And All Good Things Must Come To An End

Last night was the send-off dinner of Junior. Yes, horribly sad I know. We went out to Moya for Ethiopian food (finally)! We were there for at least two hours and the food was amazing. When you eat Ethiopian, you eat everything with your hands/using the traditional bread "kita". I don't even remember what I ate.... but it was amazingly good.

My last day in San Francisco was rather uneventful. I woke up, packed my bags, mailed a package home. (Blah, blah, blah.) Headed down to the restaurant for lunch and read my book for a good long time. (It's getting to a great spot... murder, intrigue...)

But as the title says, all good things must come to an end. This is one of the last blog posts that this blog will see in...whoa... a year! (Unless you don't want me to post about next summer... that's cool too :P)

I'm in the Phoenix airport right now... chilling next to a kid who's going to New Hampshire as well. He was out visiting his dad in San Diego.

I was sitting next to a guy on the plan from San Francisco... real artsy kid from Providence. Turns out I'm a day older. (AND MOM. HE'S A SENIOR. >:( )

Not too much else to say right now... Maybe I'll edit this post tomorrow with the rest of my adventure? Who knows...

But anyways... have a good Tuesday.

Love,
Henna

Dim Sum Brunch in CHINATOWN!

Mini Post! Aren't you suckers lucky!

So we had dim sum at this cute little place called City View Dim Sum. Soooo yummy!
We also headed around and bought little noms (some pictured below).

Walked the dogs to the farmer's market in Divisadero and bought some peaches for the muffins this week and some RAW PEANUTS! (To make boiled peanuts!)

Stirrin' up the peanuts... *la la la la la*

Mmmm.... lotus cakes...

Addin' the salt baby. Salt in the wound. Yum!

Adding the salt and peanuts to make boiled peanuts. How delicious!

Trying to make boba with little tapioca pearls... we'll see how this turns out.

MMMM! Lotus buns! They always make you feel goooood!

Steamed STUFF! YUM!

This is a Moomintroll tin I picked up in Japantown. The Japanese love their Moomies.

I think this is a lotus traditional bun-ny thing. It was so pretty. I had to take a picture.

The Preserved Duck Egg Bun. I told her I wanted one, she looked at me like I was nuts and told me all Americans ordered the Moon Cake. HA.

Third Time is a Charm!

I went to Japantown. Again. But I truly had a legitimate excuse this time. They have beautiful teapots... so I got one for my dear darlin' Mama. It's pretty. And I figured I'd take snacks back to the lovely people making sammies at the restaurant. (Wasabi peas, weird sugar popcorn, nori, and POCKY!)

At work today, I had the pleasure of shocking the heck out of the nice breakfast couple.

"How's your mimosa this morning?"
"Oh man, it's awesome! Best thing for hangover!"
"That's great to know... I was curious because I've never had a mimosa."
"Never had a mimosa?!" *Glances over at female companion and repeats*
"It's not that surprising. I'm only 16."

Sit back, relax, and watch the eyes bug out of the heads. I shouldn't do that to the dear hungover people... their minds can only take so much without imploding. Still, totally worth it.

Heidi and I were going to be totally awesome and do cool stuff... but... staying home and eating college style asian food was just so much simpler. Mmmmm... insta-ramen. Totally delish.

I'm going to go shut the windows and get warm....

Love,
Henna

Japantown... Again?

So I went back to Japantown today to do some back to school "furnish Henna's room" shopping. (Laundry bags... etc...)
So I did! Hurrah! I also went back to Benkyodo to get more of that delicious ichigo daifuku mochi that I got yesterday. It was so delicious.

Went back to the restaurant around three to make sammies for tomorrow. I...well... might have had an impromptu karaoke/dance party when we turned Pandora to the Beatles Station. But it was all good man, all good.

After the sandwiches were done, Heidi and I went back to the house to clean up for dinner with some of her friends. We were heading out for a (my first) TAPAS EXPERIENCE! WAHOO!
It was delicious. Lobster paella, Spanish tortilla with potato inside, blood sausage, artichoke chips... etc. I don't even remember.

But that's all... I'm struggling to keep my eyes open!

Love,
Henna

JAPANTOWN!

Oh, that's embarrassing, after I got all caught up, I almost forgot to post today!

Well, I slept in really late. When I woke up, I had that horrible drowsy feeling from sleeping too much. But Genevieve offered to go with me to Japantown! (So why not go? I love Genevieve!) So we hopped on the 38L Geary to Japantown! Hurrah!

First, we ran to Benkyodo to get some super fresh, delicious MOCHI! (I seem to have mochi all the time, don't I?) It closed at five and we got there around 4:54. SCORE! I got four different kinds of mochi for dessert tonight, but got a fifth... an Ichigo Daifuku (strawberry) and ate it. It was so delicious. With our delicious mochis in bags and our stomachs, we headed over to little supermarkets. I saw so many awesome things (I got three pairs of chopsticks and some rice seasoning). But I'm going back tomorrow to do some school shopping. They had nice organizational shelve thingies. Then we kept on exploring and found PIKAPIKA! Pika Pika is the purikura Japanese photo booths. (I'm trying to drag Heidi and Nate to karaoke on Saturday... maybe they'll go to Pika Pika with me?)

