It happened again: I had a server nightmare and now my sheets are damp with cold sweat that smells like tequila, disappointment and bedroom funk. Why? Why must my subconscious treat me this way when I have the utmost respect for it by never paying it any attention? When I lay my addled head on my pillow, all I ask is for six or seven hours of moderately uninterrupted sleep, but last night my brain went all bitch on me and gave me one of those nightmares that only servers have. The worst part is that I am told the dreams keep coming even after you hang up your apron for good. The humanity!!!
In my dream, I arrive to work at my new job. It’s maybe my second day and everything is still new. The place looks like a Outback Steakhouse made a baby with a neighborhood dive bar; it is musty inside with lots of wood paneling and a big long bar. I get there at 4:00 thinking that I have at least a half hour to do sidework and get my bearings straight. As I am waiting at the computer to clock in, a server comes up to me.
“Hey, I need two Aringolds.”
“What are Aringolds?” I ask.
“Beers? I need two beers and you’re bartending tonight. You’re supposed to be ready to go at 4:00. Hurry up.”
I look at my watch and see that it is 4:01. Panic hits because I am not a bartender. I was not hired as a bartender and I was not expecting to be bartending.
“I just started yesterday, I thought I was trailing again. Are you sure?”
“Dude, I dunno, I just need two Aringolds and you’re on the schedule as bartender. Chop chop.”
Never mind the fact that in my dream I created a whole new kind of beer called Aringold. How did I do that? It’s like this one time I dreamed I watched this amazing Broadway musical and when I woke up I realized I had written the music and lyrics, designed the set and costumes and directed it. In my sleep, I’m a fucking genius.
I rush behind the bar and see that Aringold is on draft. “Okay, I can do this,” I think, so Igrab two pint glasses and pour them, putting them at the end of the bar. When the server comes over to pick them up he looks at the beers, clearly upset.
“These need to be in Aringold glasses, man! C’mon, get your shit together! Fuck!”
I search the shelves for an Aringold glass, but find none, so I call out to a busser to see if he knows where the Aringold glasses are.
‘We don’t have that many of them. I think we only have two. Lemme go look.”
The server waits for the two beer glasses instead of just taking the two that are fucking sitting there sweating with perspiration. After what feels like an eternity, the busser returns with the two glasses.
“I found them.”
He sets the two glasses onto the bar. It is obvious that he removed them from a bus tub because both of them are dirty, one with beer foam and the other is half full of ice with some guacamole on the side of it.
“Can I get these washed?” I ask, but it’s too late. He is already walking away from me. Meanwhile the server is still standing there.
“What is the fucking problem? Just fucking wash them and pour my beers. Who the fuck hired you as a bartender?”
This is when I wake up. It is 4:20 AM. In the corner of the room, I hear the breathing of my dog Parker. My husband is sound asleep and all I want to do is go back to sleep and dream about something nice like cheese fondue or chocolate waterslides. When I close my eyes again, I am immediately back at Outback FuckHouse or whatever the name is of this hell place I am working.
I grab the two glasses and start running them under water and using hand soap to wash them. Suddenly, I see a familiar face: my friend Abbie who, it seems, is managing this restaurant now.
“Oh my God, Abbie, I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t think I’m supposed to be bartending tonight. Shouldn’t I be trailing to wait tables? There’s been some mistake!”
“Hello?? My Aringolds!”
I pour the drafts into the oh-so-important fucking Aringold glasses and give them to the server. Abbie comes up to me, her face serious and stern, and says, “You didn’t punch in. I’m gonna have to write you up because you’re not supposed to be on the floor if you’re not on the clock. Sorry.” She then made that “wamp wamp.”
This is when the printer spits out an order for 10 more Aringolds.
“But I don’t have any Aringold glasses!!!” I scream.
Again, I am jolted wake. It is now 5:16. Parker jumps into bed with us, snuggling between our legs and I slowly fall asleep again. The dream does not return this night, but it’s only a matter of time before another server nightmare makes me afraid of going to sleep.
Caddy
My recurring server nightmare is that I decide to go back to work at Buffalo Wild Wings (for some god awful reason) and the managers just throw me back on the floor, even though the menu is different and the floor chart is different and I don’t know where anything is. Everybody always acts like I’m being ridiculous because I didn’t know we sell pizza, or whatever random food item now and nobody helps me.
Last week I had the dream AGAIN. And even though it was definitely Buffalo’s, they’d changed into a Chuck E. Cheese/Buffalo’s Hybrid and apparently I was an idiot for not knowing the proper birthday procedure on my first day back, with no training, after SEVEN YEARS
Dan
I used to work on a cruise ship. For long 10 years. Thanks God, not anymore! But I often have this nightmare: I am at the beginning of a new contract, first day in duty. I’m late. They opened the doors and the passengers start flooding the restaurant. All the working stations are spotless ready (you know: glasses, napkins, silverware, bread, butter, water and ice in water jugs) and I do not have even tablecloths. And on the ship is not that simple, you do not have you go to take from the locker. No! You have to run from waiter to waiter to ask from the one with extra of everything. I look around and my uniform is not the same with the rest of the team. My assistant waiter is nowhere in sight. The passengers are ready to sit down and to complain. And somehow I realize I am dreaming. I smile (in my dream), say f**k off and I wake up.
miss kitty
Mine are usually that I’m the only server, slammed, and the kitchen is down a long flight of stairs. Once it was a restaurant at the top of a twenty story building, the kitchen was in the basement, and elevators were for patrons only. Woke up drenched in sweat.
Darja
My nightmare is…that I am at a new job…restaurant. ..and the table numbers keep changing. everything changes…specials…86 items…draft beer and wine…it sucks…it’s like you are always working. ..when trying to sleep ..that’s why I smoke some green and make a nice cocktail before sleep…I believe it helps.
Stefanie K
I haven’t served in 5 years and I still get them occasionally.
Kait
Mine are always about mountains of silverware…MOUNTAINS…and I’m the only one rolling ?
Danna Hamilton
Yea really it never ends I can’t stand filling the ice it’s on top of the machine and I have to get up on a chair to fill it a nightmare