Backwards Movement #1
This little entry will deal mostly with my fortunes of labor, which have wildly fluctuated over the past several weeks. Last I updated, I was looking for a job. Since then, I've gotten two jobs, quit one, and been fired from another. Hence, I am again in the framing business. Here's the details.
During finals week, I foolishly decided to start up two jobs. The first was working at WKMS, the NPR affiliate on campus. The main part of my job was basically to tool around the Internet until I found something relevant, then to write a condensed version of it to be read on air. I also was training to do my own features and such. Working there was pretty relaxing, with Markgraf and Company at my side. I didn't realize that WKMS would want me in the office all day every day; I worked from 9:30 to 4:30. That soon changed to Tuesday-Friday. It still sucked on those days, because I started at J Edward's at 5:00 when I worked there, and would usually stay there until 10 or 11. Sleep, repeat.
J Edward's was a completely different experience. It's a classy place, with such things as crab legs and hundred and fifty dollar bottles of wine. Luckily I didn't have to buy the tux required to work there (sans jacket), because I've got one in the back of my closet. I liked the place. Some of my radio station duties didn't come very naturally to me, like the audio programs we had to use, and the journalism writing style. Serving, on the other hand, seemed to work pretty well for me. My first night on the floor by myself (which was my second night serving, since they were booked and needed the help), I managed to get 80 bucks for myself. I was pretty haggard, and at one point, with three tables, was being run ragged. The last table I got that night was a table of regulars, including the MSU basketball coach and his buddy, a local car dealer. At first I was pretty slow with them, but once my other tables were gone and I told them what was up, they decided to judge me only by what I did from then on. They ordered some crab cakes, and I brought them to them...since then, I have been “Crab Cakes” Carpenter to them, and they requested me when they came in after that.
The idea of constantly working got old pretty fast, so after a few weeks I quit my job at the radio station to make more time for serving, but not before a mishap or two there. The main one followed my first weekend serving at J Edward's. There, I met an older couple that used to own The Mansion outside Golconda. Nowadays, they have a place called Sugar & Spice in Grand Rivers, a bakery. One of the things that they do with their time is deliver homemade cheesecakes of various sorts to J Edward's. I talked to them about that, and decided that all this would go nicely with WKMS' Hidden Kitchens feature. I drove to Grand Rivers one day and interviewed the lady - it went perfectly. There were segues, good sound bites, and everything. Well, when I got back to the station, I found that I didn't have any of the audio apart from me saying “Testing.” Kinda sucks.
One of my J Edward's-related adventures was George's taco party. George/Jorge decided to have a Mexican bash at his place, and there was excellent food, Rock Band, and beer for all. His little 4-year old daughter kept talking to me the whole time, wanting me to dress her dolls and read to her - the only problem was that she switched languages about every third sentence.
Another time early on, I had some trouble figuring up a big party, and ended up having a couple of tabs left unpaid. I don't know if the cards didn't run right and I didn't notice, or if the people took the receipts that they signed, or what. Anyhow, I was left with about sixty or seventy dollars to have to pay for myself. I called in the bartender to help figure out what to do, and she started voiding everything off. I thought that was a fine idea, but about ten seconds later Eddie, the owner, who is a temperamental fellow at best, barged in profanely, wanting to know what was going on. The bartender was like “Well, I didn't know what to do,” and he replied “Well there's not a cross out front, we don't give anything away for free.” About that time I jumped in and offered to pay for everything, and after long conversation he decided to void it all anyway. I kept a normal volume the whole time despite his tendency to yell, and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't, I would've lost my job that night.
