Letter to N.Y.

In your next letter I wish you’d say
where you are going and what you are doing,
how are the plays, and after the plays
what other pleasures you’re pursuing:

taking cabs in the middle of the night,
driving as if to save your soul
where the road goes round and round the park
and the meter glares like a moral owl,

and the trees look so queer and green
standing alone in big black caves
and suddenly you’re in a different place
where everything seems to happen in waves,

and most of the jokes you just can’t catch,
like dirty words rubbed off a slate,
and the songs are loud but somehow dim
and it gets so terribly late,

and coming out of the brownstone house
to the gray sidewalk, the watered street,
one side of the buildings rises with the sun
like a glistening field of wheat.

–Wheat, not oats, dear. I’m afraid
if it’s wheat it’s none of your sowing,
nevertheless I’d like to know
what you are doing and where you are going.

-Elizabeth Bishop

One Month at Fogo (& ramblings)

So it’s been a month now I’ve been employed at Fogo De Chao. It’s been quite an experience so far, and I have to say I’m enjoying it. It’s been intense and unrelenting, but has also paid off quite well. Things I’ve come to like about the job - most shifts are 5 hours long. Some 4 1/2. Some 6. The longest I’ll ever work is about 6 1/2 hours and that is on the busiest of Saturday nights. Pretty cushy compared to some other jobs where I’ve spent 12 to 14 hours working doubles.

Another thing I like that I’ve grown used to - Tuesday and Wednesday are my days off. I have a steady schedule - Thursday through Monday, every week. I’ve never had a consistent schedule at a restaurant before, so it’s nice to have some consitency and also to know what two (consecutive) days off a week I’ll have off every week. Working 5 days in a row kind of gets me into a pattern/habit that makes going into work not so bad on those days, but when I take two days off it’s hardest to go back in on Thursday since I haven’t worked since Monday.

Anyways, I don’t know why you would be reading this right now because I’m just rambling about boring unexciting stuff. So.. anything else new? Umm… Sharky’s is a little local bar about a block from my house that my roommates and I have been frequenting with probably the cheapest drinks in town and awesome bartenders that know our drinks the moment we walk in the door after only a few weeks in the area. Wednesday night is wing night! Their wings are awesome.

Saturday night I went out to Brewer’s Art in Mt. Vernon for a drink for my friend Casey’s 22nd birthday. Saw a couple good friends there I hadn’t seen in a while.

Oh, last Wednesday, Sean McCloud, Sullivan, Dan and I went down to Sandy Point State Park to spend the day at the beach which was super fun. We brought a football, frisbee, beach volleyball and soccer ball and had a blast. It was the perfect day to be at the beach and we just relaxed and got some good beach sports in for the afternoon. We found a group of about 8 Mexicans that we played volleyball and soccer with for a few hours which was a good workout. Beach is always a good time. Going back this Tuesday with McCloud, Tra and a few other people for more fun in the sun.

Ok well I think I’ve rambled enough for now. Oh I saw a video of my mom dancing in the street posted to YouTube tonight. Never thought THAT would happen in my lifetime. Goodnight.

Holbox & Tulum

So as of yesterday, my Dad, sister and I have confirmed a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in April of 2009. More specifically, we are visiting several places called Isla Holbox and Tulum, and possibly several other areas in the region (Isla Mujeres, Cancun, etc). We will fly into Cancun first, stay a night there, and then branch off to less tourist-infested areas of the peninsula. Tulum is the site of ancient Mayan ruins, a beautiful seaport town with scenic, rocky, white sand beaches and diverse wildlife about 80 miles south of Cancun. Isla Holbox (EE-la OL-bosh) is north of Cancun by about 50 miles and is a tiny little island out in the middle of the ocean. It measures about 7 miles long and less than a mile wide, with only a few hundred residents. It’s a practically undiscovered tropical oasis with long sweeping white sand beaches and the sunsets are some of the most beautiful in the world.

Although it’s quite some time from now, I’m starting to get really excited just looking at pictures and reading about the areas. Another island we may visit is Isla Mujeres (Island of Women) which is about a half hour boat ride off the coast from Cancun. It used to be sacred to the Mayan moon goddess Ix Chel, and the Pre-Colombian residents created many cult images and tributes to the goddess. When the Spaniards arrived and saw the island littered with images of Ix Chel, they named it the Island of Women.

We’ve decided to stay in Cancun only on the nights of our arrival and departure, as we are not interested in the tourist filled, overly commercialized resort areas that Cancun is famous for. We are going off the beaten path… I can’t wait!

