work work and more fucking work!

                                                                                                                                                                    i never seem to have time to write or post anything anymore! i say that, although i could probably count hours and hours that i waste where i could be way more productive, but just seem to ignore that fact. i have been working at the restaurant pretty much full time ( if not 50 hours a week sometimes) so i am so burned out most of the time and REALLY look forward to sept when texas and tennessee will both be in school full time ( although i WILL miss them terribly...already do) but i feel i am ready to finally get a bit of my life back and focus on jewellery and other stuff again!

i just thought i would put up a quick post (since my last was in february) to direct you to scotts blog. he has been working on some promotion for himself to send out to various art directors/commissioners etc...based on LOST pet posters and dealing with different aspects of loss/being lost. i thought they were pretty damn cool. this is just a choice few he posted. my favorite is the last one...i also can't remember if i mentioned his shop in any posts so i am including a link to that too...

the fruit roll

i know that really, this should probably be a blog about my jewellery, what i am making, what's inspiring me, what is going to go on sale etc... etc...  BUT i like stories and every now and then, through conversations, the stories come up and then i think i should write about them.

i can't remember how this one came up. i was at the restaurant having a drink after work a few weeks back and something we were talking about reminded me of this episode. please look away or stop reading if you are either easily embarrassed or disgusted!

so... many moons ago my brother jason and i were slaving away side by side at a really cool and very popular coffee house in marina del rey. one of our suppliers, a well known company in the catering world,  had their rep visit us every couple of weeks. he was, i don't know, probably mid- thirties, a long-sleeve oxford shirt and pair of slacks kind of guy who was very shy. he probably married the first girl he got to any base with not only because it was easy, but too cringey a thought for him to have ever asked anyone else out on a date after summoning up the courage once. i think he had small kids. he was quite good looking in a wholesome kind of way. he had this funny, awkward smile and seemed to be genuinely embarrassed by anything and everything. his name was doug.

so, one week, after he brought the supplies in, he handed me a couple of fruit rolls. those flat, pressed, sticky, "fruit" things stuck to cellophane and rolled up that were so popular in our lunch boxes in the 70's. it made me feel nostalgic and i was really grateful for the small gift.

a couple of weeks later, when he made his visit, i said " thank you so much for those fruit rolls doug. that was very kind of you. i really enjoyed them, thanks." he looked at me with his awkward smile and said " well, i could bring you in some more if you'd like. "
"sure" i said.
"in fact," he continued, what i was thinking was... i could bring you in TWO next time, and you could give me one back the next week."
"huh?", i said
"well... i thought i could bring you in two, but you could then give one back to me. "
he repeated this a few more times.
i was lost.

i was totally miffed by this and must have looked like an idiot trying to figure it out and make some sense of what he could possibly mean. i kept going through it wondering what obvious point i was missing here. he just stood looking at me, smiling.
i finally said " doug, i'm sorry, i have no idea what you mean... i don't get it... why would i give you one back?"
he said, "well.......i thought........ that you might like to....SEASON it for me".

"WHAT"???

"you know... SEASON it for me"

there was that WORD again.  oh my god... he couldn't have possibly just said what i thought he said. i was absolutely stunned. it couldn't mean what i had just figured out it must have meant. i think i was in shock. to be honest, i can't remember what i said to him. i was only about 19 and i didn't have the words or the confidence or the attitude at that time in my life to say what i probably should have. i think i just stood in stunned silence freaking out a bit that wholesome, kind of cute, mild-mannered, family man doug, just said something really vulgar to me!

now, with my life's experience, where i have had loads of stuff like that happen,  like guys pulling up in a car asking for "directions" with their johnsons out (why do you do it guys???) i know that there is obviously something really interesting to them sexually more to do with the reaction to the scenario more than anything else.

once, when i was working in camden at dollyrockers vintage with my friend jennifer, this... funny enough... awkward, social misfit type of guy who was maybe late 20's, came in and grabbed the first thing his hands rested on without looking at what it was. it was a pair of jeans, and he asked to try them on. we said, " yeah sure, the dressing rooms are just there" and pointed to them. the shop was absolutely enormous and he said, " i'm a bit claustrophobic, is there anywhere else i can try them on?" i said " the whole upstairs is empty, knock yourself out." he said, " and if i need assistance? " i have to say this did ring alarm bells a bit, but i said, " just call for us."

