Assorted Stories from my Latest Shows

In  my post about being burnt out I talked briefly about how I rescued an actor from being killed by a sandbag.  Now for a myriad of other entertaining (I hope) stories.

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The fourth day of tech I came in having already worked a six hour shift at Starbucks.  It was my fourth eighteen hour day and so this is the setting for my story.  About an hour before dinner one of the actors comes offstage and informs me that one of our very large riser units is hard to move.  This wasn't the most trustworthy of actors and so I went to find another one who had proven himself to be slightly more reliable.  He confirmed the first actor's story and so I took a look at it and first checked to see if the drop pin (essentially our braking system) was down.  It wasn't.  But one side of the unit did seem much closer to the ground.  I informed my deck chief and he came over to take a look at it.  He initially dismissed it as wear and tear, but I insisted and he too noted that one side was much much closer to the ground.

We took the side paneling off and he quickly discovered that the unit had completely failed and would not roll again if it couldn't have extensive repairs made to it.  So we took it to the adjacent (small) shop and began major repairs that should have never been needed if the unit had been made correctly in the first place.  The stage manager and I then pointed out that we would need to do the same with the second unit (there was a fair amount of cursing at that point that I'm cutting out).  I spent the next forty-five minutes listen to my deck chief/master carpenter rant and rave about the whole situation (and really his whole reaction was well and truly earned).

So I walked down the street of the small city where my theatre was located, getting more and more agitated.  As I walked, I bumped into my assistant choreographer, a close friend of mine, and I literally broke down and cried on his shoulder for a solid few minutes.  I have never been in that state in my life nor would I ever want to again.  But the major scenic center pieces of the show were eventually repaired and life did go on.

Oh and as the kicker, when we took the side paneling off of both riser units there were loose screws just hanging out inside.

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The rest of my stories from that show aren't quite a coherent tale, but here's just a fun list of things I witnessed/was party to/dealt with:

• A forty year old dating a seventeen year old
• Two dogs onstage
• Set pieces that didn't actually fit in the space
• Confetti canons that never fucking worked (eventually we figured out a trick with the masking tape)
• Disappearing masking tape, spike tape, paint, paint brushes, batteries, and drills
• A crew member who had no business being backstage because he was a safety hazard (he was a bit slow, which is not a problem, unless you're working in a business where you or someone else could get killed if you're not quick on your feet)
• A teenage friend confessing relationship issues to me

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Oh wait, I do have one more story.  I'd forgotten this one because it was the first day of tech.  This crew member eventually quit.  This was the conversation I had over wireless headset.  As you'll see, I had already learned to be very specific with this particular crew member.

"Rachel, can you please move the stage right wall unit into stage right wing three with the red paneling facing down?"

*Silence*

"Rachel?"

"Who?"

"Rachel, can you please move the stage right wall unit into stage right wing three with the red paneling facing down?"

"What?"

"The stage right wall unit."

"Where?"

"Please move the stage right wall unit into stage right wing three, with the paneling facing down."

*Silence*

"Rachel?"

"Me?"

"Yes. You."

*Silence*

"Rachel?!"

"Now?"

That was literally the only time I have ever thrown anything in frustration (I threw my clipboard (funny thing was my boss was right there and he just laughed at me)).  Luckily my deck chief took over from there.  Just UGGH.

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This next story actually happened on my latest show two days ago.  It involves a picture.  Since the theatre I'm working in has no real fly (rigging) system to speak of the carpenters created an impromtu one for something called a kabuki drop.  A kabuki drop is essentially a rig that holds something (in this case a sign) and then you press a button and it unfurls.  Then you can press another button and it drops completely to the ground.  The rigging system for the kabuki drop in this theatre looks like the picture below:

So the other day, what happened was that one of the three pick points on the kabuki drop (which is represented by the piece labeled scenery) came unattached from the counterweight (in this case a sandbag).  So we got I got out a ladder and pulled the wire down from the ceiling and we reattached it to the sandbag.  However, the wire was no longer the same length as the others, so I needed to adjust the length of the other wires.  It was infinitely doable, but the stage manager told me to just let it be, so I did and we did the show without the kabuki drop.

