Will Work For Food

My appointment at The Golden Ox was at 6:30pm and the boys had training at 7:00pm, so the plan was for one of them to drive me to my interview and then I would just right the bike back home once I was done. I figured the interview wouldn’t last more than thirty minutes or so, and I didn’t want to be waiting around for an hour ‘n a half for their practice to finish.

Well, TWO HOURS later I was still sitting at the same table in the restaurant talking to Nick (the owner). He asked me lots of questions regarding my resume, and even more questions about volleyball and my family. He even fed me dinner…a fifty-dollar meal! Seafood medley. It was delicious.

Right as I was finishing dinner, Ethan showed up at the restaurant. He came in talking about how it had already been over two hours and I still wasn’t home. He had been looking on the sidewalks as he drove down to The Golden Ox to see if I was on the way back home, in the dark, on the bike; he was worried about me! What a good guy :) Not even ten minutes before Ethan had walked in did Nick ask if the boys would be worried about me, and I had told him no…haha. Lucky for Ethan, Nick appreciated that he had come to check on me, so he got to join us for dessert! We both had “Decadent Chocolate” and man, was it tasty. We talked for another forty minutes or so and then said our goodbyes.

Longest.interview.ever. But worth it, I got the job!

The following day was spent getting my uniform ready for my first day working. Yesterday Nick had told me everything I would have to wear as part of my uniform:

• ·      Black slacks (not low cut, not tight on the legs, and with an ironed seam)
• ·      Black leather shoes (close-toed, with a wide 1-1.5 inch heel)
• ·      Navy three-quarter length button up (from a specific store)
• ·      Apron (embroidered with The Golden Ox logo)
• ·      Hair in a ponytail
• ·      Light, natural makeup
• ·      Lipstick (no lip gloss, but I get to choose the color)
• ·      Watch
• ·      Simple necklace
• ·      Earrings that match

I also had to cut off my bracelets, which I’ve had for over eight years! They look like ponytail holders, but they are actually small pieces of climbing rope that had to be burned on. It was actually a bit emotional cutting them off; I mean, I’ve had them on since my junior year of high school; each one represented a person in the family…the two intertwined: my parents, and the four individual ones: me and each of my three siblings. Sad day.

But I got everything bought, ironed, and was ready to go! I was to be in my uniform and at work at 7:30pm. Of course I show up early, and Nick was still in a meeting so he had me wait at a nearby table. I had told the boys that I’d just get a taxi home because I wasn’t sure how long I’d be there; I was thinking ‘til probably ten or so, and by that time the boys would most likely be sleeping.

Well, all Nick wanted to do that evening was make sure that everything I had bought for my uniform, and my overall appearance, was up to par for when I ACTUALLY started…the next day. Oops. It literally took me ten minutes and I was done, so he had me call the boys to come pick me up because Virginia couldn’t be bothered to call me a taxi. But while I waited, he had me eat dessert, again! This time it was Crème Caramel :)

Taylor picked me up from the restaurant and, well, the first thing that had happened was he said the hill he had parked on was too big for him to reverse the car without hitting the one in front of him (he was still new to driving a manual) so he had me sit in the driver's seat and he literally pushed the car backwards so that he could get out of the spot. The hill wasn't big at all, but to all new drivers of a standard...the smallest hill can seem HUGE! Trust me.

Once we got reversed and on our way Taylor told me that he was the only one who had listened to my voicemail to come pick me up, and he was messing with Ethan and told him that I had dropped a tray on my very first table and was fired on the spot. When he told Ethan that he was going to get me and bring me home, Ethan didn't believe him. I'm not going to lie, I had an award winning performance: Ethan was sitting on the couch, so I walked by with my head down, wiping my "fake" tears, even sniffled while passing, and then I walked straight to my room, shut the door, and didn't come out the rest of the night. Ethan thought I was crying myself to sleep...I was actually studying the menu. I was going to  only play along for five minutes, but I wouldn't have been able to read the menu out in the living room because they were watching How I Met Your Mother in the dark; so I thought, why not? I'll just keep this act up 'til tomorrow ;) I didn't get home from work until 10pm that next night, and when I asked Ethan if he really thought I had been fired he said, "Yeah, I felt freakin' bad about it. I didn't know what to do." Hahaha got heeeemmm!!!

XO - Cristin