“Rumors” Review – 1900 M St. NW
I spent last Saturday, forcing myself past a very large man, pushing through a very small door, and trekking through a path that “magically appeared” as a pushed myself like a jigsaw puzzle piece fitting myself through the crowd to the bar where I very quickly needed a drink. Is it just me or is DC expanding? I, once again, spent my Saturday evening at a crowded popular DC bar, called Rumors. It is located at 1900 M St. near Farragut Square and Dupont Circle. If this bar had been located in like Iowa, Indiana, even some remote spot in DC like say Crystal City (J I live there so don’t get mad) I would have loved the bar. The problem was the amount of people in the place could have fit in the new Nationals Stadium! It was maxed out!! Maybe it’s just me, but when I go to a bar I enjoy having room to dance and breathe, I don’t like when dancing is mandatory because the people are so close next to you that everyone sort of has to sway with the crowd. I’ve got moves people!! How am I supposed to break it down, with all those people cramping my style?! It is also frustrating when Cambouri comes all the way from New York to go out for the evening and she spent half of it in line waiting for people to leave the bar because it was at capacity at around 11:00pm. I even pleaded with the bouncer if he would let my gorgeous, BALLERINA friend into the bar, because 1. she is hot, 2. she was by herself, and 3. SHE WAS COLD! He just stood there and grunted negatively…ugh, I hate bouncers like that, there should be an unspoken rule that girls should not have to stand in line by themselves. So my conclusion, it would be a lot of fun if it was reasonably packed and didn’t cost $5 dollars to get into an overcrowded dance floor that they tried to call a bar. I would suggest going early and leaving early. Personally, I like having room to enjoy myself and when a place is that overcrowded it’s just not fun anymore.
In other news, HR pulled me aside today. Basically, she told me in a closed door meeting that it doesn’t look like the position I want will be available for at least 6 months or more…soo…..Tonight’s Mission If I can Stomach it: Plan my life….
Option 1: New Job
Option 2: Stay, but they will incorporate a training program with all the information I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN to HELP ME on my career path….further details still to come
So…I have a lot of soul searching to do. WISH ME LUCK!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Valentine’s Day Surprises are a treat
So I guess I will post the final post on Valentine’s Day. I had to let you all know what Ten ended up planning. So Friday evening, I got all dressed up in this great dress I bought at white house/black market. I had fabulous black shoes from New Years that I repeated. I did my hair and got all dolled up with lots of mascara (for the googly eyes I intended on throwing Ten all night long) and baby pink lipstick from L’Oreal. Ten shows up looking as handsome as ever in a baby blue button down shirt with a pinstriped suit on, and not obnoxious pin stripes, but just slightly there stripes that make him look like a sexy lawyer type, or someone with a lot of money! We posed for a few pictures because I had to have a few and then got on the metro (probably the only downer of the night was not having access to a car but at least we did our part for the environment). So we get off at chinatown and I still had no clue where we could be going that my dress was appropriate for in Chinatown. And after a few minute walk, we approached Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Not every girl’s dream, but definitely as a steak lover, it was my dream. I only ONLY eat steak on special occasions, and so I died on the spot. “really?!! I get to eat steak tonight?!! We are actually going inside!!? This is too much!! Yum yum!! I love steak…SQUEAL! FAINT…” that is about how I sounded when we walked in. I NEVER EAT STEAK, because of the guilt factor. But Ten gave me permission tonight to not feel guilty and to enjoy myself. I had a flirtini: made of ketel one, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice and it came out a pale pale pink that matched the valentine’s day spirit and my lipstick. I batted my eyelashes at him all night long, while I died (or dined) on my plate of Filet and Shrimp, in pure meat overdose and deliciousness. We cooed sweet nothings to each other all night, ignoring the very large and very loud family sitting near us (I want to know who can afford to take all 14 members of your family to Ruth Chris, and how do I get myself one of those families.) All and all it was a wonderful night, filled with love mumurs, filet mignon, and flirtinis. I couldn’t have asked for a better Valentine’s Day. THANK YOU TEN!
In other news, my job still is in a standstill…Just waiting for a decisions… let’s just hope it comes sooner rather than later. I am starting to get antsy and I had a slight mental breakdown last night, knowing I had to go to work today, and my brain went colliding with the internet frantically searching for culinary school options, hospitality school options, jobs in California, jobs in DC…and not knowing what to do. Ten calmly talked me down, giving me a plan, which is exactly what I needed. A plan that just until the end of the summer we will definitely be staying in DC and that’s all I needed to know. And like that the fever abated, the sweating cooled to a slight damp drizzle, and I used the extra adrenaline to do a full scale clean of my room, dusting to changing sheets, to getting rid of unnecessary clutter.