That same night we got two-thirds of the way through the show and suddenly all three people on the crew realized that our headsets were too quiet.  As it turns out we couldn't communicate with the stage manager, who was on wired clear com (headset).  We were on wireless.  We realized when a cue to close a curtain was supposed to happen, but didn't.  Since the kabuki was cut for the night, I ran up to the booth and informed them what was wrong, but since the show is so busy for everyone involved, we couldn't actually fix it.  So we did there rest of a very complicated show with no clear com (it went of smoothly, but dear god it was nerve-wracking).

The next day we came in and there were cables securing the sandbag to the wires of the rigging to keep them from coming apart, which is what had happened in the first place.  It wasn't a clean or elegant solution but at least the idiot fixed it.  So me, being the person I am, decided to test the rig after it had been fixed and before the show.  Let me tell you, I have never been so glad of doing something.  When I pressed the button for the sign to unfurl, one of the ropes securing the sign to the kabuki drop completely came untied and it swung on one rope like a drunken pendulum and would have hit whoever was below it.  So I retied the knots, checked several other knots that were loose and tested it again.  Since I did that, it's been working perfectly, thankfully.

If it had just been rigged properly in the first place it never would have been a problem.  In case you actually care, the person who did this rigging was the same carpenter who built the riser units from my first story.

Sbux

I've discovered, having written one post, that I have a myriad in the back of my mind that I didn't even realize were there.

I'm not sure I am actually up to writing this, but if I'm not, then I guess you won't ever see it anyway.

I started as a barista at Starbucks last year in September.  I loved it.  It was a challenge and kept me engaged and focused.  My training was not so much training as: HERE GO.  Since then we've gotten much better at training, but I tend to learn best from doing, so it worked out for the best I would say.

In December, I got asked by two of my shift supervisors if I was interested in learning how to become a shift supervisor.  After some thought, I said yes.  My official training began really in February.  And when I say training, I mainly mean the long process of becoming a shift.  There was a new set of skills, not generally expected of baristas, that I was expected to learn.  And it was difficult, but it was also an engaging challenge.

At the end of May I got the green light to be promoted.  I was promoted in-store, which is not actually how promotions generally work.  It's typically considered hard to be promoted in-store because the baristas who used to be your peers, frequently won't respect you as a superior.  That wasn't a problem I really encountered.  The majority of the baristas (7 of 9) were actually people I ended of training (we had a lot of both growth and turn over this year) so they were used to me having authority.

The problem I have been having is when I was promoted.  I think I was ready.  I have the knowledge base.  However, the week I began my training as a shift supervisor (so early June), my store manager left.  I could probably do an entire post of what made her the best boss I've ever had, but suffice it to say, she was the best boss I've ever had.  The week after my training finished, one of our shift supervisors left (our store is supposed to have three, so we were left with two and me).  A month later, another of our shift supervisors left to become assistant store manager for my old store manager at her new store.  We still have not replaced the second shift supervisor to leave.

If this weren't enough, my store manager is getting married (actually, her wedding is this weekend), so all of her attention has been on wedding planning and not on the store.  On top of that, my training was never formally completed.  You see, the last three days of my scheduled training, my trainer (the shift who left to become an assistant store manager) was incredibly sick, so I just ended up running the floor and doing the best I could.  And really, it's been like that ever since then.  I was expected to have the capabilities of a fully trained shift supervisor in an understaffed store under a brand new store manager.  Please someone tell me what's wrong with that picture.

So I just dealt with it, as I always do.  I didn't realize that it was something that I just couldn't deal with until I started breaking down and crying after every shift.  I hit my breaking point and then was pushed beyond it and didn't know how to fix it.  I wanted to quit.  I almost did quit.  I have never been so close to just leaving work and going home and not coming back.

What I haven't explained yet is that these details are just the setting for the scene.  Because the point that really pushed me was that when my manager came in she changed everything.  She was used to working on a different system than we used and she just wanted everything to be her system.  But my store doesn't know her system and isn't due to be taught it until February, so we have now been reduced to running this sad crippled, half and half system, where no one is quite sure what they're doing.  She moves everything in the store constantly and doesn't tell anyone where she put it and more importantly doesn't tell them whether that's its permanent new home or if it just got put there by accident.  Everyone has a very different work schedule now and sometimes people are scheduled for things that just don't make sense (we are required by law to give someone a lunch after five hours of work, so scheduling someone for five and a half hours of work is just stupid).  Since I trained most of the baristas, they come to me with their problems and the fact that they are just completely demoralized.  I can only think of two baristas who have not expressed a desire to quit.  And having that weight put on me by baristas just added to everything else.

