My Duties As a Hostess

So as many of you know, I took a job at a restaurant this summer because everyone says working in a restaurant will change you forever. I’ve always wanted to challenge myself with a job that involved doing things quickly since quickness has never been my forté. And I wanted tips. However, since I am only to be in town for two months, my manager said he would only train me to be a hostess. It made sense to me at the time, but that’s when I thought hosts only sat people. I want to make a list of things that hostesses do at Applebees so that when you feel tempted to become frustrated with them for not giving you your favorite booth every single time, you will remember all the duties of a hostess.

In the morning…

1. Lay out the rug
2. Close all the blinds
3. Wipe down and set every table in the restaurant. (In my case that’s about 40 tables I think.)
4. Sweep the dining room halls. (Everything that isn’t under the tables)
5. Turn on all the TV’s and switch the channel to ESPN even though it always ends up on channel 2 and the TV takes about three seconds to move up each channel.
6. Get out the floor plan and write down everyone’s position and hours written out.
7. Wash the windows and keep them grease, oil, and barbecue sauce-free as much as possible.
8. Ask a manager to let you outside so you can get a disgusting red bucket out a pile of trash and fill it with chemicals and dish towels. AKA a “Sani-bucket”
9. Keep the little cup full of tooth picks.
10. Get out the checklist, fill it out, and initial it as you go.
11. You have about 15 minutes to get these things done– then the restaurant opens, and you must maintain #’s 3,4,7, and 9 throughout the day while completing these tasks as well…
12. Check the bathrooms every 10 minutes for stuff on the floor, make sure everything is stocked in there, and make sure there are no random disasters in there.
13. Hold the door open for each person coming both in and out of the door. (This is tricky cause if a secret person is coming to check the restaurant for good service and you miss the door while doing another task, you could get into trouble.)
14. Seat customers, trying your best to both rotate the servers evenly and giving the guests what seat they want– the most delicate balance of all.
15. Count how many people are reading menus every ten minutes and let the cooks know how many people are getting ready to order. They get really mad if you slack off on this.
16. After the server has taken the plates away from the dirty table, you must take all the cups and trash and whatever other marvelous thing the guest has left to the kitchen and dump all the ice and food and trash into its proper place and place all the dishes in their little place ready to be washed.
17. If a server gets slack or it’s super busy, it’s also your job to get the dishes as well.
18. If the server is complaining about having too many tables at the same time, it’s also your job to get their drink orders.
19. If the server is still feeling like their life is SO HARD, then you smile and tell them how great they are even though they get smoke breaks and you aren’t even allowed to stop 5 minutes and eat something during your shift.
20. Make sure the idiotic little 3 course combo meal card is placed neatly inside each menu.
21. Fold the children’s menus into this cute little origami pouch and put two crayons inside.
22. Keep the high chairs and booster seats clean and get them out as people need them.
23. Make helium balloons.
24. Get sexually harassed by drunk people at the bar.
25. Represent Christ cause everyone knows you’re a campus pastor now.
26. Keep everything in the dining room not sticky.
27. Go get more rags out of the storage room cause the servers stole yours. lol
28. Listen to the customers’ complaints about stuff you can’t change.
29. Wonder why the weird family at table 81 left 5 bottles of A1 barbecue sauce on the table. lol
30. Get a new drink for people that “see bugs” in their drinks. XD (I’m not sure why, but people’s reaction to dirty cups makes me almost pee myself. I run back to the kitchen and laugh so hard. I don’t know if it’s their facial expression or if I’m just mean. I think it’s the former since I can’t ever see what’s wrong with the drink)
31. Entertain the managers with your Spanish skills whenever they ask you to.
32. Get hit on by whoever ’s on dish duty that day…except for that one lady who doesn’t like you that much…thank goodness.
33. Get yelled at by whoever’s having a bad day that day.
34. Run to the back and find a manager every time a highschooler comes in asking for an application.
35. Make sure all this is completely finished or you can’t leave. EVER. lol

And yeah…that’s about all I’ve learned so far. But then again, I’m still kind of new. Can anyone relate to this kind of work? I’m thinking this job is building crazy character in me. And not bitterness. No, not bitterness.

