Let us turn our hearts today, to Martin Luther King (One week late) January 28, 2008

(For all of you James Taylor fans..)  So, my hope was to write a blog about diversity and the church, but I need to go to bed so I can be awake tomorrow at work.  I’ll leave you with this.

 I’m proud of Gilbert for preaching a sermon that actually addressed our lack of “diversity” in the church last Sunday…it’s a problem if we don’t all realize that there is a problem.  I’ve heard many more sermons on how we should be patriotic and pro-American than I’ve heard about how we should be comfortable with people that aren’t our color or culture, and it was refreshing to hear one this past Sunday.  Remind me to write more on this topic later.

I don’t have any down time at work to write blogs now, so I’ll start making more of an effort to trek to the library or coffee shop to update.  All you need to know is that I L-O-V-E my new gig, and I really love playing with gearboxes.  Oh, and I kinda have a sour taste in my mouth about unions already, but that’s alright…it’s just something that will have to be dealt with. 

Friday night I waited on my last table.  It was sad, but the 45% tip they left me was not.  Here’s to knowing how to work a table.   I hope you are all well, and I hope to update soon with something of more substance.

A tale of two tables January 18, 2008

I realized something the other day while working at Cracker Barrel…in all of the seven years I have now been waitressing (Babby’s 2001-2006, Shane’s 2004-2006, Cracker Barrel, summer 2004, 2007-next Friday) and the four blogs I’ve held since high school, to my recollection, I’ve never really talked much about waitressing.  And I don’t know why really, because of all the things I’ve done and places I’ve worked I can honestly say I think I’ve learned the most about the human experience from waiting tables.  And now that I feel compelled to sit down and share some of my stories with you all, I don’t know where to begin.  I guess perhaps it’s appropriate to start with the story that made me think to write about waitressing in my blog, and that happened about three weeks ago on a Friday night at “The Barrel.”

 

I had two tables.  They ordered literally the exact same thing.  One was a husband and his wife, the other a woman and her mother.  Both tables had roast beef, three vegetables (none of which were sides that require any cooking; just potatoes, carrots, all those things we can just sit back in the back on top of steam wells and dip immediately as it’s ordered; roast beef is the same way, it just sits there in a vat of gravy ready to be dished out.)  So, I’m thinking with both of these tables it’ll take the normal 3-5 minutes for the food to reach the table.  Except it doesn’t.  Finally, 10 minutes have passed and I go back and check on the food.  It’s not even up in the window yet.

 

I leave, and refill both table’s drinks.  I apologize for the wait, and tell them it’ll be just a few more minutes.  (I had also gotten a manager to get the food out ASAP, so I felt confident in making this claim.)  The first table is totally nice about it.  No big deal.  The second, the woman explodes….mind you this is a busy Friday night, all the tables are filled with guests, and it’s only been 12 minutes at this point.  “You need to go check on our food.”  “I just did ma’am, it will be out in just one minute.”  “Don’t lie to me, just go check on my food.”  “Alright.”

 

So, I leave and go check on the food and it’s getting set up in the window.  So, I go and get their biscuits ready and of course they are like dough still.  Bummer.

 

Then I take the food out to the tables, and again, table #1 is totally cool.  It’s been 17 minutes now.  Table #2 is not so great.  Now, the lady won’t even look at me, or speak to me.  I drop the food off at the table and ask if they need anything else, and leave.  I also tell our manager that she needs to go talk to them.  She does, and offers to comp their meal.  The mother of the woman is very apologetic and tells me that won’t be necessary, the daughter on the other hand shoves the ticket at me and tells me to get out of her face.  All the while I smile and tell them I’m sorry they’ve had such a bad experience.  Both tables left me a $5 tip, but one left my happy glass full while the other left me close to tears.  

 

I tell that story to spring board into a few “tips” that I think Christians should know when dining out; particularly on Sunday’s when they’re dressed up from church…your serves know you just came from church, trust me, and they complain constantly about how “church people” are terrible, not generous tippers.

 

1.)    No matter how poor of a job or how bad an attitude your server may have, it’s not worth acting un-Christlike toward them.  You don’t know what’s going on in their life anyway.  They may have just had their house repossessed or maybe their spouse is leaving them and they don’t know how they’re going to pay the bills or feed the baby.  Jesus would not have been snappy with them, and you shouldn’t be either.  Everyone has a bad day and we all need a little grace when that happens.  