I talked with my store manager for four hours one day, but I don't think she got how dire it was.  All the advice I was given by family was to stick with it, even though by that point I knew I couldn't deal with it any more.  I have a very strong sense of self and I know when I'm at my breaking point.  Earlier this week, I talked with my manager again and asked her for a transfer.  She agreed, but said it would take time.

She's off on her wedding vacation now and suddenly things are better.  We're allowed to run things according to how we know is correct and don't have someone breathing down our neck constantly.  Even though we are thoroughly understaffed, minus a shift and a manager, it suddenly seems like I can handle it.

And now I finally have hope again.  I didn't realize it, but I had lost hope.  When I finally was able to express that fact to my manager, it was like a weight was lifted.  I had no hope that things would get better.  No hope that it would ever end.  No hope that I would be able to escape.  And it's a horrible thing, one I had never experienced before.  The fact that I have been told I can transfer, even though it's in the future, gave hope back to me.  On Thursday I had the wonderful feeling for the first time in over a month that maybe I would be able to stay at my store after all.

Burnt Out

I haven't been blogging.  It's been almost a year.

Part of the reason is that I live with the people who used to be my primary audience.  Part of it was I got more self conscious.  Part of it was that I got really busy and haven't had time.  When you work 18 hours a day for almost two months straight you don't have much time for anything other than sleep.

Starbucks has been an utter disaster lately.  I don't really want to talk about it at the moment, maybe in another post, if I can find the time and energy to do another post.  It's really rough though when something you love turns into something you hate and in this case it was all at once.

In the case of theatre it was gradual.  What I realized recently (and it's only become more clear writing this most) is that the last time I've taken more than a one month break from theatre was the summer of my freshman year.  What that basically means is that I have stage managed for four years without a break of more the four weeks.

Now, I realize that this sounds like normal life for people probably.  I mean, people work for years at a time without taking more than a few weeks off here and there for vacations.  But the fact is, stage managing is one of the most stressful jobs I can think of.  You are underpaid (by more than I can possibly explain).  Stage managers don't get paid by the hours.  They get a contract stating an amount of money that they will get during a show and then receive that amount every few weeks in even portions.  Why don't stage managers get paid by the hour?  The honest truth is that theatres can't afford it.  If you're an equity (union) stage manager, you are in rehearsals for eight hours a day.  That sounds about normal.  However you have, roughly, an hour of prep on either side of that rehearsal.  Not to mention paperwork to fill out and disseminate.  The old saying goes: A stage manager is the first and arrive and the last to leave.

When you stage manager, you live the show.  No one knows it better than you.  I would argue not even the director (though that argument would be contested by many a director).  There is stress on you constantly.  You are expected to not only know what everyone is thinking, but know it before they even think of it.  I truly wish I was joking, but you do start to be able to do the impossible after awhile.  On the last show I was working I would pull out the rehearsal props that were needed.  Then seeing how quickly the director was working, I pulled out the props for the following scene as well.  The director turned to me a few minutes and said that she would like to continue working and if I could pull the props out, which I promptly handed to her.  Now that level of detailed thinking is not necessarily expected by every person who you work with.  But if you are trying to impress them and get rehired or hired on in a larger capacity, it's certainly helpful.

If something goes wrong, it's your fault.  Again, that's not to say that everyone will blame you inherently, but if someone needs to take the blame it should be the stage manager who voluntarily takes it.  It's not fair and I know it and I generally accept it willingly.  Because I have found that, every single time, it is better to swallow your pride and apologize, than fight over something ultimately trivial.