But I had to do some shopping for dinner, so we headed over to le supermarche! And guess what they had there? Lots of FIIISH. The name of one fish, when translated into english, read "Idiot Fish". Genevieve's comment? "Well yea, the idiot got caught!" :D

I had a wonderful day and had so many yummy treats. Can't wait for finishing school shopping tomorrow!

Love,
Henna

Here You Are. Just For You.

I'm a loser. Just for you. That's how much I love you.

New Book!

I bought a book today. It was pretty. (Third in the Ice and Fire (or vice-versa) series.) YEEHAW.

Then I went into work and made sandwiches! Came home and played internet games.

Look Ma! I'm updated!

Love,
Henna

I'm a bad, bad person. I'm sorry. Forgive me?

Last week in recap mode!

Saturday Night! (8.14.10)

THE GIG! YES! 1:30 in the morning, sang "Take On Me". Everyone sang along. Come on man, it was at Ireland's 32 at 1:30 in the morning, OF COURSE they sang along. (Don't you know the meaning of an Irish bar?) I wore the best boots ever. No words can describe how awesome they are. I could describe them... maybe. They're totally awesome ho high heeled contraptions that made me... 5'6"! It was exciting, lemme tell you.
My gaydar died during this gig. As the sober PYT, I noticed several young men dancing around me. One was very sweet, spacey, smiley... And I totally saw him check out another guy.

Nope. Nooooope. Totally straight. However, he almost died in horror and shame when his friend later told him I was 16. I wish I could have seen his face...

Four more words. Old. Drunk. Irish. Man.
No more. We shall not mention him.

Sunday (8.15.10)
We all slept until noon. Sleep was beautiful. I'm trying to remember if we did anything that evening.
Waiiiit. I know. We watched "A Boy and His Dog". Love the twist ending. If you haven't seen it... well... you should. Pardon all the sperm jokes in it.

Monday (8.16.10)
We had pantry suprise! Eggwhites, tomatoes, bacon...?

Tuesday (8.17.10)
I debated auditioning for American Idol. Hooray? We watched True Blood some more. And ate its-its! (Traditional San Francisco ice cream cookie thingies.)

Wednesday (8.18.10)
Debated some more about auditioning for American Idol. Chatted with some nice audition-ees.

Thursday (8.19.10)
Didn't audition after all. Three blocks was way to far to walk. And the lines for the actual audition took all day to get through. :P Blech.

Friday (8.20.10)
We made blondies in the restaurant for a catering gig in the park the next day. We also ordered some AWESOME Southern Indian food. It was utterly delicious.

Saturday (8.21.10)
We had a great BBQ at home! Lovely steak and lamb! Stayed up all night with the great Jewish crowd.

Sunday (8.22.10)
We went for a 7 mile walk through Golden Gate Park. It was great because we ended up at Beach Chalet for lunch (I had to hunt down the garlic fries guy. More like stalk him. *sigh*)

Monday (8.23.10)
Heidi made a GREAT bean salad with bacon in it. Bacon makes everything AWESOME. (I mean, it was awesome anyways... but... I... love bacon?)

Tuesday (8.24.10)
We'd been having a heat wave all week, so we decided that I would sit outside at work and sell lemonade. I sat there all day. And I sold 20 lemonades? Not bad. However... I had several women when I greeted them return my courtesy with "No thanks". Well then. It's not I was gonna sell you any anyways. Just... just dehydrate, yea?
Then came the facebook comments along with the advertising picture.
"My advice? Put the staff member in a bikini!" Hurmph. What pervs.
Did I mention I was selling advice Lucy from "Peanuts" style?

Love,
Henna

One more post until I'm updated!

Guess Who Dyed Hair Last Night?

I mean... it's not that hard to guess. (At least, I hope not.) If it is, that's just plain ol' sad.

In case you need it to be spelled out... I-D-Y-E-D-M-Y-H-A-I-R. Blue, if you must know. Last night. Uhuh.

Well... before that... Heidi and I decided to walk the dogs while Nate was at band practice... so we headed down to Divisadero for some BURGERS at the Acme Burgerhaus. I had the "Roman Burger"... I can't remember what was in it, but it sure was good.

We then watched "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog" and llaaaauuugggghhhheeeddd. Not quite in that manner, but... we laughed?

THEN CAME THE HAIR DYE. It was messy. My scalp is blue in some spots. My arm is blue for some reason. Heidi managed to get pink hair dye on her stomach. Only comment? We have got mad "skillz" man. Maaaad skillz.

Love,
Henna

I'M FINALLY UPDATED.

