Last Day

That's it.  It's over.  No Mas.

My life as a waitress, after 8 years is finally done.

I started in the business just before the start of my Senior year of High School.  Of High School.  I began as a hostess and had to deal with the Friday and Saturday night waits and seating charts at a busy corporate restaurant and bar (oddly enough, now bankrupt).  People were rude, pompous, and arrogant.  And the worst ones had children just like them.  I was called names, yelled at, and even got pulled into the middle of a few fist fights.  Eventually though, I graduated to the highly sought-after waitress position, and now these angry and rude customers were mine at a table for a whole hour.  Super.  Yet, I was able to work my way through College by raking in some cash through my Summer, Winter, and Spring Breaks.  Hell, I'd work a day or two around Thanksgiving if that meant another couple $100.

Summer after my Senior year of college, I stayed at school, but I just couldn't pull myself away from all that flowing cash.  I worked at a local bar in the town and dealt with drunk and sick college students.  Not a far cry from my "other" job at the University.  I was just seeing them earlier in the night as opposed to later.  I would be at work until 4AM cleaning up the mess they left behind.

Quickly thereafter, I packed my car and drove to Colorado.  Where should a smart and intelligent woman with a Bachelor's in Science work in Colorado?  Why, a Brewery seems like a good idea.  And it was, it really was.  Plus, I learned some great restaurant-Spanish.  The cash was incredible and I spent every dime of it on Skis, ski passes, and a lavish lifestyle in an expensive Mountain Resort town.  Here, the customers would throw money at you for whatever service you could give them.  "Sing "Happy Birthday" to your mother-in-law?  That will be $30 sir."

Having returned back to Philadelphia for Graduate School, I decided that a low-key, easy job was the best way to fill up my days before class at nights.  So for 3 or 4 days a week, I waitressed at the local pizzeria down the street from my house.  The customers here were a pretty laid-back bunch of guys who would stop in for lunch and tipped me really really well.  I made great friends with the staff, and had some damn good pizza for 2 years.

And how quickly, it's 8 years later.  I tossed in the apron a few weeks ago, around mid-July, just before the Wedding.  I bid farewell to this grueling line of work shortly before I left for Colorado.  No sense in prolonging the inevitable.  And really, I couldn't take just one. more. day.  Because as great as straight-up cash is, this job sucked the big one.  And now, with Medical School, and no way to hold a part-time job, I can officially free myself of this profession, and take out a boat-load of student loans.

And I'll always over-tip.  Always.