I'm trying to describe the amount of pressure on you as a stage manager and I'm not sure I'm succeeding at all.  I'm not trying to complain, I'm just trying to make this profession I so love clear for those of you who have never experienced.  It's not like almost any other job I can think of, because when work ends most people can go home and the pressure is off.  They can relax and blow off steam.  But that's just not the case for a stage manager because you could get an email at any point and who knows how urgent it could be.  It's lovely to say: "I only answer emails, texts, or calls, between x and y times."  It is important to set boundaries.  But if it truly is something urgent, if a lead actor has whooping cough or broke a leg, etc, that is something that needs to be dealt with right then and there and putting it off is stupid and sometimes dangerous.

On my last show, we were in tech and running a transition at speed for the first time.  An actor went to exit and stopped in the wing as a curtain was coming in above his head.  The sandbag was about, maybe, a foot from his head when I calmly pulled him out of the way of it.  It could have killed him.  And even now, my response to it was slightly unbelievable, just because the complete level of calm that I felt during the whole incident.  I would have been responsible if I hadn't acted when I did.  The person flying the curtain would have been responsible, but I could have prevented it.  If I hadn't seen it and acted then there would have been a tragedy.  That actor's life was in my hands, and I was only an assistant stage manager.  That's the kind of stress and the kind of situations that I deal with on a daily basis (once a show is open).

And I can do it.  That's the thing.  I can handle that stress.  I love pressure.  But I can only thrive under it for so long before I start to crack.  And I've started.  I caught that mistake and I caught other ones like it during my last show.  But I missed things that I shouldn't have because I was so tired and so god damn burnt out.  So I'm taking a break.  I'm taking a break so that I don't miss something that could get someone hurt or killed and I'm responsible.  It's a boundary I've never encountered before, but it's one that I'm glad I found.

So my plan?  I'm taking a break from stage management.  Not from theatre, which I thought for a long time was what I needed, but from stage management.  I'm currently crewing a show at the theatre where I normally work and I'm having so much fun.  This show is quirky and weird and just a 90 minute sprint straight through, but it's intricate and involves all sorts of skill sets I haven't used in years.  And I love it.  The reason why?  I'm not in charge.  I'm allowed to make mistakes, because I don't have to be perfect (not to say that I don't expect that of myself still, but with the external pressure off it's better).  And the thing is, I look brilliant because I'm not expected to perform to the level I am.  The praise I get from that certainly doesn't hurt.

I want to go back to stage management, and I'm not sure how long I'll be on this hiatus, but going away was important so that I can eventually return to it.

Adventures in Fish Keeping, Part Two

My last post was massive and I still have a lot more to say, so I decided to break this off into a different post.  I'm going to talk about plants and equipment probably this time.

Originally I had some plastic plants, which is fine and honestly (dear god) much much easier.  They were what I had inherited from Boyfriend's old supplies.  Then I went to petco (not the one that has sold me excellent fish but the one that sold me a half dead goldfish) and bought some plants.  I ended up buying two that weren't actually aquatic plants (bamboo and arrowroot), one ludwiga (aquatic primrose), and one piece of driftwood.  The bamboo is living very happily in a cup and the arrowroot is in the tank still but I'm keeping a very close eye on it for rot.  The driftwood is dead and thus was fine to begin with (I got a nice curved piece and dug out the gravel from under it and the corys love it).  The ludwiga has grown about 5" total I think since when I bought it over a month ago.

I've enjoyed having the plants, but I did more research and ended up getting an amazon sword (a giant one, easily 14" tall) so that the gourami (who like floating plants which I don't want to deal with) would have something to shade them from the light.  Shortly after I got the amazon sword I got two banana plants which are shorter, so I would have something to put in the front of the tank.  They are growing well and actually starting to put up lily pads.  I'm trying to decide if I want to prune them so they'll stay short or just allow them to grow up.

Eventually I would like to get a carpet/ground cover plant because the substrate (gravel) I inherited from Boyfriend was blue.  I could have switched it out at one point, but when I was buying more substrate for my new tank I was at the point where I need every bit of ammonia eating bacteria I could get, so I didn't want to get rid of the old gravel.  Thus I have a mixture of blue gravel and blue sand, which looks horribly unnatural compared to the rest of my tank, but it gives it character (or something)?

Many sites recommend a finer substrate than gravel for corys, because their barbels (feelers) are delicate, but I haven't had trouble with gravel actually.  Also, sand tends to get sucked up by a gravel siphon/vaccum and that's pretty much the last thing I want.

