A walk in my gnar boots

The boots:

I ounce read a quote from Steve Choi, an interviewer mentioned that he notices most of the band plays on stage barefoot, asking what that was about and if he regularly does the same(even though he saw him with shoes that day). Steve responds by saying how Matt, Joe and Gak generally do, it was part of the beach life of growing up in cali, they walked around barefoot almost everywhere, so they in turn developed gnar boots(Callouses on their souls, I would imagine[pun mildly intended]).

Days off, the days that go by:

I wake up around noon or later; which is what I normally do when going to work, but I do infact have the option to sleep in. I check up on the internet, I've lost most touch with the world I grew up in, the world I love. In truth all my friends(on the net) have grown up, much as myself, or I've lost touch with them as often happens in real life and happens much easier online, which is happening to me aswell. There really just isn't time or reason for us to sit and lurk or talk on the internet anymore. Some are in college, some have Jobs, some are in between jobs and have found a social life outside of the crystal filled screens. I can't say the same hasn't happened for me without the whole college/real social life. My social life outside of this screen basically consists of chilling with patrons at my bar after I get off work or going to other bars after work. With the exception of sporadic Sundays at the wonderful Ms. Becky B's house, where we do shots and get shitfaced and she lets me and renea crash so we don't have to worry. Becky thinks I'm a hilarious drunk which is a plus. I also sometime go to Smokin' Joe's to discuss the inner working's of his online music horde that I am managing to a decent extent. Apart from that it's exactly the same as before I had a job, only with less internet, more cooking and struggling to want to play games but being vastly bored with them(which has changed some since getting a PS3).

But this is all beside the original point, so I will carry on.

If I'm lucky enough to have something quick to cook for breakfast at 2pm(GH time), I do. Which usually only consists of 2 boxes of mac and cheese with Amy's spicy chili added. Otherwise it's leftovers. Sometimes we make egg and potato breakfast tacos though. Then we watch GH, sometimes Ellen. After we usually play some games(as of recent) or we watch who wants to be a millionaire and then jeopardy and start cooking around 6 or 7(for dinner). I recently read a book, "Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential" that not only helped me love my Job more but helped me realize that cooking is awesome and helps me relax and de-stress, even if my dish is highly stressful. Which depending on how many beers I've had since prepping, Jen will cook/help cook if I fall in the weeds and get behind or just change my mind and decide I don't want to cook I just want to spice everything and such. Which isn't exactly true, I've been doing that more on stuff she can't cook, so she learns. Like stir-fry. But never the less, it's a good save for me either way. That book taught me some of the joy of cooking and especially trying new things you've never ever done before. if it sucks? its cat food. Fix it next time. Even if you can't stand what you cooked, taste it enough to find out the problem, don't ever give up. Over done, too salty, too bland, under cooked, anything, taste and fix it. Unless it's raw meat, fish or chicken and it's undercooked. That'll kill you.

I'll used this as a shining example.

Sunday:

Sunday, I had my sister change my team for the fantasy nascar team(I know you just laughed at me). I was too tired from being up late saturday. I get up, for the first sunday in awhile I don't have anything I need to do. Don't need to go to Renea's Parents house, Don't need to go shopping, don't want to go shopping, don't need to meet up with anyone, or anything. Only downside is that the race was postponed untill monday due to rain.

I lounge around, hitting up the internet a bit here and there, talking shit to people our chat channel, played some games, whatever I felt like. We ate and then I started up a radio show. My bud Andrey, who hosts the radio stream for me to broadcast from(still not sure about my cap limit, supposedly I have none, but I won't be responsible for throttling and Andrey doesn't upload/download much) was already planning to go to a friends house. I stupidly started using Wednesday as the radio show day. I say stupid because I work thursday. Bad time to host a show that you always get drunk on. Plus Renea works the next day and my music keeps her up. It was monday for awhile. I flop between sunday/monday now, but nothing's slated. Some Sundays's I'm already too in to chill mode to drink alot and DJ/sing songs if requested(or not and I think they all need to hear me). I had some vodka on hand and stuck to the beer and shots. I never really felt buzzed but I was drunk enough to sing Against Me! to this 14 year old kid I recently met who is in a band and didn't believe I could sing. After awhile I had Jen drunk too and actually started DJing and talkinging(though I passed out while DJing, but that is beside the point).

