Chinese Food and more

Today was a busy day for me. For starters, my computer tried to die yesterday and subsequently ate my 5 minute speech I had written in Japanese for my final. I also had my final written exam in my other Japanese class and was supposed to take my oral for the same before, since I am unable to be there at the appointed time on Monday. Add to all this that I had a "Study Session" for Famous Dave's in the middle of it. I was frazzled. I rushed (kinda late since I was stopped by the stupid train) to get Christina from work, who took her sweet time to get out of there. Love ya, hun! I got there too late for the oral, so I am doing that tomorrow. My exam went fairly well, and I had time to figure out how to improvise the rest of my presentation, since I had time to rewrite only half of it. I did all right, I guess. Oh, and Christina sat in on the class, and was thoroughly confused. We were all speaking in Japanese, and we didn't have subtitles. Afterwards, Kristy (one of the girls I knew from Japanese and Christina knew otherwise) asked us if we wanted to go out to dinner with her and her boy, Dion. We eventually said yes, and the two Chinese girls, Jiang and Ching-Chang (I think I spelled those right...) and Mary came out, too. We all went to Emerald City at Christina's suggestion, and had an awesome time. We ordered 5 dishes and split them between the seven of us. There was Chicken Mushu, Emerald City Chow Mein (with beef, scallops, and shrimp), General Tsao's Chicken, some Tofu with Mushroom dish, and a Sizzling Beef and Broccoli Skillet. Add to this an appetizer of Korean Style Dumplings (deep fried and crispy instead of steamed and pan fried. All in al, it came to only $11 a person, including tip. And this is not a cheap place! We made out well, with great food, good friends, and an enjoyable evening was had by all. A wonderful end to a frustrating day. And I get to snuggle up to Christina later on, too.

More adventures in the Life of David

At Best Buy on Saturday, we had a huge truck come it. Of course, this is the day we are supposed to have our smallest. Just my luck, eh? We are asked if we can come in at 5 in the morning instead of 6. Okay, I have bills to pay, I would have to leave at 9 anyway to go to my new job's orientation. I woke up at 4 to go to work at 5 and put up televisions for four hours. Yay me. Even with about 25 minutes snuggling up with Christina at home and changing before going to Famous Dave's for orientation, I was still kinda sleepy. I did get a great parking spot, though, right next to what I thought was a manager's car. It was a silver, brand new Mercedes-Benz 4-door. Very spiffy. Going inside, we all got mug shots taken for the corporate trainers (when they come on the 21st) and helped ourselves to some pop or coffee (ahhhhh, caffeine!). I was actually surprised to see that one of the waiters was a Best Buy Survivor named Bill who used to work in Home Theater. We ended up at the same table, and got to catch up. After many introductions and made up words (Ribalicious, Snoutstanding, Stick-to-it-ivity, and more, I am sure) we were broken up into three groups and we had to make up a cheer with choreography to promote the restaurant. Ours was the worst, we were barely in time with one another, and we stood stock-still. No biggie to me, I was never one for cheering. Since I knew the menu, they had me try to name off all of the items during a pause in the "cheer" but nobody stopped at the same time for me to spout stuff off. Ah well. The restaurant actually looks pretty nice to me. The smoking section is cramped and the bar is about 5 or 6 seals long, but the non-smoking section is roomy and well laid out. The kitchens are huge, with only a little bit of tightness around the initial prep area. My favorite feature, however, is the fact that the towel dispensers in the bathrooms (well, the Men's Room at least) is motion sensitive! You wash your hands as normal, then simply put your hand in front of the dispenser and, voila! towel in your hands. Simply tear, use, and discard. Three hours of the orientation and about four hundred speeches later, we are released into the wild once more. The owner of the Benz is none other than one of my fellow trainees. Another server. Not a manager, not an owner, but a server. Damn, why do they need tips? Anyway, at work on Saturday, Art (remember, the Almighty Slapnut?) told us -- not asking this time -- that we were coming in at 5 once more on Sunday to set up the ad due to a meeting we were having. We grumbled, and groaned, but did it regardless. It really wasn't that bad. I mean, hell, we got free donuts (I actually had a bagel) and since we were here early, we set aside some office chairs to sit in instead of having to sit on the floor. I just have a little more Japanese class for the next week, then I am done with Japanese till the fall. Ganbaru ZO!

