April 27th, 2015

After a quick breakfast, I rode my moped to the shop to recharge my battery. I have been having to use the kick starter for the last week or so, and I wanted to get it fixed. I left the shop and started walking. I didn’t have a destination, I just walked for a few hours until they called me to pick up the moped.

I went home, made lunch around 3:30 and Rebecca came home at 5. I went to the store for onions and oranges and made dinner and then we watched a movie about a group of little people who have to fight a dragon to conquer a mountain filled with gold.

April 26th, 2014

I woke up at 10 and we headed to church. We arrived just after it started but found seats way off to the side. There was a guest speaker who moved here from India in the 80’s. It was difficult to understand a lot of what he was saying.

We headed back to town and I fell asleep on the way. We stopped at the grocery store where we bought produce and I weighed my self. I’m down 15lbs since the start of the diet on the 6th, and down 35lbs since the beginning of the year. We went home and I made lunch and went to work. I got a large iced coffee with no ice or sweetener, basically a 30 ounce cup of lukewarm black coffee. I finally started to wake up around 5.

I was working in the bar, which was nice because the restaurant was slow, but we were busy. One of the last tables we had came in around 9:50. I started my greet and they stared at me for a second and then asked “se habla Espanol?” I re-did my greet in Spanish and got them settled in with some recommendations. I came back a few minutes later and started talking to them, in Spanish about different beaches and hikes they should check out. We talked about how no one here speaks Spanish and it is difficult for them to get around because their English is not very good. I have been in the exact situation. I’m sure my Spanish was atrocious, and it mush have sounded like a cat scratching a chalk board while being smashed with a ballet slipper.

I got home around 12:30, and stayed up until 3 watching Sons of Anarchy.

April 25th, 2015

I woke up at 6:30 and was at work, coffee in hand by 7:45. I had way more energy and I was much more coherent compared to the last two weeks while I was sick. The general manager came in around 9:30 and started working on the drains underneath the beer taps. If not cleaned properly and regularly, the yeast in the beer accumulates into a mass of slimy phlegm-like wad. They usually clean everything out at night, but he told them that he would get to it in the morning. Fast forward to 10, and he has poured two bottles of drain-o into the drain spilling it all over the ice. I had to “burn the ice” which means pouring hot water over it to melt it. It took 6 large buckets of ice to fill everything back up, and the drains didn’t clear for two hours until the noon bartender came in and did some kind of dark magical trick to unclog it, which is the same method they usually do at night.

It was a rather slow shift, especially with three bartenders. I was able to convince one of the other bartenders to close out the majority of the checks so I didn’t have to use my register. I ended up being accurate down to the penny with my drawer.

They have been short staffed in the host department so I volunteered to stay for a few hours and host. I didn’t feel like picking up a serving shift because I would have had to walk around a lot. They told me to take a break and come back at 5 and work for a few hours. After a 40 minute break we realized they couldn’t clock me in as a host so they sent me home.

I went home, showered and made dinner and then Rebecca and I had an epic imaginary water balloon fight in the apartment.

April 24th, 2014

I spent the morning doing nothing and getting ready for work.

I arrived early and stretched out before my trainee got there. It was the same guy I trained the last few times, and this is his final stage of training. I gave him a list of expectations for the shift that were both unrealistic and overly exaggerated. I told him that he wasn’t allowed to sell any kids meals, he had to sell over $200 worth of merchandise, and he also had to sell a certain number of menu items that are not on the menu, and the kitchen can’t even make. I let him freak out for a few minutes before I told him it was a joke

My job tonight was to follow him around and make sure he didn’t make any mistakes. I let him take over the section while I stood a few feet away so I wouldn’t be creeping out the tables by standing there doing nothing. I was allowed to leave early because I have to be there at 8 am tomorrow. We finished our side work and I was in bed by 10:30

April 23rd, 2015

I woke up around 10 and made breakfast. I am feeling better, but I haven’t really done anything for the last 4 days so I conserved my energy for work. I was almost excited to get back to work, not necessarily to be at work, but to be out of the house and around people.

My 11 year old niece is coming back to visit us this summer, and we finally got the dates booked this morning. As soon as I got to work I found the request off book and wrote in my name for the days she will be here. 3 of those days were crossed off signaling that we could not request off those days. I took the book to the general manager to see if he would let me have the time off. I was told that we were going to be busy on those days and no one was allowed to request them off. He said that I should tell my niece that I will be able to spend time with her after work. I have to tell my 11 year old niece, that I have not seen since October that my part-time job is more important than her… I almost quit on the spot. I understand that work is a part of being an adult, and everyone has to make sacrifices in life, but no job is more important than family.

The next 3 hours went by very slowly. I only had two tables and the restaurant was dead. It finally picked up around 7:30 but I was out of there by 11. I went home and tried to sleep, but my brain was still buzzing from work, and the 30 ounce coffee I had before the shift.

