I wanted to poke my eyeballs out...

Yesterday, upon my arrival to work, my manager informed me I was going to be serving a party of 26. "Sweet", I thought, money, money, money....wrong. I just happened to look out the window at the same time two large buses pulled up with a sign on the side that said, "Sun City Retirement Center." I wanted to poke my eyeballs out. If only I knew what was to come I probably really would have and put myself out of such misery. It only took them fifteen minutes to actually get out of the bus and into the restaurant. Collecting twenty-six walkers, canes and wheelchairs takes a little time I guess.

Before I could even introduce myself I started hearing old women screaming "coffee with cream, hot tea and it's freezing in here." As I was taking their drink order I noticed they all had name tags on. "What a friendly retirement home", I thought. Come to find out they all have Alzheimers and have to wear name tags so they can remember who they are.

One man ordered eggs bendict and I told him, "oh I am so sorry sir, that is only offered on Sunday mornings." His reply, "oh, well what day is it anyways?" After fifteen minutes I was done taking their order and ready to refill 26 coffees. It gets better. We have an item called the Renee's Special, as some of you may know it includes soup, salad and a half sandwich. As the food came out to the table one of the servers called out "Renee's Special" hoping to find out who it belonged to. Instead, a lady turned and said, "Renee, that's my name, and I am special, thank you." One of the couples disappeared only to find out they were visiting with another one of the tables across the restaurant.

As it came time for the check the lady in charge asked me if they could have seperate checks. At that point I started considering the worst possible scenario if I were to just quit and walk out. Unfortunately, the image of Zac and I homeless didn't sit too well in my head. I proceeded to seperate the checks (FYI: if you are getting seperate checks when you go to eat out, it is polite to tell your waitress before hand.) I only had to get change for about fifteen of them, so that was good. One of the ladies thought she gave me a twenty dollar bill, but instead she gave me ten. I caught it before the bus drove away, luckily. The whole cane and walker ordeal worked to my advantage for that part of their visit. I was able to get the lady to pay her other ten dollars out on the bus. It was a lot of fun, let me tell you.

So you are probably wondering why I am still doing this serving thing. I ask myself this question all the time. The reason is because shortly after this party left a party of 13 pulled up in a limo and made everything all better.

This is just a glimpse of what I go through everyday at work. Yeah, I guess you could say it's an emotional rollercoaster. You have to be resilient, brave and bold....oh yeah and really, really poor.

Christmas Party #2

We had a Christmas party with all of our medical school friends. We ate pizza, had a white elephant gift exchange and played Christmas Pictionary (to anyone who really knows me, this is like a dream come true, Christmas and Pictionary, all in one game. WOW!!) It was so fun, and of course my team won.



Through great strategy and determination Zac and I managed to secure posession of this awesome Christmas sweater in the gift exchange. Thanks to Dustin for contributing such a desirable gift I ended up with the sweater I haven't been able to find anywhere this holiday season. I can't wait to wear it in Utah. The best thing about it is it fits Zac too, so we can both enjoy it.




He was as excited as I was about the sweater. It actually looks quite good on him.



This is Isac and Dusitn, two of Zac's closest friends from school. Dustin is the one on the right in the white jeans. He is on my favorite list now for providing such excitement in the gift exchange. He must have missed the memo, a "white elephant" gift exchange. Oh well, his loss I guess....and my win.

Christmas Party!!

Of course I had to make a cake this Christmas to make the holiday official. Only ten days till the big day. A friend of mine helped me host a party since she knows how much I love Christmas. She offered her house since we just live in an apartment. She decorated it all festive and fun for a party. It was so nice of her to let everyone come in and destroy her house. There were about ten kids there running wild. It was a lot of fun. We ate tons of yummy food, had a white elephant gift exchange and just hung out. Everyone was required to wear red and green. Zac and I are not in the picture because he had to leave early to study and I was taking the picture. I can't wait for the day when he can just enjoy himself at a party and not feel guilty that he's not studying.



We had more treats than we did real food. Isn't' that what parties are for though?

Broken Collar Bone

My poor niece, Christy's youngest, broke her collar bone last week. She is learning not to move it , but sometimes she forgets and shrieks in pain. I feel so bad for her. She broke it by falling down the stairs at my mom's house. She is too cute to have to go through such pain. I just thought this picture was pretty funny and so I thought I would put it on my blog.

White Coat Ceremony

Medical students commit to be honest, good doctors + professors helping them put on a white coat = white coat ceremony

It's really that simple, that's all there is too it. Zac's parents came from Utah to support him. We somehow didn't get any pictures with them though. The picture below is of Zac and his grandparents. Is this not the happiest, cutest elderly couple you've ever seen?



Here are two of Zac's really good study buddies, Ryan (left) and Isac (right).




Poor Zac got the wrong size coat so it was way too small in the shoulders for him. He said he had to hunch over in order for it to fit. I don't know if you can tell in the pictures. It was pretty funny, but sad too. Isn't there a song about this with Chris Farley?



I guess this makes the whole medical school thing official. It was a fun weekend with his parents and a break from his busy study schedule. We went to the Christmas Spectacular with his sister and her family. The Rockettes are amazing. I highly recommend this show to anyone who has even an ounce of love for the Christmas season.

Just Mrs. Claus and I