Carpe Somnus

Usually I am a night-owl. I've been doing this off to sleep around 3 am thing for so many years now that 9:30 on a thursday is nowhere near bedtime. But as I write this I also realize just how damn tired I am. The problem with working in a restaurant is that your whole timeline is different. People say "aren't you excited for x-mas?" "What are you doing for the holidays?" The answer is : "working." 4th of july, Valentines Day, Mother's Day, Christmas, New Years, you work every one. And yes it's good money and yes you have a blast, but you also run your damn ass off for a whole lot of people who usually aren't your friends. That's because all your friends are working in other restaurants. And they are thinking the same damn thing, "I can't WAIT until the holidays are over."

So they are now. And another calendar year starts despite all those apocalypse rumors. And here I am at 9:30 on a thursday night pushing myself to write this cause I am still recovering from the "holidays" everyone asked me about this week. It's funny sometimes being on a  different schedule than the 9-5 crowd. You NEVER make plans for the weekend; because you'll be sleeping, working or getting from to the other for those 3 days. You can't wait for your monday night free or tuesday day where you finally catch up on the mountains of laundry to do since here in Boston they haven't figured out the system of having industry Laundromats open next to big restaurants 24 hours a day where you could drop off your clothes after work and pick them up the next day when you also got out of work at 2 am. 

I do love the fact that unlike most people who can count the times they've done this on one hand, I frequently watch both the sun rise and hear the first birds chirp in the morning. One of my favorite memories with Eric was having him pick me up from work at 3 am, we rushed in the car and drove to the beach just in time to watch the sunrise and share a bottle of wine. We felt like the only people in the world at that moment, and at 4 am on a beach you can almost wonder what it would be like to be stranded on a deserted island.

It's also fantastic to spend so much of your time in the hours most people have the best stories of. In restaurants we end up being the background to moments that are so important to other people and yet we never really know them. First dates, big fights, confessions of affection, nights that lead to drinking, to dancing, to kissing, to making love, to making babies, to making mistakes, to learning from them, to not learning from them, and all of us that work in these places are part of the background. 

Living my life in the hours where others could be sleeping or fighting or telling others they love them is wonderful.

Living my life in the hours where parents are sleeping, and office workers have long laid to rest is just another thing I've come to see from a different perspective after working in restaurants. Which is not to say I don't still get tired at 10 pm on a thursday night. I'm exhausted, and I am SO glad we've made it through another holiday season.