October 18, 2006
Crackers
Up north with PJ, there is a certain restaurant that we frequent, particularly for breakfast. Which they serve all day long because breakfast is the yummiest meal of the day and comes with a side of bacon.
We went there so often, the staff started to recognize us... and then probably got sick of us. One evening, we went to a different restaurant for dinner because they have beer cheese soup, and then drove across the street for pumpkin pie at our Usual Restaurant.
Yes, we drove across the street. What? You can't just leave your car in the parking lot and go to another restaurant! That's totally rude!
Our waiter was probably our age but had a California surfer thing going on, which isn't really my type and is definately out-of-place in Wisconsin. But PJ thought he was cute, so we chatted him up. It was late, and we were almost the only people in there, so he had time.
I asked where he was from, but I didn't get the answer I expected:
"I'm from St. Paul, and so is my girlfriend. Her friend is from around here and used to have a restaurant around St. Paul. But then she closed it and moved back here and opened this place.
"She kept asking us to come down and work for just the fall because that's the time when the kids go back to school, but the businesses have one more busy month to get through before things drop off for the winter.
"So we came down in September. But we had, like, a million things to do on the day we were supposed to leave, so we didn't get on the road until 11:00 at night. By the time we got here, it was 5:00 in the morning, and my girlfriend was supposed to be at work at 6:00. I didn't have to be in until 7:00, so at least I got an hour of sleep.
"But I got here, and I'm totally exhausted, and I haven't eaten, and I can't focus. And we work a fifteen-hour day! So I go to our friend, Dude, I haven't eaten or slept or anything. Can I just grab something to eat real quick?
"And she's like, We eat after the lunch rush. Grab some crackers. You know, I really like her as a friend, but I don't think I like working for her."
When I finally stopped laughing and could speak, I said, "So how long have you been here?"
"Four years and one month."
When I looked around to see who we were bothering with our cackling, I noticed we had long cleared out the place. D'oh!