YAYYYY! I gave you what you wanted. All the posts. Every single bleeding day. Now they are here for your visual enjoyment.

Enjoy. Please. Don't make these hours of work go to waste. It would make me cry. Well, maybe I wouldn't cry, but I'd certainly have a miffed expression.

Today I woke up at noon. (Ah, to be a teenager, how delightful.) So I decided to make dinner. Off to Clement Street I went! Well, first I had to stop off at Claire's to see if they sold earrings that would match the ones they stabbed through my ears. They didn't. Oh well. However, I had to suck it up and move on. I was on an expedition to make....

DAVID AUERBACH'S BACHELOR CHICKEN

• 1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1 can of Cream of Celery soup
• 1 can of French Onion soup
• 2 1/2 cups of plain white rice
• 1 1/2 lbs of chicken breast
• One 9x12 pan

Throw it all in the pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover pan with tin foil. Cook for an hour. Eat.

So I bought some of my foods at the asian market mentioned in several other posts. And I got myself my steamed pork buns and was sitting at the bus stop, waiting for the 2-Clement to show up. 

First off, I forgot to mention that the bus driver on my way to Clement looked skeptical when I paid the 17 and under fare... now back to my story.

Little underaged me was sitting there, eating my pork bun and giving the crumbs to the awesome bird in front of me. (I had to feed it. It had the same color eyes as mine.) I looked up and there was this guy standing nearby. 

Not so odd, this is a bus stop after all... However, he was looking right at me when I looked up at him and then smiled.

"Hi! How are you?" said the man.

"Good?" I am very confused at this point. Strangers are not usually this friendly.

"You have very pretty eyes!" I don't think he noticed that this comment caused me to roll my "very pretty eyes". (And people wonder why I always wear sunglasses on the bus. Hmph.)

I think he was 30. Today was my day for looking older I guess...

(Mom, start breathing again. Look, I'm posting. I am not locked up in a deserted warehouse with WiFi typing a ransom note to you... Breath for me? Thank you. I'm perfectly safe.)

We watched True Blood during dinner... again.

Love,

Henna

Orange Bleached Hair? (8.10.10)

Tuesday night! The night to start the hair dying process! (Now ain't that something exciting?) Heidi purchased Splat hair dye in a lovely pink color. And GUESS WHAT? ("What?" echoes an ever willing chorus of excited voices...) We bleached our hair! Now, seeing as Heidi is blondish, she didn't have to bleach for very long. I, on the other hand, had to have the nasty blue stuff in my hair for a good 70 minutes before it got to a nice... well... a nice... orange-y blonde-y bleached color?

It looked pretty awesome.

Except... we didn't really finish. My hair is still that orange-y blonde-y bleached color. Quite attractive. Maybe I'll just keep it that way.

Throughout this, we ate Kasa Indian take out while watching True Blood. Some evenings never change do they? :)

Love,
Henna

EMERGENCY! HUGE MONDAY CROWD! (8.9.10)

Oh Mondays, how monotonous you usually are. Especially when I have a day off.
Except for this Monday. I got a phone call around 12:30.
"HENNA! WE'RE PACKED! TAKE A CAB!"

I had just woken up. Ugh. So I took a shower, called a cab, got in, drove downtown... etc. And HOLY %&$^! It was actually busy during a Monday lunch! I almost fell over. But I didn't.

I worked. :P

Love,
Henna

I Punched A Couple Of Holes In My Ears (8.8.10)

Heidi's phone mysteriously EXPLODED (not really, just cracked) so we went to the Sprint store to get her a new one. It took over 2 hours for them to figure out how to get the contacts off her phone and for her to get a new one. (Of course, she had to say VERY LOUDLY, "Maybe I should just get an IPHONE" before anyone would help her." Pathetic, I know.)

While we were waiting, I got a phone call. David managed to lock himself out. So I invited him over to the Sprint store/ Westfield Mall to chill with us. And when did he get there? The second after I got the second earring through my left ear. That's right. I got two more holes in my ear! Wooooo!

My ears are doing wonderfully, thank you for asking. A little sore, but wouldn't you be sore if you had sharp things jabbed in you?

David came back with us and Heidi cooked a great Moroccan dish with couscous, chicken (that I found at the asian market), potatoes, zucchini, and a dash of FUNK. (Sorry, that's a different meal.)

And we watched True Blood.

Love,
Henna

It's The Big Cheese's Birthday. And Don't You Forget It! (8.7.10)

Saturday was a ridiculous day at work. Well... it was like a Saturday. So many orders for the Sunday Brunch (honeyed chevre, ginger-fig chutney, french toast, and BROWN SUGAR BOURBON SAUCE). Yum.

