Sleepless Nights...

Sadly, yet again, I have been remiss to post more often on my new blog. Although I try to not get too caught up in the whole, “I ought to post more often” thing, I am still human and like trying to keep myself accountable to my loyal fan…(s?) So dear reader it is 1am on my day off. Why am I still up, you ask? Because, I tell you, for whatever reason, sleep has decided to escape from me for the past three weeks or so. To be honest I blame my sister. She kicked me out of sleeping on the basement couch a couple weeks ago and it’s been downhill ever since.

Do you have to have the perfect or at least almost perfect sleeping arrangement in order to fall asleep? Let me assure you, I DO! I need it cold, and quiet, and with a big comforter and a supportive and yet flexible pillow. Lord willing I will one day find a wife with similar qualities.

These ideal conditions have evaded me for quite some time now. It’s like when you go back to sleeping on a twin size bed after sleeping on a full or queen size for a period of time. It requires some adjustment. Normally, I can simply position myself against the wall and it works itself out. However, this hasn’t been working lately. Similar techniques such as adopting the fetal position, obscene drinking, and children’s Nyquil have also failed.

Desperation is not becoming of anyone. Except perhaps a small puppy that just wants some love, but besides puppies, desperation is never good. And yet, this is my reality at the moment. Many people have told me that they can identify with needing sleep simply as a needed respite from the work and pressures that the day has brought upon them. During those nights I can typically force myself asleep. On nights like tonight, however, where I have practically nothing to do tomorrow besides wash my uniform and go to the bank, staying up till 3am doesn’t seem so bad except trying to stay up that late doing anything productive is an exercise in futility. And anyone who has exercised often in futility knows how futile it is and has decided to eat a sandwich instead.

Blogging and listening to music seem to be my only two sources of relief on nights like these. Tonight I happen to be streaming through the list of different songs covered by Karmin in an effort to amuse myself. Other nights I seek to educate myself by watching videos of different violinists on Youtube or opera arias sung by my favorite singers such as Natalie Dessay or Cecilia Bartoli.

Speaking of music, this week I purchased the new Maroon 5 album Hands All Over, and honestly, I really like it. I remember in high school when Maroon 5 was very popular and since then they haven’t really done much. I maybe Hillsdale just shut me off from whatever they were doing, but honestly I really like their sound that they have on this album. It’s a lot of fun and it includes a cover of Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You that is awesome! If you’re looking for a good pick me up album for your chore days or for on your way to work, I recommend Maroon 5 to you.

So my question to you is, how do you kill time like insomnia? I’ve tried reading, but honestly, something within me is repulsed by the idea of reading past midnight. Maybe it’s just bad memories from high school and college, but I want to enjoy my reading with tea or coffee with the daylight streaming in on my couch as I educate myself and pause to contemplate whilst looking out the living room window.

Perhaps I will be fortunate enough to be able to live out this picture tomorrow. Let’s hope so. I would appreciate your prayers that I might be able to find a solution to my sleepless ways. Otherwise, more late night ranting will occur. In any case, I am going to try and reading some music and follow along with a recording and hope that helps. Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy is a great piece for just such an occasion. Have a wonderful night all, and I hope that you all sleep better than I do. Ciao!

How do you spend your time?

Time. The age old vestige. Can’t really escape it. Constantly stresses us out and at some deeper level I think terrifies us all. But without getting all existential and philosophical, I would like to pose a question: What does a 23-year old do with his time? This is the question, as a 23-year old, I have been asking myself. Friends have been discussing how much they miss college and how “real life” isn’t as good as college life. Many people say their college days were their best days. Personally, I always found that to be sad. Did I make the best friends I have now in college? Absolutely! But do our friendships exist only within the framework of college? Absolutely not! We’re all going through the same stuff now that we are graduated. Granted I am not married or having a baby or teaching at some great school. But for the 4% of Hillsdale graduates, there is much to be lived for outside of college and now the question is simply, how do I live it?