A couple of weeks ago was the end of my tenure at J Edward's. We'll start a day early, Thursday the 12th. The first table that came in that day ordered a bottle of Silver Oak. Now, kiddies, this is serious turf upon which they trod: that's a $98 bottle of wine. Anyhow, I went out to the table to open the bottle, as per usual. Well, apparently the foil on these bottles is made of titanium, because when I was opening it, it gave me a itsy bitsy little cut on the thumb. I didn't notice at the time, but the woman in the party did - a wee little drop of blood got on the outside of the glass. She asked for another set of glasses, but the guy wanted a whole new bottle. Well, Eddy wasn't exactly thrilled about all that. The party made up for it, though - they ended up drinking two bottles of that, plus food, and tipped me sixty bucks. Later that night, I got a table of 10 on the patio. I went into the kitchen to get their drink order, only to find another waiter taking the drink machine apart, at 7:00. There physically wasn't anything I could do about it, and the party left.
Friday. The power went out, just like it did the previous Friday. The first time, I had a table walk out on me. This time, it was even better. I had three tables this time around, and had to deal with them in Stone Age conditions. No computers, no light...had to use my cellphone as a calculator to figure out all the prices, with tax and all. I had one table of seven on several different checks, so I had to figure out who got what and all. Another table of four...but the kicker was the third table. It was the president of Murray Bank on his 26th wedding anniversary. These people had ordered just before the power went out, but miraculously the cooks were going at it in the dark. I finally got their food out to them, and I will say that I kinda stumbled with the tray. A bit. Not much; didn't spill a thing. Well, the wife went ballistic. She screamed. I mean, it was full-out. I gave her some crab legs and went on my way. I came back a minute later to check up on everything. Mr President said he didn't want any of it. Nothing was wrong with it, they didn't want a box...they just didn't want any of it.
At the end of that long Friday the 13th night, when I was cashing out, I said to the manager “Alright, see you guys next time!”, to which she replied crisply, “Well, actually, I'm sorry but you're fired.” Apparently bank president man had told her that I'd spilled food on them, taken it out of their laps, and served it to them. She didn't ask my side of anything, didn't give me any kind of warning...just fired me. I didn't really care at the moment, and wasn't worried about it - I thought I'd have another job relatively soon. It's been a little over two weeks, though, with plenty of effort on my part, and no luck yet. Everyone told me that they'd hire me in August. Well, it's been August for a few days...yay!
-A.C.
"See, I'm the best, mayne. I deed it."
-Eli Porter, Class of 2005
During finals week, I foolishly decided to start up two jobs. The first was working at WKMS, the NPR affiliate on campus. The main part of my job was basically to tool around the Internet until I found something relevant, then to write a condensed version of it to be read on air. I also was training to do my own features and such. Working there was pretty relaxing, with Markgraf and Company at my side. I didn't realize that WKMS would want me in the office all day every day; I worked from 9:30 to 4:30. That soon changed to Tuesday-Friday. It still sucked on those days, because I started at J Edward's at 5:00 when I worked there, and would usually stay there until 10 or 11. Sleep, repeat.
J Edward's was a completely different experience. It's a classy place, with such things as crab legs and hundred and fifty dollar bottles of wine. Luckily I didn't have to buy the tux required to work there (sans jacket), because I've got one in the back of my closet. I liked the place. Some of my radio station duties didn't come very naturally to me, like the audio programs we had to use, and the journalism writing style. Serving, on the other hand, seemed to work pretty well for me. My first night on the floor by myself (which was my second night serving, since they were booked and needed the help), I managed to get 80 bucks for myself. I was pretty haggard, and at one point, with three tables, was being run ragged. The last table I got that night was a table of regulars, including the MSU basketball coach and his buddy, a local car dealer. At first I was pretty slow with them, but once my other tables were gone and I told them what was up, they decided to judge me only by what I did from then on. They ordered some crab cakes, and I brought them to them...since then, I have been “Crab Cakes” Carpenter to them, and they requested me when they came in after that.
