Today is my brother's birthday. Last night we finalized plans to go out to eat and celebrate this evening. He chose to go to the Mexican restaurant that I worked at for 12 years. I think that is what set in motion the wild waitressing dreams I had last night. If you've ever worked a service-type job, I'm sure you can relate. Years after the fact, you will often have those dreams (nightmares) about working that job. Mine always seem to be about getting slammed with customers, and being the only one around to wait on them.
Last night I dreamed about the typical endless stream of tables arriving and waiting for me to serve them, and I also dreamed that I had to hunt all over the back kitchen and the back storage rooms looking for different various things for the customer. My senorita serving outfit was even more horrendous that the original. My bosses - a husband and wife team, were also in the dream, appearing here and there but not really interacting with me.
These dreams always stress me out. I can feel myself getting worked up as the customers in my dreams berate me for taking so long getting their drinks/chips and salsa/food/ticket... And last night was just the same - wash, rinse, repeat.
except...
In last night's dream, the details were rather vivid. I was busier than ever. I was even rolling silverware. Uugh. I was ripping open bagged-up packages of plastic spoons and forks, and rolling them up in ugly blue napkins. I ran out of tortilla chips, and had to rip open these tiny plastic bags and gather them up, one-by-one and put them in the bowl. I was pretty stressed out. Every table was full of people waiting for me to show up with something.
I don't know if I was semi-awake or not, but somehow the dream shifted into a different light. It was like I knew I was dreaming, so all of a sudden I didn't give a rat's ass if a rather cranky woman didn't get the correct food and I had to go into the kitchen and argue with the cooks. Why? Because there would be no repercussions - nothing to feel bad about, since it. wasn't. real. Aha! REVENGE waitressing dreams! I can spill all the green chili I want into a customer's lap (true story...), I can leave them waiting for their ticket F O R E V E R and there's nothing they can do about it. Can't find that beer for that obnoxious guy yelling at me in the bar window? Too fucking bad. You need a styrofoam to-go box? Good luck with that.
I feel like I've been set free!
