First thing first

My second official shift at my new job was riveting but refreshing at the same time.

We had to cater to more than 1200 guests on Friday night and all the supervisors and managers were scared shit as it was open bar and preset entree.

"Don't worry about the wastage. I want the turn over of red wine, white wine and champagne on every single table in the room every half hour." The coordinator said.

So it must be done. My supervisor was barking out instructions here and there telling us to keep putting new bottles of alcoholic beverages on every table as soon as the guests polished one off.

After clearing the entrees, an Elvis impersonator came on stage. It was good fun. He looked exactly like Elvis. I later found out it took him four years to grow his hair like the King of Rock n' Roll. But in all fairness, it made him one of the best Elvis impersonator in the world, so there you go.

The theme was Vegas night. They had authentic Vegas signs shipped all the way from Las Vegas just for the event. Caesar Palace. MGM Grand, the works.

There was also an illisionist who swallows a goldfish and takes it right out of his mouth alive. It was amazing.

I made friends already. It was good. Marea, one of the girls whom I trained with messaged me at 3pm asking me if we can go for coffee before heading to work to relieve the stress for a little bit.

It was stressful, yes. But it was fun. I'm a self-confessed pervert and I like perving on guys I work with. We cracked jokes about sexual harassment [neutral zones and dirty sexual references], guests we were serving [the whore bag over at table 27] and of course, the chefs. Chefs, I believe have the most demanding job in the hospitality industry.

So the night was filled with laughter amongst us staff, bitching about guests, running around and flirting. It was a real learning experience for me. It's physically hard. My muscles are sore. God only knows how I can work at my other job tonight when I can't lift my arm above my head. Ten hours on your feet carrying jack trays, balancing wine, champagne and water glasses. Fetching guests their vodka tonics, scotch dry, cascade beers and crowne lagers. Yep, it's hard. But this is really what I want to do. Physically challenging yet rewarding by the end of the day. I need to start at the bottom of the hospitality barrel to be able to feel the satisfaction while working my way up.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I am in a right place at the right time.

Even if the right time is finishing at three o'clock in the morning.

+ + + +

At the locker area, I checked Moto. Three messages received.

One from B. Won't be going to Byron tom. Will go over to Nick's for BBQ instead. Pick you up at noon.

Uh.. I don't think so. It was three-thirty in the morning. I won't be able to wake up at noon, that's for sure.

So I did what a sleep-deprived person would do: Put Moto on silent and hope that no one would bug me for the rest of my Saturday as I plan to spend it in my purple coloured room preferebly on my bed only having to get up to do Number 1 and Number 2.

That was the plan. But B had other plan. After attempting four calls on my mobile phone, she managed to oozed her way inside my house and called my home phone. Mum answered and naturally woke me up. At one-thirty in the afternoon, was still groggy but I knew I had to take it.

"Will pick you up in half hour. Will go to Springbrook to have a look at glow worms later tonight. But we'll hang over at Nick's right now."

Had no choice. Best friend demanding support system to get over the guy. The guy who was inviting the gang to have a BBQ over at his place.

I got out of the room. Chatted with Mum for a little while. Took my shower, got dressed and was out the door before 3pm hit.

Oz, Nick and James were already there. Complaining how there's nothing to do and that we should go cruising. Amber and Tiana came a minute after. B wasn't happy cos Nick was back together with his ex - his fifteen year old ex. She's not even allowed to have sex! I smelled another drama unfolding.

Drama did unfold but not with B and Nick.

It was with the gruesome twosome. Finally finally finally. We all think James may have a drinking problem. He drinks a lot and he does stupid stuff when he's drunk. He's fucked up, that guy.

So went to Springbrook. There were nine of us so we had to take two cars. Oz, Tiana and I went with Amber. While the rest went with B. Driving up there was hilarious. We were singing Jojo's Leave [Get out] song at the top of our lungs over and over. Everybody except the drivers were pretty drunk. I was smashed but I'd get to that later.

Imagine this: Nine peeps with only one torch to guide us through a cliff. Pretty fucked up, eh?

And imagine this: Person holding the torch kept turning it off and scaring the hell out of everyone.

The walk path was pretty narrow. No two people can walk side by side. It was scary. It was pitch black and the two kids that we were with [Nick's girlfriend and her friend] was giving me a headache cos of their high-pitch squeals. I wasn't that annoying when I was fifteen, right?

Amber and Tiana cracked me up when Amber turned to them and shouted, "Don't act like kids!" with Tiana hollering back, "They are kids!" It was classic.

The glow worms were beautiful. We had to turn off the torch cos it kills the them. We weren't allowed to smoke either cos it's a natural habitat and stupid James lit one up. When one chick told him to put it out, he acted all crazy and told her he was just fiddling with the lighter. That's when Amber got cut. I would be to. Too childish. He should be going out with the other fifteen year old chick we came with.

Drive home was basically the same. Sang Leave til we were blue in the face. And we hung around at Nick's place til late.

We talked about how Tiana has been eating for two lately. She didn't say anything to us but we know she thinks she might be pregnant. Fingers crossed.

We started drinking. We started talking. James wanted to go out. I didn't cos I didn't have any money. B wanted to go out but couldn't be bother to get changed. Nobody else wanted to go out so James became all shitty again and just left. Not even a goodbye or a see ya later. He just stood up and left the room. He didn't even kiss his girlfriend goodbye. What. A. Total. Knob.

Amber's been saying she'll dump his sorry ass. That she's so over the drama but all through the night she kept calling him and messaging him. She started crying I told her she'll be alright. We told her she doesn't deserve that. She'll do so much better. Everything that would made her feel better. But all she wanted to do was get drunk and forget about her sorrows.

So I drank with her. Every can of Smirnoff Vodka from Amber was a can and a half of Smirnoff Vodka from me. Seven cans later. I was gone.

But not gone enough to not remember the touchy feeling conversations we had - us girls.

We had to say two things we like about one another.

My take was:
To Tiana - For making me feel safe everytime we go out. For being honest.

To Amber - For having such a good heart. And for being there all the time.

To B - For the confidence and for being the sister I never had.

I've never been the one to be so emotional about friends. Never been and thought never will. But the alcohol got the better of me and I was actually touched. So I drank some more. At one-thirty Amber and Tiana wanted to go to Surfers for coffee and I asked Bernie to drop me off. I was g-o-n-e. Too gone. I made a racket climbing up the stairs. I struggled taking my contacts out. I stung my eyes cos I put toner on my eye rather than the eye makeup removal. I fumbled on removing my bracelets. It was a challenge trying to get to bed when you're intoxicated. As I was laying on my bed, nausea came over me and I thought to myself, I'll never drink ever again. Then I laughed. I'd probably drink again next week. No, scratch that, I have finals next week so this is it for a while.

Weekends like this make feel young and relaxed. Don't get us wrong, we do have jobs to get to so it's cool to unwind once a week, I think.

Hope you guys had a good weekend.