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exhilarationSo work last night was just... weird. I was in a kind of space-y mood, I guess, since my mind was definitely still in Philly with Krissy. I was sitting at the employee table waiting for my shift to start (I was kind of early) and Bevan sat down next to me to count his money from lunch, and he was like, "So, how was the booty call?"
I had told him, see, about how I was going to visit my ex, and how I was kind of unsure why exactly she wanted to see me so badly, and he said it sounded like a booty call. I said it didn't sound like that to me, but if that's all it was, I was game for that too.
It was not a booty call. And I told him that. So I got to be right. He asked me a little more about how it went, but as much as I wanted to talk about it with somebody, I was afraid that if I started talking about it I would just start unloading all of it right then and there, and I don't want to dump all that shit on him. So I just said that love sucks and so does breaking up, even a year after the fact, and that I really should have just stayed here and told her I didn't see the point in us seeing each other.
And then to keep him from asking me anything else I asked him how him and Jury are doing, and he said something about her turning down a summer internship thing up at Penn State because she wanted to spend the summer here, and I was like, oh shit, thats... stupid... isn't it?
Isn't it, though? She was offered an internship and turned it down so she could spend the summer with her boyfriend? And of course I can't really think about her without thinking how her boyfriend cheated on her while she was away - that didn't really bother me at all at first (although the whole situation did, and still does) but now that she's around, yeah, it does bother me. He cheated on her, and that's pretty dirty, and I like him, he's an awesome person, but at the same time, how awesome can he be if he'd cheat on his girlfriend...
This is why I don't support long distance relationships, you see. Or any relationships at all, come to think of it.
Anyway. Bevan didn't think it was stupid of her to turn down the internship.
So, my restaurant has hired some new hosts, and two of them are total duds. They seem to be completely incapable of learning how to do the job. So last night one of them got put on door duty (exactly what it sounds like - he stood there propping the door open and saying hello to people when they walk in. No, he didn't open the door for each person. They door stayed open and he leaned against it and said hell. That's it. What do I have to do to get a night of door duty, that sounds pretty sweet, you know, get paid to just stand there. Oh wait - I have to be too stupid to do anything else. Well, scratch that, I think it's too late for me to play dumb at this job...) and the other one got the very difficult task of taking names. Not calling names - just taking them.
Usually when I'm hostessing I stand at the podium and take names and call names at the same time - the other hosts tell me what tables are available and I call people accordingly. It's called "being the coordinator" and the "coordinator" is kind of like the head host for the night. All the other hosts do what the coordinator says. Not because the coordinator is a higher employee, it's just that it stays organized and and smooth-running that way with one person overseeing everything. So - new people usually do not do this part of the job right away. But this new girl, well, she completely failed at seating people. I don't know why, I don't see how that could possibly be too difficult for anyone, but apparently she can't do it yet. So, we already had the guy on door duty who also could not seat people, so they stuck her taking names, and one of the managers stood up there in the lobby and called all the names and sort of watched over her making sure she didn't screw anything up.
Meaning... I had to seat people. Which I HATE doing. And, also, when Rich, the manager (the one I don't like) told the hosts who was doing what, of course I overhear the other girls saying to each other, "uh oh, that isn't going to work, I don't think Lara knows how to seat people," and blah blah blah. Kimmy was part of that little conversation, and I didn't hear it but I'm pretty sure she had my back - she and I trained together, she knows I can handle the simple task of taking people to the table the coordinator tells me to.
But you see, there is more to it than that, because people never want the table you show them to. If you take them to a table, they will most likely say, "can we have a booth?" If you pointedly look around the completely packed restaurant and clearly observe that there are no other available tables other than this here empty one, they take your pause as stupidity and ask again, slower and louder, if there are any booths, and when you tell them there aren't, they proceed to take a stroll around the rest of the dining room looking for booths, because they don't believe you.
