Sunday, February 14, 2021

Heart Day


I slept until ten o'clock this morning which is unheard of but I did and I don't feel guilty. I was dreaming that I was waiting tables in a restaurant with three stories, stairways everywhere. The owner/chef was so very nice and she gave me cocaine, even though I did not want it. Just a little bit. She also fed me before service started which was when the real problems began.
I had no idea of where anything was or how anything worked. May was working there and other sweet people but everyone seemed to assume that I could figure everything out on my own. I couldn't! May had to show me where to get ice water. I had a table of five older ladies who finally lost patience with me when I took forever to get back to the table with their receipts and change. I had no idea how to run a credit card! I promised a table of people who were obviously sick and tired of reading their menus that I would be back to check on them in a minute. 
Check on them? They didn't even have their beverages!

Thank goodness I don't have to support myself by being a server. I've done it before and it's one of the hardest jobs on earth. A good, professional server is a skilled worker and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Throw in the miles you have to walk in a shift, the heavy trays, the way people treat you, the fact that you get blamed for everything the kitchen doesn't get right, and it's a wonder that anyone does it. And if you don't have a mind and memory like a steel trap you are fucked. 
Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE should have to wait tables at some point in their lives. I think about all of the servers working today for Valentine's and I feel as if I should go light a candle for them. First of all, the people they're waiting on are, by definition, quite possibly assholes because...covid.
Secondly, everyone wants and feels they deserve a romantic and magical experience on Valentine's and if they don't get it, guess who they're going to blame?

This is really not what I came here to talk about today. 

I have no idea what I came here to talk about today.

So yes, it's Valentine's Day. A day that we somehow always seem to spend with Lon and Lis which is always wonderful. We share Sweetheart's Day so happily with them. So many sweet memories. Lis and I talked on the phone this morning and giggled at some of them. It's so hard to believe that it's been a year since we've seen those beloved people. That was our last outing before the pandemic. 

Sigh.

Today was different, of course. 
It's been raining and chilly and still eternally grey. I found a little heart with a hand-written note on it beside my coffee cup when I did finally get up. Mr. Moon told me that he'd been checking on me to see if I was still breathing. I made us a fine breakfast and then spent hours on the crossword and he took out the old exhaust fan above the stove because believe it or not, my new stove may possibly get installed this coming week. When I could take my kitchen back, I made him a chocolate cake in heart-shaped pans. I don't really bake sweets very much anymore but I wanted to do that, at least, for my love. He said he wanted "fluffy" chocolate icing on it and I did my best. He sliced the layers in half so that there are four layers and I made enough of the hopefully fluffy-enough frosting to make me laugh as I piled it on the cake. As always, my cake looks like a child made it. I first started making cakes when I was a child and I really haven't progressed much.

"If you want presentation," I told my man, "Hire Lis Williamson."
And it's true. 


I'm rather amazed that the layers haven't all slid apart. 

Funny how when you've been married as long as we have, you can still do things that let your love know you love them. You just do things like take out range hoods instead of buying jewelry. Probably if you'd told me that even ten years ago I might have rolled my eyes so hard they threatened to fall out of my head but now it makes perfect sense. 
There are all sorts of lovers' gifts and we have given some nice ones to each other today. The beginning of stove replacement, a very chocolatey cake, and other things. 

I do not need more jewelry but I can never get too much love. 

Sweetness to all of you. 

Love...Ms. Moon

32 comments:

  1. Sounds like a perfect Valentine's Day and, lucky you, someone to share it with!
    Hugs from S. Colorado where it is icy cold and has been all day long! Gonna be below 0 tonight!

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    1. I am so very lucky. I have the sweetest sweetheart.
      Below 0 is not a temperature in my opinion. Well, not one that humans should have to endure. Good luck!

      Delete
  2. I was a server in my college days and it has given me a lifelong respect for difficult work. I always tip too much according to my family.

    I made a nice dinner(NYT Chicken Provencal) and brownies for dessert for our Valentine's Day. We saw far away family on the computer which was nice. Better days are coming.

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    1. Your dinner sounds perfect!
      And how can you tip too much? I just don't see that as possible. I know for a fact that people who have worked serving tables tip more than people who haven't who have no clue.

