Cricket!

Note: This incident was stressful when it happened, but by the end of the night it was HI-larious!

I hate my job, but I do like most of my co-workers. One of them happens to be Arnie. He's this short, little, reserved, Italian guy who's about my age. He's a character and he cracks me up. One day he came to work with this thick mustache. It looked like a mustache that porn stars would wear in the 70's or that of Freddy Mercury from Queen. Granted, I hadn't seen him for a few days prior, but it was all his own hair. He got a lot of flack for that mustache, but man, he wore it with pride - until he decided to shave it off.

As a server, you will every so once a while, deal with a freak incident. Arnie was the lucky bastard tonight! One of his tables had ordered a salad and it is BJ's rule that we have to check on our table a minute after the food is dropped off. Arnie stopped by his table, occupied by a couple, and asked if everything was alright. The girl said, "Something tastes weird." She then proceeded to spit the contents of her mouth back onto her plate. Arnie took a look and realized that she had spit out a partially eaten carcass of a giant cricket! Yeah, PANIC!!!! As procedure, Arnie grabbed a manager to help deal with the situation. In an effort to be helpful, he grabbed oranges, limes, and lemons to help the poor woman rid herself of the taste of cricket. When those didn't work, our manager told Arnie to get her some soda water with bitters.

Nothing could get any worse, right? Riiiiiight...

The woman then breaks out into hives! She apparently had an allergic reaction to the bitters in the soda water! Poor Arnie was freaking out!!! Of course, their entire meal was complimentary and they left pretty quickly. Luckily, they were really calm and nice about the situation because they were regulars and understood that this was a freak incident. I felt bad for Arnie in the moment, but after a couple of hours, I could not help but laugh about how a bad situation just got INSANELY worse.

Poor Arnie got so knocked off his groove that throughout the night he kept introducing himself as a new server to tables that weren't his, and refilling their drinks. I was giggling at him all night. Arnie's fine. He's such a trooper!

I've now started calling him Cricket. :0)

For Jeremy

I just had a realization that I should probably start documenting my gourmet dining experiences better. The photos that I have for this place is minimal and I'm wishing I had more visual aides. I didn't take any pictures of the cocktails we drank nor did I get any images of the fantastic food we consumed. I think was too distracted and hungry to make a quality documentation of the experience. Whoops! Anyhoo...

This entry is specifically for my dear friend, Jeremy, whom I've successfully managed to see at least once a year. Last year I went up to San Jose to see him, this year he came down here. He had a business meeting down here which was the initial reason why he was in LA. He had a victory - something to do with a script, which I would feel he'd rather tell the details, but while down here he made a stop to see me. Yay!

Our agenda this past Monday was:
1. Day at the beach
2. Dinner at Campanile

For those who are foodies, Campanile is a restaurant owned by Mark Peel and is housed in a building that was specifically built for Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was never able to use the building because he lost it in a divorce to his second wife, but the architecture and remodel is gorgeous! You can find out more info on the restaurant's website. You can also see a photo of the building in it's original form. The restaurant sits in what used to be the courtyard of the original building and a skylight has been built over it, presumably to preserve it. So on the website you can see what I didn't capture with my camera, which will be pretty much every thing but the skylight ceiling.

Jeremy hates having his picture taken, but he's in the lower right corner of this photo!

This is one of their VIP rooms.

Dinner was fabulous!
Appetizer: Clams and muscles with sorpressata, tomato confit, grilled bread, and aioli
Entrees: Jeremy had Pan-Roasted Hanger Steak with roasted red onion, mustard mashed potato, horseradish crème fraîche. I had Ricotta & Summer Squash Ravioli. It came with brown butter, pine nuts, currants, sage, parmesan cheese. The sweetness of the currents was a surprising compliment to the saltiness of the ricotta.
Dessert: Jeremy ordered a Peach Tarte Tatin (I think this is what we ordered. It's no longer on the menu online so I couldn't confirm) and I ordered the flourless Chocolate cake. Heaven!

All in all, it was a wonderful day! The only weird thing that happened was that I drank a really strong cocktail at dinner. It was definitely stronger than I thought because I went to bed at 2am feeling absolutely fine! Then woke up at 7am with a pounding headache and was drunk as a skunk! I, personally am not interested in replicating that experience, but if you'd like to try it, here's the drink:

Violet Beauregarde
polish vodka, triple sec, fresh lemon juice, muddled fresh blueberries, served up in a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass

It's a very tasty cocktail, but dangerous!!!

Why Your Waiter Hates You

This is totally my inner dialog when I go to work:

Karma for me!

I had an awesome night at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company this past Thurs night.

I got this:

That's right! It's a little fuzzy, but it says $70 on the tip line! Woo-hoo for me!!!

My good fortune allowed me to take the following day off to Redondo Beach, where I was able to take this picture:

If seagulls could talk, what do you think they'd be saying?

Update: Sexual Harassment Investigation

I must say that it is nice when a corporation actually does what it says it will do. It is also extremely comforting to find that all the managers at Bubba Gump believe me and Elyse, instead of the guy who said that his behavior was "accidental". From here on out, I will refer to our offender as CB. So here is what has happened as of Wednesday:

Wednesday I was called into my general manager's (GM) office and was asked for more details of what CB did to me. As I was talking she typed everything out in an e-mail which she sent to the woman who was in charge of HR for Bubba Gump. On top of that, the vice president of Bubba's has also been made aware of this sexual harassment case. I was told that a couple of weeks prior to Elyse and I filing our complaints against CB, he had approached our GM about becoming part of management, again. Our GM was initially hesitant to support him on joining the manager-in-training program because about a year ago, he had been accepted into this program. Because of his own irresponsibility, he failed to show up for the job and was subsequently kicked out of the program. Understandably, when one has left the training program, it doesn't really look good on a resume, especially if you're trying to re-join. Not wanting to totally say "no" at the time, our GM cited her concerns and suggested that he work on some personal issues that she had with him, his work ethic, and his attitude. That meeting had ended with a "we'll see what happens if you can make these improvements". Now that Elyse and I have come forward with our complaints, CB has absolutely no chance of being accepted into the training program again. On top of that, he has been suspended from Bubba Gump until this entire investigation is over. I personally have no idea how long this investigation will take. I asked my GM what his ultimate punishment would be and her response was that she didn't know - that it was up to corporate to decide. So in the end, he might lose his job. If not, I do feel that this suspension and his rejection from the manager-in-training program are adequate punishments. It has definitely been empowering to know that the managers at Bubba Gump do believe me and are seriously pursuing the proper procedures in this investigation. I definitely feel that I work in a safe environment and that the managers will fight to protect their employees.

A Little Bit of Restaurant Humor

A conversation I had with a co-worker about a patron who wasn't going to tip me:

Me: "This lady's bill is $22.50. She gave me $25 and she wants change!"

Jeremy: "Oh that sucks!"

Me: "Dude, what if I gave her 50 cents in pennies?"

Jeremy: "Do it!!!"

Minutes later ...

Me: "She left me the change!"

Jeremy: "Hahaha!"

A Sexual Harassment Investigation

I'm slightly stressed out. I am currently involved in a sexual harassment investigation at Bubba Gump. My co-worker and friend, Elyse and I have been tolerating inappropriate behavior from a male co-worker. We have both been smacked on the ass by him - twice. The second time (incidents that occurred independently of each other), both of us had directly asked him not to do that. On top of that, on New Year's Eve he had made a sexual joke to one of my tables about me, where the patrons were both male. So in that instance, a flirty situation that I was in total control of became a situation where I lost control and felt completely uncomfortable. When Elyse and I discovered that both of us have been victims of this inappropriate behavior we agreed that if either one of us experienced one more incident, we'd tell management. We also agreed that we would support each other because both of us against this guy would be better than one. It would no longer be a "his word against her's" scenario. Tonight, the offender smacked Elyse on the ass for a 3rd time. Management has now been informed and I am being called in to give my side of the story.

I am angry.

Updates to come.

Holy Schnikes!

Apparently no one considered the sun when they designed this bridge:

Bridge location: St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican

Brief update: I've finished training at BJ's Bar and Grill and am trying to figure out a balance between that restaurant and Bubba Gump's. I'm tired.

That's pretty much it.

Letters

In remembrance of this day 20 years ago:

This was the play for which I had been cast as an understudy. I did my first and last show (possibly for now?) this evening. The show went really well! Usually, I feel a bit wary when it comes to political theatre but I suppose that since today was the anniversary of the Tianamen Square Massacre, I was totally into the play! At least those who died in the massacre were being commemorated somewhere in the world, as opposed to China where they should be remembered.

China Security Tight in Tianamen

On a little bit of a lighter note:

The content of the show was on the dramatic side but as always, there are moments of camaraderie and stupidity backstage - *sigh* actors ...

In other news, I am done with my training at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! So come on down and request for me! Also, if you have a friend that you want to humiliate on his/her birthday, come on down!!!! I and other servers will sing an upbeat birthday song and make the birthday boy/girl do a dance!

Exhausted ... Again!

Exhaustion seems to be a recurring theme with me having been back to LA. Sorry, I'll try to come up with more of a variety of emotions to write about.

By the way, does anyone know how to upload photos from a cell phone? My friends like to think they're funny when they take pictures of me in compromising positions. And I have a masochistic sense of humor that makes me want to post this picture. I went rock climbing this past weekend and was struggling with this particular wall when my friend took his camera phone out and snapped away. Rock climbing is awesome!!! Can't wait to do it again!

Lately I've been training to become a server at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. They've broken training down into four levels. Currently I've been stuck on the 3rd level. I'll be repeating it for a 4th time tomorrow. I think the main reason for all of this repetition is that no one really explained to me exactly what level my performance had to be in order to pass. So now that I've gotten a better idea, I've realized that if you come to Bubba's and ask to sit in my section, you'll basically be signing up for The Simmone Improve Show Dinner Theater!!!!!! Holy cow ... I mean, most of you guys know that I'm pretty perky most of the time ... but this is gonna be like watching Simmone on crack. Jesus ... What's funny, though, is that if you talk to the other servers in the restaurant, you'll see that my personality fits right in. I actually like the job, even though I don't particularly like waiting tables - mostly because everyone is laid back and easy to get along with. And basically you're trying to have fun with all your customers so time passes by really quickly. By the end of the night, my inner dialogue is "Man, why does my back hurt?!? Oh ... maybe because I've been here for 6 hours ..."

So if you're in the LA area, stop on by to Bubba Gump! Except not yet! I'm not done with training yet!

Procrastination

Look at the visitor my parents got! He was hanging out in the garage.

I've named him Gizzard. So this is Gizzard, the lizard.

So I've been a bad blogger as of late. I haven't been writing in this as often as I probably should. But on the other hand, not too much has been happening that's really worthy of a post.

I got a job! Woot! I'll be working at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company at Universal Studios City Walk. Tourist spot = lots o' cash! Yay! So the financial front will soon be covered! (Thank God, finally!)

Other than that, been back to hitting the gym (4 months away from the gym = bad idea. I used to be able to lift 45 - 50 lbs. Now I can only lift 25 lbs. So sad!), memorizing Bubba Gump material, quasi-working on this play (that doesn't look like it'll be going anywhere. Timing was off, I guess...*shrugs*), running errands... Yeah... soooo exciting. But nonetheless, happy!