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Aug. 18th, 2004 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasoriginally written at 2:45 AM, not posted then due to LJ maintence
Lis went to bed at 11:00 PM, and said I could start reading the new Jasper Fforde book, Something Rotten, if I wasn't going to bed immediately.
It's really good.
It's now quarter of three, which shows that Something Rotten takes approximately three and three quarters hours to read.
Someone is on vacation in the Grill Bar, so they were short-staffed this week. So, Monday, I worked the day shift behind the bar, then they kept me on for another three hours as a server. And I came in to do four hours tonight, four to eight.
It was pretty slow until about six or so. We'd gotten a note that someone was coming in at 7:30 PM, with seven people. So we figured on a spot where we had four two-person tables we could push together, and we stopped seating people in that spot around six-thirty or so, so that they'd be available at seven-thirty.
Around seven-thirty, seven people came in.
It was another party. Yes. It was a SECOND seven-person party. We also had a party of five people who were ordering off of the LobsterFest menu, a few tables of three people, and several couples.
And I was leaving at 8.
One of my tables was a table of three kids. (By "kids", I mean "people who I'd have carded if they ordered liquor, but would probably have expected them to be over 21.") They were there for over an hour and a half. And, well, they had bread, and water, and a COUPLE sodas, and maybe an appetizer or two.
Really, I do have sympathy for that. We've all been there. Frankly, since we're working food service, many of us are there now -- that spot where "free food" really is where you are getting your calories.
And I normally don't mind. I'm pretty comfortable with bringing out basket after basket of bread -- look, if we don't serve it, it gets thrown out at the end of the night, anyway, so why NOT eat it? But, well, when you're trying to balance a seven-person party, a party-which-was-supposed-to-be-seven-but-was-actually-nine-people, five people with complex lobster dishes, and several other parties, it's a bit tricky to keep making runs for more bread. . .
I was vaguely fortunate in that, as I was leaving at 8, I didn't take either of the tables that came in at 7:30. And at 8:10, I told Monique that I hated to leave at that point, but all my tables were finished up, and my wife had been parked outside for the past ten minutes, so I headed out.
Lis had, in fact, been there for the past ten minutes. But she had books to read, because she'd made a Heroic Library Trip Out To The Boonies Of Far-Off-Libraries To Get Various Books That Only One Library Had, Something Rotten among them.
Then we drove out to Wayland to see my sister, who's leaving tomorrow -- well, today. And my niece, who's staying with my parents all week.
Like I mentioned in a previous entry, Winter is at a week-long day camp at Drumlin Farm. Apparently, Monday was "horse day", and they got to groom the horses -- excuse me, "broom" the horses. After Winter told my parents about what they'd done, she pulled Leila aside, and told her that there was more to the story, but she didn't want to tell it in front of everyone, because it was gross. Apparently, some of the older kids "had to shovel the horses' poop." Winter was very glad that she hadn't had to do that.
Leila was reasonably sympathetic, since, when she was living in Australia, she helped out in my cousins' stables. . . .
Tuesday was "chicken day", and I was never quite able to figure out what they'd done with the chickens. Probably fed them, since pretty much the only things you can do with chickens are feed them and eat them. Wednesday, she's going to miss camp, in order to go out to Marblehead with us, see my grandparents, and then take Leila to the airport. She's happy about missing this, because it is "pig day", and "pigs are stinky". Which they are, although, in fairness, that's only true of pigs in pigpens -- pigs will be rather clean if they are given the ability to be. Unfortunately, it's also "garden day", and Winter is a pretty good gardener, so she'd kind of wanted to be there for that, but she'd rather be with Leila on her last day. Thursday will be "sheep and goat day", and Friday will be "cow day."
Which, all in all, is not a bad week-long daycamp program for six-year olds about farms.
Tomorrow, well, today, I'm going to go to lunch with my grandparents, parents, Leila, Winter, and Lis, and then go back into Boston for a dentist's appointment. Then, in the evening, we'll go to a book signing for Something Rotten. Probably bringing our library book. Because library books deserve to be signed, too, don't they?
One more important observation: all of today, I was exhausted, energy-drained, weak, and dizzy. And the first half hour of work was pretty difficult because of that. But, after running around working for four hours, I felt incredibly much better, to the point that I'm still feeling alert and awake. So it seems that my weakness is tied to not moving, not exercising, or not working. Which makes sense.
Lis went to bed at 11:00 PM, and said I could start reading the new Jasper Fforde book, Something Rotten, if I wasn't going to bed immediately.
It's really good.
It's now quarter of three, which shows that Something Rotten takes approximately three and three quarters hours to read.
