Wow it has been way too long since I’ve even considered writing a post.
However, I would feel completely idiotic if I didn’t document the crazy week I’ve had/am having. Along with everyone else in New Jersey.
First, on Tuesday, I experienced my very first earthquake. Granted, it was just an aftershock from a fairly large one in Virginia, however, I didn’t ever think I would feel one living in Jersey.
Now, we’re all getting prepared for Hurricane Irene. I, for one, feel greatly unprepared. I live with my grandparents, and I am relying on them to keep me calm through this. Those two never panic. They didn’t run out to the grocery store, they didn’t drive to the nearest gas station to fill up. We pretty much secured everything in our backyard and made sure we have plenty of dry towels, in the event our basement floods, which it has a tendency to do with heavy rain.
Another thing is, I will not evacuate without them. It’s not so much that I’m all trusting of their judgement, or I’m skeptical of the severity of the hurricane, or that I think we can brave it out. Simply put, I won’t leave them to survive by themselves. After all they do for me, I fully plan on riding out the storm with them.
The next issue with the Hurricane is my job. I work at a restaurant; one which tends to stay open as much as possible. Snow storms, we’re open. Hail storms, we’re open. This hurricane? We plan on being open.
The issue with that is it’s unsafe for the employees, including my bosses, to come into work and stay there as the storm gets worse. Also, those of us who brave the storm to come to work for a few hours, aren’t feeling very friendly towards any customers who happen to be idiotic enough to leave their houses.
The one saving grace, which will probably get my coworkers and I out of having to leave our houses? Our building tends to lose power pretty easily. Granted, once we do, it’s still a few hours before the bosses decide it’s probably not coming on, and it’s pointless to continue to pay us to sit in the dark. However, hopefully this time they’ll realise that once it’s off, it’s not coming back until the storm is over.
And what is it about going out to eat that brings out the crazy and rude in people? I would love to chalk it up to the fact that everyone is worried about the hurricane, but honestly, I see this behavior every weekend. Work was busier than it has been almost all summer, which probably had to with the fact that most of our weekenders were home from vaca and, hopefully, don’t plan on coming out tomorrow night.
But what part of being completely rude to the person giving you a table and the person serving your food, seems like a good idea? People like to be SO picky about their table, and yet, aren’t willing to wait. For instance, a party of six, would prefer a bar table but will take whatever is first available. But, not in the private room because they want to watch the baseball game, even though they can see six tv’s from the table I have for them. Or, you tell a woman her wait won’t be long at all but once she comes back inside from telling her husband to park, she needs to get her pager. Well, another couple comes in and you have two tables so one host takes the new couple and you try calling the first woman’s pager. As you do so, she rushes up to tell you that she has been here for three minutes and those people just walked in. I WAS CALLING YOUR PAGER. But, she never picked it up.
The best, was these four elderly people who were told the wait would be 15-20 minutes. After five minutes of waiting, one man brings up his pager, which happens to be brand new, and asks us to check and make sure it’s working. My coworker checks the number to make sure we’re not attempting to call him, and tells him that it’s working fine, his table isn’t ready, but he’s next on the list. So for the next five minutes while we wait for a table to leave then clean it off, my coworker and I watch and listen to this man repeatedly, and forcefully, beat the pager against his hand. ARE YOU TRYING TO BREAK IT?
Whew. Okay, I’m done. I promise. I know it seems like a lot of complaints. It is. It was just one of those weeks.
And yet, I love my job.
Here’s to surviving Irene. Hopefully.
-Aleigh
I am glass. 