I'm Alive!!!!!!

SO....Yeah I know, it's been awhile...I get it...A lot has happen, I'll give you the bullet points.

So  January,  not a whole lot happened, most of February too, can't really recall all that happened, so long ago.  But at the end of February I  did go down to San Diego to open the Old Spaghetti Factory down there.

We used to have one down there back in the day, about four years ago.  For like 30 years...it was a great store did great business but we closed it, because the Hard Rock Hotel bought part of the building...at that time we (the Dussin Group) didn't think that a small OSF would work in downtown San Diego, and at that time the Gaslamp district(where OSF is located) was asking for higher end business, more fine dinning. The Dussin Group...or shall I say Chris Dussin, decided a new concept would be good.  Dussini, Mediterranean bistro.  The new restaurant did well, really good in fact, however, with the new economy it did not continue to do well.  During this time we looked for a building in San Diego for an OSF, had a few line up, all of which fell through.  So...We decided to reopen where we started.  It's by far one of the smallest OSF store, but with everything going on we thought we'd give it a try...AND WOW did it work out well(details to follow).  So I was chosen by the vice president of operations(not to toot my own horn...toot toot!) to go down and help open the store.

so I went down for two weeks, They put me up at the Shearton suites...so awesome...fantastic.  Had a blast.  Lots and lots of work, but A lot and Lot of fun...super fun in fact.

Some of the other trainers and I hanging out after work.

We were playing this game called Curse...so much fun...Thanks dad!

With the game, there are these curse cards...one of them was call like a bird whenever you talk...so every time Cody talked he had to say BacaBaca...so funny...It stayed with him all two weeks

And The View from my hotel room.

It was a great trip...the hotel was awesome, but by then end of it I was ready to go home to my own bed...

Then about 4 days later I get a phone call, The acting DM calls me and says "Kirk(the VP of operations) asked me to call you and see if you would be willing to come back down to San Diego for another week"

I say sure! I have no reason to say no, I make money by going down there, plus it's fun, plus it looks good on me...so ummm yeah I'll go back down.

Again they put me up at the Shearton suites, this time, I get my own room.

SO awesome AGAIN.

Then I go home...Then I get another Phone call...

This happens up in till June...I'm going back and forth from San Diego to Fullerton. I'm living in a hotel from late February  to late May, going  home for a couple days to refuel and that's it...Still enjoy myself but missing my bed.  Then In Late May, when I'm in San Diego my DM, Ron, sits down with me and asked me if I would like to move down to San Diego and be a part time manager.  I wanted to, but I wasn't sure. yada yada yada, more talking more, discussing terms, yada yada yada, I moved down the first week of June.

I went online...ya ya ya, I know, But I didn't really have any other options...and yes I looked...So I went online and found some places.  I went and looked at all of them...The room I would like in would be awesome, they were all large, private baths...there was this one were i had my private bath, with a jacuzzi bath tub, and hardwood floors, and pool, and my own living room...but i didn't pick it.  I know me, yes, I'm moody and grumpy and like to left alone, but I also like the option of having having people around and talking socializing to people.  All the places I saw were very...hmmm...ani-socalize.  And although the places were great, didn't really seem like it would be home to me.  So, I went with the tiniest of rooms, with no window...yes, no window...But it's a house, with dogs, with really cool roommates.  And my top three things i was looking for was...

1. safety...nice neighborhood

2. rent

3. roommates

Yeah thinking back on those other places I'm like why??? but then the roommates come home or text me, and I'm like...yes I made the right choice.

I can't hang out with the hourly staff from OSF, which only leaves the managers, and we all have different schedules...So it was important to me that I have people to hang out with.  So I'm very very happy with my choice.

So...I was working as a part time manager for a few weeks, then last week my Dm, Ron, talk to me and offered me a position as a Manager again.  And I took it.  I'm still not sure if this is what I want to do with my life, but I'll be 25 this year, and you all know me, not knowing and not doing anything as been driving me crazy.  I need to work, and I need to have a purpose at work. And I would be an idiot to turn down this offer.  

The DM offers me a spot, at the highest ranking store, it is the highest store in sales, and it's the store everyone is watching, and everyone wants to be at. So I took it. So I am now, again, a manager for the Old Spaghetti Factory...YAY!

And that's pretty much the jist. I'm Happy, I'm alive, and having a good time.  I have great people around me, my friends from Fullerton, and riverside have come to visit me.  I have friends out here in San Diego. A roof over my head, and a job to pay for it.  

