I trained today for the first time at the restuarant on Lincoln Road. It is an Italian place, with a really good menu and wine list, in addition to a full bar. I used to joke when I was in Georgia that I was going back to a place where people know what carpaccio is. Well not only do they have carpaccio, but a whole section of the menu for "raw" foods, including tartars and civiche.
It seems like a cool place. I didn't have to stand on the hot sidewalk all day, I had a food runner, and a busboy, and the tip out percentage is reasonable. The kitchen is big, and the overall restuarant setup is to be able to serve really good food efficiently to a lot of people. Combined with the location and the reputation (22 years in business), I'd say it is a pretty good place to be for the upcomming season.
I am supposed to start training at the place by the marina this Friday. I still haven't decided what to do about that. They specialize in fresh seafood, one of my passions, it is fine dining, so that means not much work and big checks, it is only open six hours a day, and it's on a marina. This is kind of a tough choice...
I am so grateful to be in a better job, even though I don't know where it is yet. Today the owner of the nightmare restuarant called to see if I could work tonight. He actually called twice. I didn't answer either time. I was working, but I also feel pretty strongly still that I don't want to earn one more dime for those two.
Nevertheless, I am still tight, and I may have a couple days off this week, so I walked by earlier this evening. Man, was that depressing. They actually put out placemats. Tacky. My set up looked much better. But they weren't there, and the hostess told me they were only opening for two days. Disgusting. They don't care one bit about providing good food and good service at a reasonable price. To them, the place is a whore. Open her up on the street for a couple days and make a few bucks... same as ever. No wonder I hated it. Makes me sick that I helped them, but the place kept me alive here for three months. I'm surprised I haven't had nightmares about it.
My sailboat life is tugging at my consciousness. At this moment my boat is speeding toward me like a freight train. It is time to be saving money... that is making enough money to live decently and save... and adjusting my habits. Not sure exactly what that means, but my life is becomming a little more gentle and less animal-like. Only by the grace of god, and only for the moment. Things can change very fast, and eventually they will. But chance favors the prepared mind, so I guess I need to try to keep mine sharp, and pay more attention to the sustainability of my lifestyle.
My brother included dental floss and new oral b toothbrushes in his care package. I haven't mentioned it but indirectly once, but I have been getting worried about my teeth. I won't go into details, but the floss and the new brushes have definitely had an observable effect after only a couple days.
I haven't exercised in a month, and I haven't meditated in months... except once a couple days ago. I'm still eating basically healthy, but my diet needs to improve too. Abraham Maslow propose a heirarchy of needs where you must satisfy the lower needs before you can do anything with the higher needs. At the bottom were food, clothing, shelter, then social stuff I think, love and family, then spirituality at the top. He got it wrong.
The thing I've noticed is that the more basic my needs, the easier it is to see, feel, and rely on god, and the more I need a spiritual connection to my higher power. The more comfortable I get, the less obvious is my dependence, and the easier it is to forget that my reality is part me, but mostly god. So I'm not sure what to do with that observation yet, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.
Guess that's it for tonight. It's holloween on South Beach, and the cops are really tweeky. I'm going to try to get some afterdark beach time, but who knows what will happen. It's all good though. I doubt I will get arrested, and tomorrow is Sunday so I can come back then if tonight doesn't work out. Gotta stay positive, right?
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