4 day weekends

Ah the popular 4 day weekends, those weekends everyone looks forward to. Holidays get planned, families get extra visits and the birds and bees are happy to be alive! The world is such a joyful place with a 4 day weekend...

Except of course if you're working in the restaurant business, the 4 day weekends means extra hours, harder work and little to no sleep! THIS is the weekends I thrive on, those that gets the heart beating and weakens you at the knees (most certainly not because of feelings of love). No public holidays to increase your pay BTW, oh no just filling in for your colleague, working 18 hours extra on top of the 88 hours you were gonna work anyways before getting one night to recover before running this crazy cycle again...

How do I do it? I put on my big girl panties, make up my face and convince myself that I am still young and even though my eyes look like I've just smoked a bag of weed, I AM NOT TIRED!!

NOT!!!! TIRED!!!! NOT!!!! TIRED!!!! NO!!!! TIIIIRED!! N!!! T-I-R-E-D!!

As hard as it is, I still do it day after day, week after week and thank my stars that I have a job that I love which pays for my off weekends and a place I get to see for about 3 hours a day. The job that will hopefully turn into a career and take me to places I've only dreamed about! This is why I do it! To eat great food EVERY day, meet new and exciting people every day, seeing the joy on a customers face when they once again take a bite of the perfect steak, telling a kid that his picture is the best I've ever seen and getting the occasional pat on the back for doing what I do best.

Fun times right? Not always, doing a 9am till 1am shift 3 days in a row with another 8 hour shift to go gets a little bit harder when you have a sprained ankle, a wine festival with 10 extra tables and a group of waiters not nearly as experienced as they should be and a hour long list about what can and will go wrong then pasting on the permanent fake smile! "No sir, of course I take no offence in the way your yelling at me because you and your wife have been fighting since you got here and SHE got you order wrong, please let me make it all better by standing on my head while taming a wild lion and giving your little brat, I mean adorable child, yet another milkshake that he can spill everywhere." "No, no, it really is such a pleasure and don't even worry about my self esteem... And please keep your change, it seems you need it more than I do!" Don't you just love your inside voice?

Now it's Monday, the phone won't stop ringing, the "But why are you tired, it was just weekend." questions come in non-stop and I still need to count the stock and finish the new menu items...

Maybe being a stripper isn't that bad of an idea after all....