happy September

Another month has gone by. I am still looking for a job, although I tried a lot harder in August than I did in July. 3/4 of the people do not even get back to you when you apply to shit, so 75% of the work you do is for nothing. I feel like I look really nice on paper but the second they actually have a chance to talk to me, the little red flags go up in their heads. I feel like the last interview I had went really well, though. I guess what you have to believe is that every no is one step closer to a yes, partially because you get a lot of practice on the way.

I had a wonderful day at work today for several reasons:
1) There's this one guy who always has a smile on his face that stops in a couple of times a week, and always gets the same salad, plus a huge cappuccino with lots of foam ("dry" for those of you who know the terminology). Thanks to him I have been able to perfect my milk foaming technique, because so few people order such foamy drinks. He also always tips me. :D Today he brought some friends and stayed to eat instead of taking it out.
2) One of the younger baristas that started about a month ago told me today how she likes working with me because I get excited about little things and it brightens her day. That made me feel awesome.
3) Two men came in today and ordered some food to go, and I found out they were from Switzerland. They must have liked me because after I made their coffee and the other server brought them their food, they came back and found me before leaving, and gave me a Giandor chocolate bar.I got so excited because Swiss chocolate is damn good, and after researching it a little bit I found out that this brand is not sold in the US at all. Bonus points! I also thought it was really sweet of them to give me something at all. Random acts of kindness rule.

In exactly a month I'm flying out to Washington for Zach's wedding, which means I need to find a freaking dress. I'm not in the wedding, but I will be in a decent number of the formal pictures so I want to look nice! There's a bridal store here that has a lot of styles and colors for dresses, even on their online clearance, and my plan is to go to the store and try some of their dresses on just to get an idea of what size I should order (their online deals are amazing, but you can't return the dresses once you buy because they're final sale items). I also hope I get a new job by then so that I don't look like a total slacker, and I'll have something to talk about. I mean it was at that point last year that I flew out there to look for a job, and they didn't take so kindly to me not finding one in 2 1/2 months there.

In other news, I'm getting a study group together for the JLPT and hopefully it will help us all do better, boyfriend had his first live show with his new band last Friday and it was a raging success, it's REALLY hot outside (please fall come soon...), I went to a rummage sale and got some cool things for cheap for my room upstairs (the vase and chair on the left side of the picture, plus a sterling silver bracelet with heart tag and some cute blue polka dot ribbon, all for only $6.25!).

I'm also impressing lots of boys with my cooking lately. It makes me wonder all the more if I belong in cooking school.

happy december, first snow

Happy December! I'm a couple of days late here but I said it to people on December 1st, so there.

Lots of things have happened lately, I feel like, but I can't remember much of it, and for no particular reason. I resurrected my iPod from the depths of hard drive failure hell on Friday, but the second the batteries wore down and I plugged it back in to charge, it was corrupted again. :( I have no portable music player. Hell if I'm getting another freaking iPod. There's got to be a kind that isn't rendered useless within two years.

This weekend was full of excitement, mostly revolving around the JLPT (which is not really exciting though). I went to another bridal salon Saturday morning with Jenny to look at wedding dresses, and then I went with her to meet Zach and a potential candidate for their wedding photographer. We went to a café called The Globe, and it was a really nice, relaxing place. I sat at a table by myself to study while they talked at another table. The table I used was right in the window and it was oval shaped with a really old blue map peeling off the top. It was awesome. I overheard bits and pieces of other people's conversations about snow, and when it actually did snow this guy yelled "IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!" and he ran outside with about six or seven other people, and they were jumping up and down and dancing. (Snow is a rare sight here.)

Sunday I got up and tried to be as relaxed as I could, and took my test. People came from as far away as Florida and Ohio. The test itself was not as horrible as I'd imagined, but it WAS hard, especially the reading section because they don't give you a whole lot of time. I spent too much time on the reading comprehension questions and ended up getting rushed for about half of the long-passage questions and the grammar part. Kanji and vocabulary was what I had studied the most for because those are the hardest things for me to remember, and I was surprised to find things on there that I actually knew. Listening really threw me for a loop. All in all, I really can't say if I passed. I'm borderline if I did, but I'm really just not sure at all. If I failed, I guess there's nothing else to do but take it again, but I'll still be disappointed. The test took place on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, where a teacher of mine from the Japanese department spent his undergrad years. It's a really pretty campus, and it was slightly inspiring being there and knowing this is where he started studying what I am effectively finishing up here. ^^

Zach took me out to The Duchess (it reminded me a lot of State Street Brats but it wasn't as dark inside) for a beer after he picked me up and we talked for a bit, and then we went home and I helped Jenny with dinner. We rented a couple of movies too.

I'm actually kind of excited to go home. The hardest thing is probably going to be quitting my job because I don't like making people unhappy. I was not lying when I had my interview and saying that I was planning to be here until Christmas Eve because that's what my plans were at that time. My plans have changed. Other than that it shouldn't be so bad. I get to plan the Christmas gift exchange for my family and I'm starting to get lists~ it's great. And I get to meet Cooper. He seems like such a little shit, but he'll be cute anyway.