You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2005.
I just found out that my older brother Andre’ is engaged!!! I felt kind of weird about getting married before him, because he’s 11 years older, but now I don’t have to. He and Dancy are getting married in February. I’ll have to miss school for it, because it’s in San Francisco, but MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!! The reason this makes me so gosh darn happy, is that I think this is something that he’s been wanting for some time now, and I’ve noticed that he’s just a happier person with Dancy. So yay!
How often do you think it is that you find something on ebay that you really want, for a decent price, and the person selling it lives near you? I found some speakers to go with my ipod mini (that I splurged on for China) and an external battery pack from a guy that lives in South Bend. We’re going to meet at the UP mall on Sunday to do the exchange. It’ll save alot on shipping cost. Yesterday I puttered around the house in the morning, did a little work. Then went to the Bluegill to do dishes. After that I drover over to Jesse’s and lazed around under a tree reading Cold Mountain until he came home. I’m really enjoying the book. I like how true the movie was to the book, but enjoy seeing a deeper side to the story. Once Jesse was home we were very domestic….making supper together, and then I went grocery shopping. It was kind of cute. I talked to him about the whole last name thing some. At least so he’d know how I felt. I still haven’t thought of any good ideas to solve this. I’m not sure I ever will. We watched the Average Joe, and I’m really really rooting for this guy named Jake (I think). He’s so gosh darn cute, and sweet to boot. He’s the kind of guy I’d typically be attracted to. Epecially physically, or maybe I should say facially, because that’s really what attracts me anyway. Oddly enough Jesse really isn’t at all what I’d normally be attracted to, but more and more he’s the only guy I am truly attracted to…… ok enough with the mushy. After that I went over to Kulp and meet up with Abby and had fun talking till almost midnight. We looked up tickets from Hong Kong to Bangkok, and it’s looking like if we do end up staying the extra 10 days, then that might we where we spend them. That would be amazing!!!!! I’ve always wanted to go to Thailand.
Then this morning I slept in and went to do dishes at the Bluegill. I was just about to leave, when I decided the cup waste bucket needed to be emptied. I’d never tried to empty it before, and I misjudged my ability to get it’s contents into the sink and ended up dumping all over myself and the floor. I was so gross. It was a ten gallon bucket almost full, and it holds a combination of water, pop, olive oil + spices, coffee and a few other odds and ends that find their way in. I had to stay over my time to mop it all up which cut into the hour break I have before I had to go back for the supper shift that I was SAing. SAing went fine, if a bit long. It sucks when servers tell you the wrong table number or position number when they ask you to do something, cause then you end up looking like an idiot. Like tonight a server asked me to take soup out to the two ladies at a table, and it ended up the second lady hadn’t even order soup. O well, life’s like that sometimes. That’s about all folks.
Today my mom asked me why I live my life at night and then sleep during the day. It’s something I’ve struggled with since middle school. I’m a night owl, no question there, but I do tend to enjoy life better when I’m going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. I wonder why that is. This morning I got up around 10 and went down to mow my sister’s lawn. It takes about 50 minutes to get there, and tragically my mom had failed to tell me that she didn’t have a key and that I was supposed to bring the one Lenora had given me. So we turned around and came back. Then I felt pretty deflated and read some and then took a nap. In the afternoon I cleaned my bathroom and worked a bit on the downstairs that still has some cleaning up to do. After a bit Jesse came over and set up the wireless internet access on my parents computer that I’m now using sitting in bed and chatting with Nathan and Derek on IM…… I love the internet. Went back to Jesse’s and just kind of relaxed together. He’s working long hard hours, and doesn’t have a whole lot of energy at the end of the day, so we’ve been doing that alot. And now back here for some interneting.
Abby’s recent blog about China made me think about my own feelings and how I too am concerned about not dealing with it well. I’m so amazingly excited! But I’m also terrified. I mean what if I can’t talk to my cooking family at all. I feel like the only Chinese I have a grasp on is hello and goodbye, and even that I don’t remember the tones for. I did so poorly in Chinese class…. 
But I’m trying to let the excitement be the dominate emotion. I’ll miss Jesse…..
