Dear Thursday,

You suck.

End soon,
Alisa

Dear Wednesday,

Thank you for the cold weather I got to bundle up in a sweater for this morning on my way to work. But could you explain to me why you had to dash my dreams of fall with a very warm afternoon? Warm or not I am going to make pumpkin mum pots tomorrow. I will have my fall with or without the help of the weather. You two are close, could you put in a little word in for me that Id like to stay chilly?

I don’t particularly care for crows. Actually to be perfectly honest with you, I hate them. I believe they were created after the fall. They just like to sit outside my bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning and wake me up. (Except today it was Oreo meowing his little head off.) But as I drove home from a great day at work, I found a side of crows I actually liked. Have you seen how they waddle for a walk? Its rather funny and made me giggle a little. Silly birds.

On the work note, big happy sigh to that. I needed today to be good and it really was. Even the stressful times today didn’t seem so stressful. Everyone (including myself) handled things very professional. I’m finally feeling comfortable in my new surrounds and still loving my new store and people I work with. Lets hope that spark keeps going with more days like today.

See, I like you just as much as Tuesday (though Tuesday does have Amazing Race and Gilmore Girls going for it) if not for no other reason than today. Let me know what weather says and I hope to have more happy days like these with you soon.

Alisa

Usually I say “no” when asked if I want onions on my sandwiches (which has been a lot lately since Subway is right next to my new store. Evil Subway). Its not that I don’t like onions, I do. My favorite is grilled onions on a swiss burger. Yum yum. Raw onions are not my favorite, but until today I forgotten why. I got a veggie bagel (I gotta cut back on bread come to think of it) today and said “yes” to the onions. Here I sit hours later still having the remains of onion taste or smell,which I do not know for sure. I’ve washed my hands, brushed my teeth, chewed gum. Nothing. The aftermath still remains. So let this be a lesson to you all – just say NO to onions. Well, raw onions at least, cooked ones don’t get me this sort of problem.

Im enjoying the last bits of my day off with a pumpkin spice bagel (you thought I was gonna say latte didn’t you?) with hazelnut cream cheese (reduced fat, gotta love that). I never thought to find fall in the form of a bagel but hey, Im not complaining. Though I am ruining it a bit with an iced green tea, very un-fall of me to drink. I might have to go back and get a bowl of soup and a hot drink if Im here long to make up for it. I’ve grown to really love Panera a lot, though my friends out west here don’t appreciate it much. Most of them haven’t stepped foot inside of a Panera (I know!) let alone know what one is. What other place can you enjoy bread and free internet? This girls dream come true.

Well my store opened yesterday. It was a great open, the neighborhood loved us (wow that was such a You Got Mail quote without me even knowing it). Saying how they had needed one for years. Never mind there is another Starbuck the next off ramp off the freeway from us or anything. A good handful of the regulars from my old store came in. Along with a lot of the staff from church (did I mention is in the same shopping center as my church?), it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces on opening day. The staff worked together really this past week putting the store together. But it was a very different story once the doors opened for business. Not in a bad way, we all just don’t know where everyone is at in their Starbucks journey so it’s harder to run a floor not knowing. It will just take sometime getting to know everyone’s strengths (and weakness) and a lot of patience. But thus far, we seem to have a great team that gets along well which is a great bases for everything else to fall into place.

When I got home from my long day today (which hasn’t ended yet) there was a UPS box sitting on my front door step (porch? its like a walkway, I don’t know what to call it). I figured it was for my parents but then, there it was my name! It’s always nice to get a package when you’re not expecting one. It was from my friend Laura who made me a coffee print pillow to congratulate me on my new store. Thank you Laura, it’s perfect and I love it. I halfy wanna bring it to work to put on one of the comfy chairs.

Regarding the muffins (since I know yall are on your seats waiting for this) they went over okay. Those who ate them loved them. “Best muffins ever”, was said. But apparently my coworkers are watching their girlish figures. Including the boys! The art of appreciation fine bake goods is dead. But I think the day went well just the same. The store is starting to look put together, which is great for only the first day in it.

