Rainbow Publishing

A few months ago, someone I knew told me that they signed up for this great deal where you get 10 magazines a month and it doesn't cost too much. I did my research on how much it would cost to go through each individual magazine publisher and get the mags and then the "deal" that I was being offered by Rainbow Publishing. I signed up at a convention I was attending and started making my payments. The magazines took a while to kick in. Here's the thing: You pay $27/month for 2 years but then your magazines continue for 4 years. Then, right before you sign, they point out to you that some of the magazines are only delivered for 4 years. So I think out of the 10 I signed up for, only 2 of them are for the full 4 years.

I have been making payments on this stupid scam for almost a year now and I'm pretty much fed up with it. I get magazines that I actually don't find very entertaining and 10 magazines/month is way too much for one person to handle (plus I'm still trying to catch up on the mags that were delivered when I was in AZ for a month and then working 60+ hours/week for 3 months).

Before Thanksgiving I found my paperwork and had all my mags organized so I decided to make sure I was getting all the ones I signed up for. Sure enough, 2 were missing. I called and spoke with an older lady who was not very helpful. She called a few days later and answered one of my questions but not the other. She said she would get back to me but I never heard back. I called 2 weeks ago and asked for a supervisor. The same woman answered and said the supervisor was out of the country. I explained that I really felt like I was being taken advantage of. She said she couldn't access my file because it was in the customer service room and they weren't in yet. I told her that she needs to have someone from there call me back as soon as they arrive. She said "I'll try but they're not too good at returning calls, you should call back and speak with Kim". With the time difference, I'm never really around to call when it's convenient for them- and I really think that in this case, they should be calling ME when it's convenient for ME.

I really want to cancel because it's not a deal. I've lost so much money already so I'm going to argue that they either need to refund quite a bit of my money or continue my subscriptions on certain magazines until the money is gone. I pay the monthly fee with my AMEX so I'm thinking that I could go through them and have them dispute the charges. I've done that a few times before and it has worked out really well.

On that note, if I get my way and can get some good magazine subscriptions, here's the ones I would choose:

Wasting my time, in the waiting line- Zero 7

"If this were my career, I'd have to throw myself in front of a train"- Jim Halpert

I think I just had an epiphany (or as Michael Scott would say "epiphrary"). I was doing my daily blog check and one of my favorite blogs that I aspire to be like, http://galadarling.com, had an entry on how she got to where she is (I know, I'm referring to the blog and the writer as if they are one, get over it). In this post, she had a link to an article that made so much sense to me.

I'm 23 years old and I'm burnt out on the work world. I've been out of school for a little over a year and already I'm ready to retire... but not so fast, I don't have any money. Let's trace back my work history, shall we?

When I was 15, I started working at the rectory of my church. It was 2 blocks away so I walked there before I got my license. I'd only work at few hours a week and the pay was ok for what i was doing. Basically my job was to answer the phone and greet visitors. The occasional homeless person would insist on coming in when I was there alone so a frantic call home would be made and sometimes, a 911 call. Other than that, the job was cushy. I did my homework, watched tv on a tiny portable tv, and listened to the radio (I can only imagine the fun I would have had if I had a modern laptop back then). There were quite a few times when I would curl up on the floor and nap- seriously! I usually wore pajama pants and comfy clothes so working at 9am meant it was time to go back to sleep. I worked there on and off until I was about 20.

When I was a freshman in college, my Mom told me to try applying at a pizza place. This was not a neighborhood joint- it was a world famous Chicago pizza, uh, joint. I worked there for a little over 2 years. I made some awesome friends there who I could commiserate with about how suckie our managers were and how horrible it was to not be 21, HA. I found out someone less qualified than me, who frankly, did not speak very good English, and who was only working at the restaurant for a few months, was making more money than I was. One day, Tarah and I visited our manager's office to ask for evaluations and hopefully raises. We were basically shot down which caused me to break out into a speech about how "I've tried to help you out in so many ways over the year. I've gone out of my way and this is how you repay me?" to which the owner/manager responded saying "Well if that's how you feel, then maybe you should go work somewhere else". We left and I was upset to say it nicely. I worked again that evening and spoke with another manager who supported me in my decision to think it over but most likely stop working there. A few days later the owner/manager tried to apologize to me and I told him I put a lot of thought into it and that I know this is how things were always going to be and that tonight was my last night. He said that if I was sure then I could just go home- sweet! A saturday night off!

