blackouts

so much for the "enjoying waiting tables" comment. the last two nights have been nothing but ugh. tuesday, we had no electricity when i arrived, so we sat for just over an hour & a half in the heat doing absolutely nothing until, at my wit's end and about to walk out the door, job be damned, it finally came on. the manager on duty, who happened to be one of the owners, gave us 20 minutes to get ready (as opposed to the usual 45) before he opened the door without warning. the tone of the evening had already been set. i got barked at for asking a man to clarify his drink order-- his wife ordered a strawberry daquiri, and he asked for a "plain" one, which for all i knew might've meant he wanted NO flavoring, as opposed to lime... excuse me for wanting to get it right!-- someone dumped part of a bottle of grenadine on my hands and pants... then we were dead, partly because the early crowd went elsewhere, and the owner/mgr took the down time to spread gossip, including details on personnel decisions that were yet to be made, with people who specifically and emphatically do not like the person involved. (a huge pet peeve of mine in the industry as a whole.) afterward, S and i decided to grab some beer and hot dogs and go to my place to veg and watch crap television. we were paying separately at kroger, so as to split the cost, and we made the mistake of using the self-checkout. the attendant asked for both of our IDs, and S's was expired, so despite the fact that we were making separate transactions, they wouldn't sell me the beer. i totally get this, since i deal with such problems at work, but (a) the law, as i understand it, says that anyone under 30 has to be carded, and i don't fit that description, and (b) just because two people are chatting in line does not mean they are together. (i actually run into people i know at that kroger more often than anywhere else in the city.) so we stopped at a gas station, since she needed to fill up anyway, and the pump she chose wouldn't work... finally, we got to my house, watched a movie (which ended poorly, but oh well), and she left. today, she told me that while she was parked in my neighborhood, less than half a block from my house, someone bashed in the front of her car so badly that she can't get the hood open. (which, for those of us with older cars that need oil regularly, is an even bigger problem that it already is for anyone.) so tonight, a fresh start. the other manager/owner happened to be working, and while i used to hate working shifts with him because of his reluctance to send people home until way after it's reasonable to do so, i'm growing to appreciate him more... things were going fairly well, and S and i decided to go out after work, to play free pool (ladies night) at my favorite bar, where i haven't been in two months. it wasn't a perfect night, but i had nice tables and was making decent money. with only two hours left, i got a five top who was spending serious money, behaving themselves, being courteous... and, as a bonus, one of them said something that let me know he was a server, either past or present, which is shorthand for "treat us right and we'll leave you a great tip." just as i was serving them a third bottle of wine, boom! the electricity went out. AGAIN. with a restaurant full of people. after dark. this particular table took it in stride-- they were sitting by the window, and the streetlights on the other side of the street weren't out, so they saw no reason to leave, but the owner would not let us serve anything else, even drinks, so i couldn't oblige them. they were nice about it, and even paid cash, which saved me the hassle of printing a manual charge slip by candlelight, as i had to do for another table... and then, once we shepherded everyone out safely, it came time to play "who wants to ask the boss whether we have to clean up?" it's not that we're lazy (well, not all of us), it's just that carrying dozens of glasses and plates in the pitch dark is not the smartest or safest idea. luckily, he realized this, so despite the extra work it's going to cause for whomever is unfortunate enough to work in the morning, he didn't require us to do it. and somehow, that made us want to. so we did. carefully. the money checkout was another story, but i was smart enough to add up my charge tips and subtract them from my cash, and put the difference in my pocket without mentioning it. other servers were not so smart, and found their plans for the evening dashed when they realized that without a computer checkout, those who couldn't do math would have to just turn everything in and get their money some other day. S unfortunately got caught in the middle of a conversation between one of the math dolts and the owner, and had to follow suit. our bar plans were thus scuttled, so we just came here and drank leftovers from last night and watched more crap tv for an hour or so, after which she understandably decided to go home and give it another shot with a new day tomorrow. thankfully (i think), i don't work again until sunday, by which time i hope that whatever's going wrong will have been fixed. (false confidence, i'm sure.) meanwhile, i'm not feeling so good about having just signed a new lease here. the neighborhood feels sketchier as time passes. fingers crossed that it's just the heat, and that it will pass quickly...