I am sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately. I do appreciate all the good vibe comments you guys have been giving me. I just have been so consumed by my own life I haven’t been able to concentrate on others.
Thanks for dealing with my selfishness!
In other news, my job still is in a standstill…Just waiting for a decisions… let’s just hope it comes sooner rather than later. I am starting to get antsy and I had a slight mental breakdown last night, knowing I had to go to work today, and my brain went colliding with the internet frantically searching for culinary school options, hospitality school options, jobs in California, jobs in DC…and not knowing what to do. Ten calmly talked me down, giving me a plan, which is exactly what I needed. A plan that just until the end of the summer we will definitely be staying in DC and that’s all I needed to know. And like that the fever abated, the sweating cooled to a slight damp drizzle, and I used the extra adrenaline to do a full scale clean of my room, dusting to changing sheets, to getting rid of unnecessary clutter.
I am sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately. I do appreciate all the good vibe comments you guys have been giving me. I just have been so consumed by my own life I haven’t been able to concentrate on others.
Thanks for dealing with my selfishness!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Frustratingly Mute in Georgetown
My life as a 20-something professional…translation, “the bottom of the totem pole”, also known as “bottom-dweller”, “push over”, “bend over”, “please sir, may I have another, and by the way, love your tie” and of course, “Coffee Sherpa”. Basically, if you haven’t gotten the message yet…not so pleased with the new take over…I know I have been hinting at this for the past few weeks. Talking about the split between my two beloved hotels (well, maybe not beloved but at least “liked”) and where I would end up.
Option one: go with my awesome big boss to the other hotel which would be hotel W (all offices use to just be in one, lets call it M Hotel, the other W Hotel had to have offices built to accommodate the split). My job would be unknown for the next couple weeks but would involve event planning, conference planning, accounting, HR, mail sorting, and any other odd, end detail which would, upon the hotel settling down, lead to Event Planner Extraordinaire.
Option 2: Stay with M hotel, suck it up until the new GM of M hotel approves my move to the restaurant (recall this is top 15 restaurants in the country, and the best in DC). I understood this process might take um, maybe 2 weeks…
Option 3: Stay with M hotel, and be a sales manager…yuck, yuck, spit! But the most money probably…
So I chose Option 2. I want to work at the restaurant. I have been working towards that goal for the past year. I applied there originally but there were no jobs at the time. That is where I want to be. I want to mingle with the upper-crusty Washingtonians. I want to dine on exquisite food, and I want to be able to say, “oh, Chef, that was divine! I want to do that during the Inauguration when we will be filled with only the most powerful people in the world!”
It’s my turn. I spent the past year working my soul into this place, I made myself inreplaceable to the hotel…unfortunately I have become a little too irreplaceable.
Problem: The new GM of hotel M arrived last week. AND WONT LET ME LEAVE! He is delaying the approval of my new position, because shocker…he doesn’t want to have to let me go and rehire someone. He wants to keep me as an assistant and supposedly promote me, or so he says to sales manager! NO, I DON’T WANT THAT!! I WANT THE RESTAURANT!! I want to be yelled at in French by the hottie exec chef who calls me “Pretty Girl” when he is not yelling at me (sorry Ten, but you know its true!).
So let me describe the last couple days that have gotten me so emotionally distressed that I have not been able to blog, let alone even read other blogs…
Last Thursday: Our new Director of Sales comes in, introduces herself (we will call her DOS) and says Conference Planner, other Assistant (the one I play phone games with) lets meet. They go into her office leaving me at my desk, and she begins to introduce herself, her goals while she is here, how long she expects to be here, others she expects to hire etc….Things that I believe everyone on the “team” should know…for the first time in over a year, I felt like I was not part of the team. I was demoted to assistant, phone answerer, and bitch. How did that happen between 8 am and 8:15 I don’t know. Immediately, new GM walks in, says “HI, I’m your new GM.” Looks around and then says to me, “ This office is disgusting, you need to clean the walls off with any other companys materials, you need to dust, through things away that don’t need to be here etc”. SO between 8:15 and 8:30 I was demoted even further to well…housekeeping/assistant, slash bottom dweller…urgh…ok, the tears begin to pool out of anger. I spend the rest of the day Thursday, answering phones and watching the other assistant get his promotion and move into his big new office (dungeon space). The GM calls me into this office and asks, “What are your plans?”
