Hey,
Today starts my adventure of moving into my first apartment. Well, without a bed. My bed is coming on sunday. I'll probably be staying at my boyfriends place or, to my parents knowledge, on the futon. I have a 3 hour long drive to get back to Lock Haven University. My car hasn't even begun to get packed and it's going to take forever. Summer is officially over :( I'll post some pictures of my new place and my new roommate soon!
-Lindsey
Friday, August 24, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Food Trucks for an American Recession!
Hey,
Through the recession my dad has gone through a lot of jobs. He owns his own video rental place but evil forces known as blockbuster, netflix, and redbox have made it difficult for much progress. Eventually he plans to shut down the store in the coming couple of years and move onto something more. Since 2008 my dad has worked for Wal-mart (I'm ashamed to admit that I was a little bit embarrassed about this when I was in high school), realtors agency, electrician, and an orderly for a hosptial. Most recently he has worked for a funeral home company picking up dead bodies in a hearse and bringing them to the funeral home whenever they... well, croak. This means that he is on call at all ungodly hours of the night. When he is called to get a body at 3 a.m., he has to drag himself out of bed, put on a suit and drive out to who-know's-where Pennsylvania and make the delivery. He tends to love this job because he loves to talk to people. He can make anybody laugh even with a dead body in the room.
However, he just got fired from this job last month for arguing over salary. This put enormous stress on my family, especially my mother. While he still has his video store and the hospital job, together they both barely make ends meet. Don't be worried though because he was offered a full time job at another funeral home with less strenuous hours on my 50 year old daddy.
While that is a God send my father has higher ambitions for himself. Bigger dreams that you and I would say to them "um, what?" In fact I did. I walked into the kitchen, and right there on the table was an unmistakable copy of "Starting a Food Truck Company: For Dummies" and "50 Great Food Truck Recipes." Yes. My father wants to start his own food truck company and have me work summers for him. I looked through the pages of the books wondering where on earth this idea could have come from. Immediately my dad pulled up a video online called Food Truck Revolution. I must admit that I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be.
People who don't have the money to start restaurants, start food trucks. More often than not the food truck becomes an actual eating establishment but the truck lives on. I didn't realize how amazing the food that comes from them can be. It's funny because you can name your food anything you want at a food truck whereas a restaurant you would want to name your food something sophisticated. One food truck named one of their choices "Big Ass Sandwich" solely based on the fact that it really was a humungous sandwich.
There are setbacks however to running a foodtruck. If you have a truck with only one window, it limits you to one side of the street. The trucks themselves are the most expensive cost. For Dummies says that you should spend no more than 15,000 on your truck but the ones that sell for good are at least 25,000. Not only that but then you would have to have a mechanic check out the truck for fear of fault machinery. An ice cream truck is more expensive than burger truck. A pizza truck needs to have a ceramic oven in it, which makes the temperatures in the truck unbearable hot. And the time tested question, where do you go to the bathroom?
BUT THINK OF THE GOOD STUFF. You can take your business anywhere. If you have to move, your business moves with you. Festivals and fairs often hire food trucks because the mess is easier to clean up. There is less customer attitude because they don't sit down to eat... they leave. When there's a concert in Philadelphia you can drive your truck right up to it and serve food to the multitude of people. Food truck food is less expensive but have more customers than an average restaurant. With the great social networking of the generation one can simply tweet "#LarrysBurgers Going to be in front of Lincoln Financial field between 12-3. Go Eagles!" and you will find a swarm of hungry costumers coming to your truck from wherever they are. It's becoming a wildly popular idea among the masses. One that I hope happens for my dad.
The other night my dad got all excited about this food festival on Germantown Avenue, in Philadelphia. We took my friend Matt who is always excited about new food. Me, my dad, and Matt arrived on the street and all you could see among the huge crowds were food trucks. As many that could meet the eye. There was your standard, italian, burger, and ice cream trucks. But then they got creative. There was a vegan truck, a Mexican bar-b-que truck, Native American inspired truck, grilled cheese truck, a hot doggery truck, and even a beer distributor truck. All of the food was delicious. The Native American inspired food truck even had blueberry soup, I didn't taste it for fear of wasting 3 dollars. But I did have one of their bean and cheese empanadas. 3 dollars well spent.
My favorite truck was called Vernalicious. I had the most amazing mozzarella and pesto grilled cheese. The service was friendly, the food was great, the truck was adorable, all sorts of sauces were available at the ready. This particular truck also appeared at the Train concert just recently in Philly much to my delight. This is one truck that I would follow around on twitter... if I had a twitter. If you ever get a chance to try food truck cuisine, I say go for it.