2.)    Tip at least 13% always.  It surprises me how many people don’t realize that we get paid $2.13 an hour…tips are our living.  Without tips you would get the same service you receive at a fast food restaurant or bad movie theatre.  If a waitress at a place like Cracker Barrel makes 13% in tips for a night, she or he is making about 10/hour, depending on how busy they are.  If life wasn’t this way, you could expect to pay at least 15% more in food cost if we depended on the company to pay us.  Or, they would pay us minimum wage and no one in their right mind would serve for that much…if you don’t believe me, you should try it sometime…it’s a tough job that requires so pretty thick skin!

3.)    If your service is great, don’t just tell them they did a good job, tip them like they did!  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been told “Wow, you did a great job” only to find a one dollar bill on a $40 check left for me.  And if you can afford it, tip them even more, particularly college students because we don’t have that many hours in a week to work as it is.  I know one girl that has a 4.0 in pre vet at Purdue, works 40 hours a week at the Barrel, then tends bar on top of it.  She’s a hard worker; I’m not saying she deserves to be tipped well because I don’t believe anyone “deserves” anything, but treat her nice people…hard working individuals need positive reinforcement to escape disgruntlement.  

4.)    Leave your tips on the credit card whenever possible, particularly if you’re like my parents and constantly complain about how servers don’t claim all of their tips on their taxes.  If you leave it on there, most companies will keep records of how much you’ve tipped and it will have to be recorded for tax records.

5.)    Please don’t leave us 100 pennies.  It’s not funny.  No one wants 100 pennies to jingle around for four hours while they’re waiting tables.  Maybe other servers feel differently about this than I do, but I prefer getting stiffed over pennies.  (And I’m not talking about 4 or 5…there are seriously people that come it and make some stupid design with a bunch of pennies and think they’re being cute.  It’s just not cool.

6.)    If at all possible, even though this is awkward for everyone involved, try and make sure you personally hand your tip to your server.  Buss boys like to steal money.

7.)    When a server comes up and is trying to plug whatever the special is tonight, please listen and give some eye contact and don’t just brush them off with a drink “command.”  They are human beings too.  They’re not your slaves, they are simply your servers.  They’re just doing their job after all.

 

Well I might have more later, but it’s time for me to go home.  I start my new job in my new office on Monday.  Wish me luck!

Product Support Engineer January 15, 2008

I officially accepted the offer at 9:30 this morning and I am Fairfield’s newest Product Support Engineer.  I get to start Monday.  This is good.

Work January 14, 2008

I just thought I’d tell you all that I got the job.  I knew Friday that I did, but I was told that I wasn’t supposed to know that I did.  They made an offer today.  I haven’t accepted yet.  That’s all.

All of a sudden I woke up one morning and became an adult. January 13, 2008

I know you haven’t heard anything out of me for a few days, but that’s because I’ve had one of the craziest whirlwind two days ever.  I would now like to take time to address a question posed by my good friend and past roommate Kelsey:

 How was the interview?!?!?!

I went to bed Tuesday night thinking, “You know, aside from graduating in December, nothing out-of-the-ordinary exciting has happened in my life for awhile.”  (There’s always something exciting going on, but I think you know what I mean.)

About two months ago I forwarded my resume to the VP of marketing at Fairfield and asked to apply for the job that was posted on their website titled “Program Manager.”  I never heard anything, so I mostly just assumed I was being a bit presumptuous in apply for it and decided to get it out of my head. 

And then Wednesday morning I came in to work around 7 and I had an email saying, “I’m sorry, I’ve been out of the country for awhile.  I got your resume, and HR will contact you to set up an interview.”

First of all, I can’t tell you how flattered I was to even get a nod for this job.  That the VP of marketing was willing to take one whole hour out of his day to talk to me absolutely floored me.  People probably aren’t very sincere when the send thank you letters to those that have interviewed them, but I can tell you I really was.

The interview went pretty well I thought.  He was very up front about the fact that he was looking to hire someone with 8-10 years of experience doing the job, but he had two options in mind.  One, he is thinking about creating an “associate program manager position” so that he can hire “young blood” and get them familiar with the company and products before overwhelming them with such an involved position.  Two, he said he would forward my resume to sales because there is a “Product Support Engineer” position that they are trying to fill currently.