I’m watching Gilmore Girls and the promos for the new show that comes on after it keeps playing. The actor who played Dean is in it. I don’t even know his name, its just Dean and I don’t like Dean. Boo to Dean! As soon as Gilmore Girls is over I must head to bed because it’s an earlier morning for me tomorrow. See You at the Pole (or SYATP) is tomorrow and as a Jr. Higher leader it is my duty go and support my kids. Never mind they may not speak to me when I’m there but usually I get the “I saw you at my school!” later at youth group. I thought I was a cool youth leader but every year at this event I get reminded that I am not. Oh well. After some morning coffee I will be heading back over to my new store to finish set up and having a managers meeting. Its happening, it’s really happening.

I was a bit romantic with the weather last night now wasn’t I? Not long after I posted that did the thunder sound like cracking whips in the sky for most of the night. It rained off and on between the flashed that filled my room with a loud rumbled that followed. For keeping me awake all night I want more rain than that. And look at that, no rain this morning. What did I ever do to it? If you keep me up all night, I expect some exchange in the morning. Waking me up earlier with poky sunshine isn’t it.

(I feel a bit like Lorelai and her ending her relationship with snow. I tired to find that quote casue it would be just perfect. Maybe one of you Gilmore Girls fans would be so kind?)

During the sunset last night there were scattered bits of lighting making its mark on the sky. As I fell a sleep the sound of thunder rolled around outside. I should have not had my window open. It started to rain, the first rain of the fall season. Does this officially mean fall is here? I hope this rain goes into tomorrow, I want to actually enjoy it first hand and not through the sounds of my window.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new store. When I first heard they were moving me I was sad because I enjoyed my coworkers. As time went on with the new store being talked up and how much fun opening a new store is, I started to get excited. Getting to chat and met with my new manager helped a lot too. Finishing my last day when the sanitizer wasn’t working and people calling in who always call in, I got really excited.

But today, I’m feeling a little bit of a dork.

Part of being the opening management crew we get two huge shipments in so we can stock the store product, retail, etc. We get to set it all up, where we want it to go to what feel will best suite our team. I like organizing things so to get paid to sit and label and put things away all nice and neat is a dream. And for crying out loud I’m organizing coffee! But with people I do not know very well. I want to make a good impression with them, and usually I’m quite around people I don’t know where and awkward with small talk so I have something else.

First I think of something to wear. We get to wear jeans while setting up (whoo hoo to no all black) which I had picked out along with my cute new brown with a blue line tennie shoes. Still unsure what shirt to wear with, but I want to look a certain way as we all do when we step out into the world. Its like the first day of school. You want to look good for new people for the unsaid wanting of them to like you. We all do this even now out of school, first day of work or a new church, etc. Maybe it’s just a girl thing, but I have a cute new Ann Taylor Loft shirt Id rather wear than a cute shirt. My appearance isn’t everything, this I know. So I have to have a back-up plan.

Muffins.

Jason thought it silly of me to bring pastries to them, but since we are not open we will not have pastries. And really, some homemade chocolate chip pumpkin muffins (thank you Kari ) are no comparison to Starbucks pastries. They are baking as I type this filling my house with good smells of fall. If for no other reason (but there are many) I want to move back to the south for leaving turning colors soon. I miss seasons. So I will make due with what I got and make seasonal bake goods for my scene of fall.

So hopefully with a cute casual outfit and muffins in hand tomorrow will be a day of getting to know the store and my fellow coworkers. Even still I will probably always feel like a dork.

Today was my last day at downtown Starbucks. Bittersweet really because I’ll miss the great people (mostly) that I worked with. Ease of the pain comes from getting to set-up and work in a bran spanking new store. So this next week I wont be in a green apron but in jeans getting the store ready for soft opening on Friday. I’m excited, does this make me a official coffee geek?

I knew there was a reason I keep telling people at other small coffee shops when they say I’m brain washed to work at Starbucks and think its great. They cant offer me benefits (at 20 hours a week) like Starbucks does at a good pay rate. Now check this out, more on our health insurance than on raw materials! Thats pretty great don’t ya think? I’m in the Starbucks spirit with my new store opening in little over a week. So bare with me if I actually like my job.

Today is a good day. Its my day off and its also the day of Gilmore Girls season 6 begins! No more sleeps!

