When Dreams are More than Dreams

What do you want to do when you grow up? Do you want to be an everybody, or do you want to be extraordinary?

While graduating from college with a computer science degree, I thought for the longest time I wanted to be a computer programmer. My parents were blown away when I got a job out of school making bank. They thought I was "super successful", even though I was dying inside and did not like my job. I would be sitting at my desk doing the work I needed to and once I was done, I found myself writing stories, poems, recipes, researching my desired creative avenues, and applying to be on various TV shows. I knew my destiny in life is to create. While I have been involved in computer programming since I was 12 years old, I have taken my writing and performing adventures more seriously since I first started writing at age 15.

After I left my job out of school on my own terms (I am not one to burn bridges unless absolutely necessary), I was ready to make my own career instead of trying to fit a mold. I thought Uber and Lyft were the answer to "working on my own and making it big", but it turned into a failed business venture. I tried obtaining some freelance gigs in the meantime and had minimal luck (better than zero, but not enough to solely freelance). I sold a bunch of my belongings on the internet and have had luck reselling some stuff, but was not making enough to survive solely on that either. After 2.5 years of struggling (from February 2016 until July 2018), I decided to take the summer of 2018 off working completely in order to take a step back and truly find myself. I had a bunch of money saved up, which I spent all of it having fun and making some poor choices in between. My parents saw me as a "failure" because I wasn't going the traditional job route.

After a technical writing job blew up in my face in October 2018, thinking technical writing was ultimately what I wanted to do once I left my IT job, I still knew it was my destiny to create and make people happy. Sadly, in this capitalistic society, you need money, so I decided to get a job as a server and spend more time thinking what I really want to do. While I enjoy my server job and luckily have been working on finding balance to find time to work vs. create, I want to find the best way to maximize the skills I have and turn that into the most income possible. Some people take jobs just for the money, but I know when I do that, I get fired right away, which is a waste of everyone's time. Plus, getting fired sucks big time!

Success isn't a 9-5 job. Success is turning what you want to do into the greatest possible income. I want to be like the Bruno Mars song, "Millionaire" and "I want to be a millionaire so freaking bad". At restaurant land, I am maximizing my time there while learning valuable professional skills and making connections with other coworkers. Making connections is a more valuable experience than making money, even though money is nice and you need money to survive.

My next most valuable skill besides the knowledge of technology (which I still love and still want to write about) is writing. At this point, while working on turning my personal endeavors from writing and performing into a "full-time income" (ex. my blogs/websites, freelancing for other people, my youtube channel and various other creative content I write/sell/post on my own outlets, posting on other people's blogs and getting paid, writing my own books, etc.), writing for an income while turning my own thing into a career is what I want to do. It is possible to turn your dream into a reality. Don't give up or listen to other people's negative feedback. If you do what you want to do and follow your own set path, you will be happiest and live the most fruitful life. It is never too late either. You got this. It is time to create your own path!

Super "Du-ble" Ventures

When I arrived at work at 11:30am this morning for my "du-ble", my manager pulled me aside and asked me to take a party of 9 people. I was ready to make some money today! All was going according to plan until it was supposed to be break o'clock. It was 2pm...3pm...4pm... The next shift starts at 4pm and I usually get a 1-3 hour break in between shifts depending on the day. At 4pm, the young kitchen manager put in a large order of food for me and 3 others working doubles to be able to eat and chill for a bit before taking tables again. Not long after I started nomming (maybe about 5-10min), the floor manager asked me to take a table. I really wanted to say no because I wanted to finish eating and chill for a bit before having a long evening, but I reluctantly said ok. Little did I know, the night would pick up and I would barely have time to eat anything. I ate a piece of bacon wrapped shrimp, 4 big nachos, and a fajita, drank some water (and a sprite/apple juice mixture) and was back at it again for the rest of the night minus a 10min peemergency/"quick moment of me time" pitstop. Throughout the shift, I drank about a cup to a cup and a half worth of black coffee in 3 trips to keep me awake and perky... and not kersplode. Most of my tables were ok. I got asked to take a bunch of party tables again today and one of them, someone accidentally yoinked the chocolate pinata for my table and delivered it to their table, therefore forcing the kitchen to have to make another one and make my poor table wait another 10-15min, thus causing the manager to need to comp it (the guest gets it for free), thus I lose out on a tip for a 30 dollar item. One of my other party tables was salty that we ran out of Mexican rice at the end of the night on a holiday and gave me a "meh-riffic" tip (usually 15 percent). Other than that, both shifts ran pretty smoothly. I didn't make any mistakes or drop anything, most of my tables were pretty happy, a regular customer remembered me and I talked to her and her family for awhile, and I made decent money on both shifts, mostly thanks to other servers being nice and letting me take some extra tables/keep certain tables that were supposed to be mine and they wanted to sit elsewhere in another section, but I got to take the table anyway. At about 9pm, I stopped accepting new tables, but still had 2 outstanding tables to finish up before I could do any sidework I need to do before I can go home for the evening shift (fold napkins, clean silverware, make sure your section/tables are clean and reset, and certain other assigned chores). Since we were super understaffed today, I was assigned multiple chores. I'm usually able to complete my sidework throughout the shift, but was so busy/RIP from a long shift that I barely had time to do any of it. By 9:30pm, all of my tables had finally left. Thank goodness. Usually by that time, I'm long gone, especially after a double. I would then go to Dave and Busters to play Dance Dance Revolution, but not today. The restaurant closes at 10pm on Tuesdays, including holidays. By 10pm, everyone was super donezo from New Years Eve/working New Years Day and wanted to go home. By 10:30pm, I had done enough/had finished cleaning/resetting my section to where the person who was the latewait (the one who checks you off for your sidework before you go home for the night) told me to quietly go home/not tell antone without doing basically any of it and he'd take care of it. Happy New Years Day to me. Thanks for the get out of jail free pass today. At 10:40pm, I finished my checkout (tipping out/giving or receiving money from the bar) and I peaced the fuck out!

That was probably the craziest shift I've ever had at this job, but at least I have a job and did something productive today aka make money...

How did you spend your New Year?

Top 20 Quick and Easy and Healthy Meals and Snacks

Easy goto healthy recipes and snacks... NOT noodle bowls, cereal, or packaged/frozen meals (use sparingly)

1. Fried rice (cauliflower or brown rice)
2. Indian Food (ex Indian spiced lentils and veggies)/Curried Noodles
3. Burrito bowls
4. Buddah bowls
5. Tacos
6. Guacamole/Salsa
7. Hummus
8. Smoothies 
9. Coleslaw
10. Salads
11. Salmon (or other easy to cook on a pan fish) and serve with a grain and/or vegetable
12. Ramen or other soups (NOT from the package... Or at least don't use the flavor packet)
13. Lentil pasta (or bean pasta from jewel or trader Joe's) with marinara or xyz pasta sauce and parmesan cheese - can also homemake pasta sauce (optional)
14. Zucchini noodle stir fry (or regular noodle stir fry)
15. Chicken or Tuna Salad
16. Deli sandwiches
17. Eggs with cheese and taco seasoning
18. Chili
19. Grilled Chicken with brown rice
20. Rice and Beans (and other veggies + a protein)