The World of Scott Mindeaux

August 27, 2002

First of all, my apologies for not keeping up to date. My computer is still back in CA waiting to be shipped to me here in DC. I’m having to edit this page manually.

I have been very tired. A quick summary. As of 6:17 on Saturday, 8/24 I officially became a resident of the Washington Dc Metro area once again. I’m staying at with my friends Marc and Lee in Falls Church, VA. I still haven’t found a place to live and they have offered a place for me to stay until I find a place. It is most gracious of them. I started work on Monday the 26th. The staff of Sur La Table at Pentagon Row welcomed me and was like family within a few hours. I came to work to find a “welcome” basket that the staff put together. In it were some treats and a Julia Child cookbook that they got signed by Julia Childs! Julia Childs was in our store on the 20th doing a book signing in honor of her birthday and the opening of the Julia Child Exhibit at the American History Museum. I have been inundated with paperwork her at Sur La Table. But I’m getting there and feel like things are falling into place. Slowly.

I also want to say how much I miss all of you back in CA. I miss my family very much and I miss all of you at Mattel and the New School of Cooking. I think of all of you quite often and its the memories that are keeping my spirits up. However, there are many lonely moments as well.

As soon as I have my computer back, I will be able to do updates more often. Until then, journal entries may be scarce. I will try to write more over the next few days.

August 18, 2002

Sunday Sunday! I got real early this morning. Mario was showing the room to a potential roommate this morning. I got up at 8, showered and went to have breakfast with my friend “Abercrombie Boy” in Santa Monica. It was good to see him.

After breakfast I headed back to find that Mario’s potential roommate was still here. I announced myself and went straight to the job of packing. The rest of the day was spent packing and throwing stuff away. I also took the shelves off the wall. I was a bit antsy today. The closer and closer I get to next Friday, I get more and more nervous. I got a couple of return calls today for rooms for rent. I hope I find a place soon. I bought my one way ticket to DC today as well as reserve a rental for me to use while I’m in DC waiting for my car to arrive. I have an appointment with the DMV to get my car registered. On Tuesday I will be moving a bunch of stuff back to my parents house.

Tonite was my going away party from my colleagues at The New School of Cooking. We originally were set to have it at Crustacean, but they don’t serve dinner on Sundays. We then opted for Chinois on Main. Wolfgang Puck’s second venture after Spago. We had a great time. For a Sunday nite, it was packed! Carol was the first to show up. We walked in and was seated while we waited for Anne, May and Eileen. Now, the decor in this place is a bit “gaudy”. I mean..it wasn’t too bad…but it was like mixing Asian with Cuban with Sir Lawrence Lewellan from Changing Rooms all in one place. Apparently, Wolfgang Puck’s wife, Barbara, was responsible for the interior design.

We opened with the Lobster Spring Rolls and Chinois Chicken Salad. The Chicken Salad was excellent! For entrees we had the Port Hot Pot, Vegetable Fried Rice, Stir Fried Beans, Cantonese Duck Charcoal Grilled Szechwan Beef and Grilled Salmon with Black and Gold Noodles. Everything was excellent! I particularly liked the Duck and the Hot Pot. TO close dinner, we had the Japanese Lemon Curd Tart, a wonderful concoction of banana and coconut in a chocolate box served with coconut gelato, Macadamian Nut Tart. What a wonderful dinner. I looked around the table many times tonite and realized that I will truly miss everyone. I will miss Carol for being my mentor and inspiration. I will miss Anne for her energy and dedication. May, what can I say….ever since I met you we have been joined at the hip. Eileen, it was been a pleasure working with you. I’m sorry that we never worked in the kitchen together. Anne got me a Girt Certificate for Washington DC’s newest restaurant, Ten Penh. DC’s new Asian Fusion cuisine. Eileen got me a copy of MK Fisher’s “The Gastronomical Me”. We got the bartender to take a picture of us. Eileen, don’t forget to give me a copy!

