If We Didn't Laugh We Would All Go Insane

Got home from work last night around 11Pm. Did laundry and blogged til almost 3AM. Got up this morning and went in at noon and got home a little after 10:30PM.

My job isn't always easy...but it is always easy to laugh at work and that makes it easier to do day after day. I was at my old job for over 13 years and found it easy to laugh for about the first 11 years. The last two years, not so much.

It's a bad sign when you cry more than you laugh ... that should have been my first warning. I should have jumped ship before they so coldheartedly pushed me overboard without a life jacket.

Lucky for me I am a strong swimmer. I did the "Dead Man's Float" for a while and then "Dog Paddled" over to my new restaurant. It took a while and after being thrown MANY life preserver's have begun to feel buoyant again.

The new place I work can be insane, but it is a comforting insane. We have a good time and are a pretty close knit family. Of course every family has a crazy Aunt Edna or a whacked out Uncle Earl but that's what makes a family unique and interesting.

Let me just say we have a VERY interesting family at work.

I work usually work nine or ten shifts a week. What makes it easier is that I laugh every chance I get and Earl and Edna give me plenty of material to work with. Sometimes Earl and Edna are fellow employees, sometimes they are the customers but when you work in a restaurant there is always plenty to laugh at.

Jimmy Buffet said it best "If we didn't laugh we would all go insane."

I swear I laughed so much today that I had actual tears in my eyes a couple of times. I worked the day shift with Hoke and that's always a hoot. We are a lot alike in the respect that "You gotta laugh...getting bent outta shape doesn't solve anything and usually works against you."

We have a really sweet new server that just started. She has gotten her butt handed to her several times when we were balls to the walls busy but she just keeps on chugging along. She has a heavy French accent and when she first started I called her "Pepe LePew" (I don't know many French names.) I didn't like that name because Pepe was a male so I tried to remember the name of the female cat Pepe chased, thinking she was a skunk.

Barb helped me out after shaking her head in disgust at me for calling the new girl "Pepe" and said "I believe it was Petunia."

See...I get everybody on board with me! I don't even have to ask, they just like being on "The Cotton Culinary Comedy Cruise" and I don't blame them...it's pretty stinkin' funny (no Pepe Le Pew pun intended...or maybe just a little bit.)

It's so nice to be in a place that I enjoy working and a place that seems to enjoy me working there.

I think I am a hard worker at least I try to be. Believe me, if I wasn't...they would have told me to shut up a LONG time ago.

The new guy (Uncle Earl) is hanging in there and beginning to see the big picture..."It ain't all about you...it's about the team, we all look good together or we all look bad together."

Bless his heart he's young and I can still remember being young like that, but our restaurant ain't no Olive Garden and it's a lot of work given the extensive menu and wine list we offer...but that's what puts us ahead of the game.

The dryer just beeped...signaling that my blogging time is over and my maid service has resumed.

Headed back Monday morning for another double shift (performance) and another two show performance on Tuesday. I am cramming in the shifts so I can be off for Massey's competition this upcoming weekend.

It feels so good to be laughing again.

"If we didn't laugh we would all go insane."

Til next time...COTTON