I can actually see every seat in the dining room from pretty much any spot, but people always seem to think there are like hidden areas of the restaurant or something, and like to take off ahead of me looking for a better place to sit. This causes chaos, see, because if there is another table, another host is already en route to it with more people - this is called being efficient, see, this is why there are many hosts on staff and not just one each night. The chaos grows when, say, I take a party of two to a table for two, they don't like the table and turn around and say, "oh, we'll take that booth over there," and just walk on over to it and sit down, just as another host is taking a party of four to that booth, and then what do we have? Nowhere for the party of four to sit, because they certainly can't sit at the table for two, and everything else is occupied. Then the party of four gets irritated and acts like we can't do our jobs properly, and maybe they even notice that the couple that sat down in their booth came in after they did, and again, blame us for letting them go in front of them.
When I coordinate, this never happens, because I always fill up the four-seat places first, and then call the parties of two. Yes, sometimes this does mean that party B sits down two minutes before party A, but it's much better than the alternative, which is party B sitting down right away and party A having to wait another fifteen minutes after they've been told they can sit down.
No one else has thought to do it this way.
So I hate seating people because it's frustrating, and I find it really, really hard to be friendly and polite and accommodating to people who are being downright nasty to me, sometimes telling me I'm stupid to my face, sometimes telling me I need to learn to do my job, sometimes telling me they want to speak to a manager because I'm not treating them like the VIPs that they so obviously are... and then of course, there's the people who try to "outrun" me to get what they want - I hand them their menus and ask them to please follow me, and they see that I am on crutches and they see somewhere that they want to sit, and so they just say "oh we'll take that table over there" and don't listen to me as I'm saying that the table they want hasn't been cleaned and set yet, and I have another table by the window that is clean if they'd just follow me - see, it seems they think they can get their way if they just push right past me and claim that they're "making it easier for me."
They're not. See, now I have to call for a busser over the headset to come and wipe down and re-set the table right away, because there are already guests sitting at it. Now I have a server pissed as hell because she's been double-sat (this means she's been given two new tables at once, and we are NOT supposed to do that. Usually servers don't mind if you ask them first if it's okay - only once in a while will they say no, they can't handle it - but if you do it without asking, they'll ALWAYS get pissed, and pissy servers do NOT earn good tips, and usually then take it out on the hosts...) and then, see, if I'm really lucky, on my way back to the lobby I then have a manager on my case wanting to know why that table over there has been sitting empty for five minutes and why am I not seating efficiently...
It's just so fucking frustrating and I hate it. I'm a good coordinator and there are never any problems when I run the front, and I have no idea how these other hosts keep their cool all night seating people, because for me it's seriously a struggle and I get at least one complaint a night. AT LEAST.
But... that is what I did all night last night. It was a fucking blast. < /sarcasm. >
And then... see, the nights that I normally work, Bevan is usually the bartender, and when I'm finished with my shift I help him close the bar. This isn't really part of my job as a hostess or anything, but I stay on the clock to do it and no one has ever told me I can't go behind the bar (usually only the bartenders are allowed behind the bar at any time) and actually, Vicky (the general manager, the one I do like) changed a few things about how the bar is set up and she included me in the little mini-meeting about all the changes. She was like, Lara, you do this too, come over here while I explain all the changes. So... yeah. No one told me to do this, I just started to do it one night, and Bevan showed me how to do everything, and I've been doing it ever since. It gets me about another hour each night on the clock - I stay and roll silverware and fill the sugars and stuff for the servers and when I'm done with that, it's about time to start closing the bar. I try to make the most out of a shift there because it's such a pain in the ass for me to get there and get home again.
Well, so, Jury came to the restaurant last night and sat at the bar, I guess just to hang out with Bevan and wait for him to get off, and so I was like, hey Jury, how've you been, etc, while I washed all the glassware and vacuum sealed the bottles and stuff, and tried to talk to her and Bevan a little, and I thought everything was just fine and dandy and cool and friendly and a-okay and whatever, and then I finished up everything I could help with and clocked out and sat down at the bar to wait around for Bevan to take me home, like he always, always does and see... so I got up and went in the kitchen (after we were closed, so the chaos in there was minimal - ) to look for the manager so I could ask him something about next week's schedule, and when I came back out Jury was saying something about "I kept waiting for her to leave but she just kept hanging around, she's so annoying, how do you get her to go away without being mean" and so on-
Which was, you know, pretty much like a kick in the gut to me.
