Getting Out With A Bang!!

Pretty consistently during my career at Cantina I worked double shifts on Sundays.  Sunday was actually my favorite day to work.  It was by far the most profitable…at least the way I did it.  The morning shift was hit or miss, and it was mine to manage.  The second shift manager usually came in at 4:30, but when I was doing doubles my second ‘cocktailing’ shift started at 3:00.  So for an hour and a half I was both the Manager on Duty and the only Cocktail server on duty.  This combination was very stressful and exhausting on those Sundays that were “hit”.

This particular Sunday was one of the stressful ones; after a busy morning in the dining room it was non-stop all night in the bar.  Once all patrons left, all tables were cleared and cleaned, and all monies were counted, I went down to the office to cash out with Darren.

I was so tired and brain-dead that I could barely carry on a conversation with him.  All I could think about was getting home and sleeping.  He said all my numbers matched and I was good to go.  So I said good night and went to leave out the back stairwell.  That is the way I exited Cantina about 90% of the time after my shift.  The door was a little warped and could stick sometimes, but by this point I was pretty familiar with most of the ‘quirks’ of Cantina.

So after I slunk up the stairs, I went to open the door but it was stuck.  I double checked to make sure it was unlocked and tried again.  Still nothing.  What the hell?!?!  I wasn’t going to let this door keep me from my bed so I threw my hip in to it.  Nothing.  Now I was getting mad.  So I started throwing my whole body in to the door trying to get it to budge.

BAM!  BAM! “What the hell is wrong with this stupid door?!?!”  BAM! BAM!

After a little while my hip was starting to get sore so I took a little break.  Darren all the while was just sitting in the office listening to the ridiculousness at the top of the stairs.  When the banging stopped he checked to see if I made it out.

“Caitlin?”

“Yeah?”

...silence...
...silence...

“...pull”

With just the slightest amount of effort, this time I was successful at PULLING the door open.  What a novel idea!

I couldn’t believe my stupidity.  I went back down to the office and laughed uncontrollably with Darren for a solid 5 minutes before catching my breath.  On my way home I was still so embarrassed and giggling so hard that multiple people thought I was crying and asked me if I was okay.  To which I should have responded (if I could’ve stopped laughing long enough to answer) “not in the head I’m not!”