The idea of constantly working got old pretty fast, so after a few weeks I quit my job at the radio station to make more time for serving, but not before a mishap or two there. The main one followed my first weekend serving at J Edward's. There, I met an older couple that used to own The Mansion outside Golconda. Nowadays, they have a place called Sugar & Spice in Grand Rivers, a bakery. One of the things that they do with their time is deliver homemade cheesecakes of various sorts to J Edward's. I talked to them about that, and decided that all this would go nicely with WKMS' Hidden Kitchens feature. I drove to Grand Rivers one day and interviewed the lady - it went perfectly. There were segues, good sound bites, and everything. Well, when I got back to the station, I found that I didn't have any of the audio apart from me saying “Testing.” Kinda sucks.
One of my J Edward's-related adventures was George's taco party. George/Jorge decided to have a Mexican bash at his place, and there was excellent food, Rock Band, and beer for all. His little 4-year old daughter kept talking to me the whole time, wanting me to dress her dolls and read to her - the only problem was that she switched languages about every third sentence.
Another time early on, I had some trouble figuring up a big party, and ended up having a couple of tabs left unpaid. I don't know if the cards didn't run right and I didn't notice, or if the people took the receipts that they signed, or what. Anyhow, I was left with about sixty or seventy dollars to have to pay for myself. I called in the bartender to help figure out what to do, and she started voiding everything off. I thought that was a fine idea, but about ten seconds later Eddie, the owner, who is a temperamental fellow at best, barged in profanely, wanting to know what was going on. The bartender was like “Well, I didn't know what to do,” and he replied “Well there's not a cross out front, we don't give anything away for free.” About that time I jumped in and offered to pay for everything, and after long conversation he decided to void it all anyway. I kept a normal volume the whole time despite his tendency to yell, and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't, I would've lost my job that night.
A couple of weeks ago was the end of my tenure at J Edward's. We'll start a day early, Thursday the 12th. The first table that came in that day ordered a bottle of Silver Oak. Now, kiddies, this is serious turf upon which they trod: that's a $98 bottle of wine. Anyhow, I went out to the table to open the bottle, as per usual. Well, apparently the foil on these bottles is made of titanium, because when I was opening it, it gave me a itsy bitsy little cut on the thumb. I didn't notice at the time, but the woman in the party did - a wee little drop of blood got on the outside of the glass. She asked for another set of glasses, but the guy wanted a whole new bottle. Well, Eddy wasn't exactly thrilled about all that. The party made up for it, though - they ended up drinking two bottles of that, plus food, and tipped me sixty bucks. Later that night, I got a table of 10 on the patio. I went into the kitchen to get their drink order, only to find another waiter taking the drink machine apart, at 7:00. There physically wasn't anything I could do about it, and the party left.
Friday. The power went out, just like it did the previous Friday. The first time, I had a table walk out on me. This time, it was even better. I had three tables this time around, and had to deal with them in Stone Age conditions. No computers, no light...had to use my cellphone as a calculator to figure out all the prices, with tax and all. I had one table of seven on several different checks, so I had to figure out who got what and all. Another table of four...but the kicker was the third table. It was the president of Murray Bank on his 26th wedding anniversary. These people had ordered just before the power went out, but miraculously the cooks were going at it in the dark. I finally got their food out to them, and I will say that I kinda stumbled with the tray. A bit. Not much; didn't spill a thing. Well, the wife went ballistic. She screamed. I mean, it was full-out. I gave her some crab legs and went on my way. I came back a minute later to check up on everything. Mr President said he didn't want any of it. Nothing was wrong with it, they didn't want a box...they just didn't want any of it.
At the end of that long Friday the 13th night, when I was cashing out, I said to the manager “Alright, see you guys next time!”, to which she replied crisply, “Well, actually, I'm sorry but you're fired.” Apparently bank president man had told her that I'd spilled food on them, taken it out of their laps, and served it to them. She didn't ask my side of anything, didn't give me any kind of warning...just fired me. I didn't really care at the moment, and wasn't worried about it - I thought I'd have another job relatively soon. It's been a little over two weeks, though, with plenty of effort on my part, and no luck yet. Everyone told me that they'd hire me in August. Well, it's been August for a few days...yay!
-A.C.
"See, I'm the best, mayne. I deed it."
-Eli Porter, Class of 2005