However...Ron told me I can not paint my nails...the way I do anymore :( i' m very upset about this...but I'm going to try to get around it...shhhh!

To come soon

i know i haven't written in awhile, been super busy, but i'll catch you all up soon

I have a nephew!

I 'll let Katrina fill you in on all the details but I wanted to post a few pictures for you all.

Not too much

So not too much is going on.  Mostly just work. It is the Old Spaghetti Factory's 40th anniversary this year.  And to celebrate...and in hopes of getting our name back out there.  Every Tuesday and Wednesday of January are classic entrees are 40% off.  So we have been really busy on those days.  So for this month I'm working 6 days a week...but it's not that bad, since Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the shift are only like 4 hours.  Other than work...My friends and I went to the bar on Monday to sing karaoke...but the guy who runs karaoke was sick, so we just chatted, and did karaoke using the jukebox.  Last night the girls and I went to cheesecake factory, and nice little treat for me for working hard:) but sorry to say I have no funny anecdotes to tell.  Just wanted to drop a note and let everyone know I'm still alive and well. I did my nails again though! It's the pre-valentines design.  Not quite early enough for valentines, but a little pink to have it covered just in case.

My Nails

Christmas was over, new years had past, and valentines day is not quite near enough.  Hmmm. What design do I paint my nails? During the holidays it's easy to decide, at least the theme of my nails, but during the in between holiday time i'm at a lost. It took awhile, lots of brainstorming, and testing, but I came up with this.

Camping

My parents, Isabel and I went camping this week. It was fun :) I was able to get through one book, and part of another, but it's difficult to read with a two year running around. She is exhausting, she never stops. I really don't know how Kat and Moe do it. Isabel loves the beach once she was down there she did want to leave. She loved running up the hill (it was easier for her than all of us) and she loved throwing rocks in the ocean, and having me pick her up when the water came close to her. So you've all seen the video of Isabel doing animal sounds, and the robot, well this week we taught her "What does grandpa do?" "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH" it's really funny, hopefully Kat can get a video for you all. Isabel and I also took at walk to the the theatre at the camping site, she got right up on the stage and asked for music, and started dancing, it was very cute.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

As tradition goes the Clifford clan starts their christmas morning with christmas music, hot tea, and STOCKINGS!!! We always start with the dogs. Lots of treats for all of them, and a new collar.  Idk knew what was going on, she was actually down stairs for the festivities, and was a good girl while I put her collar on.  Seann put sandy's on, she wanted the treats, but knew she had to get her collar first.  Isabel and Katrina were in charge of putting on Wyck's collar.  Wyck was not so easy.  It was his first christmas, and was just so excited to be in the front living room, and with everyone around.  But eventually they were able to put his collar on...Seann had to adjust it later though.

Then it was our turn.  I always love the stockings, because they are filled with toys, and random goodness. After the stockings came the ABC gifts, and then all the other gifts.  Isabel was in charge of passing all the gifts out.  Occansionally she would try to unwrap a gift that was not hers.  And as always try to help carry a box that was a little to heavy for her.  

After all the gifts were open it was time for cinnomon rolls...yum yum yum! Grandma and Grandpa Clifford showed up soon after that.  They help us set up the table for all the other guest.  Once everyone arrived we ate.  This year we had, Ham, tameles, potatoe salad, coleslaw, mash potatoes and gravy.  Yum.  We've always put syrup on our ham...don't ask why...we just do. However, Katrina and I ran into a little problem.  See when you put syrup on your plate, it tends to spread out a little.  And well, mash potaoes, do not taste good with syrup.  Other than that the food was delicious!

After lunch we opened more presents, and again Isabel was in charge of passing out gifts, she got so into it that even when she had gifts of her own to open she just place them down, and kept passing out the other gifts.  Then we had dessert, a full table of desserts. After a little while people started to leave...sandy and wyck didn't mind because that meant they could run free again.

All day they we kept to the upstairs.  Idk stayed in my parents room, just chillin as usual.  Sandy and wyck stayed sitting on the stairs just watching everyone, and hoping to be let out. When they were finally able to ran around they went straight to the kitchen looking for leftovers.

It was a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!f6f2">

Christmas Eve

On tuesday night after work I drove to my parents, so I could spend christmas eve with my parents.  

