Food Runner and Aspiring Law Student

Age: 25

Sex: Male

First, the obvious, what the fuck is a food runner? A food runner is the person that brings you your food at a restaurant. My job is to be seen and not heard. That's not even true. If you don't eat out a lot, or have never worked in the restaurant industry you probably didn't realize this was even a job, before I got it (the first time), neither did I. To be honest, I don't think that's a bad thing. When you go out to eat you shouldn't be concerned with who the person that is bringing you the food is, really. So maybe, yeah, maybe it's not so bad if I'm seen and not heard, aside from the not heard thing, because after I drop off food to any particular table I'm instructed to say, “Is there anything else that I may bring you?” I pretty much do this, but I replace “may” with “can” even if it's not proper English, which it may be or may not, I'm a food runner, not a newspaper editor with an English major (though I do have an English minor, which is a joke and worthless. And only a joke in the sense that it doesn't mean anything, not in the sense that I was joking about having said minor). So yeah, a food runner “runs” you your food and brings you anything else that you “may” need. In some restaurants they may also act as an “expediter” who takes the tickets from the waiters and makes sure that food goes out coursed correctly, on time and together. I don't really do this at my job that often, but sometimes I do.

So, now that that's out of the way, which may or may not have been necessary lets get down to the day of an aspiring Law Student, but currently 25-year-old food runner.

9:00 AM – Wake up. (One of the benefits of having a job at a restaurant is the hours, though this can also be a huge drawback. For example, if you want to make the most money, you want to work on Friday and Saturday nights, which means you're going to be working from 5 PM to Midnight on the two best days of the week to go out. This can suck, I don't mind it. Back to the day.) I pour myself a bowl of grape nuts and sit down with two of my roommates in front of a gigantic TV that I didn't purchase. We watch something. I couldn't really tell you what it was, probably SportsCenter, I wasn't paying attention, clearly.

10:15 AM – After thinking about working out I decide to make some coffee and toast. I love coffee and toast (usually with peanut butter and jam). I love it so much I briefly considered writing a rap song about it. I sit down back in front of the TV and watch a DVRed NOVA episode about dreams. I've been meaning to watch this for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. I had a pretty freaky dream the other night that's still

bothering me so I was getting pretty into this episode. About half way through I got a phone call from my girlfriend and stopped watching.

10:45 AM – Phone call with girlfriend. Things are discussed. One thing in particular that is discussed is how I need to work out today and start working on my personal statement for law school applications.

11:00 AM – Sit down in front of the TV to watch some more TV (I see a theme here. A shitty one, too.) Last night's daily show.

11:24 AM – Daily Show is over and it's time to get ready for work. Shower, shave, change. It's finally starting to get cold and potentially rainy here so I throw on a big waterproof coat and some snow gloves (I'm pretty sure I have some sort of circulation problem to my fingers and toes, therefore they are both always way colder than other peoples. The tip of my right middle finger will often go completely numb inside my house) before getting on my bike for the roughly 2-mile ride to work.

11:45 AM – Head to work.

11:55 AM – Clock in for work.

11:55 AM – 4:00 PM – Run food to tables. Ask them if there's anything else I can bring them. Pepper their soups and salads, bring back ketchup and mustard, tell their server that “that gentleman in seat 3 with the red sweater on 109 would like another glass of wine, I didn't catch which one.” Fold napkins, stock the line with dishes, collect tips.

(I didn't collect all of them because some of the servers weren't finished with their shifts, but I probably won't make very much money. You see, I don't make a lot of money as a food runner, as runners we collect 1.5% of all servers sales, pool it and split it. On Friday and Saturday nights we can hope to make $40-55 on top of an $8/hr wage, so those are our best nights. Interestingly, to me at least, is that I've kept a spreadsheet that totals all my hours and all the tips and my adjusted hourly wage. It typically works out to about $15-18/hr, but I only work about 20/25 hours a week, which is good and bad. I'm basically working this job only to stay afloat until I hopefully begin law school next fall, so the money isn't really an issue to me.)

2:35 PM – I realize that this doesn't really fit the chronology, but whatever. I talk with one of the servers that has a job at another place that she and a few others have been trying to get me to go work at. Because this week I was randomly taken off the schedule for Saturday night, one of the most lucrative for me, I'm suddenly more intrigued in looking for a new job than I was previously.

Taking away my Saturday shift leaves me out a couple hundred bucks a month, which is substantial. Apparently, for the position I'd be applying for at this other place I'd probably be making up to $100 a night on weekends. This, I think, is worth the commute, which is more intensive than a 10-minute bike ride (a huge perk in my opinion).

4:15 PM – After munching down some Tacos from my restaurants “Taco Tuesday” I head home.

4:25 PM – More TV. DVR of PTI. God I hate writing that so often.

4:45 PM - Call the girlfriend and ask about her day, tell her about mine. Tell her about the new job potential. She is also a food runner at my current job, but she recently got a new job (and kept one shift as a food runner, mostly to hang out with me). These are the kind of things that you kind of have to do if you work with your significant other. She seemed to give me the blessing, so I'm planning on heading over to the other restaurant

5:00 PM – Watch some old episodes of Arrested Development. God I love that show.

6:00 PM – Nap.

7:30 – 8:45 PM – Workout. Legs & Back. Ab Ripper X. P90x.

9:00 PM – Start writing this.

9:30 PM – Shower.

9:40 PM – Re-heat some of this (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/dining/021mrex.html?_r=1&ref=dining) that I made last night. Delicious, again.

10:00 PM – Start baking some Tofu in preparation for dinner I'm making with the girlfriend tomorrow. I mixed together a random little asian marinade (Soy, sesame oil, mirin, honey, green onion, garlic, sesame seeds) out of whatever I had in the pantry and threw it into the oven. It didn't really turn out that great, but the taste will probably be masked over pretty well in the dinner tomorrow (basically just a stir-fry with a Thai-style peanut sauce).