A Small Memory…

(Music again!) 

 

Hello!

As sworn, this week has been tight for me.

I went into work at 6am Monday, and today (Tuesday) I was there before 5:30am. But I have been leaving at 5pm on the dot as usual, just because my brain is completely fried after all those hours of work.

Mr. Belgium, surprisingly, has made it in too. Usually, he’s terrible about getting into work really early when we both say we’ll do so. But I suppose he doesn’t want to be swamped when we leave for our project, just as I don’t want to be swamped when we get there.

Anyway, I said I’d bite the bullet and dive in to work, and bit it I have.

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And when I get home in the evenings, its exercise, then shower, eat and straight to bed. I even turn my cell off.

I guess my parents are fine. They are busy enjoying their grandkids.

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Other than that, I am trying out some new pills a friend sent me from Florida. They are women’s wellness multi-vitamins, and thankfully, are vegetarian/organic. My friend is a Jamaican lady (I met her through Armstrong, my old Jamaican co-worker), and she’s a nutritionist who specializes in all-organic supplements. I really like talking to her as she gives me a lot of advice on what to eat, what to take etc.

I am also taking some Aloe/Garlic/Parsley combination pills from her and they are really good, though I hate how they taste…

Anyway, I don’t want to bore you with that…

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Commenting about wanting to be a stay-at-home mom had me thinking about all the jobs I’ve had in my short life. And I remembered my best job ever.

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When I was in my early twenties and doing an MA in Marseille, I worked as a waitress in my friend Flavien’s mom’s restaurant and had the time of my life.

Mostly because Flavien worked there too, as did his siblings and three of our uni friends as well.

Flavien’s mom is a real African business woman, and because she was (and is) running other businesses both in Marseille and Paris, she had Flavien’s older sis managing the restaurant. And of course, we were all hired to work for food and tips whenever they were short-handed.

I made no ‘money’ whatsoever, and whatever tips I got at the end of the night went into our mutual stash for partying and silly-living.

We had soooo much fun in those days and our lives were completely pointless. Just food, laughter and the next bash.

I was alone in Marseille as my siblings were living elsewhere, and nobody was close by. Not Mireille, nor SM, nor Sandra nor the brothers Zack and Michele…

But I had a nice boyfriend then who was easygoing and fun, and entirely not the kind of guy I’d ever want to settle down with (or even think of being with seriously for that matter…)… He was just a very fun, funny, exciting, happy-go-lucky guy who filled my time there with excellent memories. And by the way, around the same time, I was constantly making up and breaking up long-distance with the man who eventually came to be known as my ex-fiancé…

Anyway, what a time… 

Flavien was so serious at the restaurant!

He would come up with all these schedules and rules and regulations… and we’d all tell him to sit down and chill and leave us alone hehehe…  

And Soufiane (who also worked there part time and was in school with us) would complain daily about the kitchen staff cooking pork in the same pots they cooked couscous in…

And me always getting angry with a customer …

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Flavien’s mom would breeze in every couple of days to cross-examine her daughter on the books, say hi to us and her regulars, then breeze out to go to another one of her enterprises. But she would always tell us to eat, eat, eat.

And Flavien’s younger sis would grill me on the most ridiculous stuff, like did I know who some American rapper was dating or did I ever meet someone famous when I was living in New York in my teens? I always made up ‘exciting’ answers that she gobbled up… She really ate up those teen entertainment magazines and looking at her now, you wouldn’t believe she’s the same person…

And my boyfriend who had no job, drank too much and bought the whole bar rounds when he was drunk… He hung around restaurants and then played in a band at night… He was the most arbitrary person in the world… He shared an apartment with his older brother who had a real job and goals, but Mr. Boyfriend was a butterfly in the wind…

Oddly enough, though he and I had a wonderful time, I can honestly say I was never ‘in love’ with him. I just liked him a lot though have no idea what happened to him or where in the world he ended up. No one seems to know anything other than that he moved to Japan to play music there…

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But anyway…

Life is something.

I remember my parents coming to see me and telling me how happy I looked.

And yet, it was at a time when I had no clue where I was headed or what was going to become of me…

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Just a small memory.