Friday the stereo system at Nick and Tony’s stopped working. I can’t say I was always glad to hear the repetitious “Italian” standards, but I liked the Christmas music we had switched to. Now it’s just quiet and it feels WRONG for a restaurant to be beautifully decorated but have no music playing. It’s just silent and even more depressing.
The heat has also gone out. Monday I made the excuse to customers that the restaurant is always slow to heat up on Monday mornings, but today I couldn’t keep lying. When people asked about the c-cold room I just apologized and said we’ve been having problems with the heat. Some people ate and left quickly, glad to put their heavy winter wrappings back on. Some people walked right back out because it really was ridiculously cold in there. For my double shift today I wore a thick pair of tights under my pants. I also wore a t-shirt under my long-sleeved work shirt and underneath the t-shirt, a tank top. Still my hands were like ice and I had to go stand near the ovens frequently. Drag. But why fix these things when we’ll be closed in a week and a half? It makes business sense, but it sure makes this ending even more of an ordeal (the daytime temperatures in Chicago for the past two days have been in the teens and 20’s).
But the sadness is still worse than the cold and silence. Tomorrow is the general manager’s last day. Bob Martin has been one of the best managers I’ve ever had, and that’s quite a statement coming from me with my long job history. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate that I won’t be working for him anymore. Suck. Tomorrow I’ll wear my many layers again for my double shift and Bob’s last day.