The day started off fairly "meh." The tree had only been put up last night, and it hadn't been decorated due to the fact that my mother was still wrapping presents, and didn't have time to start on it. Therefore, it was up to me and the dad-person to get to work on this goliath-sized tree sitting in our living room. Things started off at a crawling pace, just trying to get the lights all the way around the tree. In fact, dad had to run up to the store just to buy 4 more extra sets of lights just to finish it off. Turns out that the tree we picked was bigger than we bargained for. At that point, we were supposed to start stringing garland, and putting up the ornaments, but the lights took much longer than expected, and it was already 1 o' clock.
Time to get ready for work. I jumped into my trademark work clothes, consisting of a black polo-shirt (collar UN-popped, mind you), black dress pants, a less than shiny belt to hold up my skivvies, and a black hairband to tie back my mangled, greasy mop. With a skip, and a hop I leaped into my car with nothing more than my saw-dust covered jacket, and a glass full of Pepsi cola, and drove off into the sunset...Okay, not quite. It was only about a quarter after 1, and it's the middle of winter, so it's pretty much overcast all the time. That's besides the point though.
After cranking through about half of Demon Days, I'd made it to work with about 10 minutes to spare. Being the overachieving employee that I am, however, I stepped inside and clocked myself in early, as always. I just love kissing my boss's rear end, I tell ya. Anyhoo, the day went on fairly normal, like any other day. Except the holidays started grinding down on me again, and I started to get this apathetic tone during the latter half of the night. Then I got my wake up call.
I was clearing off a table, putting everything into a neat, orderly pile on my tray, and I picked it up to take it back to the kitchen, like I normally would. Except as I was walking, I did something that in my 2+ years of working at Lucky's Steak House I had never done before: I dropped several cups of water off the tray onto a table that someone was eating off of. Water flew everywhere, and the elderly couple that was sitting there had water all over their seats, their food, jackets, everything.
I couldn't begin to tell you my thought process after that one. Of all nights I could have chosen to drop stuff on a person's table, it had to be Christmas Eve. And it HAD to be an elderly couple who don't deserve these kind of things happening to them as it is. I felt like the crummiest employee on the face of the planet. Immediately I blurted out apologies, left and right. I swear I asked them if they were okay about 50 times. It was a nightmare.
The funny thing was, is that in all the catastrophic thoughts that started to buzz through my head, none of them materialized. I expected the couple to be the standard snotty bunch that come in to eat at the restaurant on Christmas Eve, and expect everything to be absolutely perfect. I was wrong. I couldn't have drenched a nicer group of people. The moment I started apologizing, they both reassured that there was nothing to be sorry for, and that there was really no harm done. They said all their clothes were perfectly fine, and that it wasn't something a good run through the dryer wouldn't fix. They smiled the whole time, and even helped me pick up the mess I made. The lady said she'd been a server once, and she knew that things like that happened all the time. I swear, there was only about a 1% chance of something like that going over smoothly. The other 99% of the time, I would have gotten dirty looks, and the manager would have been brought in to negotiate some re-compensation. But not these folks. After they ate, they wished me a most sincere Merry Christmas, and I wished them one back as they walked out the lobby doors.
I started thinking about it real hard. I'd felt like an emotionally drained loser almost the entire night, and I was starting to wonder "What's to be cheery for?" I'll tell you what's to be cheery for. You should be cheery for what you have, what you've got, and for what's yours. I was lucky to have dropped cups all over that nice couple. Well, I would rather have not dropped cups on them at all, but you get my point. They were thankful that they could come sit down and eat a nice dinner, and that's all they wanted. They didn't care if it was a picture perfect setting, or if they got in and sat down right away. They were happy for what was handed to them. And that's what the holidays are all about, folks. Being happy with what life throws at you. I'll tell you what, I'm not gonna forget about those older folks. They really showed me that the holidays are worth celebrating, and that it's not ALL just a big commercialized gimmick. Wherever that couple is now, I hope that they have an awesome Christmas, and an amazing New Year.
Speaking of awesome things, I came home after work, and the tree looked fantastic! While I was at work, mom and dad had finished decorating it. If you missed it, check the image at the top (good job if you actually missed it). I think it looks super amazy. Good job, mom and dad. Cheers.
ALSO! It's a tradition for everyone to open one gift on Christmas Eve, and I opened up an awesome 5 piece illustration pen kit! For those of you who didn't know, one of my hobbies is drawing, so this was an awesome gift, considering my favorite art medium is markers. This is gonna help me sooooo much it's not even funny. I gotta tell ya, I love my folks. And I think they love me too. THASSA STRONG LUV RITE DERE.
Alright, well it's near-on midnight now, and I don't wanna be up when Santa gets here, because everybody knows that Santa is secretly Chuck Norris. And Chuck delivers swift roundhouse kicks to the sack to all the naughty children, if you catch my drift. I'm off to set out the cookies and bear-traps, and then I'll be off to bed. I'll catch up with you guys again tomorrow! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
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