And So It’s All Figured Out

[imood mood at time of entry: annoyed]

So it hit me why I was bitchier than usual yesterday (Monday, March 12, 2007). Drum roll and faked surprise please! PMS. That lovely little blame-all that falls into play every month. I had to take a step back and looked at myself, even though I knew that I was going to be absolutely hopeless in the Stopping-Myself-Right-This-Moment Department. That, and I simply haven’t been getting enough sleep lately due to all of the morning shifts.

I did remedy the lack of sleep by going to bed last night before 9:30 P.M. and staying there until about 8 A.M. this morning. This is not to say that I didn’t wake up during the night or before 8, but I made myself lie back down and go to sleep. It worked, because I was decidedly nicer today and I didn’t have the HUGE afternoon energy crash that I usually have.

I have yet another morning shift tomorrow (Wednesday, March 14, 2007) and Thursday (march 15, 2007). The Wednesday shift I was scheduled for. The Thursday one I picked up to cover for Amanda. She was one of the other Hosts(esses) that was hired when I came on about four months ago. There were three of us originally, but Consuela never came back after the initial orientation. Not to mention the fact that she was late for that as well.

So, out of all of the people that were hired when I was, only two of us are still around. One was booted right away (Didn’t catch his name). One moved back to New York (Michael/Mike) last week. One quit/told management to fire her (Amanda). One just didn’t come back (Consuela). And the other is still there, driving me nuts with her personality and her love of stealing tables/phones/whatever (Kim/Kimberly). Guh.

The new Expo guys are being broken in and I rather like Craig. He’s nice enough, let’s me babble, and just gets stuff. You know? There aren’t enough people that understand the literal need of pepper spray or the annoying traits of some folks. I haven’t really talked to the other Expo guy, Philip, but he’s attractive enough. Everyone’s already going on about how “country” he is, but I keep telling them that he’s there to stand around and look pretty, not make conversation. Our new manager had his first day in this morning and he has the exact same name as his predecessor, Greg. (Chadley, the retail guy, has already expressed a severe dislike of Greg, due to his country-ness. Uhrm, okay. Still, he didn’t dislike him enough not to let him get him Starbucks coffee on the coffee run this morning.) I mean, really.

It’s like these folks can’t quite figure out how to branch out name-wise. Seriously. At one point, we had three men working there named Chad, two of which were hired at the same time. We have two Johns, spelled John and Jon. We have two Jasons, but one of them had to go by Will. So, when they got another Will, he had to go by a nickname, Bud. It’s always something when you’re trying to seat people or give direction and the immediate answer after you give out instructions for a specific person is, “Which one?”

On the same subject of staff, two new folks were hired today. It was yet another husband and wife duo. No, seriously. The last people that were hired were married. Now, these two filled out applications together and were hired together. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if one had been hired, but not the other.

Anyway, the guy seems okay, but the woman had attitude already. She hasn’t even had her orientation yet and she’s a bit off-putting. I can’t even say that it’s nerves, because she just rubbed me the wrong way. This sucks, because she’s going to be working with me. She’s not from this country, so we’re going to have to work with each other accents and whatnot, which is okay, I suppose. It’s just that she’s the absolute worst type of foreigner, the kind that thinks they are better than you, even though they’re in someone else’s country.

I have never understood people who do that. I guess that it’s just the same as when I act all La-Di-Da when I go to the country. We just can’t help but show out and act like damned fools.

I am sincerely hoping that they’ll get her to do all or most of the morning shifts, because I am tired of working them. I hate those damned shifts. All I get to do for hours on end is get up insanely early and listen to the servers and bartenders bitch and moan about who’s got more tables or people. There are some things that I simply cannot control. Now, I seat according to rotation, who’s got tables open, and how overwhelmed the servers/bartenders are. Even so, I get servers in my face every single day shouting about how I can’t seat people the way that I do and that I have to stop immediately.

Frankly, I don’t have to do anything. If I were as mean-spirited as I can be, I could completely skip all of the people that I hate or give them nothing but one tops. But, I don’t. No, I try my best to seat everyone evenly. I even go so far as to try and appease everyone’s seating requests for large tops or to hold off on them when they need me to. But do I get a thank you? Hell, no. I just get a bunch of whiny people crying about the amount of tables they’ve had.

I’m so over their drama and I shouldn’t be afraid to do my fucking job. I was trained for what I do and I have common sense. I mean, I don’t go around telling them how to greet or serve their tables, do I? Those servers and bartenders should be glad that I am able to resist the temptation to curse every one of them out every single day. That, or throw stuff around. If I didn’t, then they’d truly have something to complain about. But no one mentions that, now do they?

I finally got around to spending all of my points from the Neopets plot. I got all of the books and a plushie that I knew was going to stay expensive for ages. I bought other items that I wanted straight from the shops.

I still haven’t written that story for the exchange, but I am definitely hopeful. I have a couple of ideas brewing around that I haven’t really had time to write down. Even so, I can still get it done, because I only need a thousand words for my story to count.

I guess that I’ll go check and post this, because the library’s computer time is counting down quickly.

Danielle

ETA: I forgo this in my rush to save my entry. Here are some free coupons from Barnes & Noble.

Online In-store

They’re good until March 19, 2007! Use them while you can!