No Longer Serving Sushi

So...it's been a really long time since I've actually updated this blog. Does that mean I wasn't serving sushi during that time? No. It just means that I stopped caring, which I'm pretty sure I alluded to at some point during a past [recent] post. I was spending so much time at work that I was just going through the motions. The amusing things that happened became part of every day, the agitating things that happened I decided I really didn't want to dwell on. And I got sick of having trouble falling asleep because I felt bad about not updating the blog. So I just stopped worrying about it all together.

And now, the saga /is/ over. My last day at work was Friday January the 8th. I worked a double. At the end of the day the owners barely acknowledged the fact that I wouldn't be coming back to work the next day as I usually would. It was payday so I got my check, tipped out, left and....all of a sudden I wasn't a server anymore. Yeah. It was that simple.

It was strange. I honestly felt somewhat sad, but I guess that just goes to show how one can grow attached to anything, even the unhappier routines in one's life. I feel the temptation to return at some point in the future, but I know that probably would not be the best choice.

I am currently traveling. Not for a long time, but perhaps that will change while I'm away. I've decided to move over to gNomadic Tendencies The Other Georgia, as I think focusing attention on something that I want to do so much--traveling--is very important. If you care to read updates on my life, go there!

Half Days and Scalding Hot Tea

So, as you all can surely see, I haven't stayed on top of updating the blog this week. I've been working on a project in all my downtime, so I figured I'd just do a roundup of the week to cover all the interesting things. I might not remember what they all are, but I most certainly remember a handful!

I served a young couple with a baby earlier this week and at some point I realized that everyone was making a huge fuss over the baby....except me. The manager/cashier came over to look at him, other customers /got up/ from their tables to come coo too, but I just went about my duties as if the infantile human wasn't even there. I couldn't even consciously make myself acknowledge or be interested in this baby--I /tried/ and I couldn't. No worries--I don't plan on having children, though I actually manage to look after them pretty decently. But I can't help but wonder what's up with that. Why don't I see this magic in children that everyone else seems to be enchanted by? I guess I see it in the few that are actually a part of my life, but not every baby that's carried by.

There's been a lot of changes with staff going on this week--one busboy was fired, a new one was hired, and one server has just stopped showing up. Boy will the server that's away be surprised when she comes back on Monday.

Get this! Yesterday--meaning Thursday--I served a couple at the sushi bar who seemed to be having a rather stressful conversation. They stayed for quite a while--it took them like half an hour to sit down and after they stopped eating I stopped by every fifteen minutes or so for a while to see if they were finishing up...they weren't. So one of the other servers started eavesdropping, and the lady was insisting she wanted a divorce! Eventually she told me I better go take the check because the guy had stormed off! Fortunately, he only stormed off to the [alcohol] bar, and he came back after I delivered the check to the sushi bar. I think they decided they were going to try to work things out, but who knows...

Today ended up being really hectic because schools let out early. We do not have the kind of staff on hand at lunch to handle as many people as came in today--we even had to open a table that usually is only used during Sunday brunch! And a few things happened today that only made the shift all the more stressful--I nearly had an asthma attack or something. I was walking to my first table with a drink refill when, all of a sudden, I was overcome with the need to cough and I couldn't breath. I ran to the back of the restaurant--near the bathrooms, and coughed and wheezed and coughed and wheezed, eyes watering and face red. It sucked. I've still not been quite right all day after that. Scared the other server that was on shift, too. Shortly after that, I spilled scalding hot ocha (green tea) down my side while delivering it to my second table. Fortunately I had the kind of shirt that dries fairly quickly...unfortunately, it's also the kind of shirt that becomes quite transparent when wet. Fortunately--somehow--the tea seemed to bypass most of the fabric and hit my skin directly. It stung for quite a while, but I don't have a burn. Later on I delivered soup, sushi, and salad to a table before they told me that I hadn't even brought them their drinks yet! I felt awful. Aside from that, though, nothing really went terribly wrong--it was just a lot of rushing around and struggling to keep up with things, which all the customers could see and, thankfully, seemed to understand. They were all absolutely awesome and I really appreciated it! And I made almost $40! That's like brunch money right there, so I can't complain!

So yeah. I work tomorrow, obviously. Supposedly Halloween is always dead, but we'll see. I wish I could wear a costume...I'd go in my Shouta Shimon outfit (though I wouldn't want to get it dirty). It sucks. Halloween is the only holiday I actually like and I've done nothing for it the past couple of years. I guess it's becoming meaningless to me, too, now. But I'll leave it at that. I've got more work to do and I've killed my hands enough with all this typing. I might update tomorrow, I might not. Guess you'll have to wait and see! Thanks for reading!

Exhausted

So I've spent the past few days internally moaning and griping about not wanting to go to work, which is a completely new phenomenon for me--I've never felt that before. I don't think feeling it now is due to hating the job--I'm perfectly fine once I get there--but rather the result of not feeling it's getting me where I want to be. I'm not saving nearly enough money, especially considering how many hours I do spend at work a week. That's a problem because I'm not happy where I am in life right now and I have no intentions of staying here. But I've got that terrible, nagging feeling of being obligated to stay here right now, for whatever reason. And I definitely don't like that.