So I have a job. This job is great. It pays the bills, enables me to save up a vast majority of my money for graduate school, and at the same time I can still buy great cheese, wine, and other food delicacies that make life fun and demonstrate the incredible diversity of the awesome God that we serve. But there is still more time. The job takes up about 45 hours a week when you factor in the driving time. But if I am being totally honest with myself, I sleep in till about 11 every day. Part of it is recovery from work, but a bigger part of it is simply not having anything else to do.

I remember while I was a student at Hillsdale I would wake up at 7:50AM every day leave the house by 8:45 and not come back until 1:00AM when I would slump into bed and sleep for almost 7 hours and do it all over again. For 17 hours a day I was running my butt off from one thing to the next. It was great! I am very much a workaholic I have noticed. So should I get another part time job? Is that a wise usage of my time? On top of my job I also always feel a need to be learning and therefore I have been reading books like When People Are Big and God Is Small by Ed Welch and A Quest For More by Paul Tripp. These books are part of a series that I purchased from CCEF, which is the Christian Counseling organization I desire to be a part of one day. These authors are the men I hope to study under when I go to Westminster one day soon and therefore I want to make myself as familiar with their works as possible. Since I can’t be in classes, reading their books is the 2^nd best thing.

So do I get another job? Do I focus more on reading and studying? Where does God’s Word fit into all of this? While I was living in France last year I started writing a personal Commentary on the book of Acts. It was extremely encouraging and uplifting and I have been remiss to begin writing them again out of the struggle of being a sinner that exists so strongly in my heart.

Questions of time. How to spend it. And actually having the motivation to do it. Saying to myself, do it yourself and be diligent to stay consistent with it. And of course, all of these ideas assume that there are no other distractions in my life. Like paying bills, or returning overdue movies to RedBox, or shaving on a regular basis. These all take away from the time I have as well. It would be an interesting movie to see how people would act if our time weren’t limited. Make the setting for the movie our same society and culture, but make everyone immortal. I would love to know how many chiropractors and massage therapists there would be. How often people get together for a coffee date. Why rush? There’s all the time in the world to get together and talk. Many more ideas come to mind as well, but I will leave you with those ones.

I have to go get ready for work now because sadly, my time is limited and I only had 20 minutes to write this. Happy Thursday! Ciao!

For the Love of Cheese!

 Generally with my work schedule I usually don’t blog during my days off. I work Tuesday-Saturday and therefore my Sundays and Mondays are rather precious to me in terms of spending time with people and resting and recovering. Last weekend I was able to go to Jonesville and Hillsdale and have a really nice visit with Ben Parker and some of my last remaining friends at the college who are now seniors.

This weekend however, I decided to just stay home, not really do that much. Well, not doing that much ended up turning into a lot, actually. On Sunday I met up with my friends Nathan and Amanda at church and we ended up going out for $5 all you can eat pizza and then to a really cool outdoor expo in Rochester called Arts and Apples. Lots of venders, lots of art, bands playing outside, it was great. Tons of people just walking around and you get to look and, if you have 8 trillion dollars, buy some pretty little things. I ended up purchasing this really cool drawing of Central Hall from Hillsdale with a small poem on it that will end up going next to my diploma that I finally received from Hillsdale earlier this year. It will be my personal little corner of appreciation to Hillsdale.

Yesterday Nathan and Amanda came over to my place, seeing as how I usually go over to theirs, and we decided to go to the Franklin Cider Mill. As Julie Robison and I have discussed, you don’t live in the Midwest unless your favorite season is Fall. And one of the best parts of the Fall, is Apple Cider. I remember growing up how it was one of my favorite places to go because we got to see the big old water wheel inside the mill and then go get hot doughnuts and cider and sit by the river and feed the ducks. Yesterday I made the realization that this so called river, is more like a creek and the only reason the ducks are there is because they know there is a consistent source of food.