so i was in the middle of calling in the payroll on the phone and i could hear this " excuse me... EXCUSE me...!" the voice was a bit like "it's pat" from saturday night live. a bit whiney and grating. we could see his socks coming down the stairs, so jennifer started walking over and i was about to say               
"NO! don't go!" when she came running back with her hand over her mouth saying
" oh my god he's NAKED!!!" " oh my GOD he has a boner!"

we called security, as he was still upstairs. the security guard seemed to take his time getting there. when he finally did, the guy was just coming down the stairs in his clothes. the security guard said, "HIM?... he has his clothes on."
"well... he didn't a minute ago" i said.  the security guard got in his face, following him saying " why did you do it? why did you take your clothes off? why were you naked?" he said ," i diiidnnn't"
"yes you did!" i said. then jennifer said, "well, he's not totally lying, he still had his socks on."

i am so glad to this day that it wasn't me that saw that sight, to have it permanently etched into my brain. poor jennifer. but i'm sure that her shocked reaction was fuel for his fantasies probably to this day.

so... back to doug...here he was saying this really gross thing to me. i'm sure loving every minute of it.  but what he didn't realise i think was that the manager, johnnie, was my boyfriend. and he was very protective of me. after doug left, i told johnnie what he said and i don't think he was too thrilled.

johnnie was great. he had been a stand up comedian for a while and was quite brazen and funny. he seemed to have no shame. the coffee house was always heaving with people. in the mornings, we would have a line out the door for about 3 solid hours. so, the next time when doug came in, he went about his business bringing in all our supplies and johnnie just acted the way he always does. then, after it was all done, johnnie adopted an east coast accent and shouted so loudly across the packed coffee house "HEEEEYYY....HEEEYYY.... DOUGIE!!!! DOUGIE!!!!! you know... i got that FRUIT ROLL FOR YA DOUGIE!!!! and it's nice and SEEEEEAAASONED!"
the look on his face was priceless. i think he nearly died from embarrassment. i'm sure it had been his  dirty little secret and he had thought i wouldn't say anything to anyone.i couldn't even tell the story to anyone and use the word "seasoned" for about 15 years.
now, it didn't bother me anymore....every time i saw him, i just smiled because i re-lived johnnie's impression. he never spoke to me again and it totally changed the way i feel about fruit rolls ups....

the worst start to the year!

my god... i have been ill! it all started after a xmas party we had at the restaurant for all of us hard working employees... the plan was to start at the restaurant and then move on elsewhere, but with free pizza, lots of space, our choice of tunes and loads of booze, we very quickly fell into full swing and when it's good, why mess with perfection? some sort of polish vodka was flowing and it was seriously hardcore. i had tried some a couple weeks earlier on xmas eve, well i say tried... after necking down a couple of shots in the kitchen at work while still in the midst of waiting on my last table, i then staggered next door to the off license and spent like £17 on another bottle which saw me completely shnockered xmas eve ( note to self for next year: not a good time to get wasted when you have to sneak into a child's bedroom with a santa sack) and also, i came home covered in chocolate.

so here was the vodka again and i tried to avoid it as best i could, which was a good thing, as slowly but surely, like shot pandas, one by one the staff slowly succumbed to it's strength and it wasn't pretty. let's just say cleaning various peoples puke off of the hotel steps wasn't how i had planned my night to end.

so... next day... feeling ok, i went with a friend to get some sushi and then later had some beef stew and watched some tv that evening and fell asleep on the couch. feeling groovy... all of a sudden, i woke up and the room was just spinning in a really weird way i had never experienced. not like the "bed spins" when you've had too much to drink. more than that. my vision wasn't right. i started to panic and scream for scott and try to get upstairs and found myself violently ill on all fronts. and the spinning just wouldn't stop. i was so freaked out. we called the nhs direct and after being sick a few more times i fell asleep, only to wake up the next day still super ill and still unable to open my eyes without the world spinning. this went on for 3 days. i just lay in a dark room with my eyes closed.

it has now been a week and 3 days and i am none the wiser about if it was a virus or food poisoning or what. i thought maybe the vodka was counterfeit, but no one else had had this happen to them.  i am still shaky and am on pills and can't totally walk straight. i find myself bumping into walls and nearly tipping over sometimes. but, i am much better. i just now want to be back to 100%. i am tired of this ride!

