Success!

What constitutes a "successful" day at work? I will tell you... since I had a totally, completely, absolutely successful day at work.

I arrived feeling, well merely so-so. I had had a relatively eventful day prior to my 4 o'clock clock-in time (and by eventful I mean I had attempted to clean a couch, gone to Disneyland, sat on Lindsey's car while waiting for the Disney courtesy car-openers to come and open her car, and rushed to make it to work on time... so not ALL that eventful I suppose). So I got to work feeling sort of tired and basically dreading the next 5 hours of my life. It wasn't until 4:30 that I sat my first table (or tried to anyway). It was a party of three women who were dissatisfied with the first two tables I tried to sit them at. They finally said, "Haven't you got a booth?" To which I said "I'm sorry, we only have two full booths in the restaurant and they're both occupied at the moment. I've got this half booth..." and the chicks in the full booth behind me said "Oh we're leaving!" and they got up, making me look really lame. So I turned to the three ladies and said, "I'll bus this booth right up for you!" in the cheeriest voice I could muster. I mean c'mon, first freakin table of the night!

So I juggled two phone calls, the arrival of two more parties, and bussing the coveted full both for the next few minutes before seating the frustrating party of three at that beautiful newly-bussed full booth. And they were happy. So I was happy. Then Lauren (the other host) arrived and time started to move faster. The customers started being friendlier and easier to please, AND I discovered that Juan (the salad/dessert man) respects me! (Apparently it is because he respects me that he always insists on giving me free dessert at the end of the night. I like the idea of being respected AND getting free dessert, don't you?).

Then my boss comes up to me and says that I can leave (mind you, it is only 8pm and I am scheduled until 9, so I was excited!), but he asked which of us had bussed a full booth for a party of three ladies earlier in the day. I got worried. I assumed one of them had complained about me for something or another because people ALWAYS seem to find something to pick at you about, even if you're as nice to them as you can possibly be. But no! They had called in to our corporate office to commend our restaurant on the excellent service, giving us a score of 5 (which I guess is the best?) and they specifically mentioned ME! So my boss was happy with me. So I was happy.

And then I went outside and ate my happy little salad and my happy little slice of key lime pie (thanks Juan!).

Successful night at work? I think so!