"I Like Your Conversation...

...you've got catchy turn-of-phrase."

I've had a really, REALLY great couple of days. So, let us re-cap:

It all started last Saturday. (begin flashback fade away). I rolled into work, as the on-call, in a surprisingly good mood. Even despite being called in. Work was the most enjoyable experience I had had in some time. The customers weren't insufferable pricks. J.T. (initials), General Manager, (such as it is) wasn't "managing" which allowed the floor to run ever so smoothly. Add to that the fact that on Monday, I am setting off for Florida to drive my best friend back to Texas, now that his Navy service is complete. Everything was great.

J.T. is a moron. This drama does not unfold without that character flaw. The above mentioned trip to Florida had been planned some three weeks previous. I had penned my intentions, in dry erase, on the restaurant calendar and had also submitted the day off via our secondary "post-it" system, where you go to the office, grab a post-it, put your availability on it for the upcoming week, and then use the adhesive top 1/5 of the back of the post-it to adhere it to the current weeks schedule, tacked up by our computer terminal in the kitchen. It is the very model of a modern major general efficiency in scheduling scheme.

We, as a staff, like to take our one shift drink, (down from the Open-Bar After Shift Drink Hours), out on the back patio of this establishment and spark up. It was here that J.T., ever so flamboyantly, pranced onto said patio, announcing that he had the schedule ready. This putz, through whatever motivation he drew from, intentionally scheduled me on Tuesday, despite the fact it was the only day I had listed that I would be unavailable. Acting put out, because he "created" this schedule without having referenced our individual availabilities, he stormed off to write a new schedule. On it, I was left off for the week. His explanation was that "...I needed your help on Tuesday and you couldn't help me so I don't need you for the rest of the week."

I figured I would go to Florida. Maybe come back, look for a few jobs...you know, keep my options open and see how this plays out. I also put in a plea for mercy to Chef, hoping he might intervene and fix this. This is where J.T. went from inept (but still able to work with) to a bald-faced, self-protecting, fucking liar. And this is the second time he has done it to cover his own ass. Those that know me remember the "But Chef, Alan DEMANDED Christmas Eve off", incident. This time, he told Chef that he didn't realize what he had done on the schedule (nevermind that G.S. and B.W. were there for the entire episode) and that I stormed off before he could fix it. I guess he lost my mobile, as well. A fucking useless waste of space this guy is.

I know I sound angry, but just desserts came fast and furious on this one. When Chef called to tell me that J.T. had told him that lie, I decided that with J.T. in the restaurant, I would not work there. The other staff were trying to put a piecemeal schedule together for me. I thank them for this. But I was done. I put in two applications at decent restaurants in the Fort Worth Downtown. I had decided that when I picked up my tips from the previous week, I would go ahead and quit so they didn't try to put me on the next weeks schedule. No reason to make them shuffle needlessly to cover shifts, right? J.T., after two attempts by me to resign, decided to refuse the resignation and to fire me. And this is the just desserts.

I am now, thanks to Chef and his restaurant and its poor choice of a G.M. in the state unemployment system, with Chef and the restaurant picking up most of the tab. Maybe this will convince chef to let J.T. go. Maybe not. I really don't care though.

Sounds like a shit day, right? Not so much. I had met a certain someone a few days earlier and....(to be continued)