I discovered something else there yesterday that perhaps maybe I was blind to in the past. But the Cider Mill had almost a small farmers market on their grounds. Nathan and Amanda bought an Apple Riesling Salsa that I thought sounded amazing over pork chops. I ended up purchasing two different types of cheeses. One was a butter cheese and the other a soft cheese with lots of chives and garlic that made it taste like Au Gratin potatoes without the potatoes. After picking up these cheeses and half a dozen doughnuts and a half gallon of cider, we decided to walk to the nice little park in the village of Franklin, one of the most historic villages in Michigan.

We opened the cheese, with much difficulty I might add seeing as how the only serrated utensil we had was a plastic knife, and much to our surprise realized that the two cheeses actually tasted quite delicious together and thought they would go great in fondue. Well naturally this lead to us coming back home, but not before stopping to buy a Zingerman’s Sourcream Coffeecake, and finding a recipe for fondue and Nathan using his awesome culinary skills to whip up a great fondue that we had for lunch with some chicken that mom had marinated from the night before and cooked to accompany the fondue.

After eating ourselves into food comas, we decided that the only appropriate course of action was to make coffee and watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. If you have never seen this movie and you are between the ages of 20-30, you might not have a soul. JK. No, but seriously. Go watch this movie! It’s hysterical. There really is no other movie like it and you will laugh the entire way through.

Well, by the time the movie was over, mom was talking about dinner and how we had steaks that needed to be cooked. Well, we needed a few more in order to have enough for everyone who was going to be around, so naturally, we went out to Plum Market to find a couple more steaks and on the way we just so happened to run into mushrooms, a sweet Hungarian Red Wine, a very sweet Michigan Late Harvest Riesling, the Best Cheese in the World, and an XO Gouda. How dare I make the claim that it was the best cheese in the world, you ask? Well, it wasn’t me. It was actually voted as the best cheese in the world in 2008. I have to tell you, they might be right. It’s a gruyere from France that has been aged for 18 months. Combined with a good baguette, it might change your life.

So we brought all of this back and had a feast of a dinner with all of cheese, steak, mushrooms, and then we grilled zucchini and mom baked some turnips. It all turned out quite stunningly and allowed for an amazing evening. Oh, I almost forgot. Dessert! We bough some day old Zingerman’s Jumbleberry pies and cut those into quarters to have with Mackinaw Island Fudge  Ice Cream. Nom Nom Nom. So delicious.

By the end of it all, I felt like I had consumed more dairy in that one day than the entire country of Sri Lanka does in a year. It was pretty intense. But cheese is so good! Sometimes I feel really bad for my friends that are lactose intolerant because it’s not their fault that their bodies can’t handle dairy. It’s the manufacturers that stuff so many extra chemicals into it that cause people to develop allergens to dairy. At times I even feel it as well. I generally don’t eat much yogurt anymore because every time I do, my stomach feels like it’s being punched in knots for hours. But cheese isn’t meant to be eaten in gratuitous fashion. It’s meant to be enjoyed for the flavor that it is with bread or jam and sometimes sandwiches. We tend to overload everything with cheese in America. We think, “This stuff is great, give me half a pound of it on my burger please!”

But in France, they eat cheese at the end of every meal like dessert. My host mom would always pull out 5 or 6 different types of cheese and say, “Est-ce que vous voulez du fromage?” Would you like some cheese? Every night the same question. Why? Because the French love cheese. And as they should. Their cheese in great!

The guy who let me sample the cheeses at Plum Market that we ended up purchasing told me he had been working there for 2 weeks. I thought to myself, this guy knows his cheese pretty well. And he probably learned all of this in the last two weeks. I could do that. I’ve been learning about wine and food pairings, cheese is a part of that, right? Just adds to the fun and the pretension. So I might try and get a job at either Plum Market or maybe Whole Foods in their cheese department so I can try and learn about cheese.

Haven’t you always wondered how they make the cheeses the way they do? How they get into the giant wheels? Where they age them and at what temperature? There are so many questions about cheese, and I am sure a whole culture as well, that I would love to become more familiar with. I’ll keep you all posted as to where that goes and hopefully have answers to those questions soon, without cheating by looking on Wikipedia.