We left and hung out in front of Chinois. We all hugged each other goodbye. I walked away thinking about the friends I leave behind. My sister called me during dinner so I returned her call on the way home. She wanted more details on what was up. I gave her a run down. She and Charles are leaving for Vegas on Friday, so I won’t see them for much longer. I told her I’d probably be spending the nite at mom’s from Wednesday to Friday. The kids will probably sleep over on Wednesday.

Well back to some packing then off to bed. I have an 8:10 appointment at the DMV. Nite!

August 16, 2002

Good morning everyone. Well I got up this morning at 8:20 and turned on the news. I sat in bed listening to all the news. I have been waking up to the KTLA morning news now for about 3 years. I’m going to miss my morning team. I logged on and answered about 12 new ads in the Washington Blade and Craigslist.org. While perusing thru a few ads, I ran across an ad for a room for rent in Sterling VA. The name on the email was August Jackson. Now…I said to myself, “how many August Jackson’s can there be in the Washington DC area”. I used to know this guy named August when I lived in Washington DC. August was just one of these overall nice guys who was quite likable, smart and damn cute! Looks like he’s been living out in Sterling now for several years after buying a house with his partner Barry. I wrote to August and he did remember me!

I called into the store today to try and reach Robin. I wanted to check in with her about the Winter 2002 catalog. I needed to find out how much programming had already taken place. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in. I talked to Mike and apparently Sally (the last coordinator) had started some of it. I’ll need to meet with Sally soon. Mike asked how I was doing and I told him things were good, considering.

After that I headed down to Irvine to talk to my parents and to see the kids. Dallas and ToniLyn were at Disneyland and Lyn’s kids were with here shopping at WalMart. They said they would meet me at dad’s house. ON the way down there I called into TNSOC to find out what the cryptic voicemail was about. Eileen answered. We talked for about 30 seconds and she had to answer the phone. Needless to say she left me on hold for 5 minutes and I had to log off. I wanted to see if the disk was ready yet. Eileen called me back and told me she had already started to convert the document to PDF format. What she asked me to do is the cover of the web version of the catalog. I told her I would get it done by tomorrow.

When I got to Irvine I parked and walked into the house. It was quiet and all I could here were kids yelling in the front family room. I snuck up into the family room and wanted to scare my nephews. As I crept up to the sofa, I peeked over and saw two blond kids sitting there playing on the XBox. Then it hit me that these two kids were Damian and Jason. WHATS WITH THE BLOND HAIR??? I scared them and they jumped. I then asked them what was up with the hair and they said it was cuz they wanted to. They looked like little Tony Hawks and little Dave Mirras. It was funny.

Dad came down and I said hello. We talked about my situation and that went on for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Lyn showed up with Sade. Guess they went shopping. Leslie and Laura were over from across the street. We were all getting hungry and they wanted me to cook. Dad gave me some money and I took Damian and Jason with me shopping.

We had dinner then I got really sleepy and wanted to go home. Mom, of course, said to just stay the nite. When I got home I talked to Mario. A guy named Justin came by to look at the room. Guess he moved here form Aspen Colorado and was in computers. He also didn’t have any furniture and was staying on a friends couch. He made an offer for the bed and I got $50 for it. Mario offered to keep the boxes in his house and would ship them to me as needed. It was a gracious offer.

Anyways…I’m very sleepy…time for bed. Nite.

August 15, 2002

I got up this morning to the sound of the Waste Management truck banging the metal bins against the truck. Ugh…and then there was the stupid reverse beep the truck made. I just got myself out of bed, splashed some water on my face and went straight to the computer to check to see if anyone responded to my “room for rent” inquiries. I must have scoured the City Paper website about three times and went to about 6 different roommate sites. I have decided to extend my living area to include Falls Church and parts of Tysons. What I haven’t done is expand my living area into Maryland.

