News flash: the Independent’s schoolteacher-by-day, waitress-by-night diarist gave notice at the restaurant. Will her old friends still notice her? Or will she become like the potted plant her friend walked into at Au Bon Pain?
Oct. 8, 2005
Thanks to Rosh Hashana and Columbus Day, I’ve had no school and therefore a lot of time on my hands. When I have time on my hands, I do a lot of thinking, which can sometimes be dangerous. This time, though, it was productive thinking and I came to the conclusion about one big thing. I don’t want to have a second job.
I’ve known this since I took the job at the restaurant. Last year I worked 4 or 5 shifts a week — “absolutely draining me of all energy and opportunities to go other places and do anything. So at the start of the year, I said I’d only do two nights a week. And they accommodated me, which was awesome.
But I don’t know what happened. This first month of school has shown me that it’s nuts to have another job. I’m exhausted and missing out on opportunities — “my friend’s wedding, for example; A trip home. My school vacations last year were eaten up by the restaurant; I couldn’t go home for Christmas or Thanksgiving or my birthday.
Blah, blah, blah — ¬¶a second job obviously takes up time. So why complain, right? I don’t want to complain anymore or be tired or not have a weekend. Maybe that’s selfish. Maybe I just feel a little older than I should. Maybe I don’t want to feel that way anymore.
So, I gave my two weeks. That’ll be it, for now anyway. I’m sad about leaving; it’s a great place to work and I love the people I work with. I hope to come back here and there, but we’ll see.
I’ve got other plans brewing, too.
Oct. 10, 2005
Last night will go down in history as one of the funniest nights I’ve had since being in New Haven. I saw Burning Spear play at Toad’s Place with some friends from the restaurant.
Rather than giving a play-by-play of the night, I’ll start at the end: Lindsey, my good tall friend from the restaurant, trips over a gigantic potted plant outside of Au Bon Pain on York Street and falls down. I don’t know how she did it: the thing came up to her mid-thigh at least and it was against the wall. It’s not like plant was in the middle of the sidewalk. But the best part about it was that I saw the whole thing happen in slow motion. I saw her take a big step; her foot caught on the middle of the pot and she tumbled over it, spilling the flowers and dirt in the process. The three others of us who saw this dropped to the ground laughing.
You may ask, “How does something like this happen? What are the steps one takes to get to the point of tripping over a gigantic potted plant?” My answer is this: not a whole lot. Lindsey is just that way.
I love people who have no idea how funny they are. I also love people who know they can be funny, and who capitalize on mundane moments to make people laugh. My friend David is like this; he too works at the restaurant, and he too was witness to Lindsey’s fall.
I work with good people at the restaurant. They genuinely make me feel happy. While it sucked having a second job and having no energy, Lindsey and Dave, Renee, Carole, Jay, Gayle, Geneva, Allison, and DB helped pull me out of slumps. While I’m excited to finally have some time back to my own, I’m not thrilled to be leaving these people. I’m afraid of what normally happens in the restaurant business: you leave and people forget.