With most of my past posts I normally blog about a common quark or one of the ins-and-outs of the service industry that are, at the least, entertaining or humorous to anyone regardless if they’re in the industry or not. This week, I guess I’m more purposing a question which can only be answered by those who have personally weathered the shit storm that is tending bar or waiting tables.
I’m conscience of the fact that I do little more than just persistently bitch about the negative aspects of tending bar on these posts. The long hours, the constant bullshit, the smells, the sights…I arguably hate everything about bartending. I took the last nine days off, however, so I could catch up on school work and study for midterms. My first shift back was Saturday for Guavaween. As surprised as you may be to read this, I’m equally if not more surprised to write it; I was wicked stoaked to get back there. I wasn’t really sure why either. Bills are paid for next month, so I knew it wasn’t a financially driven motive. It honestly scared me a little bit that I was excited to get back behind there to pour another Goose and Red Bull for Chip McStripped-Shirt and his cronies. It really got me to thinking.
There’s a number of responsibilities, jobs, and activities we all had growing up which we whole-heartedly despised but anytime we murmured a word under our breath about how fucking lame it was, somebody older than always reiterated how we’d miss it when we were older. For me, it was double secessions for soccer. The last six weeks of summer, the hottest weeks of July and August, Coach Lepore dragged us out of bed at 7 am so he could run us for countless miles in unbearable heat only for us to take a two hour lunch break and come back to the fields at 2 pm to run the *same* drills we had executed just hours earlier. Back then, I hated that man, I hated those drills, I hated soccer. I literally laughed in the faces of LHS alumni who claimed we’d miss ‘these days.’ How on Earth would I miss going to bed at 10 oclock in the middle of the summer so I could wake up, run four miles, run drills, force fed *anything* for lunch because I was already on the brink of exhaustion, run drills, throw up, and then work out for another three when I could be smoking a lot (like a LOT) of pot, drinking stolen beer with my best friends, and simply doing nothing…like you *should* be doing during summer vacation? You know what I have to say to those pretentious, dickhead alumni now? I miss it. I miss it a lot.
As I said with my first post, I can see the light of the day in the sense that I know I won’t have to be slinging drinks for too much longer. Hopefully, within the near future, I’ll be an actual responsible, contributing member of society. It makes me think how I will look back on these days. Will I only remember the pitiful attempts at humor and stench from the nine gallons of Aqua Di Gio Chip McStripped-Shirt is wearing? Or will it be one of those memories I look back at and just hope to God Marty McFly and Doc will come tearing up my driveway in the Deloraen any second so they can take me back to those moments, the moments I genuinely miss, even for just a one single night?
I had a crap job in high school and college, working my butt off in a kitchen. As crappy as the work was, there was also a camaraderie that you can't quite find elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, there's a similar dynamic to graduate school--one you probably don't get as an undergrad, especially at a school as large as USF. In graduate school, you generally grind with the same people all the time--you teach the same classes as them, take the same courses as them, travel to the same conferences as them, take the same qualifying exams as them, endure the pitfalls of the dissertation and job market as them. As much as grad school was a hellacious grind, I do kind of miss it.
In my twenties I worked in the service industry. At times, I hated it but at the same times I hated it. I made incredible money but at times dispised the customers and my bosses. After waiting tables for a couple of years (after having to stop myself from pouring a bucket of water on an asshole customer) I came to the realization that I was a better bartender than a service. As a bartender you actually have control over the patrons. They want to drink and you have the right to refuse. You are able to speak more freely as everyone knows the bartender is everyone's best friend.
ReplyDeleteOverall, now as I think about it, I do miss it but I have really good memories. I have met celebrities and even partied with some. As a room service waiter, I seen them at their worst. Once, I served Debbie Reynolds tea in bed when she was very ill. Partied with Bon Jovi. Another time, I brought drinks to Mr Toyoda and his entourage. I have never bowed so much to people in my life but knew in the Japanese culture this was a sign of respect.
The most memorable, was going back and forth to Huey Lewis's room and serving him drinks while he stood around in a towel. I still smile when I think of that beautiful man.
Would I go back to that life, hell no. I will just cherish the memories that I can honestly say that a lot of people have never experienced.
I like this post a lot. Almost anyone can relate and man I hate to admit mom you were right. My mom always said your going to miss this back then ya sure I laughed at 5:30 in the morning getting ready for highschool. Oh and the shittest job I ever had, the one that only the luckiest of us have McDonalds at 16. I too wonder if one day I'll be missing these days.
ReplyDeleteWhat does LHS stand for?? Just curious....I won't tell!
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