Anime List

I know you've been waiting for it, so here it is... My anime list. Commercially Released Anime DVDs: Escaflowne Box Set Escaflowne Movie Lain Box Set Nadesico Box Set Love Hina 1-3 Love Hina Christmas Special Gunsmith Cats Vampire Princess Miyu TV 1 Oh My Goddess! 1&2 Oh My Goddess! Movie Marriage Record of Lodoss War OAVs 1&2 Rurouni Kenshin OAVs 1&2 Tenchi Forever Castle of Cagliostro Princess Mononoke Legend of Crystania Blood: The Last Vampire Saint Tail 1 Downloaded Anime CDs: Berserk 1-26 Love Hina 1-25 Love Hina Specials Love Hina Again 1-3 Love Live Hina Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His and Her Circumstances) 1-26 To Heart 1-13 Hack\\Sign 1-15 Hack\\Liminality 1-3 Hack\\Dusk 1-11 Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu 1-26 and I am sure there is more. I just thought I would share......

Shigoto wo shinakya....

Workety-work work work. For the past two days, I have been pulling 12 hour shifts at Best Buy because our jobs were threatened. We were told, right when we were leaving on Thursday, that we had to gut and completely organize and rearrange our warehouse to the managers' specific standards by Saturday night at close. Our supervisor, the almighty Slap-Nut Art, decided to not be there Saturday, since he was going up north. I would have done the same, mind you, but he's probably going to get fired because of this. Oh well. So, Michelle (the senior of the dept) took charge and worked two 14 hour days and we, along with some part timer help, rocked out the warehouse cleaning, and a mega-super-ultra truck shipment from hell. It looks damn good back there now, but, man oh man, it was not fun getting there. I finally bought Zelda: The Wind Waker. I have yet to play it since I was so tired last night. Figures, eh? I will get to it soon, though. I guess I am going to go to dinner at Christina's parents' house now, so I guess I should get ready. I'll check back here and post a few thoughts in another two or three days... maybe.

Had an awesome day!

Well, everything's comin' up Milhouse! Er, David.... It was a beautiful day in the small town of Westland: the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the Davids were humming happy little tunes. Allow me to elaborate. I woke up refreshed, having been able to sleep in till 8. Three hours longer than usual. After taking the lovely little lady to work, I came back and prettied myself up for my final interview to be a waiter at Famous Dave's (see prior post). Back at the "office" (the trailer outside the restaurant-in-progress) I met with Dan, the General Manager, and interviewed with him outside in the lovely weather. I wowed him with my product knowledge (why, yes, I do believe the beverages are best served IN GLASSES) and my prior experience (I eat almost every day!), and he went inside to confer with his fellow Daveites. I sat outside for about 15 minutes, during which time, I received a wonderful phone call, telling me my car that I wanted would, in fact, be mine. More details there later. I went in to talk to Mike, the Director of Operations, and then back outside to talk once more to Dan who told me that I had a job. Woo! Car and a job! All in one day! After the interview, I went to do some mundane errands. I jumped through hoops to get rid of my old Talon (now a large paperweight that plays the radio), and went home to get ready for class and take Christina to get my new car. An hour and a thousand signatures later, the car was mine. It is a 2003 Honda Civic LX 4-door sedan, and, for the next three years (and 36000 miles) it is mine. It is Pearl Blue, with a Grey interior, built in dash CD player, air conditioning, brake AND gas pedals, light up displays (blue, also), and a spacious trunk which would comfortably fit two bodies. I got hooked up big time. Dan Hedges is a great guy, of course. He hooked me up with the detail job of a lifetime. It sparkled. Hell yeah. He scotch-garded the interior, and clear coated the exterior. Clean as clean can be. I am pleased with it all. Top it all off with going out to dinner at Don Pablo's getting some fajitas and a giant Killian's, and David had a pretty rockin' day. I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll inform you of the next few days I will spend cleaning the warehouse at Best Buy. I'll see how horrific it is when I actually do it.