253degrees and a declaration to rememberance

it's hot. 253degrees to be exact. my house is hotbox, and i feel like i'm right back in the middle of last summer. ...last summer at this time i was working at Frederik Meijer Gardens as a caterer and bartender. I'd also been waiting tables at Heroes Bar and Grill for two months. in addition, i was listening to "Silent Alarm" by Bloc Party.

i hated my jobs. i'll never forget it...barely making enough to pay the bills, wondering what it would take for me to find a job i could get lost in, feeling embarrassed in my McDonald's-style cap and polo as i bussed dishes and wiped down dirty tables and chairs...i'll never forget how terribly i wanted to give myself to work that i cared about.

and i shouldn't forget where i've come from. i've noticed when i do i start taking things for granted, even in the short 4 months i've been at my new job. and as soon as i start taking success, money and influence for granted, i get numb. and so here's my declaration to remembrance. there was a day not so long ago when i scraped half-eaten sandwiches into ToGo boxes, wiped up spilled soup and took out trash bags of rancid leftovers. and i wanted to make a difference, but all i could do was bring a miller lite, a bud light, maybe a corona. ...yes, the weather brings back memories. and i'm still listening to Bloc Party, but this summer i'm listening to "Silent Alarm Remix."

on a related note, i looked up the weather in western europe, and it's about 70degrees during june, versus an average of 80degree in grand rapids. then i started wondering why. so i looked up latitudes for comparison. keep in mind that the higher the latitude, the farther north a location is.

grand rapids :: 43degrees N
interlaken :: 46degrees N. keep in mind the base elevation here is 2000ft...so it's cold. 30s and 40s cold.
paris :: 48.5degrees N
prague :: 50degrees N
london :: 51.3degrees N
berlin :: 52.3degrees N
amsterdam :: 52.5degrees N
mackinac island :: 45.5degrees N. so every single city we'll be in this summer is north of mackinac island. so basically i'm spending 3weeks in the equivalent of Michigan's UP. minus the cows.

and on another related note, i bought a $10 watch from Target this weekend. it looks like something my brother would have been fascinated with in the 2nd grade. afterall, it goes underwater up to 50m. my thinking? i won't have my cell phone to keep time while in europe this summer, so why not buy an ugly watch to help me out?!?! ...and since i don't plan to use the watch here in the States, i just set it in CEST (Central European Summer Time) for +6 hours. i wore it around for 20 minutes or so this morning...ha! i guess i'm a little excited. Did i mention the watch has a blue light-up face?!?!