Restaurant Gal

Month: January 2009

  • Four Easy Weeks

    “Are you a local?” asks a customer who is desperate for me to say yes, because she and her husband and the other couple with whom she is traveling are desperate for a truly local experience at my restaurant. Yes, I am, I tell her. “Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaims. “I told you she had…

  • Such a Small Town

    I think I had 9 tickets going at once at one point yesterday. I know all but two tables were full and I was on my own. Everyone got fed. I didn’t get too weeded. No one complained. So I guess I am getting the hang of this. Then, while out on a date last…

  • In Appreciation

    Today is Upset Waitress‘s last day at our restaurant. I don’t know whether to hug her or slap her. After all, she’s the one who convinced this gal to travel south and enjoy the quiet Keys life for the season. And now she’s leaving me to stumble around on my own. She says I’ll be…

  • No One Told Me…

    …that when you move to the Keys, your auto insurance premiums will go down, but your health insurance premiums will skyrocket. …that you will quickly determine the need for dress flip flops. …that you will quickly determine absolutely no need for any article of dress-up clothing you wore in Fort Lauderdale, and that includes those…

  • Homesick

    I haven’t missed an inauguration in D.C. since I was…I don’t know, born maybe. In fact, I haven’t missed much in D.C. when Mall crowd numbers are counted. I remember only that I was very young when my stepfather drove my siblings and me downtown and ferried us up to his hotel’s rooftop so that…

  • Home Work

    “He said you seemed like you were kinda slow ‘up here,’” laughed Upset Waitress, pointing to her temple. “What? You mean because…” “Because he thinks you are a total moron–an idiot,” she laughed again. Of course, he came in again today. He comes in every day. He is 70 and looks and acts like someone…

  • Beyond Tired

    Dear servers I managed in D.C. and Fort Lauderdale: I double and triple sat you all the time. Many apologies. I begged you to stay late and take the last table that, in the end, only left a 10 percent tip. Many thanks. I didn’t help pre-set and pre-bus tables enough. Many thanks, again, for…

  • A Mentor’s Words

    Annie was my aunt by marriage, a step-aunt in fact, but she and I were often as close as a mother and daughter, although we might go a year without seeing each other. We talked every week, however, sometimes for hours. She died almost four years ago, which seems impossible because it feels like a…

  • First Day

    “I could never be a waitress,” laughed a woman who watched me slop coffee and diet coke over the tray I was close to tipping over completely. “I mean look at her!” I was standing right there while she talked about me as if I was a pathetic creature who couldn’t possibly comprehend what she…

  • A View For Healing

    It is true, I am a mess. Yes, I am deeply hurt. I am reeling from my move and all I left behind, again. But…if this is the view a few steps away from my very cool new house, how bad can it be? Or, how good can it be? Very. Very, very good.