So now I'm annoying?
On top of everything else, I'm also annoying. Great. I thought I was, like, funny and friendly and entertaining and generally a good time, which is why I always get invited out after work - right?
No, I guess actually I am annoying as fuck and have just been inviting myself along all this time.
Except I don't, I really, really don't do that, I never assume I'm automatically invited, I always wait for someone to ask me if I'm going or not, and I don't always even go, especially now, usually I'm too tired or I just don't feel like it or they're going bowling or something lame like that.
I mean, wtf was I doing that was so annoying anyway? Well, except maybe infringing on what was supposed to be Jury-Bevan private time. But, like, he was working, can't they have their alone time when they're actually alone?
Ok, so, I am annoying. And I'm mean, too, I'm one of those mean and bitter people and also I'm one of those annoying people who can't tell when nobody wants them around.
Also, I'm immature and irresponsible.
And, as Krissy so kindly informed me, I'm cold, selfish, detached, and pretty much a heartless bitch who will never, ever be able to handle being in a good relationship.
FUCKING FABULOUS.
I LOVE OTHER PEOPLE AND I LOVE MY LIFE.
And so then I went back in the kitchen and was like, hey, Sima, would you mind, you know, for old time's sake, a ride home?
And Sima was like, doesn't Bevan take you home now?
And I was like, I think he and Jury are going somewhere.
Which was, of course, total bs, but I didn't know what else to day.
So then I sat down at the employee table and waited for Sima to be finished, and Jury and Bevan left together, and I was like, "bye guys" and Bevan was like, don't you need a ride with us? And I was like, nah, I'm good. Wouldn't want to ANNOY you or anything.
Actually I did not say that last sentence. Obviously.
I've got some other rant-worthy shit going on at that job, and I've got some lovely "but isn't this Starbuck?" stories from my other job, too, but I'll save all that for another time, I think I've worked myself into a tizzy enough here.
Erica invited me over to "lay out" with her sometime this weekend - I am dubious about that, for several reasons. It's not that I don't want to hang out with Erica - clearly she does not find me "annoying" being that she has called me several times since we last hung out, which was only Monday anyway. I am not opposed to trying to get a suntan or anything, but I don't own a bathing suit and I have no intentions of wearing one anyway, so it might be pretty miserable and hot and sticky and nasty sitting out in the sun all day wearing... clothes. Even if I'm wearing some spiffy skimpy top, I'd say I'd probably get intolerably hot anyway. And knowing me, probably not drink enough water and get dehydrated too, or something stupid like that.
I dunno, just laying around in the sun trying to get a tan is not really something it has ever occurred to me to do, although I know people do it all the time. I'll have to think about this one a bit.
I'm not much good at hanging out with girls... I know, it sounds horrible, because I am a girl, but all the things I can think of that I might suggest we do instead are either sounding to me like a date, like "hey lets get dinner and see a movie" or are totally cliche "girl time" things, like "oh let's go to the mall and go shopping!"
...but I would definitely enjoy a trip to the mall. I've been trying to get to the mall for, like, months and months and months. But maybe she doesn't want to shop. She has no job, maybe she has no money, and that's why she wants to lay around outside, cause it's free. Hey, I don't have any extra money either, and here I am getting all excited at the prospect of spending what I don't really have. GO ME!
Girly stuff like... we could play with each other's hair - girls do that together, right?
Ok I'm stopping this, this is just getting too bizarre. Maybe she would like to watch Doctor Who with me, I'll put some eps on my laptop and bring it with me, or see if she wants to come over here. She doesn't seem to be much into sci-fi but a lot of people have been grabbed by New Who cause it's just that good, even if they're not really the sci-fi type.
