ch 2. New life

Well, classes have starte and I was going to write this post latter but crazy stuff happened last night so I figured I would write THAT story and then deal with school stuff latter.

So I´m a bartender.

In a super nice restaurant.

That is French.

In Spain.

And it pays well.

But the story...is far less lovable.

So a few days ago, after being mortified by the scracity reflected in my bank account, I started to look for jobs. I went into this random restaurant and was like this preety! I awkwardly approached the bar and was like "Hi. My name is Zeta. I´m looking for work and I would like to lend a hand here." Note, three verb tenses...I practiced this little into in my head 700-800 times and it came out flawless, with a little smile at the end just to make things smooth...thats when things got rough.

The very cool chef, Fernando, came out and after a few formalitites was like sup kid? Do you want to be a Bartender/Waiter or Chef? I stupidly reply, Chef would be good but I can do either. He replied, Do you want to be a Bartender/Waiter or Chef? I reply Chef would be good but I can do either. This exchange was repeated about 2 more times before he was like, ¨So...bartender" and I pulled a little Wicked and said, with rather well placed emotion, "Sounds perfect!" while judiciously omiting the rest of the line, "lets go down to the oz dust ball room.."

Any way, so I had a pretest to see i I was real on Thurday and then Friday was my first day of paid word. Thursday, things went find, I poured drinks, made my first cafe con leche, opened wines, poured, made mixed drinks, fucked up a gin by putting an orange in it...but at least that was to a chef and not a customer lol.

Friday is where the fun being. I arrive with pen and paper in hand to take notes and shit were there notes taken. I basically got a crash course in ridiculously fine dining...I mean I have never eaten at a restaurant this nice.

Some examples. Every table comes with a single, long stem, dried rose in a vase with a two page special apatizer menu. Breads come in 4 ways, there are three types of salt (whose names I can never remember), two types of olive oil (both of which have 4 names, all of which I have to say), and the only thin there is one of is the fish/lobster tank where you can casually decide what you want to eat that day.

When your bread is gone, there is a shiny, stainless steel, dust pan to pick up the crumbs and the music is a techno trancy version of soft pop and random british techno and pop, mixed with a bit of dance music, softly placed for ambiance.

It is beautiful.

I, however, do not add to this.

As I learned, everything went from bad to good, so transition was deffinitly in my cards. The boss´s best friend, the boss´s best friend´s girl friend, and the boss´s best friend´s girl friend´s mom all came to dinner and I, I, was given the HONOR of serving them...oh my god.

Everything from their special wine to start, please, of which I broke the cork, to the champagne to end, of which I broke a glass was a catastrophy punctuated by awesomeness.

The awesomeness was getting plates down, explaning two of the three salts (one I was just like, fuck, its white salt and rather then calling it Sal Maldun (HEY! I rememberd it!)), doing a crazy serving method so I dont ever touch anything so I have to use a special fork and spoon held in a special way to give napkins, place bread, to clear teh table, etc. Things that went wrong, my boss randomly decided today would be a good day to eat with his best friend so I ended up serving HIM too...I was like seriously...how you gonna do that to me on my first day? At one point he asked for the easiest bread to serve (with the special way or wahtever) and i gave him the harest one...and he looked at me and was like "no, you should have given me chapata." ater an awkward moment of internal trnaslation I just smile and walked away...mostoso like no other

Any way, things continued and the dya progressed. The bar wanned and the serving waxe and I was constantly remined of the act that Amanda is like you NEED to be a waiter to get appreciation and waht not and bc i really wanted to do this forever and all summer she was telling me to do this and I never did..well now I am and its fucking hard!

Ps- if you are a waiter you are invisible and its a strange and random feeling that is hard to explain why you feel it but its because no one recognizes you...its like background noise but then its kina liberating when you embrase it and let you self be like the wind!

Any way, so the night ended on a good note when, after the boss left, and just the serbian, columbian and I were left. Naturally, I dont even know why I was suprised sine its so obvious it woudl heppen, they kept on low lights and some special lights, poured rum and cokes (with orange and lemon inside...soooo gooood) and broke down this restaurant club style...very fun and very " i have repressed worker issues" but it was cool and remined me that things are teh same the world over

Possibly the best part though...I got a super official corkscrew-bottle opener-etc thing as a starting.

Any way...today is day two of the test and I hope i Didn´t jinx it by writing this but, as they say, good stories left to dry are moments forgotten and then soon die.

Your barrista,