Monday:

I woke up early to my mom calling me about having to go in to see my grandmother and help her clean as she has been sick for over a week. We were to watch my little sisters, but I commented that we were going that way also, so she said she'd take the kids and we could take Renea's car. I told her we'd watch them it was fine. She refused, so I woke up my sister and told her to go watch them. My mom took them anyways. I fell back asleep and woke up about 20 minutes later to Renea's cell ringing. We said fuck it and went back to sleep. Just as we were falling it rang again. This happened 4 times. It was her mom, excited about a sewing machine find at a thrift store(that wound up not working, but it was only $10). So I wind up getting up around 10, which is early. Renea said she was craving over easy eggs. So I cooked them up. I then started on my refried beans cause I wanted quesodilla's for breakfast. Renea goes to work on purses and I wind up watching TV mindlessly untill around 1:30 when Jen wakes up. Start cooking them and watch GH. We play Bioshock2 most of the day and I played with Pachuca most of the day on my breaks, it was warm enough for her to go in the water. Afterwards we had another "Unhealthy Monday" Which we barely ever do. But this time it was home made Jalapeno Poppers, Jen's epic salad and fish n chips.

These are good days off. These are my perfect days. Cooking, drinking and games. That's me.

Shoesies part 2: Electric boogaloo

Change of pace:

Slow days save my life. They can be annoying, but, for the most part I enjoy them as much as working my ass off. Last weekend was a perfect example. Saturday I came in to work, Thursday and Friday were pretty busy, fell in the weeds once on both nights. So I assumed saturday would be pretty mellow. I come in, start with sweeping as I do on Friday/Saturday, then took out some ciabatta as we only had 2 or 3 panini's left from friday night. Damn near everything is MTO on saturday, which can be a pain in the ass but is also a bit refreshing. Making everything to order is a slight change up and only really hurts if we get busy. It started off slow, infact it reminded me of last fall/winter, we changed our hours to open at 2pm on saturday, I usually had a good 2 to 3 hours before even making one order, or very few and far between. Ken and Kirsten came in, we had Kelly(medina group) actually sitting at the bar for a change as her group was all out of town. I chatted with her a little bit which was nice, I've never really talked to her. It was pretty dead, so all the regulars who I enjoy talking to I actually was able to. It did pick up later on but that was alright. My girlfriends brother Tim even came in for a bit. Only thing that sucked about it picking up was that we were supposed to go chill with Tim and Miriam. But that's only this particular day, I don't mind small rushes that pass the time.

Routine:

There's not as much to say and not as much prep work on the off days so it generally goes something like this.

Show up, Sweep, Cut and weigh cheese, replace all the candles in the candle holders, there's between 20 and 35, I haven't counted in awhile and we have some more. Then I either take a smoke break or do some random task my boss presents me with which can be anything from pricing new wines, repricing all the wines, stocking wine, cleaning something or everything which can include ceiling fans, fridge, thorough sweeping of my workspace. I generally fold out almost linen napkins also, around 25 to 50 of them.

Saturdays can be anywhere from completely dead and I get off work around 8, 8:30(which only gives me a 4-4.5 workday). They've also been known to be completely different, we've had saturdays as busy as a thursday or friday. Birthday parties, scheduled or not. Random groups of tourists or even random groups of locals. I can be busy in the kitchen all night and not get out till 10-10:30. We also usually have oktoberfest on saturdays which I have literally worked a 10 to 12 hour day. We are also doing a mayfest(Maifest) this year aswell, which is also a german thing. I believe it's to welcome spring.

Another good thing I enjoy about Friday is that I get to leave at 3:30, which means I get to watch General Hospital and usually catch the first half of the Ellen show. Mindless stupid TV, but I've been hooked and watching GH since I was born, my earliest memories of it are when I was 6 or 7 and I generally remember the history of the show and all the crazy soap shit that happens better than anyone. Ellen is just hilarious most times.

Slow days, while annoying, save lives.