While working at that lovely restaurant, the maitre'd from a popular, fine dining restaurant down the street came in one night to book a private party. One the night of his party, he was super nice to me and even went as far as tipping me when he left. I jokingly said "wow, I don't get tipped here, maybe I should come work for you". He told me to come by and apply. I did while I was still working at the pizza place but there were no openings available. A few months later, Vince called me to see if I was still interested. I thought, "yes! here's my chance out". He continued to say that nothing had opened up but he just wanted to make sure I was still interested. About a week after I was fired/quit the pizza place, Vince called again- there was a job available! Yes! I went in to "observe"- I liked it, they liked me. I was hired on as a hostess. This is the job I left for a year and a half, and am now back working at. This is also the job I had when I made some really dumb decisions but that's another story for a whole other blog.

College graduation was sneaking up on me and every class I went into was greeted with more stories about who has a great new job waiting for them after college. I really felt the pressure. I responded to a listing on craigslist for a telemarketing position with some restaurant website- it was a desperate attempt at a job. They called and said I would be more qualified for an outside sales position they had available. Interview, training in L.A., company trip to Vegas, and about 9 months of work and once again, I was burned out. I had a boss who basically told me at our christmas party that one of the main reasons I was hired was because i was "hot". I didn't want a job like that. There were plenty of other reasons for leaving as well, but I knew I wasn't going to last too much longer. I sat down with my boss in a starbucks one day and explained to him that I think I'm going to take a new job as a marketing account executive with someone who he introduced me to.

The marketing job was ok. It was me and this other woman who started her own company. Here's the deal with a marketing job: it has to be full time with full time pay or it's just not worth it for me because my brain is going 24/7 with ideas. This was full time with not even part time pay so I needed to find something else.

I applied for a restaurant manager job just to kinda see if I was offered the job and how much they thought I was worth. Well I was worth a lot more than what I was making so I took the job. Moved to Arizona for what was supposed to be 6 weeks but ended up being 4 weeks. Came back, helped train the staff for the new restaurant, and started to realize that 70+ hours a week was not a life. I had 2 days off a week, if I was lucky, and all I wanted to do was sleep. It wasn't a life and I decided to call it quits. I got so much experience out of that job so even though I really did not like it the majority of the time, I learned a lot and made so many friends.

So here I am. I quit the manager job about 3 months ago and am working as a hostess. I also have another marketing job with a local restaurant, which I LOVE and am working with them on a new business venture. While I'm not making a lot of money, I'm happy. I like my job for the most part. Our manager is a moron- I work more hours than he does and I could easily do his job. The great thing about this job is that I have time to do what I like doing. I have time to cook and make things. I haven't felt this great in a long time.

I don't want to be another drone working in an office. I really don't want to work for anyone. I want to be my own boss. If a friend wants to go to dinner, I want to be able to go to dinner. If I'm not feeling good, I want to lay in bed all day. I don't want to hear that I can't have pink hair or I can't wear what I want to wear. I don't want anybody telling me to get a job. I would love to make money on my own terms and I know I can do it. I have no problem taking chances and making mistakes. I can and will do what I want to do.

I'm selling stuff on Etsy. I ordered business cards. 2008 is going to be a good year. I know it.


