I'm Ranting Here

Work sucked tonight! It's not that the tips were awful or the night was extremely long. Work just sucked. It might be the allergies that have been kicking my ass have finally gotten to me. Sure, I thought on Monday...I could get through a day or two of feeling under the weather because the trees were furiously blooming, but now I'm just tired of feeling so non-functioning. And work sucked because of it.

I noticed right away that I was on the rampage. The slicer was a beast on tomatoes and onions, and the tomatoes were little so there were way too many of them to slice. I was behind after sparring with the slicing equipment and the hostess had people waiting in the hall so she wanted to open the doors early. To be totally honest, the issues at work have been escalating because of a few bad apples who are rotting the good apples' good attitudes. This alone makes work suck. Then again, in the spirit of honesty, I do love my job.

What do you get when you mix one part allergy with one part PMS and one part annoyance at the workplace? I'll tell you what you get. You get one crabby waitress. My first table needed time to look at the menu which was cool by me. However, when they were finally ready to order (and subsequently througout the meal), the woman felt compelled to explain every detail of why she needed to relay each message she gave me. Example: "I'd like it if you could bring us two more sour creams. I didn't get one [she said no when I asked if she wanted one in the ordering phase]and he shared some of his with me, but now we're out and I think we'd like a little extra in addition to the one I didn't get, so....if I could get two..." All she needed to say was, "Could you bring us two sour creams?" But nope. Everytime I dealt with her it was all about her snivelling. Whatever.

Shortly after that while I was ringing in an order at the POS (which is near our Friday night fish and chicken buffet), a woman leaned in and asked, "Will they be bringing out more chicken?" Boy howdy, I wanted to say, "I'm sorry! We've exceeded our alotted amount of Friday Night Chicken and it's only 6:15pm!" I could have added, "there's a lot of fish though, so dig in!" What possesses people to ask such stupid questions? Obviously, what she wanted to know was how long she would have to wait for more chicken. Why didn't she just ask that?

My night continued on the path of aggravation when my section cleared out simultaneously and my hostess brought me two 4-tops and a 2-top within minutes of each other. By the time I got to the third seated table and tried to greet them and introduce myself, the woman had a sour face and blurted, "We are ready to order." Her tone infuriated me. I guess she was under that customer assumption that us servers are in the back eating Bon-Bons, even though it appears that our twin is dashing to the bar for drinks and serving salads that were punched in and sent by some ghost of a server that they can't see. I held back a snarl and informed the woman in my most neutral tone that I was working as fast as I could, "whatwouldyoulike?"

I skipped the extra pleasantries with most of my tables. Honestly, I didn't smile all that much. And believe it or not, it had less to do with my grumpy mood and more to do with the chapped upper lip and nose area that I've developed because of the excessive nose-blowing that's gone on. As luck (or stupidity) would have it, I left one of about seven tubes of lip balm I have scattered in coat pockets and my purse, car, etc in the pocket of the coat I wore earlier today. I went to work without lip balm!!! Nary a soul had anything until the late busgirl came in and finally had some to share. I actually started smiling more after that, I'm pretty sure. I've used that stuff four times writing this, just to give you an idea of how naked I was at work without anything to moisten that dry upper lip. I thought I might die.

The night went pretty fast and I'm glad to be home. I'm still a tad jealous that my best work friend got the first table in my section after I was cut and they had tenderloin and lobster. I guess when you go in crabby, you better find a way to sigh and laugh it off by the time that happens to you. I took solace and joy in my after work cigarette, meal, and cocktail while the closing girls slaved away. I've got a lot of nights ahead of me this week. You bet your ass I'm basking in an early night off.

Did I remember to take Table #18's extra rolls to them? Eh, who cares?!