No more miss fancy-pants

I am absolutely exhausted. What seemed like a good idea, going to work in a very prestigious Restaurant, where I could have the possibility to work nights after six months, have insurance at that time, and really feel like I'd chosen a "bonafide career path" is now starting to feel like a huge mistake.

I was speaking with a dinner waiter who had to work a lunch shift last week (poor him!) about what it was like during the dinner shifts at The Very Prestigious Restaurant where I work, and he said this:

"Honey, I took this job to pay off credit card debt, and it's been six years!"

And he's still the "new guy." I'm scared this is going to happen to me. Also, I don't really gel with the people I work with on the floor (the kitchen staff is *great*), and it makes me miss the camraderie I had with my coworkers at the last place I worked in (so much camraderie, in fact, that I wound up sleeping with two of them. Hey! At least it's been four months and I'm still sleeping with the second one...).

Working seven days a week has made me come to some conclusions rather quickly, the most prominent one being: I don't want to be a career waiter. It seems I'd rather deal with the bullshit that comes with working in a relatively disorganized restaurant and not have to think about said restaurant when I'm not there. As it is, I spend so much of my spare time studying the wine list, the ever-changing menu, and the service standards outside of work that it's almost all I think about. I have waiter-anxiety dreams almost every night (and any waiter can tell you how awful these can be!), and it's just not worth it. I thought when I gave up one of my two jobs it would be the Bistro, but I'm planning on giving notice at the Restaurant tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see how one survives living in San Francisco on three restaurant shifts a week. A waitress I know screened herself a t-shirt that reads, "Help me, I can no longer afford the lifestyle to which I've grown accustomed!"

I might be ordering one of those.