I got home at 11:00 PM tonight after going in at 10:30 this morning. My eyes look like a lunar eclipse.
Lunch started out with a bang and quickly turned into semi controlled chaos. We didn't have a hostess, both owner's had to go to catering jobs and us three servers and one bartender manned the fort. It was crazy...but a good crazy. We all worked together and just as the bottom started to fall out the owner's son showed up and by the skin of our teeth we made it.
Lunch kept getting busier and busier but by the time we almost went under again, both owner's got back from catering and it all came together.
I laughed (after the rush) and said to the owner "If the people out in the restaurant knew what WE know back here we would all win a prize."
That's what's great about working in a family owned place. It's not just the owner's that are family...we are ALL family.
It got close to being out of control but customers never knew it. We regrouped and plunged on.
I didn't get off til 4 and had to be back on by 5.
Dinner hit with the same ferocity but we were staffed and ready. Christmas is a wonderful time to be a server.
Waiting tables is a crap shoot. You bank big or you go home crying about your losses.
I only went home between shifts to drop off a McDonald's value meal for Massey, the only one home (or awake...Tim was asleep) and back to the firing line I went.
Being a server is all about averages. You have good tables and you have bad tables. You just hope that you have more good tables than bad in any given shift and that at the end of the week it all averages out to your advantage.
My first table was a woman waiting on a friend. I talked her into a nice bottle of Merlot and Mussels Caprese as an appetizer. Her dinner partner came in the front door and said she had a cake and balloons in the car, wanting to know if she could give them to me and me bring them to the table? I told her certainly and she walked back in with a group of balloons big enough to be in the Macy's day parade.
I took them through the front window at the hostess stand and delivered them to the table after the other woman was seated. It only lifted me off the ground a couple of times but I got them there.
They ordered Rack of Lamb...one of our high end dishes and after dinner I brought out the cake.
Between two people they spent $91.00.
The chick who brought in the helium balloons large enough to float a blimp paid the check. She handed me a hundred dollar bill and said to keep the change. I wanted to say "Well I'd better tell Tiny Tim to hang on to that crutch cause his leg ain't gonna get no better on nine bucks."
They were very complimentary about the food and service. As a server, the "Verbal" tip usually means the "Kiss of Death" and once again it did .
But then the next table I had was a party of three. One teen and two women. Tab was $60 and they tipped me $20.
If you are a good server it generally works out to your advantage. Sometimes it doesn't but those are the days that you tell yourself "Today I was the bug on the windshield, tomorrow I will BE the windshield."
God smiled on me once again and it all worked out to my advantage.
My feet are killing me, I still haven't taken my winter coat off but am happy in Blogland and have three dogs keeping my feet warm as I type.
Tomorrow is my only day off and I gotta "Get'r Done."
Only have an hour to go before the Lunar Eclipse. Call me stupid (you won't be the first) but I think it will be neat to capture on video.
I'm off anyway and what's going to bed at 2 when you don't have to get up again until the mood strikes you?
Doing some serious frugal shopping tomorrow. Thanks to Uncle/ Aunt/ Friend/ Reader Santa's all I have to do is fill in gaps and get Christmas dinner bought.
I used to think that this has been a crappy year. Now, with the law of averages weighing in heavily...it's turning out to be the luckiest year of my life.
Hoping everyone...and I mean "EVERYONE" knows how much the love and blessings have meant.
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved ; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed."
The moon is full, my heart is full.
I am one lucky woman raising a house of teens that try me but can't break me. I love my life and it has taken me months to realize how to apply "The law of averages" to my own personal life.
Hoping everyone has the Christmas I am experiencing. The meaning of love and being loved go hand in hand ... you can't have one without the other.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
I have learned lessons and been reminded of things that so many take for granted.
I will never forget this year but as my Dad's wise cousin told me "Look forward, never look back."
Hoping that everyone reading her words think about their own life and also think of the life of one's less fortunate.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Oh yeah, still waiting on the moon to turn red, but trust me I'll be up.
Pics later!!
Til next time...VERY contented COTTON
No comments:
Post a Comment