Paradise Pizza Experience.

I had my exit interview with the agency last Monday and it was a little bitter sweet. Overall, I had a good time working there yet at the same time, I knew it was time for me to leave. Change is not necessarily bad, but when you don’t agree with the changes that are taking place, it’s time to remove yourself from the situation. I was very open, honest and frank during the interview and told the HR person what I thought. At the end of it, she said that if I would ever want to come back and work on an on-call basis, I should give her a call and she’ll be sure to look into it. I like how that door was left open for me and I do appreciate that.

On an entirely different note, I worked as a server for the very first time on Tuesday and it was exciting to say the least. My GM thought that it would be a great opportunity to get my feet wet on a weeknight leading up to Friday and the weekend when things are busy. I thought I did fine with a couple of table and figured it was smooth sailing from then on when half an hour before we closed, a group of twelve people came in and I was the only server. Talk about a baptism of fire! I was honest and upfront with them by letting them know that it was my first evening and together we would get through dinner. Everything went along just fine and they congratulated me for a job well done and tipped me pretty well. In so many ways, you can kind of get a high when there’s a rush of people or when things are busy.

Wednesday was pretty laid back and things were definitely busy on Friday. We had four servers on Friday and each person had a section. You really pretty much focus on your section and help the others if and when possible. I survived my first Friday evening without any problem. On Saturday night, things usually aren’t as busy but I had a table of sixteen gay guys who come in once a month. That was another interesting experience. The food order was fine, but I did goof up some of their meal ticket. They were gracious enough and cut me some slack.

An important lesson I’ve learned is that when you are serving it’s all about personality and just allowing the diners to have a pleasant dining experience. If they know they are being taken care of, they will tip well and the vast majority of the people are very friendly. We did however have a lady come and we’ve been told that the next time she comes in, we will not be serving her. She’s just a very negative person who does not treat us well. No one basically wants to serve her and I ended up serving her once on Friday and again on Sunday. Try as I may to make to be nice to her, she does not reciprocate it. I do believe that she has some type of mental illness. The GM already spoke to the owners and they’ve said that as a restaurant, we have every right to deny service to any customer. I kind of feel bad for her, but at the end of the day, if you can’t treat people nicely and with respect, we really do not want your business. I had a table make a comment to me that they felt bad that I had to serve her. I did not think it was too bad – at the same time, I just got done working at a care facility for people with mental illness!

All in all, I’m having a blast working at the restaurant and things are going great. I love how all the servers help each other out big time and pitch in if and when the need arise. There’s something to be said about teamwork and working as one big, happy family.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Thursday, it was opening night for the high musical called, “The Wiz” – loosely based on the Wizard of Oz where Anna was a part of. She was in charge of the music. I thought it was a well done performance and she was glad that they did well. The African-American community came out to support it since in the original musical, it was the first all-black cast ever to put on a play on Broadway. The last performance was on Sunday and they had a pizza party at a restaurant once they took down the set. I got to see a good number of her students and more important step into Anna’s life as a teacher for a couple of hours. I thought it was fun.

That’s all the news from me. This weekend is Relays weekend so Drake’s campus will be hopping big time. A number of alums will be coming in for the festivities. Cindy and her husband EJ I know for sure will be coming in so will Alison. It’ll be a fun mini reunion. I know we’ll be going out for brunch after Mass on Sunday if I don’t catch up with them prior which is highly unlikely.