That’s all for now. Ciao!

The Cardinall's Musick and Bad Wine

A few things to discuss this evening: Wine, Music, and Work.

I don't want to dwell too much on work on this blog, simply because I don't want it to become a means for me to complain about things that occur at the restaurant unless me recounting a story has some other redeeming purpose attached to it. 

That will not stop me from complaining though about how AWFUL the wine has been that I have been drinking lately. Maybe it's simply because I have been talking about great wines for the past 3 months at the restaurant and so it's caused a change in my palette. But I expect more out of my wine and the wine I've been drinking has just not met the standard. 

If you recall the last wine that I had talked about was a Chardonnay. It wasn't bad. But it really wasn't great either. The Pinot Grigio that I finished last night was intentionally not mentioned upon this blog because it really isn't worth mentioning besides to say that it paired very well with the Triple Layer Chocolate Mousse Cake that I brought home from the restaurant for my Mom for her 60th birthday last night. I have been saving a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc thinking that it would be the best of the three white wines I had left of the collection I had bought from WineInsiders. 

And the result....the worst of the three. It's pretty awful. Considering that Sauvignon Blanc is a more complex wine for a white. This is pretty lacking. Pretty much nothing on the nose and then it tastes like a buttery water when it's in your mouth followed by a few notes of citrus at the end. I'm sorry, but who designs a wine and says, "I want this to taste as if I had both butter and water in my mouth at the same time."? I'm sorry. NOBODY! That's an awful combination. I might have to just pour the bottle out and buy some vodka or something just to get the flavor of the wine out of my mouth and help me forget that this wine ever happened. *As I take another sip.* Nope....still pretty bad. Oh well. I am gonna finish the glass quickly and quietly and try and pretend like it never happened. 

Something I DO want to remember though is the CD I got in the mail today. For those who don't know, I am absolutely infatuated with Renaissance music. Anything by Willian Byrd, Palestrina, Josquin Du Prez, or Thomas Tallis I will pretty much love. It's just that great! The Tallis scholars have been one of my favorite groups to listen to because their harmonies are outstanding and their interpretation is light and true to the style of the period. 

Today I received my cd of  Allegri's Misere Mei Deus and The Early Music of Rome as sung by The Cardinall's Musick. For those who aren't familiar with the Cardinall's Musick, which I wouldn't blame you if you weren't, however, they were recently named by England's Gramaphone magazine to be the #3 choir in the world. In comparison, the Tallis Scholars were named #11. I thought to myself, there is no way that there are 10 choirs in the world that are better than the Tallis Scholars. Then I heard them sing. And I was BLOWN away. 

Their harmonies were even tighter than the Tallis Scholars and the richness of sound coming from the men in the choir was stunning in comparison with the Tallis Scholars. Just more power, better intonation, and stunning harmonic understanding. The only negative I can say about the first CD of theirs that I purchased was that the women on the CD were just not as strong as the men. The harmonies were still incredible, but it was something that I noticed every time I listened. The women for the Tallis Scholars were top notch, while the men for the Cardinall's Musick were top notch. Just a matter of preference I suppose. 

Well, boy have they fixed that problem on this latest cd. The cd features as it's feature work Gregorio Allegri's Misere Mei Deus which is one of the most famous Renaissance pieces out there. For those are relatively familiar with Renaissance music, it's the one that repeats five times and the soprano jumps up to a high C for each verse in stunning fashion. 

Now mind you, I have heard multiple recordings of this work with the soprano part being sung by both women and young boys, but none compare to the soprano the Cardinall's Musick has singing with them on this recording. It's really quite remarkable lately. I was listneing to it on my way home this evening from work and thinking to myself, "There's not way that is actually humanly possible!" Of course it's possible that they tampered with the sound in editing, but I don't think that is what has happened with this CD. I think the Cardinall's Musick has something remarkable happening with them and it's this. They are trying to use the unison sound of their voices to imitate an organ. Yes, an organ. I had never considered it before, but the organ has a very pure sound to it. It's often too much for my ears. Although I can appreciate the majesty of the instrument and historically the role that it has played in music, it's just a lot for me to handle. 