So, as far as equipment goes for a tank here's the list of what I have, what it does, and why I have it.

• 20 Gallon High Aqueon Tank- This is obvious as to what it is and why I have it.  I honestly suggest starting with a 20 gallon tank minimum because then you can actually stock a reasonable amount of fish without over crowding.  The generally rule is the every inch of fish needs about a gallon of water.  That is a huge rule of thumb and people will debate you up and down forever about it.  The more fish you have, the more you're going to have to change you're water.  When change you're water, don't scoop out the fish, dump out all the water and then fill it back up.  That will ruin all of your careful cycling and stress the fish out.  Instead siphon out or scoop out 20-30% (50% at the most generally) of the water weekly or every other week.  Also scrub down your glass.  I really wish I had a 30 gallon tank for this group of fish now, but 20 works.
• Aqueon Versa Glass Top- Many people recommend keeping a lid on a fish tank to keep fish from jumping out.  I don't actually know how common that is, but I have it just in case.  I actually also have a hood (which is not glass, just black plastic and probably the most common top that people would think of) but it let less light in, so I haven't been using it.
• Aqueon Stock 24" Strip Light- Okay, this is my biggest deficiency.  When growing plants you really should have double the watts per gallon.  There are low light plants, but I don't actually have any.  I only have 17w watts total, so less than even 1w/g.  My plants are doing surprisingly well and I have been adding fertilizer and CO2 (topics for another day) which I believe is helping (or so it appears) rather than harming, which it is possible for it to do.  However, lights have been the most expensive part actually for me so far and that's just for the shitty one I have.  You see, it's not just a matter of replacing the light bulb I have.  I have the highest wattage bulb that they make in the style that my strip light accepts.  In order to get more wattage I would need to actually go out and buy a new strip light and most of the ones that I've looked at that would give me what I need require open top aquariums, which I'm not sure I'm comfortable with.
• Aqua Clear 20 Filter- I originally had a 30 gallon Aqueon filter but it created way too strong a current, so I swapped it out for this.  I've been thrilled with it.  Filters have three different "media" mechanical, chemical, and biological.  Each takes care of a different part of the water parameters and each is important.  This one's nice because it has three very distinct, easy to see parts.  It is a Hang-on-back style filter (a favorite of freshwater fish keepers) and I love it.  Very quiet.
• Tetra Whisper 20i- This is an in-tank filter meaning that the majority of it is contained inside the tank.    It takes up a lot of room, but it's quiet and creates very little current (which the gourami appreciate and the danio don't so the danio spend a lot of time in the stream of the aqua clear filter).  I ultimately am using it because I needed more filtration since I am slightly overstocked and when I bought my 40 and 55 gallon tanks it came with them, so why the hell not use it?
• ViaAqua Heater- When I was keeping goldfish I didn't need a heater because they are coldwater fish.  Then I started keeping tropical fish and I got a set thermostat (non-adjustable) Aqueon one, which heated just fine but didn't keep the water temperature very consistent.  I actually just switched to this one yesterday. So far it tends to be keeping the water quite warm 80 degrees (I'm shooting for 74), so I've been gradually turning it down.
• Rocket-fin Analog Thermometer- Basically you shove the fins into the substrate and they keep it from turning.  It's fairly nice, if I do get a reef tank, I'll get a digital thermometer.

As far as things outside the tank go I have:

• API Master Test- An essential water testing kit that lets you know your water parameters.
• Oxygen Test Kit- Not essential, but for awhile I was having trouble with the amount of oxygen in my water.
• API Quick Start- Many people scoff, but I highly recommend it if you want to speed up a cycle.  I talk about it in my last post.
• Seachem's Prime-  This is a water conditioner plus some.  It removes chlorine and chloramine from tap water.  It also detoxifies ammonia and binds nitrites, which means that even if you have a spike in ammonia or nitrites, it won't necessarily kill you fish.  Invest in this, it is well worth your time of any single item I have.
• Tropical Fish Flakes- Mmm, yummy.
• Freeze-Dried Bloodworms- To supplement the flakes, really not necessary.
• Sinking Algae Rounds- I got these for the corys to make sure they were eating.
• Gravel Siphon- I got this to clean the gravel, but it also works wonderfully to drain old water out of the tank.  Many people say you can go without and you can, but they're so convenient.

