pick up where we left off and get smashed (again)

You know when you go to a restaurant and coffee shop, and you always end up seeing the same waitress or barista? It takes you a while to get their name but eventually you do.

From the other side of the counter, we see our interaction with you as a welcome break from the monotony of standing at the espresso machine pulling shots and steaming milk all day long. It's nice when you are open to trying new things, but nicer when you know what you like and have your favorites. I will confess that I often cannot remember people's names, but myself (and most baristas) quickly get to recognize people who regularly order the same thing.

Even if we do inwardly smile and think "Hey, it's white chocolate raspberry mocha and a piece of coffee cake guy!"

I don't really understand how people get to find out that their most favorite thing in the world is an medium orange mocha with amaretto and 3 shots with whipped cream, or a 4 shot iced americano "with the ice first!!!" or a dry breve vanilla cappuccino (though, to be honest, I don't understand how anyone finds a dry cappuccino to be their favorite thing. ick). There seem to be an infinite number of variables involved.

Then again, there will be the odd time when I make something for myself that involves so many adjectives I am almost ashamed at the prissiness of my drink. Large 2 shot iced cherry almond mocha with whipped cream?

Don't mind if I do!

Life at the Fair Trade

I've been working at a wonderful coffee shop in downtown Phoenix called the Fair Trade Cafe. It's located at Central and Roosevelt, just south of the Spaghetti Factory (another fun and awesome business in a truly unique building).

I've never worked at a place that has a cause I support so wholeheartedly. All the coffee we've got is Fair Trade Certified. For more information on how fair trade practices work, the Wiki has a quick rundown for you.

I am really hoping that downtown Phoenix continues to grow and have more businesses like ours. Phoenix is definitely up and coming, but with the development of the light rail and continuing urban expansion we are seeing in the area, it will soon be the kind of downtown people will truly enjoy visiting. We are already seeing a lot more people just wandering around exploring the interesting local things there are to see, which is a positive thing.

Oh, and here is today's photo. Salvador Dali faces off with a rhino. Kind of perfectly captures the weirdness of today.

the way up to heaven

The new year started off pretty well, but in the past week, following a falling out with a friend, I suddenly realized how little and how much people can change all at once. The more I think about it, the more I begin to understand that this is how some people have always been. Everyone else is moving forward while they stand still, not understanding that all they need to do is make the attempt to move and it will happen.

It isn't possible to look it up online and try to read articles on how to become likable, read books on how to win friends and influence people and then tell us advice for how to "network" because it is important to build "useful connections." It is unfortunate that for some, just being yourself does not cut it. It brings to mind a robot trying desperately to understand the subtleties of human relationships and interaction. It is, regrettably, not something you can learn from a book.

There is no one size fits all user guide to making friends (and keeping them) for a reason. Thinking of people as useful connections and members of his "professional network" rather than friends may be one of the primary issues here...but, we're not following "100% tried and true techniques" by some online blogger whose primary goal in life is to passively accrue income. We are utterly unqualified to say anything on the matter.

When I can no longer remember why we are friends in the first place, we are already too far gone.

And then comes the "we are no longer friends on Facebook/Myspace/etc." Not immediately, but a few days later.

The final shock and horror, egads,! oh noes,

...but ultimately, good riddance.

neither a borrower nor a lender be

So I am writing again after quite some time.

It is Ramadan.

I have moved out of my parents house into an apartment with an old friend. We have still got some unpacking to do, even though I moved in almost a month ago.

My digital camera broke, so the whole point of making this a "my life in pictures" blog went kaput not too long after I decided that.

So, hopefully, my plan for September is to work like mad, start exercising properly again, save up loads of money, and be the proud new owner of my very own health insurance plan. $68/month? Sign me up.

and this one begins where the last one ends

I have had an eventful month or so since that last entry.

I applied for jobs, and got turned down from a few (with Keane Consulting and PetSmart).