Yours,
Lou
Through the recession my dad has gone through a lot of jobs. He owns his own video rental place but evil forces known as blockbuster, netflix, and redbox have made it difficult for much progress. Eventually he plans to shut down the store in the coming couple of years and move onto something more. Since 2008 my dad has worked for Wal-mart (I'm ashamed to admit that I was a little bit embarrassed about this when I was in high school), realtors agency, electrician, and an orderly for a hosptial. Most recently he has worked for a funeral home company picking up dead bodies in a hearse and bringing them to the funeral home whenever they... well, croak. This means that he is on call at all ungodly hours of the night. When he is called to get a body at 3 a.m., he has to drag himself out of bed, put on a suit and drive out to who-know's-where Pennsylvania and make the delivery. He tends to love this job because he loves to talk to people. He can make anybody laugh even with a dead body in the room.
However, he just got fired from this job last month for arguing over salary. This put enormous stress on my family, especially my mother. While he still has his video store and the hospital job, together they both barely make ends meet. Don't be worried though because he was offered a full time job at another funeral home with less strenuous hours on my 50 year old daddy.
While that is a God send my father has higher ambitions for himself. Bigger dreams that you and I would say to them "um, what?" In fact I did. I walked into the kitchen, and right there on the table was an unmistakable copy of "Starting a Food Truck Company: For Dummies" and "50 Great Food Truck Recipes." Yes. My father wants to start his own food truck company and have me work summers for him. I looked through the pages of the books wondering where on earth this idea could have come from. Immediately my dad pulled up a video online called Food Truck Revolution. I must admit that I was a lot more impressed than I thought I would be.
People who don't have the money to start restaurants, start food trucks. More often than not the food truck becomes an actual eating establishment but the truck lives on. I didn't realize how amazing the food that comes from them can be. It's funny because you can name your food anything you want at a food truck whereas a restaurant you would want to name your food something sophisticated. One food truck named one of their choices "Big Ass Sandwich" solely based on the fact that it really was a humungous sandwich.
There are setbacks however to running a foodtruck. If you have a truck with only one window, it limits you to one side of the street. The trucks themselves are the most expensive cost. For Dummies says that you should spend no more than 15,000 on your truck but the ones that sell for good are at least 25,000. Not only that but then you would have to have a mechanic check out the truck for fear of fault machinery. An ice cream truck is more expensive than burger truck. A pizza truck needs to have a ceramic oven in it, which makes the temperatures in the truck unbearable hot. And the time tested question, where do you go to the bathroom?
BUT THINK OF THE GOOD STUFF. You can take your business anywhere. If you have to move, your business moves with you. Festivals and fairs often hire food trucks because the mess is easier to clean up. There is less customer attitude because they don't sit down to eat... they leave. When there's a concert in Philadelphia you can drive your truck right up to it and serve food to the multitude of people. Food truck food is less expensive but have more customers than an average restaurant. With the great social networking of the generation one can simply tweet "#LarrysBurgers Going to be in front of Lincoln Financial field between 12-3. Go Eagles!" and you will find a swarm of hungry costumers coming to your truck from wherever they are. It's becoming a wildly popular idea among the masses. One that I hope happens for my dad.
The other night my dad got all excited about this food festival on Germantown Avenue, in Philadelphia. We took my friend Matt who is always excited about new food. Me, my dad, and Matt arrived on the street and all you could see among the huge crowds were food trucks. As many that could meet the eye. There was your standard, italian, burger, and ice cream trucks. But then they got creative. There was a vegan truck, a Mexican bar-b-que truck, Native American inspired truck, grilled cheese truck, a hot doggery truck, and even a beer distributor truck. All of the food was delicious. The Native American inspired food truck even had blueberry soup, I didn't taste it for fear of wasting 3 dollars. But I did have one of their bean and cheese empanadas. 3 dollars well spent.
This was the menu for The Dapper Dog. At food truck conventions
they only offer 2-4 types of their food. On regular work days just driving around the
menu is more complete. Food truck only put out their best selling products
when they are competing.
This was the best truck in my opinion. Look for it if you're ever in Philly.
Delicious grilled cheeses.
Yours,
Lou
Friday, August 17, 2012
Camp. Camp Tockwogh.
Hello,
Well I'm back from the depths of summer. I love summer vacation but with summer vacation comes a summer job. Dun dun dun. However, I have the best job of all during the summer months. Summer camp! Not just any summer camp, Camp Tockwogh on the Chesapeake Bay. A place where magic ensues for children ages 7-17. Younger kids are comforted by caring and patient counselors, while the older kids have older role models and good influences to look up to.
I live in the middle of those two ages. I have 11-13 year old girls in my cabin every session. The best of times and the worst of times. There are tears over boys, bodies, and missing denim abercrombie shorts. That's actually a real story I had to live through. It's a funny age for kids to go through and my experiences are living proof. I never in my life realized the pressures that pre-teen girls go through, and it might seem so silly to us but it's a very real concept for them.