So the number on thing I learned about equipment is spend the extra money to get something you really want, because eventually you're going to upgrade and that's going to be expensive.  I don't mean go out and buy a 100 gallon tank, but don't buy the cheapest heater you can find necessarily unless it is well reviewed somewhere.  Spending the extra money upfront will save in the long run.

My male dwarf gourami, the camera doesn't do him justice really, nor does my lighting.

The golden long-finned danio, they are so quick they're hard to get a picture of, this is the best I could manage.  He's in front of one of my banana plants.  A much, much better picture. 

My female gourami.  She's actually almost as big as my male (who is big for a male), so she's huge.

My julii corydoras love the log and don't particularly like when people are right by the glass, so they're hiding.  Have a better picture.

My fish tank as a whole.  I'm rather pleased with the overall look of it actually.

This is one of my normal zebra danio.  As I've said, they're so fast.  A better internet picture.

Adventures in Fish Keeping, Part One

When I moved into our new apartment I had to leave my cat behind because Lana's allergies.  I missed her and Boyfriend had a spare, small aquarium, so I got some goldfish.   I figured, I had them as a kid, should be easy enough.  And boy was I wrong.

Initially I had two goldfish in what I thought was a 10 gallon tank.  It turns out I have no sense of volume when it comes to containers, because it was a three gallon tank, so ultimately for about a week I ended up keeping three goldfish in a three gallon tank, which is actually bordering on inhumane.  I went and got a 20 gallon tank and filled it up (including the old tank water), acclimated the fish, and put them in.  Within three days all three goldfish had died.  Within a week more the single goldfish I had gotten as a replacement had also died (although this time I am convinced it was of a disease he got from the pet store he came from).

So...I stopped and actually thought about what I was doing and did a lot of research.  It turns out fish keeping is hard.  A damn bit harder than keeping a dog or a cat I'd argue (and I've done both).  With dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, guinea pigs, you name it, you aren't creating the environment.  You aren't creating the correct air mixture that they need to breath.  With fish, that's exactly what you're doing.

It turns out, when you start a new tank, you need to give it time for it to go through the nitrogen cycle.  What that means is that you start with ammonia and slowly (1-3 weeks slowly) ammonia eating bacteria begins to form and it turns the ammonia into nitrite.  Well, nitrite is even more deadly to the fish than ammonia is, so you need to wait another 2-4 weeks for the nitrite eating bacteria to form, so it can break down the nitrite down into less harmful nitrate.  At that point you do a water change and your water parameters (as I learned they're called) are finally safe for fish.

Now, how do you get ammonia?  There are two ways.  The first way is you go out and buy a bunch of cheap fish, ones you don't care about at all, and then you let them produce waste (ammonia).  I inadvertently did this when I bought the goldfish.  What happened is in the three gallon tank I actually went through almost a full cycle (though I still had high ammonia because the tank was so small), but then I started a much much bigger tank and then the fish had to live through cycling the tank all over again and they just couldn't do it.  Cycling tanks with fish in them is much less common these days and it's not particularly humane.

Now, the second way to cycle a tank is buy ammonia from the hardware store, introduce about 4ppms worth and wait till the bacteria develop.  This is what I did after all my goldfish died.  It took about 4 weeks to finish it's cycle (remember I was already part way started) and eventually I did get impatient and bought a product called Quick Start.  What it did was essentially introduce ammonia eating bacteria immediately and surprisingly that actually finished cycling my tank within a day, I was really surprised.

So I introduced one dwarf gourami and two julii corydoras (catfish essentially).  I had done a lot of research at that point and loved the look of the gourami.  The person at my local petco suggested I get a small school of corydoras, so I started with them.  I bought two more corydoras from my local fish store (LFS), bringing my total up to four, almost immediately, because the petco I had bought the first one from had only had two total.  My ammonia spiked, but went down a few days later.