However, this Saturday, it was different. IT WAS NATE'S BIRTHDAY! The big... (well, you'll have to ask him his age himself...) So after work, I headed home to make myself older. To... "put on my face" as one of my relatives was known to say. David and I ordered a cab to get to the first part of Nate's birthday bash; The Kabuki Sundance Theatre. The Kabuki Sundance Theatre is an independent theater, so it costs a little bit more to see a movie there. However, you get to select your own seat beforehand and the seats are super comfy. (Hooray for super comfy theater chairs. I can remember that one time watching Dark Knight...let's not get into that know.  Zoe, remember that lovely, lovely movie?)

We watched the movie Cyrus. The advertised catch phrase is: "John met the woman of his dreams, then he met her son." Very true. Funny movie.. go see it...

After the movie, it was time to get some eats. FOOD. Yes. So we headed over to Fat Angel. Mom, I drank water.

We got back at... 1? Maybe? I went right to sleep. Hooray! Happy birthday Big Cheese!

Love,
Henna

Thank God It's Friday, Right Guys? (8.6.10)

On Friday, I worked :) However, I still needed to get Nate a birthday present. Due to his great love of the HBO show True Blood... I figured I'd head over to a Hot Topic and grab him a 4-pack of Tru Blood (an energy drink modeled after the artificial blood drinks in the show). I went a couple days before and they didn't have any (ridiculous, right?)
So off I went to Clement Street again! (They sell the True Blood books. Heh heh.) However, after making my purchases, I was planning on making dinner again! Now what should we eat? Wandering around, I bought myself another steamed pork bun to help me think. Aha! Artichokes and fish! (I'm so smart.) So off I went to find the asian market on Clement. I milled around for about 2 hours before I decided on dinner.
I bought noodles, microwave-able rice (for my lunches sometime), aloe juice, several pounds of chicken drumsticks, 1lb of red snapper, 4 artichokes, a couple of oranges (for a couple of Blood and Sand cocktails). Now, this sounds expensive, but in reality, it was under 20 bucks. I love asian markets.
Thankfully, David (Nate's cousin) picked me up and bought a few more things he thought was needed for dinner (beer and ice cream mochi). We watched True Blood.

Love,
Henna

Day Off! (Post for 8.5.10)

On Thursday last week, I had the day off! So what did I do? Sleep, of course.

When I rousted myself from bed, I decided today would be a perfect day to visit Clement Street, home of Green Apple Books. I waited at the Buena Vista East bus stop for the 71 to get to Market Street. There's a bus stop to get to Clement right up the street from Second. And oddly enough, the bus I was taking to get to Clement was the 2! (Not that exciting...)
I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to get off to get to Green Apple Books. Yay me. I was convinced I was going to spend several hours searching around and then get hopelessly (yes, hopelessly) lost. As usual. BUT I DIDN'T! (Applause please.) There was a stop right in front of the store. I felt like destiny had taken my aside and said, "Henna, today is not your day to get lost. Maybe tomorrow. Enjoy it."

Green Apple Books was epic. Books lined the shelves with them thrown in hodgepodge everywhere. It was like, book heaven. (Or Book Nirvana. Yeaaaa... that sounds significantly cooler.)

I bought a couple of books before I left (Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey books...) and decided to wander until I found good food to eat. And Clement Street happens to have a lot of dim sum. (YUM!)

As I was walking, I happened upon a place called Clement BBQ that had GIANT peking ducks in the window. As you all know, I am crazy for peking duck. Except not really, they just look really cool in windows. However, the next store window (which happened to be attached to the first) had some more interesting food inside. STEAMED PORK BUNS! Char Siu Bao (steamed pork buns) happen to be my favorite type of dim sum. So I got two. Now, that picture is not one that I took, however, the size is comparable. They were almost the size of my head. (WHOA!) And so good. So, so good.


I decided it would be a good idea to get to the bus stop because I had gotten a text that we'd eat dinner on a new place outside the stadium. And (lo and behold!) right behind the bus stop was ANOTHER dim sum place. The bus wasn't due to arrive for another four minutes, so I ran inside for my desert... a LOTUS SEED BUN! As I was paying 50 cents (did I mention I got a whole mean for under 3 bucks?) for my lotus bun, the bus arrived. Jumping on, I started making my way back to Market Street.


The new place near the Stadium was actually having a party before their opening in the next few days. It was a mexican sports bar. Huge, very nice... but not very fun. So we left before eating and went to Tres Agaves instead. I had the ribs. They were so yummy :).


Love,
Henna

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY POST! (I got lost.)

I'm so lazy, I apologize. But one brand new thing... WELCOME MAMA! You're following me!

TUESDAY!
I went to work :) Smile. (I don't remember...)

Wednesday (Today)
While making croutons, I sliced open the knuckle of my pointer finger on my left hand. (Very specific, i know.) This is the second time I have done thing. I think my right hand has a personal vendetta against my left. Tragic.
So what was left for me to do? Do the right thing by my left hand of course. (Oh, irony.) I stopped at Walgreens and got WATER PROOF BANDAIDS. Isn't that cool? I know, it totally is.
Then I got lost in the mall. Again.
I almost got attacked by makeup stand people. Again.
I pretended to be foreign (yay!). Again.

