Alright. This week’s poll results start the beginning of the three part series on Substance abuse and it’s effects on depression in the industry. These are the results of the substances used/abused.

Alcohol got the highest, at 90 votes, 60%

Marijuana (pot) was next in line at 47 votes, 32%

The sober people were about in the middle, with 45 votes, 30%

The opiate pain meds came in fourth with 21 votes, at 14%

Cocaine and Crack came in closer to the bottom than I expected for servers and such, at 10 votes, 7%

Meth, MDMA (ectacy), and Ketamine, the club drug crew came in last, with 6 votes, only 4% of the voters.

Some of you very well may have voted more than once, and that’s fine. Either way, each vote is counted as a person, and I hope you will all vote in this next one, which is part two. This one is the frequency of usage.

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Stupid names of the week

“Ladies”

HaRhonna

LeSoria

Nadina

“Gentlemen”

This one isn’t one I had, but one I heard on the radio, Genarlo (you’ve all heard about him, the molester from the south)

RaFarion

I’ve been nominated, and it was too late for any votes for 07, but get me in for 08, and I’ll keep pissing you all off and making you laugh enough to win!

Vote for me here

Since I keep saying I’m going to tell you all about what happened, and since so many of you have asked to know, here’s the reason I was suspended from training.

A little over a month ago, on a Wednesday night a co-worker and I were working in the bowling area.  We didn’t split ourselves in to sections, Ms. K (not to be confused with the Ms. K who was fired for calling me a faggot) and I, we chose to rotate.  In hindsight, probably not the best idea.  At any rate…

It was about 8:30 or so, and some other employees came in to bowl.  These employees are notorious for tipping well, so we both wanted them.  I’d just gotten a party of 15, and Ms. K was nowhere to be found even though it was technically her turn.  Since she was nowhere to be found, I decided to go ahead and take the lane.  Everyone there knows that if you miss a greet I’m going to take the table, and in the bowling area it’s always been like that.

I get their beers, and being that I have a bunch of other lanes, and a huge drink order for the 15, it takes about 8 minutes to get the drinks to them.  I had to wait on the bar to make a ton of the drinks, which is why it took so long.  During that 8 minute span, Ms. K is still nowhere to be found.  I take a few minutes to check my other lanes, and I return to the employees to see if they would be eating or on a liquid diet.  About that time, Ms. K finally walks into the room, and sees me at the lane.  She proceeds to start yelling at me about how it’s “bullshit” I took the lane, and how it was her turn.  I replied with “You should have been in your area, but you weren’t for 13 minutes, so back off.”

About 10 minutes go by, and I’m at the computer putting in another order, when one of the managers come up to me.  I see it in her eyes that Ms. K has whined to her.

“We have a situation,”  she says.

“I’m not transferring that check, she should have been in her area.”  First thing out of my mouth.  I didn’t even give her a chance to tell me to do anything.

“Well you may have to, it was her turn.”   Those words, “You may have to” were later turned into “you were ordered to” on the documentation.

“No, I won’t.  She was not back here, and I’m not transferring it.  You can write me up.”  and I walked off, leaving my manager trying to get me back.  A few minutes later, I swipe my card, and I notice that the table has been transferred away from me anyway.  Already pissed off that she came to me in the first place, I go hunting.  I see her in the hallway, and proceed to lose it a little, “How dare you take that check away from me!”  I yell across the hallway, in front of guests and employees alike, including 2 trainees.

“We’re not talking about this here, you need to calm down.”

“No, we need to talk right now!” I continue to yell.  “You’ll meet me in the office right now.”

“You’re not going to order me around,”

“Then you shouldn’t have transferred that table away from me!”

Long story short, I continue to lose it in front of everyone.  It’d been a bad week, low cash flow, bills due, and I was just pissed off.  I go to the office with Manager A, the one who transferred the check, and Managers B and C who didn’t actually witness anything.  I continue to lose my acclaimed temper in the office, and come close to being sent home and suspended, until they figure out that I’m the closer and the other one always refuses to close.  So they cut Ms. K off the floor, and I finish up.

Later, I go into the office to get my “write-up”.  I notice I’m being written up for Insubordination.  It’s also a final written warning.  This means that I refuse to do something again, I’m fired on the spot.  Manager A tells me, “You’ve already been written up for this before,” which is a complete and total lie.  I’ve only been written up for calling someone dumb as a box of rocks, and being late once.

The documentation also says that “Ribeye refused to transfer a check even after he was ordered to twice, saying ‘You can write me up’ “, which is also another lie.  I sign it, intending to talk to the GM the next day.  Conclusion, I was taken off the training schedule for over a month, until I convinced them I wouldn’t lose my temper again.

And there you all have it.  In summary, don’t lose your temper on people when you have trainee’s and guests watching you, it only leads to bad things and lying write-ups.

Ribeye

Yes, this post has absolutely NOTHING to do with serving.  At least I don’t think it’s going to end up having anything to do with serving.

I’ve been letting the whole “Dumbledore is gay” statement ride since it first came out.  I was content to continue enjoying the books, because they’re still good books.   They’re always going to be good books.   People are having such a major public outcry against J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series now, much the same way the Christian Right went against it for the magical overtones, that the entire series is being made out to be a pornographic series of events.  What people who haven’t read the books don’t understand is this: The books are nothing more than very well written fiction.  As the series progressed, it became darker yes, more death and decay, but there were no sexual perversions held within the covers.

