table for two?

from the evening of march 9, 2011

So I'm back in Calgary, which right now really makes me anxious because I know how cold it's been IRL, brrrr. I seem to be there for a reunion of some sort, but it's not really clear what kind of reunion. That is until I'm in black pants that have meat sauce stains on them, and brown apron, a black bow tie, a white dress shirt with my sleeves rolled up. There are some of you who know immediately what this reunion is. But for those who don't.

It's Nick Steakhouse & Pizza, where I worked as a busboy, host, quiz show spinner and server. This was 15 years ago. And I still have dreams about it. Nick-mares, if you will. In fact, I've blogged about them before. Well here's another, with a different spin.

We all WANTED to be there. Yep, Aisla your idea of us all working there another night came true in my dream. Except you weren't there...sorry. But we never really worked together there. Maybe you were in the back doing dishes.

Anyway...Jenn, my faithful who went through pretty much all the industry phylum with me, is in the dream and we are going to be bussers together. It's been even longer than 15 years since I was a busser so this makes the prospect even more enticing. Watering tables, clearing plates and making place settings? Don't mind if I do!

So Jenn and I are rocking the bussing like we did back in 93, and then a lady who used to work The Front, as we called it, Pat (RIP) said "hey, I have something to show you!" It was the reservation book from our time as illustrious hostesses! There were doodles, notations and the like! While the reservation book existed IRL, I'm pretty sure I never made any notations, and if I doodled, I'm pretty sure I got in trouble for it.

So, I start looking through it and it goes all the way back to when I first started. It's like a baby book, practically! Except I keep waiting for the spot for "first time Curtis packaged up the leftover Chef Boyardee, er, I mean lasagna" or "the first time Curtis was in the weeds", but it's all about this guy we worked with named Mike Chin.

Mike had thieved the book without our knowledge and changed all the notations to look like he was more of a superstar busser than me & Jenn (which between, you, me & the blogpost, wasn't true...IRL or otherwise). In fact he had changed the entries to say he'd trained me when it was, in fact, THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!

I am livid and want to hurt him with a stick. I toss it to Jenn in disgust. "Read this!", I command. She does. I begin to get nervous she won't be as mad as me, that she'll be all 'uh, get over it Curtis...it's almost 20 years ago'. I begin to prepare my rationalizations.

I was just kidding
Isn't it sad that I've yet to mature
I'm mentally unstable, where can I get help?

But I should know dear Jenn better than that

"This is bullshit!" She says, throwing the book across the restaurant. "Let's get rid of it." Then Pat walks up.

"Look what else I found!" She says. She passes me a tupperware container with a cake of some sort. I look at her quizzically. "It's a carrot cake you made for the Christmas party once, Curtis! We still have it!" This is the most normal thing in the world to Pat. I look to Jenn. She nods, reaches in and eats a piece.

"Kinda like old glue." She says. This seems to make sense to all. I see a customer waving frantically in my direction. They've run out of water. I know memories and all the rest of it needs to be put aside for the mission at hand.
THE END