Always Look For The Best Thing In What You Do

Sitting at the Burbank Boy’s Big Boy, it reminds me of my Mom who does the salad prep at the Frisch’s Big Boy in Norwood, OH.

She doesn’t need to talk to anyone, she just does her job. The place has been there for four decades (as far as I know). My Mom is proud of her job, despite that it doesn’t do anything but buy her “beer and pizza” money, as she use to tell me (she doesn’t eat pizza or beer, but it’s the meaning that counts). People should be proud to do what they do no matter what it is. When I got my first job, it was washing pans at Little Caesars. That place was a cesspool, looking back now. In Ohio there was no health rating, so I’m sure we’d have been shut down had this been in California. The only reason the place stayed up to code, was because my lesbian managers HATED cockroaches. I found it funny she’d smoke her Virginia Slims while kneading dough. Anyway, she made me scrub those baseboards until they were glossy. They didn’t let me handle the cheese cutter, because I was only 14 at the time. I didn’t care. It seemed every time I had a job, I looked for the best of it. It seemed that way even when it wasn’t a job that paid.

I was busted years ago for hit and run accident. I was so drunk at the time, it all seemed like a nightmare. Didn’t even realize what I’d done, until I woke up the next morning. I hid out in my apartment until they towed my car. It’s funny, in Sherman Oaks, California, they do very little when property damage happens. I still get anxiety when I think of it, because I could’ve seriously hurt someone. It makes me sick now.

But they nailed me with a shit-ton of community service. And the state wanted me to pay dearly. I wanted me to pay dearly. I fucked up. So they put me on Cal-trans. Which is doing garbage clean up on the side of the highway. 30 days of it. 240 hours collectively. There wasn’t a requirement you had to do shit. But, you were there for 8 hours either way. I made the best of it. Got some exercise and sun. Government training program. I think that is the key to life. To look for the best in what you do. My Mom instilled that in me. She was so proud to show me around her workspace at Big Boy’s. It makes a huge difference.