Hm. I'll have to think on that one too.
I had told him, see, about how I was going to visit my ex, and how I was kind of unsure why exactly she wanted to see me so badly, and he said it sounded like a booty call. I said it didn't sound like that to me, but if that's all it was, I was game for that too.
It was not a booty call. And I told him that. So I got to be right. He asked me a little more about how it went, but as much as I wanted to talk about it with somebody, I was afraid that if I started talking about it I would just start unloading all of it right then and there, and I don't want to dump all that shit on him. So I just said that love sucks and so does breaking up, even a year after the fact, and that I really should have just stayed here and told her I didn't see the point in us seeing each other.
And then to keep him from asking me anything else I asked him how him and Jury are doing, and he said something about her turning down a summer internship thing up at Penn State because she wanted to spend the summer here, and I was like, oh shit, thats... stupid... isn't it?
Isn't it, though? She was offered an internship and turned it down so she could spend the summer with her boyfriend? And of course I can't really think about her without thinking how her boyfriend cheated on her while she was away - that didn't really bother me at all at first (although the whole situation did, and still does) but now that she's around, yeah, it does bother me. He cheated on her, and that's pretty dirty, and I like him, he's an awesome person, but at the same time, how awesome can he be if he'd cheat on his girlfriend...
This is why I don't support long distance relationships, you see. Or any relationships at all, come to think of it.
Anyway. Bevan didn't think it was stupid of her to turn down the internship.
So, my restaurant has hired some new hosts, and two of them are total duds. They seem to be completely incapable of learning how to do the job. So last night one of them got put on door duty (exactly what it sounds like - he stood there propping the door open and saying hello to people when they walk in. No, he didn't open the door for each person. They door stayed open and he leaned against it and said hell. That's it. What do I have to do to get a night of door duty, that sounds pretty sweet, you know, get paid to just stand there. Oh wait - I have to be too stupid to do anything else. Well, scratch that, I think it's too late for me to play dumb at this job...) and the other one got the very difficult task of taking names. Not calling names - just taking them.
Usually when I'm hostessing I stand at the podium and take names and call names at the same time - the other hosts tell me what tables are available and I call people accordingly. It's called "being the coordinator" and the "coordinator" is kind of like the head host for the night. All the other hosts do what the coordinator says. Not because the coordinator is a higher employee, it's just that it stays organized and and smooth-running that way with one person overseeing everything. So - new people usually do not do this part of the job right away. But this new girl, well, she completely failed at seating people. I don't know why, I don't see how that could possibly be too difficult for anyone, but apparently she can't do it yet. So, we already had the guy on door duty who also could not seat people, so they stuck her taking names, and one of the managers stood up there in the lobby and called all the names and sort of watched over her making sure she didn't screw anything up.
Meaning... I had to seat people. Which I HATE doing. And, also, when Rich, the manager (the one I don't like) told the hosts who was doing what, of course I overhear the other girls saying to each other, "uh oh, that isn't going to work, I don't think Lara knows how to seat people," and blah blah blah. Kimmy was part of that little conversation, and I didn't hear it but I'm pretty sure she had my back - she and I trained together, she knows I can handle the simple task of taking people to the table the coordinator tells me to.
But you see, there is more to it than that, because people never want the table you show them to. If you take them to a table, they will most likely say, "can we have a booth?" If you pointedly look around the completely packed restaurant and clearly observe that there are no other available tables other than this here empty one, they take your pause as stupidity and ask again, slower and louder, if there are any booths, and when you tell them there aren't, they proceed to take a stroll around the rest of the dining room looking for booths, because they don't believe you.
