There Is Hope!

Since my last sad post on my life as a server, I've worked 5 more days over the past 2 weeks. The first 2 of those days were really quiet, so I didn't even have any opportunities to mess up, haha! The 3rd day was CRAZY busy, and I was running around frantically for about two hours nonstop. At one table of 5 people, each person had a different substitution, one wanted a different cheese, another wanted a different bread, another wanted a different kind of cheese and bread, AND they get a choice of 3 sides, and of course they were different. My notes were so messy that I ended up half-guessing the orders when I got to the computer. God must have been with me cuz I didn't get any complaints about their food. I was SO thankful that the other server, hostess and manager on shift were helping me with bringing food out, whew! I still wasn't using trays, so I had to make extra runs back and forth cuz I couldn't carry as many glasses at once. I think some of the customers felt really bad for me because I looked so lost, frantic and disheveled, lol. I also messed up a few orders for the kitchen and ended up wasting a couple of dishes, oops. But at the end of the day, I made $100 in tips! It felt so great to have survived a crazy busy day.

This week, the 1st day at work wasn't as busy, but I still made a bunch of silly mistakes. I blame it on the fact that we didn't get breakfast in the morning :) I forgot to put in this couple's order for like 10 minutes! I've always wondered how servers can make that mistake when I've eaten at restaurants and it happened to me, uh.... now I know! The guy was pretty annoyed, so I gave him a free appetizer to make up for it, haha. Then I had this table of 6 during the middle of lunch rush, and while I was running around with other things, I didn't even notice that their food was ready. By the time I got to it, the soup that one of the guests ordered was not even hot anymore, the chef had to warm it back up! LOL. For the rest of the day, he kept making fun of me and telling me that my table's food is getting cold. BUT there is one redeeming event for the day! There was a glass vase of milk sitting on a table, and a customer accidentally knocked it over while she was walking by. It was amazing. Everything happened in slow motion. As soon as I heard it hit the table and the milk splashing on the floor, I looked up and saw it at the edge of the table, rolling towards the floor. I was still a couple of steps away from it. Then all these thoughts went through my head within a millisecond. Ohmygosh, if that thing hits the floor, it will be loud, the glass pieces will be everywhere and it'll be hard to clean up and all the customers will see, etc etc etc. Not even thinking about what I was doing, I bent down and caught the vase in mid-air with one hand, no more than a foot above the floor! It was SO the Holy Spirit, I usually can't catch anything! One of the customers saw what happened and he goes, 'Wow, nice catch! How long have you been practicing martial arts?' Hahaha, it was the highlight of my day.

On Thursday, while I was driving to work, I was dwelling on something that was making me really angry and depressed at the same time. I got to my parking spot, turned off the engine, and realized that it was going to be an incredibly bad day at work if I let myself start the day like this. Nope, the enemy was not going to take over the day that the Lord has made for me! I asked God for peace, joy, and complete focus on Him. I dedicated the day to Him and asked Him to remove any distractions that would take away from the blessings that He had for me that day. Wow, what a difference! God is so faithful. I had about the same amount of sales as the crazy busy day the week before, but I didn't FEEL the lost and frantic feeling that I felt previously! I also figured out how to carry two glasses in one hand :) And I finally understood the concept of not wasting a trip to or from the kitchen. When you're going to the kitchen, you should be carrying plates if there are people finished. When you're leaving the kitchen, if there are no dishes ready, you should be carrying drinks to re-fill glasses at the table. The day went so smoothly, even though our manager was out running errands and wasn't around to help us. Although the circumstances was hectic and busy, and my feet were so tired, I felt like I was 'floating' on the inside (I know it sounds cliche, but it's the best way to describe it). God's presence is so amazingly powerful and peaceful at the same time.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support and words of encouragement! There is hope for me, I may not starve and be homeless after all, haha!

I also took some pictures of where I work, please enjoy! :)

Jake in his favorite parking spot at the museum














Entrance to the museum courtyard














The courtyard














Outside seating of the restaurant, isn't it peaceful and beautiful?














View of the outside seating from the entrance to the inside of the restaurant




























Entrance to inside of restaurant














Inside of restaurant














A few people I work with (I have a 'better' picture without the reflection from the mirror, but this one is funnier looking). On the left is the super-crazy-good-server, I've been learning a lot from him. The guy in the middle with the idiotic expression is the restaurant manager. I taught him how to enter in formulas in Excel the other day. It was funny, he goes, 'hey Theresa, do you know how to use Excel'? HA, if he only knew the truth about me and Excel. The guy on the right is the restaurant chef. I really enjoy working with them, they're a lot of fun to be around!














I've also met some really interesting people while serving. The museum photographer is from a town 10 minutes away from my hometown in NJ, and knows the bakery that I used to work in when I was in high school! I met an interesting lady who has been retired for a few years and is taking several-months-long roadtrips in her 4X4 all by herself! So many tourists eat at the restaurant, I almost 'feel' like a local, haha! I was even able to give a few pieces of advice about where to go. It's been an awesome experience!