Life on the other side

It's been a hot minute. A lot has happened in that hot minute let me tell you.

I know I hardly had readers when I was trying to blog actively so maybe this random blog won't get a view. If that's the case, I'm writing this blog more for me than for you.

I've hung up my pen and notepad for good and let me tell you how much my mental health has been soaring because of it.

Serving is a GREAT way to make money. Truly, that's why it took me so long to walk away from it. You work a couple shifts a week during school, make a bunch of cash and go on with your studies. For me, serving gave me the most anxiety I have ever felt and at points, I wished that my car would go (gently) into a ditch on the way in and I would miss my shift. Damn my good snow tires for never making that a reality (haha).

This summer, I took on a job that was in the field I am going to school for and it just felt so much better for me. There are some people who make a wonderful career out of serving. They like it, they're good at it and it pays their bills. I hated it and I sucked at it. I was constantly feeling inadequate because I couldn't do it and other staff members were constantly annoyed with my smaller sections and I was just so anxious all the time.

I just stopped one day and said 'I need to walk away'. And I did just that. I am finishing up my second chunk of education and I am about to transition into the working world. More importantly, into the field I want to be in.

I am happy to say that I woke up one day and made the decision that the tips weren't worth it for me anymore.

Thanks for the read. I hope you are all doing well and if you're a server, I hope that holiday tipper gets seated in your section soon.

xoxo

- A

PS. It's been over a year since I served a table and I STILL get server nightmares from time to time!

Where did that come from?

So I am getting ready for my big move. 10 days to go! I've been busy too with social events like a bachelorette party/getaway last weekend and tomorrow I am going to a friends cottage for the weekend. This doesn't sound like a lot of things but I am such an introvert and all of the socializing can really tire me out.

Nonetheless, I've packed my camping gym bag for another weekend of tanning and saying goodbye to our old friends as we are all going in different directions for school this fall.

While these are all celebrations and things to look forward to, I've been having pop-up panic attacks throughout the week. I've come to understand my anxiety and I used to suffer a lot from panic attacks growing up but they sordove dwindled after grade 12. Here and there I will have a flare up but this last week has been very difficult.

Usually, something triggers my panic attacks and I can see them coming and sometimes talk myself through them pretty efficiently but these ones come out of nowhere and it takes a good 20 minutes for me to catch my breath (compared to the usual 3-5 minutes).


I hope I can get them under control and I hope it doesn't interfere with my new school and apartment.

Thanks for the read and I hope you're enjoying the heat (if there's heat where you are! :) )

xoxo

- A

Being an adult sucks

So as you know I've left the job I was working at and thought I just deserved the time off for the rest of the summer (just over a month) as a way to celebrate my undergrad and starting a new program. It was all good at first until a buttload of expenses started coming in.

My car broke down..

I had to pitch in for a bachelorette weekend getaway..

and the gift for the bride..

I just bought the bridesmaid dress for the wedding ..

I just activated the utilities and internet/cable for our new apartment we will be moving into for school and apparently when you activate all that crap.. you gotta pay! I'm new to the adult way of life so this came as a bit of a surprise.

I had enough money to get me through the summer without any big expenses popping up but stupid me for thinking nothing would pop up.

Only 20 days until I move (and receive my student loan) so I just need to make it to that.



I hope you're all doing well and getting big fat tips. I almost miss the restaurant world but still don't think I want to go back.

I'll let ya know if that changes!

xoxo

- A

Is this thing on?

Hello readers...


Well are there even readers anymore? I never had many but lately, my page feels like a ghost town. Let me know if you're still reading.. I've always been a sucker for other people's praise.


I quit my job.

A student without a summer job. AKA my biggest nightmare. There was just too much going on at that place and I felt it was best for me if I resigned. So I did.

Getting a new job is not likely as I am moving to a new city for school in just over a month.

Things will work out..

Stay tuned.

xoxo

- A

This is why I write it down

'the customer is always right'

This is the golden rule while working in the food industry, or even other industries such as retail but this golden rule makes any server want to rip his/her hair out in the middle of the rush. 

So there are some servers who don't write anything down and just remember everything. Literally everything. My friend served a party of 15 the other night with no notepad. I on the other hand need to write everything down, including water. Embarrassing I know but during the rush I get so stressed out I can't remember the last 2 minutes because my brain is in survival mode and my memory shuts down. It's a thing. Look it up if you don't believe it.

I'm getting sidetracked here..