April 22nd, 2015

I woke up around 10 and headed to the bank to transfer some money and then I went straight home. I prepared dinner and then fell asleep watching a documentary about prison. Rebecca came home around 4:30 and woke me up. I cooked dinner and then finished playing Halo 3 and then spent the rest of the night on the couch coughing up and sweating out what I hope to be the last of this sickness.

April 21st, 2015

Today was the first day since I got sick that I had nothing to do. Around 11:30 a manager called to ask why I wasn’t there for my shift. She said that I am usually there early and she wanted to make sure I was ok. I didn’t hear my phone ring so when I listened to the message I called back right away. She said that as soon as she had left the message, someone handed her my doctors note. I stayed in bed until about 1 and then I did a load of laundry.

After all my clothes were dry, I camped out of the couch until Rebecca came home and made dinner. I am starting to feel better, my cough has subsided and I can finally start to smell again.

I spent the rest of the evening on the couch playing video games and watching movies. I realized that I didn’t leave the house today, this is the first time since we moved here that I stayed home for the entire day. Luckily tomorrow is my final rest day and then I can go back to visiting the outside world.

April 20th, 2015

I woke up at 10 and headed straight to the doctor’s office. I explained what was going on, and that I had gone to the walk-in clinic and gotten antibiotics. The doctor told me that bronchitis is going around right now. I was told to take tomorrow and Wednesday off from work and given a note saying the same. I’m not too excited about missing two more shifts this month, but my body really needs to rest.

I left the doctor and went to the state tax building and got the final form the college needs to prove my residency. After I left the tax office, I rode to work to drop off my doctor’s note. The manager pulled her shirt over her nose and told me not to breathe on her. From there I rode to the college to drop off the tax form and confirm my interview for the EMT school.

It was now about 2:00 and I was exhausted and a little dizzy. I went straight home and spent the rest of the day napping and watching Netflix. I was in bed by 9.

April 19th, 2015

We woke up at 9 and I was still feeling miserable, so we decided to watch the live cast from church on Rebecca’s computer. Once the sermon was done, I went to the walk-in clinic near my house. I had to wait about 40 minutes in which time my phone nearly died. I was finally called in and talked to a nurse about my ailments. She asked what I did and I sheepishly mentioned that I worked in a restaurant. She asked which restaurant and I didn’t want to answer because I had already told her I had been working sick for the past 9 days. She said she had never been to the restaurant before, and I told her to wait a couple weeks to check it out because I am not the only person who is sick.

After a few minutes and a quick examination, I was told that I need to stop q-tipping because all I am doing is pushing the wax deeper in to my ear canal. She also told me that I have bronchitis, which is an infection of the bronchial tubes in the lungs. This would explain why I have been sick for so long, and the not so little globs of yellow/green phlegm I have been so rapidly producing. I got a couple prescriptions and was on my way.

Once I got home Rebecca and I went to Costco which took about an hour, but completely drained both of us of energy. We too the food home, ate lunch and then went to Safeway to complete our grocery shopping for the week. I went home and took a 3 hour nap and then made diner around 9.

April 18th, 2015

I woke up at 6:30 and headed to work. Nobody wanted/was able to pick up my opening bar shift so I went in. I was scooping ice from the back when the general manager said good morning and asked why I wasn’t in full uniform. It was 8 am and there were no customers, but I said sorry and he went to the office. I was in the walk in getting fruit to cut and when I came back to the bar I saw a copy of the uniform policy under my water bottle with the part about facial piercing high-lighted. I came home from 3 months in Mexico with 10 piercing, now I only have three, one in each ear, and my eyebrow. It has only been the last couple months that the eyebrow ring has been a problem, they never said anything about it before. I just don’t remember that it is in anymore. I took the eyebrow ring out and kept prepping fruit. The manager came up a while later and asked if I had received his note. I replied “yep” without taking my eyes off of what I was doing. He kept talking about something else but I was concentrating not cutting my finger off while slicing limes that I wasn’t really paying attention.

By 10 I had my first customers, and I hadn’t completed the morning prep work. I was in a mad scramble to take care of the customers, count my register drawer, get ice, and cut more fruit that by the time the second bar tender came in at 11 I almost hugged her. I was making drinks and she was taking care of the tables until noon when the third bar tender came in and I was able to finish the morning prep work. When it came time to count my register, I was nervous. Another manager was counting my drawer and he looked up at me and told me to take a deep breath because it looked like I was about to pass out. The general manager was in the office and asked why I was so uptight. I told him that I was terrified of being off again because that meant being fired. Luckily I was accurate down to the penny. I went home and finally had an appetite for the first time in a week. I grilled some chicken and bacon and washed it all down with water and a splash of lime juice.

I spent the rest of the night coughing and sweating.