Apparently, There Are No Phones in Denver

Last night I talked to Marianne about cutting back on my hours at the bar. This week was a perfect illustration for why. I've already talked about the fun with credit cards on Wednesday, and I figured that Friday might be alright. I was scheduled for 4:00, another gal for 9:00 so I went to work planning to go home early, which was fortunate since I was worn out and not in the best of moods. The perfect night for being able to duck out around eleven, right? Yeah, you already see how this is going to go down.

7:00 p.m. - we start getting busy and I start thinking how it'd be nice to have some help soon.

8:00 p.m. - I'm swamped and running as fast as I can between a nearly full house (13 tables) all to myself.

9:00 p.m. - no co-worker, but no big deal since she ascribes more to the show-up-when-you-feel-like-it school of thought and usually is at least ten minutes late.

9:20 p.m. - I ask Julia if she's heard anything from AWOL girl. Nope. Julia calls her, or tries, her phone's turned off. (By the way, it's still busy. It's Friday, after all)

10:00 p.m. - I ask Jan if she knows anything. Two things come to light: 1-Jan talked to her earlier that day, gal said she'd be there at nine. 2-Tonight is gal's boyfriend's work Christmas party.

2:00 a.m. - I'm counting out my bank ($1,170 total in sales, two hundred over my previous all-time record) and hoping AWOL girl gets fired. No call-no show, this is the third time in about four months when she hasn't come in on my night to go home early, my thoughts about her are expletive-filled.

By the time I get home, my body is sore from the long, exhausting night. I console myself with the knowledge that I get to go back and do almost the exact same thing the next night.

Saturday:
3:00 p.m. - I get a call from the bar. Since I'm at the movie theater getting ready to watch Enchanted, I let it go to voice mail. I turn to my mom and say, "That can only mean one of two things, they're closing the bar tonight because of the weather, or they want me to come in early." Turns out that new gal has called off, so could I come in an hour early to help with the party downstairs? Nope. I couldn't. I don't like parties and I had no desire to come in at all, much less early to do a party.

6:00 p.m. - I come in, as scheduled, and they send me downstairs to help with the party. I try to get drinks for people, but they all tell me they're fine, then go up to the bar.

7:00 p.m. - Marianne decides Dave #2 can handle things by himself and sends me upstairs where I'm immediately at the beck and call of two aggressively-friendly semi-regulars.

8:00 p.m. - It's still mind-numbingly slow. At this point I've made four dollars in tips. Julia comes in and says the magic, but always ironic, words, "Maybe we'll close early tonight."

8:00-12:30 - It gets just busy enough that I realize there's no chance of an early close, but not busy enough to keep me from being insanely bored and frequently asking Julia if she's got anything I can do. I wash a lot of glassware.

12:30 a.m. - I'm officially out of customers as my last two (though long-since finished drinking) tables have gone. I say "to hell with looking busy" and plop down on a comfy chair with Realms of Fantasy and start reading.

1:00 a.m. - Julia says, "If K.C. will put up the chairs for you, go ahead and take off."

1:10 a.m. - I'm scraping snow off my car and getting the hell out of there.

Now, getting back to the title...
When I asked about AWOL girl on Saturday, in the hopes of getting something vehement about somebody getting fired, I was informed that AWOL girl's brother was in a car accident in Denver on Friday night.

Last month, her boyfriend was in a car accident on the night she was supposed to come in and let me go home early.

Now, I'm not going to say I don't believe her. It's entirely possible that such a coincidence could have happened. What I am going to say is that maybe it's time AWOL girl's friends and family started to take the bus. Obviously, driving is an issue for them.

On a related note - I know Denver is an exotic land far, far away, but here I always thought they had phones there. Silly me!