Now, only male dwarf gourami are normally sold in pet stores (including LSFs).  The reason for this is that the males are the ones with the flashy, gorgeous colors.  If you get a true dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia, not a honey gourami, etc which is slightly different) then the females are white (if you happen to get a pretty one) or a grey/silver color.  However, when I went to get my male gourami I was extremely surprised that a petco (not exactly known for being the best place to buy fish) had two female dwarf gourami in with the male.  I almost bought a female gourami at that point, but I wanted to let my water settle.  After about five days I decided that I had to get a female, because they are so rarely sold.

When I bought her, I was initially worried because the male bullied her, which I've read is common, so you frequently buy two females for each male.  I'll admit I was a bit surprised because my male gourami had been very social (even schooling to some extent) with my corys. I considered going back for the second female, but waited a day and suddenly the two fish were best of friends.

I waited another week and my water finally settled down completely.  I had done a lot of research and whenever I passed near a pet store (and with four jobs in four different cities this was quite often) I would stop in and look at the fish.  I decided that I wanted zebra danios.  They weren't the prettiest fish ever or the most exotic but they are active, playful, hardy fish which was pretty much what I was looking for.  Unfortunately they aren't known well for being paired with gourami, because they are particularly energetic and gourami are slower moving fish.  But I got a fairly lively, sociable pair, so I hoped for the best.

I went to the petco I bought the gourami from and picked up five zebra danio.  I originally had intended to get four regular zebra danio, but they had only had five and I felt really bad about leaving a single, very heavily school dependent fish alone at the store.  I then went to another petco I had visited earlier in the week, which had a very pretty color variant on the zebra danios: the golden long finned variant.  I got three initially (bringing my total to the eight that I had intended), but again there was a single lone danio left in the tank, so I bought the last one of the goldens and one more normal zebra, to bring my total to an even ten (I felt so strange having nine).

Then I introduced all ten to my tank at once, which I knew I shouldn't have done.  Generally you want to add 5-6 fish at most to a tank at a time so that the spike of ammonia won't be horrible.  But I had been impulsive, so I added the fish, treated the water both with Quick Start and with Prime (which detoxifies ammonia into ammonium) and hoped for the best.

That was two weeks ago and I haven't lost a fish yet (I actually got 10 danios ultimately expecting to lose one or two, because that is quite common, even when you do everything right).  Initially I saw a huge spike in ammonia and I was changing my water every day, but it mellowed out for a week.  The last two days I've actually had an obscene ammonia spike and an algae outbreak, and I'm not sure why, so I did a 50% water change, cleaned the tank very thoroughly, and introduced another filter (rated for 20 gallons (Tetra 20i in-tank filter)) in addition to my Aqua Clear 20.  The water looks great now actually and the fish are much livelier, so it seems to have helped.

Probably I will end up talking about fish keeping a bit more, so hopefully it's not that boring for you.  I've actually learned a ton and it's very rewarding as a hobby.  I would love to start a forty or fifty-five gallon reef tank and have both the aforementioned tanks, but I'm saving up to buy supplies, plus an apartment only has so much space.  This time I'm doing a ton of research before I just throw fish in, because a reef tank is very, very different then a freshwater tank, not to mention more expensive in general.

Starbucks

I have been working at Starbucks for barely more than a month now.  It's hard work but I really enjoy it.  Certainly it keeps my mind busy and working all the time.

It's a really interesting environment, particularly since I'm working in the Seattle area, where Starbucks first got it's start.  What I didn't realize about Starbucks is how full and part time work goes.  If you are barista you are working what most jobs would call part time hours (generally somewhere from 20-30 hours a week).  However, you do get benefits and basically you are considered full time.  A part time employee would basically be someone who worked under 20 hours a week.  This is literally true, but it seems in practice that's how it works out.  Then above the barista there are shift supervisors, assistant store managers, and store managers.

The really fun thing is that even the store manager will work the floor with you when it's busy.  There are three "positions" on the floor: bar, ringing (cash register), and floating.  On bar you make the drinks, simple enough in theory.  In my opinion it takes the longest to learn because you are creating an entirely new skill set at first.  You need how to steam milk, pull shots, pump syrups, the correct order for all of the above, you do teas, ice drinks, frappucinos, and (the worst) smoothies.  On top of all that you need to know all the drink recipes (including strange exceptions), the order that you make a drink in, you have to juggle preparing two drinks at once, and you need to hand out those drinks to the customers and always have a smile on your face.  It's our policy that if we get a drink wrong then we will remake it, immediately.  It's nice because you can always say: How many pumps of syrup go in this strange specialty drink and you'll get an answer and a smile from the other partners (which is what they have us call our coworkers).