Here are some pictures of Holbox and Tulum that I found online (and in eight months I will have my own to show you!):

I’m a Believer

In your FACE Comcast!

Mwhahahaha!!!

Our New Place

After spending the last month couch surfing on friends couches all around Baltimore, I have finally settled into my own room! Three of my best friends and I got a huge townhome right on the edge of Patterson Park in Baltimore. We’re about 2 miles due east of the Inner Harbor, and less than a mile from Canton and Fells Point. As soon as you walk out the front door of our place, there is a huge 160-acre park right in front of you. There are tennis and basketball courts, baseball and soccer fields, a pool, a lake, and running and biking trails all throughout the park. There is a huge pagoda that you can go up to the top of and see all of Baltimore. There is a lot to explore and I plan on spending quite a bit of time there. It’s a nice little piece of nature right in the heart of Baltimore.

So about our place – it’s a 3 story, 4 bedroom townhome. My roommates are Sean, Kevin and Tra-Mi. I’m trying to decide if I should just do a picture tour of the house or if I should describe it in words here. Maybe a little bit of both? I don’t want to take pictures right now because our place is a mess and nothing is really set up yet. I’ll take some later, but for now, here’s the rundown. We have two glass and wood front doors, and when you walk in there is a large parlor area to the left and a connected living room a little further back. The house was built around the turn of the century, so there is a lot of cool molding and light fixtures and little details to the house that give it a lot of character. Our kitchen has been recently remodeled with nice tile floors and new counters and cabinets and a nice stove. There is a half bath attached to the kitchen and a door leading down to our huge basement. We have a nice little back patio area with a garden and a big holly tree. Going back into the living room, there are stairs leading up to the second floor, and you see my room right in front of you when you walk up. My room has a door out onto a porch which I LOVE. Walking back out of my room there is a bathroom on the left that Sean and Kevin share, and then further down the hallway is Kevin’s room and then Sean’s room. Sean’s is the biggest on our floor and has two windows that look out over the street and the park, Kevin’s is the smallest room in the middle, and then mine is in the back of the house with the porch. Walking up another flight of stairs takes you to the third floor where there is a bathroom that Tra-Mi and I share, and then Tra-Mi’s massive upstairs lair. Her room is the largest in the house with a huge walk in closet and another excellent view of the park.

Every room in the house is painted a different color and they are all nice, warm, kinda funky colors. Our place definitely has a lot of character and some interesting details to it. For example, over each of our bedrooms doorways there is a glass window that rotates around. Also, except for the set of stairs on the third floor and the kitchen, the entire house has hardwood floors. The place is about 2500 square feet and the walls are super thick so there isn’t much of an issue with us bothering each other with music and such. A person could stand on the first floor and yell at the top of their lungs and not be heard on the third. We even have trouble hearing each other when we shout from one room to the next on the same floor. It’s awesome. You should come check it out.

I BELIEVE!

***WARNING: THIS IS A LONG RANT ABOUT PRETTY MUCH NOTHING. IF YOU READ THIS AND FEEL LIKE I’VE WASTED YOUR TIME AND YOU WANT YOUR LIFE BACK, DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU***

So I signed up for service with Comcast on Wednesday, July 30th 2008 for the new place my roommates and I just moved into. When I spoke to the representative about setting up an appointment for installation, I was told the soonest a technician could come out to my house was on Monday, August 4^th. My appointment was between 1pm and 4pm. I received a phone call on the Saturday before calling to confirm that I was going to be home and able to let the technician in to do the install. I received another call around 3:30pm on the day of the installation from Comcast saying that the technician was running late but would be there before 5pm. I had to leave for work at 5pm, so I had my roommate sit downstairs and wait for the technician to come to our house. My roommate waited for 3 hours by the door and nobody showed up. While I was at work, I missed a call and got a voicemail from the technician at 5:45pm telling me that he had a lot of other stuff to do and couldn’t make it to my house that evening. He told me to call him back and leave him a voicemail and he would get back to me as soon as he could. I called him a few hours later when I got off work and he didn’t pick up, so I left a voicemail that he never responded to.

