Lord, Give Me Strength. September 14, 2008

I really do feel like He listens. The past few nights, well, okay, honestly, the whole last week of work has been so stressful. Mostly in part to one particular person. And the past two nights especially.

So before I even got out of my car, I sat in silence and I prayed. I asked Him to give me the patience and strength to make it through the night with a smile on my face. And really, honestly, to not snap and scream at some one. And tonight He definately heard my prayer. I was desperately trying to get out work at a decent hour (which did not happen by the way) and so I started doing my end of shift sidework. When one of my coworkers comes back in a panic and needs my help. I can do that. Jacque to the Rescue.

Well……….There was nothing to be done. No new tables. Two people had joined a party she already was taking care of. The party started at 8 people, then went to about 15, then rapidly shrank to 4. Then these 2 came in. So, I put down everything, and got their drink orders. Two bottles, easy enough. No food either. But I made the mistake of putting them under her name, on that party’s ticket.

She couldn’t handle one more person, and she snapped on me. I had been trying to help her all night. Running food. Side work. Clearing her tables. And it seemed like every time I did, she gave me an attitude. But still I continued to help her. My manager got fed up and snapped back on my behalf. But I simply put in their drink orders, and walked away from her. And when she came to me to apologize, I accepted it and smiled and continued to do my job.

If you know me, you know this must be an act of God. I am not that nice or forgiving, or unconfrontational. Praise the Lord. I still have a job, and well…she probably does not.

I Never Really Noticed July 17, 2008

How much i listen to Coldplay until yesterday at work. Me and Evan were begging for some NKOTB, and Sheila told us not while we had customers in the store. So she put on Coldplay. Not like a few songs by Coldplay, but every song they’ve had a video for or recorded live at a concert.

And I at least knew the chorus to every song if I didn’t know the entire song through. Which is so weird. Because very rarely am I like, You know, some Coldplay would be great right now. It happens, don’t get me wrong, but it’s rare. I just never realized how often I must listen to them to know every song on a ninety minute block of them. And at first I even liked all the Coldplay chunk. Nice and mellow. Not to mention beautiful piano and vocals.

But of course Evan and I grew antsy and it became a game to see if there was another one coming. Bets were made. Winnings were ignored. But the worst part was after the last song in the set, there was a block of Snow Patrol after them and that made me realize how much I don’t listen to them. Which made me sad. I know one song, Chasing Cars and I don’t even know it that well. Who knew Snow Patrol had so much music out there. It was so crazy.

Well. That was a pointless post, but Coldplay just came up on my play list here at home and it reminded me of yesterday.  =]

Hmmm.. July 1, 2008

Sorry it’s been a few days. I’ve been all sorts of busy lately with life and everything. New job is still going good. I’m actually working by my self now, no training. nothin’! Haha. As soon as they take off my table limitations it’ll really pick up and I’ll enjoy it more. Three tables at a time just isn’t enough to keep me busy.

I love meeting new people. And I love leaving my Elevation Church pens in my books so people ask me about my church when they go to sign their credit card slips. Hehe. Usually it’s just light, oh I’ve heard good things from Elevation, how long have you been going there, blah blah blah. But one of the girls I work with actually asked me in depth about the church.

I don’t know a lot about her, but from what I picked up some one in her life lost theirs for her. And that tragedy caused her to lose her faith in God. Well, I started to witness like no other. I told her about how messed up my life used to be. I told her how my parents ripped me from my home in Jersey and moved us down here for no reason at all, how my family went through a really rough time, how i fell into a really bad crowd. Everything about how far i was from Jesus when I was dragged to Elevation Church for the first time. How i feel that the real reason my parents moved down here was a work of God, because how else can you explain moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, the same exact time that Elevation started worship a block down the street from my apartment, then moved to the high school a month after i started attending class there. It’s Like God was Screaming In my face “HELLOOOO I’M RIGHT HERE!” And I just chose to ignore Him for a while.

And you know what, I actually broke through to her. I could see in her face how badly she wanted to reconnect with her faith. She told me that she had heard that Elevation was a cult. I’ve learned to take that assumption very well and this is what i told her “It’s very easy to think that about Elevation as a person on the outside looking into our congregation. I feel that a lot of people say that because we are changing people so drastically that it must be a bad thing. But in all reality, Elevation doesn’t just make people want to go to church, it makes people want to walk every day in their faith and grow as a full Christian, including having a very close relationship with Jesus.”

She seemed very surprised to hear me say that and not be completely defensive. I’ve become very accustomed to being accused of being a member of a crazy cult. One of my best friends thinks we’re a cult. But I assure you, we’re not. I am absolutely convinced that Elevation is like what a real church is supposed to be like, and people just haven’t seen a real church in a very long time. You should walk out of church feeling lifted up. You should walk out of church wanting more. You should look forward to Sundays, and walk the six days in between as a Christian. In Love. In Faith.

Gosh I love my church. I have Elevation’s worship band playing in the background right now. The remixes are AMAZING. My pastor comes back this weekend from a three week break. I’m very excited. VERY VERY EXCITED. And I’m not even half as excited as he is to be back and preach. What an amazing man of God.

Every Day June 27, 2008

Every day I love my job more and more. The girls who serve at Stool Pigeons are like one big family. It’s so nice, and they’ve already begun to accept me. I was really nervous that i would suck at tending to guests and even more nervous that every one there would outcast me because I’m the new girl. And they totally haven’t. They are all so encouraging too. Kept telling what a good job I was doing. Woohoo.

Well, i’m gonna read a little bit for before i head off to bed. Today was a good day. And tomorrow I get to go in at 10 and be out by 2. My entire day isn’t a wash! I love it.

Job =] June 24, 2008

New job is going to be pretty good. All of the servers who I met today seemed pretty nice. I don’t foresee it being particularly hard, it’s just a serving job. Hopefully the money will be worth it. If not, oh well. I’m sticking with this job until I finish cosmetology school next fall. Maybe even do nights part time in the beginning of my career. I’m hoping this will be a long term job thing. I really hate starting new jobs. It’s such a pain and hassle. I go back on Thursday at 10 am. Excited!

Just In Case. June 24, 2008

In case I’m too lazy to write when I get home from orientation, I’m just going to write about how excited I am to be going to my first day of Stool Pigeons. I haven’t had a job for like TWO WEEKS, It’s been nice, but I definately like working, and you know, money. So hope today goes good. It’s orientation, so it can’t bee too intensive. Reading stuff, filling out stuff, watching movies. All that good stuff I suppose. Woohoo!!

If I feel like it i’ll get back on later and tell you whether or not I love my new job =]
I’m going with I’m going to love it.