In 2010, I worked three jobs simultaneously, driving from one job and one Key to another, back-to-back with only an hour in between, to get these jobs done. I abhorred one job’s customers while I shook my head at another one’s fourth inept manager in as many weeks. The third job, however, I loved–both the [...]
On a whim, I mentioned to a once-upon-a-time-two-years-ago-almost-but-really-never boyfriend who is, thankfully, now a friend, that I was looking for work off the Rock. I was on the other side of his bar, enjoying the evening, waiting for my great guy to get off work. Within two minutes, my now-friend gave me a name and [...]
Happy birthday to one of my favorite co-workers and one of the best cooks I’ve had the pleasure and honor to know. Happy birthday to her for hanging in when times are tough, for hanging in when some of these times present the most challenging of times, for hanging in with me when we work [...]
Add a third place of employment to your daily life, and you soon find that you live in an multi-layered netherworld of “almost” realities–almost feel like I live here; almost wish I could work more shifts there; almost wonder how the more things change, the more things remain the same everywhere. A very short list [...]
The bar was sticky with splashed beer and spilled booze. Ashtrays were washed and stacked, except the ones that weren’t. Limes and lemons rotted in the hand-washing sink. Dirty beer mugs lay on their sides in the “wash” compartment. Straws and peanut shells and bev naps and a dime or two were trapped at awkward [...]
I made it home just fine today, despite the two rum and sodas. I was supposed to work a double, but it was only 10 hours. I needed the rum and sodas because I wasn’t ready to go home after the double that wasn’t. Because it had been a day that felt like ten. Which [...]
A long, long time ago, well before I was a restaurant gal, I was going to make lot of money hosting children’s theme parties. I had an actual location, various theater-quality props, costumes, and a small army of high-school drama-club kids willing to serve cake and ice cream while dressed up as knights and astronauts [...]
“I just want you to know,” said the elderly gentleman on a phone somewhere in very cold and very snowy Pennsylvania, “I am booking this family reunion party with you because you were the only one who took the time to listen to all our requests, and you obviously went out of your way to [...]
A manager somewhere in D.C. at 9:45 a.m.: “Hello?” “Hey, you awake?” “Yep. What’s up?” “Can you come in to work? Gotta a no call, no show.” “Sure. Be there in half an hour.” “Thanks.” A manager somewhere in Key West at 9:45 a.m.: “Hello?” “Hey, you sober?” Pause. Laugh to self. “Yep. What’s up?” [...]
On a day when I discovered the frozen custard I ate for lunch poisoned me with wheat and soy, I did my best to push through the knife-in-the-stomach pains. On a day when my great guy finally got a job in Key West, I did my best to be thrilled. On a day when the [...]