I was planning on sleeping in a little on wed. morning since I didn't fall asleep till 3am, but I woke around eight.

Mamma needed to get her nails done, so Dad and her left to go do that, while I took a shower and got ready.

 They came back and picked me up and we went to breakfast at maria's...yum! Then we ran a few last minute errands then came home and relaxed.  Mamma made a few more cookies, and her igloo, while dad and I watched santa clause 3.  Then we had chinese food, my fortune cookie said, "Beauty is in your heart.  Let it out, let it beat, give yourself a treat."  After dinner one of Mamma's friends brought her family over to see the house, after they left we watched Santa clause 2!  After the movie I went to bed...because Dad said santa wouldn't come unless I went to bed at a reasonable time.  Gosh santa is high maintence! Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Hey everyone, sorry it has taken me so long to write. I was just really busy with school, work, softball, getting ready for Christmas and trying to breathe. But I’m going to try to fill you in as much as I can.

School is over, grades aren’t in yet, but they should be soon. Didn’t do as well as I had hoped, I think I got b’s. Which I guess is pretty good considering I haven’t been to school in a few years. But I enjoyed being back, and looking forward to continue with school.

Softball has been a lot of fun, however with thanksgiving, finals and the weather we really haven’t gotten to play that much ☹ the season is almost over, and we are at the top of the league, hopefully we keep it that way.

Work is going good, nothing really to report there.

Christmas came really fast this year; I barely had time to celebrate. I went over to my parents a couple weekends ago. Isabel was there too! But she wouldn’t let g’pa out of her sight, and he needed to work on the lights, so I went outside to keep her entertained. We colored the driveway with chalk. Dad took a picture
She had be draw a dog like eight times, apparently she did not like the way I draw dogs, and wanted me to keep doing it till I got it right.

I made a few batches of cookies, not a whole lot, but a few and took them to work. I just didn’t have enough time to bake like I wanted to. I got my shopping done in one day; I was very excited about that one.
And I was able to paint my nails 3 times for Christmas. It takes a awhile, but it’s very relaxing to set, watch a movie and paint my own nails.





I guess that’s pretty much all there is, I’ll try to write more often.

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

1st game

Our new softball season just started.  Today was the first game...WE WON!!! by a lot.  I don't know what the final score was, but it was a lot.  I was in the outfield...I'm not so good in the outfield, it's hard for me to see where the ball is going to go, plus it gives me too much time to think about where the ball is going to go.  And my batting was okay, but not great.  However my running was awesome, everyone said they never saw me run so fast.  One of the other girls, Ashley, was hurt.  She didn't feel like running so I ran every time for her, and for me.  It was exhausting.  But lots of fun.  On one of the plays I ran from first to third.  As I was turning second I looked to see where the ball was, and kept going because I didn't hear anyone say "STAY!" so I kept going...apparently Travis was doing the hand signals for stay, but When I run I'm not really looking...So when I got to third I had to slide.  It's funny that everyone is always like "WOW, I can't believe you did that" because for me it's second nature, I really don't think about it.  But guess what! or yes, I got hurt.  Just as my knees were starting to clear up, I go and hurt them again.  Oh well...I had lots of fun.  I love softball.

Nails

So my friend Dia is in cosmetology school.  And It's that time of year when i get my nails done!  Dia told me to go to the school, because it would be really cheap.  So I did.  Definitely  not what I'm used to, but not a horrible job.  I still need to file them to my liking, and since my nails will be painted for the rest of the holiday season, i don't really care about the imperfections.  They tried to do Halloween designs, but they haven't really learned the art of nail painting, so i just had flowers done, but overall it came out pretty good.

The Haps

The past few weeks have been a little bit of a blur, but in a good way.

Work has been really good, the managers are trying to create a position just for me, when or whether it will happen is still up in the air.  Since the economy is really low, the corporate office is doing a huge push on Marketing.  So Dean, my general manager, gave a task to each of the managers, and one to me.  Then Parker, one of the managers that I worked with when I was a manager, and a good friend of mine, knows how much I enjoy doing this kind of work, so he asked if I wanted to do his task.  I enjoy doing it, plus it gives me more hours so I said yes.  Then Parker had told the other managers if they wanted my help to ask.  So I ended up doing all of the marketing work.  I'm really enjoying it, it's a lot of hard work, deadlines, stressful, but at the end of each day I feel like I'm doing something.  If things keep going well, they want me to become the banquet coordinator, but that's only if there are enough banquets for me to coordinate.

