friday ten

In honor of my second-to-last shift at the restaurant, here are ten random restaurant terms that are now permanently in my mental dictionary.

1. CORNER! We say this so much at work, to prevent collisions every time we blast around corners, that I say it sometimes when I'm not at work. Like when I'm at home, going into my room. Corner. Definitely a sign that I spent too much time waitressing this summer.

2. 86 tomatoes. This strange phrase, which I still don't exactly understand, means there are no more tomatoes. So if a notice on the whiteboard says 86 Jack Daniels or 86 food, we're all out.

3. Warning! As in, I've got a warning on a baked lasagna, shouted to the line cooks in the kitchen, to let them know that a ticket for baked lasagna is going to be fired soon.

4. Bar run. Kind of like a grocery run, this means a trip over to the bar to collect drinks. Except if you're slammed, and have no time to grab the drinks yourself, you shout, Can anyone do my bar run??

5. Double sat. When the host staff seats two tables in your section at the same time. Could possibly be triple sat if it's busy or there's a miscommunication at the front desk, and always means your next fifteen minutes are going to be sweaty.

6. Two-top. Slang for the number of customers at one table. If it's slow: I only have one two-top! Or if you get a table that's so huge you can't count it: This big-top is killing me! 

7. Dying food. As in, food is dying in the window! meaning food has been sitting too long under the heat lamps and needs to go out asap.

8. Upsell. A big part of my job. Have you ever noticed that servers don't just take your order? They sell you random things off the menu, like appetizers or bar drinks, all part of a big marketing scam to rack in more cash at the end of the night. Would you like a glass of merlot with that? 

9. Check average. Goes along with upselling. If you upsell enough appetizers and bar drinks, your average per-guest meal price shoots up from say, $10 (if they only order a basic entree) to $14 or $15 dollars. It's like a badge of honor: my check average is 16 tonight! Or a badge of horror: I had so many kids tonight, my check average is barely 8.

10. On the fly. If a ticket got rung up wrong, or if a customer thinks their pasta is too dry, you race to the window and shout, I need that alfredo sauce on the fly! and, hypothetically, the line cook drops everything and gets that alfredo out at the speed of light.

friday five

1. I'm reading a wonderful book, Miles from Nowhere, published by The Mountaineers Books in Seattle. It's the story of one couple's around-the-world bicycle trip in 1979-80. It's made me laugh out loud, cringe, tear up, and (kind of) want to bicycle around the world myself. The tragic part of the story is that, after dodging seriously maniacal drivers in Southern Florida, camping in the Moroccan desert, pedaling up and down the Austrian Alps, and more, Barbara died in a cycling accident near her home right before the book came out. But twenty-five years later, her book is in its fifteenth printing! It's a beautiful, hilarious, adventurous story, definitely the best book I've read this summer.

2. I also finally read Divergent (Veronica Roth) after being on my library's e-book waiting list all summer long. So. Good. I didn't put it down for two days straight.

3. Last week, I met up with a bunch of writers who are also represented by my agency (The Erin Murphy Literary Agency). It was so great to hear about their books, talk about literary interning, and gush about our wonderful agency. Did you know that Erin and Joan's agency is the #3 seller of kid lit in the country? The #1 and #2 agencies both have six or more agents each, but Erin and Joan rake in all those sales by themselves. Hard core.

4. I have eight days left at work. Eight days, eight shifts. I'm not counting down at all...

5. And I leave the country in 11 days! Now if only I can complete my packing list, buy all the random and last-minute things I need like extra camera cards and travel-sized toothpaste, and fit everything into my backpack...

summer photography

 This summer, I took a lot of pictures with my iPhone. That thing is crazy. The camera itself takes great pictures (on the 4 at least, not sure about the other versions) -- and with cheap apps like PhotoForge, ProHDR, and SlowShutter, you can almost transform it into an SLR.

(Almost. My dad has a Nikon with about a million buttons and settings, so I'm the first to agree that the iPhone is a different (lazier, maybe) art form.)

But I got to thinking this summer about how easy it is too look like a pro photographer or pro photoshopper with a couple taps on the iPhone screen. Here are a few of my attempts at pro photography...

old books (b&w effect with PhotoForge2)

rusty chair outside a boutique (also PhotoForge2)

sailboat races on Puget Sound

sailboat races (b&w with DramaticB&W)

my favorite Seattle spot (with PhotoForge)

old minis at a car festival

almost an apocalyptic effect (?) at Golden Gardens (PhotoForge2)

sunset off Golden Gardens with SlowShutter

dramatic colors with ProHDR

the iPhone camera does its thing (Cascade Mtns)

This photography question made me think about writing -- how easy it is to become a published author through any number of online one-click publishing companies. And how this is a great thing for so many people, and how accessible it makes everyone's words. It reminds me of Ratatouille: "Anyone can cook." And I think that anyone should be able to cook, write, snap gorgeous photographs with ease -- but does change art form. What about traditional publishing -- will it be undermined by the easier, quicker options on Lulu or Createspace? What about traditional photography? Will it lose its magic because I can create an Ansel Adams black-and-white effect with a 99 cent app?

I have no answers. But I do like my iPhone camera :)

end of summer

The comics this past weekend were all about summer ending. It's not a super funny topic, although this year I thought I'd be less nostalgic since I don't have to go back to school. (And since September, so far, has been 80 degrees and sunny).

But today, I got really sad about summer ending because it means my two internships are ending, too. I guess this sadness means that both internships were extremely valuable and that I learned a ton -- otherwise I'd be cheering as I walked out the door. But I'm sad. I'll miss both experiences -- and, also, I think, the security of having two internships, the relative security of knowing I was off the job search for a while and could relax and learn. What I did learn: that I want to pursue a career in publishing as either an editor or agent! Love it!

But the reason I'm leaving these internships is actually really exciting.

Drumroll.

I'm giving my two week's notice at work this Friday and then flying to Asia for a two month trip to China and Nepal. I am SO thrilled. I'll be seeing Beijing and Shanghai (the Great Wall! Forbidden City! Terracotta Soldiers!) for a couple weeks, then working in an orphanage in Kathmandu with my best friend. Maybe doing some trekking in the Himalayas, too. It's the post-college trip I've dreamed about for my whole life: we're just bringing backpacks, we're staying in hostels and traveling cheap, and we're seeing a vastly different part of the world.

The Great Wall (from Wikipedia)

Kathmandu (photo credit)

Still, there's something slightly terrifying about quitting a good job and leaving two wonderful internships for the world beyond. Terrifying in a good way. A fragment from a favorite poem (by Paula Meehan, Irish poet, taken from Liminal, part of the series Six Sycamores):

I've always loved thresholds, the stepping over,

the shapechanging that can happen when

you jump off the edge into pure breath 

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