Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004
Arek, posted at 9:47 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com My Saturday/Sunday stretch continues to sap my energy and my time. I should be happy that I now get Fridays off. But the fact that I'm working like crazy from 4:30pm on Saturday until 5pm on Sunday - with a break only to sleep - is starting to wear on me.I had a good day at the restaurant, though. First of all, a table actually wanted to have their picture taken with me because, "You want to remember really good waiters." They seriously said that. More importantly, I sold 16 bloody mary's, so I won a $30 bottle of wine of my choice. When I sold the 16th (the minimum number to win), I told the guy I sold it to that he had just helped me win a bottle of wine, and that I'd worked there for a year and a half and only won two contests before. He asked me what would happen if I sold a 17th, or an 18th, and I made a crack about how the cute polish girl working downstairs was up to eleven, so I would appreciate any insurance I could get. It was funny.
The cute polish girl, who, by the way, no longer is wearing her wedding ring and I'm quite sure she and her husband are through and I'm also pretty sure that she needs to have an epiphany about another certain guy in her life, decided to get me back for winning the contest by writing, "Thank you, from (Epiphany)" with hearts on it on the check to the table that clinched the victory for me. I could have strangled her, if it weren't for those pouty lips and big brown doe eyes.
Arek, a guy from Poland who has been here for the last five months, had his last day today. He's one of the guys who you can tell is just a decent, nice guy from the moment you meet him. It was really cool to work with him for the last few months. I have not had that much experience in my life with someone learning a new language, and his english was pretty raw much of the time. But he was so eager to learn - that's, in fact, why he worked at the restaurant (it certainly wasn't for the $20 in tips he made a day) - that it often led to some funny situations.
For example, Frank Sinatra's rendition of "Lady is a Tramp" is on our playlist at the restaurant. He asks what a tramp is. I tell him, well, the definition was probably different back then, since there was a Disney movie about The Lady and the Tramp and the song's lyrics don't depict a slutty girl, just one that's picky. So the word became an interesting lesson on the changing of meanings of certain words over time. Then, I tried to describe for him what a tramp meant nowadays, and he didn't know what "slut" meant, and he didn't know what "hoe" meant. I wrote those three words - "tramp," "slut," and "hoe" on a piece of paper, as well as the word "promiscuous." There was no one in the restaurant. I sort of left the paper out, and the next thing I knew, a customer was at the counter, reading my language lesson. She was good humored about it, and I told the whole story about "Lady is a Tramp," and she ended up laughing and later writing in the guestbook that she really enjoyed the "trampy waiters" at this place.
There's also the funny story about how I taught him two phrases for relieving one's self - "I broke the seal" and "I've got to go drop the kids off at the pool." I told him that everyone in America uses these phrases all the time, and he started using them every time he went to the bathroom until I told him to stop.
Anyhow, after work today, Arek, cute polish girl, and I went out to Thirsty Dog Pub (by the way, why don't I freaking plan the Happy Hour for there, since it is the best bar in Baltimore? More on that tomorrow, by the way. I'm thinking Oct. 28 is too soon and we might have to do a Oct/Nov one the first or second week of November) to celebrate Arek's last night in America. Polish girl and I split a palm salad and a pizza, and my favorite waitress, Erin, was there. She, of course, mentioned her fiance. But what a cute girl. And if I had Arek's accent, I might have been able to get her. Just kidding.
Arek told me to visit him in Poland. I just might someday. I would suppose my great grandfather and grandmother, who both died in World War I, are buried there, as well as probably a bunch of my grandpa's other relatives. Besides, Arek tells me that an Okocim is only 50 cents over there, which is much less than the $6.00 is costs at our restaurant.
I'm completely exhausted right now. I talked with my roommate a lot tonight about the new roommate coming in, about how he needs to be out by Nov. 1 because he gave me that date many times. I feel a little bad, although I shouldn't, because I think he's stuck in a rut now and that even if he's having second thoughts about leaving, the fact that he can't change his mind will help him get out of this rut and find something new. He bases far too much of his major decisions in life on how his dog will be affected. I know he's not happy, and I'm certainly ready for a change as well. I'm glad the new roommate has a cat, and I'm glad the new roommate materialized tonight so he can know that this is for real and even have a human face to put on it. It'll be better for both of us when he's out.
That being said, I did offer him the basement if worst comes to worst. Why? Because I'm an idiot. Because my best qualities are also my worst. Luckily, he won't take me up on it, though - he doesn't even allow his dog down there - but I can't imagine what it would be like if he did. I shouldn't even have said anything, but I felt like I needed something to say after the, "Sorry, you gave me the date many times, and you knew what was happening." I am too much of a wimp to say a statement like that without a shooter afterwards. I wish I wasn't.
Anyhow, I think come Nov. 1 things will be sanguine again.
I'm freezing right now, but I'm trying to go as long as possible without turning on the heat. The windows in this place are so old that I don't know if they do as good a job as screens would do. Luckily, being cold only affects me when I wake up. I guess I'm affected right now as well, but that's going to teach me to sit at the computer in my underwear at night. But that shirt I spilled coffee on twelve hours ago was smelling a little raw.