so on friday, the first day of hanukah, i went bowling with my jewish friend erica (and karl and her john and their friend kendra). anyhow, erica gave karl and i pieces of hanukah gilt. you know, that chocolate that's wrapped up in gold foil to look like a gold coin. anyhow, it was the very first hanukah gilt i'd ever gotten. and getting it reminded me of the time andy, this very jewish student in my department, came to class on the first day of hanukah and gave little bags of hanukah gilt to all the jewish people in class, but to no one else. erica's response: "what a bitch!" word.

at the restaurant today, i had a 12 person party. total bill: $170. tip: $40 (24%). thank YOU. makes up for the shitty $3.90 on $33.40 (12%. and happy holidays to you, too.)

i asked lisa (head manager person) about what i needed to do to get dinner shifts. she said "first things first. i'll talk to laura (my day-to-day manager) about getting you trained for bar and grill (bar and grill shifts being the prerequisite for moving up to dinner. though, the new-hires to the restaurant (at least 3 of them) all have dinner shifts and didn't have to do b&g first. and not only dinner shifts, but friday and saturday night shifts, which are the real money-makers, of course). let me talk to laura and i'll get back to you." now, this is okay, i suppose, but what i really want is *dinner* shifts, not icky nighttime b&g shifts. i'm considering whether to say something about how all us lunch waiters know about these new guys getting dinners and how it's not good for morale. i dunno. i don't really want to create bad blood. maybe i'll talk to mark, the "server liason". actually, yeah. that's what i'll do. he's real nice.

it's supposed to snow 4-7 inches tomorrow. restaurant doesn't close, ever. should be a blast. perhaps we'll all just get drunk.