Two and a half years ago, in anticipation of starting Winkbox and knowing I would no longer be receiving a steady paycheck, I got a job waiting tables. This is a continuation of a series of blogs documenting my adventures in the food service industry. Previous entries: Dinner Theater #1, Dinner Theater #2, Dinner Theater #3.
Two and a half years ago, in anticipation of starting Winkbox and knowing I would no longer be receiving a steady paycheck, I got a job waiting tables. This is a continuation of a series of blogs documenting my adventures in the food service industry. Previous entries: Dinner Theater #1, Dinner Theater #2.
It is simply amazing how quickly thinks can change. In this chapter the owners husband is tragically killed and other, more trivial events take place.
Two and a half years ago, in anticipation of starting Winkbox and knowing I would no longer be receiving a steady paycheck, I got a job waiting tables. This is a continuation of a series of blogs documenting my adventures in the food service industry. Read Dinner Theater #1, Read Dinner Theater #3
In this chapter I rant about the physical pain the job inflicts, and I try to express the fear and anxiety I had in the early days of waiting tables. Although I became more fit and comfortable as the weeks went by, the nervous feeling never completely left me. It always felt like being an actor before an audience of 2, 3 or 6.
Two and a half years ago, in anticipation of starting Winkbox and knowing that I would no longer be getting a steady paycheck, I got a job waiting tables. Looking back at it now, it seems simply crazy that I was able to pull this off. I never worked in the food industry before, not in a coffee shop, pizza joint or an ice cream stand.
My friend Aimee, who at the time was the manager of one of the top restaurants in Hickory, took a chance and trained me to be a server. I am not sure what possessed her to give me this life changing opportunity but I will be forever grateful, even if the first weeks were simply terrifying.
Partly inspired by Jessica Hagy’s index cards and partly being unable to fall asleep after my shifts, I began journaling about my new secret career. As the months rolled by I kept the journal, and in the end I continued working at the restaurant partly because I wanted to keep writing about it.
In the next few months I will be publishing the journal in our blog. I can’t publish all my entries, some of them reveal too much personal details about me and my co-workers, but it should still give you a good picture of my two years as a waitress. A word of warning, creative spelling and vulgar language are a big part of this creative exercise.
Read Dinner Theater #2
Read Dinner Theater #3
I heard from an old friend last week that needs a little help. Justin "Dutch" Van Hoy was a classmate of mine at Winthrop who over a year ago was diagnosed with leukemia. He fought it into remission, but unfortunately he has relapsed. This time around he needs a bone marrow transplant to beat it.
I am reprinting the email below with his permission in order to try and get the word out about the bone marrow donor program. From what I've read it's a simple procedure, both the testing and the actual donation. Justin is in L.A. but that doesn't really matter, you can be tested anywhere. He includes information in his email below, but for those of you in the South East the number is 1 (704) 921-3570. Cotton swab test in the mouth, no needles. Thank you for reading the email below, I know Justin appreciates it.
UPDATE: There is a donor drive tomorrow (1/08/09) at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC, dining room 3 in the Levine Childrens Hospital from 9 am to 4 pm.
UPDATE: An updated post here.
“In case you have not heard, I have had some bad luck and relapsed from my remission from the cancer ( leukemia ). I had a 30% chance of relapsing, and unfortunately that 30% has happened. This time around there is no chance to cure it with regular chemotherapy though, and I have to have a bone marrow transplant. My brother and sister are not matches, so we are having to go searching for an unrelated donor. With this being said, It would mean the world to me if any of you would take the time to see if you are a match. To get tested is really simple and only requires a mouth swab or a very quick blood test.
Some of my information you will need:
You can also request to have a kit mailed to you. This way you can do the test yourself and mail it back. Have your results mailed back to you, and you can send them to me here at my home. Because of medical confidentiality blah blah blah, they cannot have the results sent directly to me. But this way I can give the results to my people and they can sort everything out. My mailing address is:
146 South Avenue 56
Los Angeles, CA 90042
If you aren’t in the LA area,here are some links for registering with the National Bone Marrow Registry, the entire registry is a worldwide network and is also linked in with the Red Cross, so there are lots of places to go if you aren’t in the LA area. Here are links to figure out where the closest is for you:
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_Now/join_now.html
http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/Join_in_Person/index.html
I hate asking anyone to have to do this, and I think you all know me well enough that I wouldn’t unless it was really important. Let me know if you have ANY questions at all and I will get them answered for you. You can also .
Hope everyone had a great holiday. Talk with you soon.”
- JUSTIN VAN HOY
noun | a box or crate used as a makeshift stand by a public speaker:
[as adj.] a soapbox orator.
• figurative a thing that provides an opportunity for someone to air their views publicly
• chiefly historical a box or crate in which soap is packed and transported.