The next morning I called Comcast again explaining the situation that my technician never showed up. They told me that they wouldn’t be able to have someone come out for a few more days, but I waited and waited on hold for almost 45 minutes while the customer service representative nagged the dispatcher to get someone to come out that day (Tuesday, August 5^th). This was at 9:30am, and they told me it was an all day appointment so someone would have to be home all day for when the technician arrived. I waited around the house all day, not leaving once, and 5:30pm rolled around and I started to wonder where the technician was. I called to find out when the latest he would come, and as it turns out my request from earlier never got transferred to a dispatcher, and nobody was even aware that I needed an install. Again, I was told that nobody would be able to come to my house and that I was going to have to wait. I insisted that someone come out that evening, as it was very important to me to have the internet that night as I attend school online and had a class to go to and couldn’t if there was no internet. I waited on hold again for another half an hour while the representative talked to the dispatcher. Finally I was told that someone would arrive before 9pm.

At 8:57pm, a technician came to my door. He spent almost two hours here trying to get the internet and TV set up, but as it turns out the exterior line to our house had been cut off. He climbed up the telephone pole and couldn’t figure it out, and his conclusion was that the only way to turn the cable back on was to access it from our neighbor’s yard. He left at 10:50pm and said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do and someone else would come out the next day.

Today is Wednesday, and when I woke up this morning I called Comcast again around 10am. Nobody that I spoke to was even aware that our cable and internet still was not set up. I called once and got transferred to a local office. That local office turned out to be in Canada. He transferred me to another local office that ended up being somewhere else that I don’t even know. I got transferred to a fourth representative who was of no help at all and told me she would transfer me again. I hung up and tried to call the main Comcast number twice again, each time receiving no response even from the automated system.

I had my roommate call back around 11am to resolve the issue, and he finally got a hold of someone that promised us another 1pm to 4pm appointment today, Wednesday, August 6^th. I received a call at 1:25pm telling me that the technician was on his way. I received another call at 3:30pm telling me the technician was on his way. I received another call at 3:56pm telling me the technician was on his way. I received another call at 4:22pm telling me they couldn’t get a hold of the technician but he should be over shortly.

After spending close to 4 hours on the phone (most of that on hold) with Comcast in the past few days, I was out of daytime minutes, had to leave my house to find a wireless connection on my laptop somewhere else just so I could attend class this week, and just sick of dealing with their horrible customer service.

About a week ago, I saw a truck sitting outside of one of our neighbors’ houses that said “Believe Wireless Broadband”. My roommates and I were under the impression that Comcast had an internet monopoly on this entire region unless you wanted to go with Verizon DSL (768k? no thanks. I’d take dial-up over Verizon DSL). Anyway, I decided that it was time to give something else a shot. I called Believe at 7:15pm on Wednesday night. I asked them what the soonest they could come out to our place was, and they said next Monday. I told them about all the crap I’d been through with Comcast and they seemed overjoyed that Comcast was losing yet another customer for their horrible and disorganized customer service. I asked if they could come any sooner than Monday, and the guy took my number and said he’d call me back and let me know. FIVE MINUTES LATER I get a call back from Believe telling me that someone is on the way to our place and will be there in a few minutes. Literally five minutes after that I got another call telling me that they were already on my roof installing the wireless transmitter. It was almost too good to be true.

Now, we have BLAZING FAST wireless internet. The way their system works is they have little devices on top of all the tallest buildings in Baltimore, and they install a tiny little box about the size of 3 decks of cards on your roof that points at the transmitter and gets the signal. They then run a wire into your house and into your computer or a router and you disperse your signal from there.

Comcast charges a little less, but they always add surcharges and fees and taxes and all other kinds of hidden shenanigans to get you in the end. Believe charges you exactly what you pay for. To the cent – no hidden fees or taxes or anything, just exactly what your monthly service costs is all it costs. Unbelievable. Amazing.

Also, Comcast’s speeds usually download at around 1 to 2 mpbs, maybe 3 on a good day. I just ran several speed tests with Believe’s service and was getting speeds between 9 and 10 mpbs. This is undoubtedly the fastest internet connection I’ve ever been on. I couldn’t be happier and I just want to finish typing this so I can go surf the web finally!

Bottom line: DON’T EVER USE COMCAST. EVER. Their service is slow, their customer service is horrible, they charge you way too much, always get you with hidden fees and all kinds of stipulations and what not. It’s a mess. Never use Comcast.

I’m going to go download everything I possibly can now. Goodbye.