So I was pretty busy and had a handful of needy/cranky tables. This always makes me feel weeded as I start over-trying to please my guests (because I can't deal with conflict). I had a woman (who I knew  wouldn't tip well) order a wrap with a side salad. I wrote it down and actually remember the conversation. The food comes out and she pipes up "I ordered fries with my wrap"

**Cue the eye roll that makes my eyeballs fall out.**

 I knew she didn't and I politely said "oh really? I was so sure you had a salad with it". The wrap comes with fries as a default so when someone orders it I say "would you like fries as the side?" and she flat out said no, she wanted a garden salad.

She said "why would I order salad with it when the meals came with unlimited salad"

** eye roll eye roll eye roll**

... maybe because your meal is the cheapest and doesn't include the all you can eat salad so you ate the unlimited salads from the others at your table even though that's not allowed.

She started getting worked up about it and I had other tables I needed to deal with so I decided that this was not worth pursuing.

But my god did it eat me up inside that I knew I was right and I let her get away with thinking I made the mistake. I brought out the side of fries and apologized. 

She tipped 8%.

xoxo

- A

Prankster Prince

My last post was pretty glum but I actually have a funny story about the restaurant today.

So everyone was shocked when we saw a paper posted on the staff bulletin board about a new promo going on that was promoting baked potatoes. This is confusing because we don't even have potatoes in the kitchen. Everyone was confused and annoyed that they would be doing this type of promo. My friend (who is also one of the managers) and I had gotten the message sent to us at the same time of a picture of that post and we thought it was super weird because we don't even have potatoes in stock.

Word got out that this was all a big prank created by one of the managers yesterday. Some were in on it and some still don't know it's fake. It's created a bit of fun in the atmosphere.

My friend had called me and told me that she overheard staff laughing about it and discovered it was fake and I was shocked that the manager would do this. Little did she know that my friends and family know me as the Prankster Prince (shout out if you ever watched the childhood cartoon Recess). I prank everyone. Never would I do something that I wouldn't want done to me but I thought she deserved to have a little taste of her own medicine.

I worked the lunch shift today and it was very quiet so I thought it was a good time to do it. I made sure she could see that I was about to take a table's order and when I finished, I went to her and said

"Hey I up-sold three baked potatoes and I can't find the button on the computer to ring it in"

And she burst out laughing. The bartender didn't know I was lying and they were in stitches thinking that I actually fell for it. She told me to go tell them it wasn't real and they chuckled the whole time I walked away.

I hid for a couple minutes and went back to the manager with watery eyes and started crying saying

"I told them and they got so mad and started freaking out. They asked what kind of management tells their staff about false promotions and they are making a huge scene" - I was full on crying at this point.

She jumped up and said she is going to go talk to them and I could tell she felt SO BAD. Halfway to their table I had to grab her and tell her it was all a huge prank. The whole staff watched the entire thing play out and they were talking about it all day.

Everyone was shocked that I could cry on cue and while I played it cool, I was shocked too.

Hope this made you laugh as much as it made me!

xoxo

- A

Just not cut out for it

So I've been back at my summer place for a week now and I must say, I'm not getting back into the swing of things.

I've been getting extremely overwhelmed and stressed out and tonight I actually had a breakdown in the middle of the rush and started crying in the middle of the kitchen/main side stand in front of all of the staff.

I'm just so frustrated. I have been serving since first year.. which means I've been serving for 4 years now. Mind you, I've served on and off and at a bunch of different places because I move away for school and home for the summers. But I'm still a weak server. At this point I think I've come to terms with the idea that I just suck at serving. Some people can do it and others can't. I'm one that can't. My friend has been serving for maybe two years now and she handles so many tables and gives good service and keeps a cool head. I get 4 tables and I start panicking.

While I know that I don't plan on turning serving into a career, I don't know if I should just walk away from it all-together. Serving is a career for many people and they can make more money than people sitting behind a desk. I'm not blind to the stigma around serving as a career. I commend you if you do this for a living. It takes a strong, smart, collected and quick-thinking person to be able to handle this profession.

I need the money desperately for school but if I'm a weak server, I know I'm a burden for the rest of the staff and that makes me feel shitty. I know how annoying it is to have a weak link and in this case, I'm the weak link.

I hope I figure it out I guess. Thanks for the read. I needed to flush it out because I've been tossing and turning for the last hour going over the stress of tonight's shift.

Hopefully now I can get some sleep and prepare to do it all again tomorrow.

xoxo

- A