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dragonlady7OK, so the little restaurant down the street is apparently in the midst of restructuring its staff because the owner has realized how much the free drinks people give away are cutting into his profits.
He also gave me a fascinating little rundown of the traditional Buffalo Friday Fish Fry. I regretted that they weren't available other nights in the week, because often we'd come into town too late Friday night to get one, and have to leave Sunday afternoon-- so no chance for fish.
Well, he explained, there are a few places you can get 'em all week long, but they're no good. Why? See, no matter whether you use fresh or frozen, it's gotta be used the same day you get it. It's just gotta. And the oil-- I spend most of my money on oil, no joke. You use it for Friday, you use it just for fish, and then you throw it out. It's a one-use thing. You gotta have it set up just right just for that day.
And on a good night, he went on, we can get 250 people through this tiny dining room.
I looked over. I've been in there. There are maybe 15 4-person tables-- maybe. Probably not even.
We've done as much as 270 seats in a night, he said, looking pleased. If everybody's on their game and we're moving fast. Usually it's 180-220 people we serve on a Friday night.
Wow, I said.
In the end he explained he was interested in someone for just part-time stuff, he wasn't sure which days-- might be one to two days a week, might be three days-- and he wouldn't really know until after Thanksgiving. (I'm not gonna say you, you, you you're all gone, the rest of you, here are a bunch of new people, and I'll see you next week don't burn the place down! he said, and laughed rather maniacally.)
So, he's nuts, but nice, and also definitely interested and will be calling me.
Dave's mostly psyched because he wants me to bring my Nalgene bottle over there and fill it with Guinness so he can bake steak-and-guinness pie. "It's not the same with the stuff from the can!" he said.
So, I probably have a decent filling-in-the-corners second job lined up. And I don't mind if it's crap because it costs me NOTHING to get there, not time, not gas, not nothin. If there's four feet of snow and Buffalo's plows can't run, well-- Kenmore Ave will be open (it was in the Blizzard of '77), and as long as I can get the 20 feet down to it, I can cross it and get over the snowbanks on the other side, and I'm at work. It's closer than my classes were in Rochester. It's closer than the walk from the parking lot will be if I get the job at the airport.
So, I'm thinking, I am going to hold off on looking for a car until I decide that for sure I need one. If I get the job at the airport and the job at the neighborhood bar, I'll work both for a month. At the end of that month, I'll decide whether it's worth investing in a vehicle. I've gone this long without one, and they're just so expensive and wasteful that if I can go longer without, I will. I miss my freedom, but I'm willing to save the hundred-plus-odd-bucks-a-month that works out to and need less income and wind up with more free time.
It's perfectly possible I could work three nights a week at the local bar and earn enough to finance a re-attempting of going into freelance writing again. I have one almost complete novel which I hope to complete this week, and I have no less than four other projects on the back burner that could be marketable.
But first, we'll try working two jobs and see how that goes.
I kinda like sorta having an almost-plan. We'll see, we'll see.
He also gave me a fascinating little rundown of the traditional Buffalo Friday Fish Fry. I regretted that they weren't available other nights in the week, because often we'd come into town too late Friday night to get one, and have to leave Sunday afternoon-- so no chance for fish.
Well, he explained, there are a few places you can get 'em all week long, but they're no good. Why? See, no matter whether you use fresh or frozen, it's gotta be used the same day you get it. It's just gotta. And the oil-- I spend most of my money on oil, no joke. You use it for Friday, you use it just for fish, and then you throw it out. It's a one-use thing. You gotta have it set up just right just for that day.
And on a good night, he went on, we can get 250 people through this tiny dining room.
I looked over. I've been in there. There are maybe 15 4-person tables-- maybe. Probably not even.
We've done as much as 270 seats in a night, he said, looking pleased. If everybody's on their game and we're moving fast. Usually it's 180-220 people we serve on a Friday night.
Wow, I said.
In the end he explained he was interested in someone for just part-time stuff, he wasn't sure which days-- might be one to two days a week, might be three days-- and he wouldn't really know until after Thanksgiving. (I'm not gonna say you, you, you you're all gone, the rest of you, here are a bunch of new people, and I'll see you next week don't burn the place down! he said, and laughed rather maniacally.)
So, he's nuts, but nice, and also definitely interested and will be calling me.
Dave's mostly psyched because he wants me to bring my Nalgene bottle over there and fill it with Guinness so he can bake steak-and-guinness pie. "It's not the same with the stuff from the can!" he said.
So, I probably have a decent filling-in-the-corners second job lined up. And I don't mind if it's crap because it costs me NOTHING to get there, not time, not gas, not nothin. If there's four feet of snow and Buffalo's plows can't run, well-- Kenmore Ave will be open (it was in the Blizzard of '77), and as long as I can get the 20 feet down to it, I can cross it and get over the snowbanks on the other side, and I'm at work. It's closer than my classes were in Rochester. It's closer than the walk from the parking lot will be if I get the job at the airport.
So, I'm thinking, I am going to hold off on looking for a car until I decide that for sure I need one. If I get the job at the airport and the job at the neighborhood bar, I'll work both for a month. At the end of that month, I'll decide whether it's worth investing in a vehicle. I've gone this long without one, and they're just so expensive and wasteful that if I can go longer without, I will. I miss my freedom, but I'm willing to save the hundred-plus-odd-bucks-a-month that works out to and need less income and wind up with more free time.
It's perfectly possible I could work three nights a week at the local bar and earn enough to finance a re-attempting of going into freelance writing again. I have one almost complete novel which I hope to complete this week, and I have no less than four other projects on the back burner that could be marketable.
But first, we'll try working two jobs and see how that goes.
I kinda like sorta having an almost-plan. We'll see, we'll see.