Well, I left the interview and within an hour later I was approached about the position.  I talked it over with one of the guys from Quality where I work currently because he’s been around for awhile and knows the ins and outs of Fairfield pretty well.  He said if I don’t mind occasional travel and possible relocation, it is a great springboard job in the company and also wonderful for networking.  So, I decided that I should go full throttle into it and apply for that one too.  I got a second interview set up for Friday morning and went home to press my blouse and suit for the next day.

The first interview I has was with the guy that is currently picking up the slack for the job, because they haven’t had this position filled for almost 9 months now.  He is a super nice guy and gave me a tour of the part of the shop I’d be working with.  After about an hour and a half with him, I was taken to another guy in sales, that is the head of our Torque Hub division, to interview with him.  He’s been with the company for 35 years I believe is what he said.  This was a GREAT interview and he was so complementary of me and my interviewing skills.  He said I was one of the best “fresh out of college” interviewees he’s ever had, and that means a whole lot to me considering I’m interviewing with a company that is in the same city as Purdue University!  I really needed this boost to my confidence after a long and very frustrating college career.

After that interview was over, some of the guys from sales (including the first guy I interviewed with that morning) asked me to go with them to lunch.  So, awkward as I felt, I decided to put on my “I’m up for anything” gameface and went with them. 

After we got back from lunch (which at this point I had been interviewing or with interviewers for three hours) I happily changed out of my suit and decided to try and get some work done.  That lasted for about five minutes.  Again, the first guy I interviewed with that morning came and fetched me at my desk and told me to throw my suit back on.  I was going to interview with the VP of Sales at this point! 

That interview went great as well (pretty much, by my general impression, I knocked four interviews out of the park in a two day period of time).  And I left Friday feeling pretty wonderful about myself and my chances for nailing down this job.  I’m so overwhelmed though, because I can’t believe they are this interested in ME!  I’ve just felt so mediocre for so long, and now all of a sudden this amazing company is flattering me left and right and I feel like I might actually have a chance at what I envision to be my dream job right out of college.  I just didn’t think things like this actually happened to anyone, let alone me, who at times has seriously contemplated throwing in the towel and becoming a professional waitress because for about four years now I’ve felt like it’s about the only thing I’m actually good at.  But now, I’m possibly going to have a chance to strut my stuff and prove that book knowledge isn’t the only thing that makes a great employee great.  This job seems like it will be a highly common sense oriented position, that requires a lot of people skills, diplomacy, and even a little writing ability, all of which I definitely feel that I can deliver.  Plus, TRAVEL!!!  I can’t tell you how happy the thought of traveling at least once a month makes me!

So, a little more about the position.  We make gearboxes at Fairfield.  Sometimes they decide to not work after a customer uses them.  So, when they come back to Fairfield (or occasionally I will be sent out to look at them) and we have diagnosed what the problem was, a decision will be made about whether it is the customers fault, in which case they will be billed for our time, or if it’s out fault and the part is still under warranty, we will remake it (or sometimes just fix it) and they’ll get it for free.  I will evidently be dealing with a lot of calls like, “So, does this need oil?” (No, it’s just a gear….no friction involved at all…riiight, it doesn’t need any lubricant!)  But I get to be typical me and schmooze and make them not feel stupid for asking a stupid question.  And, I get to learn all of the technical aspects of this too, which I am SUPER excited about.  I think I will even get to play with the gears from time to time and look all hot in my steel toed boots inspecting parts and the like.  This seriously is like a dream come true.  And what’s even better is where this job will lead.  From what I’ve gathered, after about a year, year and a half, the company will want to move me to sales, and more than likely relocate me somewhere in the US….which is absolutely perfect because Craig has exactly a year and a half left of school and we will definitely be wanting to move somewhere new. 

Well, I think that’s all for now…I will let you know Monday if I hear anything more.  Be happy for me…this gave me the courage to put my 2 week notice in at Cracker Barrel…I think I’m finally going to say goodbye to waitressing permanently.

Completely Random Musings January 8, 2008

Can I just say how happy the new American Gladiators makes me?  I loved that show when I was younger and the new version is awesome as well.  Helga cracks me up!  I really think they need to bring back the hurdles on the Eliminator though…it was always hilarious to watch very tired people trip over them at the end of the show.

Our congregation is trying out a new Praise team concept for Sunday nights to help us learn songs.  I must say, when I was asked to be on it, I had a pretty bad attitude about it.  I’ve just been too many places where a PT did not work at all.  But we were really blessed Sunday night and I think it went pretty well and was about as non-intrusive as it could be.  I’m so glad it didn’t raise a big stink.  I must say, we are truly blessed at Elmwood with pretty loving and easy going people.

