Many Things

First of all, I got a second and third interview at the restaurant I applied at. I am assuming that that is a good thing and it means that I'll likely be hired. The horrible thing is I'm not so sure that I want to be hired. I'm not going to name the restaurant because I have no idea if they have rules about blogging and because it is a corporate restaurant, albeit a small one, they most likely have rules about it. Anyway, the reason I feel weird is because today they made me take a test. I've had to do such things before, but they have always been specifically restaurant oriented tests. They say, what side of the table does the fork go on, what side of the guest do you serve the soup and what kind of wines go with which dish, that sort of thing. This was an SAT type of test with logic and math, and vocabulary questions. It was a timed test and after I was asked to fill out my name and do the sample questions I was directed to wait for the timer to start before I opened the booklet. 50 questions awaited me and I was to finish them in the time allotted (I was not told how long that would be!). It said in the directions not to pour over the questions too long and that most people do not actually complete the test. I'm a perfectionist at heart and if I have an idea how to come about a solution I will not leave the question unanswered. I finished 35 out of the 50 and evidently did well enough to be asked to come back for the third interview tomorrow. I asked, somewhat sarcastically, if I passed when the interviewer came back and asked me to come back tomorrow without offering the results. What's the point of taking a test like that except to find out how you did? She said that I did exceptionally well. My competitive nature wanted me to ask for numbers, for percentages, but I restrained myself. Why does this bother me so, you ask? During the first interview I was informed that the amount of money that I had written down in answer to the question, "how much money do you need to make a week?" was a bit high and that I would be hard pressed to make $200 below that. I thought this restaurant isn't so exclusive that this test is somehow necessary and if an interviewer isn't a complete idiot I would hope that they would be able to tell that I was smart enough to interact with people, take their orders, and bring their food out to them in a timely manner. The positives to this place are a stable schedule, a more laid back environment than I am used to, higher end clientele, and health benefits (something that has been weighing on my mind because I'm not sure how I could possibly afford them on my own after October or November). The negatives: less money, a corporate environment which I had come to enjoy not being a part of, and did I mention less money. I don't mean to sound greedy, but I was hoping that I might make similar money and have less stress. Is that too much to ask?

So, because I'm not sure how this will all work out I called an old boss who owns and operates a design studio for trade show booths and asked if he needed some help. I, of course, knew the answer would be yes, he invariably needs help always and I knew that he was heading into a busier season. The best part of this is I make my own schedule, I get to do something creative and I can train at this restaurant and feel it out for awhile before I come to a final decision. You can see what kind of work I will be doing at his website.

And finally, the reason I may seem to not be in the greatest mood is that in the midst of all that has been going on this week, I finished the final Harry Potter book today. It was a fitting end; although I had convinced myself it would be different than it was. But, it's over. It's kind of sad to say goodbye. I know that may sound silly considering I am the type of person who continues to reread books because I enjoyed them so much (The books I found myself doing that most with are C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series). But, there is something to be said for the first reading in which all the ideas are new and fresh and surprising and if you discover something before the author reveals it, you feel somehow prescient. There is a different type excitement as you turn the pages when you do it for the first time. Somehow when I read a book over and over I think I am somehow trying to reclaim that irreclaimable feeling.