Hospitallity Planet

12x12 Acrylic/ Canvas/ Epoxy Resin/ Glitter

(If you worked where I worked in Las Vegas you know that mahogany & black :) 

I work in a nine dining room restaurant. Tonight I am in the Lincoln Room - it’s about a quarter-mile walk/ run/ fluid jog to the kitchen. Tonight it is set up convention style. Where every table is stretched and tonight - one side is a party of 26 plus the packed other side. All is well. 

Everything is smooth until I have a reservation chit that says that a cake had been delivered. As my 25 guests sit down I run to every walk in, ask the dessert lady, ask every manager, the chef, the sous chef. Four laps around the building. No cake. A woman at the table where the cake was supposed to go had on a feather boa and tiara. She was so happy, celebrating her sixtieth birthday. As I walk/ glide across the bar I see a bundle of like 40 silver balloons at the front door. The man that is holding them is also holding a giant cake box in his other hand. He catches my eye. I ran up to him with the chit in my hand - asking if this is his party and more importantly if that is the cake I am supposed to have.

 His eyes sparkle. He beams. “I am surprising my Mom, the birthday girl here. I just got off of a flight from Chicago where I live. These are all of my brothers and sisters behind me - they landed in Taiwan a few hours ago. 

Being a server is funny that way. How you are a fill-in character in the lives of someone else. I watched those kids go up and surprise their mother. Hell, I had already spent an eternity trying to find the cake that was thirty more seconds. She dropped her break, yelped at the top of her lungs, and hugged everyone crying. They were still hugging and crying ten minutes later. 

 I go into a memory of one Christmas when I was so sad I wouldn’t be home that my Dad bought me an $800 plane ticket to surprise my Mom. I still remember walking in that room and how she dropped the plate and screamed and cried, and so many other things he did for us. I smile at the family, happy for their joy. Turn around - listlessly fill my guests' wine glasses at another table. 

Thank God I found that fucking cake.