 I’m listening to the ACU lectureships today at work on my iPod and the one I’m on right now it about the Cell church movement.  Even though Elmwood isn’t directly organized this way, it’s making me think about what a blessing our life groups are.  I love our 20 somethings group that meets on Thursday night…I’ve never lived in so close a community with fellow Christians, and we have been extremely blessed this year with a group that is well set up for really ministering to individuals and meeting individual needs.  I wish the dynamic our group of 15 or so was more commonplace throughout the Church in general.

 I’m feeling a lot better about Wednesday nights.  This past semester I decided to abandon going to the CSC and started attending the young mother’s class at Elmwood.  I really struggled a lot when I first started going because I felt very out of place; but I stuck with it because I felt like it was good to me to know a little more about the parents of the children I teach on Sunday mornings.  Now I feel like some of the women that I see as “leaders” in that group are starting to warm up to me more and realize that I’ve been intentional with why I’ve been attending that class this semester and that is encouraging to me.  I hope I can convey to all of them how much I love and care about each of their children, and particularly how seriously I take my role in helping them develop spiritually. 

I’m fighting lethargy on the job front.  I’m trying to do some soul searching and decide whether I want Fairfield to hire me because I really like working here, or if I’m hoping they’ll hire me because it’s easier than going out and interviewing and facing any rejection that may occur.  I just have a hard time coming up with anyplace else that I even want to apply at…nothing really excites me at all.  I will say this, I need to find a job that requires a little more human interaction than what I have currently…because I do not like sitting in silence for 8 hours a day, staring at a computer screen.  Maybe I’m much more of an extrovert than I ever thought.  

 I really hope my dad shipped my iPod computer connector thingie…I’m almost finished with the ACU lectureships, I’ve been through all of the CDs on here already, and I’m ready for some more lectures/music to listen to.  I downloaded a lecture from Cal Berkley on existentialism that I’m looking forward to listening to but I can’t put it on my iPod until I get that cord.  I love Utunes on iTunes….if you’re an all-purpose nerd like I am, and have iTunes…there’s this thing called Utunes that has a bunch of different universities that post public podcasts for anyone to download.  It’s way fun, and I was way thrilled to see the ACU lectureships on there.  If only I had been this excited about math lectures for the past four years. 

Being a working mom must be hard.  I really want my house to be clean…but coming home from working 8 hours a day, I have no motivation to do anything after I’ve cooked and eaten dinner.  I can’t imagine coming home after work everyday, cooking, chasing kids around, and cleaning a house.  That’s just too much.  I will definitely be staying home once Craig and I get married and have kids.  I’m too OCD about how clean everything must be to not stay home.  

A little more on time, a little more on other things as well. January 7, 2008

So, I want to address some ideas brought to mind by a certain camp director I’m quite fond of, Curt Parsley.  If you want to catch up on the discussion, read his response to my blog titled :Time, why you punish  me? (Which was named after a Hootie and the Blowfish song, btw.) 

 First of all, I definitely dig the idea that God’s time is out of our realm of understanding when we limit ourselves to thinking of Him within our time and world.  I was reading more of Einstein’s Dreams today and the world that was describe in the chapter I read was a world in which time is measured by quality and not by quantity.  This constructs a world in which things react to causation rather than quantitative time.  So, instead of the birth of a child being recorded by date and time, it is associated with the feeling and understanding of the moment.  I think a lot of my memories from early childhood are stored in a similar way.  I remember things by what I was feeling or perceiving at the moment and not necessarily by the exact age I was when they happened.  And I think experiencing time in this way also produces that age-old feeling of deja-vu– when you can’t quite put your finger on what you’re remembering, but you know it’s there somewhere.    

And I like the idea of time as a book like C.S. Lewis used.  I think this helps a lot of us get a closer glimpse at God’s feelings towards humanity and how He can endure watching us perpetually mess things up…but here’s the thing. 

Gilbert, our new minister, has got me thinking about left vs. right brainedness.  You can read his post on it by clicking on the blogroll link to the right that says “Gilbert.”  But I have to say, every time I’ve tried to categorize myself into one or the other, I realize that I am absolutely smack dab in the middle of both.  I think most people would categorize me as being left brained…on the outside I seem very logical and practical; not to mention my choice of major.  But those who know me well…and there aren’t very many that do…know that inside I am extremely right brained.  (An English major at heart, as Jenny Towns would put it, or a closet liberal in the words of Gary Spear.)  But my different ways of thinking and perceiving the world help shape who I am in response to Christ.  How I think about Christ.  Do I see him as my friend, my teacher, my savior, etc?  And furthermore, it has impacted my decision to believe that there is a God at all.  I’ve said before, I don’t like apologetics done with the intent in mind to “back up” scientifically that there is a God.  I don’t think that’s a normal thing to say for a left brained person to say.  But when I was in middle school I thought apologetics were the only way to defend my faith.  