But when a choir is so in tune that they sound like an organ they are doing something truly incredible. They turn every piece they sing into an absolute musical gem. If you love the sound of early and Renaissance music, I highly encourage you to get this cd. It's absolutely wonderful! I look forward to listening to it every day going to and from work for the next few days and becoming more intimately acquainted with it. 

That's all I have for now. I suppose two posts in one day will hopefully make up for the lack of posts from some other days. Ciao for now!

Sticking Out in the Biz

Keeping this blog going consistently can be tough. I remember when I was in Europe how much easier it was to blog about everything almost everyday because I was spending so much of my time just soaking in my surrounding and thinking about it in literary terms and how I would describe it all on my blog.

I don't really see myself doing that anymore. I don't really walk into work and say, "As my slip-proof black leather shoes grip the floor and the smell of roasting bacon and raw chicken soaks itself onto my uniform vest making me irresistable to rabid dogs and raccoons alike, I see my Bengali coworkers and think, 'how do you say hello in Bengali?'"

These things don't really happen. They are part of the everyday grind and don't really stick out. What sticks out is the customer that walks in wearing a dress that shows the rolls of back fat that she has and then complains about everything not being absolutely perfect and looking for a way to get free stuff.

This is sadly what has become the norm at my restaurant. A lot of people looking for a reason to not have to pay for their meal or if they do have to pay for their meal, how to get the most free stuff on top of the check where they will leave a 5% tip.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is though when you have a table that is remarkably nice. They love everything. They appreciate every step of service that we take, and when we make their night special by offering them a complimentary dessert for their birthday and write "Happy Birthday" on the plate in raspberry icing and simply add a candle, they light up and then leave you a 30% tip.

Naturally, I don't expect that to be the norm. But I will tell you that customers that really appreciate what the restaurant does truly does make a big difference. Here's why.

Ultimately, my coworkers and I are all salesmen. And everyone knows that in order to be a good salesman you have to believe in the product that you are selling. At my restaurant this is very easy. The meat is absolutely outstanding and we offer an atmosphere of class and fun in a very specific way that most other restaurants don't come close to touching. This helps each of the employees to take pride in the work that they are doing because they know that they are part of something special. They are part of making someone's evening memorable. Helping them to try something new, to learn something, and maybe create a wonderful memory.

Honestly, it's not about the return customers for me. It's not about offering them the best experience so that they come back over and over again. It's about those few minutes that I have with that table to make an impression on them. It's my chance to say to them, "You want to have an amazing time? Let's do it!" And it's fun!!! When something goes wrong like when a table has to order 5 different wines before they finally find one that we actually have in stock, you don't consistently apologize over and over as if I had done something wrong. There was nothing I could do about the wines being gone. So by the time they finally get their wine and they take that first sip, it's truly a victorious moment to see the look of satisfaction cross their face.

It's all in the details. The details make the largest difference in the world at a restaurant like ours. And I pride myself in paying a lot of attention to the details that are written all over my customer's faces.

It's part of the reason I want to get into counseling actually. God has given me a gift where I can read people very easily. I can see when someone just wants to be left alone and when they want to talk some more purely by instinct. It makes a huge difference in the restaurant because you begin to be able to know what's going to get you the bigger tip.

We have a server who will get a tip off of one table of $100 probably once a week. This has happened to me I think once or twice in the three months that I have worked there. Why does it happen to him more frequently? Maybe it's luck of tables. But I think it's something more than that.

I think he sees who is going to be paying the check, and he does whatever he can to make sure that they are impressed. He's looking for the guy that wants to get laid and is willing to pay $300 on a dinner to help him. He will buy the wine that is $150 and then this server will compliment him on his choice and tell the lady what great taste the guy has, thus impressing her and making a larger impression on her for the rest of the evening.

