adult drinks

so, far be it from me to dis someone who is trying to make money. times are hard. i understand that. but do we lose our integrity in the process just to make a quick buck?

back at the end of september, my husband, son, and i went to a function at a nightclub that shall remain nameless. i think the draw to the event was the name, but other than that it was way too overpriced. so we go in and the door person puts a bracelet thingy on my son and gives us some stub looking thing, yet doesn't explain what it's for. we go inside and there is a dj playing music, but he's it also seems like he's practicing for another gig because he's trying to scratch while the songs are playing and when he's transitioning to new songs it's just all f'd up. the mc was boring as hell and kinda seemed like she didn't really even want to be there. so we decided to stay regardless because we wanted to get somewhat of our money's worth but never really got into it.

then here's the integrity part. this is a CHILDRENS' EVENT. about 30mins after we got there, i hear the mc tell the crowd, "just a reminder to all your parents, please keep your adult drinks away from your kids." WTF??? what do you mean ADULT drinks??? adult drinks at a primarily CHILDRENS' function???? principles, values, and integrity people. again, we all are feeling the pinch during these trying times, but....come on!!!!!! after i hear that announcement, i just give my husband this look. a look that says about 50 "f" words in it. we decide ot leave about 5 minutes later.

when we are going out the door, the doorperson asks us for our ticket. i say, "what ticket?" she says that ticket that we gave you when we put the bracelet on your son. ok, maybe that tidbit of information should have been explained when we first walked in the door?? i understand that it's for security purposes and that great. but i wished i would've known the procedure beforehand just in case i had thrown that little slip away. luckily, my husband had it in his pocket which he then showed to the lady and we got to take our son home. but what IF i had thrown that away? would there have been a huge commotion at the door and i wouldn't be able to take my son home????

obviously, we're NEVER going to this event again. i just think that if they have been making adult drinks all this time, they're lucky that nothing bad has happened. if they keep making adult drinks, i just hope nothing bad happens because that would be a huge liability if anything did. i'll keep my fingers crossed for them.

until next post.

arrrrggghhhh

so....i applied for a job yesterday. a job as an academic counselor for school to be unnamed. the job description stated that a college degree was required. i said yipee and proceeded with the application process. i faxed my resume in and in 1 hour i was called back asking if i would be available for an interview. yipeee!!! i scheduled a time, was told about more requirements of the position such as hours and traveling circumstances. then came the part when the very nice lady asked me if she could ask me some questions, to which i said sure. first question, do you have a bachelor's degree. answer, no. then very nice lady setting up interview said that she would have to deny my application because i do not have a bachelor's degree. my response to this was simply that THAT particular requirement was not mentioned in the advertisement for the position.
i guess my bitch, is just the fact that doesn't experience count for anything anymore in this world? so if i had a bachelor's degree in basketweaving, i would've gotten my foot through the door? i had all of the qualifications that they were looking, except the fact that i haven't worked with the higher education population. i've worked in customer service as well as worked with a wide range of people dealing with domestic violence, sex abuse and at risk youth and just because i don't have a bachelor's i'm denied???? come on people. don't get me wrong, i'm not dissing on having a bachelor's degree. it shows that you've shown the committment to stay the course and better yourself educationally. i'm also not trying to dis anyone having a bachelor's in basketweaving. i'm just dissappointed, i guess, as to the fact that i can't even get an interview because i don't have one? i have an associate in human services, which for this particular position, in my opinion, is a better qualification than baskeweaving.
ultimately, i'm just venting and it's their say as to what they want in an applicant. so i have to either do something about it, or just stop dwelling on it. obviously, their HR department is not going to change. the nice lady i was talking to said that they would keep my application on file in case something comes up where a bachelors is not required. to that i say oh well.
until next post...

Gotta love that Customer Service thing.

I work in customer service. (yeah me...bleh) Which means that I have to be very two-faced or I get complained about to my boss. When I worked at Planet Hollywood, this lame manager use to dog me out all the time because one minute I would be swearing up a storm to my friend on the phone and the next minute I would answer the phone and speak oh so sweetly to a potential customer. Again, customer service.

