December 21st, 2018 {SB}

Well, all good things come to an end, as they say.

No, not like that. I’m still gainfully employed and nothing’s occured to make that be otherwise.

But as we come to the latter quarter of the month of April, all the vacancy in the schedule is reversing itself and soon the hours will diminish again to previous or fewer levels. That remains to be seen, I suppose.  Still, for the last weekend of lower staffing, a pair of service bar nights does help pad the wallet a bit.

So I arrive to work on time, but curiously, one of our original department supervisors (whom I’ll refer to as Helen), is hanging around and says that she’ll be holding the fort down for a while. Odd, but I like the woman, so I nod and head off to get my money and open the service bar up.  We’re still in pretty good shape from the night before, and the guests who normally try to get waited on before I’m even open are strangely absent. No worries. I enjoy the break from tradition, get all the details put together and then take down my ‘closed’ sign. Now people swarm.

Amusing. I realize that’s how it’s supposed to work, but it so rarely does.

Helen swings by a few times over the next while to check in, but she’s not worried about me.  I’ve got Mary as my primary cocktail for the night, whilest Haley’s down on the other end of the casino.  Guests are chatty and pleasant, and generous. I had an $11 tip in my first half hour.  Several $5 bills as well, which isn’t all that common, honestly.  Lots of singles and quarters is more the general rule.  No complaints, though.

It’s not hectic, but it’s steady enough that 8pm rolls by before I’ve even noticed it.  No hockey on the TV tonight, sadly (though of course there’s basketball), but the channel that normally shows the hockey was showing this odd little lumberjacking competition thing, which was weirdly fascinating. Not for me, though. I’d hack a kneecap off on the first swing.

While Mary was willing to spell me off, I almost entirely skipped breaks again, save for a few minutes for a bathroom visit.  Charon came visiting after a while (she’d been conscripted for sports bar managerial duties apparently), and we chatted briefly, before she ran off to go do her other duties.

Really not a lot to talk about, last night. Guests were pleasant and generous. The one cut-off we have didn’t even come down to the bar, and nothing particularly disagreeable occurred.

I ended up making more money than I did even on Friday, and Charon and I agreed that we’d chat schedule issues on Sunday night to make sure everyone’s on similar pages, etc.  Another early home, agreeable evening, and my ears weren’t deafened either. Call it a win.

Closing observations :

• Jerry the Older is due to return to duty next week.  I’ll get to run into him on Sunday evening. Should be interesting.
• The schedule definitely -looks- like it’s all primed to screw over the part-timers again.  Cross your fingers for some kind of interesting news from the Charon conversation.

Next up : Sunday night