People are also saying the quote was made in order to boost sales of the previous books.  I myself am one of those.  As a great fan of the Harry Potter series, and an open homosexual male, I personally believe that it was an advertising ploy, and I applaud Ms. Rowling for it.  She has done what any great PR person would do.  She’s put focus on a a controversial topic in order to boost sales.  She not only has skill at writing, but at getting cash too.  Yes, she was in the proverbial poorhouse when the first book was written, but she wrote it well and is a billionaire.  I say GO MS.  ROWLING!  Do what you need to do, even if it includes outing a character.

People are also quoting areas of the book that show Dumbledore was gay.  Namely one,  “You cannot imagine how his ideas caught me, Harry, inflamed me,’ ” Dumbledore says in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in Rowling’s record-breaking fantasy series.  I got this quote from a friend you all know from the comments here, Jimmy-James, so you’ll have to ask him where the quote actually came from.  

The problem with the above quote is that people are only seeing part of the conversation between Harry and Dumbledore.  Dumbledore wasn’t alluding to his homosexuality, no matter how much we try to make it seem like he is.  Dumbledore was great friends with “Grindelwald”, the character he was supposedly in love with.  The conversation in question was about Dumbledore explaining to Harry about his past, including his days of having more evil tendencies toward ruling “Muggles” aka, non-magic humans.

Christians (not all Christians, but many) are saying that children shouldn’t be exposed to homosexuality at a young age, yet there’s nothing in the books that exposes them to homosexuality except for a crass joke in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where Dudley Dursley says, “Who’s Cedric, your boyfriend?”  after hearing Harry moan his dead companions name in his sleep during a nightmare.  What the Christian Right is overlooking is that these books actually got people to READ which is something that children have been doing less and less of in this busy new age.  The Christian Right is also overlooking the works of other Homosexuals in history.

Take Tchaikovsky, a famous composer of the Romantic Era, notably one of the best composers in history.  You’ve all heard some of his work at one time or another.  Think of Marche Slave and The 1812 Overture.  Also think of his musical masterpiece in The Nutcracker Suite.  Many people believe that Tchaikovsky was a Homosexual, yet fanatical Christians still allow their children to see the Nutcracker every year during the holiday season (I would say Christmas, but it’s becoming less P.C.) these days.

Think also of the other homosexuals throughout history, and what they have contributed or what they represent.  They are taught about in your Literature classes, you see them on television.  They have held high office, and have helped guide civilizations in the past.

Think of  Alexander the Great 356-323BC, or BCE,  and Hephasteion.  

Think of Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony.

Then we have some of the most influential artists of all time, Leonardo DaVinci, Raphael, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Donatello.

I could go on and on about the influence of Homosexuals in the historical context, but it wouldn’t change anyone’s mind.   I just find it funny that the very same people who cry about their children reading a book that has a homosexual character yet has no homosexual exploits don’t cry in the least bit about their children learning from or about these same historical figures in school.

For those of you who are screaming that the Harry Potter books should be banned, burned or anything like that, think of all the other historical homosexuals and what they have given to our world today.  Also remember that J.K. Rowling succeeded where many other authors and parents have failed.  She got children to read.  She got children to enjoy reading.  In this era of technology, television, XBOX, Playstation, and cellphones, who of you save for a few can say the same.

Sorry for the change of topic, but I just had to get these things out.  Readers new and old, enjoy debating this post, and come back for more of the normal.

Ribeye

So this post is another one of those double topics, based on the things that happened today.  First off, I was told Sunday night before I left, to be at work at 3 pm on Tues-Friday, to teach training class *yes, the training suspension is over*.  I get up early and get ready.  I go out and start my car.  Car is not moving once it’s started, for the tires are stuck in the mud.  Have to wake up partner to borrow his truck.  Finally leave.  I get there at 3 today, ready to teach.  I look around for my trainees, and they’re not there.  I look around a little more, and I find a couple of them in the dining room.  In a class, with the boss of the waitstaff, “Flip-Flop”.   So I head back to the office to get my laptop, when I realize, I can’t leave.  Partners truck is almost out of gas.  Leaving and coming back would mean I’d run out after work before I got to gas station.

FUCK.

Now I’m stuck here for 3 hours with nothing to do. I think to myself.  I wander around, smoke a couple of cigarettes (outside, as to not get fined), and wander back in.  Convince GM to pay me for working on training stuff, so that’s 3 hours at ten an hour of my doing what I usually do here for free.  After all that, a couple of the trainees for the night class start swandering in about 5pm.  I’m wondering where their teacher is.  I go back out to smoke, and Business Manager Prick gets on the speaker telling me to come inside because I have a class waiting for me.  I tell him I’m not teaching class.  10 minutes later, I’m teaching class.  “Flip-Flop” is still on the floor, so I’ve started it for him, fully intending to go on the floor once he takes over.  Cocktail Nazi Boss walks in, tells me that I’m going to teach the entire class.  Embarrassment in front of trainees, I feel like I’m being made to look like I know nothing.  I resume class, these four patient ladies just loving me (I hope anyway), and low and behold, in walks “Flip-Flop” who proceeds to kick me out of my class.

Why the hell can’t they get the training schedules right?  Why don’t they just let me write them?  Oh yes, I’m going to be soon =).

As for the guests, I have not had a night in a long time where there wasn’t a single guest to piss me off.  Maybe the rain is like a “Ghetto Shield” or something like that, but we didn’t have any trash in there at all.  No entitlement junkies whatsoever.  I had a nice couple from Massachusetts, who was in town visiting some friends.  They were awesome, and talked to me for a while.  Then we have the little family who’s out for the mother’s birthday.  In short, a good night, and my blood pressure returned a little closer to normal.

It’s nice to not be pissed off.

Ribeye