Oscar's, Women and little Mexican guys
Sometimes you can trace your life as it is now back to one critical point in time. To some it’s bottoming out on a drug binge, others a D.U.I. on the way home from their ten year high school reunion. Regardless of what it was, it was a moment of your life that prior, you had not been leading the same path.
I was walking up to Edward’s Cinemas to drop off an application. It was the first place I was applying out of high school. It didn’t pay much, minimum wage with no salary increases unless you were a supervisor, but it was a job close to home and school. The fact that I would get to see movies for free was an added bonus and in the long run may have made up for the lack of pay raises. But what happened as I was walking up to drop the application off changed my life to the path I am on now. I say that like it was something big like a sudden hurricane or rabid leopard on the loose in the parking lot, but in reality it was just a touch looking, little Mexican guy wandering around with flyers that did me in.
His name was Eric and was the soon to be kitchen manager of a soon to be built restaurant. He asked what I was doing there that day so I explained that I wasn’t looking for trouble; that was in need of work and just wanted to drop off an application. When he reached for his pocket, I recoiled slightly not quite sure what was about to be pulled out. To his credit though, he didn’t look like the type to shank me in broad daylight. I used to be nervous around anyone approaching me from behind. When he produced a flyer announcing the opening of Oscar’s ninth restaurant, I was slightly more than relieved.
Oscar’s was a family owned and operated restaurant chain when I started working there. It remained that way for seven months until the family sold the company to Sizzler. The parents stayed on as advisors to the board but they cut the son and daughter loose without resolving their contracts. A few lawsuits later and the daughter has her own restaurant chain while the brother is more than set for life. I’d eaten at Oscar’s once, maybe twice in high school. My mom had heard some rave reviews of the Greek salad and breadsticks. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The rest of their menu seemed to be stock order-at-the-register-and-sit-down food. Their breadsticks though, they made me love the place.
Eric’s flyer gave me the heads up about the opening of the Mira Mesa location and in turn altered the course of my life. I interviewed with Kelly the GM, and Juan the company’s kitchen manager. They loved me, but I was going on vacation for two of the four weeks of training. I came back to town and found out that they were still hiring. I called them up and they offered me the job. From there, life started to change quickly. In the clichéd sense, I was meeting new people, having new experiences, partying more in four months that I had in four years of high school. In a way, I was leading a life that I had only dreamt of only months prior.A co-worker of mine, Jaime, introduced me to Gina who subsequently changed my life for the worse. She bankrupted me, fucked with my head and heart more than anyone could think. I left her after a year and a half and she pulled the “But I’m pregnant” card. Since she put out as often as nun in a convent, I knew she was full of only shit. I’ve not spoken to her since I left that night, but from all that I’ve gathered, she’s still petty and unattractive. Not to worry, the bitterness and irony are not lost on me. It was after I left her that I started writing more to get through the sense of loneliness that even I, cold heart and all, felt without her around. As manipulative and emotionally abusive as she was, she was a warm body next to me in bed. I hear a lot of people say that denial and ignoring the problem will not help it. On the contrary, I found it to be quite useful. I ignored my feelings of anger and frustration towards her and delved into my writing.
The other major revelation I came upon after breaking up with Gina was that I was able to switch off my feelings as easy as if they were a light bulb. Not only was I able to focus on my writing, but I didn’t have to worry about lusting after women. Considering I’d just left a long relationship that hadn’t been too good to me, this was a wonderful new tool. For a year and a half I shut off my feelings. For a year and a half I was alone, though quite happy.Then I met Jessica. I should say re-met because I had actually gone to high school with her. She was younger than I was (I can’t actually recall if it was legal, but I think it wasn’t). We had gone snowboarding with a group of Oscar’s (now Pat and Oscar’s as a result of a third lawsuit) co-workers and it was there that I finally noticed that she was not only attractive, but a wonderful person as well. I told this to Clarke as we rode the lift up the mountain and he concurred. We both laughed at Pat’s truly pathetic attempts to woo Jessica and talked about how attractive she was becoming on this one day trip. I asked her out the next month and we had a great month getting to know each other. Then she left me for Clarke. I was twenty years old and had been dumped by a girl who I was really starting to like for one of my friends. It sounds rougher than it was because I had already discovered that I had an uncannily good ability to shut off my feelings.
Another co-worker of mine at Oscar’s, Marv, was a good friend of mine. We had hit it off immediately when at training we both started laughing at the same dumb humor, much like Johnny Knoxville and Tom Sizemore in “Big Trouble”. Through him I met his brother, Crit. We all got along famously and had years of good times. It was on the birthday of yet another Oscar’s co-worker that I met Crit’s college friend who was down looking for a place to live. We hit it off and immediately started dating.
My life now consists of school, work, friends and my girlfriend. All four have been directly influenced by my employment at Oscar’s. My life as it is now is traced back to one point. The moment where I met a little Mexican guy named Eric with his little Oscar’s flyer. Because of this, I always take flyers from little Mexican guys.
