just another night at work

Working at a restaurant is so different from some jobs. People think waiting on tables is the most terrible job and often remark that 'those poor waiters' deserve big tips. Well bring on the tips, but keep the pity. Do you drink on your job? I didn't think so.



So tonight a woman came in, ordered a beer, a shot of whiskey, a soup and then sat down. I told my co-worker who was serving her that he better get payment first because I remembered her from last time. To her credit, tonight she appeared sober and not strung out. Last time she was in she left me her health card as payment. Yup. And we have awesome health care in Canada, but not that awesome.
My boss, who is also the chef and owner of the restaurant went over to her and told her she needed to pay upfront for her order, or she should just leave. So she left. Just what we thought.

At another table sat some regulars who ordered an expensive bottle of champagne and insisted us servers each have some too. Okay then.

In the kitchen I needed to wrap up leftovers for a customer and asked the sous chef for a little package. He smiled and told me he only had a big package.

And that's just an uneventful slow night at work.

Last night my feeling were hurt all over. Without getting into details, I just had a hard time with life and the things that happen in it sometimes. I felt like a wounded puppy dog, with a dash of lunatic stirred in. It was hard to understand logic and reason, but it was harder still when I woke halfway through the night and spent 3 hours in the in-between stage of sleep and not sleep. Those hours are filled with anything but reason and I tried hopelessly to pull myself back on track with no prevail. It's completely futile when you're in that halfway world.

Well I succumbed to hours of festering and tossing and turning until I finally fell asleep. And once asleep I had a beautiful vivid dream that completely made me feel better. It was a dream of good outcome to the situation that upset me and even knowing that it was only a dream and what happened in reality still existed, I felt so much better. Isn't it strange how influential dreams can be on our moods.

Today I walked by a very stylin' guy. Shaggy red hair, skinny turquoise pants and orange shoes. He dropped something before we passed and the other guy behind him picked it up and ran over to return it. Then I passed him and saw a folded $10 bill on the ground. Assuming it was his I yelled out and he came over to get it. He said that he was glad there were honest people in the city.

People, loosing money from your pockets is a risk you take when your pants are too tight.

Well, I felt glad that he got all his money back.

And I'm glad that there are honest people in the city too.

I've decided that since this day will never happen again, maybe I could write about it...so here goes...


I unhappily trudged my way through slush and snow banks to make it to work on time. It was a busy day at the restaurant which is great but I got cranky because the cash register wasn't working and the till had no change in it save for a few dimes. It's not ideal to have to pull your own wallet out to make change while a customer patiently waits.

After work I went to anthropologie and bought 4 bright coloured bowls on sale for $1.95 each (!!) and had chest pains at all the purrty dresses and earrings I want so bad. I wondered if I were really rich, would it be fulfilling to buy everything I wanted and spend every moment wearing awesome dresses. I decided I was happier pining after them and once in a while scoring a great find on sale. I am pleased with my mature take on this. It won't last long.

Later for dinner I went to my sisters and we made tacos. We were happy to discover that hard shell tacos have evolved and stand on their own with their new flattened bottom. It's about time.

I bought wool and started a baby blanket for an expecting friend. Light grey was the best non-gender colour I could find.

I watched this video and I think I love it.

10 years ago on a European backpacking trip I fell in love with mountains. On someone else's advice, I arrived in a tiny village in the Swiss mountains after dark at a charming hostel. Right away I made friends and we had wine (at high altitudes), sing alongs and bonding conversations. An epic night, but in the morning the weather was rainy and being so high, we were surrounded by clouds. I had no idea what anything more than 10 feet from me looked like so I was awe struck when the sky clearing revealed giant mountain peaks right above and around me. I had never seen anything so enormous and breathtaking and beautiful in my life. They were so overwhelming and magnificent...as mountains are, yet I have never been anywhere close to a mountain before, and here I was for the first time, with them right there in front of me...beside me, above me...everywhere!

Me and my new best friends wasted no time and got hiking. We came across waterfalls, glaciers, many cows, and the typical 'ricola' commercial scene of steep green slopes peppered with purple and yellow flowers.

Sometimes we hiked in silence, sometimes we sang top pop 80's tunes and sometimes we listened to the jangle of cow bells from the distant hills.

The hills are alive with the sound of music.

Summiting a mountain is hard work...tires muscles, accelerated heartbeat , dirt caked under my fingernails, but at the top I felt pure joy...bliss.

On one such hike my friends and I took along lunch and it was the best tuna sandwich I ever had. For dessert we had this incredible white chocolate filled with a creamy center. It took me a while to realize that it wasn't a hard-to-find specialty Swiss chocolate, but a very available lindt lindor.

I spent a week there in Gimmelwald and it was close to being the best time of my life.

Just recently I found some of the lindt lindor chocolate at my grocery store and I involuntarily sighed a breath of relief, as in 'phew, thank goodness I found this, my life can be complete again'. Really it's that good, and it brings for me the added sway of nostalgia.

*the photo was taken in Queenstown, New Zealand.

A few weeks ago, for one of the first times in my life I really felt as if my life were moving forward. I felt the motion of being on a forward path. Feeling stuck or lost is familiar to me. Here I was actually moving and it was wonderful. Exciting. But there was another part of me that shouted, 'whoa, slow down a sec', like when you're on a swing and find yourself too high and you think 'mistake!! slow down! My stomach's flipping over!' I got frightened by the newness and needed to take it down a notch, dig my heels in the gravel.
I saw this tree and felt a kinship with the leaves still clinging on. 'That's right', I thought, 'don't let go...change is bad'.

I usually fear change, even when it's for the good. Guilty.
After my panic I giggled at my silliness and realized I need to just look at these fears, let them be, and continue going forward. It takes time.
Sometimes I just need a quick reassuring pat in the right direction.

This video is sweet, and helps.

Look at that...change is good!

I LOVE Ray William Johnson. And I LOVE/adore/live for musicals, so it comes to no surprise that this rocks...