So I've been taking some down time, more by now than I'd really like to but I'm trying very hard not to go back into the front end service portion of the restaurant business. There is a shelf life on this sort of thing and I'm pretty sure if mine hasn't expired it's at least reached "Manager's Special" level. It's a tough business and when you are my age, with my level of experience and the fact that I do not suffer fools gladly there are limited options as to where you can work and prosper and not commit any felony violence, toss in the fact that I am determined not to return to working nights and the well is very, very dry.
When the bistro closed I was in good shape financially and poor shape mentally so I figured three or four months of down time while I figured out what to do with my work life was a good idea, but the problem is I'm now six months in and while I've eliminated a number of career paths little that is viable has emerged, sadly it appears that nobody is going to hire me to read cookbooks, shop for food, menu plan, cook and drink good wine, . I've had a couple of offers but various combinations of terrible money, uninteresting jobs or lack of faith in the company have so far kept me from a new career.
Today, however, dawned with a new hope as a position that I was interested in, and was interesting, presented itself to me and after a great meeting I was offered the job on the spot .......except the hours were not at all what I had been lead to believe and as a result I've chosen too pass, putting me back at square zero. In between that shitty piece of news and coming home I spent 90 minutes interviewing for a position that I still don't fully understand exactly what it's responsibilities are and neither, it appears, does the prospective employer.
While I was out at the meetings my landlord's handyman showed up to look at our dryer, the dryer started making a sound like cats in heat trapped in a cage last week and so I thought maybe some maintenance was in order. My landlord is a great landlord in many ways, I've previously mentioned this, but he doesn't like spending too much money so he uses his retired father as the handyman. His Dad is a good handyman but he's also extremely frugal with his son's money, he has an indifferent grasp of the English language and he seems to feel that since we are tenants we somehow should be available for him at any time. This morning at around 9 he called to say he was coming by in twenty minutes to look at the dryer, I said fine but I wouldn't be there but my daughter would be able to let him in ......pretty straight forward.
When I got home from my crushing "We'd like to offer you a job/yeah but it's I can't take that job/what exactly is this job I'm interviewing for ?" morning I discovered my laundry room/storage room has migrated into my dining room as apparently putting shit back isn't part of the repair process. So I spent half an hour tidying up and then daughter walked in and said "Oh Chen said the dryer might not be fully fixed and he might have to come back but I can't remember when he said he would do that, or if we can use the dryer or not", let me tell you something, leaving a message with a 16 year old about appliance repair, unless the appliance is a hair straightener, is useless. You might as well leave the instructions with the cat, they will both look you straight in the eye while you tell them and neither one of them will remember anything that you said 30 seconds after you leave.
So now it's after 3 o'clock, it's a couple of hundred degrees outside so I fix daughter a cold plate so she can eat something before heading off to her job, she has her first summer job and OF COURSE it's in the restaurant business, but fortunately it's her Uncle's place so she will be sheltered from the seamier side for at least this summer. Fed and showered she manages to convince me to drive her to work so we head off, six blocks from home I get rear ended . It's not a big hit but I pull over to get insurance info and this is when I realize I'm not dealing with a fully rational individual, first she claims there's no damage so when I point out the dent in the back of my car she says "well you pulled out right in front of me", I then explain that she actually changed lanes and that a rear end collision is always the fault of the driver in the rear. She then gets on me because her mother was just admitted to emergency and so she's upset, I say I'm sorry about her mom but really all I need is her driver's license, she then starts yelling and I just go "You know what, I've got your plate number and a witness so see ya", and head away.
Finally back home I realize that it's going to be 4-5 hours before I have to pick up daughter from work and so I can bend my "zero tolerance when driving with daughter in the car" policy and enjoy a cold beer on the front porch, that's when I find out that I forgot to put beer in the fridge.
Gotta be better tomorrow, right ??
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