And I got new shoes. YAY. They're street shoes. Awwweeeessoooomeeee.

(I can't remember if I did anything else... I think I'm getting old.)

Love,
Henna

Long Weekend Update (Sat, Sun, Mon)

Saturday...
I worked front of house the entire day with a bachelorette party running the breakfast rush. Full of men and women in beautiful dresses. Then Heidi, Andrea and I went to Nopa. It was very yummy.

Sunday...
I sat at home and played Wow. That's all.

Monday...
Woke up at 12:00, grabbed mochi from Walgreens and made sammies! Went to band practice :)

YAY FOR LAZINESS!
Love,
Henna

Super Hero Friday! Who's Your Team?

Today = Super Hero Friday
Come in dressed like a super hero (or super villain) and you got a FREE house made soda and 10% OFF YOUR MEAL! How awesome is that? Pretty awesome I think. Nate dressed up as Cobra Kai (super villain from the Karate Kid) and Heidi was...

LACTAID GIRL! Duh duh duh daaaa! We don't know what I was...

Business was very good today and we had our very (very!) first TAIL-"GRATE" PARTY!
YAY! Grilled cheese on the patio with beer on tap for the Giants vs. Dodgers game tonight. We did a roaring trade, then packed up for the night. Yay! (Now I'm sleepy.)

Good night.

Love,
Henna

What Bus Do You Take?

Work was very good. We almost sold out of everything in the store, it was great!

I made dinner again tonight (salmon packets and baby artichokes). And we had Pippa, our roommate and her boyfriend for dinner, David (Nate's cousin), Heidi, and Nate.
Yum!

Talked about etymology on the bus with some random guy today, it was interesting...
Super Hero day at THE AMERICAN tomorrow!

G'night...
Love,
Hannah

The Hottest Restaurant In Town!

I didn't get lost today. I know, it's something new. (You can breath Mom, I'm alive... look! I'm posting!)

However, I did get to run some things over to Nova (the bar across the street)... i.e, delivered some experimental sandwiches.

THE AMERICAN got very good feedback today. Such as:

• "Best [black cherry] soda ever!"
• "The hottest restaurant in town!"
• "Best muffin I've ever had in my life!"

We ain't doing too shabby are we? 

Oh! BIG NEWS! For the first time in about... 2-3 years, I made dinner for people other than myself. I made taco salad, which ended up being pretty delicious. I was going to make a really cool dessert too, but I figured ice cream in the freezer was satisfactory.

And now, we're going to watch True Blood (please don't judge me...)

Love, 

Henna

Look! The Straw Is Made Out Of Corn!

You'll be very proud of me. I took the bus in to work today... WITHOUT GETTING LOST. Ha.

It was a Tuesday, which means a relatively slow day at lunch. It also meant that during my down time in the morning, I got to work in the kitchen! (Making croutons!) And for breakfast, I got oatmeal with the brown sugar bourbon sauce. It was delicious.
I also did more damage to my left hand today than my entire week here. I sliced (not very deeply... Mom, you can breathe) through my left pointer finger, nicked the knuckle on the same hand, and burned my entire left thumb with tomato soup. And the best part? My hand still works.
Then this guy tried to flirt about what our straws were made out of. -_-' How sad....

After work, Heidi and I headed to Market Street to run a few errands. And guess who I saw? You'll never guess. I guarantee it.
I saw... (drumroll please)..................

Marian and Vivian Brown! They were matching beautifully with leopard print coats, identical makeup and hats. It was quite spectacular, seeing as they were about 3-4 inches shorter than I am. (And man, am I short!)

That's all. I'm tired...

Check out Nova, they have yummy food too.... like their wings, and margherita pizza.

Love,
Henna

Monday! (I Got Lost)

I GOT LOST.

Except not really. Monday (sorry for the late post again...), I didn't have to come in until around 2:00 to make sandwiches for a catering event on Tuesday. I took the 71 bus from Haight - Buena Vista at the right time (around noon) to give myself a lot of time to get to the restaurant. After searching for this bus stop for well over 45 minutes, I finally saw a 71 making its way right to where I was standing. SCORE. I got on, excited that I wasn't going to get lost.

It was going the wrong way.

At the last stop, I went up and asked the bus driver how to get to Market Street. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Sweetheart, didn't you get on at Market?"

...No... I think I would have noticed if I had.

So she told me to get off the bus for a bit and then I could get back on and take it down to Market and Second.

I guess I look either really foreign, confused, or just plain stupid. The one man waiting for the bus at the end of Noriega took one look at me and gave me two bucks, saying, "Here, just in case you get lost again."
I've found a new way to make money. Here's a nice step-by-step:

• Put your hair in pigtails
• Wear some article of clothing that's too big for you (whether this be a shirt, sweatshirt...etc.)
• Speak with an indistinct foreign accent (I prefer Finnish, but if you can do French or Spanish... be my guest)
• Let other people hear you ask pitiful questions
• Look grateful for any amount of information, even if it's only, "...This is a San Francisco bus... yes..."
• AND VOILA! Some person is more than likely to take pity on a little foreign girl and give her $2 for bus fare!

