One hundred posts? Already?

Today I got a big surprise. I was over at my gmail account checking on the comments, and I found someone other than John had left a comment. It was a mysterious post asking if I was a certain Erik formerly from Concord. And from a place called Zissler. (Say it out loud in a bit of a whisper.) The person was a longtime missing friend and former coworker of mine, Amber.

Back while I was in college, I worked Christmas and Summer breaks at the Sizzler on Willow Pass in Concord. Retaining my fear of handling food from KFC, I worked what was called The Coldside. There we took orders, prepped the trays, poured the drinks, and, most importantly, took the money.

Amber was one of the waitresses. Those who brought the cheese toast. Got you your refills. Brought you fresh plates for the salad bar. Brought out the hot food. And then left a little plate with mints... and suckers for the kids.

Now at the Concord Sizzler, there always seemed to be a shortage of orange suckers. That was because my sweet tooth demanded that I gather as many orange suckers as possible. I became known for them.

And my friend Amber, who is also a talented artist, began incorporating them into drawing for me. She sent me letters while I was in Sacramento going to college, and they were full of artwork. The picture above was the cover of one of my Christmas cards. She also did kind of freelance work for the Tower Records on Willow Pass. If you were there before they remodelled, and quite a while before they closed, then you probably saw her stuff. Her best piece there, I feel, was her rendition of Chuck Berry. She has been drawing professionally and doing animation for more than ten years now.

During our e-mail conversation today, I found out that one of the animated shows she worked on was "Cow and Chicken". It's not one that I ever watched, but I had heard of it.

I think that's pretty cool.

And she's continuing to work in a field she loves. Now I like geology, and ETIC is great, but to get to draw for a living. That's really great.