Monday, July 14, 2008

wide awake dreaming

she had a dream about you. confirming my beliefs. and yet she said,
but i don't remember the details.
i nearly decked her. but was glad to hear it all ends well.

how does it?

it's a mystery.

i still know no more than i did a year ago. less, in fact.

but, what can i say, i keep moving forward, if that means anything.

and tonight at work, the welcome wagon departed and i got a shitload of grief from a couple of the kids.

my nj best friend walks in and says,
what's wrong?


nothing. i'm fine.


but those who know me, know me. what can i say. i wear no poker face. i was not meant to.

the trouble began when i started changing the way things is done. when i worked my first night shift at my new digs, chaos reigned. i couldn't believe they functioned that way. there were, literally, holes in the counters i kept trying not to lose cups to.

syrup containers were everywhere and in no particular order.

the place was a disaster. i come to find out, this is how the person who trains me cleans, and runs her closing shift. she takes everything apart and moves it all around and cleans. the whole shift is done in this quasi madness, but it gets done. they are used to it, that is how they have always done it. until tonight.

so tonight, it was my turn to run my first closing shift (i opened alone on sunday), and i did it completely different. i took one station apart at a time, so there was never chaos.

i told the kids,
just work clean. as we go along and clean things, if you make a mess, just stop and clean it up. this way the store stays in order while we work, and we clean as we go.


makes sense to me.

but the girl who gave me the warmest welcome last week, stood there and looked at me,
i don't know what to do, everything is different.


not everything, just some things. and i like to keep things in place for the new people.


the new guy said the chaos doesn't bother him, and she let me know this, and i said,
i'm new. it bothers me. i couldn't work like that last week. i need it in order to be functional.


she said,
when the shift comes in (the girl who trained me), she'll want it done the way it's always done. and this might work under new management, but it wouldn't work the way it was before.


it's her perogative to tell me to redo what i've done. but i'm the shift and i'd like to try it this way. we are still doing everything, just not taking the place apart at one time.


then she made comments to the other "partner" (they're called partners not associates), about things i think were intended for me, but whatever. high school here we come.

meanwhile, i'm trying to train the new kid on the bar, as i can see he clearly does not know how to make some of the difficult drinks.

ultimately, she ended up stocking the floor, and doing more than i think she normally does in the way of work aside from cleaning because the priorities were different. i ran the shift completely different than the other girl, which makes sense.

and by the end of the night i said,
do you still hate it?


she said,
no, it makes complete sense. i just didn't understand what you were doing.


i know, i didn't tell you, i'm sorry about that.


the thing is, i'm not inclined to tell the whole world my plans, i like to just do what i do. which i'm guessing, doesn't work for everyone.

i wanted her to know i needed her help and experience, so i said,
i need your help. if i've missed anything, let me know.

i think you got everything,
she said. and then through the rest of our closing, things went smoother. which was good.

i don't like to have tension between me and others. i don't mean to be stubborn and change things.

but i figure, if you work clean, there is no need to spend an exorbitant amount of time at the end cleaning. so i kept up with the dishes, i kept up with the trash, and removed it from the back room when it built up.

so when the shift who was training me arrived, there were no dishes, no trash, the floors had been mopped (as much as possible), restrooms cleaned, drains cleaned, and most of the barware sanitized. we had her entire shift to do customer service and just a few more essential cleaning things that simply cannot get done until close. and i had shift duties to perform, closing tills, counting the safe, and a couple breaks.

it all got done and we clocked out on time. i think i covered everything, i guess i'll find out.

friday night i close alone. get off at midnight, home around 1am. we'll see how it goes, but i look forward to being on my own, i work best that way.

and now here i am, wide awake, wondering where you are and if you can hear me.

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