Saturday, January 26, 2013

1 week down, 14 to go.

It's totally the extended version.
Yesterday afternoon concluded my first official week of the Spring '13 semester, the first week of my second semester at FSU. This semester is clearly going to go a little differently than the last, as I image they all will from here on out. I've never been on this side -- the second-half side -- of a degree before. Rumor has it classes just get harder from here. Guess that makes sense.

I am actually pretty excited about this semester. I finally feel like I'm taking courses that are moving me through the program, now that I'm mostly taking Major requirements. I actually feel like I'm going somewhere for the first time since I started taking night courses about three and a half years ago.

Friday, January 18, 2013

"careful the things you say, children will listen."

"OY, would you just look at the waist on her? You're so lucky to be so skinny!" The number of times I heard this line in any number of variations as a child would be impossible to estimate. I got it from family members, my parents' friends, and completely random women in grocery and department stores. I heard it constantly.

The earliest I can recall someone telling me how lucky I was to be skinny is at least elementary school-aged, somewhere between 5-9. Yes, I was a child. I was an innocent, fairly healthy and active child who ate macaroni & cheese and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches as my mother put them in front of me. I was picky, but the way I looked wasn't even a concept in my head. Food was for nourishment and I was taught to eat it 3-6 times a day as my mother gave it to me. But I was apparently very lucky to be so skinny, according to everyone.

I didn't know that was meant as a compliment (and why should it be?). When I heard I was lucky to be skinny, that meant skinny was good, ideal, something everyone should aim to be. And I was there, so... success! It meant that to be something other than skinny was unlucky and would lower my quality of life, as you could hear it had for the women talking to me in their envious tones. It meant I had it good as long as I remained thin and tiny.

And those same women would later threateningly say, "Oh, it'll catch up with you one day." But I'd learned that was bad, so I wasn't about to let that happen.

And those same women would even later say, "Oh gosh, she's in the hospital? How sad. The media these days is just terrible."

Sunday, January 13, 2013

babies. everywhere.

I'm going to be blunt: I don't understand why people want babies.

This is not meant to offend anyone, it's not personal toward anyone (or their child), and I should point out that I have an unbelievable amount of respect for people that have children. I just can't wrap my head around why or how you're able to do it.

Having babies is necessary to our race's survival; it's what we do and it's what makes us living organisms. Blah blah blah science blah blah. But you don't usually hear lionesses walking around going, "OMG I want cubs. I want so many cubs. They're so cute and cuddly and fluffy and GOSH I hope I have a girl cub." I don't actually speak Lion, so it's possible I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's just more of an instinctual, animalistic (if you will) desire to reproduce. Humans are... different.

Friday, January 04, 2013

and how would you like that cooked?

twitter.com/serveritis
I'm a server, more commonly known as a "waitress," and I think it's time I respond to questions and comments such as:
"I tip, but I don't think it should be expected." "Why should I have to leave more than the total amount on my bill?" "I start the tip at 15%, then lower it every time my server does something wrong." And this guy: "I'm basically a 'no tipper.' And I'm damn proud of it."

The concept of tipping in the restaurant industry is greatly misunderstood by anyone who has never actually worked in the restaurant industry. I can understand that, to be honest. If you've never worked on server's wage, how could you possibly understand why you're being asked to contribute more than what your bill comes out to? It's a ridiculous idea.

What you need to know is $8/hour (or whatever it is in your state) is not minimum wage for every industry. I think that's where people make the biggest mistake: assuming that they're tipping on top of an hourly wage. What you probably don't know is that servers in Massachusetts only make $2.63/hr (known as "tipped minimum wage"), most of which goes to taxes at the end of the day. That is the second lowest serving wage in the United States, the lowest being $2.13/hr. And while we continue to raise the standard minimum wage, tipped minimum wage hasn't changed in 20+ years. Can you imagine the uproar that would be set off in our country if $2.63/hr was the norm in any other industry in 2013?

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

two oh one three.

Student champagne.
2012 was an incredible year for me, easily one for the books.

At the end of 2011, I was finding myself floating in Worker's Purgatory. I had a job that allowed me to live more than comfortably and had the luxury apartment I'd always wanted, but I was spending 40-50 hours/week at a desk doing work I didn't plan to spend my life doing.

At this point, I had put myself through three semesters of night school already and was moving toward my BA at a painfully slow pace. It occurred to me around the end of November that if I wanted to get my life moving in the direction I wanted, I was going to have to return to school full time. It was frustrating to think about the changes that decision would come with, though, and I wasn't ready to give up financial stability to return to being a poor college student. Lucky for me, I didn't have to make that decision. It was made for me about two weeks later. And God bless 'em.