I had to work a catering job for my restaurant at 6AM. I fell into bed at 2:30 to be awakened at 4:30 by the absurd beeping of my alarm clock. It is the most annoying and irritating "GET UP" beeping that has ever been programed into an alarm clock and that is why it works.
My car broke down on Monday when I got into the seat to crank it up with NO time to spare. It did NOTHING and luckily my husband was still awake having just arrived home from a 12 hour shift on the loading dock.
He wanted me to help him push it out of the garage and try to jump it off when I screamed at him "I gotta go NOW."
He took me to work (driving slow as Aunt Bee with Barney as a co pilot) and I just felt like life had once again punched me in my small chest and shoved me down another path of ultimate despair. I worked a straight through double and bummed a ride home. Tuesday my brother in law took me to work and I worked another straight through double shift and bummed yet another ride home.
Wednesday I had to bum a ride at 5:30 in the morning from another server who was working the same catering job I was.He is a pretty new server (see previous Back Street Boy post.)
He was really nice and said he didn't mind picking me up at all. He said to dress warm because his driver side window wouldn't roll up. More good news for me!
Woke up at 4:30 to the sound of wind and rain...not a good sign. I had originally told him I would meet him at the end of our sub division by the MPH sign but after looking outside decided to call him and ask him to come into the subdivision and pick me up at my house.
He pulled into my driveway and I told him not to be offended but I really didn't want to ride shot gun. I opted to sit in back on the driver's side for a little more warmth. He told me there was a blanket there but I said I would be fine wrapped up in my trench coat with a wool lining that my brother gave me for Christmas a few years back. We were ten minutes from my house when I asked him where that blanket was. The rain and wind was freezing me but I was just grateful to have a ride so I buried my hands and feet in the blanket and counted my blessings.
We had to go to Carrollton about 40 minutes from Newnan and missed our turn off on the by pass. He said "I think we went too far" and I agreed. I told him to turn around and he turned down the next street.
He passed the first driveway without turning around in it and then the next. He kept driving slowly in the rain and fog down an isolated street I have never been on and as he rounded the third winding curve I began to think to myself "How well do I really know this guy?' As I started imagining all kind of scenarios (none of them good) I said "You know my kids had a chip implanted in my neck last year for tracking purposes."
He laughed and said he thought the street was a horse shoe and would dump us back out on the by pass. Thank goodness it did and I started to relax in my frozen state. He was right and we continued on our way.
It was pitch black dark and once we hit the Carrollton city limits we got lost again. He pulled into a gas station to ask a man pumping gas into his truck for directions. The man gave the most confusing long winded and unhelpful directions I have ever heard. After about three minutes of his rambling, my co worker said to him "I'm not going to be able to remember any of that." I told my co worker just to ask where I-20 was and the ole geezer said pointing up the road "Right up ere."
So we drove right up "ere" and there it was!
When we finally found the place and pulled in (wind and rain still blowing in my face) we parked. I told Billy (my co worker) "Be sure to lock the doors when we get out." He gave me a look like "Har dee har har" but at least we had made our destination.
It was conference for a large corporation..260 people. We quickly changed into our catering shirts and with my feet still numb from the ride began the breakfast shift. We had biscuits with ham and biscuits with chicken, fresh pineapple, blueberries, cantaloupe and honey dew melon. There were croissants, orange juice, cranberry juice and coffee.
After breakfast they began their conference in the ball room and we all broke down the breakfast, cleaned up and prepared for lunch. In the main lobby we had a snack table set up for their breaks...power bars, fresh fruit, water bottles and sodas. The woman organizing the entire affair wanted someone at all times at the snack table. This conference was held on a college campus and she didn't want students strolling though the lobby thinking all this was laid out for them. I went to guard the snacks and my ride to the event (who said he felt like he had been Hoke driving Miss Daisy) kept me company. The college we were at took full advantage of having 260 people at their school and set up a table right next to our "Snack stand." They had phamplets about their school and little give a way goodies on the table (which they left un occupied.) My buddy and I picked up one of the chap sticks they had, hand sanitizers and ink pens to keep. My buddy showed me a great notepad he had gotten and I was dismayed that I had missed that give a way. He said they had a box of them under the table so I told "Hoke" to go get me one. Of course he got me one and we enjoyed our stint of shooing away college students and having a little time to just relax after our adventurous trip to the campus.
About twenty minutes later another co worker showed up to relieve us of our duty. We showed him our goodies and my buddy said "Don't you want one of these neat notebooks?' They were the perfect size for an order pad that we could use at the restaurant. Our co worker is one of the nicest most sincere people you could ever meet. He was a little apprehensive about the notebook but my buddy said "No...they are right here under this table...TAKE one." As my buddy handed him one, he looked around to make sure no one was looking and tucked it away under OUR table.
When my buddy and I resumed our watch at the "Snack table" we dug out the notebook we had forced on our friend and opened it to the first page and wrote "This notebook was stolen by Leonard **********." I bet we laughed for fifteen minutes over THAT one!
It was a hard job and lots of work to do but I haven't laughed that much in a while. From wondering if my co worker was driving me down a road to meet Jeffery Dalhmer's cousin to meeting the guy at the gas station who told us every relative he knew who lived in the path of his directions to ratting out our friend who we had FORCED to take the note pad.
Luckily we all got to eat left over food and I am here to tell you it was the best eating I have had in a while.
I had to be back at the restaurant for a 4:30 shift and ole HOKE drove me back. Once at the store I was thirty minutes early for my shift and crashed on a booth in the back of the store for a quick nap.
Got me a new order pad...got me some chap stick. Also took home TONS of left over food from the catering. The above pic is of all the food in my refrigerator that my family has been living off of for the past two days.
I am broke..WE are broke, but somehow we make it through. Somehow I always find something to laugh at and some way to make life laughable if nothing else.
I told my buddy as he dumped me back at work for my third double in a row "Hoke, you're my BEST friend."
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