So here I am at my job just minding my own business when I get a phone call from somebody that obviously HATES their job and has decided to take it out on me. In a perfect world, I would've loved to tell this customer (bitch) where she could stick her information that she was looking for. Unfortunately, I couldn't (it's that customer service thing again) so I had to kindly ask this customer (bitch) for her information in order for me to help her. She proceeded to give the loudest sigh in the history of sighs before she started to spew out the information that she needed. After she was finished, I asked her for one more piece of information that I needed in order to kindly help. OMG, I guess that that had brought her to her point of postalness. This customer (bitch) went off on me telling me that she has already given me ample info and asked me if I just started at this job. I kindly informed this customer (who is now on my fucking bitch list) that I was trying to get ALL of the information so that I can look for her answer as quickly as possible. I also added that I had been working at this job off and on for almost 21 years and had learned from my father who started the company in the 70's. I then asked her (which I shouldn't have, but at this point I didn't give a shit) how long she's been working at her current position. After that, as quickly as she had gone postal on me, I suddenly heard silence. It was one of those silences where you know the person is just sitting there with their mouth half open with nothing to say. (how you like me now biatch) So I asked her to hold on and looked for her information. I came back on the phone, gave her her information and kindly asked this customer (totally facialed bitch) if I could help her with anything else? She timidly said no and hung up.
God, how I love this customer service shit.

Lauren's You Hungry blog: YUM!!!

The mention of You Hungry brings up tasty visions of fresh corned beef & cabbage, succulent kalua pig, & steaming shoyu chicken, all in mom-style portions with big scoops of rice. I also recall it being on the corner of Atkinson & Kapiolani, where we'd wait patiently for a parking stall because the reward would be worth it.

You Hungry has since continued the tradition of good, real food under the new ownership of Joel Cabais (son of Jay Cabais, Honolulu steak plate pioneer), his brother Donovan, & cousin Jason of Ono Hawaiian Steak. Recently You Hungry went to the streets, winning Honolulu Magazine's Best Lunch Wagon for 2008. With the help of David Hayashi, they are now implementing plans for world domination.

Seriously. You gotta try their sauces.

When my brother told me he was taking me to lunch at a lunchwagon, I was a little skeptical. My experience with lunchwagons is pretty noobish. I remember visiting one by the boats near Ala Moana Beach Park perhaps 13 years ago, a lunchwagon outside Queens Physicians Office Building with my dad & I think I've gone to Tsukenjo's once. I'm a drive thru girl when it comes to lunch, mostly due to laziness.

Still, I trust my brother.

Around 12:30 (lunchtime) we found street parking on South Street practically in front of our lunch destination, in front of which there was already a line of 5-6 people, & a few others who had already ordered, or were perhaps just bathing in the enticing smell of hot food.

Lunchwagon menu boards intimidate me. I always think I want something, & then at the last minute I decide I want something else, but I'm not entirely sold on that something else & I can't really be 100% sure that's what I actually want, but I'm already at the front of the line & everyone is looking at me expectantly. So then I order what I'd decided on initially that I wanted to change my mind about. And then after I pay I figure out what it was that I actually wanted to order. But it's too late.

Maybe that's why I go to drive thrus. Anyway.

There were already a number of items already sold out on the lunchwagon menu board. Naturally, I immediately found something I'd like to eat amongst the sold out stuff (fresh corned beef!!).

We were moving ahead in line pretty fast & I had to make a decision.

My brother informed me he was going to order the Fried Ahi Poke, reassuring me he wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing.

And so there I was, & there was only one person left in front of us in line. My brother had already decided what he was going to order, but I still didn't know.

I considered the Roast Pork with gravy, but thought that might be too flagrantly unhealthy --- I'd have to come back here alone to order that. The Garlic Chicken sounded tempting, but I wasn't in a real chicken mood, & Crab Stuffed Salmon felt a little too adventurous.