Gone Fishin’

I haven’t made any posts in almost two weeks – but I have an excuse! I haven’t really had internet access for the past month, I’ve just been staying with friends and using their wireless when I get the chance. Anyway, I wanted to make a post about my fishing trip last week. I went back to the eastern shore last Tuesday to Thursday, and on Wednesday I went fishing with my Mom, her friend Lainie, and my good friend’s dad, Norman. Cap’n Norm does charter fishing and seaducking trips on his boat in the Chesapeake, so he took us all out at 5am sharp on his boat the Sea Hunter. He usually charges about $100 a head for a morning of fishing on the bay, but we got the family-friend discount of $25 a head. He brought his friend Hunter from Florida, and the five of us spent the morning REELIN’ THEM IN! We caught probably about 50-60 fish (maybe more?) of all kinds; we got rockfish, bluefish, croaker, spot, and white perch just to name a few. I hadn’t been fishing for probably 7 or 8 years, and it was really nice to get out on the bay and watch the sunrise with my Mom and friends. When we got back, Cap’n Norm cleaned and filleted all the fish for us and let us take our catches home. I’ve been eating our catch for the past couple days and it tastes sooooooo good.

Here are some shots I snapped on the trip:

First Impressions at Fogo

I’ve spent the last four days training at Fogo De Chao (pronounced “shoun”, not “chow”) and I am beat. This restaurant is hands down the most intense job I’ve ever had. I used to work at Phillips, an insanely busy tourist-filled restaurant right in the Inner Harbor. I would bust my ass there for 14-15 hour shifts some days and make good money and just feel completely dead afterwards. Here, the shifts are shorter (5-6 hours) but so much more intense. There is absolutely NO downtime. Every restaurant I’ve worked in before has a station in the back for the waiters to hang out in when there aren’t any tables, or at least somewhere to stand. Not at Fogo. The minute you walk in the door you are out on the floor polishing and getting ready if you are opening the restaurant, and if your shift starts after they are open for business you hit the ground sprinting. I was scheduled today at 4pm, and when I got there at 3:59, there were about 70-80 people standing outside and in the bar area waiting to be seated. On a Sunday night! I clocked in and instantly started greeting tables and doin’ my thing. I’ve never been in a work environment as intense as this one.

I think it’s a good thing though. Even though it’s intense, you won’t hear me complaining - I’d be complaining if I were working at a restaurant that was slow or wasn’t doing much business. This place is PACKED every night. The funny thing is that all the servers have been complaining about how slow it is! I can’t wait till it actually gets “busy”. I’m just happy to have a job, and I’m quickly coming to realize that this may well be one of the most lucrative serving gigs in Baltimore.

When I was in the office filling out paperwork on the first day, I noticed a stack of papers about a foot and a half tall about as high as if you stacked 4 or 5 reams of paper on top of each other. I asked what it was, and it turns out they were all applications. I was amazed. All those people applied and I was the one that got hired? What did I do right? Also turns out that even though they had been running ads for server positions for some time now, I’m the only new server they’ve hired in almost 2 months. At that point I went from being happy to have a job to honored and feeling privileged to have been hired at Fogo.

So let me explain to you how the system works there. After pulling open the huge wooden and glass doors, you enter a dimly lit but warm atmosphere with dark tile and red and gold carpeted floors. A black granite bar with black leather stools is to your left, and wine bottles litter the walls all up and down the restaurant. The restaurant is buzzing with life from the moment you walk in, but still keeps its cool with dark teak wooden accents amongst off-white painted brick and the fragrant aromas of roasting meat wafting out of the kitchen. The tables are simple but elegant, and the centerpiece of the room is undoubtedly the huge salad bar that stands right in the middle of the restaurant. Most restaurants have a “60 second policy” - that is, the servers must come to greet the table within 60 seconds of being seated. Fogo doesn’t even have a 5 second policy. It’s closer to one. As soon as you sit down, there are servers there pulling out your chairs, welcoming you, and bringing ice cold water and steaming hot parmesan cheese filled bread to your table. Your server (that’s me!) will begin to explain to you how an authentic Brazilian churrascaria (steakhouse) works. Each place setting on the table has a little round red card on it. When you flip it to the other side, it’s green. Just like a traffic light, green means go! The gauchos (the guys who serve the meat) will come to your table if your card is green with all different offerings of meat - beef ribs, prime sirloin, ribeye, filet mignon, filet wrapped in bacon, garlic steak, chicken legs, chicken wrapped in bacon, pork tenderloin, pork ribs, chicken sausage, pork sausage, the list goes on and on. They will keep coming and bringing more and more meat until you flip your card to red. As soon as you do that, they will stop coming to your table with meat. Flip back to green, and it’s game on.

