On stereotypes and handling them

I'm kinda surprised at how much I enjoy work. When I started looking for work, thinking about working in the restaurant business, I figured it'd be like the other place I worked at, where I was bored out of my mind and hated my job. Little did I know when I started working where I work now that the colleagues would all be the sweetest, the customers (mostly) really friendly, and the tippers generous. I've been treated so well since I started that I've really come to have fun at work, and the six hours daily that I work fly by.

I feel like I'm beginning to get popular at work as well. Yesterday Bata stopped by the bar to drink a Kirin and complain about Karate Husband nagging him in a really quiet yet bitter voice that was almost endearing and certainly entertaining. I felt a little like an accomplice, taking part in the inner gossip of the restaurant, but I also feel for Bata. It must be really hard for people like him, being in a place where you don't speak the language, so finding someone new you can talk to who understands your native language in a totally foreign place must feel pretty refreshing. Unfortunately I could only talk to him for a short while before other customers started showing up, but I hope to get to know him a little better eventually.

Yohei, stereotype A.

Bata, stereotype B.

The lack of similarities between Bata and Yohei in the kitchen crack me up though. They're both 30, and I think they might be friends, but that's kinda where any similarities end, at least as far as I've seen. Yohei looks like Kazehaya from Kimi ni Todoke - he could easily be mistaken for being 20, and he's always smiling and friendly (like when I talked to him briefly before he went home yesterday: "I've caught a cold!" *huge smile*) and even before he understood that I spoke Japanese (which he understood from me asking him something in Japanese in the kitchen and him nearly having a heart attack before being super excited), he'd greet me with what little Swedish he could speak. A typical anime guy. Bata, on the other hand, takes the stereotype in the different direction - he looks like an Akira Kurosawa-movie samurai. Poised, kinda grumpy and very serious-looking. The contrast is really funny.

Anyways, things have been messy in my life lately, but I feel like I've started taking measures to get things in the right direction. Hemingway and I have had some communications problems and a problem understanding each other recently, but we were able to talk about it last night, and while we probably still don't understand each other as well as we'd like to, it's a step in the right direction and a weight off my shoulders.

I got my hair cut off again on Sunday to lighten my mood, and while it's not a bad cut, I'm kinda feeling instantly bored with it. I should have gone another direction with it. I look like a fabulous boy, but I've been looking like a fabulous boy since November last year, and I just wish I would've thought about it a little more before cutting it all off. Then again, it's not bad and I look cute, and my hair grows at lightening speed, so I'll be able to cut it again without having to wait too long for it. Until then, I'll go for looking prim and proper at work, and doing it G-Dragon style for parties.

Because who doesn't want to look this cool?

The only kinda annoying thing about having male style role models and an androgynous style is that people automatically assume you're a lesbian, and while that's not bad in and of itself (especially not when it means attention from cute girls), I don't like the stereotyping that comes with it. I guess it's a reminder to myself to not treat Bata and Yohei differently despite their wildly different demeanors. I'll just forcibly make them both my friends.