He who hesitates is lunch. now that's deep. can be seen, or could be seen, as graffiti on wall of joe's bar bathroom, Iowa City. I think as i decide to continue this blog i will post items/thoughts from different parts of my life, divide my life into sections. this section is about working at joe's bar, dropping out of school and working as a waitress at a jock/student bar in iowa city. a significant time in my life, no sarcasm, during which i learned several things, some life lessons (i firmly believe that there are things that are important to know about life, lessons which you can use as you age and face decisions here and there), some just good things to know.

i worked at joe's for @ 9 + months, actually more if you include the time i worked part time after i returned to school, for every shift at some time. so one lesson i learned is that at all times of the day someone can be drunk. i saw people who had not yet sobered up or were still drinking or had just started again at 9 am when i worked the 9-5 shift. there was always someone drunk or getting there at any time.

for the day shift i had to work lunch. and let's be honest, i was not a great waitress. when i was there i had the dubious honor of being the only waitress who lost a lunch reciept - w/o going into details we took lunch orders, took the payment, turned in the orders and the $$ collected and then the rest was ours as tips. i lost a receipt, apparently no one had before me and i will be no one did after me. and i just was not happy/cheerful/sweet enough to get the tips, not that i am a mean person but not a natural smiler. my fellow waitresses did much better. oh well.

met john the pin ball guy there, he was one of the guys who would come in and manage the pin ball machines. a crush i admit. he had a great story about his love of his life i will tell someday.

when my good friend mike and i worked together we did have fun goofing off. sometimes when the beer guy would deliver the beer he would buy a round for everyone in the bar. good old mike would grab a few and hide them for himself in the corners. more about mike in other posts.

other memories about joe's - good juke box with both tony bennet ("i wanna be around...") and frank sinatra. late at night someone would always play "my way".

and i guess the most important lesson from joe's is that after working there for a few bucks an hour and tips is that i needed a degree, any degree, to avoid having to do this for a living. so i returned to school. don't regret the time, all life lessons, even hard ones, are important. and of course the wisdom of the graffiti/heading of this post goes w/o saying.  :)