Variety is the spice of life

One thing about waitressing is that you are constantly dealing with people. The friendly ones, the nasty ones and the gushy ones. YOU must meet their every request and take care of them as if they were your own family. Or else...well they probably won't come back if their experience is unpleasant and that reflects badly on your restaurant. It's really the perfect occupation for a writer, so many ideas for characters and scenes! Some of the customers I have had to serve have been wonderfully charming. In fact, yesterday I got lucky with a table of four english ladies who loved me - one of them left me a little extra something...she loved me the most. At first they weren't too sure about me, but once I brought them their starter round of drinks (mostly wine) and told them I was not able to pour them because of my age illegality, they found that cute and began reassuring me that they were perfectly capable of pouring it themselves. Even the sternest of them all, a very composed woman with ear length brown hair and an alcohol lover-apparent nose laughed at my little quips and took to smiling at me whenever I walked by. You see? The good ones are terrific...the bad ones...well, next paragraph.

There were two tables in two days that had rowdy, impolite and inapropriate customers. Unfortunately, both tables were given to a fellow waitress and she was not happy. The one she had yesterday treated her so poorly they provoked tears, and then proceeded to linger outside, inebriated beyond belief. Finally the woman of the trio came in, paid their bill and they left; not without a sigh of relief from front of house. But then again, this type of thing is to be expected, and we simply learn to take the good with the bad, which is outnumbered by the first 99 to 1.

I was trained to work in the kitchen mainly, through my culinary arts training and fast food experience. I have been working in the restaurant industry for nearly 10 years, cooking, serving, cleaning, you name it, I've done it. I like to think this makes me a triple threat in the business, something I proved this last evening by helping out when it got too slow to do anything but sit and wait, something I am not partial to. If I am getting paid to work, I am going to put myself to use until my shift is over instead of lounge around waiting to be told what to do. I even feel guilty for taking a break! That's something that needs to change...

As for waitressing, this is the first time I have actually tried it rather than cooking as a job, and I must say, the two are equal. You might think that serving is more difficult because we are in charge of sitting them down, taking their orders, bringing their food and drinks, checking  back, printing the bill, running after them to get a signed merchant copy, cleaning their table and then doing it all over again, but no. The kitchen has just as hard a time of it. You see, cooking their meal takes a good portion of time and making sure it is prepared correctly is a trick unto itself, something my boyfriend has mastered quite effortlessly - he's a natural born cook. And then there is always prep to do. While the other servers were taking a break, I was helping in the kitchen tearing lettuce, cutting mars bars (we serve deep fried mars bars...yes, you read that right), battering the mars bars, portioning yam fries etc..so as you can imagine, the cooks do not often get bored.

And yet, I still enjoy waitressing more. Despite the sore, swollen legs and long hours, the people I meet make for a very interesting day. So far I have had tables of Americans, Germans, Englishmen, Frenchies (I do not say that derogatorily, they were some of my favorite customers), Native Americans and of course, locals. I've made mistakes (some more horrendous than others) but lessons have been learned and those errors have not and will NEVER be made again. The place I work acts as more of a family than a host of employees and employers, there are harsh words, impatient gestures and frustrated sighs but a pat on the back and credit where it is due is never far behind. And we all stand behind one another 100%, there if needed, there if not. In fact, now that I think about it, the job I have now is probably the best one I have ever had, and I can't wait to see what else happens this summer. Well, I shall post again soon, goodbye!