Someone is on vacation in the Grill Bar, so they were short-staffed this week. So, Monday, I worked the day shift behind the bar, then they kept me on for another three hours as a server. And I came in to do four hours tonight, four to eight.
It was pretty slow until about six or so. We'd gotten a note that someone was coming in at 7:30 PM, with seven people. So we figured on a spot where we had four two-person tables we could push together, and we stopped seating people in that spot around six-thirty or so, so that they'd be available at seven-thirty.
Around seven-thirty, seven people came in.
It was another party. Yes. It was a SECOND seven-person party. We also had a party of five people who were ordering off of the LobsterFest menu, a few tables of three people, and several couples.
And I was leaving at 8.
One of my tables was a table of three kids. (By "kids", I mean "people who I'd have carded if they ordered liquor, but would probably have expected them to be over 21.") They were there for over an hour and a half. And, well, they had bread, and water, and a COUPLE sodas, and maybe an appetizer or two.
Really, I do have sympathy for that. We've all been there. Frankly, since we're working food service, many of us are there now -- that spot where "free food" really is where you are getting your calories.
And I normally don't mind. I'm pretty comfortable with bringing out basket after basket of bread -- look, if we don't serve it, it gets thrown out at the end of the night, anyway, so why NOT eat it? But, well, when you're trying to balance a seven-person party, a party-which-was-supposed-to-be-seven-but-was-actually-nine-people, five people with complex lobster dishes, and several other parties, it's a bit tricky to keep making runs for more bread. . .
I was vaguely fortunate in that, as I was leaving at 8, I didn't take either of the tables that came in at 7:30. And at 8:10, I told Monique that I hated to leave at that point, but all my tables were finished up, and my wife had been parked outside for the past ten minutes, so I headed out.
Lis had, in fact, been there for the past ten minutes. But she had books to read, because she'd made a Heroic Library Trip Out To The Boonies Of Far-Off-Libraries To Get Various Books That Only One Library Had, Something Rotten among them.
Then we drove out to Wayland to see my sister, who's leaving tomorrow -- well, today. And my niece, who's staying with my parents all week.
Like I mentioned in a previous entry, Winter is at a week-long day camp at Drumlin Farm. Apparently, Monday was "horse day", and they got to groom the horses -- excuse me, "broom" the horses. After Winter told my parents about what they'd done, she pulled Leila aside, and told her that there was more to the story, but she didn't want to tell it in front of everyone, because it was gross. Apparently, some of the older kids "had to shovel the horses' poop." Winter was very glad that she hadn't had to do that.
Leila was reasonably sympathetic, since, when she was living in Australia, she helped out in my cousins' stables. . . .
Tuesday was "chicken day", and I was never quite able to figure out what they'd done with the chickens. Probably fed them, since pretty much the only things you can do with chickens are feed them and eat them. Wednesday, she's going to miss camp, in order to go out to Marblehead with us, see my grandparents, and then take Leila to the airport. She's happy about missing this, because it is "pig day", and "pigs are stinky". Which they are, although, in fairness, that's only true of pigs in pigpens -- pigs will be rather clean if they are given the ability to be. Unfortunately, it's also "garden day", and Winter is a pretty good gardener, so she'd kind of wanted to be there for that, but she'd rather be with Leila on her last day. Thursday will be "sheep and goat day", and Friday will be "cow day."
Which, all in all, is not a bad week-long daycamp program for six-year olds about farms.
Tomorrow, well, today, I'm going to go to lunch with my grandparents, parents, Leila, Winter, and Lis, and then go back into Boston for a dentist's appointment. Then, in the evening, we'll go to a book signing for Something Rotten. Probably bringing our library book. Because library books deserve to be signed, too, don't they?
One more important observation: all of today, I was exhausted, energy-drained, weak, and dizzy. And the first half hour of work was pretty difficult because of that. But, after running around working for four hours, I felt incredibly much better, to the point that I'm still feeling alert and awake. So it seems that my weakness is tied to not moving, not exercising, or not working. Which makes sense.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-18 07:02 am (UTC)<-- chicken girl
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Date: 2004-08-18 05:51 pm (UTC)Because I finish what I've started... and when I'm reading something new, and long, that can be dangerous...
Actually, on my recent vacation I was pretty good about not reading all night long: I managed to read Stranger in a Strange Land (well, re-read -- the "cut" edition) and Red Mars in more than one sitting. That's pretty good for me... I also started reading Hunter of Worlds, but since it was Saturday, before lunch, and the book was in the Portland public library, I couldn't very well take it with me. (If Joy wasn't with me, and hungry, I would've stayed until I was finished... but it's probably just as well that I had lunch and all...)