That aside, I'm sure I'll sleep well after work tonight because I've barely slept the last two nights...and I'll probably get very little sleep during this coming week. I used my day off to work on a project--two and a half hours away--and I have to finish it this week.

/That/ aside, comments are broken! A good friend and follower pointed this out to me and I've been too busy to fix it so far. Hopefully I can land some freelance gigs very soon and get back to doing what I actually like doing...writing, drawing, and animating. Well...time to eat some food before I head off to serve some in a couple of hours!

Sick Server

Alright...so I haven't really been updating the way I should these past couple of days, but both work and other things--mainly seeking other work--have been keeping me pretty busy. But I'm not going to dish out any boring recaps, describe makanai, or give tip reports on the missed shifts. I'm going to talk about something that's been bugging me during the past couple of days.

As I mentioned in a previous post--I am sick. Not debilitatingly so, but I've got a cough and I'm congested with germ-riddled mucous. And you can hear it in my voice. Now, common sense (and food health and safety training) warrant that a sick server shouldn't work at all! Obviously my body is full enough of some sort of bacteria or virus that I'm having a symptomatic immune response--no matter how many times I wash my hands, bringing people things that they're going to consume is putting them at risk.

This bothers me. I'm not looking for an excuse to miss work--I need the money, after all. I don't want to make anyone sick, /especially/ customers. And what bothers me more is that my bosses don't seem to care. If I were running a restaurant I would not allow anyone who was sick to work. Period. I don't care if that means having to cover to slack myself! I don't understand how they can freak out about staff eating leftover food because of the possibility of catching something and passing it on, but they allow (and, from what I've heard, force) staff that is obviously sick to keep working!

What makes it worse is that it's flu season and H1N1 has already spread rapidly in this area. I don't have it, but it seems having anyone with a compromised immune system on shift is a bad idea. Almost everyone knows someone who has H1N1 around here, so the virus is definitely making the rounds.

I'm keeping myself loaded up on vitamin C to try to get over this, and I really don't think it's doing anything but slowing the progression down. At work I'm drinking tea, keeping cough drops on me, and washing my hands even more often than usual. Perhaps I should be more selfish in how I'm looking at this--at least I'm still able to make money, right? Right?! :: sighs :: Time to go serve food and, hopefully, not make anyone sick.

Sick and Tired

Literally. I'm sick. Just barely. I've had a sore throat and sinus drainage since Friday. You would think that would mean that I've been off work, which would explain the lack of updates. Hahaha...no. I'm not off work. I've been working and they actually tried to call me in yesterday despite the fact that I told them I was sick. Considering the fact that they're so concerned with us picking up something from customers and passing it on to others, you'd think they'd be more concerned about servers actually /being/ sick. But from what everyone has told me they still make you work. Fortunately I haven't really been coughing or sneezing or anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been contagious.

So let me try to catch up....I did work a double on Friday. Friday dinner was...um...I don't really remember. Saturday dinner was slow, but my pace got totally thrown off due to the fact that...um...I had a table with a lady who was waiting for the rest of her party and it took them like an hour to get there...by which time I had another table. So they all ended up ordering at almost the same time, and that is the /worst/ thing that can happen, because they're all needing the same things at just about the same time. And, of course, I had another table come in close to it being time for them to leave, so I ended up with three tables at once despite the fact that it was a slow night. I didn't screw up too terribly, but I /did/ make mistakes. It can be difficult to split one's attention between nineteen people spread across three tables. Oh, /that's/ right! On Friday night I had a party of fifteen!

I go back in for dinner tonight. Ngh...I'm getting a little bit sick of dinner shifts because they tend to creep by. And we all know what Monday means...I get almost no tables. So I expect a long, slow, boring night. Well, I've got some stuff to try to do before then, so I'm going to go now!

Back to the Routine

So I'm back to work today. It's weird. Definitely took me a few to really get back into the rhythm of things, so hopefully I'll get back to optimum performance over today and tomorrow. It's weird...I had sushi almost every day I was gone and now I'm back to serving it, haha.

Today is Boss's Day, so we were expecting it to be exceptionally busy. Well...it was exceptionally slow even for a /normal/ Friday lunch, so I don't know what happened there. It started pouring near the end of the shift and three parties decided to come in right at two, of course, so we didn't get out early.

I didn't serve anyone who was like...flat out mean or rude or anything, but I definitely served some frustrating people. People who cut me off, people who ignored me when I was talking to them...but overall everyone was still nice.

I was only supposed to work lunch today, which I was looking forward to, but they penciled me in for tonight, so I'm working a double. Less than an hour before I have to be back, so I guess I'll leave it at that! Oh--by the way--I'm coming down with something. My throat is sore, so let's see what happens with that.

Sushi Betrayal, Haha

So I've not updated for the past couple of days--been pretty busy, but having a blast! Ate at two completely unrelated Wasabi restaurants in the past two days and both were great! I can't even remember everything we got...California Roll, of course, salmon Skin Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll at the first one. At the second one we got Squid Salad, Edamame, Dynamite Roll, and Wasabi Roll. All fantastic stuff!

It's interesting seeing what a different experience it is eating at different places, especially considering the fact that these restaurants either didn't seem to have or simply just didn't reek of hibachi. The more you try different places the more you realize just how different menus, cooking style, presentation, and everything else really differ.
I've quite enjoyed it!