“I am going to move up to the restaurant”
“Um, I don’t know if that is the best move for right. And since I need to approve that move, I wanted to let you know that I think we will have to wait on that.”
“Um, what do you mean?”
“Well, since I have to approve the move, and since we don’t have anyone to replace you right now, it just doesn’t seem like the best time for such a move.”
“My friend is interested in my postion, I can bring her in tomorrow.”
“That is wonderful, bring her in, I need an assistant.”
WAIT A SECOND!! I AM BRINGING HER IN FOR MY JOB!!! SO I CAN MOVE UP!!
Basically he decides that until he can talk to the Chef who is out of town until THURSDAY!! He wont be able to make any decisions about my job here. And not only that, he tells me unless the restaurant job is 90% administrative it isn’t a good move right now since that is really the only thing they need. And I know the job that they want me for is not an admin job…I think he just wants to deny them offering me a higher salary which they promised me!
So Basically, I am being denied everything I had been promised, and being demoted on top of that…The tears begin to overflow. HOT ANGRY TEARS! THIS IS NOT MY FAULT! You cant just come in here and mess up everything I have worked for! I run to the HR Director, a girl just a few years older who is awesome, and tell her everything, as I am sobbing. In the past year, I have had one major meltdown and no others…The first day of this new company and I am already in tears.
(a little side note, I had asked HR if I could have a flat screen computer monitor that was in accounting that wasn’t being used as I had the smallest desk in the office and the largest computer monitor. She said yes. I took it and put it under my desk as I couldn’t ever find anyone to help me switch them and I cannot lift the mammoth screen on my desk by myself. So there it has been sitting for the past month. The greedy other assistant, says to me on Thursday of course, “Can I have that flat screen monitor sitting under your desk.” “No, I need it, I just haven’t been able to switch it yet and as I may be moving I don’t want to move it for nothing.” “But I need it for my new office.” “No you don’t, now that you have a new office you definitely don’t need a smaller monitor, since you have a big old desk and your own room!!” “But I want it” “UM, NO!”)
Friday: I walk in, and there under my desk is an empty space. Other assistant had taken my computer monitor even though I had said no. I couldn’t take it. I was being denied my promotion, people were treating me like shit, and he goes and takes the one little thing that was keeping me stable, the one prospect that I might still be moving to Citronelle. HOT TEARS AGAIN ERUPT! I run into Conference Planner’s office, “I’m leaving! I can’t take this shit anymore. This isn’t fair. How dare he do that, who does he think he is, treating me like that and taking other peoples stuff!” “Calm down, Tell me what happened” “he stole my computer monitor!” “what?!”
Other assistant walks in, probably because he knows he is in trouble, “I Didn’t steal it, I went and took another monitor from accounting, and the GM said I had to put mine back, and when I told him you had one, he also said I had to put yours back, but then he said I could keep yours. So I did.”
I was so angry!!TEARS ANGER GRRR!!! It’s the point that matters. I don’t care about the computer monitor. I don’t care about his promotion, I care that he thinks since he is above me he can do anything he wants know. I care that he thinks that what he did is ok. I care that he doesn’t have at least a little respect to understand that I am not currently happy about my position, and you are going to rub it in that you get to move. And the least little thing you can do is TAKE SOMETHING FROM ME!! Because you want a cool office! HOW INCONSIDERATE! UGH!! SO FRUSTRATED!!
So day 2…begins in tears again…One year NO TEARS. Two days, Two Tears/melt downs.
I wrote my old boss, Big Boss, an email, just telling him how unhappy I was, How I was sad that he wasn’t around anymore, that the office wasn’t the same without our team together, and how much I truly appreciate him now. He called me from Florida where apparently he had been on a business meeting and just the sound of his voice, knowing that he cared enough to tell me how sorry he was, how he hated to hear me so upset, I burst into tears again! THREE TIMES!! IN TWO DAYS! It was just the difference between the new and the old. The old was caring, warm and fuzzy, the new was cold, indifferent and frustratingly mute about my future.
Anyways, situation hasn’t been solved yet. HR talked to DOS and told her I was feeling undervalued, and ignored. DOS apologized to me and said she had been so worried about other thing she had kinda forgotten how I might feel during this time.
So I guess that is ok. I am working hard so they know that my job is not to be an assistant. But in terms of my career, the GM of the restaurant keeps telling me to relax, he promises everything will work out. I assume it will, but it has been frustrating being put on the backseat, back burner, watch others around me be promoted, do more while I just sit in my normal desk, my normal chair and keep still. I guess until Chef comes back in town my future remains cloudy.