It got to be about 11:30 and I showered and got ready to have lunch with John. John and I got together and caught up on things going on at the office. There were some “official” business stuff he had to ask as well as some office goings on. I asked how the gang was and he said everyone was well.

When I got back home from lunch…I had another panic attack. I’m moving in 9 days and I have no place to go. I have no idea how I’m getting my stuff there and how about the car??? I’m freaking out.

About an hour or so after I saw John, I got an email from him that a member of the client services management team was arrested today for stealing Mattel product. Apparently he had a few aliases and had some other outstanding warrants. I couldn’t believe this. What the fuck I said. I always thought there was something wrong about this person. From the first day I met this person…I knew there was something shady about him. Interesting that it was Bennie that had hired him….. hmmm…..

After that I headed down to Irvine to see my parents and have a discussion about my move. While on the way down I called my sister Beth to find out what she was doing. Seems her kids were at Charlie’s mom’s house for the night. Damn….I’m not going to see the kids. When I got home I found that Dad had already left for work and I gave mom and hug and a kiss. She said she was a bit tiffed with me that I have been in the dark with them about what’s up the last week or so. She said that I was leaving in less than two weeks and haven’t visited them in over two weeks. Beth came over to mom’s house and we talked. Lynn called, she just got back from Vegas. Seems Lynn and the family are moving to Vegas. They got an offer for their house in Lake Forest for $395K and its in Escrow. Mom is a bit sad that two of her kids are moving away again.
I got home to find only one response form about 10 emails I sent today. What is the deal??? A very kind person named Geraldine emailed me about her place. I got all excited when I read she had cats. I was just about to email her back and thank her for considering me when I got another email from her. Seems she logged onto www.scottmindeaux.com and read my daily thoughts and read about my allergies to dander. She then also offered places to find Asian cooking products in NVA. As you recall, Jim and I were looking for a place over the weekend.

Tomorrow I hit the papers again and hope I can find a place to live. Keep your fingers crossed! Nite!

Training Day

I got up at 4am Eastern Time to get ready to head to the airport. I showered and then got dressed and ready to head out to the airport. I folded up my beddings from the nite before. I spent the nite at Marc and Lee’s couch. There was a power outage around midnight and the power didn’t come on for about an hour and a half. Now…that might not seem so bad, but Marc and Lee live on the 14th floor or a tall apartment building. It was about 90 degrees outside and it had just rained so humidity was like 100%. No AC and now air movement for an hour made the room ultra stuffy. The power came back on and I was able to finally get to bed. The AC and air helped a lot. I quietly left the apartment and headed down to the car. Walking to the car, I recalled that I had a sucky weekend looking for housing. I pray things get better this week.

I got to the airport at around 5:15am. I dropped off the car and shuttled myself to the terminal. I checked in and changed my seat selection to the exit row, window seat. I said to myself “woohoo!”! I would later find out that this seat selection backfired big time. Now….I’m a big guy….but the guy that was seated in the middle seat was bigger than me and I basically sat scrunched in my chair the ENTIRE trip. I couldn’t relax my shoulders for 5 hours. Plus this guy was spilling over into my seat and was touching me the whole way. Okay…so I’m bitching. THis guy was eating a bagel with cream cheese and I kept telling myself….god you’re eating carbs and your going to bloat because of it. Then he had like two things of cola to wash his bagel down. It was a horrible trip home. When we landed I finally was able to take a deep breath. I picked up my bags and headed home for a shower.

After my shower I had to report to work. Not to Mattel, but to Sur La Table. Sandy from corporate was down and I would be in training for the next two days. When I got to the store I went straight to the kitchen classroom. there I would find 3 women. I said hello and asked if Sandy was around, then this wonderful blond turned around and said “Scott???” I said yes and we both hugged. She said she should have recognized my voice. We got to training after a short delay. The rest of the day would be spent training on classroom setup, class curriculum, scheduling and assorted discussions on store operations. In attendance was Kim, a very likable woman who was in the catering business who was the new Culinary Coordinator for Santa Monica. Then there was Bonnie, store manager of Farmer’s Market; Nette Scott the assistant coordinator for Farmers, Kim the assistant coordinator from Newport Beach; Meghan the assistant store manager for Farmers and Sandy from corporate.

