Audio/Visual Tech Work

So Saturday Tuesday night earlier this week I received a phone call from a friend who was inquiring as to whether I would be interested in working a job for him from Saturday night to Sunday evening. He explained to the majority of the job and I said I would call him back with an answer later in the week. So after discussing the night with some people I decided I would work for my friend. It was a gig at Universal City Walk and it was located at the Gibson Amphitheater. The call time was 11 O'clock PM and we were supposed to go till 3 AM, which would get me home around 4 to sleep until 6 and be up again in time for rehearsal at my church. But the band didn't start playing until 11 PM and wasn't finish until 1 Am so we had to stay an extra 2 hours! We got paid for the extra two hours that made it a “full day” job so that I got the higher amount of pay then a “half-day" would offer. The only downside was that I didn't have one minute of sleep until Sunday night at 9 o'clock PM. Driving Sunday was one of the most dangerous things I have ever done. I was all good though and the band did really well on Sunday. Plus, I was able to see some friends of mine that I had gone on tour with this past summer. One of them was visiting from Colorado so that was a treat. We ended up getting lunch and just chilling at a park for the rest of the day until they had to leave. By that time I had gotten my 8th wind or something like that and was doing all right. Kind of out of it but doing alright. As I drove the 40-minute drive home I slowly became more and more tired. I made it home in the end but realized that driving on no sleep is something to try to avoid at all costs.

Searching For A New Vehicle

So recently I have been looking to buy a new vehicle. I haven't yet decided exactly what I want but I know that I am going to get a car. Most likely a sedan. I have looked into a lot of coupes as well but I don't know if that's whats going to do it for me. I am looking for something that can accommodate at least a minimal setup for my drums. Good gas mileage is a must have but I also am interested in something that looks stylish. Sometimes I think a Jetta would suffice but then I rethink it and don't know if I want a car that everyone calls a chick car. I think the Passat looks a little more sophisticated but along with the sophistication comes a larger price than the Jetta. Both cars are very similar. One of the things that would make getting a Jetta a plus is that fact that my father used to work on them and as long as it isn't a super new model, then my dad could fix virtually anything that went wrong with it. That brings up mileage. I prefer something with low mileage but if I end up getting a car that my dad can work on, a high mileage is less of a factor due to my father being able to help fix it. Sometimes I think I should just get a loan and buy something nicer and work on paying that off but something tells me right now that I should just go with what works well on my budget and stick with that. So all-in-all I believe I will end up purchasing a Jetta and using that to help transport myself around. If anyone reads this and decides that they would like to give me a Lexus IS300 or possibly some Mazda or BMW. Just leave me a comment.

Serving...

So as many of you know, I work at a restaurant. Islands is the name. We offer quality food served safely. I got a job working for Islands in December of 2006. I began working on the day after Christmas which is the 26th. Never had I realized how much went into serving people at a restaurant. To attain the position of server while working at Islands one needs to start off as a host. Hosts do lots of little chores. Their first and ultimate responsibility is to seat people when they walk into our store. Islands holds them to a standard of opening the door for guests and giving them an enthusiastic greeting! The host will then take them to an open table that will be decided upon by taking into account the number of tables each server has and who was last sat. You find the server who is the least busy and you give them the new table so as to assure them quality service and a quick meal. Hosts also bus tables and keep the restaurant clean. They empty trashes and restock napkins along with keeping buckets filled with a sanitizing solution full and clean. The next position at Islands is the backserver. The backserver is the person who puts food that came out from the cooks into the proper order, ensures that the food is what the person ordered, and is responsible for making sure that every order has the proper condiments and extra foods that the person ordered. The backserver position can be a very stressful job because people hold you responsible if the food came out wrong and it's the backservers job to keep food moving on the line and never stop working otherwise all the food would just build up in the window. In order to work a backserver shift one should know all the abbreviations for the foods and each individual modifier. After one has mastered backserver they are ready to take on the takeout window. Takeout can sometimes be compared to serving and sometimes it is even harder then serving. As a takeout person, one will have to take and order over the phone or in person, then enter it into the computer, wait for all the food to come out of the window, check the food, individually box up the items, package the boxed items and provide the customer with the necessary utensils and condiments in separate containers. Once the takeout spot is mastered then one will be ready to serve. After training for multiple shifts. More to come next week.