A Summer To Remember...

...so what have I been doing all this time? Lots of things...not including updating this blog. You would think, I had all the time in the world to update but didn't. Why Calvin, why?!


Because I'm lazy. That, and I was busy having too much fun. Quite a lot has happened this summer, and I shall try my best to sum up the high points. This will most likely be divided into multiple posts for easy reading. So without further delay, my summer:

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Part 1: Work

Started working for Summer Housing in June. Quite an interesting job it was, I have to say. the beginning started off innocently enough. My coworkers and I spent the first three weeks setting up the office and prepping the rooms for occupation. We spent a good week washing out blankets. It was a long ass process. We had a lot of blankets. So much that spent well over $200 in washer and dryer machine money. and lots of walking back and forth from the machines. At any given moment, we had at least three laundry rooms occupied. While we were washing, we passed the time by sitting in the office, listening to the radio and screwing around on the computer. The last week of June however, that's where things got interesting.

The United Church of Christ rolled into Hartford for their 26th Synod. We were in charge of housing a good 800+ of the church members. Let me tell you, it was quite possibly the longest week ever. There was so much miscommunication between the UCC and Aramark (the company I work for), and that made things absolute hell on myself, my coworkers, and our boss, Andrew. It absolutely sucked to be him that week. Originally we were going to house the UCC members in Regents Park and Villages 6 and 7. The problem was that the 6s were out of commission due to repairs, and Regents Park looked like absolute ass. So all of the prep work we did was basically for nothing. Lovely. Negotiations after long negotiations later, it is decided that the members would be housed in B, D and F Complex, and also in Regents (even though it looked like ass). There were lots of problems that week, and to top it off, the last two days of their stay, I had to wake up at 6am to sit out and wait for people to check out since many of them had to catch early flights back home. The first day, no-one showed up to check out until about 8am. I was absolutely pissed off. I was going to kill someone if nobody showed up early the next day. Nobody died that day, the remaining UCC members checked out, and all was well in the world. I would not soon forget that week, as much as I would like to forget it.

The next big group to stay on campus was from the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. They were much nicer, as well as less abundant. About 20-30 of them or so. The only problem that we encountered with them was the fact that their access cards to Park River crapped out on them. All of them. I got a very angry call from one of the members about the situation, and even though the situation was out of my control at that time since the ID office (in charge of access cards) was closed for the day rest of the week since it's closed on Fridays and it was Thursday,
I still got the business from the guy. After collaborating with Public Safety and the leader of the group, I solved the problem by being the doorman for Park River for a few hours after my shift ended. It wasn't terrible. I set up my laptop and wireless router inside the room where the open door was and played flash games for a few hours. After all was said and done, I commandeered one of the empty rooms in Park River and set up shop for the night in case someone else needed to be let in at some odd hour. Interesting day.

Lady Luck must have been on my side this summer, because I was offered another job at the 1877 Club, one of the nicer dining establishments on campus. They needed a worker to watch the buffet line since the previous worker had to leave for an internship. I was going to work the full 6 hour shift there and then if I had a shift at Summer Housing I would work the remainder of that shift. It was working out quite well for a few days. That is, until my coworkers and I got fired from Summer Housing. Yep, fired. Apparently we "weren't going to be doing any more business" with Summer Housing, even though there were two more groups scheduled to stay on campus. Whatever, I knew what the real reason was, but I shall not disclose it since I'm still an Aramark employee. Tryin' to keep my job ya know! ;o) Anyway, even though I got laid off from Summer Housing, I still had the 1877 Club Job, and that enabled me to take that position full time! W00t! Somebody up there likes me!

The 1887 Club was a fun place to work. There were so many reasons to love working there. The bosses were nice and unusually cheerful for bosses. Andrew from Summer Housing works there, and I got to hang out with him every once in a while. Jackie, the Operations manager, such a sweet woman, and lots of fun to joke around with. The interns, Dusan, Tracy and Adamo, very cool people. As it turns out, I have a class with Dusan, so I get to hang out with him much more! Tracy and Adamo are Aramark workers from Boston University, and they had the opportunity to intern at Aramark in Hartford. I didn't really get to know Tracy that much. To be honest she kinda freaked me out because she has very large piercing blue eyes, and when she looks at you it seems like she's staring you down. Quite haunting. Adamo I ended up getting to know the most. Adamo is an interesting character. His personality and demeanor bleeds the kind of laid-backness in which standing next to him will make you cool by association. And he has awesome hair.

The kitchen and wait staff were pretty cool too. Jim and Sergio were the two chefs. Jim was in charge of cooking the food for the buffet line, Sergio was in charge of desserts and salads. Jim was quite a sarcastic character. Either that or he just was too lazy to care about much of anything. I would let him know that we needed more food for the buffet, and his response would be either a shrug of the shoulders or an eye roll. He would get the food ready, but his reactions were quite interesting. Sergio, on the other hand, he was the more lively of the two. Boy does the man know how to make art out of food. His desserts, especially his homemade apple walnut pie, to die for!! The way he made garnishes for various decorations, you would think about five people took all day slaving away at it. Amazing. One thing about Sergio, if he got to know you well enough and he likes you, he will come up with a nickname for you. Mine was "el torito," the little bull. I was quite flattered by the name, I think it suits me quite well.

I could write volumes about the 1877 Club, but I believe I've given the gist of things. In short, I had fun, met cool people, made some new friends, and I got paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaid! The tips man...the tips, phew! On a good day, you'd be floating. It was quite an experience, and the club and all the people that work there now hold a special place in my heart.

Now that I've gotten all mushy, it's time to move on to part 2.