I looked again, forlornly, at the bottom of the menu board where "Fresh Corned Beef w/ Cabbage" sported a little note saying "OUT." I thought of a few reasons why I didn't need to have Corned Beef for lunch today.

And then we were at the front of the line & the guy in the lunchwagon was looking at me.

My brother had ordered his Fried Ahi Poke, & was looking at me.

My mind went completely blank. I didn't know what I felt like eating. Everything sounded good. They were out of fresh corned beef. Ooh, Pork Adobo.

"I'll have the Hamburger Steak please," I said. "All rice. Brown rice. Thank you." Sheesh, I'm such a dork. I didn't even let him tell me I could have toss, but if I'd been a lunchwagon connoisseur I'd have known that tossed greens is a common plate lunch option.

Well, I handled that well.

Our plates came & we set up on the picnic table next to the wagon.

My brother had gotten me a small sample of You Hungry's secret recipe Sweet Wasabi sauce. Whoa.

I've had wasabi/mayo dressings that went well on burgers & wasabi/miso dips that added color to seafood, but this sauce was pure happiness just by itself. As I've said in other blogs, I'm not the huge sauce person; I like my food plain with minimal seasoning.

But this sauce tasted winz just on the tip of my finger. I was too busy enjoying the bright, expansive flavors to even try to deconstruct what I was tasting.

You could put this stuff on anything. Ok, maybe not ice cream. Worth a try anyway, though. It was good.

My brother's Fried Ahi Poke looked & smelled so good that I immediately felt like a loser. The chunks of ahi were soft & perfectly cooked, seasoned with some enchanting citrus flavor. If only I could order this by the bucket & take it to the bar!

Obviously my brother had been here before!

Resignedly I turned to my panic-ordered hamburger steak.

As I lifted the condensation-drenched lid I was greeted with the smell of rich, homemade brown gravy & beef. My hamburger steak was tender, meaty, & swimming in delicious gravy. I'm proud to say that I didn't make it through the rice. But that hamburger steak disappeared in its entirety.

That was really good. I made a good choice after all.

Either that, or there are no bad choices.

Monday thru Friday, 10am-1:30pm
Two locations: South & Halekauila, Alakea & Beretania.

Charlotte Somtimes

ALL I CAN SAY IS: WOW!!!

A New Experience

When I was little, I played Soccer. When my husband was younger, he played Tennis. It was tennis that brought us to the Kailua Raquet Club yesterday evening to watch the Blue Moon Mens' Doubles Tournament. I have never watched tennis except on tv, so this was a new experience for me and one that I would do again. The people were friendly (this guy gave Nico free ice cream), the food was decent and there was actually beer and alcohol being served. I was also surprised to see such an ecclectic mix of people. I guess tennis is something that appeals to everyone. Nico had a great time running around and actually paused to watch the match for about 2 minutes. Then he was off and running. I'm thankful to my husband for bringing us to the tournament to experience something new.

Until next post...

Wow!!! That was quick.

back in august of '07, we were deciding whether we wanted nico to start preschool when he turned 2. we decided for it because we wanted him to get used to a class environment, socialize with other children and we wanted to give my parents a break since they were watching him everyday. after he turned 2 in august, we started nico in september '07 with excitement, anxiety & high hopes. we learned that he was considered an early 2 and was the youngest in the class. we discovered that our son is not a bit camera shy (must get that from his dad) as we bought his first of many school picture packages to the tune of about $115 which contained EVERYTHING (you know, except for the kitchen sink). we then experienced, that it would take our son about a week and a half to stop crying everytime we dropped him off. for the former, i would have to give my husband extreme props for being the one who would have to endure the crying since he dropped our son off. we also found out that they go through alot of pullups at school. probably just as much as we go through at home.

