T left on Friday, and I headed to work at the restaurant. I always feel a sense of impending doom as I am driving there, but I usually snap out of it once I get going. I still don't like it, but I am able to tuck my soul away in a the corner of my bag while I slug it our for five hours or so. This was easily my best night so far, with almost no mistakes. It was also the least busy, so I didn't make much money. This may have been partially due to the fact that they had a "band" playing, as they are wont to do on a Friday night. The woman and her husband play "hits from the sixties, seventies, and eighties," accompanied by a guitar and a guy who sat at a table eating dinner next to them and performing the more-than-occasional solo on harmonica. I do not, in theory, have a problem with any of these things. I do, however, feel that people who go out to dine with their families on a Friday night might not want music blaring at them from the next room.
The Boss Wife has some rules which I find baffling. We are supposed to use a tray to carry food to table, even if there are only two plates and it would be easier and less dangerous to simply carry one in each hand. Her reasoning is that "This isn't a diner," which I believe means that she thinks using a tray is classier. I have two issues with this logic (probably more, if I took the time to think about it): One, when you carry the tray. you have to set it down before you remove plates from it anyway, and sometimes you are setting it down out of sight of the tables, so all they see is the waitperson carrying the plates anyway; and Two, we accept fucking coupons. Various kinds of coupons, discounts, frequent diner cards, and two-for-one deals, which again, I don't have a problem with in theory (Actually, that's a lie. The food is way too expensive and we should lower the prices and leave them that way, thereby eliminating the bullshit involved with handling and processing these various "deals" during a busy shift), but you can't act all hoity-toity about your establishment and then ask diners to pick a card from a deck and possibly win five dollars off of their bill. Seriously. Like we don't have enough to deal with just trying to time the food, drinks, and payment for multiple tables.
So I'm kind of over that place, in case you couldn't tell. Another problem is that we have satellite radio streaming in the dining room, and the Husband Boss always wants it on the same station, which includes various "hits" from the nineties through now, and I hear the same songs, every single night. The ones I recognize I already heard ad nauseum during my stint at the Sports Bar in Chicago in the late nineties- you know, V3rtical H0rizon, The G00 G00 D0lls, 3 D00rs D0wn, etc. The new stuff is even worse, because it seems as if most of them are just ripping off all the same people. When I ask a co-worker "Who sings this?" I almost always find that it's a "winner" from that fucking "Merkin Id0l" show. Ugh. That plus the three large screen teevees, one of which is always flashing the latest paranoid fantasy from F0X "News", and you can see why it's difficult for a woman to wind down at the end of the night. I have been sleeping like crap (except for the couple nights when T was here and we just talked until we almost dropped anyway).
The good news is that I got a call last week from a nice Local Restaurant. This place has actual bus people, food runners, and a sense of decorum (we ate there with T on Wednesday). Also, there are no teevees is the dining room. I called that guy back on Friday, and I am waiting a call from him.
Since my car is about on it's last leg anyway, I need to get a job that I can walk to. I had to buy a new tire on Thursday, which was much less difficult than it could have been. I actually bought a used one, so it was under forty bucks. Got it done up in Barry at a tiny shop. They had me in and out of there in about fifteen minutes, so T and I still had plenty of time to get to the Shelburne Museum.
So this week I have Restaurant, Restaurant, a day of orientation at the Local Food Co-Op, potentially a half day that evening at the "Local" Health Food Store, then two doubles at the Restaurant, then a full day (maybe two) next weekend at the Local Health Food Store again.
Which means you may or may not be hearing more from me this week. Try to survive.