(un)happy new year!

December 31, 2005/January 1, 2006

I spent Christmas and New Year's with my family in Alberta. My father found me a little work while I was there. He has a friend who owns a bar who needed an extra waitress for new year's eve. I absolutely hate waitressing but I needed the money. I was told I could make a couple hundred in tips, well worth the agony.
Now here's what actually happened:
I was told to be at a 2pm staff meeting. I show up and no other staff members are there. The owner is busy setting up the stage. There are a couple strangers loitering at the bar. A girl offers me a cup of coffee. I say yes and she pours me what's left in the pot. I end up with half a cup of luke warm bitter coffee, but I am grateful to have something to do with my hands while I wait. I find a seat and begin staring out the window suddenly wishing I had brought a book to read. 40 painful minutes pass. The owner finally comes up to me and says that if no-one shows up soon, I can leave. He chats with me about what to expect that evening. 5-10 more minutes pass and staff members (all three) start showing up. There is a 5 minute discussion about who's doing what and the meeting is over. My father had promised me earlier that he would pick me up but it's clear at this point that he's lost track of time. I can't bare to wait around any longer so I decide to walk to my father's house, hoping he's there since I don't have keys. When I finally get there he's not and I'm locked out. Thankfully he arrives shortly after. I am in a very bad mood.
I arrive for my shift that evening and instead of waitressing I'm told to watch the door for the owner. I'm told that I will only be doing this temporarily while the owner takes care of a few things and later on I will have a chance to make some tip money waitressing. I sit there all night. A strange drunk boy sits next to me for a little while, selling band merchandise, and proceeds to spill red wine all over me. The charge at the door is $25 and EVERY person who enters complains and wants a discount. Midnight comes and goes. Finally a waitress says she was told I could go home. I am desperate to get out of there, the owner is nowhere to be found, so I leave. I figure he'll just pay me later. Days pass. The time comes for me to go back to Vancouver. My father promises he'll get the money and pays me the equivalent of $10 an hour for the work I did so that I don't go home empty handed. In the end it turns out one of the girls waitressing stole most of the tips that night and the owner ended up getting stitches after a drunk customer bit him in the cheek. When my father finally gets the money from him it is only $20 more than what he had already given me.
I've never liked New Year's.

Another Update (re: $200)

We're on a roll here, folks. Tyler found out today that the police caught the man who robbed him. They actually caught him the night it happened but initially forgot to call Tyler (it took them two weeks to remember). They found the car parked in the downtown eastside and caught the guy as he returned to it. It seems he had just spent all the money on a whole lot of crack. I guess there's a good chance that Tyler will be able to get his money back, although he might have to do it through a civil court case, which is not a terribly exciting thought. At least the guy didn't get away with it.

Update

For those of you who were concerned about the sad lack of toast in my home (see my last post), I have managed to overcome that particular hurdle. My father came up with a genius plan to get me a functional toaster without losing money. I found a local store which stocked the very same toaster (the fancy new Back to Basics egg & muffin toaster) and I bought a second one. Counterintuitive, right? Now armed with a receipt I put the old defective toaster in the new box and returned it. The new toaster works beautifully. I have toast! I have toast and eggs!
Today is a good day.

My precious christmas present is defective and my father neglected to keep the receipt.
So, let's get this straight, I get laid off work right before christmas and my boyfriend is robbed immediately after...can't we at least use the pennies we have left to make some lousy toast? Please?

$200

My boyfriend was robbed at a bank machine the other day.
He was at an outdoor machine in the early evening on a busy street and some guy reached in and grabbed his money as it came out. Tyler chased him and managed to put him in a headlock while yelling for someone to call the police. The thief eventually got free and ran to a parked car. Tyler caught up to him and this time tried to reason with the him, telling him he couldn't afford to lose the money. Two other men followed, one on a cell phone with the police. One of them stepped in and tried to unsuccessfully wrestle the car keys from the guy, he did manage to grab the money but the thief bit him so hard he dropped it in the car. At some point a third man stepped in. The thief was parallel parked and crashed into the cars in front and behind him trying to get away, which he eventually did.
The cops have his plate numbers and a description of the car,
but the money's probably as good as gone.