Friday started off early. Jimmy and I had a small cater job. After Jimmy's wake up call, I jumped into my clothes, pulled up to the back door and left my van running so as to keep it warm for the food. We delivered the food and I went back home for a quick shower before starting the day.
The morning was quite brisk and as usual, went by a little too fast making much of my stuff on my desk pushed over to the left for later. I made a mental note to myself to go through that stack of stuff before the weekend was over just so that nothing would get forgotten.
Somewhere around noon, Judy and I left to handle the bank and pick up the equipment from the morning cater job. Upon return, Judy put in a lunch order for us and my buddy, Frank stopped by to talk stocks with me. He is dabbling in the stock market and I am finding what he is doing very interesting. It is not like the normal stock trading that I have always been killed every time I try it (Bought Bank of Cascade stock at what was lowest price to find out that it can go much lower). He has actually made money in his latest purchases and his system intrigues but I am a very cautious investor and am not sure if I would ever try what he is doing. Whatever it is, however, has to be much better than what our IRA has done. I quit feeding mine early last year and have watched as it's value has crashed much as so many others have.
Frank joined us for lunch and around three reminded me in front of Judy if we were still going to the boxing match that evening. We were to meet at Jake's at five. I turned to Judy and smiled and she gave me a wink and a couple of 'women words' that she had read from an email that one of our customers had given her earlier. The email was of words that women said and their true meaning. You know things like 'fine' which means 'just shut up' and 'whatever' which means 'don't argue with me or our argument will finish with the word fine'.
Judy and I went home for a little quality time with our toy Pomeranian who was hurting after just getting fixed and having her baby teeth pulled. She does not quite understand why she hurts every time she tries to run as she always used to. She will take a couple of quick steps and then freeze. It has been kind of nice, however, as it has made her more settled for a day or so and very much a lap dog as she wants to be with us just like a hurting little child.
Jay called around four thirty and I asked him if he wanted to go to the boxing with me. A very quick, 'Sure' was followed up with a quick request to his mom who also agreed. I picked him up and arrived at the diner just in time to take off with the other three in our party.
A long but fun night finished of with arriving back at the house around midnight. I know I was tired as I slept through the night without awakening. Early on Saturday, I arrived at the diner and checked my emails. I had received one from a local person who told me that she read my blog and encouraged me to continue to write. It really started my day off well and I quickly replied to her email and thanked her for making my day.
Jay's last basketball game started at nine and I showed up just at the end of the first quarter. I stepped in just in time to watch Jay steal the ball and bring it back down the court for a lay up. Fist thrown up into the air, I yelled, "Yes". Frank joined me shortly there after. We are considering joining forces next year to coach his team and I wanted him to see Jay play. Jay did not let me down as he soon crossed over behind his back and shot a sweet floating hook with his left hand that hit only net. "Not bad", came the words from Frank.
Back at work, the day was steady but not overwhelming. I closed down the back room, set the bussers to cleaning up, and made ready for our first of three young basketball teams that were to use our room for their final game party. I retreated to my office to work on bills and was called in when the first team started to arrive. At the same time, our front room filled up and everything got crazy hectic. I brought up one of the prep cooks to help buss, called back in one of the bussers, and jumped in where I was needed. The team of three cooks in the kitchen did great and it was all that I could do to keep up with the food that they were putting up in the window and get it pushed out to the floor so that more food could go up. It all went quite well with only a couple mistakes, a minor conflict that had to be smoothed, and a stress level that I have learned to live with from time to time. While you are in it, you cannot panic, you must keep your head, and it is best if you can just try and make light of it. I often sing or hum to myself which helps. I remember in the old place. The worst day was Christmas. I must have looked kind of foolish at times walking around singing Christmas Carols but it was my way to calm myself and others around me in the craziness of the times. As I retrieved a mint from my Seattle Raindrops Mints tin in my pocket, I began to sing 'Raindrops keep falling on my head' as I sorted out the food. Tina said, "Where did that song come from" so I showed her the tin and she just laughed. I could only wave to the coach and thank him for bringing his team in.
Shortly after the first team came Jay's team and Jimmy was there to insure that the buffet for his team was ready. While the kids ate I joked with them while keeping an eye on the pass bar and the level of food in their buffet. My daughters grabbed me and pulled me into the room just in time to witness the awards. It is always fun to watch the kids and hear the 'thank yous' for sponsoring them. I must admit that my main reason for the sponsor is Jay but I also think that it is a very good direction for marketing money to go. I think that I was just about the only sponsor this year, however, which is kind of sad. I wonder if it was because the Park and Rec decided to raise the fees. I made a note to contact them about that. Maybe if they kept their fees down, they would gain more sponsors. After all, the teams will play whether they are sponsored or not.
Jay and I left to go down to get a movie for the night. Carrie and Trinity were going to a scrap booking party and Jay and I were to spend the evening together. After picking up the movie, we went back to the house to see Judy for a short time.....a very short time. I left to go back to the diner to help out with the last team promising to bring back supper with me.
I went out to the office to work on the bills that I had started earlier and only got one done when I was told that the team had arrived. Now, Saturday nights have not been that busy so I felt that a extra waitress for the team would suffice while I was there to help out up front......I was wrong. I watched as the team and families filled up the back room to capacity. I quickly folded out another table so that the rest of the families could sit. Meanwhile, the front room began to fill up. With only two cooks on the line, I could see that this could easily become a huge problem but, as usual, my team was up for the challenge. Without the back up help that is there during the day, the cashier doubled as a busser/milkshake maker while I backed up the two waitresses, sorted out dishes on the pass bar, made root beer floats (27), made salads, poured coffee, and did a whole lot of singing.
Around seven or so, I left and brought food back to the house. Judy had Jay text me with what she wanted but I had not read the last text. After a couple of Judy's cute words, I quickly returned to get the rest of the food. By now, we were closing up on eight PM. I asked Jay if he would help me take out the dogs before supper. It was raining and our little pup turned and darted back through the open door that Jay was standing in. I grabbed the pup and she yelped as I obviously pulled her stitches. In frustration, I snapped at Jay, "Close the door". I noticed Jay retreating into the kitchen and after bringing back in both of the dogs, I could see that he was visibly hurt. "I wasn't angry", I told him but his grandmother was now on the defense. "You could have fooled me" came her return. I called Jay over and gave him a hug and the tears started to fall. As I held him and apologised, my eyes teared up also. "I am sorry" were the only words that I could breath. "Papa, you scared me" came his words back. "I know and I am sorry". As quickly as it started, it was quickly over and we grabbed our food to go up to the room to catch any of the remaining basketball games before starting the movie. We watched the end of the high school game that had the team that had eaten at Jake's just the week before when it came to town to play Mt View. Jay commented how Mac court looks so much better on TV than in real life.
As we started the movie, the day began to hit me. I retreated, drew a bath, cracked a beer, and soaked off all of the sweat. I noticed the giggles coming from the TV room. With the movie half over, I dished up Jay and I some Ice cream and joined him for the rest of the funny show. We then said goodnight to Judy. Jay and I set up the bed for his dog next to his and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow only to awaken a few hours later from the effects of the sugar in the beer and ice cream. And then, like tonight, I spent a few hours typing in the blog working my way back to sleep.
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