And the salad bar - oh my god. This is unlike any salad bar you’ve ever seen - fresh vegetables, steamed vegetables, smoked salmon, prosciutto, mozarrella balls, sun dried tomatoes, apple salad, chicken salad, it’s probably the best salad bar you could find in this city. Also, every meal comes with unlimited amounts of the three side dishes - fried bananas, crispy fried polenta, and garlic mashed potatoes. The deserts include cheesecake, key lime pie, creme brulee, chocolate molten cake, and the house specialty papaya cream - fresh papaya blended with vanilla ice cream. Oink. Oh, and not to mention the Caiparinha (KAI-puh-REEN-yah), The Caiparinha is the National Drink of Brazil - made with Cachaca (a Brazilian sugarcane liquor), muddled limes, and sugar, it’s very similar to a mojito, but without the mint. We sell this drink like hot cakes. When in Rome, right?

I see people getting out of their seats to leave that can barely walk. This is one of those restaurants that you want to starve yourself for the entire day before you go. The food just keeps on coming, and you can eat all the salad bar and all the meat you want, for a more than reasonable $46 dollars. The concept is ingenious, I can’t believe I’d never heard of a Brazilian steakhouse.

Not to mention all the gauchos are actually Brazilian. And they are AWESOME. They are energetic and fun to be around, even if their English is barely understandable. These guys were trained in southern Brazil, in the heart of gaucho country - Rio Grande do Sul, and plucked straight out of the home of the churrascaria and brought to good ol’ Bawlmer, Murlin. The general manager is also Brazilian, and he wears the gaucho uniform and serves the meat with the rest of them, clears plates and greets tables with us servers, just because he loves what he does. He could wear a nice suit and stand back like a normal GM, but he just gets down and gets his hands dirty with the rest of us. The Brazilians are insanely hard workers and clearly love what they do, and it makes working at Fogo so much more of a pleasant experience.

Oh, and one last thing. All this food - all the salad bar, sides, and any cut of meat - we get to eat after every shift. Yes, it is truly an all you can eat buffet after every single shift you work. Work lunch? Eat all the salad bar and meat you want. Work dinner that same day? Eat all you want. I’m talking filet mignon, prime sirloin, leg of lamb, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, garlic ribeye, it’s all there for the taking. We just grab a plate and stock it with as much as we want from the salad bar, then grab another and go back to where the gauchos are cooking the meat. The broiler that they use is incredible. About the size of 6 or 7 refrigerators stacked next to each other, it’s a huge open faced oven with about 5 horizontal racks, with over a hundred slowly rotating skewers stuffed with meat. I go back there with my plate in hand and these guys are just anxious as hell to shave off as much meat as they possibly can onto my plate. They’ll take requests, but sometimes I just let them keep giving me as much as they feel like of whatever they have until I say stop. This is EVERY NIGHT. I go to the back dining room and there are usually several other servers, bussers or gauchos back there eating, and I spend a solid half hour to 45 minutes pigging out until I myself can barely stand up.

I LOVE FOGO!

Those are a couple shots of our dining room. Below, that’s my general manager Jaire (sp?) on the left, and one of the gauchos on the right.

The Dark Knight

**UPDATE** I ended up seeing this movie 3 times in theaters within 10 days of it’s release. If you haven’t seen it - yes, it’s really THAT good.

Sean, Sean and I went to a midnight showing of the new Batman flick last night, The Dark Knight. It was hands down the best Batman movie ever made. Might also make my top 10 list of best films of all time. Absolutely amazing performances from the entire cast, especially the late Heath Ledger. If he doesn’t get nominated for or win an Oscar for this performance, the academy has no idea what they are doing. I won’t go into details or spoil anything, I’ll just say you have to - HAVE TO - see this one in the theater. You won’t be disappointed.

The Hunt is Over

I got a job! I wasn’t expecting to start working so soon after I came home, but it’s been two weeks now as of today, and I start this evening.

When I moved to California last summer, it took almost 3 months of job hunting for me to finally find employment. I applied at over 40 restaurants, and only one hired me. And this is what I love about Baltimore: lack of competition. The first restaurant I applied at, Fogo De Chao, hired me on the spot. I filled out an application there last Saturday, and went in yesterday afternoon to check on the status. I got an interview with the manager instantly and was asked if I could come back today. Wham bam just like that.

It’s an authentic southern Brazilian steakhouse, serving all you can eat with a huge salad bar and a selection of 15 different types of meat. I’ve never eaten there but I hear nothing but rave reviews from all my friends who have been there before, so I’m looking forward to my employee discount.

Oh and just for some clarification on the pronunciation, it’s (FO-go day SHOUN). Salud!