Quick update on happenings in the Life of Jester, everyone’s favorite uncle, mixologist, sports nut, and beer guzzler. Yes, everyone’s. Even yours. Stop living your life in denial.
When The Bar closed at the end of April 2017, I had some decent job offers lined up. (Rewind: The Bar ownership was nice enough to give the staff a good month’s notice of the impending closure, and did everything they could to help staff land on their feet, including transferring much of the staff to other properties if they so desired. They had no bartender openings, only server positions, so I decided to become a free agent. As I later realized, my pride got in the way of my brain.) Anyway, the two main aforementioned job offers were both bartender positions: one at the Navy Air Base, and one at Bad Fish Restaurant. I took the Bad Fish job and turned down the Navy job through this thinking: the Navy job would only be part time and would require me to get an additional job, and a lot of my regulars wouldn’t be able to come see me at the Navy Base. What I DIDN’T realize at the time was that most of my regulars didn’t come see me at Bad Fish. (Great food, great place to eat, not exactly the kind of place you hang out in and drink.) But not only did I not see many regulars, I also wasn’t making much money. And while I liked my coworkers and management, and the few regulars I did have, the company itself sucked ass. More on this later. So eight months later, I saw that the Navy job was open again, and reapplied at it. The guy called me a few days later to ask me if I had, in fact, reapplied, or if it was a weird glitch in the system. I told him I was trying to correct an earlier mistake. He never even interviewed me a second time, he just hired me. I started there in February 2018.
At the Navy Base, I quickly became relatively popular, especially my Bloody Fundays, where I featured my own homemade hand made Bloody Marys, with six different spice levels. I still worked at Bad Fish two shifts a week, because the Navy job was still only part time, and of course I had a side gig MCing a local fun event. (Still have it. Not hugely lucrative, but lots of fun, and only takes up a couple hours of my time, two days a week.)
This last September, I noticed a local bar, The Whale, was not only hiring, but the new GM there had been my first GM at The Bar, and we’d been friends ever since. I applied, intent on getting rid of The Bad Fish job. It amused me to fill out the application, especially when it got to references, as I listed her on it, and her position as GM of The Whale. She hired me immediately, without bothering to interview, and I gave notice at Bad Fish. It ended up being a good five weeks notice, because The Whale was going to be closed for a few weeks in September for renovations (it’s our slowest time of the year here), and I’m not a complete idiot. I did compose an epic four page resignation letter to the company that owns Bad Fish, basically politely and professionally eviscerating them. I dropped off sealed copies of that at HR after I had worked my last shift. It set off a bit of a nuclear bomb in the company, and did cause some changes. (I may post a version of that letter here some time in the near future, and a summary of the phone call I got from the company owner a bit thereafter.)
So things were going well, I was bartending at the Navy Base, bartending and serving at The Whale, and doing my MC thing. And then two things happened, around the same time. At the Navy Base, they hired a new F&B guy to take over all the operations of every food and beverage establishment on base. There are quite a few, including the marina beach bar I worked at. It took Black Bert all of two weeks to manage to alienate almost all the regulars and staff at most of these places, including the marina bar. I won’t go into details; suffice it to say he joined the pantheon of Worst People I’ve Worked For, so now I have a cool five people on that list. At around the same time, my Cool Ass Boss Lady (CABL) at The Whale offered me a full time position that included management. As the saying goes, I may be stupid, but I’m not an idiot. I took the offer, and gave three weeks notice at the Navy Base (though I am still available for the occasional pick up shift if needed). Few people were surprised by this, least of all my old boss, who wasn’t being phased out so much as was now focused solely on marina operations, rather than dealing with the marina and the bar. I won’t say Black Bert didn’t have something to do with my decision, but he was not the main reason for it. Had CABL made me that same offer before Bert brought his wrecking ball to the Base, I probably still would have taken it. (Bonus: CABL’s all about me bringing my Bloody Funday to The Whale!)
So that’s where I stand today. Full time manager/bartender/server at The Whale, with the MC gig as well. Working my ass off, making great money, having a blast (The Whale is a fun bar and live music venue), and overall enjoying life. No love life to speak of at the moment, but whatever. Biking more than ever, fattening up my bank account, and drinking like a fish. And just about everything I hated about Bad Fish, they do the exact opposite at The Whale.
So, greetings from Key West, and have another beer, kids!
And yes, all names used in here (other than Key West) are completely fictional, as always.
EDITED TO ADD: Forgot to mention one of the biggest changes in my life. I used to always say, “I cook, but I don’t bake.” The is no longer true. Last year, right near the start of the year, I started dabbling in baking. And I’ve been on a tear since, making a variety of quickbreads, a rum bread pudding, cupcakes, a couple different kinds of cookies, carrot cake, and most recently, brownies, all from scratch. I’ve had far more success than failures, though even my failures were educational. And I turned my worst failure into the aforementioned rum bread pudding, which people loved. So while I still don’t understand baking instinctually the way I do cooking—so much so that I haven’t come up with any original baking recipes yet, just made a few modifications of other people’s recipes—I’ve been having a blast and seem to be pretty decent at it.