now it's july '08 and today is the last day of school until august 4th. on the 4th, nico will begin in the 3-4 class in a new room with some new faces and some old. the teachers in his class will be ones that he's familiar with from the 2's. in the 3-4 class, they don't allow the kids to come to school with pullups anymore. they have to come to school with underwear only. this would be great except for one catch...he's not potty trained yet. so instead of buying the motherlode of pullups, we have to buy a crap load of underwear since i'm sure he'll have more than one accident during the day. the good thing about the new class, is the fact that the tuition goes down about $50.

i really can't believe that the year went by so quickly. sheesh, is this how i'm gonna measure my years now? at the beginning and ending of the school years? yikes!

so here's to a soon-to-be new school year. another year of learning, discovering, mistake making, and experimenting with new and wonderful things that he can add to his world.

until next post...

A Pretty Good Night

soooo, i went to lovefest this past saturday. i was kinda dreading it since i haven't been since '05 when i think i was the only person there who was 8 months pregnant. that's what happens when you have give your husband a ride. thank God for brenda who came to hang out with me. i was dreading the people walking around like zombies banging into you. i was dreading the strobe lights. i was dreading the squealing sounds that come up every so often from a variety of songs playing on the main stage. the dread that i had did come to play. there were the zombies banging into me, the strobe lights that made it hard for me to step over the people sitting on ground in random places, and the squealing coming from various songs. on the other hand, i found a place to just hang out on a grass hill, away from the zombies and was able to listen to better music from a great dj who didn't play squealing music. i ended up having a great time with some great friends. thank God for the three different stages. am i going again next year? i'm not too sure. it all depends on what plans life has for me. until next post....

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

This is the way that I feel today. There was just too much to do and to do it by myself didn't help matters. Granted, I should have said something but as always, my mind frame is, "Do it yourself. That way you're the only one to blame." When I left the house, I pretty much did everything. I'm just hoping that he remembers the things that I had asked him to do. Bye for now...with fingers crossed.

Ever had one of THOSE days?

I think this picture says it all.

Mr. Henry Wong

Heeeeeerrrrrre's Henry!!!

This is Henry Wong. He's an eight week old English Cocker Spaniel. Here's me believing that everything happens for a reason. We were looking for a puppy for Nico and just so happens that Rich's Aunty's Spaniel had a litter of puppies. We really lucked out and she gave him to us for FREE. She usually sells her males for $1200 and her females for $1300. She said that it would be Nico's birthday present. I told Nico not to ask them for any presents for about 10 years. =) We're all getting used to him since he's only been home for 2 days. It'll be a challenge since we haven't had a dog in our house for about 20 years. So any pointers that anyone reading this blog can give would be greatly appreciated. We're hoping to start him on puppy training as soon as all of his shots are pau. Evidently we can't take him around any other dogs until his shots are finished. I think the only person that doesn't like Henry right now would be our Ninja cat, Rusty. So here begins our adventures with Henry Wong, future doggie ninja. Just a side note: he drinks alot of water...i hope he doesn't turn into a water-holic like his father. I just crack myself up. Hee...hee...hee...hee...hee.

New Edition

No!!! Not New Edition from the 80's. We've got a new addition to our family. For suspense purposes, more to follow as soon as I take some pictures.

Living life

Today I got a quote that went like this:
"It's not who your are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not." - Anon

This is so true. I mean, if you think you're not good enough for something, be it sports, job, relationship, then you won't get want you want out of the situation. Unfortunately, this is how it is for most people out there. We all mindf*c* ourselves so much into thinking that life couldn't possibly give us a fair shake, that we just settle. We settle for the crappy job or settle for the partner that treats you like crap, because of the old addage, "That's life."

Don't get me wrong, there are the optimists out there. The so-called, "happy people" who have seen the pot at the end of rainbow. They are the self confident and the silver lining seers that believe that every house has a picket fence and is filled with a family with 2.5 kids.

I, unfortunately, am not one of the silver lining people. These are the mottos that I live by:
God doesn't give us anything that we can't handle.
Everything happens for a reason.
Always expect the worst. That way, you're not suprised if it happens.

So, think about your life. Which path do you follow?

Until next post...