My OG Friends

Last night as I was driving home, I realized that I actually enjoy going to work on most days. I remembered thinking I would hate being a waiter when I first started. On my first day, I spilled water all over a dear old man and later had a table ask me what my problem was. “Oh, you just started. Well, good luck…I hope you last.” Well, I have, and I'm a better person for it.

It’s funny looking back at my nine months as a waiter here in Ohio. Sure, there have been moments of amazing frustration (“Excuse me, a few drops of the water you were pouring splashed onto my pasta…I want another one for free” or the time I said, “Ma’am, I talked to the cooks myself and they did put extra sauce on your pasta.” The response: “They’re lying.”), but all in all, it’s been a really good job. They let me take so many days (and sometimes weeks) off and in December I was even Hospi Hero of the Month.

Apparently when I started I was really quiet. Now, everyone reminds me of this. The thing is that while I never thought I would enjoy any of the people I worked with, it turns out that I rather enjoy almost all of them. As I was driving home, I thought of some specific people and what I’ll miss the most about them. I thought I’d share a few here with you now:

TABITHA, who always makes jokes about black people (she is one) and just always tells me, “You’re crazy.” I tease her about her boyfriend busser and the fact that one night she thought the grilled green and yellow squash on an entrée were lemons and limes. She is also the one who was talking about a sexy waiter who was fired. I told her, “Tabby, you get to work with me. Don’t you think I’m sexy?” Slight pause, then, “Yeah, you’re sexy in that intellectual kinda way.” Wow, what a compliment.

TRACY, who every once-in-a-while will smack me on the butt and remind me that she loves my lips. I coached her as she prepared for her first plane flight, we’ve talked about problems with her kids and ex-husband, and she even came up to me the other night and said, “Hey, there are pistachios hidden behind the computer if you want some. Don’t share with anyone else, but they’re there if you want them.”

BRITTANY, the spunky red-head who one day came up to me randomly and said, “Can we get drunk together sometime…I really wanna see you drunk.” (We didn’t.) I also remember the time we were sitting down counting our money and she told me she didn’t know much about God or Jesus. That was a good conversation.

SANDY, the manager who knows about good wine, has been to Italy, and takes an active part in asking and caring about my life. She is known for getting rather intense when the kitchen is backed up on a Friday night. She gets this hoarse yell going and all the veins in her neck start popping out. I just laugh. I think it’s special when someone else’s anger can turn into my joy. I really do love Sandy. I hope she sticks to her word and comes up to Chicago for the wedding.

JONATHAN, the very nice guy going to seminary to be a pastor. Bless his heart, he always wants to pick up extra tables, which is fine, but he is pretty well known for getting ahead of himself. He gets that dazed look in his eyes and then comes to you and says, “Hey, can you do me a favor?” I never had the heart to say no. I bet I did hundreds. One of my favorites: “Can you take two toscana soups to 80, 5 mints to 86, and a peach tea, a diet coke to table 83. Oh, and can you get the bottle of Chardonnay from the bar and open it for table 85?” Yes, that is a true scenario. Let it be known, Jonathan is also the one who came up to me one day and said, “Hey, make sure you give me your address when you move so I can send you a wedding gift.” I guess he’s paying me back for all those favors.

BECKY, the rather pessimistic salad-maker turned cook. She picked on me when I first started, always saying, “Have I ever told you that you’re a loser?” “Yes, Becky, you told me yesterday.” She’d always say just kidding, but at first I wasn’t too sure. But there were those good chats when she’d really be intrigued by the fact that Joy and I don’t sleep together or she’d start to cry some when I talked her through some things with her busser boyfriend. (Yes, if you are wondering, there are countless OG Hookups that happen all the time…)

JANE, the salad-maker I just love. She’s probably in her mid-fifties, is spunky and fun, and has had a pretty rough hand dealt her in life. A husband who divorced her, a young baby who died, a second husband that has been extremely sick for the last eight years, a daughter who hasn’t spoken to her mother in three years. But she clings to God and it’s really beautiful. She told me she wants a bunch of us to go out for a few beers before I leave. I have no doubt we’d discuss life and love and God and pain. I hope it happens.

JOEL, the divorced father of two who just wants to be married. He just longs to find a lasting relationship. He is also convinced that there is such a thing as a “bad gene,” a gene that makes some people (for instance, his ex-wife) not able to be monogamous. They can’t stay in a marriage for more than a few years and be happy. Needless to say, Joel and I have had many many conversations while running in and out of the kitchen.

NELLY, the Filipino spitfire. Short and beautiful, she always sneaks me homemade egg rolls or whatever other concoction she made that no one else will try and like but me. Goodness, she even invited me to her son’s two-year birthday party. She’s so fun and so nice, but she also steals tables if you’re not careful. Almost every other server will back me up on this one.

RANDALL, my service manager who has really become a friend. We talk about some hard aspects of life, he questions his worth as a person, and he is always telling me that he hates to see me go, that I’m the “cream of the crop,” irreplaceable. That means a lot to me, and the thing is, I think he means it. He cares about me as a person. I often wonder about Randall and how he’s doing. In one discussion, he told me that he has “no redeemable qualities.” All I could say was, “Randall, if that was true, then why would God desire to redeem you?” Since he’s a manager, we’re not really allowed to talk outside of work, but we’re supposed to sit down for a real chat to discuss what’s going on with him the day after I’m done. Randall always tells me he’s gonna miss me, and the truth is I’m gonna miss him too.

Yeah, I know this is getting long, so I’m going to leave some others out. If I’ve seen anything, it’s that we’re all unique. None of us think or act the exact same, we all have our quirks and annoyances, and we’re all beautiful. After being around these people for almost a year, I’ve come to see that each one of them is beautiful and special and wonderful and lovable. I’m sure this will be true up at my new OG in Chicago, but I am a little nervous. No one knows me there, I’ll probably be all shy and quiet, they won’t get my jokes or want me to sing opera for the big dinner parties, they won’t think I’m so intelligent just because I have a college degree. But I hope that when I’m done I’ve found the people I have yet to meet beautiful and special and wonderful and lovable.

I have more thoughts about my time at the OG that perhaps I’ll share later, but this is enough for now. I have ten working days left, and I’m going to try to enjoy each and every one. Then there will be hugs and good-byes, promises to visit, and then I’ll drive away, wondering what’s going to happen to Tracy’s kids, wondering if Becky will ever stop having that fight with her boyfriend, wondering if Brittany ever did start going to church like she said she would, wondering if Jane will ever talk to her daughter again.