How Old am I Getting...Or How Fast is Life Killing Me?

I train new hires for our restaurant. But did they throw me a curve ball yesterday!

A girl who worked at our store over ten years ago when she was sixteen as a hostess , came back to be trained a server (this is where I get dragged into it.)

A beautiful tall blond, so full of life it makes me sick (or maybe a bit jealous.)

Her enthusiasm has no bounds. She gets pumped just taking dishes to the dish pit.

She is so eager that I find myself constantly having to stop her from going too far. Her first day on the floor with me she started going up to my tables and taking orders...putting them in on the computer...some were on the wrong table, some were wrong totally and sometimes she rang an item on the wrong check. I told her that she shouldn't be waiting on tables yet, that on her fifth day of training she would work a lead shift where she waited on all my tables with me observing.

She quickly (she does everything QUICKLY) said she understood, but I felt like I had hurt her feelings. I explained that if I got 'shopped' by corporate when she waited on a table while in training, the report would come back with the name "COTTON" on it and it would be recorded in my file.

She quickly agreed and came back not five minutes later saying that we had been seated with a table again and she already had the order.

HELLO !!! ???

She was quick as well to clear off a table as soon as the guests left. She would come up and say "Here's your charge slip...nice tip." At one point I made the comment that I couldn't believe that one woman who paid cash didn't leave me a tip. She cheerfully said "Oh yeah she did, I have the money in my back pocket !"

I want to express here that I under NO circumstances think that she was trying to take my money...she was trying to help me out.

My husband and I have been going through a rough time financially and every dime counts. I just don't feel comfortable with someone picking up my pay check...and that is what tips are...my PAYCHECK.

I got extremely busy and she had rung in at LEAST four tables wrong and some of the tables I couldn't even FIND on the screen.

I was scrambling to get caught up and fix the table numbers when they seated me with the cheapest people I have ever met. I don't mean to say they were asses ...they were just incredible. They were nice enough but when the mother asked me if we charged for extra butter on a potato I knew I was in trouble.

They asked for peanuts twice...one portion for the table and one helping in a to- go bag. The (free) bread I just couldn't bring fast enough and refilling their seven waters was a full time job. They all had those tiny "Crystal Light on the Go" packets and made their own drink every time I refilled a glass.

By this point I didn't know what tables I even had or what they had ordered since my "Bubbly" trainee had done it all for me (thank YOU.)

Then as I was pre busing (clearing away all the dishes) my "El Cheapo" table started asking for to-go boxes for their bread, peanuts and anything else edible on the table.

I picked up a dish that had nothing on it but the wooden skewers that had held their Kebobs together (the cheapest item on our menu.) I remarked to the woman "Are you through with his dish?"

She hastily replied "NO.. I want to keep those wooden skewers for when I have to test a cake."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Does this woman not have toothpick in her entire house ?

These things are about ten inches long and have been stuck through a piece of raw meat...cooked and handled and then you want to take them home to test a freakin' cake?

At this point my trainee came up to me frantically saying that she had to leave because she had driven her boyfriend's car and he was selling it and had someone coming by to look at it.

I said "PLEASE...just go do what you have to do."

She made the remark "I am soooo glad they put me with you...you can fix anything that I screw up... You are the BEST waitress EVER !!!!!!"

After cleaning the ten dirty tables that she left me with and doing my sidework it took me an hour and a half to get out of there. She is supposed to be my "GRUNT" She is supposed to be doing these things for ME not the other way around!

So I went to a meeting this morning at the store at 8:45 after collapsing last night after my grueling shift with the most excited person I have ever met (and that means a LOT coming from someone like me.)

I came home from the meeting about 11:00 and jumped on my John Deere (after jump starting it from my car) and cut grass for three hours. Hopped off the lawn mower and took Massey to Barnes and Noble. I got to the shopping center but just felt light headed and confused. I passed Barnes and Noble and remarked "Why are we at Big Buys?" Massey said it was Best Buys and why did I go past Barnes and Noble?

I told her I was glad we were in a parking lot.

South Atlanta...it is brutal for June. When I cut the grass today we had a heat index of 104 degrees.
The heat doesn't normally bother me, but I knew that the broiling sun had taken its toll.

We chilled out in Barnes and Noble for a while while I looked at books...I could do that for hours, but felt it best to go home and rest.

I rested for an hour before I had to go to work. I still felt weird but knew once I got back with my excited trainee I would feel weird anyway.

My mind just wasn't working. I was talking to a table about our newest items pictured in our promo menu. I told them about a couple of them and when I came to the pic of the lobster tail paired with a filet , I said tapping the picture..."You can get our filet with a ...ummm.. once again tapping the picture of the lobster...uhh...tapping the picture again and said unexpectedly "What do you call these?"

The customer looked up at me and said questionably "Lobster?"

I responded a bit too quickly "YES" !!

I then had to explain to them that I felt a little strange... had spent the last three hours out in the sun and just felt a little off. I assured them that I had no part in preparing their meal...but felt like I could do my job successfully without having to ask THEM anymore questions.

It is brutal here south of the "Hotlanta."

I drink water all day long, but today has reminded me of how humidity, heat ...stress and anxiety can really affect (or is it effect ?) you.

When you work in a high stress job (many people would think I am whining...but YOU try it) and you are crashing into fifty while most of your co workers are plowing carelessly into their twenties, it's not only hard to keep up...it's hard to make yourself viable as a good role model, much less feel good about yourself as you walk out the door to not go out and party but go home to your family.

All in all I am a lucky person, it is just that these young adults wear me out and tend to make me feel even older . HEY!! Isn't that MY kids job?