xmas was good! scott and i had a nice break spending time with the kids and i was so pleased that nearly all of my presents this year from scott were homemade. i got some bitchin stuff... we also had a really weird cross over happen.

the year before i was pregnant with tex, scott and i went on the best ever road trip, which i keep meaning to write a post about. one of the places we went to was this town called niland in the desert of southern california... out palm springs way. we saw something that has ever since had a massively special place in my heart, "salvation mountain". i am not in any way a religious person, for me, this was the most incredible piece of outsider/folk art i had ever seen. the amount of time and love and dedication that leonard knight put into this work over the last 25 or so years is just heart-warming.

it was summer and had to be about 120 degrees in the shade when scott and i turned up out there. we spent a few hours talking with leonard as he showed us around and told us about the new bits he was working on. he gets quite a lot of visitors (especially in the cooler months so it was kind of nice to almost hav the place to our selves even if we were sunburned and practically heat-stroked). they bring him paint, and food and donations and help him move straw bales and most importantly keep him company. he was so warm and welcoming and genuine. he lived in one of his cars, or slept out under the stars when he felt like it with the few pets he had found as strays. he told me how they looked after him and had protected him from snakes and other creatures and day in... day out...he worked on this stunning piece of work.

he had a visitor there helping him when we were there and together we all worked on putting some new paint on the waterfalls. leonard liked to use crushed up glass to sprinkle on the wet paint to make it sparkle. it was absolutely hotter than hell out there and i don't know what i was expecting when the visitor offered me his canteen and i took a hit of practically boiling water...... not really the refreshment i was needing!

after a while, sadly we went on our way.  i could have spent some time there. some people go and live there or in nearby "slab city" and hang around for months to help him. i think that would have been a cool experience. it has been a place i have wanted to go back and see again, especially to see how it has changed, other new bits he has added. i have wanted to bring the kids there and always dream a little dream that will happen someday in the not so far off future. so, with it on my mind, i decided to attempt to make a paper cut for scott for xmas of salvation mountain. while i was looking at pix, i decided to have a look online and see if there was any recent news, and i was devastated to find this article that said that recently, leonard had been taken into care for dementia and the future of the place was uncertain. it just broke my heart. so it kind of made my mission to try and do a papercut even more significant.

so xmas morning... after many hours  of my hard graft, ( although i am sure it doesn't look like it took me for-fucking ever, but it did) i gave scott this for one of his pressies...

i actually got so disillusioned with, i never finished it.... not to mention i ran out of time!
so when i then opened this from scott...

i was pretty astonished! it was part of this beautiful map scott made for me of our trip to the salton sea and the surrounding areas, which included salvation mountain.

i feel like such a lucky girl to have received such a nice present. i also got this, which is brilliant!

and is a fantastic addition to the family wall which i will post pix of next time.

ahhh... the joys of waitressing...

i am just completely crashing and burning on the blogging front. i just looked again and couldn't get my head around the fact that it has been 4 weeks since my last post. i seriously need some motivation! i am not working as many hours at the restaurant lately, so that has given me time to focus back onto what i really love... making stuff, writing and scouring ebay for vintage clothing and tchotchkes.

before i write about a little experience i had recently at work, i just wanted to post pix of the sweet little bike i just picked up on ebay. we are going to go on a road trip next sunday to pick it up and it has worked out that where we are going, there is a pottery exhibition on that day that scott wanted to check out. so it's win win. but also, even better than the bike, i found a little accessory that i think is really one of the coolest things ever although, i can't seem to find many people that can appreciate how cool it is or share my enthusiasm for it. i love it for it's rarity. a 1980s, old stock, still in the box, never been used am/fm cassette player for the bike. i know we've moved on to digital. but i still love the simplicity, the kind of tinny sound and i think it will be nice riding along the seafront listening to all my old tapes mixed and otherwise. here are some pics...

my new wheels

totally bitchin cassette player

also cool... has a cb...i have my eye on it

so...the restaurant has been a very interesting experience for me. i hadn't waited tables for longer than i even want to think about and... i tell you... it totally reminded me why i decided to fucking give it up in the first place. it brought back the exact moment, many years ago in california, when i found myself so over it, so worn down by it all and suffering from torrents of stress dreams where there were too many tables and i couldn't cope or i forgot someone wanted a "half-caf" latte instead of regular, that for about half an hour i sat harboring fantasies of going postal on a room full of people or maybe just turning on the gas and running out, locking the doors behind me.

