Category: Beloved Co-workers
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Show Me the Nearest Yellow Brick Road
I left for Colorado a week ago. My local bar manager told me he wanted me on the schedule full time when I returned. With that good news in hand, I turned down another job that had just been offered, and I reduced my shifts to one at the dive. Oh, and I booked a…
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A Mother’s Day Toast to Those Who Call Out
She wandered in at 8 a.m., wide-eyed and only a little nervous. Her crisp apron was tied nicely around her khaki pants, her makeup was just so. Who the hell are you? I thought as I buttered toast and kept half an eye on the line, where my order was starting to pile up. I…
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How Stupid Can You Be?
“The orange juice in a mimosa is not considered a serving of fruit! You need to eat something!” said my girlfriend with whom I was drinking what was supposed to be my first meal in two days. “I have some soup I just made, no gluten at all in it,” said the cook from behind…
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You Know How I Like It
“Rum and diet, splash of cran, tall, lighter on the cran, no ice. But you know that, RG.” And I do, even though I toss in a few ice cubes because I know she likes just a few. “Try this, I love the bouquet. I think you will, too,” says the manager to the girls…
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I Could Never!
“I could never be a waitress in a busy place,” I told Upset Waitress before I moved from Fort Lauderdale to become a waitress in a busy place. In fact, I could. I did. I do. “I could never be a bartender, even in a quiet locals’ place. It’s been too long ago since I…
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Bad to Good, Bad to Best
“How’s the book coming along?” asks a Fort Lauderdale friend in an email. “Fine,” I lie in an email response. In truth, I have to re-write every chapter of my book every day. Just when I think I have the story line that works, everything changes–again and again. I moved here to work in a…
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Climbing Back Up
I went back to work at the bar today. It was a slow Monday day shift. I poured beer just fine. In all else, I didn’t suck. I am still clumsy and slow, but I will get this…I think. The manager watched me like a hawk all day. He says he needs me to fill…
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Excessive Expectations
A long, long time ago, I was a bartender. I was asked to tend bar at a popular resort-town spot, where I worked as a server, because I sucked so much as a server. “You’re off the floor! You work the service bar now,” barked the restaurant’s owner after I was weeded for the billionth…
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The New Kid
“I’ve hired someone to help you out,” said my owner. In this case, my “help” was supposed to spare me the agony of having to manage dinner, because restaurant management is something I absolutely, positively NEVER want to do again in my restaurant life, unless I own the restaurant. Except this kid, who literally drove…
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Fortune’s Quarter
I felt like crap–achy, stuffy head, cough. I had not been sick in years, even working so closely with the public as I have in various restaurants. Not a sniffle, not a thing. Until now. “He will think I am bailing again for the 95th time,” I complained to my co-worker. “But I really don’t…