When The Bar closed at the end of April 2017, I had some decent job offers lined up. (Rewind: The Bar ownership was nice enough to give the staff a good month’s notice of the impending closure, and did everything they could to help staff land on their feet, including transferring much of the staff to other properties if they so desired. They had no bartender openings, only server positions, so I decided to become a free agent. As I later realized, my pride got in the way of my brain.) Anyway, the two main aforementioned job offers were both bartender positions: one at the Navy Air Base, and one at Bad Fish Restaurant. I took the Bad Fish job and turned down the Navy job through this thinking: the Navy job would only be part time and would require me to get an additional job, and a lot of my regulars wouldn’t be able to come see me at the Navy Base. What I DIDN’T realize at the time was that most of my regulars didn’t come see me at Bad Fish. (Great food, great place to eat, not exactly the kind of place you hang out in and drink.) But not only did I not see many regulars, I also wasn’t making much money. And while I liked my coworkers and management, and the few regulars I did have, the company itself sucked ass. More on this later. So eight months later, I saw that the Navy job was open again, and reapplied at it. The guy called me a few days later to ask me if I had, in fact, reapplied, or if it was a weird glitch in the system. I told him I was trying to correct an earlier mistake. He never even interviewed me a second time, he just hired me. I started there in February 2018.
At the Navy Base, I quickly became relatively popular, especially my Bloody Fundays, where I featured my own homemade hand made Bloody Marys, with six different spice levels. I still worked at Bad Fish two shifts a week, because the Navy job was still only part time, and of course I had a side gig MCing a local fun event. (Still have it. Not hugely lucrative, but lots of fun, and only takes up a couple hours of my time, two days a week.)
This last September, I noticed a local bar, The Whale, was not only hiring, but the new GM there had been my first GM at The Bar, and we’d been friends ever since. I applied, intent on getting rid of The Bad Fish job. It amused me to fill out the application, especially when it got to references, as I listed her on it, and her position as GM of The Whale. She hired me immediately, without bothering to interview, and I gave notice at Bad Fish. It ended up being a good five weeks notice, because The Whale was going to be closed for a few weeks in September for renovations (it’s our slowest time of the year here), and I’m not a complete idiot. I did compose an epic four page resignation letter to the company that owns Bad Fish, basically politely and professionally eviscerating them. I dropped off sealed copies of that at HR after I had worked my last shift. It set off a bit of a nuclear bomb in the company, and did cause some changes. (I may post a version of that letter here some time in the near future, and a summary of the phone call I got from the company owner a bit thereafter.)
So things were going well, I was bartending at the Navy Base, bartending and serving at The Whale, and doing my MC thing. And then two things happened, around the same time. At the Navy Base, they hired a new F&B guy to take over all the operations of every food and beverage establishment on base. There are quite a few, including the marina beach bar I worked at. It took Black Bert all of two weeks to manage to alienate almost all the regulars and staff at most of these places, including the marina bar. I won’t go into details; suffice it to say he joined the pantheon of Worst People I’ve Worked For, so now I have a cool five people on that list. At around the same time, my Cool Ass Boss Lady (CABL) at The Whale offered me a full time position that included management. As the saying goes, I may be stupid, but I’m not an idiot. I took the offer, and gave three weeks notice at the Navy Base (though I am still available for the occasional pick up shift if needed). Few people were surprised by this, least of all my old boss, who wasn’t being phased out so much as was now focused solely on marina operations, rather than dealing with the marina and the bar. I won’t say Black Bert didn’t have something to do with my decision, but he was not the main reason for it. Had CABL made me that same offer before Bert brought his wrecking ball to the Base, I probably still would have taken it. (Bonus: CABL’s all about me bringing my Bloody Funday to The Whale!)
So that’s where I stand today. Full time manager/bartender/server at The Whale, with the MC gig as well. Working my ass off, making great money, having a blast (The Whale is a fun bar and live music venue), and overall enjoying life. No love life to speak of at the moment, but whatever. Biking more than ever, fattening up my bank account, and drinking like a fish. And just about everything I hated about Bad Fish, they do the exact opposite at The Whale.
So, greetings from Key West, and have another beer, kids!
And yes, all names used in here (other than Key West) are completely fictional, as always.
EDITED TO ADD: Forgot to mention one of the biggest changes in my life. I used to always say, “I cook, but I don’t bake.” The is no longer true. Last year, right near the start of the year, I started dabbling in baking. And I’ve been on a tear since, making a variety of quickbreads, a rum bread pudding, cupcakes, a couple different kinds of cookies, carrot cake, and most recently, brownies, all from scratch. I’ve had far more success than failures, though even my failures were educational. And I turned my worst failure into the aforementioned rum bread pudding, which people loved. So while I still don’t understand baking instinctually the way I do cooking—so much so that I haven’t come up with any original baking recipes yet, just made a few modifications of other people’s recipes—I’ve been having a blast and seem to be pretty decent at it.
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