it takes a lot of years of waiting on people in LA with their impossibly extensive lists of needs. all the "no oil or butter, no fat, lightly steamed, basted, i didn't want this, i can't have that, of course i can't have anything the way it comes on the menu, i'm high maintnence! i need to change it all! waitress...WAITRESS!!!! snapping fingers, blank stares, complaining, complaining, COMPLAINING...blah blah blah as well as all the extremely self-important people in the "industry" to grind you that far down.

i was lucky though that i worked with great people, including my brother jason, who always kept me laughing with little gems like, when a customer, who after half an hour of abuse and just being a complete asshole would say, "you KNOW... the customer is ALWAYS right!" and jason would just deadpan, "uh... sorry...not on MY shift." we had 100% back up from our employers, who trusted us completely when we would tell them we had just been pushed too far.

the restaurant where i am currently working is really lovely. it has a fantastic vibe about it, 98% of our customers are wonderful and interesting and a pleasure to chat to. thankfully, it is a totally different story here than what i have dealt with in the past. i have had a couple of incidents, but not even a patch on what i've been used to dealing with. i almost wanted to goad the few customers that HAVE tried with "jesus... is that the best you can do? let me give you a few pointers on how to make yourself even more pathetic and annoying... i don't feel like you are committed to this... you have to find your inner asshole!"

a few weeks ago, there was a woman who was celebrating her 40th birthday and had reserved a table for like 10 people. when her party arrived, there were 3 of them. and they seemed slightly strange with each other. the birthday girl informed me that they were all there. there would be no more coming. or possibly one more.

that night, i was training a new employee and for what felt like HOURS,  i had been explaining in great detail every aspect of the job. so maybe i wasn't at my sharpest. the new waitress came to me and said something about the birthday woman wanting to order some champagne. she had said which one she wanted, but she wasn't 100 percent about it. so, i don't know why, i have no excuse, normally i would have just checked this with the customer, but instead, i brought the bottle i assumed she wanted to her table. i then made the mistake, which i hadn't ever made until then, of letting her keep talking and ignoring me as she was, as i stood there, and NOT show her the bottle. totally my mistake. i opened it, i poured it, they were drinking it and it was only about 15 min later when she lifted the bottle out of it's bucket to pour more that she realized it wasn't the one she wanted.

so, immediately i hear "EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!" and turn to see a very unhappy, pinched-up, pissed-off bitchy face waggling a finger, beckoning me to come and have a showdown. there was no build-up, she just wanted to get straight in to it.

birthday girl: "um... THIS is not the champagne that i ordered. Uh, i know we have all had some, but this is NOT the champagne i ordered, THIS is not even champagne! ( i would like to note that it did say "champagne" on the bottle and although slightly less expensive than the one she wanted, it is an award-winning champagne, so you know, not just some sparkling grape crap or anything).

me: " oh... i am SO sorry about that. um....

b.g.: " i don't even know what this IS... it is NOT champagne... it is NOT the one I ordered and LOOK there isn't even a label on it that says what's in it and you know, i am REALLY annoyed.. i mean... it's my birthday and i decided i would get this champagne and you know... my birthday was ( motions skyward with her thumb ) and now it's ( motions thumbs down) so... um... i am really annoyed... really annoyed... just REALLY ANNOYED."

at this point, i looked at her friends to see whether maybe they were in agreement with all of this behaviour or whether, like me, they thought maybe she might be overreacting a tad. there was such a huge air of tension. i thought they were on my side, but, i wasn't totally sure yet if they would agree with me that she had the kind of personality that would have dale carnegie breaking through solid oak and digging himself out from under 6 feet of earth just to teach her how to win friends and influence people. or at the very least, by the tiny turnout for her birthday party,  just win friends.

i tried my best to smooth it all over and find out what i could do to make her happy
( as it turns out...nothing) and offered to discount the bottle of champagne i had given her and maybe give her a glass of the champagne she wanted on the house. this suggestion met an icy stare and a "NO... not good enough." so, i then asked what WOULD she be happy with.

she: " THIS... what you've given me... it's not champagne ( so, we were still back at the beginning). it's NOT EVEN champagne.

me: "um... it is champagne. max, (the owner) has chosen all the wines on the list and i think he's pretty happy with his selections, but i am so very sorry it isn't the one you wanted."