I’ve been thinking some for the past little while about how I’m changing my name when I get married. I won’t be Stephanie H******** anymore…. I’ll be Stephanie S*************. I’ll be giving up a piece of my identity. I mean I’ve been Stephanie H******** all my life. There’s not much more basic about our identity than our names. No matter what I’ve been, done, where I’ve lived, etc. I’ve always been Stephanie H********. In less than a year I won’t be. I’ll have to remember to tell people the right name… learn a new signature. I’ve always thought that I’d change my name. I really didn’t mind the tradition, but now that it comes down to it, it seems like a much bigger deal to be changing my name. I wish there was a more equal way of doing it, but even the middle name thing doesn’t really work for us, because Jesse’s middle name is Jesse and John, his first name, is a family tradition that I wouldn’t want him to give up. Hyphenation doesn’t really work…. can you imagine me having to sign “Stephanie H********-S*************” no way! so what can Jesse do to some how tip the balance a little more equally. I mean….. I don’t know, I just feel that it would be nice if there was something that he was doing to token his changing of identity as we unite as well. Something saying “I’m hers just as much as she’s mine”. Tis a puzzlement (name that tune). In other news, our wedding bands are done and will be on their way to the the US by monday!!!! (with Thushan) I’m excited to see them. Thushan’s father is a jeweler and his company is making them for us. Well night all. Pleasant dreams.
Music: The Ferryman by Gaelic Storm
Yesterday morning Abby and I had an interesting adventure going to Goodwill because we thought (along with lots of other people) that it was a 50% off day. We both need a few things for China. Turns out the sign was misleading, and it was not a 50% off day, so after browsing for a little while and hearing the announcement that we were wrong Abby bought a shirt that she liked and we headed home….. only we didn’t get far because my battery was dead since I had accidentally left my lights on. So my dad came and rescued us and I took Abby home so she could go to an interview. Then I headed over to Jesse’s for brunch with his family and then a quick trip to Target for a card and off to Kay’s to pick up my engagement ring which I’d had resized finally. Then home for a shower and off again to get my hair trimmed. I had her curl it too because I was going to a wedding next, and it’s not very often that I get to have curly hair. My stylist did and excellent job, and I thought it was cute. We always want what we don’t have, and I’ve always been jealous of curly hair. I back over to Jesse’s to change, and sat out on his porch swing for a bit to enjoy the muggy Indiana afternoon. Erin, Keith, Jesse and I headed over to Sunnyside Mennonite (Jesse’s church) for Amanda Friesen and Kyle Detwiler’s wedding. Amanda is Ben’s older sister, and Kyle’s actually from Oregon and I went to school with his younger sister. She was a groom’s attendant, and it was cool to see her again. Jesse’s family and the Freisens are good friends. It was a pretty wedding, and I have to admit that I got pretty emotional, alot because of thinking about the fact that in less than a year I’ll be having my own. I liked the decorations, nice and simple and elegant. After we went home, Jesse and I ran to blockbuster and rented Get Shorty, the prequal to Be Cool. Keith and Erin watched it with us and we all enjoyed it. Then I came home and went to bed.
This morning I went to work brunch at the Bluegill. I worked the first Sunday we were open, but haven’t worked since then, and it’s pretty slow, although we did have a busier Sunday than usual I think, so I kept busy, but it wasn’t nearly as stressful. Of course I’ll probably only make about $15 in tips or less, but I got really good biscuits and gravy when we were all done serving. I was going to go up to Mennofolk with Abby, but she ended having to go up early because of a biking accident that one of her brother’s friends had and she needed to pick them up. I couldn’t remember really how to get to the camp, and didn’t feel like driving up alone, so I ended up spending with afternoon with Jesse and then the evening here at home doing odd things. I also spent about an hour trying to get things sorted out about my computer screen which freaks out every once in a while. I’ve been trying to get it sorted out for about a month now. The first time I contacted Gateway, the guy reset my computer to a date before it started messing up, even though I told him I was sure it was an internal problem with the monitor because when I disconnected it from the tower the problem persisted. So that didn’t do much good. Then a couple weeks ago I called again, and the guy told me that I’d have to call back when it was happening so that the could trouble shoot it. So it was happening tonight and I called…..only after I explained the problem, he told me that he was putting me on hold for a few minutes to “research this problem”. After about 20 minutes I hung up and called again. This guy was really nice and helpful, and set me up to get a new one, so even though it was frustrating, I’m glad to finally be done with it. Hurray! And that’s all folks.
