job rant

I hope this does not come across as sounding ungrateful, because I'm not. I know there are plenty of unemployed people who would be so thankful to have work of any kind. Most days I do feel lucky that I am able to sub, and that my boss at the restaurant was so willing to take me back. HOWEVER, I do find both of those jobs extremely thankless. I get no satisfaction from either of them, aside from the money. I know I have to have some sort of employment, but I have a hard time shaking the feelings of discouragement. Every month I see my student loan payments taken from my bank account. For what? Subbing isn't AS bad. It's just extremely tiring for not a lot of money. But let's talk restaurant employment.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again-everyone should have to work in food service for a month. It's hard. It's stressful. It means working nights, weekends, and holidays (though my current place of employment is closed on major holidays. Yes!). There's 20 people asking for different things, and only one of you. People forget that. I think back to the work I did in college, the exams, the papers, the projects, the endless lesson plans, the clinical hours, 4 months of student teaching hell, and again, for what? Sometimes, I get scheduled to bus tables. Yes, that's right. I am a 30 year old busgirl with a college degree. It's not like waitressing and bartending are especially glamorous jobs that utilize that college degree, but the voices in my head tell me that bussing tables is a especially humiliating.

So before I go to work each night, I give myself mental pep talks. I remind myself that I am indeed awesome. I lived abroad for 3 years. I've been to 4 continents, and lots of places. I'm not afraid to travel alone. Some days I have fabulous hair. I'm a fantastic baker. I speak subpar French, with a superior knowledge of French profanity. Go Laura go!

Annnnnnddddd last night this happened. As usual, I'd given myself the pep talk while preparing for a night of bartending. Go Laura go! I'd been at work a few hours, when a group came up and sat at the bar. There were 8 of them, waiting for their table. One overly made up woman wearing an ill fitting shirt and a Dixie Chicks circa 1999 hairstyle took it upon herself to order for the group. She rattled off the groups' drinks-2 Bud Lights, 3 Coors Lights, a bloody Mary, a strawberry margarita, and a water. As she finished ordering, she looked at me and said "Can you remember all of that in your little brain?" Go Laura gooowhaaaaaa? Little brain what now? Forget that customer is always right load of bull. I told her that was insulting. She said something along the lines of "you know what I mean" and one of the other people in her party said something about how in fact the brain was one of the smallest organs in the human body. Yeah, no. That's not what she meant. Used as an adjective like that, the word "little" is never anything but condescending. As a general rule of life, I don't get in arguments with women who match their eye shadow color to their shirt, especially when we are talking about bright blue. My reason being that clearly these are women who haven't matured past the 7th grade. It's not worth getting fired over. So I let it go.

This is why I say everyone should work in food service for a bit. While the majority of people have not worked in this industry, most people have worked somewhere. And no one wants to be treated like crap at their job. So why do some people think they have the right to treat restaurant employees like crap? The general population needs a reminder that the person serving their food and drinks is in fact a person, and that this is our job.

So I make no apologies for not finding your screaming child trashing the table and floor adorable. And if your kid is up running around, he or she deserves to get walked on. When you make servers sing to you on your birthday, we hate you a little bit, especially if the restaurant is busy. Telling us we "did a great job!" isn't worth a hill of beans unless you give 20+% along with that verbal tip. Say please. Say thank you. Act grateful. Never forget that your server is a person, and you are not better than him/her.

airplane etiquette 2

I once wrote an blog entry about plane etiquette. You can reread it here. Although it's a few years old, I stand by everything I wrote there. However, I'd like to add to it.  I wrote this on the inside cover of my Penny Press Variety Puzzles book on my recent flight to San Francisco.
A couple of my friends are the "I never get up on airplanes" kind of people. I am not like that. Bathroom breaks are second only to meal service as far as the best air travel time passers. However, it's important to remember that you're sharing those 2 bathrooms with about 150 other bored people. I'm talking to you bathroom hogs. I was just in line for the bathroom, 3 people behind a person bringing his Kindle with him.
I have a problem with bathroom reading. It's gross. Don't dirty up books, magazines, newspapers, etc, by reading them on the toilet. This is triply more important when we are talking about library books. Just...gross and unnecessary. Just go in, do your thing, wash your hands, and leave.
I also have a problem with Kindles. I have one, so I'm allowed to say this-they're kind of pretentious and just a smidge wanky.
And absolutely positively do not use your Kindle to do your bathroom reading. So you read it on the toilet. Then you go eat a snack while still reading. Then you go curl up with it in your bed. Gross. Just don't.
AND airplane bathrooms are triply more disgusting than normal bathrooms. In a perfect world I'd have a shower and a change of clothes after each trip there.
So this man's actions were wrong on so many different levels. In doing this, he sent 1 of 2 messages to the rest of the passengers. 1. You don't want to come in here immediately after I'm done. Or 2. I don't care about the rest of you in line. I'm going to stay in the bathroom until I get to a good stopping place in my fake book.
I didn't get to find out what message he was sending, as he was still in there for the people people between me and him, and he was still in there when I finished and went back to my seat. It's probably better this way.

My second flight etiquette rule is to be a good seat mate. I have some basic guidelines for that. The first most important is if the person next to you doesn't seem overly chatty (me), don't talk to them (me). I had plans to spend my 14 hour flight to Korea thinking about what the heck I was getting myself into while watching bad movies. Instead, I ended up sitting next to the only other non Korean on the plane.  And so I got to listen to her talk about her plans for her 2 week vacation to Korea to visit her friend and wonder if her iPhone would work in Seoul. The second first most important rule is stay out of my personal space. The only time the guy sitting next to me hasn't had his arm on my armrest while when he was sleeping for a bit. He was sleeping open mouthed, breathing coffee breath all over me. He was rubbing himself under the tray table. I can't make this up. He also came on board with a giant fake Louis Vuitton carpet bag, which he did not even attempt to put in the overhead compartments. Instead he turned it sideways and put it in all of our feet space. So in addition to getting his hairy burly arm rubbing against me the whole flight, I also lost half of my foot space because of his bag. Luckily, the flight to San Francisco is relatively short.

San Francisco is a nice place. The houses had character. The food was delicious. The water was beautiful. But the reason I went was for the company. I am so happy to have gotten to see my Bordeaux family (minus Pat, sad). Unless I marry rich or inherit my distant relative's fortune, I don't see myself ever living in San Francisco though. $14 for a sandwich! Whoa nelly!
I'll post pictures sometime, not that anyone probably checks this blog anymore. But I'll post them regardless of that.