crepes suzette

I haven't written in awhile I suppose. Things are busy. While the job search hasn't gotten me anything yet (small bistro job didn't come through for me), I do have a place to live now. I'm moving in with Diane later this month, and I'll be there for the summer, if not longer. Rent's going to be cheap and it's going to be fun--big kitchen, big house, big backyard for me to till and start a garden in. Seriously, I'm going to grow tomatoes and shit.

I guess I'm going to stick with the corporation for a few more months. Every day I stay there is another day that makes me look good to future employers anyway, so I may as well put up with it as long as I can. It's just rough sometimes. Saturday was 150 people, which certainly isn't the worst day we've ever had, but it was tough, cooking dinner long after close and then cleaning that beast of a kitchen. Soba doesn't have slow days anymore. Every staff meeting we have there's always talk of the most profitable year we've ever had, but strangely enough, they say the labor cost is too much to handle, so they can't give out raises. When I got my six-month review last year, they bumped me up two dollars, which didn't exactly move me to another income level, but it got me out of indentured servitude. Recently a few guys have had their reviews, good, valuable members of our crew who are doing good work, and the management basically told them they were shit out of luck. It makes me feel sick that I'm broke, and making more than them, and we're all working ourselves to death.

Nevertheless, I feel like I'm in less of a state of depression/career/apartment crisis at this point. I could be doing worse at some hellhole Pittsburghese Italian joint. This is all going to come back to me.

I'm going to go ride my bicycle. I'm training for the Cleveland thing, although I admit it'll still be at least a month before I can do it. The bike needs a little love before I'll trust it that far, but I've got some free parts coming my way; namely newer brakes. The ancient Dia Compe calipers aren't so good in the rain, and probably 85% of my stopping power comes from the front one.

I was paranoid recently I had a crack in the frame, or a bad bottom bracket, which turned out to be nothing. My crankset was making an awful creaking noise and it turned out to be a loose nut, so I finally quit being a cheapass and bought a 3/8 rachet and a 14mm attachement to take the whole bottom end apart, clean it, and put it back together much tighter than the previous owner had. Even still, I'm looking at getting a brand new Campagnolo crankset on ebay for a few bucks that might make for a smoother ride and gear ratios that'll be better for what I'm doing. All I'd like to have after that is a new six-speed cassette, but they're somewhat hard to find.