Here's some songs from my "positive reinforcement" playlist:

in the waiting line- zero 7
hello tomorrow- zebrahead
i'm moving on- rascal flatts
move along- all american rejects
better part of me- house of fools
all i really want- alanis morrisette
18 wheeler- pink
a praise chorus- jimmy eat world
something real- american hi-fi
nobody's fool- avril lavigne
everyday- bon jovi
true to your heart- 98 degrees and stevie wonder

Restaurant Rant

I love the restaurant industry, well most of it. I love going out to dinner. I really don't like the type of people who tend to work in the restaurant industry (drunks, criminals, drug addicts). Food tends to be my passion so a bad restaurant experience tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended). A bad server, host, or bartender can ruin an experience.

But I've also encountered quite a few disgruntled customers in my day. You know, the ones who come in looking for a problem so they can get something free. As a restaurant employee, you're usually told to "leave your problems at the door", too bad the guests couldn't do the same. Here's some of my stories:

-Some regulars at the restaurant I work at came in over the weekend and ordered grey goose martinis. The bartender made multiple martinis with grey goose and each time they were sent back by the table, who said "she's not pouring grey goose". I don't know how many glasses of grey goose were wasted but I know it's not the cheapest vodka. The problem was finally resolved after a new bottle of grey goose was opened and poured tableside.

-A few weeks ago we were really busy- our wait was 2+ hours for a table. A woman came in and asked for a table for 4 and was told of our wait time. She immediately threw a fit "YOUR WEBSITE SAYS YOU DON'T REQUIRE RESERVATIONS... I CALLED AND WAS TOLD YOU DON'T NEED RESERVATIONS". This lady made a scene in front of our packed bar and walked away extremely angry. The maitre'd was able to get her to return and she showed us the print out of "our" website. I looked at in and almost laughed out loud. She was looking at dinesite.com. If you don't know it by now, you should never trust a website other than a restaurant's official website- and even then it can be sketchy. The maitre'd tried to make her happy by telling her a table would be leaving soon and he would bump her up to the front of the line (we had quite a few reservations waiting and about 8 people on our wait list) but that would not make her happy. She left while ranting that we need to change our website. HA! You need to learn how to use the internet.

-A man came in and immediately asked "is your valet allowed to block off both lots out front?". We have it in our lease that our valet gets both front lots to use. Then he asked "well where can i self park then?", we told him that he can park in the back or in the parking garage. "well that's not what your valet told me, he said i'd have to go over to XXXXX and park". I later found out that the valets tell guests this because there is the possibility of getting a ticket or towed when you park in the back or the garage when you don't sign in with security for the building. So we apologized for the man's inconvenience of having to pay $5 for valet parking. He then requests a table for 2. We let him know that the dining room will be opening in about a half hour but he can sit at a booth in the lounge until then and get drinks and possibly an appetizer (our lounge opens at 4 but the dining room doesn't open till 5 because the staff needs to set all the tables- this is fine dining we're talking about, not Burger King). The man exclaimed "I want a nice table in the dining room for my mother and I to enjoy our dinner at". We explained to him that we could get him a table in the dining room shortly. "I don't understand what the difference is if I sit here or over there". We told him the staff was not ready for tables in the dining room. "Unbelievable, you know if I owned a restaurant I would want to make sure that all my guests are happy" and then he walked off. We kinda stood there in shock for a few seconds. Why do some guests refuse to follow the rules? Are you really that impatient and important that you have to give us a hard time?


I could go on and on but those are a few of my most recent stories. I guess the moral of this post is just to remember that when you go out to eat, try to understand what is going on behind the scenes and be a little more understanding. It could be your server's first day. The kitchen may be short handed because someone had to leave for a family emergency. In a restaurant and in our everyday lives, we need to be careful with how quickly we respond to a situation because you never know what's going on in another person's life. Your server may be moving a little slowly today because it's their first shift back after their grandfather's death- so it makes them feel really good when you start yelling at them because you got a regular coke instead of a diet.

I'll end my post with one more tidbit. When it comes to tipping, remember your server is probably only making a few dollars an hour so be a bit generous. Anything below 18% means the service was not too good, 18-20% means the service was good, and about 20% means the service was really good. I hope this post made some of my fellow restaurant employee friends laugh and made everyone else learn a thing or 2 about what goes on inside our heads.