monster mash

yesterday. was probably one of the most terrifying days of work i think i have ever experienced. usually when i get there, i enjoy the time it takes to set up, because i feel like i can mentally prepare myself for the next few hours of stress and failure. but it went by too quickly. anyway. i ended up on the phone with this woman. she wanted to make a reservation for a party of 20 people. which normally wouldn't be a problem. but. we only have 17 tables (3 tables of 6, 6 tables of 4, and 8 tables of 2) so we are very hesitant to take large parties that rent out half our space. people who know each other like to talk. when you have 20 people together on one side of the restaurant it gets really loud. the other diners get frustrated. so if the person wants a large reservation, we have to ask our manager. so i asked if we could call back. no. she needs an answer right that second or she's going to call another place. i asked my manager and he said that we would need to have certain things happen. she was very angry even with the thought of restricting to those certain things. i was frustrated. because i did not have answers to these questions she was asking. she would not let me call her back. my manager did not want to speak with her. so i'm stuck on the phone listening to her yell at me about the do's and don'ts of managing a restaurant. by the time i get off the phone. i'm tired. i'm angry. and i don't understand why i needed to be harassed. i don't know the maximum number of people that we can hold a reservation for. they never told me. i don't know anything about catering. so when people come in expecting me to know these things - and i don't... it sucks. because most of the time, they don't want to be transferred to someone else. they don't like being pushed from face to face. and i can get that. but it's not like i'm doing it for jollies. so. right after all of this, we have a reservation for 14 people. then a reservation for 10. then a table of 7 and two tables of 6. during which all of the other tables fill up. we don't have a hostess on wed. there were only three servers. which normally wouldn't be such a bad thing. we know what we're doing most of the time. but when it's all unexpectedly busy and no one has any chance to breathe. and we're all tired. no one's getting what they need. tables are filling up and emptying faster than we can give them water and clear off the settings... it was hectic. utter pandemonium. i had so many people getting angry at me for the little things. and i know they're trying to help, and i try not to let it get to me too much. but sometimes. it really does. our dishes kept running out. we didn't have any clean silverware. the glasses were empty most of the time. the funny thing is. that if we had had one more person. most of those things could have been avoided. sigh.

i know, that most of my unhappiness was my own fault. and i am prepared to deal with that. and sometimes. people just don't understand that things might be a little slow if there are a million people who need the same thing at the same time. yesterday was a low point. i'm just hoping that tomorrow will turn around a little bit. that i'll be able to focus. and do my job the best way that i can. so that we have happy customers coming and going. telling their friends how lovely we are. how great our service is. and how yummy our food tastes.