Tuesday, November 27th 2007

I hope that your Thanksgiving was full of laughs and that you spent it with people close to you… or at least your experience was as trauma free as possible.

On the great day of thanks I worked a long shift at a new restaurant. Not new to to the world; in fact, rather established, but new to me anyway. It has been around since the 50’s and its claim to fame is that Marilyn Monroe and similar used to frequent the hotel and its many pools and guest rooms. Evidently not much has happened since.

Picture it, Thanksgiving Day 2007. I kept the phones off and the curtains drawn in a seriously reclusive way. I watched the entire third season “Six Feet Under” to further punctuate my mood. If I had to spend the evening with people who were not my family then I was going to have the morning all to myself my way. Sadly my self-imposed solitary was over all too soon and work beckoned.

There were some 500 reservations spread out between noon and eight. Every piece of available real estate suitable as a serving surface was used as a table. If we could seat somebody on it, it was a chair. We brought in outside staff from the banquet division to help with the back work, like polishing silverware, clearing tables and running food. One poor sod had the job of polishing the silverware. For six hours this man stood next to the dish tank and polished everything that came through. He never saw anything but the rag and the flatware for the entire time.

I waited on 21 people in three separate parties and had far too much time on my hands. The work was mostly for the back waiters. I felt bad, there was nothing for me to do but take orders and when you have a set menu any chimp could rise to that task. When the orders came out they were so fast I barely had time to put the proper silver down. The food was prepared ages before so everything was simply warmed or grilled and plated with the easy things like mashed something, bland vegetables and whatsit sauce.

About half way through the shift I noticed a happy table of gays with a child in a neighboring section. Everyone in the party looked happy to be there with one notable exception. He was clearly a guest of the unconventional family; uncomfortable and probably praying for a natural disaster to bring the evening to an early close. To ease his tension he decided to assert some control over the situation. I’m sure you’ve all seen this before, the moose-in-Tiffany’s type complaining to the staff in a vain attempt to appear sophisticated when in fact they end up looking more moose-esque than ever. It’s painful to witness because you have to be embarrassed FOR them. And the irony of the chump making a fuss and complaining on THANKSGIVING was almost too much to bear. The other fellows in the party must have felt the same for their next round of drinks were all straight up.

Believe me, I was not at all pleased with the reality that I would be unable to join my family for Thanksgiving for the first time ever. It just so happens that the new people get last licks when it comes to the schedule and there was nothing to be done. Certainly I wasn’t going to make a public spectacle of myself or undermine the happiness of others. There will be other days, fun days, my sort of days. And I won’t wait a full year again before I take a moment to give thanks because I am indeed very thankful and appreciative… most of the time.

This entry was posted by Johnny on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:35 PM and is filed under Pet Peeves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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