Yesterday was my usual day for cleaning at the Gilberts, and when I got there I found out that their basement had been flooded. I did most of the usual cleaning, but then had a few other things to help with as well. Then in the evening Jesse and his sister and her husband and I went out to Hacienda and saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Jonny Depp was really weird, and I enjoyed the movie, although I felt that it could have been longer and a little faster moving at some parts…. the whole thing felt just a little slow. Overall it was fun. I really enjoyed hanging out with Erin and Keith. They’re great and it was nice to get to know them better. Also Keith is a potter, and is probably going to do a nice set of dishes for us, so he brought some things out (they live in Pitsburg) so we can get an idea of what design we want. Oh, and we got lots of rain, which we needed. It was kind of pretty and I enjoyed hearing the thunder, although I didn’t see any lightning.
Music: Defying Gravity from Wicked (the sweet new musical by the same composer as Godspell)
So it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted! I’m so jealous of people who take time to blog every day…..ahem Katie….. sigh, if only I were that responsible.
Well, first off, I found a job (or two or three) At first I was working at Bob Even’s, but then the Bluegill offered me a job so I quit there. I enjoy working there, it’s exhilarating and pays decently, but here are a few beefs I have with it….. 1) they told me they had full time work so I quite the other job that I had, then they only scheduled me for 15 hours or so…. I could have kept my job at Bob Even’s part time and worked at Bluegill part time. That’s the most frustrating thing, because I really needed to make money this summer and that really hindered the process. 2) they don’t pay the server assistants (what I am) for how hard we work. The servers earn at least 3 times as much as we do, and I would say that they work alot harder. I realize it’s harder being a server, but not enough harder to warrant that much discrepancy. 3) They told me that I’d be moved to server after about a month….it’s been a month and a half (Ben Freisen was hired after me as a server assistant with no serving experience and became a server right away). There are other things that are really frustrating about it, but those are the big ones. So after I realized that I was only going to get a few nights a week as a server assistant, I volunteered to wash dishes at lunch. So that added another 12 hours (they originally told me I could wash dishes on Sundays too, but then gave it to the new dish washer) I only get $6 an hour dishwashing. I think the hardest thing about my job at the Bluegill is the fact that everyone’s stressed out during service because we all have too much to be doing, and when different people have different ideas about what they should be doing etc, you have to find healthy ways to relate to the other people. That can be hard when there’s really no time to deal with things and sometimes it feels like you’re being blamed or critiqued when you’re working as hard as you possibly can. BUT….. it feels great to do a really good job and to realize that you are a valuable part of a team. It feels wonderful to have a server say “Steph you did great tonight, you really had my back” or “Thanks tonight, I did well at that table because you did so well” And we really are a great restaurant, amazing food from scratch, good atmosphere, and great service. So I guess there are ups and downs to everything. Other than that, I’ve house sat for two families, mowed lawn for my sister who just moved back to the area (it takes almost 5 hours to get it done, and I’m using a push mower…uggg), and clean house for the Gilberts. So that’s my job situation. I didn’t mean for it to be quite so negative, but I had to get that stuff off my chest.
Jesse came home from Chicago for good about a month ago. Things really weren’t working out there, and now he’s working at a factory in Middlebury. It’s really nice to have him back. I hang out with him and his family alot. Their family gets together all the time. Every time an aunt or cousin or whoever have a birthday they get together…..father’s day……the 4th etc. I like that. We’ve really enjoyed swimming in the pond that we’ll be married by next summer. Jesse lives right next to his aunt and uncle who live right next to his grandparents who have a pond in the back yard. Very nice…. just the right size. Speaking of which, our wedding is going to be June 10th next year in case I haven’t said that before.
Ummm…. other than that, I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with Abby this summer. The other night we had fondue with Luke, Nathan, and Jonathan. We’ve been talking about China some and I’m really nervous about going. First off, I really have no handle on the language what so ever, and what if I really screw up on my classes etc…. I’m also thrilled though. Very mixed feelings. Oh! Lenora (my sister) and Tobias are thinking about having kids soon!!!!! little munchkins running around again 
That’s exciting. Speaking of which, I’m so very excited Lenora moving to the area (she lives about 50 min. away). I haven’t lived in the same place as a sibling since 8th grade, and not with Lenora since I was about 9. In other news, Jesse and I went up to Chicago and saw Wicked. I loved it It’s no Les Miserables, but it’s fun and fresh and has some cute music. (this is the link that came up when I typed in “wicked” also interesting)
I think that’s all…… thankyou to whoever actually reads this all the way through, I know it’s long. Hope you’re all having a great summer. Night.
