http://www.restaurantgal.com Scenes from the podium...one pager at a time. Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:20:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en When I first moved to South Florida, I lived in complete and abject fear that I was destined to share my home with the dreaded Palmetto bug--aka the Florida version of a giant, disgusting cockroach. "Everyone has them, battles them," I was told over and over again by Fort Lauderdale friends. Not ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/08/whacky-keys-wildlife/ "You must snorkel and fish and be out on the water all the time!" says everyone and anyone who has vacationed here for those purposes. At the year-and-a-half mark of my living in the Keys, the following pathetic statistics bear witness to my landlocked life here: I have been fishing once, ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/08/water-world-or-how-the-sandbar-changed-my-life/ It wasn't the prone-to-angry-outbursts, double-Captain-and-Coke customer who reappeared after a 30-day stint "away at college." It wasn't the open-shirted, barefoot customer who dug in his pocket for all the change he had and asked, "Is this enough for a drink?" It wasn't the who-knows-when-he-last-showered customer who has a propensity for ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/07/gotta-go/ When you are one of seven children in a blended family, everyone is cast in a role repeatedly played out, despite all efforts to break free and re-create oneself. One sister, for example, was the clumsy one, something of which she was reminded every day, which resulted in continual mishaps ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/07/lost-and-found/ "Hi," he said, way too awake and far too jovial for my morning crowd. "Let me introduce myself." My regulars grudgingly looked up and silently acknowledged his presence, then immediately turned back to their styrofoam cups of dark coffee. "Can I get you something from the bar?" I asked. "No, no. I'm ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/07/mosquito-man/ Anyone who knows me knows I am no cook. It's not that I can't cook--I can, and fairly well if I focus enough. It's just that I'd rather do anything--including dishes--than cook. Oh sure, back in the day I cooked for the family ("Who wants breakfast for dinner?"), and once ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/07/baking-day/ He was small, but tough. Very tough. And very small. When they needed someone to crawl through unimaginably tight spaces and fix, find or forage for what might keep them all alive another hour, he was their man. He was small and tough and very intelligent. He spoke with authority, certainty ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/06/time-to-savor-the-blossoms/ "You look so familiar," he said to RG Daughter as she poured his drink. "Really? I grew up here, and I live and work here now that I'm out of school," RG Daughter said, well into the second hour of a freelance bartending shift. "No, no. Not here. Did you ever live ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/06/smallest-odds-in-the-smallest-world/ 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 ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/06/threes-the-charm-ii/ I have taken a third job, which means I now work eight shifts, with two as doubles. I am not complaining at all. I am grateful to be working and finally paying my bills with a little left over. I have many stories in mind, however. Soon, I know, I ... http://www.restaurantgal.com/2010/06/threes-the-charm/