she: "MAX... yes... oh, i have had a CHAT with max about his "champagne selection" you know how many champagnes he has on the list? THREE ( thrusts her 3 fingers at me) ok... THREE. i know a little bit about champagne ok? just a little... just a little bit...only a slight bit...just a little ( as she goes through about what felt like 20 minutes of saying 'just a little bit', she was pinching her thumb and index finger together to emphasize this and was so nasty and sarcastic. i didn't know what i could do really. i just watched the performance)

me: "i am positive you know way more than i do. i really don't doubt your knowledge."

she: "i have traveled around france ok... doing wine tastings, but i don't know MUCH... i don't know much about champagne...just a little bit about it all... ok? i've tasted champagne from all around france. ok? this is not champagne... but, you know... i just know a little bit... that's all...( she had such a smug bitchy face on her through all of this)

at this point, one friend chimed in, "she does know a lot about champagne". then the other male friend looked at me with what i swore were pleading eyes and just said, " please, just bring a bottle of veuve cliquot."  as i walked away, she was just still ranting about it all. and when i returned, the same guy asked, " can i just down it all in one?" which gave me the assurance that he was indeed on my side. thankfully. i walked off as she continued to rant about stuff and i heard her say something to the guy like " NO, i am RIGHT. you just don't have the fucking BALLS to do what i just did."

in the end, the guy came up to pay the bill which was maybe £150. he apologized for her behaviour and i asked whether maybe she was allergic to alcohol, because she was so totally over the top for what the situation was and he said, " to be honest, i don't really know her that well. i've only met her a couple of times. but, no, she's actually just like that."

my god! i couldn't even fathom wanting a friend like that. and the fact that he was paying the bill astounded me. i'm sure i saw a halo of light around his head as i processed his card. he was a much better or much stupider person than me. i couldn't decide which.

also, this was a huge eye opener. here she was... her 40th... considered pretty much a landmark birthday and she was spending it with 2 strangers and another guy (who cut out shortly after the champagne incident and she spent the rest of the night bitching about him off and on). OUCH... where were her lifelong friends? or jesus, even just some people she had met more than "a couple of times"? either they couldn't be asked to come or more than likely, she just didn't have any. it didn't take my one semester of high school psychology to figure out her rant wasn't about the champagne at all really. it was much deeper than that. which then made me kind of pity her i guess rather than feeling slightly angry that someone felt that it was acceptable to behave so abusive and child-like and belittling toward someone and not even bat an eyelash.

at times like these, i can go a little dark and maybe a bit evil. there was a part of me that wanted to shout at that little girl inside of her, sad that no one had come to her party, sad because somewhere deep down she might feel like she hadn't achieved much in life apart from being a brat and having no friends. i wanted to tell her how brilliant all of my birthdays are, spent with all my beautiful friends and family. surrounded by people who love me.

of course, i didn't. it did turn my stomach a little bit when she tried to be friendly and chatty with me as she got her coat at the end of the evening. as though nothing had happened. but i still managed a smile. i probably need to let it go now, but there is still that little part of me that if i saw her outside the restaurant, wants to tell her how i didn't really appreciate her performance....that she is living in some kind of fucked-up, crazy world where at 40 she thinks acting like a tantruming toddler is ok. and that maybe... just maybe... if she learns how to play nice with the other kids, she might have a better 41st....hmmmm....we'll see....

a lovely urn for hank...

wow... i don't post for ages and then all of a sudden i have so much i want to post about! i just checked out my scottie's blog and saw his post on the pot he has made for my little hanks ashes. it's brilliant. hopefully it will survive being fired. scott has such a natural talent for pottery. i also wanted to mention that he has just totally redone his website and added a shop where he has some of his prints for sale and some other cool bits so go have a browse!

ruby dixie winter collection

i seriously can't believe how long it has been since i have posted anything on this blog! i have been so busy working on this new collection ( and moonlighting a few nights a week working in a really cool new restaurant that just opened a couple of months ago...really good stories from there! ) so i have completely ignored pretty much everything internet/blog related. i am hoping to have everything on line by the end of next week, but here is a little preview... watch this space for restaurant horror stories!

 

and the winner is....

thank you everyone for entering the august giveaway. many names went into the hat and the winner chosen was....drum roll......FAITH MCALLISTER.... congratulations faith. your necklace will be on it's way to you soon! i will send you a confirmation email. watch this space for more giveaways, new posts and some new treasure very soon. x