten its ducks in a row, sources reported Monday. "Man, I didn't think P. would ever get it together," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. "But it really cleaned up its act and got its shit straight. Who would've guessed?" Cyprus said that if Portugal can do it, maybe it can, too.

Chinese Factory Worker Can't Believe The Shit He Makes For Americans

Round and About

Cool, Gaelic gets official.

Welshwoman runs across Russia. Those Welsh chicks are a hardy bunch...I travelled with a Welsh-Australian last summer in Scotland, and she kicked ass at climbing mountains. It was like she never needed breaks.

Germans don't like the euro

Spanish drought

Things are going well in my world. Went to church on Sunday with dad - it was the Episcopal church here in Delaware. It's a beautiful old stone church, and the priest gave a good sermon. It's ECUSA though, so who knows what's really going on there. There is an Anglican church down in north Columbus somewhere I'd like to try out, and there are even a few Byzantine Catholic churches in the Columbus area. Yep, I said Byzantine Catholic. I'm curious to see what they're like.

Apple is still pulling me along. I'm betting they don't really need seasonal help till July. They keep telling me it'll be one more week, one more week. Hopefully I'll at least get a good two months of work in. Otherwise my parents have been paying me for work around the new house, and I've been spending the rest of my time working out, reading, hangin' with the fam, writing and praying.

Apple + Intel!

Apple and Intel are gonna be in cahoots! That's crazy, and probably a brilliant business move my Mr. Jobs. Here's a good article.