Giving Care

Tired, tired, tired. So very tired.
I stayed up too late last night and we worked HARD at the Opera House tonight, getting those plates out, picking up dishes, refilling water glasses, washing and drying dishes, setting everything to rights.
The woman who ends up the night to finish all the clean-up when the rest of the catering crew is done is a most beautiful woman named Georgia with a gold-toothed smile and she is smart and she is so hardworking and she calls me "baby." I have started calling her "sweetheart."
It's funny- I was a waitress long, long, LONG ago. We were still called waiters and waitresses, not servers. And I have forgotten all my skills although they seem to be starting to come back to me but when one woman held her water glass up and said, "You can put more ice in mine," I wanted to say, "Oh. Because you're...special?"
See. I'm pretty sure that physically I couldn't handle being a full-time server anymore but I am certain that mentally I could not handle it.
Oh May honey, HOW DO YOU DO IT? And Jessie? You too? You have to be so fucking sweet. And these people who come to the Opera House know that we're not professionals. We're just pretend actors pretending to be servers. They're NICE. They're just happy to get their chicken and wild rice and vegetables and most of them say "Thank-you," every time you do something for them.
But that one woman. "You can put more ice in mine." Not, "Could I have more ice, please?" One woman who was slightly rude and I'm laughing at her. Not mad, just laughing at her.

Well. If my grits and grease and rent depended on it, I suppose I could do it. Because honestly, I do enjoy making people happy. I do enjoy seeing people enjoy themselves. But I just have this weird idea that we should all be compassionate towards each other if at all possible.

But really- I'm happier in the kitchen with people like Georgia, especially when we're all a team, plating food and getting those glasses dry and the racks ready for more as quickly as possible. I like lifting the heavy stuff and I like the way the work goes easily when everything is organized and everyone works together. I like the laughing and the chatter and the jokes.

Well. That's my little thought for tonight before I go to bed. I think I realized something tonight which is that for me, it's not so much WHAT I'm doing as long as I feel that I am doing it well. That I am pulling my weight. And when I'm part of a team of people whom I really do like, it's just a joy.

Before I left tonight, I found out that Georgia is also a professional caregiver. She takes care of people who need help. I told her, "If I needed care, I would want you to give it." She smiled that beautiful smile and hugged me.

Oh. It was good.

I smiled all the way home.