      Delete
  3. I am so glad that I hung up my apron long ago, I waited too many tables in too many places and i still suffer nightmares. Its a bugger of a job!
    MMMmmm cake! That looks so yummy I am dying!
    I would go to the store right now but am frozen in place, so I guess a crumpet with butter and brown sugar will have to suffice. No celebration here. Just another day.

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    1. It is indeed a bugger of a job and those who do it well are grace-filled.
      The cake was good. My grandfather used to eat toast with butter and brown sugar on it!

      Delete
  4. I waited tables all through college. Hardest, hardest work I ever did, though I did learn how to carry full glasses and cups and not spill a drop. Happy Valentine's Day to the two of you.

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    1. Everyone should have to know what a difficult job it is and the only way to truly know is to do it.
      I hope you had a sweet day, dear Joanne.

      Delete
  5. If I'm going to have a stress dream, the server getting behind will do it every time. Horrible feeling. -Kate, who made chocolate cake for her sweetheart today, too

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    1. The "in the weeds" dream. That one's a stressor for sure.
      Yay for chocolate cake!

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  6. I'd take removing a range hood over red roses any day! Love in action.

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  7. A sweet night to you both, and I hope you will enjoy that new stove.

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    1. It's still like a dream- the idea of that stove. I can't wait!

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  8. Boud took the words right out of my mouth!

    I took the dogs for a snowy romp so Mike could have some uninterrupted time for a project. A good time was had by all. And chocolate-orange zucchini bread may have occurred.

    May the stove soon be in place and operating smoothly!

    Chris from Boise

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    1. Aw- that sounds like such a sweet thing to do. Taking the dogs out in the snow. I'm sure THEY enjoyed it.
      Chocolate-orange zucchini bread! Whoa!
      Your lips to god's ears on the stove.

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  9. I think your cake looks lovely - and I'm sure Mr. Moon loved it too!

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  10. i worked in the kitchen of a nursing home which is like being a dishwasher, a prep-cook and a server all in one-

    we had a quiet day in quarantine. i did work stuff and tony messed around on the computer- we did cook breakfast and dinner together <3

    xxalainaxx

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    1. I'm sure that job was about as hard a job as I could imagine. And I bet you did it well!
      Cooking together is sweet. My husband always asks if I need help in the kitchen and I just laugh. But if I wanted him to, he would try!

      Delete
  11. Much love and sweetness to you and Mr. Moon.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  12. In France, being a server is a profession. Paid like one, too. Not like in this country where servers are not well-treated and dependent on tips to make up their wage, therefore never knowing what their income will be from day to day, week to week...and in the year of a pandemic, far too many out of work. A sad situation.

    Happy you two had a good day together yesterday.

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    1. Yes! When I was in France I noticed that. Those servers didn't take shit from anyone! I remember one telling a friend of mine to eat his vegetables and he didn't take that plate away until he had!

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  13. That cake looks yummy. I forgot that yesterday was Valentines day. Happy Valentines day:)

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  14. The important thing about the cake, of course, is how does it taste? And I'm sure it tastes fantastic. I think it's got a sort of wabi-sabi charm.

    I've never waited tables but I worked at McDonald's for a year, which was pretty close and it taught me a LOT.

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    1. Everything I do is wabi-sabi, Steve! I swear. But yes- it tastes wonderful. It's a good recipe.
      I worked at McDonald's too! And yes, I learned a lot. Mostly about what assholes people are.

      Delete
  15. valentine's, another holiday we ignore. we're here for each other every day. doesn't get better than that. and yeah, we do that too, check to make sure the other is breathing if they sleep later than usual.

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    1. And if checking our spouses to make sure they're breathing isn't love, I don't know what is!

      Delete
  16. Waiting at tables is something I never did. I reckon I'd have made a total mess of it. I never can figure out how anyone manages to run a restaurant, and I always imagine it's going to be a very complicated system that I'd be bound to get wrong. But then I was always one of those kids standing around at school wondering where on earth I was meant to be. :)

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  17. You’re absolutely correct that everyone should have a job waiting tables. My first job was doing that at a truck stop on an Interstate, midnight to 8 am. Most professional drivers were great, a few were predators. But the traveling public REALLY is not at their best in the middle of the night. Hard job!!

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.