Staycation!

We have this cool app for work where your schedule is posted, roster of who is working each shift for every position from the management down to the back of the house. You can put in for time off or put a shift up for grabs. I was scheduled to work Monday and Tuesday, both day shifts but put my Tuesday up for grabs and picked up a Thursday PM shift instead. I worked today from eleven to two and now have off until Thursday afternoon.

Sweet...

I luckily had a very lucrative weekend, all bills are paid and have plenty left over, so Staycation it shall be!

That's the one downside to waiting tables for a living. If you don't work you don't get paid. It's not like a nine to fiver with the same paycheck every week. You don't accrue paid time off. It's like being a professional gambler for a living. You go into work and hope to roll sevens and elevens or hit twenty one with every table. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won't. You just have to do your best and hope will happen more often than not. Actually think that's what I like most about this type of work. The better I am the more I make. It's like a self reality check. Yes there will always be an ass hat or miserable person no one can please but if you constantly go above, beyond and assess needs before having to be asked to; chances are you'll win more times than you'll lose.

It's the perfect job for me.

It  makes me strive and be a better server (and person) every single shift.

It's taken a hot minute (and then some) but told my daughter just today that I feel pretty good about this new job. I'm starting to feel my groove coming back. I'm feeling pretty confident again and my sales and tips have pretty much doubled, which tell me am on the right track. It's a sleek, new concept restaurant and really like everyone there, from management down. I think (hope) they're beginning to like me too.

Tim is taking a week's vacation at the end of next month so he and I are driving back home for a few days to get our taxes done and clean out a few more things from our house we're renting out in Newnan.

I'm a little nervous about going back. As much as I'm starting to like it here, still really miss living there. I miss my sister, I miss my younger son, I miss my old job and I miss my friends.

I'm finally starting to make a few really good friends here but over fifty six year's worth of my friends still live there.

I opened up my FB page today and a memory from this day last year popped up.

Me with my selfie stick (thanks Casey and Eli) in the back hallway of my old job at the airport. When I saw this picture of me with Dennis and Alisha, my eyes welled up with tears.

It was absolutely and hands down most ultimate job a server could ever dream of having. There was never a day that I didn't want to go into work.

You know you've made it as a server when feel deflated if you walk out with less than two hundred dollars on a single shift.

Yes, was a logistical nightmare getting to and from the job and parking was twelve bucks a day if you didn't live on a MARTA line. The twice yearly badging, FBI background check and finger printing was a pain but a small price to pay to profit from so handsomely.

Do I miss the money?

Most definitely.

Do I miss the peeps I worked with?

Even more.

Do I need to make that kind of money now?

Most fortunately...No.

My husband lived a thousand miles away from our family, then seven hours away from us for well over two years just to make it possible for me not to have to be the money maker. I should be (am) grateful but is still hard for me.

You always need to look ahead in life, and even more importantly remember your past.

Your past is what helps you to get to your here.

I've been an emotional wreck since moving to Orlando but with (once again) help from old friends and new friends...think I'll make it.

My new rule of thumb?

You have to be yourself.

It's still baby steps for me but at least moving forward.

You can't change your past but can always try and change your future.

...and I will.

I miss Georgia more than I thought I ever would, but it will be okay.

I know that now.

Guess I was born to be a rambling (wo)man.

Til next time, The Floridian.