Humanity

I first heard the news yesterday from William, my co-worker who used to live in Orlando and knew some of the bartenders and regulars at the nightclub where it all happened. He said he'd heard from several of his friends, but not all. Thankfully, he wasn't still there.


I got to thinking this morning about when homosexuality hit home, and when it did, I was a fundamentalist Christian. Just four years ago, I would have been saddened by all this, but very afraid that all those poor people were going to Hell, The shooter too, of course, for following a false God.


I don't follow any religion anymore, although I do find bits and pieces of things useful. I do like the idea of Oneness. We are all one humanity and what hurt one hurts us all and what helps one helps us all...in some sense.



It's just so sad that we are capable of such horrible deeds.

Man

Leaving religion surely changed the way I looked at my fellow man. As time goes on, I find it to be shaping more of the way I look at everything.





 

My Boys

It makes me smile.


(The radio is set at Q95, our local classic rock station.)

2. . .

A photo posted by 11aliceg95 (@11aliceg95) on May 26, 2016 at 4:48am PDT

Don't Panic

The last couple of years were supposed to be great. After deciding homeschooling was a thing of the past and wanting to normalize the kids and myself after years of religiousness, this was all supposed to be a new start for all of us.


Except that it sucked.




Not all of it,  I learned some things about myself, my kids, education, life, and what is becoming a new philosophy for me.



Not to get too wordy, but last year this was how it went:

9th grader - INCA- online public school -all at home, but still public, with teachers, curriculum, credits, the whole thing.
8th grader- same as above
4th grader- Local district brick and mortar elementary school
3rd grader-A hybrid K-12 online/brick and mortar. He did two days at "school" and three days here.
1st grader-Local district brick and mortar elementary school
Kinder-gardener -Local district brick and mortar elementary school

The local district school did not work out and I decided to send them all to the hybrid this year (except for the high-schoolers who were to stay in their own online deal).




It wasn't until about six weeks in this school year that I saw how horrendously large the workload was for the hybrid kids and for the others as well. I ran around putting out fires all day long from computer to computer and from room to room. I cried almost every day and lost my cool much more than I would like to admit.  On top of working almost full time now, I struggled to keep my sanity on a daily basis. I would not be exaggerating to say life was sliding into the living hell category.



One morning about six months ago I woke up and as I lay there, the tasks and obligations of the day flooding my brain, the checklists, the "assessments" (we called them quizzes back in the day -amiright?), supper, taekwondo, work, the house that was always a disaster now...I felt like I was drowning. Then from somewhere inside my mind, the thought came to me.


...don't panic...


It was like a peace swept over me. I began to wonder, what if this or that didn't get done?Would the world end if we decided to skip a few things? What if we took our lives back again from this public school monster that was unfamiliar and as I see it now unnecessary? So I decided then that next year we are back to homeschooling.



We are finishing out the year at the hybrid, but my two online high-schoolers have withdrawn and are back with me. This has shown me that my choice to homeschool in the beginning was not all about God, but was something I truly had a "calling" (pardon the term) for.



We have one week left and I'm so looking forward to the summer!!



So that's my new mantra.

Mother's Day

My third Mother's Day at the Restaurant went as well as could be expected with us being short-staffed. I was in one of the best sections, thankfully, with Erica, one of my favorite people to work with, so we did the best we could sharing what should have been a section for three servers. After a slow start with 5, 7, and 10% tips (oh, the holiday crowd) things started leveling out at supper time.

The wait in the lobby was all day and from my vantage point in the center of the building it just kept building. People really do take this stuff pretty seriously. Honestly, the mystique of casual fine dining has worn off for me an I can't imagine waiting to eat for 3 hours anywhere, but thankfully for us, they do.


It occurs to me that much most of the day is spent in dealing with customer complaints for our brave mangers. I definitely would not want their job. My food is cold, not done enough, too done, this table is too small, we've been waiting forever, this doesn't look like the picture in the menu, the server didn't tell me that would cost extra, why did they get their food first, we've been waiting forever...

That is most of the day, honestly, or maybe it just seems that way. There are some good ones though.


As I was running food to another server's section at about 3ish in the afternoon, I hear someone call out , "Alice!"

I look over and see it's the Christians. They are with a group I've not seen them with before and we shared pleasantries. It really is always nice to see them.

It's finally nearing closing time and the guests just keep pouring in. My partner and I are alternating tables, but when it is her turn, I see that she is completely overwhelmed and I offer to take it. It was two ladies, clearly a mother and daughter. They were very polite and understanding that service was going to be a bit slow. I did recognize the mom, having waited on her before, but not remembering the details. Mom orders a glass of house Cabernet and daughter a Coke. They order food and mention wanting to place a to-go order before they leave. I juggle them along with the other 3 tables I have at the time and am just grateful that the last round here is not super demanding. As I drop the check, Mom tells me that she has had me as a server before and that I just always do such a great job. These kind of moments are rare. Very few people speak up when they are satisfied. As they are leaving I see them looking around in the lobby for something and I ask if I can help. Mom asks to speak to a manager and I go get the big boss.


Moments later my daughter comes back having overheard the conversation and tells me that this woman just wanted to compliment me to the manager. This makes my (12 hour) day:)  They left a very nice 25% tip, too.

Be nice to your food service workers, if you haven't been in the industry, you just have no idea.


Happy belated Mother's Day!!

Last table of the night. Great tip and they asked to speak to the manager to compliment me. That's the way to end a 12 hour shift. :)

A photo posted by 11aliceg95 (@11aliceg95) on May 9, 2016 at 6:08am PDT