Like the first dewfall

This past Saturday night I made more money waitressing than I have ever made before. Gotta love family reunions with families in the restaurant business who appreciate good service.

The heat is incredible. It was 70 degrees at 3:30 am this morning...it is now 96 and climbing. That is just ridiculous for Door County. It makes it a little unbearable to work out outside. Nevertheless an early morning run mixed with errands and a trip to the local coffee shop is a pretty fantastic start to the day. Unless of course, your errands include visiting the local grocery store, also known as Purgatory...Limbo, with the checkout ladies acting as gatekeepers standing between the heavenly outdoors and the chilly aisles of the Piggly Wiggly. Today, I may have discovered the secret to staying sane while standing in lines stretching to the back of the store along with tourists stocking up for their vacation: my mp3 player. Standing behind a particularly obnoxious father-son duo for 20 minutes was made positively bearable by jamming out to good music with the two little girls buying Bubble Yum behind me. Or people thinking I was crazy for my toe-tapping and head bobbing just made me smile.

I'm pickin' up good vibrations

Well, having Katy, Drews, Grace, CB, and Kaylee up was tons of fun...hanging out at the beach, BBQ, bowling (for $2.50!) and an introduction to the DC social scene made for a great weekend, followed by a little visit with Heidi now that she's back from Germany and then headed to Ohio for my Grandma's birthday. It was probably one of the most fun family visits I have ever had, filled with lots of laughter, hugs and lunch with 35 women. To keep the "I have an awesome life" ball rolling, work and weather has been great, I even had a table that insisted I drink wine while I took care of them...and my manager insisted also, quite a surprise. Last night a local bar had a pajama party, which was a little weird...they put on techno music. Kind of odd for a bit of a dive bar. Then I ended the night back at the restaurant where some coworkers were doing a little acoustic jam session, and now it's good times relaxing with the folks until work tonight...

Summer came like cinnamon, so sweet

I think it's pretty interesting that I have gone out on more dates in Door County than I have in all the time in Madison. Weird, I've become Katie, hahaa.

I am currently reading two books: The Glass Castle and The Omnivore's Dilemma. They're both pretty depressing so far actually, most likely because they are non-fiction, but really interesting. My 5th and 6th books of the summer...with only a month and a half left I should probably get cracking on the rest of the books the condo has to offer.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying the little things as much as I am.

Beyond the door, there's peace I'm sure

Working in a restaurant, it is hard to think that karma does not exist. Yes, Friday was a crap night, a crap night topping off a slow summer filled with some wackos. I came home frustrated and wondering why I even try to be a good waitress. Then Saturday appeared on the horizon and it's been peaches and cream, great customers and great tips the past three nights, which makes me sound greedy, but it's really more about recognition for hard work. I actually take pride in doing a good job, even if it is just waiting tables. Two days off after 5 straight doubles is a welcome thought, but even more that I have visitors coming this weekend. Fantastic.

Unfortunately, things like this can happen even in Door County. To say the community's reeling is an understatement.

Why the hell it means so much to me

Sometimes I cannot believe how people behave to people that they do not know, i.e. waitresses. I also find it hard to understand people who tip poorly. They obviously do not know anything about how we get paid, so here's some tips on tipping (these things may not be true of every restaurant, but they are for mine and most others):
Tipping is a must because the average waiter/waitress only gets an hourly wage of about $2.30.
18% tip of your total bill is standard "they did a good job"
20% or more is if they went above and beyond,
15% is if they did a decent job but they were definitely lacking in some areas
less than 15% is ONLY if they were bad and it was their fault. i.e. the food tasting bad is not their fault. Also if they looked very busy, seemed to be running around a lot, cut them some slack. If you didn't enjoy something and they tried to fix it, up their tip, not lower it.

Some people say that they should not tip on tax or alcohol, especially expensive bottles of wine. A few arguments against that: we have to tip out (give 3%) of our TOTAL sales, including tax, to bussers, bartenders and hosts, so that 15% tip is actually a 12% tip to your waitress. We also get taxed on total sales. Taxed on tax...ridiculous. But either way, we're generally taxed on 10% of our total sales. In some cases, if you get the jerks that don't tip on alcohol or tax and maybe give a bad tip to boot, your waitress ends up paying to serve you.
So there's my rant, if you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to go out to eat (if you can't afford labor costs at a mechanic, you don't get your car fixed). But I am still wondering if people realize they tip waiters better than waitresses.

Kill the headlights and put it in neutral

There are three different type of young people (people under the age of 30) in Door County: Locals--people who live here year round-- Summerers --people who live here during the summers or come up often and have done so for awhile-- and Tourists --you know who you are, or you should. Yes, I do feel like I'm describing high school cliques. There's sometimes a slight tension between summerers and locals, especially at the beginning of summer when we invade the place. But there's more tension between summerers/locals and tourists, but mostly when the tourists are obnoxious and wasted and can be offensive. The holiday weekend is often a clashing of these groups and yesterday was no different. My 4th of July was really relaxing, no boating because it was too choppy, but out at the bars last night people were crazy. Various nutso things happened but by the end of the night it was tourists that had me raging. There was a group of these guys who were just wasted and obvious tourists, and this one guy comes up to my friend Ashley says hi and then kisses her head. Odd... so I ask, "uh, did you just kiss the top of her head??" apparently that was drunk code for an invitation for him to lean over and kiss the top of my head and feel the freedom to run his hands through my hair for awhile. So, stepping over the line and way into my personal space I think, but I was a bit too shocked and totally sober to slap him. But of course, one of my drunken guy friends starts calling my name from across the bar, so Obtrusive Guy's friends start doing the same. Classic. Yadda yadda yadda, Ashley and I are finally leaving and Space Invader and company are outside, they see us heading to my car and begin yelling in slurred tones "Jenna! Jenna! can you give us a ride? You dropped a $20! Turn around and pick it up! Turn around you b!$@h!"

Let's just say I restrained myself from creating some roadkill near the local bar.

And you’ll take the sky

Happy 4th of July everyone! As I sit typing this, my family's packing up the car, getting ready to leave after we eat the ceviche that Jorge made for us. Hopefully, I will spend the rest of the day on a boat with some close family friends, watching 8 different fireworks shows when night falls (out on the lake you can see strings of them along both the Wisconsin and upper Michigan coasts) and celebrating with friends and strangers alike in the bars. It's a beautiful day and after working almost 14 hours straight yesterday, it's a fantastic day to have off. I am missing everyone like crazy though, hope your day is as good as mine.

And everything around her is a silver pool of light

A hangover and working in the kitchen do not mix...

The season really begins this week. Tourists fill the streets, clogging traffic to take pictures of goats on the roof of a restaurant, not knowing where they're going, not realizing the speed limit is 30, not 10 mph--no matter how much I scream it in my car or shake my fist at them--the beaches are smothered by blankets and harbors filled with boats. Waits at restaurants appear and bars become packed with clouds of smoke and bodies. But now is when you make money, when you don't sit in the break room waiting an hour for your first table, you don't walk out with a measly $60 (measly compared to walking out with $200...). The tourists are up which leaves me with mixed feelings. Luckily, Lauren, Jorge, and my parents rode the tide of tourism and arrived yesterday. Rain is threatening but tomorrow should be beautiful for my day off.