L'Absinthe Round Two. See also; catastrophe.

Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy.

I went into last night thinking, let's just laugh. Because at least tonight, we know what we're getting ourselves into.
Write that one down under "bad assumptions."

We had about 50% more reservations last night than we did on Friday night. And well, if you read my previous blog, you would understand that that creeps up on imPOSSible. I was setting up "fine dining" tables in the bar area, just what every reservation is looking for I'm sure. We were out of chairs, out of silverware, plates, wine glasses...we had to dig into our stock for all of the above. Leo, who tries to play the optimist during all of the planning and strategizing of how we are going to fit everyone, finally pulled the best one-liner of the evening. He comes over to me looking rather flustered...and goes "Ahhh". I'm like, "What's up Leo, you alright?" He goes, "Yea, I just, I don't want this reality." Probably the best way to sum up the vibe in the air right before 5 o'clock, haha.

So the night went just about the same as Friday night, lots of angry customers, slow food and bad tips. But nothing worth rambling on about. At one point in the night I was squatting behing the waiter station almost under the counter. Jamie, who worked for us last night to try and make things run smoother asked what the hell I was doing. I had to tell him that I was hiding from my tables. And I was dead serious. There is nothing worse than being gawked at from across the restaurant by a hungry and dissatisfied family of four. So after apologiing only so many times before you feel totally dishonest, I fell back on the only tactic I had left...hide.

In other news, I did get an update on the 911 episode. A detective called the restaurant looking for me, and I had to fill her in on everything I knew or saw or how I called. She said I was the first call to that particular emergency. I don't know what the rest of the 85 people who probably have brand new, high-tech, solar powered cell phones were waiting for. I asked about how the kid was, and she said, "Well you only saw the one in the street, correct?" Apparantly there was another kid in the alley who had been stabbed numerous times, and was rushed to the hospital to have surgery immediately. The kid I saw in the street was also taken in the hospital but "was only kicked, but in the head quite a few times." She told me they had one kid in custody and were still looking for the rest. Pretty awful. One kind of awful that I totally do not understand and would rather not even get into.

After another catastrophic evening at the restaurant, I took off to my grave shift at the shelter. Luckily, Jesse was fully prepared to stay up so I could go to sleep. I quickly learned sleep was not an option there. I had from 1:00 to 5:30 to pass out, and that was just not something my body understood. I was up, half asleep, not falling sleep, everything but asleep. So I finally said forget it and got up to join Jesse who looked about the same as I did last weekend, half fried and suspiciously coherent in front of the computer. I was then greeted at 6 a.m. with Jeremy and his, what I like to call, "aerobic dance party" attitude. Then shortly after, followed up by Becky and her running man dance moves to coincide with Jeremy's 80's dance mix.

I love it at the shelter.
And now, to play outside on another beautiful day.