monster tip, and beans

This picture is totally awesome, and totally unrelated to the rest of this post, but it is a monster that someone drew on the back of their receipt at Zeek’s.  The monster is saying “Good!”  This picture warmed my heart so much that my feelings weren’t even hurt when the people who drew it didn’t leave a tip.

After almost three and a half years of trying, I finally had an almost stress-free visit home.  My dad was easier to get along with than ever, maybe because he was just trying really hard not to scare me out of moving home?  Neal came over for home-made mexican food…which, in Paul Quintana’s eyes, was a true test of his character.  The green chili tasted even spicier than normal, and judging by the generous helping of beans piled on his plate,  my dad must have somehow known that beans are maybe the only food that Neal really doesn’t like.  Luckily, Neal’s aversion to beans isn’t quite as strong as Kaela’s to onions, and he managed to eat them.

Neal passed the food test with flying colors, and outside of a few uncomfortable comments from Paul (“That facial hair’s gotta go man…I don’t want you scratching up my daughters face,”) the night was a huge success.

Miss Amanda

Yesterday was the culmination of my hairschooling, the Washington State Cosmetology Licensure Practical Examination.  Lelia and I,  along with our mannequins named Amanda, arrived at the testing center in Fife at 7:15 am.  Pictured below is Amanda’s friend (or brother….or more than friend?,) Magnum.

Amanda wasn’t available to be photographed because I haven’t washed the simulated hair-color product from the test out of her hair yet.  So, as we said at the Aveda Institute, Amanda currently looks like she came straight out of hell.

While my 1600 hours of schooling came down to this four hour test, I didn’t feel nervous.  We had done a lot of run throughs, and I think I’m generally a little bit overconfident when it comes to Cosmetology testing.  God sure put a stick in my overconfident eye.  I did a lot of things, what I consider to be the important things, right.  But if I’m really honest, my perm was not good. And I forgot to sanitize my hands before I demonstrated saturation of the perm rods. And sanitation is VERY IMPORTANT in this exam.

When all was said and done, I thought I probably failed. Which was a good lesson in humility, also, my high stress level helped me to be really productive today.  I only allowed myself to check online for the test scores after doing a productive task (have a golden oreo, check for scores, empty half of the dishwasher, check for scores, etc.)  Turns out I passed, so did Lelia.  What a relief.  And we could never have done it without our Amandas.

Would you next time?

I got this in the mail from Fin last week:

Don’t you want to know what Ammar’s letter to the Tooth Fairy consisted of, if he DIDNT WRITE ANY WORDS?!  Ammar must have been old enough to write, otherwise the Tooth Fairy would never expect that of him, right?  Fin also included a note on Christmas stationary, and insisted that it wasn’t Christmas stationary, that it was “Fall and 3 feet of snow in Colorado stationary.” It had a snowman and holly leaves on it, it was definitely Christmas. You don’t have to pretend with me, Fin, you’re the one with the problem with Christmas.

A little more about the man behind this Tooth Fairy letter.

1. Fin is a very smart and successful career man, but still appreciates things like Tooth Fairy letters enough to mail them to me.

2. He is at least 7 ft tall, with a tiny, perfectly round head.

3. Andrea Findley is Fin’s beautiful little sister, who receives a startling amount of Christmas presents every year from her loving older brother.

4. Sometimes, on the days when I am the very luckiest, Fin wears little denim shorts and does yard work.

5.  Fin is a really good friend, he does his best to force me to be a better person. He also does his best to poke me in the armpit really hard whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Gilly and Filly Berto

Lately I have been making the most of my psychology degree and cosmetology schooling by serving pizza at Zeek’s. Zeek also employs cousins Gilberto and Filiberto, who work in the hot hot dish room and also bus the tables.

When I first met the Bertos I got the impression that they didn’t speak any English at all,  but I loved them and I wanted them to know that.  So for a while now I have been doing my best to express my appreciation of Gilly and Filly in Spanish. Turns out they do speak English, much better than I speak Spanish. They just generally choose to spend their time doing what they are supposed to be doing, rather than entertaining conversation with the little servers.

Recently we learned that Filiberto has a wife and two babies in Mexico, and is here to work to support them. Thinking about him in that dish room, working so quietly and diligently to support people so far away feels so heavy, and so lonely. And it makes me feel like a huge baby. No wonder Filly has no time to talk to me.

Sometimes I try to help  the Bertos by bussing my tables, or scraping the food off my dishes. Whenever I do these helpful things they step back and watch patiently, as though saying “Silly girl, you are really just in the way right now but if this makes you feel better then go ahead and do it.”

Halloweekend

Neal Patrick Cyr came to Seattle for a Halloween visit.  I have always felt grossed out by the idea of couples costumes before, but something about dressing up with Neal makes it feel a lot less cheesy. Maybe because he says the F word so much.

We were going to be Bonnie and Clyde, Kirsten sent me a lot of amazing Bonnie clothes from her store.  But Bonnie has blonde hair, my hair is brown, and Neal didn’t like the gun I bought. He said it was the wrong kind. Then we didn’t have hats.  So we made an 11th hour decision to wear the Cyr family caterpillar costume instead.

Soon after this picture was taken we poked  a head-hole for Neal, so he could see.   Then we looked like this. My friends in Seattle are really really good at Halloween.

We went to The Kangaroo and the Kiwi for the third year in a row. My friends won most original costume, and scariest costume. The only category that we didn’t win was sexiest. And I like us better for not winning that.