Now go make money.
Did I mention we watched True Blood?

Love,
Henna

BBQ With True Summer!

Heh, heh, heh. Sorry I've been late with posts. I know you (yes, YOU) have been waiting for my posts with bated breath. I hope you don't live vicariously through this blog... it would mean you're always getting lost.

Sunday was a pretty chill day, meaning some sleeping in and lounging. Heidi and Nate's friends, Dave and Andrea were having a barbecue that evening, so we decided to make an Apricot Frangipane Tart, which turned out excellently (if I do say so myself...). We used the rest of the apricots from our excursion to the Asian market as well as a couple of black velvet apricots (they're a deep purple, very pretty). Nate made Crawfish Monica, but since you apparently can't buy crawdads in this area, he really made what Heidi dubbed Shrimp Brittany.

The barbecue was in Oakland, which meant driving across the Bay. (And ten degrees warmer! It was SUMMER!) Lots of good food was to be had, including some of the best ribs (ever). Heidi invented a Gorgonzola zucchini flatbread, which (obviously) was delicious.

After the barbecue, we went home and watched True Blood. (Don't make fun of me.)
Lots of fun was had, and we were all exhausted.

Love,
Henna

Saturday Night, Red Leather Jacket? Welcome to the Mission Baby!

Sorry for missing the weekend posts... I was too tired... :)

For the afternoon, we rode over the Golden Gate Bridge to Rodeo Beach. Stella and Tilly came with us and we took the Coastal Trail for about a five mile loop with the dogs. It went without a hitch for the most part, but then the doggies saw a rabbit. Thought we were gonna eat it without any footholds downhill.

Saturday night, Heidi and I had nothing to do except look for food. Out we went to explore what the Mission had to offer. We were on the search for Moroccan food. We found an ok place, but it was mainly for hookahs. No thanks.

Instead, we stopped at the Sunflower Restaurant for Vietnamese food. Yum. Yum. And yum again. We had beef noodle soup, Vietnamese pot stickers, Vietnamese crepes... And I got a coconut. :) (I got to walk through The Mission with a coconut. I felt like the coolest person alive.) 

Then we watched True Blood.

Love,

Henna

Friday Blowout!

My first friday working and it was SO BUSY!
Again, I'm tired...so a list of highlights...

• Met a family from NH today (after serving them their lemonade and coffee).
• Had another wonderful Moscone (I really should stop eating all this grilled cheese, it can't be good for me...)
• Drank my first Bubble Up ever. (Kinda like Sprite... except it came first and is more like Mountain Dew)
• Went to a very nice restaurant called Absinthe

And now I'm sleepy :)

Love,

Henna

Lazy Thursday

I had an... interesting day today. Nate and Heidi told me to take the day off because they were overstaffed but suggested that if I really wanted to, I could come in around 2-3 to make more sandwiches. I thought this was a fine idea.

I slept in this morning, watched a couple of movies, basically vegged out. It was nice, let me tell you. Then I decided, around 1, that it would be a good idea if I headed to the bus stop to get to THE AMERICAN around 2.

Ha. Ha. Ha. In my dreams. I walked over half the city looking for the stupid bus stop. Six. Miles.
However, I saw some pretty interesting things, including a movie theatre advertising a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show on July 31st. (I so wanna go.)
But 4 hours later, I finally made it to Market Street and treated my success with a Trix ice cream bar. It was yummy.

I finally got to the restaurant and helped make the Moscone and Poppers and ate some fruit salad. Totally "delish".

I'm tired. That is all. Nothing witty to say.

Love,
Henna

Murmph

Today was cold. Cold. Cold. I shall say it one more time. COLD.

I slept through my alarm this morning, grabbing an extra 20 minutes of sleep (which doesn't seem like a lot, but it really, truly is.) When we got into work this morning, we found that the refrigerator had broken. Which = DELAYS.

(I'm very tired right now...soooo....)
Henna's Highlights:

• I learned how to use the cash register and rang up orders.
• I successfully had very nice conversations (Nate Style) with several customers.
• Tried the Sunday Brunch (french toast, honey chevre, fig-ginger jam, bourbon sauce)!
• Tried the Mushroom Gruyere (mushrooms, golden potatoes, fontina, gruyere, melted leeks, thyme butter)
• Anita visited, even though I was a boring, exhausted lump. (We went to Haight...)
• I took a nap and watched "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"!

Hm. Also one more thing...

My tattoo friend, Todd... has this lovely business....

Stunner of the Month

Basically, for 9 bucks a month you get a new pair of stunners or... "stunnas" as my accent designates... (sunglasses)

Check it out. Totally worth it.

