1st Intro to contrast essay-deleted

Essay #2

                Behind the scenes, beyond those two swinging double doors is what really goes on in a waitress’s home away from home. Where I felt most comfortable in expressing my true feelings or venting out my frustrations, thoughts and errors. Passing through the doors with a big sigh of relief, finally, a break from my very unreal unwanted smile I portrayed to the people I absolutely despise, and being able to be myself for two seconds. Don’t get me wrong, I had my favorites and I loved most of my customers. In a small town like this you know exactly who is coming in before they even park their cars. You know who will be there in the morning to grab a quick bite before they head off to work, and the same ol’ folks that scarf their lunches while getting the new buzz that’s going around town or debating on some political dispute.

 My co-workers pretty much know my past, my present and my hopes for the future. In some cases I was forced to hear the same about them and some of their stories can be a little bit to revealing and awkward. Typically, as a waitress there’s usually at least one person you can call a “good friend”. Someone that I could trust with all of my secrets about who I thought was scum or the rich cutie that just left me a whopping 60 dollar tip with his number sketched on the back of the slip. We just clicked. If she scratched my back I would scratch hers, we appreciated it and made good money together.

On the down side, that good friend of mine didn’t work as much as I did. Which meant, when I picked up a shift that i normally wouldn’t, that’s when I got stuck with the “goofy girl”. She was always messing up orders and ticking off the kitchen crew. She was slow as a snail, I had no choice but to pick up the slack and clean up her messes. She wasn’t necessarily mean but not very nice either, and she sure thought she was a good waitress. Ha, little did she know. Usually before the night was over I had enough and exchanged a few words behind the scenes, involving a few swears. I still made some pretty good money because she would abandon her tables. I still don’t understand how she kept her position, when she did such a crappy job.

 Then no matter what, you always have that one certain guy that likes to think he’s the “cat’s meow”. He would always flirt with me, and somehow or other find a way to make my face beet red. Even if it meant raising his eye brows and smooching up his lips as the boss turns away for that split second.  I cannot find a reason in my head as to why I liked his compliments or what exactly attracted me to him. It could have easily became something more but I knew it would ruin the whole excitement of coming into work and desperately holding myself back from the fantasy of “mistakenly” locking ourselves in the stock room on that slow rainy day, and well, you can probably figure out what would happen next. But I couldn’t, I just couldn’t, and now I’ll never know.

Despite all of the crappy, ignorant and cheap customers, I still had the ones that I loved and they kept me going. But I wanted more, I hadn’t lived my life to the fullest and I couldn’t stop there! So I moved on and put in many hours of training to assist adults with developmental disabilities to become more independent by offering guidance and support for daily living activities, self-help, and social skills. I also took a C.R.M.A  (certified residential medication administrator) course and continued on in studying to be a Nursing Tech. I married a handsome man, had 3 kids and bought a house. It doesn’t stop there either, within the next few years I will become a Registered Nurse. Who knows if that’s where it will end but I do know that someday (I can see it now) I will be sitting in that little dinner waiting to see that old good friend of mine, knowing that all the ones that once thought they were better than me are sitting there with their ears tuned in, and the others that I loved anxiously waiting to hear the new buzz. Out of the corner of my eye that same ol’ flirty guy gives me a wink through the windows of the double doors and my good friend sits down beside me with two cups of coffee and asks “How the heck are you!?” and “Where the heck have you been!?”   

Classification Essay "Outro"

Despite all of the crappy, ignorant and cheap customers, I still had the ones that I loved and they kept me going. But I wanted more, I hadn’t lived my life to the fullest and I couldn’t stop there! So I moved on and put in many hours of training to assist adults with developmental disabilities to become more independent by offering guidance and support for daily living activities, self-help, and social skills. I also took a C.R.M.A  (certified residential medication administrator) course and continued on in studying to be a Nursing Tech. I married a handsome man, had 3 kids and bought a house. It doesn’t stop there either, within the next few years I will become a Registered Nurse. Who knows if that’s where it will end but I do know that someday (I can see it now) I will be sitting in that little dinner waiting to see that old good friend of mine, knowing that all the ones that once thought they were better than me are sitting there with their ears tuned in, and the others that I loved anxiously waiting to hear the new buzz. Out of the corner of my eye that same ol’ flirty guy gives me a wink through the windows of the double doors and my good friend sits down beside me with two cups of coffee and asks “How the heck are you!?” and “Where the heck have you been!?”   

Intro #2 to classification essay

Waiting Staff

                Behind the scenes, beyond those two swinging double doors is what really goes on in waitress’s home away from home. Where she feels most comfortable in expressing her true feelings, thoughts and errors. Her co-workers pretty much know her past, her present and her hopes for the future. In some cases she is forced to hear the same about them and some of their stories can be a little bit to revealing. Typically, as a waitress there’s usually at least one person you can call a “good friend”. When you call in sick and get stuck picking up a shift that you normal wouldn’t, that’s when you get stuck with the “goofy girl”. Then no matter what, you always have that one certain guy that likes to think he’s the “cat’s meow”. One of the rules of work that a lot of employers like to put in their speech of hiring a person is, leave your personal life at home. We all know that never happens! 

