Friday, October 24, 2008

In the Weeds

I know a lot of people find that hearing about other people's dreams is boring to the extreme, but I always find them kind of fascinating. I used to be a very vivid dreamer and could often remember my dreams and could usually tie my dream into something that was going on in real life.

Last night I dreamed that I was waiting tables and very quickly I got "in the weeds." For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it means that as a server you are getting very far behind in waiting on your tables and you can't catch up. If, again, you are unfamiliar with this term, I wouldn't wish this condition on my worst enemy. There are few things more frustrating than trying to wait on three or four tables at once and not being able to get caught up. Usually you get in the weeds when too many tables are sat at once, or a customer's request throws off your routine. It can be a harrowing experience, particularly if you get very far behind and your customers start to get pissed off.

In my dream last night I couldn't find the water glasses and I had two tables that were sat at once. One table's food came out before I could even get drinks to their table and they had been seated AFTER the table who's order I hadn't even taken yet. I put in one man's bar order and realized about a half hour later that I had never delivered it to him. I finally woke up, relieved that it wasn't real and prayed that when I went back to sleep that I wouldn't slip right back into the dream.

This morning when I was recounting the dream to Mr. Daddy he reminded me of something he heard Mitch Hedberg say on the XM radio comedy station just yesterday (and if you've never heard of Mitch Hedberg, go check him out on You Tube -- especially the routine about escalators. He's hilarious. He is also, unfortunately, deceased.) Anyway, in this routine Mitch said "You know, I prefer sleeping to dreaming. Dreaming is too much work. One minute I'm sleeping and the next minute I'm building a go-kart with my ex-landlord."

I hear ya, Mitch. I woke up exhausted. Exhausted but thankful that I never have to wait tables again.

7 comments:

AndreAnna said...

I love Mitch Hedberg. He cracks me up.

"Why can't I dream that I'm sleeping?"

Anonymous said...

Ah, amazing how pissing off the hostess can accelerate that "in the weeds" scenario. My first job was a hostess. >:)

I hate dreams like that though, where you wake up and feel awful or tired because the dream itself was so draining.

calicobebop said...

Gah - any dream that is associated with some sort of "work" is a nightmare! I'd much prefer to dream about relaxing on a beach or possibly making out with a rock star. Whoo Hoo!

Susie said...

Anxiety usually plays itself out in my dreams as well. I typically have tornado dreams, or plane crashing dreams - sometimes that dream where you wake up and realize that the final exam is half over and you had meant to drop that class and so you never went but you still have to take the exam... You know the one.

Sass said...

Andreanna: I have dreamt that I was sleeping.

It was every bit as lovely as you'd imagine.

Laurel said...

I started waitressing in high school and worked my way through college that way, too. The one thing it taught me (well, at least the biggest thing it taught me) was that I was not going to waitress my whole life. It's a tough job!

One question: Did your feet ache this morning?

for a different kind of girl said...

I've never waited tables, but I assure you, if I did, I would forever be in the weeds. Seriously.

I dreamt this morning that the neighbor kid had somehow gained access to the house while it was just me here, so he'd slip in and out of the house while I slept, moving things around, thus making me go slowly crazy when I'd wake up. When I woke up for real, I was exhausted and pretty irritated at the neighbor kid!