I can actually see every seat in the dining room from pretty much any spot, but people always seem to think there are like hidden areas of the restaurant or something, and like to take off ahead of me looking for a better place to sit. This causes chaos, see, because if there is another table, another host is already en route to it with more people - this is called being efficient, see, this is why there are many hosts on staff and not just one each night. The chaos grows when, say, I take a party of two to a table for two, they don't like the table and turn around and say, "oh, we'll take that booth over there," and just walk on over to it and sit down, just as another host is taking a party of four to that booth, and then what do we have? Nowhere for the party of four to sit, because they certainly can't sit at the table for two, and everything else is occupied. Then the party of four gets irritated and acts like we can't do our jobs properly, and maybe they even notice that the couple that sat down in their booth came in after they did, and again, blame us for letting them go in front of them.
When I coordinate, this never happens, because I always fill up the four-seat places first, and then call the parties of two. Yes, sometimes this does mean that party B sits down two minutes before party A, but it's much better than the alternative, which is party B sitting down right away and party A having to wait another fifteen minutes after they've been told they can sit down.
No one else has thought to do it this way.
So I hate seating people because it's frustrating, and I find it really, really hard to be friendly and polite and accommodating to people who are being downright nasty to me, sometimes telling me I'm stupid to my face, sometimes telling me I need to learn to do my job, sometimes telling me they want to speak to a manager because I'm not treating them like the VIPs that they so obviously are... and then of course, there's the people who try to "outrun" me to get what they want - I hand them their menus and ask them to please follow me, and they see that I am on crutches and they see somewhere that they want to sit, and so they just say "oh we'll take that table over there" and don't listen to me as I'm saying that the table they want hasn't been cleaned and set yet, and I have another table by the window that is clean if they'd just follow me - see, it seems they think they can get their way if they just push right past me and claim that they're "making it easier for me."
They're not. See, now I have to call for a busser over the headset to come and wipe down and re-set the table right away, because there are already guests sitting at it. Now I have a server pissed as hell because she's been double-sat (this means she's been given two new tables at once, and we are NOT supposed to do that. Usually servers don't mind if you ask them first if it's okay - only once in a while will they say no, they can't handle it - but if you do it without asking, they'll ALWAYS get pissed, and pissy servers do NOT earn good tips, and usually then take it out on the hosts...) and then, see, if I'm really lucky, on my way back to the lobby I then have a manager on my case wanting to know why that table over there has been sitting empty for five minutes and why am I not seating efficiently...
It's just so fucking frustrating and I hate it. I'm a good coordinator and there are never any problems when I run the front, and I have no idea how these other hosts keep their cool all night seating people, because for me it's seriously a struggle and I get at least one complaint a night. AT LEAST.
But... that is what I did all night last night. It was a fucking blast. < /sarcasm. >
And then... see, the nights that I normally work, Bevan is usually the bartender, and when I'm finished with my shift I help him close the bar. This isn't really part of my job as a hostess or anything, but I stay on the clock to do it and no one has ever told me I can't go behind the bar (usually only the bartenders are allowed behind the bar at any time) and actually, Vicky (the general manager, the one I do like) changed a few things about how the bar is set up and she included me in the little mini-meeting about all the changes. She was like, Lara, you do this too, come over here while I explain all the changes. So... yeah. No one told me to do this, I just started to do it one night, and Bevan showed me how to do everything, and I've been doing it ever since. It gets me about another hour each night on the clock - I stay and roll silverware and fill the sugars and stuff for the servers and when I'm done with that, it's about time to start closing the bar. I try to make the most out of a shift there because it's such a pain in the ass for me to get there and get home again.
Well, so, Jury came to the restaurant last night and sat at the bar, I guess just to hang out with Bevan and wait for him to get off, and so I was like, hey Jury, how've you been, etc, while I washed all the glassware and vacuum sealed the bottles and stuff, and tried to talk to her and Bevan a little, and I thought everything was just fine and dandy and cool and friendly and a-okay and whatever, and then I finished up everything I could help with and clocked out and sat down at the bar to wait around for Bevan to take me home, like he always, always does and see... so I got up and went in the kitchen (after we were closed, so the chaos in there was minimal - ) to look for the manager so I could ask him something about next week's schedule, and when I came back out Jury was saying something about "I kept waiting for her to leave but she just kept hanging around, she's so annoying, how do you get her to go away without being mean" and so on-
Which was, you know, pretty much like a kick in the gut to me.