I got a phone a call last night from Carla last night that made me miss this girl even more. She was reminding me of her wanting to go to 25 states by her 25th birthday (which is next July). She said that Seattle sounds like a good place to celebrate and make that goal happen. Her message was asking for a commitment from me now to do that next year if money isn’t an issue. Only would I get a message from her like this. But then Id probably leave a message along the same lines on her voice mail. So with that, this entry is dedicated to something simply just needs to happen!

Top ten reason why Carla and I should be room mates again (these are in no order really):

1) Clothes and shoes. We are the same size and wear a lot of the same styles. Borrowing clothes from one another for a new outfit rather than going out and buying something will save us both a lot of money. (This was more me than Carla.)

2) Friends. Both of us love this show to no end. We can watch hours and hours of it and be content. We eat our “Ed food” while we watch is since Ed is no longer on. And both of us understand if need be the sadness of “I have to live with a boy!”

3) Sunday trips to the library. This was a tradition in our old apartment, every Sunday our books where due we’d take a trip to the library and trade in our books. Also if we finished reading ours we could read the others books they had checked out (this was more Carla than me).

4) Road trips. We both love taking road trips. We know how to do it right, good music, switching off fairly, plenty of fun stops along the way, state line photos and good conversation.

5) Cooking. Both of us can cook some, but always never make time to cook for just ourselves. Living together we liking making meals for both of us to enjoy and others to have over dinner. And mixing our kitchen supplies is always helpful.

6) Being there. We are good at respecting each others space and time. But also know each other well enough to know when to just sit with the other or give them a hug when they need it most. Also understand the importance of just being able to sit with each other and not say a word and be perfectly okay with that. Or having someone to go with you, where ever.

7) Music. Usually we like a lot of the same things, which is always good. We introduce each other to new artists we hadn’t heard of before. Can borrow each others cds (now my iPod). Always have someone to go with to a concert (no matter how far away, see #4).

8) Coffee. We both love love love coffee! Working at Starbucks I get free coffee for us to live on. We both love going to different coffee shops and just sitting there, reading, writing or talking. I have a white coffee maker named Monica and she has a black espresso machine name Chandler. Need I really say more?

9) Silliness. Both of us can be very very silly. Sometimes to the point we wonder what happened to our friend. Other times we join in on the silliness with them. Or simply understand the importance of something to them, even if it is silly.

10) Miss each other. Good friends who can live with each other and not kill each other is pretty hard to come by I have heard. I miss my friend too, it would be really nice to have a wonderful place to call home with her again.

tee-hee

So what are some ideas to get one of my cats on stuffonmycat.com? I so need to get at least one of them on there but it has to be really good. Comment box awaits you!

I worked the early shift this morning straight through any morning church service I normally would attend. Work kept me busy, not really allowing today sink in. I knew it was coming, I saw the date creeping up on my calendar. I cant believe it was four years ago today. I’ve never been able to put into words what this day made me feel other than sad. Sad for so many reasons. We have a Sunday night service that’s geared towards twenty something’s like myself. I haven’t attended it in over a year, though I know a handful of friends who attend regularly. Still Sunday after Sunday I go with my parents to our 11:15 service. I guess I like having church in the morning, it feels like church to me. Usually on Sunday mornings I have to open, I skip church all together. Today was different, I didn’t want to be sitting at home in an empty house. I needed to be around people and to be in a place I knew would, for lack of a better term, cheer me up.

Some of my friends from Jr. High group were there sitting together, shocked to see me on a Sunday night (“What are you doing here? You are so out of place!”). Worship was wonderful, even if I didn’t know all but one song. Sitting with friends while listening to my pastor speak. I was scared a little bit going tonight. Its a service where I feel out of place at because its full of people from my life over the years at the church. A lot of which we’ve lost contact of one another. Not that I don’t like catching up with these folks, I’m just very bad at small talk. So trying to remember what we had in common to strike up a conversation is rather hard for me, especially when I’m out of sorts. But tonight I saw my old (first) room mate. Rumor had it she recently moved back to the area and it was wonderful to see her. We exchanged numbers with the promise of catching up over dinner at her new apartment. My old college pastor was there with a smile for me. I got a lot of hugs. It was just what I needed to settle my saddened state.

