Mountains and Valleys

Its amazing how things work sometimes.

These last 8 days since I blogged last have been some of the most jaded of my life. Let me take you on a short recap:

The Sweet (not fruity) Car:

On Tuesday, June 20th, I started my vacation from the restaurant in fine style. My Dad, Grandma, and Jan (my stepmom) arrived in Seattle, on the tail end of a long road trip from Santa Rosa, CA, stopping to visit relatives and friends along the way. Along with them was the 4th member of the party (and my new best friend), a 2003 Honda Accord EX V-6 (with leather). This is now my new car. It's sweet. REALLY SWEET. The lease was up on it so instead of sending it back, D&J offered to buy out the lease and then sell it to me on very generous terms. I couldn't pass it up then, and I'm glad that I didn't now. Anyways, that night we went out to Joey's, a meat-market-trying-to-be-a-respectable-restaurant kinda a place. We turned in pretty early thereafter.

Great BBQ Beefy goodness! :

Wed, June 21st, we went and did a few things around the city, mainly getting all the legal stuff with the car out of the way, but also some fun stuff (finally went up in the space needle!) and then ended up back at my place for a Prime Rib that I had been marinating in anticipation of the gathering. Erin having discovered that my oven was broken, we decided to cook it on the grill outside (also taking advantage of the good weather). It turned out really tasty, and washed down well with the vast amounts of wine that was consumed. Erin (broken oven and all) really put the nail in our coffins with a desert of what I like to call "Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes" with coffee ice cream.

Don't know why you say goodbye, I say Hello!:

Thurs, June 22nd, I started the day by dropping off Dad, Jan, and Grandma at the airport, then came back and took my new car for a wash, to really get a grasp on what a sweet ride it was. Soon after washing, drying, windows, rims, tires, and putting on my new plates, I fell asleep for about 6 hours (still shakin' a hangover). During my nap, Erin went to the airport and picked up Bo, a good friend of ours from San Francisco, and (after I woke up) it was groceries and back to Erin's house for dinner. A few days earlier, Erin's boss had shipped 2 live lobsters as a thank you for her hard work, and they had been chillin' (no pun intended) in her crisper, waiting for the eventually jacuzzi ride into eternity. That night, we ate ate like kings. Friday, we hung out with Bo out at golden gardens, and after a trip to the liquor store, we came back home to my place and did beef shish-kabobs that I did on the grill. Blythe, a Seattle friend, joined us and we swapped mp3s, drank, ate, and basically lived it up.

Vacation is over:

Saturday night, I went back to work. It was kinda a shock, and I was a bit sluggish, but it was nothing too dramatic. I made some good loot and my tables were pretty much layer cake. Also, to my pleasant surprise, I found out that despite my vacation (6 days off in a row), I still had retained my weekend (sunday/monday). After work, I met Erin and Bo back up at the D&H (our local dive bar), and had a few drinks before setting off to Erin's house to sleep.

Andrew Jackson is drowning and other tales of Patio Hell:

Now, I don't know what possesed me to do so, but the day before I went on vacation, I had offered to pick up a shift for a co-worker on Sunday morning. He was going to Seattle's Gay-Pride, and I figured that after having that much time off, I could probably use a wallet-infusion, so I casually said "If no one else can, I'll work for you". I should have known better, these are words of doom in a restaurant. It's what you don't say if you really don't want to work. But, I had said them, and, in consequence, found myself on a very hot sunday morning patio closing shift. The temperature got to a roasting 90 degrees (All my California friends are saying "hmmpf!" right now), and it was my definition of serving hell. Hot, and the only comfort is the brief period of time walking into the air conditioned restaurant, before running up and down a long flight of stairs to the kitchen. To make it really awesome, one of the cocktailers scheduled to work decided that she wasn't coming back in, ever, so we had to work one person short, and a trainee even got in on the action. A bit of comedy though: About halfway through the shift, one of the cocktailers ran over to me saying "my tip just blew into the lake!". "How much?" I asked, trying to stiffle a laugh. "40 bucks!" she said. I looked over to the lake, and sure enough, there's 2 twenties staring back, soggy and floatin' out to sea, just out of reach. I told her to just keep an eye on them, that they would eventually float back into shore, (not really sure myself if they would), but they eventually did, and one of the bussers fished them out with a long pole he had found in the bowels of the restaurant banquet shed. After work, Erin and I went up to a disc golf course that we frequented last summer, and played a few rounds before coming back to my place to watch some HBO and crash.

At this point, I was flyin' high, having the best time I've had in a while.

Casius Cole

On Monday morning, I awoke to a massive spider bite on my shoulder, which had swelled to the size of a Kummamoto Oyster. (that's a half-dollar for you non-seafood loving folk) I don't know what bit me, other than it happend apparently when I was sleeping, and was roughly the size of a bulldozer. After examining it for a while, and determining that it wasn't poisonous, I grabbed my phone and checked my voicemail. Sean, (one of my best friends and co-worker) had left me a message at 3:24 in the morning.

Cash, aka Cashbo, aka the Snuggler, Sean's boxer, loving friend and adopted "family dog" had died, apparently of a heart-related problem. He was buried at Sean's parents house Sunday Night.

Now, Cash, for those who didn't know him, was the most lovable, cuddly, awesome guy that I had met. I've never seen an 85lb boxer try so hard to act like a lap dog. Sean often brought him over to hang out with us "guys" and play video games, throw a frisbee, or just to hang out and slobber up a good rawhide. Never had I seen him angry or aggressive. I also had never seen any symptoms of a sickness. In all respects, he was a well loved, well cared for dog, and somewhat a celebrity in our tiny circle of the world.

It was a pretty big shock. We're all trying to collect ourselves and get used to life without him, but, being so unexpected, it's gonna hurt for a long time. We are all just spending some time with Sean and with our other friends that knew him best, and trying to find a bit of comfort in each other.

Everything in the last couple of days has kinda been a haze for me.

I really don't feel like blogging about it anyways.