Good night!

Love,

Henna

Front of House, Thy Name is Junior

Today was my second official day working at THE AMERICAN. And it started like this:

It was suggested last night that I shouldn't necessarily go in at 6:00 this morning and Nate and I should ride bikes to the restaurant. I've never been that comfortable riding bikes. Ever.... So, put into your mind the image of a cartoon.
Imagine me, as a cartoon, riding down a steep hill in traffic. In this cartoon, my arms would be up and I would be screaming my bloody lungs out. I wasn't actually screaming... but if I had been a cartoon, I would have been. Nothing like a good, "Hello humongous, titanic, iso, gigantic BIG hill! Thanks for that wake up, you work better than coffee!"

*Sigh*. I'm scarred, I truly am. Now, can we ride the bikes in tomorrow too? :)

Nate and I get to the restaurant around 7:30, just enough time to start setting up the patio and other things for opening. While the doors were open, a business man wandered in, looking for some breakfast and decided to wait around when he discovered that we weren't open for business yet.

I met the Tuesday crew and was lovingly introduced as "Junior"... I think this may be a nickname that's gonna stick. (They also came up with the ridiculous name of "Happy Meal"... I think Junior's gonna be the one that stays.) Now, to give you a picture, my staff shirt is a blue baseball tee of this lovely logo:

Awesome, no? Todd, one of the expediters and runners up front, has the same color shirt. About an hour into the work day, we start stamping some take out bags with the spatula logo. And today, I got my first tattoo.
Yes. My "tattoo" is a spatula stamp. However, Todd got one too... And instead of Nate and Junior running around, it was Todd and "Mini (Almost, But Not Quite) Me"

I'm planning on going to Haight street and buying some henna. First tattoo? A spatula. I'm just that cool.
I was unadventurous for breakfast, going with the delicious breakfast piglet a second time. However, I went outside to the South Park... park... and ate my sandwich with one of the delicious house sodas (the "Tart Black Cherry" flavor to be exact.) It was chilly out today, but when I came back in, it was all the warmer for freezing during breakfast.
I helped make the savory break pudding today during a lull in business up front. It smelled so good...no wonder why it sells out! (I'm always saying that... everything is so yummy... I'm a walking advertisement...)

Since I got in later than yesterday, I could legally work later today (I also rode the bike in and had no idea how to get home...). But when I got off, I realized that Mom had called several times, so I grabbed my delicious Moscone sandwich (made with fresh mozzarella, fontina, roasted tomatoes, basil-lavender pesto, and kalamata olive tapanade), house soda (grapefruit flavor) and blondie (from a slightly flawed batch) and headed off to the park.

I made a best friend. But he won't go anywhere with me. I mean.. I don't think stores will let him in. Him being a pigeon and all that. Sucks, I know. (I shared some of my blondie with him...)

However, it's time for the business class that's meeting for the first time this evening. Heidi's leading it...I'm excited!

Love,
Henna

First Day of Working!

I "woke up" this morning around 5:30 to get into work with Heidi to start the breakfast routine at THE AMERICAN. I think that the morning crowd thought I was older than I actually was because god forbid a teenager would be up before noon. :) We started off by making mixed berry muffins. (I had a leftover muffin from yesterday... it was so amazingly yummy!)
Afterwards, because I'm too young to use the slicer, I was set to work making roasted tomatoes. I really like the smell of roasted tomatoes. It felt like I sliced over 30 or 40 tomatoes, laying them flat before they were roasted. It smelled amazing (especially so early in the morning!)
Around 8 we opened up for the breakfast crowd and couldn't finish all the tomatoes, so we made some more french toast batter and put the bourbon sauce into a bottle for ease in serving.

I took my break before it got busy... so I got my first sandwich! A breakfast piglet, which was (according to the menu) a breakfast sandwich with sharp cheddar, ham, egg, and apple mustard.
Now, here's the thing... I don't like mustard. I have never liked mustard... but I think I just found the exception. The entire sandwich just worked so well, it was the perfect start to a day!

After breakfast, I was put in front of house and was put to making drinks! (It's a lot of fun making house sodas...) And sometimes running orders and scooping croutons. It was a fun, thankfully uneventful (knock on wood) first day...

And now I'm exhausted. Even though it's early... I'm gonna hit the sack soon... or at least take a nap.

Love,
Henna

(Did I mention I had a leftover blondie? Amazing? Yes? I now know why it's famous and sells out all the time. It was g-o-o-o-o-o-o-d!)

Yum.

After the multiple walks I took today with the doggies around the Panhandle, I went in to help with the makings of some of the final sandwiches for Monday's crowd.

First off, we stopped at Pinkie's Bakery to get some of the yummy bread that the grilled cheeses are made out of. (I have never seen so much bread in my life in one place. It smelled and tasted so good...and restored my belief in humanity.) Once we had the bread we needed, we drove down to THE AMERICAN. It was my first time there in day light and was super (yes, super) awesome.

