I was reading a book review this morning about a novel written by a freelance writer who spent 20 years waitressing until her career finally took off. It’s funny, though, how her writing career took off with a book about waitressing.

I was talking the other day to that pinch-your-cheeks cute boy I mentioned in an earlier posting. Friday business has been slow for the past few weeks. He was getting irritable and frustrated when he blurted out a piece of wisdom I found myself thinking about days afterward.

He was looking around at his empty section when he said to me, “Now I know why they call it waiting tables. You really are always waiting.”

Ironic isn’t it? And, don’t you just love irony. I mean, where did they come up the terminology? But if you think about it, the idea of “waiting” goes even further. This is something Deborah Ginsberg discusses in her book Waiting. Paige Bierma talks in her critique of the book on how people waiting tables are doing so in the anticipation of something else. Few people think to themselves as children or high school graduates. Wow, I want to retire a server! Most people are doing so on the layover to the rest of their lives. Myself, for example, I do this because it’s one of the few jobs for college students that pay enough for me not to have to work that often. If I worked retail, I would have to work three times as much to make what I do serving. I know this because I’ve done it.

At this stage in my life, I am waiting for more. I am waiting to graduate so I can become who I have always dreamed of being.

Some people who stay, in the restaurant business we call them “lifers,” often don’t plan to be in that position. Maybe their dreams didn’t work out. Maybe something happened and they found no more reasons to wait, except tables.

The book talks about the role a server plays. It’s interesting how 2 million people are servers in this country. Two million people are waiting and I find myself wondering: what are they waiting for?

Happy dining!