Tidbits

It's funny, since I've been blogging, I view my world in a slightly different skew. Everything is noteworthy, each action ponderous. I see flashes of brilliance in situations I never would have thought twice about before blogging (BB). In that vein, this blog thing is working exactly as I wanted it to. I've invited selected friends and online buddies to read. Well, no, that's not quite right. What I've done, is begged anyone who I think will listen, to pleeeeaaaase come and read my blog, make comments, keep me honest in my regular writing resolution. I know there's a few out there who watch for new blogs, and I appreciate their dilligence a great deal. :)

I will tell you what happens when you scrutinize every event in your day, deliberating on its blogworthiness. I get what I call "snippet blogs" that don't really earn their way into a complete blog where I can expound (exponentially) on a topic the way I love to dig in and examine every bit of the thing I want to share with my three readers. And so, I present to you three faithful readers, the first in what may become a series of numbered collections of my scattered thoughts from the week. Hey, maybe it will even become my Sunday tradition to share all of the little leftovers from the week on the weekend. Should I call them "Leftovers" or does "Tidbits" work better? See? It's all so indecisive in the blogger's world.

The thing that pissed me off most this week was a note that appeared on the bulletin board at work. Last weekend a coworker who was in an car accident pulled the "my back hurts soooo bad I can't finish the night" for the third weekend in a row. It's funny because her back was fine while she was waiting on tables and raking in the cash, but as the night wore down and there was only tedious sidework to be completed, her back was really acting up. Being an alpha in our pack of female-only waitstaff, I didn't let it slide. Of course, her ducking out affected me more than anyone else, since I was the one who would be picking up her slack. It was a matter of being in the wrong slot on the wrong Saturday night for me.

As a result of my diatribe to the shirker, our dining room manager felt compelled to put up a note condemming the behavior that "upset" our poor car accident victim. A note would have been totally acceptable if the behavior that upset her was caused by the entire staff. Considering it was only one person (ME!) who hurt her feelings, I felt that I should have been approached privately. I made a great ruckus to everyone I could get to listen, pointing out that the note on the bulletin board should have been addressed to "Suz" and not "Waitresses." I thought about confronting her with the reason behind a note since, if it had actually "come to her attention," she surely knew it was something that I had done, and not something which deemed a full scolding to the entire waitstaff (and in fact, visible to all of the kitchen staff). But then I decided that I didn't need to act bigger or better than her. If she was going to take the wimpy way out then I was going to let her be a coward.

I was tested yet again last night by her sugarcoated way of dealing with things. At the end of the night, with a great team on board, I was teasing a few of the girls who still had active tables that I was tired of tearing bread baskets down as I'd been doing it for (what seemed like) 20 minutes. It was a joking little banter that we were enjoying when our dining room manager walked over to me and said that it's okay if I run outside for a cigarette at the end of the night before we really start tackling our side work. I looked at her and told her that we were JOKING! She said she knew that, but she just wanted me to know that it is acceptable to go grab some nicotene on nights when I felt like I needed it as we neared the end of the shift.

I can only shake my head and laugh. That was the best that she could come up with for what she thought was my unacceptable behavior toward a waitress who isn't willing to pull her weight? It must be my nicotene withdrawal that would cause me to call someone on inappropriate work actions? I can only wonder if anyone filled her in on what the poor car wreck gal did with the rest of her Saturday night. I don't know, I guess I'm old because I thought if you were too sick to work, you wouldn't dash out of your place of employment to go plant your ass on a barstool. I stand behind my original scolding. If you aren't well enough to do the whole shift (after three weeks of pulling the same stunt) give up the shift and let someone who can do it show up in your place. Thankfully, that's the way it was this weekend. I hardly had to chastise anyone last night.

The best thing that happened to me this week is that I got published! Yeah! I knew it was coming, and I'd been looking forward to it for awhile, but seeing my piece in a little magazine was still pretty damn cool. I wrote a very raw, emotional account of visiting my father's grave. It was an amazing experience, and while the essay is not my best bit of writing, it is an expose' into my very core. I hope to polish it up and post it here one day, but not yet. I owe great thanks to a friend I've only met online, though I hope to meet her in person one day. I'm convinced that had my writing been sent in as a standalone piece, it would have had every chance to be filed under the "maybe" pile. My very generous friend sent it to the people she knew at the magazine because my written experience moved her, and seemed just the right thing for the quarterly publication it appeared in. And so it was that Tuesday I greeted a FedEx gal at the door. Apparently the old Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show's tune about "five copies for my mother" still holds true because that's just how many copies Isabelle sent me. Awesome!

The sun has been out every single day this week! For me, this is a boon. I'm prone to depression when the days get shorter and the sun hides behind clouds. I've come up with reasons to be outside all week, and am only slightly annoyed that I'll be sitting inside of the house this afternoon to watch what will probably be another sad exhibition of how poorly my team can execute a full 60 minute football game. Nonetheless, watch I will because I love me some Green Bay Packers!! Win, lose, or tie...I adore my team and will support them.

It's been a week of getting overdue chores done around the house for me. I've probably earned a little vegging out in front of the tube today. Still, I'll do some laundry, go through the stack of bills that need my attention, sneak in some productivity during the game. Only by doing this can I arrive at the end of my day feeling like it was worth my getting out of bed this morning. And so starts another week.