August 16th, 2015

I woke up a little before noon. Rebecca had already gone to church, and the service was early over so I made breakfast and watched the A-Team. Rebecca got home around 2 and made lunch and then I headed off to work.

It wasn’t a moderately busy shift, but my brain was telling me to keep moving fast like I had been doing in the bar last night. The only problem with moving so fast, is when other people don’t have the same speedy movement and they get in my way. I can’t remember how many times a customer would stand in the aisle right in my way and either move at a snail’s pace, or not at all.

I got home around 11 and watched the A-Team for a while. Around 1 I heard someone banging on the door of a nearby apartment. I turned off all the lights and listened to see if it was going to be a problem or not. I crept outside to investigate, and based off what I had heard, one of the teenagers came home late for curfew and was locked out and trying to wake someone to be let inside. Once I determined there was no threat, I went to sleep.

August 12th, 2015

I woke up at 9, not because I wanted to, but because the maintenance guys were scheduled to arrive at 10 to fix some water damage to our bathroom cupboard from last summer when the water from upstairs was leaking in to our bathroom. They never fixed the cupboard no mater how many times I called to ask about it. Finally Rebecca got so fed up she called and got things done. They showed up at 10, and were gone by 10:06. They told me they would come back tomorrow at 9.

I spent the rest of the morning studying. I left for work around 2:30 and spent the rest of the night running around taking care of my tables. I was getting upset that I wasn’t getting any English speaking tables, but then I looked around the restaurant and saw that almost everybody in the restaurant was non English speaking. This was about as much fun as getting a pudding pop from Bill Cosby. Japanese tables don’t really care who their server is, they will flag down anybody and tell them what they want. They will flag someone down to hand them a dirty plate, they don’t understand that food takes time to cook and will not come out of the kitchen faster my glaring angrily at me. I had a table ask for two kids apple juices and 2 beers, while I was putting lids on the apple juices, this broad waved me over and asked for “free water”. I went and got them waters and when I brought the water to the table she demanded to know where the apple juice was. I tried explaining that I had been getting the apple juice when she demanded water, it was no use.

I got home around midnight and went to sleep

Auguat 11th, 2015

I woke up at 4 because it was so hot in the room. I thought I had turned the fan off, but the power was out to the entire block. I went back to sleep on my sweat soaked pillow. I finally woke up around 11 and made breakfast. I spent the rest of the morning studying.

I got to work for my serving shift. It was a slow day. My second table of the night sat down at 5:20. One of the other servers who is a flight attendant recently came back from Australia. I had asked her before to ring back Tim Tams, thinking she would forget. She came in today with a flavor I have never seen before. She said she picked up the shift tonight because she knew I would be working and she could bring the Tim Tams to me. I had to explain that I was on a strict diet and could not partake. She suggested cheating on the diet, but I told her that I was down 9lbs in 10 days, and the goal was to loose enough so I don’t jiggle when I brush my teeth. Some of the other servers overheard this and one girl started laughing so hard that she began to hyperventilate.

For the rest of the night, I only had one table that spoke English. I’m not cute enough to get tips from my looks, so I have to use my personality and make jokes. If I can’t do that, I end up with a shift like tonight. The table that was sat at 5:20 sat there for 5 hours. By 7 I was irritated, by 8 I was annoyed, by 8:30 I was furious. I asked a manager if I could pick up a 4th table but she said no. I could have had 4 other tables sit there in the time they took up 1/3 of my section. To make matters worse, they weren’t really eating or drinking, just talking. They left me $15, which is much less than I could have made off the table during the night.

I got home around midnight and went to bed.

August 9th, 2015

I went to bed at 4 last night. I left a note for Rebecca telling her not to wake me even if the apartment was on fire. It had been a long shift, and I needed my beauty sleep. She woke me up at 10 to get ready for church, and then again at 10:45.

We made it to church right on time, even though we stopped so could get a coffee because I didn’t have time for breakfast. After church we wen to the grocery store. I was exhausted and hungry, which made me an irritable ball of fun to be around.

We got home and I got ready for work while Rebecca made stuffed peppers for lunch. They were really good, especially for being whole 30 compliant. Once I ate I was much more pleasant, and I apologized for my irritability.

I left for work and started my shift with another coffee. I spent the majority of my night getting things for other people’s tables and doing other people’s side work. We have so many new people who don’t have a grasp on how to do things it has been frustrating.

I got home around 11:30 and relaxed before going to bed.

Aug 7th, 2015

I had a classroom training shift at noon, so for 5 hours I was sat at a table with a trainee going over flashcards and taking tests. I had a steak and broccoli for lunch and then started my night shift at 6 in the very back of the restaurant. I had 3 tables before I was sent home.

It was a 10 hour shift and my body was exhausted but my mind was doing cartwheels.

July 31st, 2015

I woke up at 10 and went to Taco Bell for breakfast. I didn’t really do much for the rest of the day until I went to work.

