Maintaining...

I stopped counting how many days in a row I've worked and started counting the days until my next  day off. Hurry up Thanksgiving!!

Had a bummer of a week at my retail job.  I'm keeping the faith though. I didn't sell but swear  the peeps who come in love me and will come back to buy. I just hope they don't come back in when I'm not there and if they do, mention me.

On top of that, work wasn't so great at the restaurant tonight either. It was a weird full moon and brought out all the crazies.

My first table was three ladies. They ordered  two appetizers so I was off to good start. When they ordered dinner the first woman ordered then the second one asked if she could split a meal with  the third woman? No problem, I said. They ordered one of Massey's favorite dishes, Chicken Lucia. Chicken breasts marinated in Mediterranean dressing and topped with sauteed  grape tomatoes, red onions, kalamata olives and topped with feta cheese. I asked if they wanted pasta or potatoes? One wanted pasta and the other wanted potatoes. For pete's sake you're splitting a meal, not side dishes. It took some talking but the cooks agreed to do it.

It went downhill from there. Sometimes  you  have a phat night and sometimes you are the bug on the windshield. I was the bug tonight. Everyone was busy except me. It doesn't help  that the hostesses are high school kids. Crap, we're lucky if they even show up for work. I make a point of not going to the host stand to pester them about how they do their job but when eight o'clock rolled around (been there since five) and I had three tables, I wanted to strangle somebody.

It's not like me to just stand around so for three hours ran everyone else's food and helped other servers who WERE busy.

I had to make myself get over it and did...after complaining to Barb and pointing out I had two customers and the other closing server had thirteen.

I had a rebound table and walked with over eighty bucks but it still ticked me off. I got my work done, and walked out shortly after closing. Actually it felt good to just be leaving early.

I'm pacing myself, I'm maintaining. When your current work week is from mid August until  Thanksgiving you have to allow yourself to go all crazy every once in a while.

It's been a tough week around here. Zach lost a friend, and when you are twenty one that's an especially  hard thing to deal with.

I'm just floating along, maintaining. Every morning I wake up I have to stop and think, am I a waitress today or a mattress salesman?

 If I'm a waitress (old school term) I can roll back over and sleep. If I'm a mattress salesman I jump out of bed  and  think of ways to get to work on time. Tim always makes me breakfast to take with me. I've learned I can take my make up bag with me and put on my face there and  cut down my getting ready time by  thirty minutes. That's thirty minutes more I can lay in bed.

The amazing  thing I HAVE learned is that a pillow against your face, in just the right position never feels as good as it does when you have to get up. When you need to get out of bed, the bed has never felt more comfortable. I've also learned that five more minutes in bed goes by way too quickly but is greatly appreciated.

I'm no rocket scientist but know now what small simple pleasures can do for a body...LOTS!

I'm a waitress again tomorrow so know that I can sleep until this tired old body needs to.

Then as Jackson Browne sings, "I'll get up and do it again... Amen."

When you are a wife, when you are a mother and when you have responsibilities...you can do anything , and will.

The Pretender"

I'm going to rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
I'm going to pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen
Say it again
Amen

I want to know what became of the changes
We waited for love to bring
Were they only the fitful dreams
Of some greater awakening
I've been aware of the time going by
They say in the end it's the wink of an eye
And when the morning light comes streaming in
You'll get up and do it again
Amen

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there

Ah the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight

I'm going to find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams
And then we'll put out dark glasses on
And we'll make love until our strength is gone
And when the morning light comes streaming in
We'll get up and do it again
Get it up again

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Thought true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

I still stand firm, I am one of the lucky ones.

Til next  time...COTTON