A Day in the Life
I wake up every morning around 7:30. Because I’m a creature of habit its always the same. I snooze my phone twenty times, look out the window west toward the ocean to check the weather and then promise myself that five more minutes will make it all better. I shower immediately. While I’m in the shower Dr. B makes me coffee and sometimes not. You see when I first moved here I was unemployed for a few weeks. I got up with him, made him coffee and started my job search. Now Dr. B is unemployed and he tries to do the same for me.
But most of the time I let him lie there and snore loudly. Only right before I leave. I wake him to say good-bye and encourage him to make a trip to the gym.
I walked the mile to work everyday. But, I know its important to vary my route. Sometimes I take the easy way and walk straight down Stockton to Pier 39, turn left and walk past all the vendors opening their shops for the day. The street is sometimes wet; either from the street cleaner or the retreating fog. Its hard to tell because most mornings in San Francisco the fog has retreated before I leave the apartment. I walk down the docks, staring out at the Bay or stare straight ahead while listening to my MP3 player. Every day I wave at the same clerks, fisherman, drug dealers, transients and every so often I stop for a cup of coffee at the sour dough bakery. Coffee shops are generally lost on me; since I generally drink my coffee black. But a latte is a treat unto itself when done correctly.
I arrive at the restaurant at the same time six days a week. I look behind me to make sure there isn’t a transient or any other unsavory character hanging around and let myself in to the restaurant. I go into the restaurant alone, this is an important skill that a woman must have. I’m not paranoid but I am very careful. The restaurant is dark and just like everything else entering the restaurant is a habit. Turn on lights, make a pot of coffee. Walk through the restaurant to make sure it was properly cleaned and that everything is still in its place. This also an important ritual because if you get to comfortable you will fail to notice one day that someone has thrown a chair through a plate glass window into the water. If you’re wondering, yes this did happen and yes it took an hour for the Manager on Duty to notice. I turn the satellite music on to the classic Italian radio station, turn on the lights to the restrooms and the chandelier and finally walk to my office. Its only at this point that my day will change, that habit and ritual are no longer comforting and at this time of the day, the restaurant will now take me through my paces until 6:00 pm or later.
Recently a group of transients have taken up residence in the garbage area. Recently the transients in San Francisco has grown exponentially and they have become very aggressive in an effort to get and keep their fair share of hand-outs. I am sometimes conflicted about removing them from the trash area due to my own background as a homeless kid I still have to remove them. Unfortunately that gang of four are afflicted with drug and alcohol and psychological problems. By the time they find their way to our garbage area each night they are high and drunk and incoherent. I can’t afford to have the restaurant burn down and I can’t afford to be without a job to go to everyday. They always swear at me and yell the foulest language possible. Some days I wish I could tell them that I once was in their shoes but whenever they begin passing around the 40 ounce beer they have from the previous night I know that anything I say is worthless.
The delivery guys have been trying to sneak in before my kitchen staff arrive every day. I’m not the chef so I have no idea when they point at fresh tuna that its not snapper or swordfish. I’ve asked them to come in after 10 am but they only care about finishing their route not my ineptness about identifying fish fillet. Only then does my day officially begin, an hour with my beer vendor, a wine vendor, a download from the Manager on Duty about the previous days events. Towels to the kitchen, liquor to the bar, money to the cash register. Somewhere in that day I have to check the inventory, finish the schedule, forecast our weekend events, create advertisements and try and determine who I need for the summer season which has still failed to start.
To be continued……
