Friday Night

Starting another weekend of work at the restaurant.

"This place is really Ralph Lauren”—I think was the dumbest thing I heard anyone say all
night.
The person was saying this as they were walking out of the restaurant after dinner.
It is his restaurant. It was a Friday night crowd. Though it seems to be getting worse on the weekends lately.
Maybe I am imagining this since it has probably been that way for a while.

I had three tables in a row start the exact same way. Before even getting the specials out, one
of the guests on the table blurting at me: “What are some of your best known items on the menu?
I mean what are the specialty dishes here? What are you best known for?”
“the burgers. The steaks. The meat dishes”
“What are youre signature dishes?” the lady says again.
This table in particular seems like its going to be difficult. They are already very loud. They
seem like they’ve had a good start already with the drinks. It’s Friday night though and I guess
people are looking to blow off steam. I’m probably not the server they wanted to have either.
Probably not your best Friday night fun guy waiter. I was in a bit of a slump already. The first
day back of 4 nights and its hard to get into it. Im thinking about all the furniture im trying to sell
and how im going to get this move going.

The Restaurant Life

Working another night at the 'Rugby Lounge'...

Have been told that I look like Clark Kent twice in the past two nights. I can never think of anything to say to this. I guess I'm just tired of hearing it and maybe I need some different glasses.

I also received my first very negative Amazon review for book Trashed. It is kind of a relief because I feel that I have been waiting for it since I published the book. It is definitely not the response a struggling writer wants to hear. There was nothing positive in it.

Really looking forward to being off. One more night of madness to go. Finishing my applications for school and looking to hit the gym a few days. Going into the 'Rugby Lounge' for another round and waiting on some of the beautiful people.

Hiking Upstate

Hiking upstate with an old friend who has been touring the country and Canada for almost a year. He has an airstream trailer and has been traveling through state parks and remote isolated locations. I'm envious of his travels and wish to get outdoors more like him.
We take his truck and head out on a hike at the local state park 30 mins from my friends house upstate. We go on a shorter trail since it is afternoon already. I hear about hiking and camping experiences along the way.






Next time I will hope to try some camping. I'm already dreading making my way back to the city and being back in the megalopolis. But until next time I will be trying to keep some zen in the city...

Work and CA

8 07 16

Headed to CA after working three nights. Yelled at today for smoking my vapor e cig in the private dining room while we were on our pre-service break. Thought I was gonna get written up for it but didn't.

8 15 16
In CA. Nice to be out of New York and away from waiting tables for awhile. I would prefer to stay out here indefinately. Aja saying that I should try to be more bicoastal. That has been my plan for the last 12 years,I say. It hasn't quite panned out for me.
Well if you write a bestselling book you can. She says.
I got the book part done just not the bestselling part, I say.
Maybe that will change.
Maybe I should look for a waiting job out here. Some kind of work. Work on the Plague book some more. It doesn't seem as interesting as subject here but think it will translate.
H1NZ. Seeing a guy in LA who is working at a cafe that seems to be infected with it also. He's looking a little macabre. Like you can see his bone structure a little too well.
"Are you coming to the worker's rally tonight?" I ask him.
He looks at me suspiciously. Maybe I misjudged him.

"The Rugby Lounge"

1-21-16

80 days sober. I want to only do the labor part of the job. Be an efficient waiter. Not think about the personality part. People drinking a lot at the restaurant. It’s a Wed night what are these people doing getting trashed like this? Was a weird night. Me getting shit about the table not turning. Too slow. Let another table wait forever. Really not looking forward to it. Failing like shit I guess. The one girl thanking me on the Brett Ratner guys table. I think that she felt really bad for me because every time I asked the table something they flat out ignored me. They ignored me the entire meal. Talking about fucking and all the different women the Rat-guy had been with. While he was rubbing the two women’s shoulders sitting on each side of him. They had these vacant looks like they were empowered but also being objectified at the same time.

Drinking in the city

Went out yesterday to meet up with co-workers after they had finished the wine school training. Met them around 4p at Rudy's one of the oldest bars in the city (according to Eric), serving up 5 dollar beer and a bush mills shot combo all day and night. They probably had 10 rounds of those. I had 4 myself. In the span of about 30 minutes. We were shooting them boilermaker style dropping the whiskey in the beers and chugging them. I was trying to act macho with everyone and show that I could slam a lot also. Towards the end I kept slamming them. Then we planned to go over to the BBQ spot across town where our bartender's girlfriend bartender at. We tried getting into cabs but that wasn't working out very well. The traffic was very bad and some of us decided to split off and head for the train at port authority. Someone needed the bathroom, James or Gaberiel. The other James was with his father and we ended up running back into them in the subway area.
"What are you guys doing?" we seems to be yelling at each other.
They were headed uptown to get sushi and we were going downtown to the BBQ place.
Then we were back off.

We all got to the bar and got some tables. I had a smoke outside with Eric and we started laughing about something. It happened later when we went back in. I don't remember the joke but we were laughing hysterically at the bar. I had tears streaming down it was so funny. I wish I could remember what was making us laugh like that.

Nate ordered the gigantic sampler platter for everyone and we feasted on that. His girlfriend was helping us and she also happens to be pretty hot. Nate doesn't seem to mind when you point this out. Later when I'm giving her a tip her tells me to put it in her shirt. So i go along with it. She's very cute and has a great rack. The day gets blurry from here. We end up at an outdoor rooftop bar/club but I can barely remember it. (TBC)