Normalcy

Being normal has never been my forte'. I kinda like being me. It seems to work out good for me, or has for fifty six years now.

I can usually find humor in most any situation. It's also served me well in the workplace. I think pretty much everyone I work with, at least doesn't cringe when they see my name on the floor plan or my name on the section of tables next to theirs.

I'm a slow but tedious learner when starting a new job and the main reason why I dread changing jobs. Being a server is simply being in sales and marketing for a living.

To be successful you first have to work in a place that markets a really great product, then obtain the knowledge and skills it takes to sell that product.

It's not just waitressing anymore.

I have progressively worked my way up the product ladder and increased my skills, sales and pay with each move I've made.

I've been very fortunate over the years to have several mentors who helped me tremendously to hone my skills and craft. I've come a long way from my first waitress gig at Red Lobster in the late seventies.

A wise manager of mine once put it this way, when talking to us on his last day working with the company.

Every shift you work is a chance to do an even better job to make even more money, and (bonus points) walk out the door with it in your pocket when you clock out.


I like rolling with those kind of odds.

I guess you could also call me a professional gambler. Trust me I've crapped out a few times as well.

It tends to make me keep my own self in check.

Every shift is an opportunity, and depends on how you choose to use that opportunity. Do you hit every mark, do you anticipate their needs and do something before they even have to ask? Do you connect with every guest, do you allow them to have a "wow" experience? Do you make them leave feeling like they want to come back again and again...and more importantly, ask for you to be their server?


True fact. If you're not making good enough money as a server, chances are you're not doing a good enough job.

I started out selling frozen seafood and moved up to selling five star dining. Not bad for a gal who's not normal.


I've said it many times before but is still totally true. If I was half the wife and mother, that I am a server, would be rocking this world like nobody's bidness.

You need to find your passion in life. Lucky for me, I found mine.

It's served me well...huge pun intended.

For the first time in a decade, we're in a good financial place and happen to be living it out in the Sunshine State.

Fall has finally made its way to central Florida and makes me think about home, my Georgia home. While I miss it, can always go back to visit...and I do.

Seems I'm good as long as I go back about three times a year and know it's still there for me as well.

Life is a journey. Life is a gift. Life is what you make of it, despite the odds you are given at any given time.

You are born with a blank slate, an empty page of life which you will fill out yourself.

Make your life a great story.

Surround yourself with people you love and people who love you.

No one has had a more effed up but unbelievably luckier life than me, and am grateful for every step of this journey, with all its twists and seemingly impossible turns.

I don't want to jinx myself, but think I've finally hit my stride and propelling myself into a pretty secure future.

                                          Life always looks better from this side of the dirt.



Demons are out there and sometimes even within you. Choose your battles and come out swinging.

You can be a fighter or a quitter.

Fighting serves me better, but then again, I'm not normal.

Sometimes being not normal helps.

Sometimes  seeing the bigger picture helps you figure out the smaller one.

Tramps like me...baby we were born to run.

And I will.

Till next time...COTTON