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Worked with Angie Last Night (part two)
=======================================

Once Angie and I arrived, we carried a few coolers in from her truck to
the kitchen.

I saw other waiters there.

Angie, Jake, and I were setting up little plates in the kitchen and then
Angie left for a minute.  I asked Jake what these things are like.  I
figured I could find out if he's done a lot of these.

He said he mostly does these because it's fun to be in these houses.

The house was in the neighborhood with all the old oil baron mansions.

They're all gorgeous with amazing lawns and gardens.

I realized that it was pretty exciting to be inside of one for the first
time.  Awe inspiring, even if I was effectively the modern version of a
servant.

Anyhow, while I worked with Jake in the kitchen, I looked around.

This was obviously not a restaurant kitchen.  Instead of stainless steel
equipment that was designed completely for use, and not at all for
aesthetics, this kitchen was beautiful.

There were potted plants here and there, bright white tiles on the
counters with nice dark blue borders.

Nice stereo speakers built into the house played some nice music.  There
were plenty of windows too.  Restaurant kitchens don't usually have
windows.

Restaurant kitchens are cramped, noisy, often really hot, and people are
moving fast.  But preparing trays with with Jake in this beautiful
kitchen felt like a totally different experience.

----

While we worked, I told Jake I was surprised she included me with the
other people working tonight... they were the seafood house super star
crew.

Then Jake said, "You take this too seriously."

He said how anybody could do this job. Then he said, "Well, anybody With
at least slightly above average looks."

I said this job is physically demanding though.  Not everyone can walk
for like four hours straight.  And you gotta act nice even when people
are rude.

Then Jake said, "The real kicker is you can't be qualified to do
anything that pays better.  Because this is a job of last resort."

----

I followed Jake out of the kitchen into the main area of the house, each
of us holding trays of snacks.

I scanned the room itself and the people in the room.

There are young people at the party.  Like people my age.  I wasn't
prepared for this.

It's one thing for me to act submissive to people older than me, but
serving rich young kids is hard for me.  I start hearing an old voice in
my head.  He points out how unfair life is.

Our society says they get to relax tonight while Angie and me bring
their snacks.

I can't win the debate in my head and it just gets me angry to think
about it.

I push it down.  That voice.  He's the bitter guy I used to be a little
while ago, before I got picked up.

He wasn't wrong.  Life is cruel.  Anyone that says otherwise is selling
something.

But that's not the whole story, either.  We can help each other out.
The choice isn't just between killing ourselves or not killing
ourselves.  It's between killing ourselves or trying to helping each
other out.

That was the part I didn't have before.  I was overwhelmed.

It's still not that comforting, but it's something.

----

I overheard a lot of conversation snippets tonight.  This was easy work.
Just take trays from the kitchen, walk around the fancy house and
hand out the food.

There were no orders to record.  No specials to describe.  No risk of
getting three new tables sitting down all at the same moment.

I spied on as many conversations as I could.

I heard one dude say how his firm is looking for a new executive
assistant and they got dozens of applications.

The dude was pretty crass about it.  Said how when lots of attractive
women apply, he knows his competitors must not be doing great, or these
women would already jobs.

There must not be a lot of open jobs if he was getting so many
applications.

It's strange -- it feels predatory just writing down what I heard the
guy saying.  As if me writing it down now somehow means I'm endorsing
it.

But I thought again about how Jake said how restaurant jobs are often
people's last resort.

Jake was saying that working in fine dining takes a certain kind of
person, and usually those people have much better options.  This job is
physically demanding.  You get unpredictable pay but most of the time it
isn't great.  Most people aren't impressed by it either.

So in many ways they were saying the same thing.  There's not a lot  of
good options for people without certain skills and connections so
we're fighting over scraps.

And when there's a lot of people willing to do the work, it's hard to
negotiate.  So we take whatever pay they offer and work really hard.

This set up benefits the folks that were at the party.  And it dawned on
me that if I could figure that out, then they certainly had as well.

Maybe the whole point of politics, if you peel back enough layers of
indirection and euphemism and nice speeches, maybe the whole point is
just one side trying to protect its unfair advantage from the other
side.

Like when the peasants are too many, the king can see who is willing to
debase themselves the most.

Of course it's more complex than that.  I've got a stack of textbooks
trying to explain how it all really works.

But at its heart, this dude was pretty happy with the situation.  It
suits him just fine to have a parade of desperate young women hoping for
a job.

Meanwhile, she's making just barely enough to pay her rent.