Glow

One night, over drinks, a friend that was on her way out of the restaurant business and leaving Athens said that when we were gone we'd "get back our glow." I was leaving a few months after her and had to endure the lifestyle of the business for a little bit longer. That's misleading though, I love the business. Being away from it for a while I've come to completely understand what she meant by "glow." The lifestyle, the lives we were living were fun, crazy and care free. Nights were filled with back breaking, high stress, high temperature work. Late nights, after we left that hot kitchen, we cooled down with gin and tonics, Coronas, Blue Moons and tequila shots. The only way to sleep after getting so jacked on caffeine to get through a day was getting so fucked up that you weren't sleeping anymore, you were passing out. It seemed for me and a lot of my friends that were in Athens and in the business for a long time that this kind of life was great. I would not trade those two years for anything in the world. Seriously. I don't think if someone was like "here's a ticket to a beach on the South of France, you can live in my mansion for two years" I would substitute it. Sure it takes the glow away but nothing beats a gin and tonic at 230 in the morning after a crazy Friday night. Something about sitting around until 430 in the morning, with a couple of friends is amazing. Something about the drive home that late, nobody on the road. The loneliness of a restaurant when you're there by yourself is depressing. But if you're there with one other person, just one, it's amazing. I don't know, there's something romantic about the emptiness, the darkness, the knowledge that tommorrow night it'll probably be packed again, but for now we can enjoy the silence. It's not romantic in a passionate, romance, I wanna fuck you on the bar sense, it's something completely different. The whole industry is intimate in the sense that you get to know the people you work with so incredibly well. Those late nights just add to how close you are to them and how intimate the relationships become. If you never have the privledge of experiencing it I feel for you.
That being said, those late nights, that stress, that town, that fucking restaurant, beats you down, chews you up and spits you out everyday. The emotion, the drama, the liquor, the guilt of knowing the stupid, dangerous shit you've done-it's hard. She was right, it takes away the glow. I think I've got most of the glow back. I know she does. I still can't sleep though.
Lyric of the Day:
"I went in to the liquor store, looking for a bottle,
of my favorite Bombay Gin, the answer to my problems.
But to my delight, the bottles were all taken.
Ah yeah, another heroes night."
-Mason Jennings Ulysses