Ringing in my opinion is the easiest by far.  Once you learn the menus then you can fly through them.  The only difficulty is writing both the cup and putting it into the system, but as long as you can recall what you just wrote then you're fine.  I'm particularly good at ringing, so I end up on register a lot, which is fine, I don't mind.  The longest thing it took me to learn there was all the abbreviations for drinks, because there are many many many.

Floating is where they started me and I understand why.  It seemed remarkably simple to me at first, but there is a nuance to it that is why most shift supervisors float, versus ringing or bar.  When you're floating you are putting food in the oven, pouring drip coffees, restocking, helping prepare the bar person's milks (if they're swamped), and double ringing.  There's a lot to do and prioritizing is key, but unlike on bar, there is no exactly set order that you're supposed to prioritize, which is where it gets tricky.

I love my partners on the job, because they are exactly that.  You know that if you leave a mess from food items when you're floating then the next person who is floating is going to have to clean it up, and that's not fair to them.  We switch positions on the floor constantly.  I have been on register for four hours straight, but I have also floated for half an hour, been on bar for a fifteen minutes, and then on register for fifteen minutes. Where your shift supervisor assigns you all depends on what type of crowd there is.  And since you could be going to any position at any time it really pays to keep a clean work area.  I was about to leave today and had been working bar so when my replacement showed up I knew she needed four gallons of milk to stock her fridge, so I still offered to do that for her before I left.

I am having a lot of fun, but all of the hard work has made me seriously look at the distribution of wealth in America.  I'm not saying doctors and engineers and etc shouldn't make a lot of money because of their skillset.  However, I know how hard I work and I know how much I make and the difference seems hugely unfair.  I suddenly understand what it means to be working class.  It means you work your ass off and you still won't have very much money in the end.  It makes me understand why some people want to climb corporate ladders to have money.  I don't think I could ever bring myself to do that though.  Where I am means I get to see people's days just get that little much better and it makes me happier.  Yes, it's only coffee, but these days there's almost no such thing as only coffee.

Updatey Thing

Okay, I've been meaning to write this post forever, but considering I'm falling asleep as I write it, that sorta just proves how busy I've been.

After my summer show I took three weeks off and it was glorious and I moved into a new apartment which is still fantastic even two months in.  What happened shortly after my last post was that I started three new jobs.  I  was already officiating high school volleyball, so for two weeks I was working four different jobs.

I am now working at Starbucks as a barista, which is really fun actually.  I'll have to write a post of it at another point when I'm not about to pass out.  It's a ton of work, in general I'm learning how much work the average person (retail, customer service, etc) has to do just to barely make a living.  It's incredibly unfair, but that's for another post.

I also am working a show in Seattle (until February uggh) at the moment.  It's probably my least favorite job I've done so far in the professional theatre world.  The kids are just about the cutest thing ever, particularly our solitary five year old (the age range is technically 5-11, but most of the kids are eight or nine).  I love them, but the main office is horribly, horribly disorganized.  The number of miscommunications is fairly astonishing.  However, the most frustrating part is the parents, who I am required to treat as if the shit rainbows and burp sunshine, even though they are abrasive and sometimes even hostile.  Again, this is certainly another post in the making, but that's what's going on in the meantime.

The third job requires yet another post to completely elaborate on my discoveries about theatre from that post.  It was back at the theatre I worked at most of last year.  It's my favorite theatre to work with so far.  That show was just two weeks long, it was a fundraiser cabaret show and I got to work with a bunch of kids I love.

So yeah, I was working about 80 hours a week for those two weeks and it has left me horribly tired.  I feel like I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and be less exhausted.  The worst part is that I'm still not making that much money despite all of my hard work.  Oh well.

Oh, also my stomach has been acting up.  I've been pretty much chronically nauseous, and it doesn't seem to activate with either gluten or lactose, so I think I need to go to the doctor for that.