Intro #1 to Classification Essay

Tip Please

                When you make the decision of going out to eat at a restaurant with either, your husband, your children, friends or a family member, what are the deciding factors? Well when it all boils down to it in that time, you’re probably thinking about your growling stomach, how hungry you are and how good the food is going to be. While in the meantime, at that restaurant you have chosen, there is a waitress busting her butt cleaning off a table, and preparing it for you. The reason why she’s there, her motive behind her politeness and kindness, and her eager to please your every request is just one reason, a three letter word, yes that’s right, the tip. Even if it means she has to serve to the three most dreadful kinds of people that make her want to throw the towel in and quit her job. So while she’s cleaning off that table for you, in her mind she’s praying to god that you are not, one; a “Penny Pincher”, two; “Loud and Obnoxious”, and three; “Knit Picky”. 

Graph 16

Graph 16

                 I looked at the assignment finally at 9:30 p.m. after trying and trying to get my kids to bed but never worked, so I’m reading in between baby cries and peek a boo’s cheering him up temporarily to get through the next few sentences, and the other two arguing, tattling and needing just about anything and everything from me. Ok so as I was reading over the first model I thought about how much the writer’s thoughts are quite similar to mine and quite frankly, how much I really wanted a cigarette. She describes her three points very well, making the assignment seem clear, manageable and stress free. I guess you could say, suddenly I get kind of an anxious feeling, thinking about ideas to write my own classification essay, or maybe that feeling came from seeing the kids finally settle down, sinking slowly into the couch, with their little eyelids getting heavier and heavier.  I wanted to read more but I didn’t want to. After skimming the beginning of the second and third, instantly realizing that they didn’t interest me a bit. I don’t know why, but I didn’t want to waste my precious, quiet, peaceful time reading a nagging depressed wife’s story about how she hates her husband’s obsession of sports, blah! Clickity click to the next one. Skimmed the heading, blah, blah, blah, fishing isn’t going to give me any ideas!  The 4^th one caught my eye. I can relate and sympathize. Been there done that no fun bull crap. The bug lady made me laugh a little. I think it’s funny how she finds bugs fascinating, but yet lives to kill them. Nope nothing, bug lady didn’t wake up any stories in my head either. So, great, just great. Not even half way into the course and I’ve already written about everything in my whole LIFE, there's nothing left! You don't believe me do you? I know, I know, time to dig deaper.

Graph 14

Graph 14

                First things first. In order to even get started on my remodeling project, it is necessary for me to write out a budget. I know already that my grand total will be somewhere around $400 to $500 dollars. If I individualize each material being used for this project I could possibly find some money saving offers. I know that I will be needing to buy an array of paint brushes, rollers and a paint tray. Or I could just grab a package at Wal-Mart for $5. It comes with, 2 rollers, a couple paint brushes and the paint tray. By measuring the length of all the walls and height I came up with about 572 square feet that needs to be painted, so I figured that I am going to need about 2 gallons of paint, doing at least 3 coats.

The idea that I have for colors are, purple on two walls with pink polka dots and pink on the other two walls with purple polka dots. So I will need a gallon of each color. I’ve priced quite a few places such as home depot and Lowes. Wal-Mart seems to be the cheapest, as usual. About 20 bucks a gallon. They also have accent pieces (that are stick on) and letters which would be a great idea for the polka dots and my daughter’s name, and those are only $10 a package.

                The flooring I think will be the easiest part of the project. Marden’s has really cheap flooring for about $150 dollars, and even though they are cheap they feel quite sturdy and look very easy to clean or to replace if needed. Instead of doing a plain, wooden floor, I’m doing what they call fun floors. They are pink and purple with polka dots and it’s just squares that click together but eventually will have to be cut to fit. Before I put the flooring in I need to lay down some floor padding. It helps with insulating, reduces hardness of the floor, and also keeps your floor from cracking or sliding out of place. I originally was going to replace the entire ceiling fan. Instead ill just get some new colorful blades that match the room’s colors, and switch out the old light bulbs for new energy efficient ones.

                I have a couple of other idea’s that can maximize the amount of space in the room and create them myself by saving money. We all know that headboards are quite expensive, so I’ve come up with the idea of building one myself. By using spare wood from left over projects, a few yards of foam, colorful fabric and a staple gun,  I can easily have a nice looking headboard. The other idea I have is somehow creating a desk for my daughter to do her homework at, but yet still have enough space in her room without a whole desk taking it all up. Say I have a flat sanded board (of some sort), about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide, slab some chalkboard paint on one side and hang it up on the wall. But somehow being able to fold it down off the wall, kind of like one of those diaper changing stations you see in public restrooms (kind of a weird reference, but it’s all I got!) Then when you’re all done using it, fold it back up and use it as a chalkboard to draw on! Sounds good to me, but I won’t know if it really works until its finished and tested out.

                So that’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it, probably running into a couple of problems along the way but I won’t let it get my spirits down. My goal was to try and stay under $500 dollars, but with research, a little penny pinching, and a few “build it myself” projects, I might create this dream room a lot cheaper than I expected!