Hate to say it. But this is how it goes. I know because I've seen it. I've had those tables myself and I don't help him. I will recommend a nice bottle of wine and tell the gentleman that the two of them will really enjoy the bottle. But I don't look at any particular male customer and think, "I'll help you out if you help me out." This whole, "I'm gonna get mine" mentality is not at all why I am working as a server.

That's not to say that I don't work hard to get a good tip. But I use the rules of courtesy and good service in order to get that tip, not an overarching sense of greed for money or sex.

These things stick out though. Every server has their ways. Perhaps another time I'll mention how girls will consistently get better tips than guys, especially if their attractive. It's just a fact of life.

In the meantime though, I will continue to do my job to the best of my ability knowing that consistency will ultimately win out. It plays a much larger role than we recognize and I believe that it plays a large kingdom role as well. It demonstrates to those who have eyes to see that we need to be looking at things with a big picture mentality. With eyes looking towards eternity and God's kingdom glory. That's the point. And that's what I hope sticks out.

Ciao!

Work and Creativity

Dear Reader,

I am sorry I have been remiss in my writing for the past few days. My work schedule makes it so when I get a day off I try to visit with real people, as opposed to those virtual friends I hold so dear.

Last night, I finally finished the bottle of the River Crest Vintner’s Chardonnay that I had been working on for over a week. So glad that bottle is finally over.

I was glad that last night is over as well. As I have mentioned before, the restaurant industry can be tremendously inconsistent and the past two days have proven this. Tuesday was pretty slow until 9 o’clock when we had about 40 people come in totally unexpectedly. And last night we had over 200 people in the restaurant and yet I still didn’t get many covers.

It’s hard sometimes in the biz because everyone complains nonstop and therefore, I relate to everyone on these terms. We talk about how we didn’t get enough covers. Or a manager wasn’t there when we needed them, or a busser, or there weren’t enough napkins. There’s always something. And this is sadly how we all relate. It’s just a little sad to me sometimes. Of course it’s not the only way in which we relate. When we have a slow night we have an opportunity to talk about stuff going on in our minimal lives outside of the restaurant. In fact, we are talking about going to a Lion’s game when they play on Monday Night Football if we can get tickets. Not sure what the chances are, but it would be fun to go and watch the game and just hang out during a day when we aren’t all working.

In other news, I just finished a great book. It’s called A Quest For More by Paul David Tripp. This book’s premise is simply this. You have been designed by God for much more than your own life. Something greater and bigger than your own dreams and desires. He then talks about what this looks like in terms of kingdoms. When you live your life only for yourself and for your dreams and desires, you limit your satisfaction and contentment to your own life. Essentially it’s like a box and saying, “This box is my life. When I have accomplished these things, then my box will be complete and I will be happy and satisfied.”

What Paul Tripp does so well is to point out that this is instinctively what every single human does because of sin. And as a result we engage in warfare with God because God is inviting us into His Kingdom and we are settling for our own. We think that our kingdom goals and pursuits will satisfy us, when in reality, it will only leave us totally empty and searching even more fruitlessly.

In one of the chapters Tripp makes an incredible analogy to Jazz music. In Jazz music the musicians are given a set of rules and a key signature and a time signature. However, the notes are left totally up to their own creativity and how they respond to what the other musicians are doing. What’s amazing about this is that God’s plan for humanity works exactly the same way. He has given us the key and time signature and the framework that we can work with. But when everyone else is playing in E Major and you decide to start playing in A-Flat. Of course it’s not going to be pleasing to the ears. This is exactly what we do when we live outside of God’s Law. We typically view the laws that God has given us as a negative. As a set of rules constraining us. But do Jazz musicians get upset because they are playing in E Major? Of course not. It’s the music that they have been given and they will make the most of it that they can.

We don’t look at God’s Law as a means of creativity, but that’s exactly what it is. God has given us every opportunity to be as creative with giving, showing love and mercy, forgiveness as we can. It’s really amazing when you think about it in those terms.

I hope this encourages you. I will be back later with more about wine and other delicious things. But until then, rest in the creativity that God has allowed you to share with the world. Ciao!