I was walking up to Edward’s Cinemas to drop off an application. It was the first place I was applying out of high school. It didn’t pay much, minimum wage with no salary increases unless you were a supervisor, but it was a job close to home and school. The fact that I would get to see movies for free was an added bonus and in the long run may have made up for the lack of pay raises. But what happened as I was walking up to drop the application off changed my life to the path I am on now. I say that like it was something big like a sudden hurricane or rabid leopard on the loose in the parking lot, but in reality it was just a touch looking, little Mexican guy wandering around with flyers that did me in.
His name was Eric and was the soon to be kitchen manager of a soon to be built restaurant. He asked what I was doing there that day so I explained that I wasn’t looking for trouble; that was in need of work and just wanted to drop off an application. When he reached for his pocket, I recoiled slightly not quite sure what was about to be pulled out. To his credit though, he didn’t look like the type to shank me in broad daylight. I used to be nervous around anyone approaching me from behind. When he produced a flyer announcing the opening of Oscar’s ninth restaurant, I was slightly more than relieved.
Oscar’s was a family owned and operated restaurant chain when I started working there. It remained that way for seven months until the family sold the company to Sizzler. The parents stayed on as advisors to the board but they cut the son and daughter loose without resolving their contracts. A few lawsuits later and the daughter has her own restaurant chain while the brother is more than set for life. I’d eaten at Oscar’s once, maybe twice in high school. My mom had heard some rave reviews of the Greek salad and breadsticks. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The rest of their menu seemed to be stock order-at-the-register-and-sit-down food. Their breadsticks though, they made me love the place.
Eric’s flyer gave me the heads up about the opening of the Mira Mesa location and in turn altered the course of my life. I interviewed with Kelly the GM, and Juan the company’s kitchen manager. They loved me, but I was going on vacation for two of the four weeks of training. I came back to town and found out that they were still hiring. I called them up and they offered me the job. From there, life started to change quickly. In the clichéd sense, I was meeting new people, having new experiences, partying more in four months that I had in four years of high school. In a way, I was leading a life that I had only dreamt of only months prior.A co-worker of mine, Jaime, introduced me to Gina who subsequently changed my life for the worse. She bankrupted me, fucked with my head and heart more than anyone could think. I left her after a year and a half and she pulled the “But I’m pregnant” card. Since she put out as often as nun in a convent, I knew she was full of only shit. I’ve not spoken to her since I left that night, but from all that I’ve gathered, she’s still petty and unattractive. Not to worry, the bitterness and irony are not lost on me. It was after I left her that I started writing more to get through the sense of loneliness that even I, cold heart and all, felt without her around. As manipulative and emotionally abusive as she was, she was a warm body next to me in bed. I hear a lot of people say that denial and ignoring the problem will not help it. On the contrary, I found it to be quite useful. I ignored my feelings of anger and frustration towards her and delved into my writing.
The other major revelation I came upon after breaking up with Gina was that I was able to switch off my feelings as easy as if they were a light bulb. Not only was I able to focus on my writing, but I didn’t have to worry about lusting after women. Considering I’d just left a long relationship that hadn’t been too good to me, this was a wonderful new tool. For a year and a half I shut off my feelings. For a year and a half I was alone, though quite happy.Then I met Jessica. I should say re-met because I had actually gone to high school with her. She was younger than I was (I can’t actually recall if it was legal, but I think it wasn’t). We had gone snowboarding with a group of Oscar’s (now Pat and Oscar’s as a result of a third lawsuit) co-workers and it was there that I finally noticed that she was not only attractive, but a wonderful person as well. I told this to Clarke as we rode the lift up the mountain and he concurred. We both laughed at Pat’s truly pathetic attempts to woo Jessica and talked about how attractive she was becoming on this one day trip. I asked her out the next month and we had a great month getting to know each other. Then she left me for Clarke. I was twenty years old and had been dumped by a girl who I was really starting to like for one of my friends. It sounds rougher than it was because I had already discovered that I had an uncannily good ability to shut off my feelings.
Another co-worker of mine at Oscar’s, Marv, was a good friend of mine. We had hit it off immediately when at training we both started laughing at the same dumb humor, much like Johnny Knoxville and Tom Sizemore in “Big Trouble”. Through him I met his brother, Crit. We all got along famously and had years of good times. It was on the birthday of yet another Oscar’s co-worker that I met Crit’s college friend who was down looking for a place to live. We hit it off and immediately started dating.
My life now consists of school, work, friends and my girlfriend. All four have been directly influenced by my employment at Oscar’s. My life as it is now is traced back to one point. The moment where I met a little Mexican guy named Eric with his little Oscar’s flyer. Because of this, I always take flyers from little Mexican guys.
We are all so very sorry...