I guess I should remember that no matter what despite my work life, I have a wonderful boyfriend who doesn’t care that I blow my nose constantly, that I hack luggies like its my job, and will still kiss me even if I have a cold sore on my tongue (well, not with tongue) of course.
Ugh, I hope everyone has had a better past couple days. I apparently have a lot of catching up to do, considering my reader says I have like 48 new entries to read…
Option one: go with my awesome big boss to the other hotel which would be hotel W (all offices use to just be in one, lets call it M Hotel, the other W Hotel had to have offices built to accommodate the split). My job would be unknown for the next couple weeks but would involve event planning, conference planning, accounting, HR, mail sorting, and any other odd, end detail which would, upon the hotel settling down, lead to Event Planner Extraordinaire.
Option 2: Stay with M hotel, suck it up until the new GM of M hotel approves my move to the restaurant (recall this is top 15 restaurants in the country, and the best in DC). I understood this process might take um, maybe 2 weeks…
Option 3: Stay with M hotel, and be a sales manager…yuck, yuck, spit! But the most money probably…
So I chose Option 2. I want to work at the restaurant. I have been working towards that goal for the past year. I applied there originally but there were no jobs at the time. That is where I want to be. I want to mingle with the upper-crusty Washingtonians. I want to dine on exquisite food, and I want to be able to say, “oh, Chef, that was divine! I want to do that during the Inauguration when we will be filled with only the most powerful people in the world!”
It’s my turn. I spent the past year working my soul into this place, I made myself inreplaceable to the hotel…unfortunately I have become a little too irreplaceable.
Problem: The new GM of hotel M arrived last week. AND WONT LET ME LEAVE! He is delaying the approval of my new position, because shocker…he doesn’t want to have to let me go and rehire someone. He wants to keep me as an assistant and supposedly promote me, or so he says to sales manager! NO, I DON’T WANT THAT!! I WANT THE RESTAURANT!! I want to be yelled at in French by the hottie exec chef who calls me “Pretty Girl” when he is not yelling at me (sorry Ten, but you know its true!).
So let me describe the last couple days that have gotten me so emotionally distressed that I have not been able to blog, let alone even read other blogs…
Last Thursday: Our new Director of Sales comes in, introduces herself (we will call her DOS) and says Conference Planner, other Assistant (the one I play phone games with) lets meet. They go into her office leaving me at my desk, and she begins to introduce herself, her goals while she is here, how long she expects to be here, others she expects to hire etc….Things that I believe everyone on the “team” should know…for the first time in over a year, I felt like I was not part of the team. I was demoted to assistant, phone answerer, and bitch. How did that happen between 8 am and 8:15 I don’t know. Immediately, new GM walks in, says “HI, I’m your new GM.” Looks around and then says to me, “ This office is disgusting, you need to clean the walls off with any other companys materials, you need to dust, through things away that don’t need to be here etc”. SO between 8:15 and 8:30 I was demoted even further to well…housekeeping/assistant, slash bottom dweller…urgh…ok, the tears begin to pool out of anger. I spend the rest of the day Thursday, answering phones and watching the other assistant get his promotion and move into his big new office (dungeon space). The GM calls me into this office and asks, “What are your plans?”
“I am going to move up to the restaurant”
“Um, I don’t know if that is the best move for right. And since I need to approve that move, I wanted to let you know that I think we will have to wait on that.”
“Um, what do you mean?”
“Well, since I have to approve the move, and since we don’t have anyone to replace you right now, it just doesn’t seem like the best time for such a move.”
“My friend is interested in my postion, I can bring her in tomorrow.”
“That is wonderful, bring her in, I need an assistant.”
WAIT A SECOND!! I AM BRINGING HER IN FOR MY JOB!!! SO I CAN MOVE UP!!
Basically he decides that until he can talk to the Chef who is out of town until THURSDAY!! He wont be able to make any decisions about my job here. And not only that, he tells me unless the restaurant job is 90% administrative it isn’t a good move right now since that is really the only thing they need. And I know the job that they want me for is not an admin job…I think he just wants to deny them offering me a higher salary which they promised me!
So Basically, I am being denied everything I had been promised, and being demoted on top of that…The tears begin to overflow. HOT ANGRY TEARS! THIS IS NOT MY FAULT! You cant just come in here and mess up everything I have worked for! I run to the HR Director, a girl just a few years older who is awesome, and tell her everything, as I am sobbing. In the past year, I have had one major meltdown and no others…The first day of this new company and I am already in tears.
