I can't believe I forgot to mention this!
A while back, Amy and I got on a kick of creating a resume/cover letter writing business and selling our services to the greater Anchorage area for a nominal fee. This business (2 Hermanos and Better Letter were our two most frequently used names) ended up not making us much of anything. Actually, due to our intense coffee addictions and the fact that we solely worked at Kaladi Bros., I'd say it cost us money. After all, our only customers were friends and family members in need, and we did not charge them.
However, we did have one client who would pay us if his son got a job using our letter, and while we can't prove that our letter was used we were paid no less. Amy and I are $40 richer! Big money! Not a huge amount of cash but pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Now we just need a steady stream of customers and we'll be on our way to being a real business. I'm very happy for the one customer we successfully helped - helping you ended paying for my coffee for a little over a week.
As you may know, coffee is serious business.
It's business time
Why can't it always be the weekend?
This weekend was pretty much stellar. Nearly everything about it was fantastic (some small things really bug me, but nothing is perfect) and I enjoyed the heck out of the whole thing. Sadly enough I am without one shred of photographic evidence even though I managed to have my camera the whole time. How does that happen?!
Anyways, instead of giving a very lengthy breakdown of everything that happened, I'll do a Cliff's Notes version with a bit more detail afterwards.
Top 10 reasons why this weekend ruled
- Claire d'Loon
- Rocking with Puma Town
- Better Letter
- Palmer Trip
- BBQ at Jason's
- BIG BEN!!!
- The Homie
- AK Wild
- Ryan Zimmerman's walk off blast
- The Crew
1. Amy and I are big fans of fancy dinners. There is something awesome about having a really nice dinner with a great friend, sharing a bottle of wine and having delicious food. We've typically went to Mixx Grill, but this time we decided to (oh god, pun alert...) mix it up and go to Claire d'Loon. The experience was exceptional as the strange little bistro that was Da Loon turned out to be excellent, in spite of the fact that there were literally no other patrons and that they played Kenny G. Our food was great, our waitress looked exactly like Naomi Watts, and it was a great time having dinner with Amy like always. A+ experience.
2. Due to Lacey leaving, our Rock Band experience has been nameless lately essentially as we had to abandon the Hey Hermano moniker. As Amy, Hannah, Jason, and I still wanted to play, we needed a new band name. Friday night, we had our first session as rock superstars Puma Town. It was amazing, as Princess Btown, Whammy Town, Blaze Town, and T-Rex Town all melted faces and we downloaded 6 new songs, the new Boston song pack and "El Scorcho" by Weezer. Puma Town rules.
3. Amy and I crafted our fourth exceptional cover letter as our fledgling business continues to grow. This one may have been our best one yet, and it was a grand and very rewarding time like it always is.
4. Late Saturday afternoon, Hannah, Kim, Amy, and I drove out to Palmer to get coffee. Yes. We drove three towns away to get coffee. And it was delicious, fun, and well worth the trip.
5. In a freak occurrence, I managed to be in Eagle River three consecutive days. My bubble is getting dangerously close to being burst at this point. Saturday evening Jason had a get together at his place as he had bought a new BBQ, and we grilled up burgers and steaks and had a great time drinking and being merry. BBQ season is making me very happy, and it's as early as it has ever been.
6. At the BBQ, I played old reliable drinking game Kings Cup for the first time since college. Due to an extreme lack of alcohol, we played a highly modified and far more fun version of the game, more based off interactivity and less off volume consumed. I highly recommend incorporating the rule called Big Ben as the new rule for the ten card. It involves standing up and forming a clock tower over your head with your arms. It's pretty amazing.
7. The Homestead Lounge is the bar in Eagle River. I'm sure it isn't the only bar there, but from my experience it might as well be. It was my second experience out there, and it was a great time again. Any night that features winning all four of my games of foosball, dancing the Cuban Shuffle, and a bizarre bald man that was utterly shocked by me washing my hands has to be considered a success.
8. Hannah, Jason, Colver, Lorna, and I attended the AK Wild's second home game today. The AK Wild is Alaska's second year Intense Football League team, and amazingly enough we won our second game this season in just four attempts (took us 11 attempts last year). It was a great time, being a far smoother experience than the first game this season and being more strangely entertaining as well (unintelligible referees + hilarious linesmen crew + mega wave = hilarious good time).
9. The Washington Nationals officially kicked off the season against the Atlanta Braves today (sorry Red Sox and A's, this felt like the real start to the season) in style, with Ryan Zimmerman launching a blast with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win their season opener. Perfect way to start the season I say.
10. Last but not least, the Crew. I have to admit, it's been a while since I've had a full gang of people to hang out with at any time, but it feels great to have one again. The friends I've made through Amy are awesome, and this entire weekend was full of them. Hooray for the Crew! You make your country proud.
So yeah, it was a great weekend. This somehow still ended up being fairly long, and I casually omitted some things that went less well (the end of the Homie experience was not as good as the preceding hours...I'll leave it at that) but all in all, it was an awesome experience. Why can't it always be the weekend?
A Guidebook to Surviving Alaska Winters
Since moving back to Alaska, I've complained plenty about Alaskan winters. They're cold. They're endless. They're gloomy. They're depressing.
That's really all there is to it. I repeatedly say I'm the worst Alaskan ever. I suck at every winter sport, I don't like winter sports, I don't like the dark, and I don't like the cold. I don't really own gloves or a hat, don't own snow pants, and don't own snowboots either. In short, I am exactly who I thought I was...the world's worst Alaskan.
But lately, I've really started to love it. Of course, something strange has happened as Winter has seemingly ended early, with the dreary cold replaced with the warm, sunny days that have frequently welcomed Anchorage-ites on a day to day basis. Obviously that helps, as frankly, sunlight does a body good. I'm no scientist, but the Sun just makes me happy.
As I stated though, I am a terrible Alaskan, so having the sun out alone doesn't work for me if I have nothing to occupy my time. Thankfully lately I've had a number of creative tasks going that have brought me back to life and really taken up a lot of time. What are they?
- Better Letter! Amy and I started a company named Better Letter (with the world's loosest definition of company behind it) in which we write and edit cover letters and resumes for our esteemed clients around the country. So far we've had four clients, all of which have not been paying clients, but it is a ton of fun and we are working on picking up clients - see our ads here and here on Craig's List, and we're working up some sweet, sweet flyers to plaster the UAA campus with.
- The Frozen Rope! After starting this sports blog and not really doing anything with it for a few weeks, compadre Ryan Atkins and I have really kicked it up a notch, making it up to a total of 12 blogs so far! This weekend is going to be our biggest one yet, as we're going to post a back and forth breakdown between the two of us of each division in baseball. It's going to be top notch!
- Random survey creation! A few years back, buddy Sobo and I created a chain email that was random beyond words, but extremely hilarious to us. It was a ton of fun, and we actually found it to be successful as a month or two down the line a friend of ours received it back. Cut to now, as Amy and I are creating our own survey, but specifically for a Myspace bulletin. Now I'm sure a lot of you have seen the same five dumb surveys everyone fills out. Ours isn't going to be like that at all, and will blow your mind when you see it. Or at least you'll laugh a bit, or approximately 50 times less than we will.
- Pray for the sun.
- Stay busy.
- Be creative.
