closure...but not of the restaurant

When my mom was visiting me in Sevilla we went to the city's Cathedral to visit it and feel intimidated by a structure built with the blood money reaped from the 'New World'. As we were entering there were two yankee tourists behind us. One said to the other, in that bored university dude voice, "Man, my dogs are really barkin". "I kneouuuu, mine teuuuuu", replied dude #2. The point of posting that anecdote here on my P Diddyblog is that i actually felt like using that expression last night after 7 hours of waiting tables and cleaning, because I think it meant that dude #1's feet were really tired and sore. I was exhausted, and in that one day gained an immense new respect for people who do this for extended periods of time, i mean for years of their life, or forever. I already felt like calling in sick today. Not a good sign.

I think what i like about P Diddy's is the finite character of the repetitive routines. Task after task is something completable, you never leave any loose ends not tied up at the end of a shift. Your tables get seated, served, cleared and reset. Closure. You start with a float. You take money, give change, collect tips, do your end of shift reconiciliation of money stuff, put it in an envelope and stick it in the safe. You have your float back at the end of the shift. Closure. I punch in at the beginning of my shift. I punch out at the end and I really, truly can leave work, not just physically leave but bring worries and stress and things to prepare for the next day home with me. Closure. Everything is so efficient. You punch your orders into the computer, they go to the kitchen automatically and when they are ready the printout is there lying on your food on the warming table to prove to you that it's all there. You barely even have to talk to anyone else. It's so clean and fast and easy. I don't think that kind of simplicity has ever been a characteristic in my life before. It's of course at the same time incredibly disturbing, knowing that everything from the secret sauce recipe to the flecks of colour in the carpet are identical to those of the PDiddys all over the place. Like how Subways smells the same in Barcelona and in Sackville. It's ugly. But my head has been swimming with uncertainties and open-ended plans for years now, and this PDiddy routine has been really bizarrely calming.