Actually limped into work five minutes early this morning...I am so used to working lately I just automatically get up and put on a uniform and could drive to the restaurant with my eyes shut.
I only had to work the lunch shift so it gave me something to look forward to..."A Night Off."
Right off the bat it got busy. We have an awesome brunch and word of mouth seems to be spreading. Brunch spilled over into lunch and I made the comment to Barbara if I was going to have to work this hard every Sunday they'd have to pay me more than $2.13 a hour. She told me she she saw a "Now Hiring" sign at Burger King. Guess that joke didn't work out too well for me...but I had plenty more up my 3/4 length sleeve!
Barbara is quite the spend thrift. She can pinch a penny til it screams. She wastes NOTHING and lets nothing go to WASTE.
She takes home the coffee grounds and tea grounds for her garden.
She keeps two small buckets in the kitchen by the dish area. She makes every server put bread that customers leave in one bucket and she takes it home to feed all the birds in her yard. In the other bucket we have to leave all seafood and meat scraps for a white fox that visits her back yard and the deer that probably line up behind the fox. She feeds the stray cats that hang out in the back of the parking lot at work. She gets livid if she walks through the kitchen and sees that some careless server has actually thrown garbage in the garbage instead of her "wild life fund" bucket.
Today she rooted out a newspaper thrown carelessly away with the coupon pages untouched.
I made the comment to her that she "Would make a great bag lady." I told her if something ever happened to the restaurant she and Len would be just fine. We'd find her an old grocery cart with a wobbly wheel to push around and she'd be set.
Len was in the office with the door open and said "Kelly,you don't know how much truth there is to what you just said."
Barbara said "I grew up very poor...my father died when I was only 8 and my mother never remarried." I said "She never remarried?" Barbara said "no." I said "Well you may have been poor but at least your mom was SMART."
That got me a pretty good chuckle from Barb! (not so much from Len)
My comedy routine spilled over into a baby shower I worked with another server in one of our private rooms. It was just a party of 12 and they were all very nice. We were clearing off the last of the dishes so they could serve the cupcakes when I announced "Okay ladies, the male stripper is finally here and he's wearing a ONESIE ! "
The guest of honor told me after she quit laughing that she thought her water just broke.
BA DA BOOM!
That's right...I'm a good stinkin' server and on top of that you get a free comedy show!
After that show was over and I was preparing to leave the venue (I mean the restaurant) three of us servers were standing at the bar doing our check outs. One of the servers, a cute girl who is head over heels in love with a really great guy pulled out her cell phone and showed us a picture of her dresser in her bedroom. She said "Look what I came home to last night...three long stemmed roses and a handwritten note for no reason at all."
Of course I knew it was from her fireman/SWAT team boyfriend, Richard but decided to act like it was from the crazy Latino in the kitchen at work (and when I say crazy I mean CRAZY)
I said "That's really sweet, was the note in Spanish or did Freddie get someone to write it for him?"
Once again a round of cackles and applause...
I had finished my check out and was clocking out when I announced to the girls "That concludes my show for today but thanks for coming. I'll be working TWO shows tomorrow...Lunch and Dinner, be sure to tell a friend!"
It's a wonderful thing to love a job and to have a job that loves you.
Til next time Phyllis COTTON Diller
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