Like Riding a Bike?

This Friday night, the night before starting work, I had several nightmares about my first day back. In them all my customers were assholes, I didn’t know where anything was, I kept screwing up, and for some reason the grill was actually my Cape May house. Oh yeah, and Adam Sandler came into the restaurant. That was kinda cool.

But luckily, despite my terrifying dreams, everything went really well my first day. A lot of my friends were back, and the two new girls there I ended up really liking and hope to hang out with this summer. I didn’t even have much trouble getting back into the swing. Besides minor details, like not being able to find a container for me to fill with water for washing tables, which I probably would have done two summers ago as well, things pretty much fell into place. Plus, we had a busy day, which kept me occupied, but it wasn’t so crazy that I was going out of my mind. In fact the worse thing that happened all day was that I got asked on a date. Overall. I have to say it was a nice smooth transition back into work. I left feeling hopeful that it was going to be a great summer.

Today, however, was a different story. Today just might have been my worst day ever at the Harbor Grill. Breakfast went great, spending it busy but still able to have some time to joke around with the waitresses and my boys in the kitchen; but lunch? Lunch was a nightmare. Starting at about 12:30 the place was MOBBED with people The crowds came in all at once. It was nearly impossible to seat people and take names at the same time, forget about even bussing. Plus, we only had three waitresses on so it was extremely difficult to seat people. Soon I had a waitlist of about 30 people, and at one point I just started telling people it was like a 2 hour wait so they’d just go the hell away.

Even worse, all of the tables stayed FOREVER. I would see people finishing off their meals and even asking for checks, so I’d give people in line a modest amount of time to wait. But sure enough everyone lingered, ordering more rounds of drinks or just sitting around giving me further reason to slit my wrists. Then, to make matters worse, the people who did finally leave always seemed to be in the same section, forcing me to bombard the waitresses with like three or four tables at once.

This clearly pissed off the waitresses, which I can understand, but unfortunately I was in a predicament. I had people from both sides coming at me: the waitresses in the back and the many customers in the front. By the end of the day, one customer made me think he was going to call my boss and report me, my friend and fellow staff member Gigi wouldn’t look me in the eye and would only sneer at me, and I wanted to kill myself. Luckily around three Erin, the manager of the grill, came in and relieved some of the waitresses of their tables, and also cheered me up and kept me from worrying too much. What a great person to have on your side.

Leaving work, my friends Rick and Morgan yelled at me as I passed by them having cocktails on the porch of the Harbor. I practically fell into Rick’s lap in a heap of exhaustion, frustration, and anxiety. My hair was a mess, I had ketchup and coffee all over my white shirt, and I’m pretty sure my B.O was kickin’. They were like “who is this pathetic girl?” and immediately regretted calling my attention. Again, it was a looong day.

But thankfully its over now, and I can relax here back at the house until tomorrow morning when it all starts again. My friend George, a talented chef at the Harbor, is waiting tables tomorrow for some unknown reason. This could either be an awesome thing, seeing as George is hysterical and will provide some humor, or disastrous since he is NOT a waiter and is stressed out easily. Let’s just hope, not matter what happens, that tomorrow is NOTHING like today.