Much Luck

I was standing at the kitchen sink doing the dishes when she came in. I could tell from her footsteps that she was agitated.

"How was work tonight?" I asked her.

"Fuck. It was terrible," she said.

"Why?"

"This fucking guy threw a plate at me. I mean literally threw a plate of food at me. Look at my shirt. Its fucked. There's ketchup all over my shirt."

"That sucks."

"Then on top of that I got stiffed three times. One of them was the ketchup shit bag, who is another reason why I should never live in Berkeley. The second was this asshole who started yelling at me right after I cleaned up my shirt. After that douchebag threw food all over me I went outside and screamed. While I was outside asshole number 2 thought I was taking far too long. When I came back in he started telling me how I was the worst waitress ever and how I was a complete waste of life. I almost flipped my shit on him. My manager ended up comping his dinner, I don't know why. Asshole number 2 stiffed me on a $40 check. He basically robbed me of at least six dollars. Well even more because I have to pay out the kitchen for some of his food."

I kept washing the dishes, as she talked to me. Her voice seemed to be getting more hoarse. She sat down as she finished her rant. She gave an exasperated sigh.

"You should probably get a new job," I said. "Maybe waitressing isn't the right racket for you. There's a lot of assholes that eat out, and your place definitely attracts a huge chunk of them. Berkeley is a breeding ground for uptight yuppy shit bags."

"I know but what am I going to do? Fuck! I hate the service industry. Its not like I have a shit ton of marketable skills."

"You can make a mean batch of brownies, and you look cute in those pants."

"Thanks, but that's not sound financial advice. I'm just glad that I have tomorrow off. I don't think I could take another day of this shit. I'm impressed with myself that I didn't just walk out of there."

"I know it doesn't mean much, but you should try not to let these people get to you. Are you hungry? I just made some soup."

"Eh, I guess I should eat. Its just so hard. Why do these people have to go around making my life so miserable?"

"I don't know. Maybe they're so miserable that they have to dump it on others. You can't control how they feel, but you can control how you feel. You can be happy if you want to. I know that sounds tacky, but there are things you can do to prevent shit bags from raking on your nerves."

"I know, I know, I'm just having a bad day."

"Yeah, you haven't had much luck lately."