Talk about the perfect plan!
...And just think about all the 'pity' tips I'll get!! Who cares if they start calling me Flo?
I've certainly been called worse.
I can still run circles around most servers who are younger than my youngest youngin but age is starting to get in my way. My back starts hurting about four hours into a shift and kills me to have to bend over and pick something up off the floor. I have to hold onto something to get back up. It's borderline embarrassing in front of guests. If I drop something (fork, knife, napkin) in the kitchen or back I never hesitate and ask one of the young servers if they will bend over for me to pick up whatever it is. I'll always say "Thanks for being a Bender for an old lady."
I've gotta get back on the Yoga train, which helps my back more than anything (other than a cold one).
I still enjoy serving and has served me well for almost forty years. I just need modifications now.
I can polish and roll silverware like a ten year old kid from China in a sweatshop, making cheap clothes to ship overseas, but carrying two (huge) buckets of ice from the back of the kitchen to the front of the house leaves me exhausted. I guarantee they weigh more than me.
I always ask the male servers to carry heavy stuff for me, like racks loaded with tons of silverware or the baskets of silverware after I polish and roll them, and they always oblige. They may roll their eyes after they walk off with the load but at least their backs are to me so I don't see it.
I usually say "Why don't you be a Tote(er) for me?" And always ask them when they happen to be just standing there talking, while I am standing there working like they should be doing.
Works every time.
I'm still not used to cooking for just three people, after cooking for a family of five for decades and always end up with tons of leftovers every time I cook at the house. I always pack a huge container of whatever I cooked and take it into work with me. When I heat it up after the rush dies down, the servers will line up in the back with a plate and fork. It looks like a lunch line in the high school cafeteria.
That works out pretty good for me as well. No one likes to bite the hand that feeds them.
Basically, I'm a hard working 'Work Mom' and enjoy the title very much.
The great thing about waiting on the public for a living is no matter how hard or long, crazy, unpredictable or unfortunately every once in a while not a very profitable shift...you will laugh about and at many things throughout the process and always have something to smile about, looking back. Most of my funniest memories are restaurant related.
Case in point: Not so long ago it was balls to the walls busy at work. I was told to greet yet another new table and was stopping to tell them I would be right with them as another server walked behind me as I was approaching the table, and asked her to take whatever I had in my hands for me, and she did. I said to her "Thanks. Love you long time" then turned back to my table and saw two Asian people sitting there.
Or the time when I was working at the airport and an older dude took his little sleeping pill a bit too soon before takeoff...
Or the people I used to run into riding MARTA and shuttles to and from the airport when I was too broke to park there. Most amazing woman ever...zipped and unzipped that purse almost a hundred times in under three minutes, as I acted like I was reading something on my phone. Crazy enough, no one else even noticed her.
My older son was working with me at the airport back then and hitching rides with me. He bought a car shortly after this next pic was taken on our way to the world's busiest airport. I embarrassed him on an almost daily basis with my oddball observations.
The shuttles were almost always packed and would sometimes ask employees to get off and give passengers our seats. This particular day was slower than slow and it was just me and my son. One other man finally boarded just as we were leaving and for some strange reason crammed himself into a tiny back corner seat...the seat no one ever wanted on the shuttle bus. We were bumping around Loop Road on the way to the international terminal which sits out in no mans land on the other end of the airport and I started thinking about the line from Dirty Dancing about "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" and started kinda chuckling to myself.
Unfortunately my son asked me what I was laughing about.
I leaned over while trying to whisper in his ear (he says I didn't whisper) but was already so tickled said a tad bit louder than I meant to, "Nobody puts Bobby in the corner."
The good thing about working at international, you rarely see the same people, ever again.
I think my son bought a car the next week.
One last one:
About twenty years ago when I worked for LongHorn, my two younger kids went with me to work one day. The hostess, still a friend of mine to this very day, was at the front door.
When she walked off, Zach asked me "Where is she from?" I said she was from China.
Zach was totally serious and said "How's she get to work...a boat?"
There is nothing funnier or better or more entertaining than working with the public every day in the service world. Every day you meet different people. Every day you experience something totally different, whether good or bad. I couldn't stand a monotonous job. The same thing, the same people, the same result at the end of every same day. Do it long enough and you will encounter many more wonderful people than horrible ones.
I'd rather take the gamble and be a server. The stories you hear, the people you meet, the connections you make and if you are a good enough server, the appreciation they all shown you on that tip line.
It's kind of like the way I try and live my life.
Be a good person and good things will happen to you.
I know I'm crazy. I know I'm loud and I know I sound like a hillbilly.
But I try and be a good person. Not the best person, but a person you would like if you randomly met me or actually knew me.
Last case in point:
Had a customer last night who complained about me to a manager. It was the worst service she had ever had. Not going into details but the manager was totally on my side and told me to forget about it. I worried about it more than my manager and actually worried about it all night. I was on the expo line talking with the cooks. I love our cooks and think they all genuinely like me as well. So many servers don't even bother to know the cook's names, or the dishwasher's names or anything about them.
One of my favorite cooks happened to be there and said to him "I waited on your mother and your entire family on your mother's birthday. What kind of server did she think I was?"
The woman is no slouch either, graduated Rutgers and has an executive job with one of the theme parks here.
This is what her son said to me...and made all the difference.
"My mom thought you were the best server she's ever had. She felt like she wanted to have you as one of her friends."
That is what I strive for as a server, and as a person. I want you to feel like you've made a friend when you've interacted with me.
I'm a pretty simple girl. I got my hair cut today for $12.99. Looks fine to me, couldn't imagine spending more than twenty bucks for a cut these days. Makes me feel stupid for spending thirty five or forty when I was young. No telling what they charge now. I buy cheap makeup because I don't wear a lot of makeup. I still have and wear clothes I've had for well over twenty years. Big Lots is one of my favorite stores. I spend more on stamps and note cards than I do clothes. Buy classic and it'll be good for decades. I'm blind as a bat and far sighted but get my cute little peepers at Michael's for $2.99. People compliment me about them all the time...as well as my hair. Massey does my highlights. One bucket of Kaleidocolors for twenty bucks lasts me over two years.
All these little things leave me with enough money to help others. My kids, co workers, peeps from back home, peeps I've met here and peeps I've never met but seem to need a helping hand.
I'll probably make it into Heaven but be bumped to the south side of it, but that's okay too. I'm used to being a south side girl and will probably meet a lot of of old friends there.
You shouldn't be a "Woe is me person" or a "I can't go on person" because that's simply not true.
You aren't, and you can.
It might not be easy and may take more than a minute, or a month or even a year or two...or more.
But to battle and persevere, to keep going when you simply think you can't make it one more step...is when the good things begin to happen. Maybe not always, but way more often than not.
For all the people (and there are more than many) who helped us reach this point, where we can actually reach out and help others again...Thank You.
I don't want to live without you...and couldn't have. This includes my husband. We've stood together through the good and the bad and finally the best.
When it seems like there is too much on your plate, maybe you aren't eating enough crow.
Till next time, COTTON
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