One of my hopes in going tonight was to see my friend who’s birthday is today to give her a present. Sadly she was not there and as I walked out to my car to go deliver her gift I saw two people chatting near a parked car. It reminded me of my parking lot romance. That came out wrong. But rarely does a guy and a girl stand out in the parking a lot, alone, rather inside the church talking if something else isn’t there. Placing my key into its lock of my car I realized how far I have really come. I’ve grown up from that girl who stood in the very same parking lot talking for hours. Or am I the same girl with just different fears? My pastor spoke about us as the Church that we belong to one another. I went to my church community to be encouraged, where as I found a piece of belonging. But a tiny piece was all I needed tonight.

My friend Colleen made me a purse and it came today. It shows up black in this photo but its actucally brown. Its adorable isnt it?

When I moved into my first apartment my youth pastor caught wind of this change in my life. He gave me one piece of truth, that I would learn a lot about myself. This being the good and bad things that I posses that others (in this case my room mates) will point out to me in very different ways than my family who’s known me my whole life would think nothing of. Jace and I are after a year and a few months are setting into the comfortable part of our relationship and I like it. This isn’t to say that we know everything about each other or even try to pretend we do. Over these past days we learned bits about each other we didn’t know or rather notice before.

We went to Maritime Museum that is made up of five historic ships. Jason saw this place on the Discovery channel or something and wanted to see the ships (there is another battle ship we didn’t get a chance to see, next time.) We learned new things about each other in a big way. First, we decided to go on the submarine. In front of it was a model of a hole you have to go through four times. As we tested to make sure we could to do that Jason asked if I was claustrophobic. I never thought about it before, but I started to get a bit freaked out. We head toward the entrance of the submarine anyway and after getting through the first whole I feel fine. I turn around to a very sweating Jason asking to turn around because he cant breathe very well. Aw, my boyfriend is a bit claustrophobic! We made it through (quickly) the sub just the same. Going onto the next ship which was a museum of sorts. I’m not a fan of mannequin dressed up in period clothing that was worn by the ships sailors. They freak. me. out. So I made Jason walk in front of me, searching each room for scary mannequins. We left that part of the ship quickly. Onto the bottom floor of the ship we looked around not near each other (I was taking a pictures and Jason looking at stuff). I turn a corner and see a body standing perfectly still and gasp a little like I did with the mannequins. Nevermind its Jason with a red shirt on, it scared me. We did not that play that game anymore (he felt rather bad for scaring me when I was already a bit freaked out). Boy who doesn’t like small spaces and a girl who doesn’t like mannequins (especially in historic things), interesting combo now isn’t it?

Oh and here are the links to photos of the day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeestainedpages/sets/905978/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeestainedpages/sets/906108/

Jason comes tomorrow. Besides the excuse to bust out well laid plans, I’m very happy to see him. I’m not one to gush in public, despite Jason’s pleas for a little. I think I’ve burned myself too much in the past with doing that. But I am thrilled to spend time with him this weekend, discovering new parts of San Diego with him, apartment decorating at IKEA, sitting with him over coffee, and hanging out with my favorite people – all with him. Things normal relationships take for granted, the everyday things we don’t get in a LDR. We both have an ultimate outcome of this weekend – to enjoy each others company. He wishes I not plan things, or expect things to go in some sort of order. Were as, I wish he love my very planned days organized on index cards. I think we give each other a good balance in that area. Same outcome, very different ways of getting there. Ah, isn’t that the difficult truth of all male and female relationships though?

I’ve started this blog entry over many of times. I don’t know how to start it. I don’t even know the words to say. But I’m a bit frustrated with this side of the country in all that’s happening down south. Maybe its because I have many friends down there who are largely effected by this. Maybe its because part of my heart is southern now. Whatever the case, I haven’t hear a word about this disaster outside of my house. Why do people out here not care? Its not that they may not care, there’s a lot of groups trying to send help. With every other thing like this, 9-11, Tsunami, London, it was talked about. Why isn’t this being disused? Last night at youth group my friend Noah prayed for the people down south and it was the first ounce of conversation said about it. I was comforted that it was in prayer. I don’t know what to do for my friends down there who are without power, high gas prices, or trees in their home. It makes me sad to see a place I called home and hold dear is being torn apart right now. Like I said, I don’t have the right words or even forming my thoughts well on this. Simply, I’m just sadden by it all.