I'm still looking for other jobs, Toria sent me a lead on this company that seems like a great environment, which is one of my top priorities.  However, didn't really seem like they have any openings in my location, at least right now.  I'm still looking, and applying.  And I have a friend that is a manager at this member's only bar in downtown Fullerton.  I was thinking I would bartend there in my free time and make some good money, and hopefully make some useful contacts.  I'm doing fine at my job, so I can take my time and wait for my perfect job to come along.

School starts in like two weeks, I'm excited and nervous.  

Our new softball season starts this week, however our first game is a bye. I started practicing pitching yesterday, it took me awhile to get my groove.  But I think with a  little more practice I'll be able to figure it out, and keep it.

This past week I've been watching baseball with the guys, It's fun going out to watch the games, because everyone around you gets so excited by the game.  You have random people talking about it all, and high fiving, and jumping up and down, it's hard not to get excited.

So it's been a busy week, and looks like next week will be the same, I can't wait!

Hair

Guess what!?! surprise surprise, I changed my hair!

So far everyone loves it.  They all say I look better in darker hair then lighter...what do you think?

Champions

Last night we had our playoffs for the summer season.  We played a double header and WON!!!

We are the champions for the summer season. YAY!!!

It was definitely stressful.  The first game started and we were doing good, had 3 run lead for the first three innings.  Unfortnately for us when the other team has poor sportsmen ship we tend to lose our focus.  My team was on the field, our shortstop Joe went to make a play second base, he had the ball and was ready to get the runner out.  Instead of sliding, the runner bulldozed Joe, causing Joe to roll over the runners back.  The runner then push his shoulder up causing Joe to do complete 360 in the air falling to the ground, not moving.  No problem things happen, what upset all of us was that the runner kept running, and never said sorry, or check to see if Joe was okay.  After a few seconds Joe sat up and was carried off the field.  He hurt his knees really bad.  He is okay now, just really sore.  It just really upset all of us that the other team seemed unphased by the fact that one of our players got hurt.  It was really tight at the end, we were up to bat and the time was out.  So this was hit, however this inning ended meant the end of the game.  We were down by two runs, everyone standing up, we had two outs, you could feel the tension.  We ended up getting 2 more runs.  Now it was there turn at bat, we had to hold them there. It seemed like a long inning, but we did it!

The next game wasn't as stressful, but it wasn't easy either. But we won. It was really exhuasting, but we were all super excited at the end of the night. we get one week off, then we start again.  I'm going to learn pitching,  Cory our coach really wants a girl pitcher because we can utilize the the field more, and I'm one of the only girls that really isn't afraid of the ball, with quick reflexes.  So I'm going to start practicing this week, if I get the hang of it then I will be the pitcher for our games.  I'm excited.

What To Say?

I've really enjoyed reading Katrina's posts, and being able to read about her days. So I've decided to do the same.  Not sure exactly what I'll write about, or how often I will write, but I do hope you all enjoy it.

So let's start this week off with a little catch up.

I'm still working at spag, anywhere from 4 to 6 days.  This week it's 6, and boy am I tired.  But I really wanna work as much as can now before Christmas hits, so I can have time to enjoy my favorite season.  I start school in October, just a few classes at Community College to get me back in the grove of things.  I'm still playing softball, which is a lot of fun.  I am so happy I chose to start playing again.  Not only does it get me out, and able to play a sport, but I've also met a lot of cool people, which makes me really happy.  My friends and I have gotten into a nice routine, softball, poker, dinners, and fun.  A few of us went to Havasu a couple of weeks ago, that was a lot of fun. It was my first time going, and I can't wait to go again.I've also started playing my first season of Fantasy Football.  Last week I didn't do to well.  Our League has a totally of ten teams, and I'm the only girl.  We all went to this pizza place for our draft.  It was a lot of fun. However, all of the guys were upset because, I, the only girl, had picked one of the top teams.  expect for the fact that Brady was my QB,  Which if anyone saw last week's game, you know that Brady is now out for the rest of the season....me so sad:(  But thanks to dad, I've done a little rearranging and I should still do pretty good, Let's hope.  The guys even had a bet going on. The first person to lose to me has to wear a dress to softball, but when the bet was proposed, some of the guys thought it would have been a better bet if i wore a dress(since i don't really wear them that often) .

Well hopefully that catches you up to date.