For example, we have a dance every session for the 11-13 year old age group. The counselors had to live through about 5 of these dances through out the summer, so we start to lose our steam after the second one. We always have a theme for the dances that only the counselors get into because we love to dress up! Besides, what pre-teen wants to dress up as a pirate for our pirates vs. ninjas theme? Not many. So instead of dressing to the theme, there is a certain protocol that apparently all 13 year old girls must adhere to.
Here it is:
~ Plain colored flip flops
~ Denim or colored shorts
~ Sugar lips (or other tight fitting tank top)
~ Cammy with cute top over it
~ Crop top
~ NO JEWELRY
~ Black eye liner, mascara, and eye shadow
~ Straight hair or some type of braid
*Dresses may be suitable as long as 1 to 2 of friends are wearing them as well
I had no idea that this was such an important part of going to the dances that this shocked me. I was taking my cabin to the dance after an hour and a half of getting ready, pictures, and comparing outfits. We're halfway to the rec hall when a girl comes bawling out of her cabin wearing a pink top and running shorts. She started going on and on about how she didn't have jean shorts and no one in her cabin was her size and she didn't want to go to the dance looking like THIS. I said "Come to my cabin we'll find you something!" So of course none of my clothes fit her because she's a size 2 and I'm a size 8. When I told her I had dresses she sobbed even harder about how none of her friends were wearing dresses. In my head I rolled my eyes... but I felt sorry for her. I grabbed another counselor from a cabin that hadn't left yet. She looked about the same size as the crying camper. I explained to her why she was upset and if she could lend her any of her clothes then she would stop crying. She had just the right pair of jean shorts for her that were from american eagle. Perfect. Then the girl turns to me and says "Do you know how to french braid?" No I don't. So that meant another trip to find a counselor who could. Finally, hair french braided and jean shorts on, she asked me to do her make up because she didn't have any. This girl warmed my heart.
I didn't realize how sensitive girls were to these kinds of things. I was a girl and I don't remember caring all that much about how I looked. I often times showed up to school with wet hair from showering that morning while other girls had dry, straightened hair. It just goes to show that this is a reality for them, no matter how silly we all think it is.
I love camp. I really do. It has nothing to do with selfish means and everything to do with FTK (for the kids). And if you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong place because some of the things I do, like helping a crying girl with the peer pressure to fit in, is something I'll never get paid enough for.
In this economy, you'd think it'd be more cost effective to stand out instead of fitting in. Just a thought.
Love,
Lou
Well I'm back from the depths of summer. I love summer vacation but with summer vacation comes a summer job. Dun dun dun. However, I have the best job of all during the summer months. Summer camp! Not just any summer camp, Camp Tockwogh on the Chesapeake Bay. A place where magic ensues for children ages 7-17. Younger kids are comforted by caring and patient counselors, while the older kids have older role models and good influences to look up to.
I live in the middle of those two ages. I have 11-13 year old girls in my cabin every session. The best of times and the worst of times. There are tears over boys, bodies, and missing denim abercrombie shorts. That's actually a real story I had to live through. It's a funny age for kids to go through and my experiences are living proof. I never in my life realized the pressures that pre-teen girls go through, and it might seem so silly to us but it's a very real concept for them.
For example, we have a dance every session for the 11-13 year old age group. The counselors had to live through about 5 of these dances through out the summer, so we start to lose our steam after the second one. We always have a theme for the dances that only the counselors get into because we love to dress up! Besides, what pre-teen wants to dress up as a pirate for our pirates vs. ninjas theme? Not many. So instead of dressing to the theme, there is a certain protocol that apparently all 13 year old girls must adhere to.
Here it is:
~ Plain colored flip flops
~ Denim or colored shorts
~ Sugar lips (or other tight fitting tank top)
~ Cammy with cute top over it
~ Crop top
~ NO JEWELRY
~ Black eye liner, mascara, and eye shadow
~ Straight hair or some type of braid
*Dresses may be suitable as long as 1 to 2 of friends are wearing them as well
A Picture of my 2nd session girls before the dance. Notice the attire.
Then notice the counselor in the background wearing a super hero costume.
See what I mean?
Here are the counselors. Notice how I am the only
one not in costume (I am holding a Thor hammer though)?
I didn't realize how sensitive girls were to these kinds of things. I was a girl and I don't remember caring all that much about how I looked. I often times showed up to school with wet hair from showering that morning while other girls had dry, straightened hair. It just goes to show that this is a reality for them, no matter how silly we all think it is.
I love camp. I really do. It has nothing to do with selfish means and everything to do with FTK (for the kids). And if you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong place because some of the things I do, like helping a crying girl with the peer pressure to fit in, is something I'll never get paid enough for.
In this economy, you'd think it'd be more cost effective to stand out instead of fitting in. Just a thought.
Love,
Lou
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