I know that I’m not going to be gone for too long but I feel like I’m leaving a pretty good life in the US. These are the things I am going to miss when traveling:
My Family. My mom, my dad, my sister—I don’t get to see them too often since they live 7 hours away, but now I’m even farther away from them. Even phone calls are going to be more infrequent. I’ll probably end up missing my mom’s pestering phone calls and worries about me getting kidnapped or dying. Oh wait! I’m sure she’ll manage to find a way to nag or stress me out all the way out in Thailand. But I will miss her legitimate concerns for my well-being. I’ll miss my dad’s strange sense of humor, deep and neurotic care for education and technology, and his long, drawn out tech instructions that I impatiently and sometimes refuse to listen to. I’ll miss my sister’s blunt statements, her morbid perception of the world, and her ‘I don’t take crap from anyone’ attitude. Though it is rare when we talk, I know to depend on her when I need someone to be slap me around a bit.My Friends. I don’t even know where to start. I will miss friends that I have made through school, through work, volleyball, and through other associations. I will miss my times with the Lull Street Boys in Reseda—dancing, singing, and drinking into the night. My road trips with Lacey to LA, Silverado, Laguna Canyon, Cha, her house, my house, Target, Tea Station, work, Orange, the beach………oh Dirty Mistress. I will also miss our secret love affair, girl talks, and scissoring hand gestures used to make her brother, Ricky, uncomfortable. I will miss going to the Daily Dose, Friday’s, or Dirty Nelly’s with co-workers for drinks after a long hard shift at work. I will miss the friends that I’m never able to see because of schedule conflicts and their progressing careers (Lara, Chelsea, Bita, my volleyball teammates). I will miss friends I’ve made at my restaurant (…). I will miss the friends I have made and still maintain friendships with from the teaching program (Connie, Ziva, and Richard). Someone visit me please!
My Volleyball Team. I will miss VBC (cleverly named VBC after VolleyBall Club—recently changed to, Amped). I will miss my teammates. My teammates are great! They are seriously the most encouraging and inspiring group of people. I don’t get to see them too often but when I do, we tend to make fun memories. I loved our experiences with Amber’s delicious amaretto Jell-O shots, making fun of Danny’s extreme tardiness behind his back (LAX), our inability to give high fives, and the first fight I almost started (and ended) across the net. I’ll be back guys! Hopefully my back will heal in time!
My Beach Volleyball Group. I will miss playing with Guillermo, Lauren, and the rest of the crew. I will miss getting strawberry lemonades, trying to dive and roll in the sand, getting my first Oakley sunglasses (which I believe make me look like a professional beach volleyball player), having fans that both watched and played in some of our games (Lacey: “Great fist Christy! You’re such a great fister! Me: “Uhh, do you know what that means?”), and getting sand sucked up every orifice of my body. One thing I probably won’t miss is getting up at 6 AM every Saturday morning.
My Restaurant. I will miss all the employees the most! I’ve had such wonderful experiences with all of them. I will miss my incessant bread breaks in the morning (when not one customer would come in for the first hour and a half of the shift), our incestial relationships with each other (it comes in phases I think), hitting on Jorge, Bryan ditching me during dinner and my dad giving him a verbal beat down, stealing tons of serronos and lemons from the kitchen, chipotle chicken pizza, my bread fight with Marissa, the ‘worst shift ever’ contest (compliments of Chris, Tom, and me—it lasted one shift…), writing funny reasons for getting a shift off (Pearl Harbor reenactment & AdultCon), the dream team of managers, the kitchen staff (‘me amour’..Pshh! You all use that on everyone), persistently asking to eat all the food mistakes, discriminating against almost all races, freeze tag (what a great idea Eric!), complaining about everything with Alanna, “Does it look like I have socks(sex)?” dilemma (I like having black ‘socks’), wearing the strap-on to work (oops!) and rubbing it up against RJ, pie-ing former employees and getting pied myself—twice!, and everyone and everything (except the actual work part of the job).
Ruby. Ahh! Ruby, I will miss my projectile vomiting, incessantly whining, avidly hungry, happy-go-lucky pup! I have raised this crazy and delightful dog since she was a little thing. She was the worst during my first year with her (my carpets will never be white again!). But, since being potty-trained (kind of), she is the most amazing dog. I’m going to miss her energy, playfulness, and feistiness. I’m going to miss her sleep talking and attempts to jump into your lap when you’re not looking. Whenever having people over to hang out, we usually all stop talking to each other and instead watch my dog furiously chew on a 12’bull’s penis. She loves the 12 inchers. It’s mesmerizing for some reason. I won’t miss her humping her bed (I can always tell that she humped her bed when her bed is across the room…gross). I will miss her face—her scrunched up, sad-looking face.
