where do the pages of night go
once they've been turned
and the stars lose their spot
fastened to a fleeting robe
of dark? the daybreak
is unremarkable, business-
minded in its wakefulness,
its constant routine, until
buried under the labours
of evening, that slow tide
pulling the sun down lower.
the days smear together.
they look like my mother's
favourite poem, the one she cried
over for years.
20090209
.economic.diets.
It's not that my job sucks. I mean it's a relatively decent job, I suppose.
Oh, come on, how much are you making?
Well, ten bucks an hour, but
Exactly! I mean, you're getting paid for it.
Yeah, but the amount of work and responsibility we have is ridiculous.
Well, I will grant you that. You guys have more responsibilities than I do as an assistant professor.
Oh, John, lay off her.
I'm just saying, I think people just like to complain about their jobs!
Well, like I said, I don't think my job is the worst one out there. They just come down really hard on all the employees unnecessarily.
You know what they need to come down hard on is their prices.
John.
What. We bought our meal, didn't we? It's just pretty steep.
Well, our price point is pretty set with the amount of organic and local sources we try to use.
What are you defending them now? You were just attacking them a second ago.
I didn't say there weren't things I didn't like.
Leave her alone, John. Eat your food.
For a ten dollar burger, I'll eat it whenever I damn well like. Why don't you quit, though, if you don't like it so much?
I need the money. And the economy sucks so much right now I don't think I could find another job anyway. Not one that wasn't worse. I mean, we do make a decent wage here, I guess, and we do sorta get tips too, even if it's probably not as much as I could make at an actual serving position.
Do you make a lot in tips here?
I bet she does. This doesn't seem like crowd: single-handedly supporting the economy out of their pockets. But who knows. Maybe they're tightasses anyway.
When it comes to helping other people, yeah. Most of them expect you to wait on them hand and foot, as if we didn't have better things to do. As if they couldn't walk up to their counter and pick up their damn drinks themselves.
Don't you guys have some kind of communal tip thing? Like you split it at the end of the month or something?
You ever slip a little into your pocket off the table there? Ha!
Yeah, we divide the tips by the hours and everything we all work. I don't know. It's weird.
Hm.
Oh man! Did I tell you guys about the guy that stole money from the tip jar?
No!
Yeah, he totally came in and was really sketchy looking, smelled real bad.
Did he just take off running with the money or something?
No, no. He just kind of stood around the counter and said he was waiting for someone.
The shower police, no doubt.
And he was just fiddling with a pen on paper and everything, and it was really busy so we weren't really paying attention to him, you know. We were helping all these other people, and I guess that he must have been sneaking bills out of the jar periodically while we weren't looking, because all the money was gone when he finally left.
How much did he take?
Like eighty bucks.
Jesus Christ! Did you call the cops?
Nah, they wouldn't let us for some reason.
Really?
That's bullshit.
Yeah, you're telling me. Anyway, I called my mom about it, since I was so pissed off, and she felt really bad. Told me she was going to come in the next day and put in eighty dollars herself.
Really?
Yep.
You should have told her it was eighty dollars for each person working.
Yeah right, like she would put in that much money.
Well, the woman is putting in eighty dollars out of her pocket regardless.
Yeah, I guess that's true. I don't know. My mom's weird about these kind of things, I guess. Like she felt bad for us and everything, and this is her way of helping. But I mean, on one hand, she's going to just drop eighty bucks off in our tip jar because some dude ran off with it, but she's not going to help me with my student loans?
Did you ever catch the guy?
No. But get this! The fucker came in the next day and tried to do it again, as if we weren't going to notice him. He flipped his hat around too. Ha.
Did you call the cops this time?
No, but it wasn't busy at all so Casey and I were just staring right at him the entire time, while he was at the counter. I had been putting the big bills behind the counter all day anyway, but there were still a few singles and all that. He asked for a pen at some point, and I handed him one so he had no excuse to reach over the tip jar.
What'd he do?
I mean, what was he going to do? Steal while we were staring at us? He just left after a while. And I had taken the tip jars behind the counter anyway. He seriously thought he could try the same thing twice. I told everyone after that what he looked like so they'd know who he was.
Wow.
Oh man, but that's not it. We found his wallet outside after that. I guess he must have dropped it or something?
Ha!
Ironic, right? In any case, it had all his shit in it: social security card, food stamps, ID. Food stamps, right?
What did you do with it?
Nothing yet, but we just have it.
I think the better question is what will the guy do without his food stamps and ID. He'll probably have to go rob another store.
Yeah, well, as long as he stays away from our tip jars.
So have you done a tattoo recently?
No... business is slow, with the economy and all.
That sucks... I was thinking about getting one, though.
Really?
Yeah, I'll send you the design soon. I think I have it figured out, but I need to make sure I have enough money for it.
Ok, yeah. Let me know. I'd love to see it soon.