I got an offer for a co-op in St. Louis with Monsanto, which I voluntarily turned down. In hindsight, that was probably a really, really bad decision. Getting a job is more difficult than ever, and I have gotten no other offers. I was afraid of moving away and living in a brand new, relatively dangerous city on my own for the first time. But the company itself was wonderful, the job only lasted 5 months so even if I had difficulties adjusting it would be over soon, and I could've saved so much money for upcoming events. I am now regretting my decision deeply. Who walks away from a sure thing to gamble on clutching at straws?

I'm not the gambling type, I have always preferred playing it safe. And this is why. I am not good at making bets!

One of my good friends is leaving town to go work for a strategy consulting firm in San Diego...in a week! She is a shining example of what dedication can get you, if you try hard enough. She has put up with so much from her family, but she's never stopped working to get where she wanted to go. Now she has ended up exactly where she wanted, and it shows me that if I have some direction and purpose in life, the only way to get where I want to be is to try. I've lived virtually my whole life just letting things take me wherever, and I feel like I can't keep doing that for much longer. I need to finally decide what I want to do, and, you know, just do it.

Oh, Nike. You've wrapped your stealthy marketing around all our brains.

I received a phone call from my former place of work just this past Saturday, asking if I wanted to get my job back. I was laid off in January. It eerily echoed the way I originally got that job (I walked in asking if they were hiring, the manager interviewed me on the spot, and I started work the next day). Why I intentionally went back to a place of work that requires me to be there at 5:15 am on the weekends is beyond me. But having disposable income is good, especially considering...

I just got engaged. :)

'cause over and above all, it's just another day

I haven't updated this in ages.

I haven't been doing too much though since the beginning of school. I'm starting to panic a little about not yet finding a job, but I am doing my best and applying to different things, venturing outside my comfort zone, and checking job postings regularly.

School has been going as well as I could have expected. I signed up for a lot of interesting stuff at the beginning of the year - Political Ideologies, Race and Ethnicity in Film, Religion and Popular Culture, Courtship and Marriage, Yoga and Pilates, and Strategy in Supply Chain Operations.

I have since dropped all those classes except the last three. I am currently at 8 credit hours for my last semester of my senior year! I don't know how exactly I ended up here. I slowly become disenchanted with every class...they were much more work than I had anticipated. Now I have a lot of books I need to be selling on half.com.

Out of all my classes, the yoga is by far the best. I have learned a lot and am becoming much stronger and more flexible. My King Piegon Pose is getting better and better! If I went to the gym more regularly, I would start to get in better shape even more quickly. I just never seem to find the time.

Which is just as well, because at home I currently have a jump rope, a set of small weights (3 lbs), an ab ball and a hula hoop!

Regardless of what people say, hula hooping is much more difficult than it looks. You try it.

morning stars in your eyes, your hand in mine

My new year's eve festivities were interesting. I went to my boyfriend's house and ate a lot of cocktail shrimp, met extended family members and tried to dodge those whose names I could not recall, helped do a lot of dishes, and got home around 3:30 am. I had enough cocktail shrimp to last me the remainder of the year (I lost count after about 30 of them. If you're losing count of how many shrimp you've eaten, it's safe to say you've eaten too many). Here are some pictures of things that were at the party:




This year, I am not going to have any expectations at all. I have a few resolutions, though, in order of "going to be really difficult and irritating to the max" to "relatively easy, don't even know why it's a 'resolution.'"

a) Get in better shape. It's more of an overall fitness thing than "I need to lose weight." More accurately, "I need to lose fat."
b) Find a job. This is going to be extraordinarily tricky with the economy in the state it is, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
c) Be more punctual. I am always a bit late with everything, and would like to change that.
d) Graduate with a 3.4 so I can say I graduated with honors. :D

It will be challenging, but 2009 is the year of change. It can happen.

In conclusion, here's a picture of myself and the beloved laughing about what's going to come in the new year. I'm the blurry one with the ridiculous party hat.