Certain Foods. I will miss burgers, buffalo wings, and pizza (only from CPK—other pizzas usually remind me of phemaldehyde). I will mainly miss buffalo wings (which I usually consider to be in a completely different category than most foods). I will miss Mexican food, Italian food, and CPK. I will miss going to Cha to get milk tea! My favorite! Well, there should be a ton in Asia!
Dexter Night. I love Dexter! How weird is it to root for a serial killer? By the way, is a serial monogamist a person who kills off any chance of having relationships with other people? What do you think? Keyword: kill. Every Tuesday night, Ricky, Lacey, and I get food, share a bottle of wine, and watch episode after episode (if we are so lucky!) of Dexter. Then, we talk about Michael C. Hall. Then we analyze the show and its stupid but invigorating cliff-hangers. Tuesday nights could not get here sooner!
TV Shows. I will miss all my TV shows that I am hooked on. If I am ever having a bad, sad, happy, or celebratory day, the perfect remedy or present to myself is to order buffalo wings and milk tea and enjoy my meal watching one of my favorite TV shows (Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, Weeds, and more). I’ll admit, some guilty pleasures do include Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, and Vampire Diaries (I never thought I would be into vampires until this show). I don’t usually like reality TV shows (especially Jersey Shore…come on! Really?). Now I’m just starting It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Arrested Development. I bought the first couple of seasons to watch on my trip. So excited!
Things I won’t miss…
Driving. Don't want to talk about it.
Winter. I get cold very easily. Even 70 degrees prompts me to put on a sweater. Every year, I dread the winter time. The only part I like about it is less shaving and less razor burn. All throughout high school and college, I used to go through three month phases in which I would not shave my legs. It used to be fun to show people my progress. They usually thought it was just gross but I told them that the extra hair on my legs helped cause friction when rubbed up against my pants. This friction helped me during the cold weather. And keep in mind, this cold weather I’m talking about is California’s version of winter. I would never survive on the east coast. When in Thailand, I will actually be living there during their coldest season, the cool season. The cool season usually has temperatures ranging from 75- 90 degrees with slight humidity. I’m so excited. The only problem is because of the conservative nature of Thai society; sleeveless tops and shorts are considered disrespectful and are greatly frowned upon. So things will be sweaty! Funny thing, that’s what I wore to my job interview for my restaurant three years ago: a halter top, shorts, and thong sandals. And I got the job! I don’t think they would allow this anymore I’ve been told.
Serving. I won’t miss working as a server. It’s frustrating the way customers treat you sometimes. They treat you like a lowly person. There is a lack of concern coming from the customers. You can have crazy situations like eight tables at the same time, the kitchen is super busy, food is coming out at different times, we ran out of bread, we didn’t bring out the FREE bread (that we aren’t even supposed to bring out unless requested), customers are picky or have severe allergies, customers down their drinks every two minutes, customers request for multiple things (red pepper, side of ranch) but ask you for each individually every time you bring out one of the items, customer doesn’t know what an artichoke is and wants you to describe it, customers tell you they are ready but make you wait as they casually discuss what they should eat with their friends, customers tell you that Cheesecake Factory is much better and expect you to do something about it, customers decide to wear white shirts when you spill red wine on them, teenagers (enough said), customers’ bill is $13.78 and they give you a hundred to get change, customers wave you down while you are taking another table’s order, customers want all separate checks for a party of 20, water without ice, hot teas... Sorry now I’m just going on a tangent. Even the kids at your tables are rude to you at times. I’ve had kids yell at me, knock into me (all full of plates) while using their rollies in the restaurant, color all over the tables and walls with crayon (while their parents suck down a couple more martinis), jump up and down on the seat cushion (Does this look like a bouncy house?), seen a kid demand for an iPad instead of a coloring book, have their eyes glued to their iPads all throughout dinner, throw a noodle at me,…
I used to want tons of kids but since serving I stopped wanting any. This view has recently changed because of the whole teacher thing and all but I also realized that a lot of times, kids are like that because of the parents. So if the parents won’t do anything, I’ll make sure to instill some good and considerate behavior in them when they’re in my classroom. I’ll put the smack down on them (not literally…depends on my mood). Nevertheless, I have met some of the worst people serving but I have met some of the best people as well. Though great people are few to come by in the restaurant industry, they definitely help to make up for the bad ones. And now when writing all these bad experiences down, I realize that these bad experiences do make for some pretty darn good stories.
Basically, there is a lot that I’ll be missing when I leave. I bet I’ll be homesick for a while. But maybe I’ll be able to come up with a similar list for Thailand at the end of my trip. I hope!
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