Yeah, she needs some money to support her jewellery addiction.
It's not an addiction. I just like jewellery.
As long as I don't have to buy that shit for you.
I never asked you to. Is Mike still unemployed?
Yeah. He's just been sitting around the house. I'm kind of jealous of him. I want to just sit around and be able to afford to do nothing.
How's he doing that?
His parents are helping him out right now, and he's waiting for the bike shop hours to pick up again, since it's been getting warmer.
What's he do at home all day?
Who knows. I think he reads a lot. He's trying to learn Arabic right now from a book.
Sounds hard.
Yeah, we looked at it together once,
I wish my dad had spoken Arabic to us while we were kids. That way, I could have been perfect at it! I prefer to blame him, rather than my own lack of effort.
Didn't Mike live in Saudi Arabia for a while?
Yeah, like ten years.
Jesus, and he didn't learn Arabic?
Guess not.
Tell him he should call me soon. I don't have class on Fridays.
Sure.
And I'm free on weekends too. Tell him to come get another tattoo!
I think he wants them. He just is living on a budget right now.
I thought his parents were helping him out.
Yeah, but he's still in budget mode. I can see him cringing at buying groceries, you know? Oh, and that being said, I read this article about how Americans spend the least percentage of their expenditures on food, compared to the rest of the world. Isn't that crazy? If we could just spend a little bit more money on better food, we wouldn't have to put up with all this gross corn subsidy garbage all the time.
I think that those numbers might be a bit deceiving though. I mean, I think Americans don't spend less on food; I think they just spend more money on a bunch of other crap.
Yeah. I guess that's true. But still, I was reading the stats for how much money Americans spend on food a year as well. For our age group and everything, and Mike and I spend way less than the average person our age. And we buy good food too. We try to buy mostly organic foods from the co-op, and we only end up spending like a hundred to a hundred twenty five dollars each a month.
Wow. That's really good.
Yeah. And I'm pretty excited since I just got my tax return.
Oooo. I should probably do those soon.
Ruth, you don't have a job.
I know... but don't I need to do taxes anyway?
Mike just sends them to his parents. I think he's still a dependent. I guess he says it's so he can get health care and everything.
So you did yours already? And you already got your return?
Yeah, if you do it early enough, it's really fast. What time is it?
Almost four thirty.
Oh man, I'm almost on shift soon. I gotta go change soon to get ready.
Ok, we have to go grocery shopping anyway. Thanks for eating with us!
Pshhhh. Anytime. Even though I'm sick of the food here. But you know what, after this tax return, I finally realized that I can afford to eat at the place I work.
Haha.
You're moving up in the world.
Oh, come on, how much are you making?
Well, ten bucks an hour, but
Exactly! I mean, you're getting paid for it.
Yeah, but the amount of work and responsibility we have is ridiculous.
Well, I will grant you that. You guys have more responsibilities than I do as an assistant professor.
Oh, John, lay off her.
I'm just saying, I think people just like to complain about their jobs!
Well, like I said, I don't think my job is the worst one out there. They just come down really hard on all the employees unnecessarily.
You know what they need to come down hard on is their prices.
John.
What. We bought our meal, didn't we? It's just pretty steep.
Well, our price point is pretty set with the amount of organic and local sources we try to use.
What are you defending them now? You were just attacking them a second ago.
I didn't say there weren't things I didn't like.
Leave her alone, John. Eat your food.
For a ten dollar burger, I'll eat it whenever I damn well like. Why don't you quit, though, if you don't like it so much?
I need the money. And the economy sucks so much right now I don't think I could find another job anyway. Not one that wasn't worse. I mean, we do make a decent wage here, I guess, and we do sorta get tips too, even if it's probably not as much as I could make at an actual serving position.
Do you make a lot in tips here?
I bet she does. This doesn't seem like crowd: single-handedly supporting the economy out of their pockets. But who knows. Maybe they're tightasses anyway.
When it comes to helping other people, yeah. Most of them expect you to wait on them hand and foot, as if we didn't have better things to do. As if they couldn't walk up to their counter and pick up their damn drinks themselves.
Don't you guys have some kind of communal tip thing? Like you split it at the end of the month or something?
You ever slip a little into your pocket off the table there? Ha!
Yeah, we divide the tips by the hours and everything we all work. I don't know. It's weird.
Hm.
Oh man! Did I tell you guys about the guy that stole money from the tip jar?
No!
Yeah, he totally came in and was really sketchy looking, smelled real bad.
Did he just take off running with the money or something?
No, no. He just kind of stood around the counter and said he was waiting for someone.
The shower police, no doubt.
And he was just fiddling with a pen on paper and everything, and it was really busy so we weren't really paying attention to him, you know. We were helping all these other people, and I guess that he must have been sneaking bills out of the jar periodically while we weren't looking, because all the money was gone when he finally left.