We made veggie breakfast sandwiches, jalapeño poppers, sweet bread pudding (including the bourbon sauce...)

Did I mention...yum? Ok, I didn't think I did, so I'm just making sure.

I enjoy sandwiches. I truly do...

Love,

Henna

Walkies!

In the tradition of jet-lagged people, I woke up late today. Of course... late central time. Here, I was up at 7.

However, like a sane person, I told my inner self to knock itself out. So I slept until 8. 

And then, IT WAS TIME FOR WALKIES!

Both of these lovely dogs together would make such a task for lil' ol' me. So I took them one at a time to walk in the Panhandle (...Park...?) right outside. Stella made it to the door first, so she was the one who got to walk first. (Race down the stairs, I'm glad I wasn't in front of either.)

Both walks were pretty uneventful. Except. Oh my god. There are so many dogs here. I'm not kidding. NH...you have a few here and there... But not everyone walking them all around! Mind blowing. And then there was a shoe. A very nice shoe I might add. High heels, boots, brand new looking... It wasn't a pair lying around. I honestly think someone lost a shoe.

Or they just took it off and left it there for someone (like me) to blog about. 

Tilly's walk consisted of seeing even more dogs, plus a man doing yoga in the middle of the park. 

But the best part? I didn't get lost.

Love,

Henna

Finally Here!

I finally made it to San Francisco after a lovely two weeks in Minnesota and a hellish day of travel to California.

So, sitting in Minneapolis airport after checking out baggage, the woman "monitoring" us says, "Kids, guys, you have to stay here until we're all ready to go..." Then, after a moment, she begins to laugh. "Oh, who am I kidding?!" She said... "I have all your boarding passes!"
I fail to see the humor in this, but to each their own.

So I check my baggage and it lets me check my most current itinerary. My flight to Denver has been delayed 20 minutes. Ok, 20 minutes is not as bad as it could be. However, another boy on my flight checks when he goes up. 45 minute delay. It's getting a bit ridiculous because we're hearing rumors of Tornado Watches and Lightning Storms. Very nerve wracking, lemme tell you.
I sit there, after they've changed my gate number so the delayed plane coming in would be able to do something or other... (Oops, I was listening to "Bohemian Rhapsody" instead of paying attention. Silly me.) Then suddenly, the worst happens. Lightning starts to flash all over the place and we all hear HORRENDOUS thunder. So, instead of saying that we can't take off, they (meaning the flight's crew) hustle us on as fast as they can check our little tickets.

I fly SouthWest. Yay me. (Free checked baggage, open seating, whoopdedoo.) I was in the section C 23. For those who don't know, it's way at the end of the boarding line.
I get on the plane, looking around for absolutely anywhere... um. Anywhere as far away from infants as I can manage. Fortunately, I spot an open seat in back, FAR away from youngins.

I garnered myself a seat in the middle of a boy scout troop... Fortunately, I had a very nice chat with one of these young boy scouts and learned a lot about California. I'm so lucky in conversations like that. I convinced him I was 21 and educated him in everything about Finnish music.
...He didn't pass the course though. He'd still rather listen to Eminem any day. (And I had him picked out as a classic rock guy. I guess my "rock-dar" is failing)

But thankfully, I did not miss my connecting flight in Denver. I came just in time as they were boarding section B. Yes, I was that one person that everyone stares at when they arrive, gasping, clutching their sides and wheezing while trying to laugh because they managed to catch the flight.

Lemme tell you, when in danger of missing your connection, making it is all the more sweet.

The last eventful thing was my actually finding baggage claim. It's hard to do that without glasses on.

So I made it. I'm finally here.
LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

Love,
Henna

First Day Out!

So, as some people know, I am heading out to San Francisco for six weeks this summer to work for (I heard something about "indentured servant"...) my lovely cousin. And I figured, since I'm going to be gone, WHY NOT WRITE ABOUT IT?

Here it is. My "diary" of this summer. Hopefully there will be exciting things happening in my life that you will want to hear about. However, before I head out to California, I am stopping in Minnesota to go to camp for two weeks. But since this blog isn't about camp, I won't go into major details... (I won't have internet anyways and my memory is kinda bad, so I won't bore you too much with anecdotes about the lovely time I had there.)

But I have one story to share before my internet goes away...

I was sitting on the airplane, reading Pride & Prejudice (by Jane Austen, for those of you living under a rock). I was suddenly compelled to glance out the window as turbulence increased and saw, to my curiosity, an object that looked like a white pipe plummeting to the ground. Of course, I can assume it was an airplane landing, but for a split second, this thought ran through my mind:
"Oh shit. There goes Chicago."

Chicago is still there, obviously, else we would have heard about it on the news (maybe).

Have a wonderful two weeks and I will be back blogging on the seventeenth!

<3
Henna