I was training tonight, and I was scheduled to do cash deposits. It was my trainee’s final training shift, which I loved because it meant all I had to do was follow her around and observe to make sure she could handle taking 3 tables.

I stopped taking tables around 8:30, and spent the next 3 hours in the office doing cash deposits. I got home around midnight and went straight to bed.

July 26th, 2015

I was up at 6:30, and at work by 7:30. One of the managers who closed last night was also opening today so I had him send me his coffee order. He left last night at 1:30, and returned to work at 6, he lives 40 minutes away.

I started my morning prep and didn’t have my first customer until 10:30. My back up bartender arrived at 11 and took over the tables while I made drinks. The restaurant was busy, which meant I was making a lot of drinks, but the bar was slow, which meant we weren’t making a lot in tips. I volunteered to stay an entrap hour so the other bartender could take care of some stuff at home. I left around 5:30, went home and went straight to the shower to wash off 9 hours of sweat, fruit juice, beer and liquor.

Rebecca made chicken and we watched a show on Netflix while I took a nap. Once she went to bed, I did a load of laundry, which was 3 days overdue, and ordered 2 pair of EMT pants for $75 each, which I will need for class. I still have to buy 2 shirts at $70 each, but that will have to wait until after payday.

I watched more of the documentary about cocaine wars and went to bed around 1.

July 25th, 2015

I woke up around 10 and spent the morning trying not to sweat. It has been hot and muggy again.

I left for work around 1:30 just because there is air conditioning. I was planning to sit in an empty section to study, but the restaurant was full so I went to the balcony near the stairwell and read my EMT book.

I started my shift at 4, it was mildly busy, but my heart just wasn’t in it today.

I got home around midnight and showered and went straight to bed because I have to open the bar tomorrow.

July 23rd, 2015

I woke up around 10, made breakfast and did the dishes. I spent the majority f the morning watching a documentary about what World War 2 would have looked like if being viewed from outer space. It was mostly CGI shots of the battle fields and showing which country occupied which territory at any given time.

I left for work a little earlier than usual so I could get a sandwich at Aloha Subs. The shift stared out slowly, but they started sending people home around 7:30 and then we got busy. There was nothing unusual about the shift. I think the highlight of my day was the sub sandwich. Rebecca had her first official day back at school today, though she won’t have any students until sometime next week. Last I heard, she thought she had an ear infection and was going to the doctor today to et it checked out. Since she is now back in school, and I start school in a month, I probably won’t see her until I’m done with school at the end of December. I’m going to try to work as much as I can during school so we can keep the lights on.

July 21st, 2015

I woke up at 9 and was at work by 10:30. I was training someone today, but in the classroom setting. I quickly grew bored of going over the ingredients of the drinks, and took her to the bar and let her watch the drinks being made. I then had her garnish the drinks and run them to the tables so she could learn table numbers.

Around 3, I left her to study for a few minutes and I walked through the kitchen. I heard someone yell “a guy at table 104 stopped breathing call 911!” I walked over to the table to find an elderly man slumped over in his chair. I turned to my manager and told him to grab me some gloves and got permission to treat the patient. Someone was on the phone with 911 and they instructed us to lay him on the ground. Someone came up and gave me gloves and directed people to assist me moving him to the ground. The man had a pulse, and was breathing normally, but was pale, cold to the touch and very diaphoretic (sweaty). We rolled him to his side as directed by the 911 dispatcher and someone went to cover him with a sweater because his body was cold. In a firm voice I told them to remove the covering as he was probably suffering from heat stroke. He remained unresponsive but I continued monitoring his vital signs and trying to wake him up until the fire department arrived. I gave one of the firefighters a short report on his vitals and the medical history we could obtain and then I casually walked away and went back to my trainee. The server who was helping the table was visibly upset, thinking it was somehow his fault for serving the man alcohol, but there was nothing he did wrong. I finished working with the trainee and went up to the front as the medics were placing an iv in the man’s arm and carrying him out on the gurney. My managers were coming up to me shaking my hand saying I was a hero, people were crying, some of the girls hugged me thanking me for what I did. I really didn’t do much to be honest. I have been in that situation probably a thousand times, it was just second nature for me.

It took about 15 minutes from the time the medics left until I started with the jokes. “We weren’t very busy today, you could say the restaurant was… dead”. “Don’t seat 104, that table is haunted.” The server who was helping the table was in the back still upset, I went back and sat in front of him, and in my best Good Will Hunting voice I said “it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.” One person got the joke and had to walk away to keep from laughing out loud. I have developed a dark humor from being an EMT for so long, I have to be able to laugh at terrible things or they will eat me up inside.

I stared my night shift at 4 and quickly became tired. It was moderately busy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. It was still unbearably hot. One hour before closing I had a party of 10 sit down, they ended up leaving $10 on an almost $200 tab. I rushed to get out of there as I had been there for almost 13 hours. I left at 11:30 and went home to unwind and watch Netflix.