On the Brink of Exhaustion...

What a week.

Since I last wrote I have been working double shifts almost every single day at this shitty restaurant.  Some days/nights were better than others.  Some were bearable, some were unbearably frustrating (like the night I was yelled at for not knowing a specialty beer we serve, then finding out the bloody beer isn't even on the menu - how am I supposed to know stuff we sell which isn't even on the menu?)  Ultimately I have ended up with an awful cold, which is only now subsiding, but which did leave me quite ill for a number of days.  No mystery as to where I got the cold, literally everyone at work has had it and been kindly passing it around to each other - another of the advantages of having a job without healthcare or sick days, when one gets sick, everyone gets sick because no-one is going to get fired because they didn't want to come in and serve food to people with snot flying out their nose.

In perfect timing Christmas rolled up just as my snot collection was reaching its peak, so I spent most of Christmas day in bed, sleeping in between sneezing and moaning.  Sadly much of the day remains a blur in my mind but I do remember having a lovely breakfast after opening presents, which was of course lots of fun.  We had lunch/dinner with Aunt Mary at the house, and then lazed the rest of the day away.  My Aussie Christmas took place the night before, Christmas Aussie time, and it was fun opening the presents from Australia with everyone there listening on the phone.

Of course it all couldn't last and this morning I was back at the restaurant, praying that no-one would be mad enough to want to eat out on Boxing Day (of course over here it isn't Boxing Day, it's Shopping Day).  Needless to say every man and his dog, his wife, his kids, his cousins and his mum's cousins' in-laws decided to eat out today and we were slammed over lunch.  Profitable, yes, worth the stress, maybe not.  One thing is for sure, this job certainly is not worth keeping with all the drama and kitchen bitchin' I have to listen to.  I will not be looking over my shoulder when I am done here.

So after a hard afternoon's work Jeremy, Adrienne and I went over to Marty and Linda's house for a Christmas party, which was very fun, as one would expect.  I was excited to Catie and Greg as we're going to be staying with them in San Francisco in a month, and I'm really excited to be going to SF.  After a few hours there, Jeremy and I met up with some of his friends from elementary and high school at a local bar.  In all, it was an evening surrounded by friends, old friends to Jeremy but more recent to me.  I find it enjoyable to watch these interactions between people who have known each other for a long time.  Friendships based on different foundations, but which have all weathered the years.  The ways people relate to someone who has known them for 10, 15, even 30 years.  The ways you don't need to relate to those people, because that communication remains understood yet unsaid.  Knowing who you could trust to help you bury a body you needed to dispose of.  All of these things are a measure of one's life.

Feliz Navidad.