Our day ended around 6:45 and I headed home. ON the way I stopped by TNSOC to pickup work Anne wanted me to work on. I got there and Carol was there with cute guy Rob as her assistant tonite. I talked to Carol for awhile. I was telling her about my day of training and how overwhelmed I felt and whether or not I made the right decision. As my mentor, Carol put me back on track and reminded me why I was doing this. Anne was on vacation and Eileen was heading up OPs in her absence.

Once home I finally was able to wind down and finally sleep in my own bed. Oh my god..it felt so good. By the way…no leads whatsoever on the “home” front. Screw it…I’m going to bed.

August 12, 2002

Ooops….looks like my journal entry for Monday didn’t get saved in my last edit. Let’s see if I remember what happened. I got up at around 8:30 and started off on the house hunt again. I made several phone calls and got some return calls. I have three appointments today. First place is in the District near Logan Circle, the second in Alexandria near Potomac Yards and the third in South Arlington near Falls Church. I then logged on and checked out a few new listings. I also tried Craigslist.org. I sent out a few emails from ads on that site.

I checked out of the hotel at 11:30. I headed over to the store to check in with Mike and to meet my assistant, Robin. I walked in and Mike and Robin were in the back office. I said hello and Mike got up and with a big smile said hello back. He introduced my to Robin Leaf, my assistant. Robin was a cheerful person who seemed to have a lot of energy. I told them about my housing woes. Mike and Robin said they’d keep their ears and eyes out for places. I then told Robin that I wanted to take a few pictures of the classroom to bring back with me. She and I walked to the kitchen and we talked for about an hour. Robin gave me a quick history of the program at Arlington and then went into issues that were going on in the school. Afterwards, I spent time opening drawers and cabinets to find out what was where and to check the cleanliness of the kitchen.

After being at the store, Jim Burn ell (someone I was supposed to go apt hunting with this past weekend) called. He was in North Carolina this weekend visiting his sister. He and I had lunch at Subway. We talked about the roommate situation and I think we came to a mutual understanding that I should continue on my venture on my own.

After lunch I dropped Jim off at home after a wild goose chase for an Asian Market in the area. I was looking to see where I could buy Asian cooking products in the area. I headed into the city to scout out the first place. Based on the info I had, this place was not in Logan Circle. This place was more in Ledroit Park. Now…Ledroit is an evolving neighborhood, but on this particular place, it was a bit un-evolved for my tastes. I wasn’t going to feel comfortable walking down my street or feeling that my car would be safe. So ixnay on this place. The guy I talked to talked this place so much and the price was so right. I said this place was too good to be true. Well…that was the case.

Feeling more discouraged, I headed back into VA. I was going to meet Scott Shumaker and Sean McEnroe for drinks..but I got depressed and headed back. The Falls Church place looked kewl to start, but then I get there and there is a dog in the house. Why don’t people fill out their ads properly??? Now … don’t get me wrong..I like animals. Unfortunately I’m allergic to dander, making it difficult for me to live with a dog or cat. The third place was in Alexandria near Potomac Yards. Turns out to the be the mob living there. More people that the ad said.

So totally depressed that my entire weekend was a huge bust, I headed over to Marc and Lee’s place. I stayed there on my last nite as my flight back to LA was very early in the morning out of Dulles Airport. while at Marc’s place, they offered for me to stay there while I continue my house hunt. It was very gracious of them. Chris Carlisle, another dear friend, offered his place while he was helping Captain Janeway’s husband reach the governors seat in Ohio.

It was a long day….I’m heading to bed. Will be nice to be back in LA..