How much did he take?
Like eighty bucks.
Jesus Christ! Did you call the cops?
Nah, they wouldn't let us for some reason.
Really?
That's bullshit.
Yeah, you're telling me. Anyway, I called my mom about it, since I was so pissed off, and she felt really bad. Told me she was going to come in the next day and put in eighty dollars herself.
Really?
Yep.
You should have told her it was eighty dollars for each person working.
Yeah right, like she would put in that much money.
Well, the woman is putting in eighty dollars out of her pocket regardless.
Yeah, I guess that's true. I don't know. My mom's weird about these kind of things, I guess. Like she felt bad for us and everything, and this is her way of helping. But I mean, on one hand, she's going to just drop eighty bucks off in our tip jar because some dude ran off with it, but she's not going to help me with my student loans?
Did you ever catch the guy?
No. But get this! The fucker came in the next day and tried to do it again, as if we weren't going to notice him. He flipped his hat around too. Ha.
Did you call the cops this time?
No, but it wasn't busy at all so Casey and I were just staring right at him the entire time, while he was at the counter. I had been putting the big bills behind the counter all day anyway, but there were still a few singles and all that. He asked for a pen at some point, and I handed him one so he had no excuse to reach over the tip jar.
What'd he do?
I mean, what was he going to do? Steal while we were staring at us? He just left after a while. And I had taken the tip jars behind the counter anyway. He seriously thought he could try the same thing twice. I told everyone after that what he looked like so they'd know who he was.
Wow.
Oh man, but that's not it. We found his wallet outside after that. I guess he must have dropped it or something?
Ha!
Ironic, right? In any case, it had all his shit in it: social security card, food stamps, ID. Food stamps, right?
What did you do with it?
Nothing yet, but we just have it.
I think the better question is what will the guy do without his food stamps and ID. He'll probably have to go rob another store.
Yeah, well, as long as he stays away from our tip jars.
So have you done a tattoo recently?
No... business is slow, with the economy and all.
That sucks... I was thinking about getting one, though.
Really?
Yeah, I'll send you the design soon. I think I have it figured out, but I need to make sure I have enough money for it.
Ok, yeah. Let me know. I'd love to see it soon.
Yeah, she needs some money to support her jewellery addiction.
It's not an addiction. I just like jewellery.
As long as I don't have to buy that shit for you.
I never asked you to. Is Mike still unemployed?
Yeah. He's just been sitting around the house. I'm kind of jealous of him. I want to just sit around and be able to afford to do nothing.
How's he doing that?
His parents are helping him out right now, and he's waiting for the bike shop hours to pick up again, since it's been getting warmer.
What's he do at home all day?
Who knows. I think he reads a lot. He's trying to learn Arabic right now from a book.
Sounds hard.
Yeah, we looked at it together once,
I wish my dad had spoken Arabic to us while we were kids. That way, I could have been perfect at it! I prefer to blame him, rather than my own lack of effort.
Didn't Mike live in Saudi Arabia for a while?
Yeah, like ten years.
Jesus, and he didn't learn Arabic?
Guess not.
Tell him he should call me soon. I don't have class on Fridays.
Sure.
And I'm free on weekends too. Tell him to come get another tattoo!
I think he wants them. He just is living on a budget right now.
I thought his parents were helping him out.
Yeah, but he's still in budget mode. I can see him cringing at buying groceries, you know? Oh, and that being said, I read this article about how Americans spend the least percentage of their expenditures on food, compared to the rest of the world. Isn't that crazy? If we could just spend a little bit more money on better food, we wouldn't have to put up with all this gross corn subsidy garbage all the time.
I think that those numbers might be a bit deceiving though. I mean, I think Americans don't spend less on food; I think they just spend more money on a bunch of other crap.
Yeah. I guess that's true. But still, I was reading the stats for how much money Americans spend on food a year as well. For our age group and everything, and Mike and I spend way less than the average person our age. And we buy good food too. We try to buy mostly organic foods from the co-op, and we only end up spending like a hundred to a hundred twenty five dollars each a month.
Wow. That's really good.
Yeah. And I'm pretty excited since I just got my tax return.
Oooo. I should probably do those soon.
Ruth, you don't have a job.
I know... but don't I need to do taxes anyway?
Mike just sends them to his parents. I think he's still a dependent. I guess he says it's so he can get health care and everything.
So you did yours already? And you already got your return?
Yeah, if you do it early enough, it's really fast. What time is it?
Almost four thirty.
Oh man, I'm almost on shift soon. I gotta go change soon to get ready.
Ok, we have to go grocery shopping anyway. Thanks for eating with us!
Pshhhh. Anytime. Even though I'm sick of the food here. But you know what, after this tax return, I finally realized that I can afford to eat at the place I work.
Haha.
You're moving up in the world.
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