We’re Gonna Be Alright

On Tuesday, I was having a wonderful day at Applebees. Managers were coming up to me telling me that they were very pleased with my work, and that they’ve heard a lot of good about me from others. I was even able to seat some friends of mine. Sharon Rikard and Tania Burgbacher– two women that have known me since I was a toddler whom I respect more than most. Mrs. Tania came in, gave me a big hug and asked how I was doing…I said fine, but I wished I was going to her ladies’ retreat this coming weekend. I’d always heard her teaching was life-changing, and I’d always wanted to go. She said she was sorry that the retreat was especially inconvenient this year because of Father’s Day. Just then, my manager approached us and she told him that she was sorry if she got me in trouble– so I sat her at table number 15. A very nice table. I heard her debating on whether or not to get the half or full-sized salad. The full-sized, Mrs. Tania! I thought. You deserve it! But I didn’t say it out loud cause I’m not sure if that’s a normal thing to tell someone. Soon she and Sharon were finished and I waved goodbye. Maybe I’ll ask Mrs. Tania to lunch some day. I would love to talk to her about things I’ve been going through that I know she’d understand. She’s so wise. But she’s probably too busy. I was soon finished with work, did some errands for mom and dashed home in a light-hearted mood.

Right as I got home and put my purse and grocery bags down we got the phone call. It was a friend of my mom’s– one of her biker buddies, and I handed the phone to my mom. In just a few short seconds she became hysterical. She was screaming, moaning, wailing…looking as if something were physically torturing her. “NO NO NO!!!! THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!” was all she could say. I thought my father or sister had died. I couldn’t get her to tell me what had happened. Finally with plenty of effort, she managed to tell me that Mrs. Tania was in a car accident and didn’t make it. I began shaking all over and fell back on the couch behind me. “Are you…sure?” The tingles in my body grew more intense as emotion swept over my body and I began to weep.

*Sigh* Reality has still not fully registered with most of us grieving the loss of Mrs. Tania. I read her obituary tonight and saw the sentence that had her full name and then “died” shortly after, and I stared at it for a few minutes, feeling my throat tighten up all over again.

The next day we actually had our Wednesday night young adult service as usual. I had no idea how Travis would pull it off, but I was glad somehow to be around other people that were going through the same loss.

I think that Wednesday night modeled the process of grieving the way Jesus would have done it, and, therefore, the way Mrs. Tania would have wanted. We began with just sitting and reflecting (and crying if you were me). Later we watched a Rob Bell nooma video that explained a Jewish custom that involved doing just that– sitting with each other in quiet reflection. His message also warned us against allowing bitterness to settle in our hearts when we grieve as did Job’s wife and Naomi. Instead, we have to let the grief hit us and allow ourselves to feel and express the pain rather than stuffing it away to come out later in other ways. After that, we worshiped along with music and singing as Travis reminded us all to enjoy our Creator and embrace the short life we have on earth with joy and hope in our hearts. And I can’t believe I actually did just that. I left that place with hope and joy. For me, for her, for everyone around me. I think I will always remember last night for the learning experience that it was.

Satan’s Twisted Retaliation to Life

It makes me sick when I am reminded that Satan has tricked the human race into releasing death into this world. It makes me want to vomit.

Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood.

Isn’t that Applebees? Or is that somewhere else? Anyway, so far my experience there has been alot different than I expected.

I’ve trained with two girls so far, and they have been really nice. They both have commented that I am doing great for someone that hasn’t worked in a restaurant before. The managers that have taken the time to get to know me like me a lot and have said so repeatedly, but the ones that don’t know me so well yet act like I get in the way a lot.

The work is very, very hard…both physically and mentally, much to my surprise, but that only makes time go by quicker. That’s definitely a good thing. The only thing that really disturbs me about that place is the way the majority of employees treat each other. From what several employees have taught me in my two days there (including a manager) is that everyone is expected to get mean and impatient and snappy so the best way to deal with it is just to deal with it. I understand getting stressed from time to time, but it seems that most of the time, when someone is mean to someone else, it is unnecessary and completely avoidable. I guess I expect to get treated that way by customers…and that’s cool, but the whole most-of-the-staff-wishes-you-were-dead thing gets a little intimidating. No one has gotten too mad at me yet to my face– well except one time. And they apologized later. My point is that if I could do anything during the next two months, I would change the whole right-to-meanness thing at that place. I really believe it can be done through prayer, example, and, of course, love. Isn’t that what everyone is really starving for? *Sigh* So that’s my summer goal. Along with raising about $1400 more a month for Chi Alpha this fall.

Look at this awesome picture I found. XD