(a little side note, I had asked HR if I could have a flat screen computer monitor that was in accounting that wasn’t being used as I had the smallest desk in the office and the largest computer monitor. She said yes. I took it and put it under my desk as I couldn’t ever find anyone to help me switch them and I cannot lift the mammoth screen on my desk by myself. So there it has been sitting for the past month. The greedy other assistant, says to me on Thursday of course, “Can I have that flat screen monitor sitting under your desk.” “No, I need it, I just haven’t been able to switch it yet and as I may be moving I don’t want to move it for nothing.” “But I need it for my new office.” “No you don’t, now that you have a new office you definitely don’t need a smaller monitor, since you have a big old desk and your own room!!” “But I want it” “UM, NO!”)
Friday: I walk in, and there under my desk is an empty space. Other assistant had taken my computer monitor even though I had said no. I couldn’t take it. I was being denied my promotion, people were treating me like shit, and he goes and takes the one little thing that was keeping me stable, the one prospect that I might still be moving to Citronelle. HOT TEARS AGAIN ERUPT! I run into Conference Planner’s office, “I’m leaving! I can’t take this shit anymore. This isn’t fair. How dare he do that, who does he think he is, treating me like that and taking other peoples stuff!” “Calm down, Tell me what happened” “he stole my computer monitor!” “what?!”
Other assistant walks in, probably because he knows he is in trouble, “I Didn’t steal it, I went and took another monitor from accounting, and the GM said I had to put mine back, and when I told him you had one, he also said I had to put yours back, but then he said I could keep yours. So I did.”
I was so angry!!TEARS ANGER GRRR!!! It’s the point that matters. I don’t care about the computer monitor. I don’t care about his promotion, I care that he thinks since he is above me he can do anything he wants know. I care that he thinks that what he did is ok. I care that he doesn’t have at least a little respect to understand that I am not currently happy about my position, and you are going to rub it in that you get to move. And the least little thing you can do is TAKE SOMETHING FROM ME!! Because you want a cool office! HOW INCONSIDERATE! UGH!! SO FRUSTRATED!!
So day 2…begins in tears again…One year NO TEARS. Two days, Two Tears/melt downs.
I wrote my old boss, Big Boss, an email, just telling him how unhappy I was, How I was sad that he wasn’t around anymore, that the office wasn’t the same without our team together, and how much I truly appreciate him now. He called me from Florida where apparently he had been on a business meeting and just the sound of his voice, knowing that he cared enough to tell me how sorry he was, how he hated to hear me so upset, I burst into tears again! THREE TIMES!! IN TWO DAYS! It was just the difference between the new and the old. The old was caring, warm and fuzzy, the new was cold, indifferent and frustratingly mute about my future.
Anyways, situation hasn’t been solved yet. HR talked to DOS and told her I was feeling undervalued, and ignored. DOS apologized to me and said she had been so worried about other thing she had kinda forgotten how I might feel during this time.
So I guess that is ok. I am working hard so they know that my job is not to be an assistant. But in terms of my career, the GM of the restaurant keeps telling me to relax, he promises everything will work out. I assume it will, but it has been frustrating being put on the backseat, back burner, watch others around me be promoted, do more while I just sit in my normal desk, my normal chair and keep still. I guess until Chef comes back in town my future remains cloudy.
I guess I should remember that no matter what despite my work life, I have a wonderful boyfriend who doesn’t care that I blow my nose constantly, that I hack luggies like its my job, and will still kiss me even if I have a cold sore on my tongue (well, not with tongue) of course.
Ugh, I hope everyone has had a better past couple days. I apparently have a lot of catching up to do, considering my reader says I have like 48 new entries to read…
Monday, February 4, 2008
V-day Updates/Hints:
So Sunday Morning: I am checking my email obsessively for probably 4th time that morning because I tend to do that when I absent mindely have my computer in front of me, I see a new email...
It is from Ten, it reads:
Ten & Blonde Features (Substitute full names)
Reservation for 2 , 8:30pm
Cocktail Attire Requested
Awwww....kinda excited..maybe Ten actually has a plan! I know, totally unexpected, like the time I turned down a Jean sale...totally out of character.
So I am excited and must plan a shopping trip ASAP! Ole Miss is on call for this emergency situation :)
p.s. I got my hair cut...I wish I could show you a picture but my favorite hair stylist, Serkan at the 4 Seasons (I LOVE HIM!) gave me a deal and charged me only $70 for my absolutly fantastic hair cut and blowdry!! LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM!
This if kinda what it looks like! He gave me "Beginner bangs" because I have never had bangs before and he didnt want me to be overwhelmed but I LOVE LVOE IT!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
