out with the old, in with the...well, you know how it goes

last week, my now ex-boss treated me and the other girl in the office to a goodbye lunch. i was feeling like sushi, and since i'd read some pretty favorable reviews on yelp about this tiny little place, we headed into old town monrovia for mooncat's.

there were a few small tables outside, sushi bar seating, a counter along the wall and window, and a couple of little tables inside. we chose one of the latter.

i think the menu was bigger than the restaurant. heh.

we chatted and checked it out, and i ended up going with their bento box special. i worried that the box would be bigger than our table, but hey - this was my special lunch.

my soup and salad came first.

then came a caterpillar roll and assorted tempura for my pescatarian co-worker.

piggy me ordered a crunchy dragon roll, too. mind you, i did share it with the others.

just as i'd predicted, my box lunch took up a good portion of our coaster-sized table. heh. i enjoyed every morsel, though.

the boss went with the udon and a spicy tuna roll. she's always looking for good asian grub for the big boss when he's in town. this passed the test, apparently.

as excited as i was about my new gig at dot's, i found myself slightly wistful and sad to say goodbye. i'd actually had a fairly decent year working in that office - the hours were great, the pay was decent, and the work itself was a cakewalk. the boss was still asking me up until that morning if i was sure i was leaving. ha! but i'm sure they'll find a great replacement - someone who will work the full-time hours she was always asking me to take on, and possibly one who'll be fluent in chinese, too. i wish 'em all luck.

and as for the new job...well, i'm having a ball! i'm getting the hang of working with the public for the first time in *mumble* years, and although i seem to be suffering from a phone phobia (i don't love talking on the phone anyway, let alone when there's a pretty good chance that i'll sound like an idiot as i stammer out unsure answers to questions), i think i'm doing a pretty good job. i'm finding easy ways to talk customers into buying a third or sixth or whatever cupcake, and even managed to sell our gift wrapping service yesterday to a dude buying a box of anniversary treats for his wife. see how happy i am?

it is wonderful to have fun at work at last. and the fact that i had monday off (and next monday too!) only adds to my enthusiasm for this job. rotating schedules kinda rock.

life is sweet

so today is my last day in the office. it's a thursday, i'm wearing jeans, i DGAF. heh.

i've been debating whether or not to talk about the new gig here, because i knew that revealing the specifics would make me super easy to find. but then again, i've already done that before - like, anyone could've tracked me down effortlessly with all of my wan-derful women's expo talk. right?

besides, i'm so stoked about the fun environment i'm going to be in now. it's such a big part of what's going on in my life right now, so it's going to be awful hard to keep my yap shut. i started training last week, just a few hours for a couple of days to get myself into the swing of things, meet some of the staff, and get an idea of what i've gotten myself into. and so far, i'm really having a ball.

if you've been reading for a while, you'll have an idea of my love for dot's cupcakes in pasadena. i'd become friendly with the owner way back when she first opened, almost four years ago, because i was such a frequent customer. and then we found out that we have a mutual friend in my buddy lilcee. so when i was bitching and moaning on facebook a while back about being so over my current job, she messaged me, which led to a phone call, and that resulted in a job offer! i was hesitant at first, knowing that it'd be a slight cut in pay, and the anti-social snob in me wasn't sure if i wanted to go into a service-oriented industry and have to talk to people face-to-face. i mean, i haven't worked retail since i was 16 and cashiering at target!

i ran it by the teen, who said "mom, i'd rather have you make a little less money and be happy at your job. besides, i'm kinda tired of hearing you complain about work every day." d-oh! and while i was fully expecting the hub to either shoot the idea down completely or make endless fun of me for even toying with it at all, he instead said "oh, that's cool. you'd be a lot happier there than in that office."

i tweeted vague info about it to get my twirlies' opinions, and they all agreed. so i took it. i still get to keep working part-time weekdays, and eventually, maybe i'll get to help out with corporate and wedding orders. there's also the social media aspect - they have a facebook page and a twitter account, but it's not updated as regularly as it could be. plus, instead of having to deal with figuring out something to wear to work every day, i get to just throw on one of these, with a pair of jeans and tennies:

and i get to be surrounded by delicious morsels and cute packaging like this:

not to mention, dot's has kind of earned itself a bad rep (at least that's what i got from reading 100+ reviews on yelp) for lousy service and clueless/rude employees. as a customer, i personally never experienced any of the things that people complained about, so i'm making it my mission to turn that around and increase our star rating.

the sweet tooth definitely runs in the family. at the american girl place this weekend, the teen picked out this cute little set of "sweet treats" for the bean to share with her dolly. she loves to set up her little table and chairs and have an ice cream party now:

aren't they cute? there's a glass with lemonade and one with a root beer float, plus a banana split and a hot fudge sundae. well, actually, when the bean served it to me, she said "here's your tuesday, mommy." haha!

she digs the little spoons it came with, too. such a ham.

fun stuff!