I blame Jess my manager. It all started with a smile and an offer to have some sugar cookie coffee at the end of work. The coffee was amazing! It was so nice of her to bring it in to share. We made the coffee at the restaurant, poured a couple steaming mugs, and sat at the bar staring out the windows at the fresh snow on the ground. What a great moment….
That led to this…..
I can’t sleep. It is 1:46 in the morning and I find myself on the couch under the blanket after lying in bed not sleeping for the past hour. And not like the, “I’m drifting off to sleep and it’s just taking some time” can’t sleep. This is the, “eyes wide open I’m not sure I’ve blinked in the last 5 minutes” can’t sleep. So here I sit, patiently waiting for Cohen to start his tiresome trot up and down the stairs as he tries to decide who to fall asleep next to, me…or Amy.
I always feel like being up late should give me some profound wisdom and insight into life. Often, when my thoughts are heavy and deep, I’ll think to myself that maybe I should stay up all night to unwind the strands of interconnected brain wire in my head, so I can of course put it back together in a better order that makes more sense of my life and the world around me. I don’t know why I think staying up will lead to this great personal revelation…maybe it is the quiet and still that comes only at night, when the sky is black and the stars shine brilliantly and silently….and everything seems calmer…on the inside and outside…………….no great moment yet.
Since it seems I may be waiting a while for a euphoric moment (and apparently Cohen who has remained defiantly upstairs), allow me to do a brief overview of my life right now. As of this Sunday I am unemployed….ugh! That is awful to write! But alas it is true. It has been my greatest desire for some time to say aloha to the serving world and move on with my life. It has been 3 years since I started at Applebee’s while attending Methesco and I finally hit the wall where I just need to move on, forcefully it appears. You know what is funny about it? Leading up to my hiring at Applebee’s I swore, many MANY times over, that I would never work in a restaurant….lol. But anyway, I digress. Leaving my current job, Smokey Bones, is definitely a leap of faith. I do not have another job lined up, I search everyday but have no great leads, I have no definitive direction I am heading….I just know I can do more with my life.
I don’t know if I have ever attempted to put more trust in God for my future, or anything for that matter. I am determined to move forward and to never go back to a restaurant. So much in fact, that for the next 3 weeks I have vowed to not go in to Smokey Bones and further, to not eat out at all. And I am excited about that part. One of the bad parts of serving is how sick you can get of people from dealing with them day in and day out. I need a break, from all the senseless talking and ramblings, the whining and complaining, the noise and chatter. Just tonight an elderly couple yelled at me across the restaurant:
Elderly man: “Hey! Our foods cold! Come over here!”
Andy the server: “I’m sorry. Is everything cold or just the pulled pork?”
Elderly man: “Everything! The pork! The mashed potatoes! My wife’s brisket is tough AND cold!”
Elderly man’s elderly wife: “My brisket is tough!”
Andy: “I apologize, would you like everything made new or something else altogether?”
Elderly man’s elderly wife: “HELLS NO! We aren’t staying here! This is horrible! Let’s go!”
Walk out on check; Exit; SCENE
Aaaaaaand I’m excited to have a break from that. So much so I challenged my friend Josh tonight that I would pay for the gas if he was willing to walk out, get in my car, and drive until we saw my car’s thermometer reach 70 degrees. He declined, so I drove home watching the temperature fall to a body numbing 15. But again, I digress. The point is, as excited as I am, as nervous as I am, Sunday’s comin’ and when it hits I’m taking a huge step into a spacious unknown. I feel a little like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade when he has to walk across the air over a crevasse by only trusting God…except I don’t have a whip.
No comments:
Post a Comment