 I think this begs a good question though.  How do we make Christ-following look attractive and worth-while to those that are extremely left-brained?  Those that make their decision about God based entirely on the “logicalness” of believing that there is a God? 

The above is my first question for everyone to answer.  Here is the second. 

My answer to the above question is this:  Gary said something to me at camp this past summer that has stuck with me.  He said, “Buss, we’ve got to be living in a way that makes people look at us, see Jesus, and say, ‘I wanna get me some of that.’  And I think that’s my answer.  I need to be living life in a way that makes others want to follow.  In a way that makes others want to leave their fishing nets behind, so to speak.  

 So here is the second question:  What does that look like in the life of a Christian?  What is it that we should be doing that will set us apart?  I want specific examples.

 I have some answers to the second question as well, but I’d rather hear yours.  So, respond.  Don’t be afraid of me finding out you read this…I wouldn’t make this a public journal if I didn’t want to have an audience.  I just want insights.  This is important for us as the Body if we’re going to thrive in this world.  And I’m so tired of “Christianity” I could scream.  How can we be Christ-followers?  What does this look like in your life?  

 Who inspires you with how they’re living?   And if you’re not a Christian, what kind of living would make you interested in becoming one?

Sick Day January 3, 2008

Words can not quite express how happy I am to be typing on my computer at work after the two days I’ve just had.  Being sick is no fun!  I woke up at about 4:30 AM New Year’s day and purged all of the Arnie’s and New Years goodies I had eaten the night before.  And continued to purge more and more every hour until around 10:30 when I finally called Craig and had him take me to the hospital.  Amy (Craig’s mom) met us there, and two hours, a blood test, a urinalysis, and one very uncomfortable shot in my “hip” later, the nurse pushed me in a wheelchair (for which I felt completely ridiculous) out to the lobby where Craig and his mom were waiting to take me back to her house.  Evidently the medicine from the shot had made my blood pressure drop from the already low 90/46 (I think that’s right) when I was admitted to 80/40, and the nurses were afraid that I would pass out if I tried to walk very far on my own.   So Craig drove me over to his parents house, and I’m not sure what all happened after that, except a lot of sleep on my behalf.  I slept from 1 in the afternoon until about 7 that night when Craig woke me up to take some more medicine.  (It didn’t stay with me very long though).  Then I slept from 8 PM-6:30 AM the next morning, just long enough to call into work, and then more sleep from 6:31AM-1:30PM, when Craig woke me up just because I had been sleeping so long they were afraid I might be dead.  (He said my room smelled like a nursing home and asked me if I was sure I hadn’t urinated in the bed-hahah!)  I stayed awake long enough to down a few ice-pops, take a shower, and have Craig drive me home, and I was going to stay awake for at least a couple of hours and watch a movie, but I ended up crashing 20 minutes in to it (approximately 6:00 PM) and slept soundly until my alarm went off at 4:30 this morning to get me up for work.  And the thing is, even after all of that sleep, and I’ve been awake for a good 6.5 hours now, I’m still exhausted and want nothing more than to go back to bed again.  Dehydration does crazy things to a body, that’s for sure.  It’s only 11 AM right now and I’ve gotten down one ice-pop and a Gatorade without getting sick again, so I will definitely try to eat some soup and maybe a sandwich today for lunch.  My skin is even dried out from the lack of fluid in my body.  My makeup looks disgusting today because all of the skin around my eyes is flaking so heavily.  Pretty much, I’m a good mess.  I would love to take a nap today.  But I think a nap would actually make me feel worse.  So, I guess I’ll just have to stay awake until after praise team practice tonight and then I can crash again.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get into work early again tomorrow like I did today, because I’m lacking quite a few hours from break and from being sick yesterday.  

Well, I think that’s about all I have to talk about.  I really hope I don’t get anyone else sick, but I’ve been around so many people here recently I think it’s going to be hard to accomplish.  We’ll see I guess. For now I am thouroughly looking forward to eating food for the first time.