It's time for a positive blog post. It's time to lift up those who deserve it. I want to take a minute and tell everyone why I love what I do, and most importantly where I do it. I've been serving tables for most of my working career. I've had a few spats of selling cars in between, but serving and bartending have been my main source of income. I get paid on the generosity of others. Most of my paychecks are zero dollars, and very few of them have a positive amount on them. Mostly somewhere between $4 and $60 for two weeks. What CK's pays me is an hourly rate that mostly covers my taxes, and I never see any of it. I work for tips. Seems kind of lowly when you think about it. And it can be lowly at times, don't get me wrong. If people don't want to tip, then I don't make money. But I'm good at what I do. And that makes me my money. Sure, just about anyone can do what I do. It's not rocket science by any means. But one of the best things that I have going for me is not only the venue at which I work, but the people that I have surrounding me. We are all professionals. We are all really good at what we do. I can't do my job without the help of my talented coworkers. I also cannot be free to do my job well without the support of the best management staff I could possibly ask for. For those of you who don't know much about where I work, CK's is a family owned restaurant. Kendra is the owner, and does not take that job sitting down. She is hands on, and always doing something to make sure her place is the best in town. She encourages the personalities of each individual to be genuine, and real. Before I came to CK's, I had worked for a few corporate restaurants. The corporate restaurants taught me a lot. They also taught me where I needed to be, and it wasn't with any of their cookie cutter food factories. I will be the first to admit it, I goof off and am lazy at times. But when it comes down to it, when we're busy, or a customer needs something, any one of us is already getting it done. The rest of the management staff is on the same page as Kendra. They will goof off with us when it's time to do that, and they'll be in the trenches standing right next to us, and having our back when that time comes. I've never felt more at home at a job than I do at CK's. They have surrounded themselves with a team that's pretty tight. To do as well as we've done over the last 6 years, really speaks to that. There have been numerous restaurants and bars that have come and gone in the short amount of time that we've been in business. All the while, we keep doing better and better each year. As far as the rest of the people that I work with, I would say it's the best group of servers, bartenders, and hostesses I've ever seen. Way better than any corporate place could ever do. When you have that kind of team to go to work with everyday, it makes going to work a little less hectic. I've seen how bad restaurants are run, I've seen how managers can micro-manage, I've seen how poor structure and communication breakdowns happen. None of that happens. We communicate, we help each other selflessly, and we all are thankful for each other. And thank God for everyone I work with. It's like we're all on the same page, and we're all that awesome dysfunctional family that everyone on the outside wants to join. To any of my coworkers that are reading this, I just want to say thank you for being who you are. Thank you for always being awesome. See you tomorrow.