So now I'm annoying?
On top of everything else, I'm also annoying. Great. I thought I was, like, funny and friendly and entertaining and generally a good time, which is why I always get invited out after work - right?
No, I guess actually I am annoying as fuck and have just been inviting myself along all this time.
Except I don't, I really, really don't do that, I never assume I'm automatically invited, I always wait for someone to ask me if I'm going or not, and I don't always even go, especially now, usually I'm too tired or I just don't feel like it or they're going bowling or something lame like that.
I mean, wtf was I doing that was so annoying anyway? Well, except maybe infringing on what was supposed to be Jury-Bevan private time. But, like, he was working, can't they have their alone time when they're actually alone?
Ok, so, I am annoying. And I'm mean, too, I'm one of those mean and bitter people and also I'm one of those annoying people who can't tell when nobody wants them around.
Also, I'm immature and irresponsible.
And, as Krissy so kindly informed me, I'm cold, selfish, detached, and pretty much a heartless bitch who will never, ever be able to handle being in a good relationship.
FUCKING FABULOUS.
I LOVE OTHER PEOPLE AND I LOVE MY LIFE.
And so then I went back in the kitchen and was like, hey, Sima, would you mind, you know, for old time's sake, a ride home?
And Sima was like, doesn't Bevan take you home now?
And I was like, I think he and Jury are going somewhere.
Which was, of course, total bs, but I didn't know what else to day.
So then I sat down at the employee table and waited for Sima to be finished, and Jury and Bevan left together, and I was like, "bye guys" and Bevan was like, don't you need a ride with us? And I was like, nah, I'm good. Wouldn't want to ANNOY you or anything.
Actually I did not say that last sentence. Obviously.
I've got some other rant-worthy shit going on at that job, and I've got some lovely "but isn't this Starbuck?" stories from my other job, too, but I'll save all that for another time, I think I've worked myself into a tizzy enough here.
Erica invited me over to "lay out" with her sometime this weekend - I am dubious about that, for several reasons. It's not that I don't want to hang out with Erica - clearly she does not find me "annoying" being that she has called me several times since we last hung out, which was only Monday anyway. I am not opposed to trying to get a suntan or anything, but I don't own a bathing suit and I have no intentions of wearing one anyway, so it might be pretty miserable and hot and sticky and nasty sitting out in the sun all day wearing... clothes. Even if I'm wearing some spiffy skimpy top, I'd say I'd probably get intolerably hot anyway. And knowing me, probably not drink enough water and get dehydrated too, or something stupid like that.
I dunno, just laying around in the sun trying to get a tan is not really something it has ever occurred to me to do, although I know people do it all the time. I'll have to think about this one a bit.
I'm not much good at hanging out with girls... I know, it sounds horrible, because I am a girl, but all the things I can think of that I might suggest we do instead are either sounding to me like a date, like "hey lets get dinner and see a movie" or are totally cliche "girl time" things, like "oh let's go to the mall and go shopping!"
...but I would definitely enjoy a trip to the mall. I've been trying to get to the mall for, like, months and months and months. But maybe she doesn't want to shop. She has no job, maybe she has no money, and that's why she wants to lay around outside, cause it's free. Hey, I don't have any extra money either, and here I am getting all excited at the prospect of spending what I don't really have. GO ME!
Girly stuff like... we could play with each other's hair - girls do that together, right?
Ok I'm stopping this, this is just getting too bizarre. Maybe she would like to watch Doctor Who with me, I'll put some eps on my laptop and bring it with me, or see if she wants to come over here. She doesn't seem to be much into sci-fi but a lot of people have been grabbed by New Who cause it's just that good, even if they're not really the sci-fi type.
Hm. I'll have to think on that one too.
